text: [Themes: grimdark fantasy, grimdark, female protagonist]
  
  Things went on like that for a while. You can't remember all the details of course, but you remember how you became very helpful to Miss Olga.
  
  While you still practiced your magic, you weren't running off to the park to do so as much anymore. You mostly practiced in quiet to a limited degree in your own room which you got when you got older.
  
  By that time you were a teen and all of the children you originally grew up with had been adopted. New and younger children found themselves at the orphanage and you were playing a similar role as Miss Olga most of the time.
  
  You performed your new tasks at the orphanage without much complaint. It wasn't really that bad, the children feared you. You never actually did anything to them of course, but there was something about you that was scary to them. Even when Miss Olga would actively yelled at them, it was always you they seemed genuinely scared of.
  
  Miss Olga noticed this too...
  
  "Catalina, after you're done, I want to see you." Miss Olga says.
  "Okay." You answer briefly before returning to the children you're currently speaking to.
  
  "I don't want a repeat of yesterday where a vase was broken. I don't care if it was an accident. It better not happen again or else there will be consequences. You all understand?"
  "Yes Catalina." The children say in unison.
  "Good. Now go play."
  
  The children waste no time in running from you as you turn to speak to Miss Olga in her room.
  
  You look at her and she's holding herself up with a walking stick. You know she's been getting slower lately, but she's also been starting to look less healthy. An extra cough here and there. Stopping to catch her breath more. Little things that are obviously a sign of bigger things.
  
  She sits down and motions you to do likewise.
  
  "Catalina, you've been very helpful around here for a long time now. Very surprising considering how you used to have me tearing my hair out at times. Don't think I don't appreciate it." She starts off saying.
  
  You look at her in silence as she takes a deep breath before continuing.
  
  "However, I've also noticed a change in you over the years. I'm not talking about you just growing up either. No other way to put this, so I'll just say it."
  "You're dying." You utter.
  
  Miss Olga looks at you with an expression of surprise you've never seen before on her. She's silent for a moment, but quickly regains her composure.
  
  "That actually isn't what I was going to say...but that is related to what I want to talk to you about, which is, there is a darkness in you. Maybe it's my fault that I didn't notice it sooner, and obviously I haven't seen you do anything that supports this, but I sense it. The children out there sense it. You give off an aura that isn't just stand offish, it's off putting. I'm not saying you're a hellspawn, evil or even bad, but you scare people and I don't know how you're doing it. I can only guess there's magic involved though."
  
  You briefly reposition in your seat, which tells Miss Olga what she correctly guessed long ago.
  
  "Now I suppose I could ask you if you have magical abilities and how long you've had them, but I'm not sure what good that would do. I will say that if I'm correct in believing that you probably had them for years, I REALLY wish you had come to me sooner about it, because I would have found a suitable family for you immediately."
  "You're my family." You say.
  
  Once again you catch Miss Olga a bit off guard.
  
  "Cat...I'm..." Miss Olga starts to say before a bout of coughing followed by another deep breath follows before she speaks again.
  
  "Catalina we're not family. I'm just a caretaker until you're able to take care of yourself. Now normally that would still be at least four more years away, but you're obviously able to take care of yourself. One could even say, you've long been able to take care of yourself..."
  "Wait...you're kicking me out?" you ask since now you're the one that's surprised.
  "I'd rather not, trust me. I'd rather find you parents that could guide your magic abilities better, but I don't have time and I don't have the energy anymore. By the end of this month, this place will be taken over by a new caretaker and will be run by the city of Nuro rather than independently like I was running it."
  "But, what're you going to do?"
  "Well as you so astutely assessed, I'm going to die. Not right away, but I give myself a year perhaps. I'm going to use what remains of the fortune my late husband left me long ago to live as comfortably as possible. I like to think I did as much good as I could with that bastard's money, but now at this late stage, I think I'm allowed to enjoy what little remains of my life."
  
  You aren't sure of how to respond, so Miss Olga just continues.
  
  "Now that all being said, I'm not kicking you out. You could even stay and take your chances with the new regime, but I have a strong feeling that won't go well. I just know that this is no place for you any longer. The Nuro appointed caretaker I guarantee is not going to run things like I did and you would definitely have less freedom than I allowed. In short, it won't be home to you any longer. So open that drawer over there, you'll find a purse of coin. Should be enough in there to last you a couple months."
  
  You slowly go over to the drawer and take the purse. You think back to how you stole money out of it once and how odd it is to be taking it with permission.
  
  You look down at the purse in your hands and wave of anxiety washes over you.
  
  "Hm. Never seen you sad. Not even when Chloe left. I didn't think you had it in you. You're just full of surprised today. Perhaps I spoke too harshly about you having darkness in you. That's my own dislike of magic I suppose. It's not your fault you have unnatural talents. I at least know you'll be able to survive thanks to them."
  
  Miss Olga gets back up with some effort and walks over to you. She puts a hand on your shoulder.
  
  "Just...be good. Okay?"
  
  You almost want to hug her, but you resist. There's no reason. She told you, that you weren't family. You suppose she's right. It'll make things easier if you just leave.
  
  You turn around and walk out her room and eventually out the door. You look back at the orphanage one last time and quicken your pace as your eyes start to water.
  
  Eventually you find an empty alleyway and break down crying. Part of you doesn't even know why exactly. Or you know why, but you don't understand why it hurts more than it should.
  
  You guess you cared more than you admitted, even to yourself. The orphanage wasn't much but it was the only home you ever knew. Miss Olga was the only parental figure you ever knew. Now you have nothing.
  
  Nothing except some coin to support yourself for a while and your magic, which you haven't been practicing on a steady basis.
  
  As you're trying to pull yourself together and ponder your future, you suddenly hear an unfriendly voice.
  
  "Well, well, well, what have we here? You out here by yourself little girl? You lost? That why you're crying? Well dry those tears, because we can help...of course like anything, it'll cost."
  
  You look and see five men. Well actually just one older man and four boys probably just a few years older than you, but in any case, they obviously don't mean you any well.
  
  You start to back away to run, but you suddenly feel a pull when the leader gestures with one of his hands, like a force is drawing you closer. You resist, but in the process you lose your purse, which flies towards him and falls in front of him, spilling all the contents out.
  
  "Hey, what's this then? This is a lot of coin for a little girl like you. You make all this picking pockets? Or you got some other skills that people pay a lot for?" the leader says with a grin.
  
  Given what he's able to do, the leader is a magic user. You don't know how powerful of one though.
  
  "Look you have the coin, I'll just leave your territory." You say and start to back away again.
  "Not so fast girlie. While this coin might be enough to divide four ways, There's five of us and since I'm most generous to my boys, that means they'll be getting it. So the way I see it, you still need to pay me. And since you have no coin left, you'll have to provide in other ways." The leader says.
  "Boss, she looks about fourteen, I don't think..." one of the members of his group starts to say before he's pushed with an unseen force against a wall.
  
  "Obviously you don't think, because you wouldn't be interrupting me right now boy!" the leader shouts before turning back to you.
  
  "Now we can do this the easy way or the hard way, girlie. The choice is yours."
  
  It's funny that during the years you were sneaking away to the park or even other parts of the surrounding area, you never once encountered some predator out to assault you. Now of all days, you're getting a gang of them.
  
  You're in no mood for this and you already tried to resolve this without any further conflict. You certainly start feeling something well up inside you. You aren't sure if it's that darkness Miss Olga was talking about, but it's not going to be good for these assholes.
  
  "Well I guess the hard way then." You say.
  "Heh, I was hoping you'd say that."
  
  The leader gestures and you feel yourself being pulled towards him. When you're close enough, you raise your own hands and unleash a blast of lightning to his face.
  
  He falls to the ground and now released from his telekinetic pull, you proceed to zap another in the chest immediately.
  
  "SHIT! She's got spells too! Run!" one of them shouts.
  
  The remaining two standing run, but you wave your hand and unleash a small flame wave, which manages to catch not only them on fire, but some of the trash nearby as well. They continue running and screaming while on fire.
  
  You walk closer to the leader and see he's dead with the flesh on his face mostly burned off or at least blackened to a smoking crisp. Meanwhile the one he had previously thrown against the wall has recovered.
  
  "Oh fuck! Please! Let me go! I tried to stop Jaxon! Look, you killed him! He's dead! Just let me go!" he exclaims.
  
  You could. You even sense the fear and sincerity of his words.
  
  The urge though to revel in your power is VERY tempting.
  
  > Embrace
  This fool sought to harm you and now he begs for his miserable life? It doesn't matter if he was just weak willed follower, he must now pay the debt for his poor judgment.
  
  You feel the surge of power and you fully intend on using it. Now everyone will learn of your power. You wave your hand at the begging coward and slam him against the wall again. He's not dead, but he slumps down from the force of the blow.
  
  You then focus on Jaxon's corpse.
  
  "I've done this before, I can do this properly now. Rise." You utter.
  
  You then see the dead body twitch. You focus more and then it stands back up completely under your power. You've done it.
  
  You command the corpse of Jaxon to walk towards the last living member of the gang who is barely conscious, but when sees that which should be dead approaching he starts to try to gather himself, but it's too late as the corpse starts to attack him.
  
  He manages to let out one scream before it rips his throat out. You then try to focus on his body and bring him back as well.
  
  It's all very easy now. You raise this one up immediately, just in time too because the city guards have showed up thanks to all the noise . You command the two corpses you raised to attack and cast a few offensive spells.
  
  You take down a few of them, but the city guards are tougher than a simple street gang made up of teenagers. And of course this being Nuro, the city guards do have a bit of skill in magic of their own.
  
  Eventually your corpses are cut down, more guards arrive and you are overwhelmed. You feel a couple of well-placed blows causing you to crumple to the ground where you are held down by the guards. You struggle but it's no use, and you're unable to cast any spells.
  
  You fully expect to be killed on the spot given that you've just displayed necromancy, but then one of the guards speaks.
  
  "Calm down girl, we're not here to hurt you. We're on your side." The guard says.
  "What?" you respond.
  
  The guard then lifts his helmet, and it's that of a skull. It occurs to you how every guard has a full-face helm, which they are all now lifting up.
  
  Skeletal faces are revealed and then a deep surrounding voice is heard.
  
  "We just think you're going about this the wrong way. Your time will come Catalina and soon you will earn your place in this soon to be dead world." You hear and then everything goes black.
  
  You look around and find yourself back in the present, whatever that means in a place like this.
  
  Well your life certainly didn't turn out like that. You're fairly certain that you wouldn't have been able to raise two corpses at that point anyway. You still had a ways to go before you could do it with such ease. More than likely you would have been executed for being so open with raising the dead.
  
  After a bit of reflection on what just happened, you realize you'll have to try again to reconnect later. When will that be? You never can tell.
  
  But it'll happen again. You'll reunite with your beloved.
  
  It's only a matter of time.