Jocasta flinched when Kaleo swiftly grabbed wrist and her mind immediately screamed, Danger! "Let me go!" Her eyes widened as he tightened his grip, nails digging and slowly, the blood began to slither down her arm. Sweet. Intoxicating. Jocasta felt her sanity slipping away. Her eyes flashed red and her breathe became quick. Before she could lunge for the stranger's throat, she blinked. She blinked and suddenly she was in a foreign place. A place she'd never seen before. The sky was a dark red and the mountains were pitch black, piled with ashes and grim matter. Fruit flies buzzed around decaying corpses, dead leaves hugged naked and colorless trees. Jocasta walked over to one of the corpses; He was a familiar face. "Hi'dric?" Her heart pounded wildly in her chest, tears beginning to form at the edges of her eyes. "What happened to you? Who did this to you?"
Pale and lifeless. He was gone. Her fingers shook as they reached out to touch his face. Ice cold. She stopped for a brief second before her fingers slowly traveled down his cheek and jawline, reaching his neck where two puncture wounds. "W-who did this?" Suddenly, blood began to pour out of the wound, creating a large puddle beneath Hi'dric. She blinked and suddenly, there was blood pouring across his arm as well. "Hi'dric?" Jocasta's voice trembled. Suddenly, Hi'dric's eyes shot wide open and his hands latched onto her. "You did this to me!" His deep voice threatened her, letting out a piercing scream from her. His eyes were filled with malice and hatred. "No!" She shook her head, denying it all. "You did this to me!" He seethed, his nails digging into arms. "Leave me alone!" she cried, ripping her arms away from him. She shuffled backwards as his eyes bore into her.
"Jocasta, or should I say, Delphine?"
A cruel voice. A familiar figure. Wait, no. It was her? No. Jocasta shook her head. That wasn't her. That wasn't her. The figure that was... her... gave a little maniacal laughter. "Oh, Jocasta. Look at yourself. Another one down the drain, thanks to you. Poor Hi'dric and he had such high hopes for his little vampire." Jocasta stepped back. "Wh- who are you? Why are you here?" She was paralyzed with fear. Her twin gave her a grin and reached out to Jocasta, nails digging into her cheek. "I'm you, darling. That darkness hiding inside you. That little beast you want oh so desperately to hold back. Stop holding back. Let your rage take over. This is your fate and everyone knows you can't change fate." Jocasta shuddered. "No, no-." Her evil twin nodded her head up and down, a primitive killing instinct in her eyes. "Oh, yes, yes. Always, Jocasta. This is who you truly are." She dragged her nails down her cheeks and down to the middle of her chest, drawing blood.
Jocasta screamed at the pain. "Stop it, stop it, stop it," she sobbed. "Never!" Suddenly, she felt something plunge deep into her chest, then pulled back out just as quickly. Jocasta staggered back as her evil twin laughed at her shock, at her fear. "What's the matter? Can't handle the truth?" Her lips puckered, showing mock pity for the poor blonde as she searched for herself, for her heart, for something to put the pieces back together. "You're no longer human, Jocasta. You know this. You knew this would happen when you agreed to be Hi'dric's little doll." She laughed as her eyes blurred with tears, then licked the blood off of her beating heart. "Blood, so delicious. I wonder who's next. Maric, Guruk... Sunil? Oh wait, you already drained them!" It seemed to be some kind of game to her evil twin, but she didn't find it funny at all. She was deprived of her right to live becoming such a cruel monster.
Her chest lurched forward when her heart suddenly disintegrated in her evil twin's hands, in her hands. "You won't be needing that anymore! Just turn yourself off. Join me! It's so fun over here! Bathing in blood and tasting the sweet nectar of your victims. You know you want to give in." Jocasta's eyes flashed red for a brief moment. "Yes, yes... That's all you need, Jocasta." Her evil twin walked up to her and smeared her bloodied hands across her lips. "Just one taste..." The temptation lured her in, drunk on the ecstasy of blood. The smell was phenomenal. So beautiful, so rich. Jocasta almost let her in, almost, before she pulled her face back. "No, I won't! Let me go!" She screamed, then clumsily ran to the other corpses, slowly identifying them one by one. "Guruk, Maric... Maric! Get me out of here! I- I'm trapped!" Jocasta shook the dead incubus, drained of blood, then his eyes flashed open as well, startling her. "You worthless toy! You disgust me!" he growled.
"No, no, no! It's not me! I didn't do it-!" Jocasta screamed, her mind overloading with fear, pain, guilt, doubt. "You killed him," Xena's voice whispered, heartbroken. "I didn't, I swear... Please." Jocasta begged. "You're a monster! You killed him! Murderer!" Her eyes blazed with fury. Guruk rose from his grave and joined in, cleaver in hand, anticipating his next move. "You are a stain in this world." She shook her head, falling down to the ground, begging forgiveness. "They don't care about you. Only I understand how you truly feel, Jocasta. Only I can take your pain away." Jocasta gripped the edges of her dress, shaking her head, trying to erase it all from her mind. "No, no, no, no, no, no, no!" she cried. "Make it stop! Make it stop! Please! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" Her evil twin's voice faded away in her mind, then, suddenly she was in town square again, her arm being gripped by Kaleo and the faery nearby appearing tense.
Her ears still rang with false claims. Her tongue still tingled with intoxication. Her hands still emptied her chest. Before she knew it, she'd ripped her arm from Kaleo's grasp and bolted out of his line of sight. Jocasta didn't know where she was going. She just ran. She wanted to go faraway from here, faraway from him. Her mind ran wild as she bumped into tons of people in the crowd; only one thought was on her mind: Run away. Escape him. Escape it all. She couldn't allow him to touch her again. She couldn't allow herself to be near anyone. She just had to run. Run far away. Many were surprised at the frantic young woman, others jeered at her for not being polite when she bumped into someone. Jocasta didn't care. She disappeared from town square just like that. There were no words left for her to say. Kaleo had already said enough.