Questions Without Answers and Truths without Clarity

Ok so I know I said things would get better. But as often happens, things had to get a lot worse for Sayane before they got better. Before they got better, Sayane almost lost her song. Let us return to our story…

When she was a child she sang in a school talent show and didn’t even place. Watching the others receive trophies while she stood in the background was enough to tell her that her natural vocal talents would only get her so far. Being low income meant her parents couldn’t afford voice lessons so instead she spent every evening singing along to city pop records and idol karaoke discs until she could match their pitch perfectly.

She was being dragged down a garish hallway.

Years went by with her doing everything she could to improve. Then the auditions for the idol competition came. Sayane begged her parents for a chance to attend, but they refused and wrote it off as a waste of time and money. So Sayane snuck out and made her way into Tokyo on her own. Even though she made it to the final round of contestants, in the end she was cut, and by the time she had returned, her parents had filed a missing child report. Her parents never forgave her, and banned her from ever joining another singing competition ever again. So when the idol competition returned the next year, with Sayane feeling even more confident now, she pleaded once more to attend, but her family refused.

But she went anyways, and this time, after a day of auditioning, she was scouted and requested to return the following week. When she went home, her father slapped her across the face and disowned her. Her mother followed his lead, and by the end of the night Sayane had no home.

It was cold and damp. Something was pulling her forward by her arms which were now bound together. Heavy, stonelike footfalls thudded beside her as she was pulled forward.

Satane slept on trains and at shelters for a week, waiting for the follow-up auditions. When the date arrived, Sayane sang and performed the best she ever had, and for the briefest of moments, she felt optimistic in her future. To her elation, she was accepted into the training program.

Tears ran down her unconscious face as her body was slammed into a rigid chair. The two figures returned before her. It still hurt to open her eyes.

“Please, I need help… I need water…” Sayane whimpered in a broken voice.

“Oh, you need water you say?” purred the voice of the smaller figure.

Years passed and Sayane’s training and growth was well documented on an online streaming show. Through hard work, charm, and relentless dedication, she survived the circuit and eventually was molded into the character she was known as. Debuting with purple hair, purple clothes, and purple nails, she was unveiled as Brightstar’s main vocalist. She had made it.

A torrent of ice cold, stagnant water was splashed over Sayane’s body and face, choking her back into reality.

Coughs of shock jolted her into the present, and she once again found herself in a strange room. Only now, it was even more frightening, because standing before her were her captors. An audible shriek escaped Sayane’s mouth as she looked up to see the snakelike, inky figure drifting in and out of the shadows with its rose colored eyes locked on her. Beside it, an enormous stone covered figure twice the size of her was standing stoic as its footlong tusks glistened in the purple pulses of light.

“No no no no, what is this?! What’s happening?!” screamed Sayane.

“We were wondering the same thing actually,” hissed the smaller figure as it grabbed her face and pinched her mouth open.

Sayane’s feet kicked in shocked resistance as the captor opened a vial and poured a foul tasting liquid into her mouth.

“That isn’t water, she-hume. That is a truth serum. In a moment, you won’t be able to stop yourself from telling us your darkest secrets.” the creature said with a fanged smirk.

“Like, for starters, how did you find the sacred sound sanctuary? It is forbidden for any citizen to know of, much less enter, yet there you were…”

None of its questions made sense to Sayane, who was still in as much shock as she had been ever since waking in her strange nightmare.

“I don’t know!” Sayane cried.

“I don’t know what happened!! Please, I want to go home!” Sayane pleaded.

The large beast stepped forward and monitored her with blank eyes. Without speaking, it grabbed her bad knee between two of its massive fingers and squeezed. The simple force of its enormous grasp felt like it was going to shatter Sayane’s leg, and she let out an unfiltered scream of shock and fear.

“PLEASE STOP!!” Sayane screamed, nearly hysterical as a strange warmth flooded her body.

“The serum should be taking its toll. Let’s begin,” growled the smaller creature.

All Sayane could do was whimper as her head fell forward.

“Are you with the revolution?” asked her interrogator.

“What? What revolution? I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Sayane cried.

The creature pouted its lip in genuine surprise.

“Okay. What faction are you with and what was your mission for the banished instruments?”

Sayane closed her eyes and began to weep. It was all too much.

“Please, I want to go home. I’m not part of a faction. I want to go home.”

“Where is home?”

“Tokyo!”

The larger captor seemed confused, and the smaller one leaned forward.

“I’ve never heard of such a place. And what do you do in Toko?” it asked.

“I was an idol. A singer! I was on stage, and there was an accident. I woke up here! I don’t want to die! I didn’t want to die! I didn’t want to die!” Sayane muttered as delirium set in.

She didn’t even notice the two interrogators looking to one another in concern.

“You were a songstress?…”

“Yes!! But I… I don’t want to sing anymore! I don’t!! Singing has only taken from me! Music has only hurt me!!” Sayane broke as she pulled on her binds.

The seeds planted all those years ago had finally bloomed, and now, there in that dark room, Sayane’s heart had finally broken. Music, like everything else, had abandoned her. Music had seemingly killed her, and sent her into a place worse than her previous life. Despair had won, and Sayane resigned herself to sobbing as she prayed to either wake up from this nightmare or at least die of malnutrition soon.

The smaller captor nervously cocked its head towards the door, and before Sayane could react, the larger creature was hoisting her into the air and taking her from the room. Another dark hallway greeted them, and soon Sayane was thrown into a small, musty room with several other cowering bodies. Fur and scales brushed against her as she fell forward in a heap of abandonment. Locks were sealed just as a boom from the other side of the walls shook the very room.

“It’s the resistance!” whispered a voice beside Sayane.

Sayane couldn’t care less. Cold stone greeting her face and body as she let out an anguished scream and began to weep uncontrollably.

“It’s a she-hume!“ said another voice.

“Really? I’ve never seen one!!” said another voice.

“She-hume, rest now. You are safe in this cell. We will keep you safe,” said the former voice as a strange, large, clawed hand rested on Sayane’s back.

Minutes passed as Sayane cried every ounce of fluid from her body. Outside, the booms were intensifying. Sayane felt each thud in her chest like a powerful subwoofer, but she wasn’t sure she ever heard any actual explosion. Every sound and sensation sent chills of fear through her already shaking body. Through it all, her eyes stayed clenched shut.

Sayane couldn’t sing this time. Her sobs were the only sound to be heard beyond the continuous booms coming from the other side of the wall.