Love Shack (3)

The strange woman was definitely not planning to go without a fight.

Immediately she had begun throwing anything nearby that she could get her hands on, and when her stock of that had run empty she raced to the CD player and began hurling jewel cases at Midori as if they were throwing stars.

And though all the objects she threw simply phased through her, strangely they did still hurt the same as if she’d been hit with the object.

“Look,” Midori started while dodging a Tom Waits album. “Just listen to me!”

“No!” She shouted in between throws. “I already did what I could and failed. Just let me live in my stupid dream!”

The girl dove through the doorway and Midori followed her only to find the room changed entirely from a living room den to a small bedroom.

The wall was decorated with the similar blue and white floral pattern as before but now nearly every inch of it had been covered by posters of some variety; band posters, random motivational posters that had been drawn all over, movie posters. A cassette player sat on a desk strewn with papers, the speakers emitting a tiny rendition of the same song she had been singing when they found her in the cave.

And the girl sat on her bed hugging her knees crying. She looked up with large brown eyes, tears streaking down her cheeks.

“Why can’t you just let me pretend?”

Sitting on the end of the bed Midori looked down at her hands to see she was no longer mist like before but hard actual mass. She looked at the young woman wondering how she might answer that question before realizing she did not know the right answer.

“I can, if you really want that, but I saw you from outside and you just looked so…sad.”

She gave a sardonic bark of laughter.

“Sad? Of course I’m sad! I got transported to some D&D style world right when my life was set to start. I lived more time here than the place I was born, the place my family raised me…”

It was strange to be hearing things that she had thought about, and wondered if she was strange for not having similar feelings to her.

“I…I kind of understand what you mean.”

She snorted, “you?”

“I’m from the same world you are.”

“What! You are!?”

She leaped from the bed and crossed the distance between them in what seemed like a fraction of a second, her eyes wide and excited.

“Oh my god, where are you from? What are your favourite bands?”

“Probably…Nico Touches the Walls,” she said. Most people looked at her oddly when she said she didn’t really listen to much music. Beyond the music from her favourite anime, of course.

“I don’t think I’ve heard of them, are they new?”

“No, and I think they actually disbanded in 2019.”

She stared at her in horrified confusion, “wait...two thousand and nineteen?”

“Yeah,” Midori answered as dread settled in her stomach.

“What…what year are you from?”

“I’m from…2025.”

It was quiet after that, the woman stared at nothing in particular before letting out a soft and manic chorus of laughter.

“So there’s nothing to even go back to…my friends…my family…all gone. I never mattered at all, not here, not anywhere.”

The air felt colder with each word she spoke and on pure instinct Midori threw her arms around the woman, bringing her close to her chest in a tight hug.

“That’s not true. You survived here, you learned all you could and made a life here.”

“How…how do you know that?”

“I’m not sure…I have bits and pieces of your past in my head. Little fleeting memories, like the glisten of light on a stream before it’s snatched away.”

“You’re a Herald.” Her face was shocked, like seeing a myth given flesh.

“I am, whatever that even means.” The woman pulled back and Midori smiled at her, “what’s your name?”

“Sahaela, what’s yours?”

“Midori.”

“That’s a pretty name,” she said while wiping the back of her hand across her still wet eyes.

“Thank you, so is yours.”

The two women sat in silence for some time, in the adolescent bedroom Sahaela had constructed. She looked around at it all and sighed.

“I’m scared, I don’t think I’m ready to let go yet.”

Looking at her Midori once again blurted out the first thought she had, “then stay with me until then.”

The pair looked at each other for a few moments, Sahaela looked uncertain but with a glint of hope in her eyes.

“Would…would you be alright having a screw up like me around?”

It was Midori’s turn to laugh this time, and her laugh caused Sahaela to laugh, and for a brief moment they forgot about all the troubles that had befallen them both.

“Seriously though you’ll fit right in.” Standing up she looked around and tilted her head slightly, “how do we get back though? I don’t think I can turn that mist thing on and off.”

“Don’t worry, I’ve got that.”

Standing up Sahaela took a slow breath while stretching her arms out wide and began slowly pulling them toward her, straining as if she were pulling something incredibly heavy. As she did the area itself began to contract and shrink.

Midori felt the floor raising could now easily reach up and touch the ceiling, but strangely she also felt she was also shrinking. It was an incredibly strange feeling and it caused her stomach to lurch slightly, until one moment she was in Sahaela's room and the next time she blinked she was then standing in the centre of the mountain cavern she had traversed with Rune.

An enormous crater had been dug into the stone and it looked like at some point a hole at been blasted into the rock opening up a higher section of the mountain. She would later discover that when Sahaela had been stressed the maelstrom had nearly exploded upward with such force that both Rune and the other soldiers had to scatter or risked getting caught up in the blast.

Three of the soldiers seemed to have stayed during the chaos with only one deciding he’d had enough, and so now both Rune and Midori stared at each other with someone new standing beside them.

“I see you made some friends,” Midori said with a smile.

“You too,” he reached out and grabbed her hand and winced at the rather nasty looking burn that had appeared on her hand. “Really wish we had found a better way to do it though.”

Gliding forward Sahaela raised a hand and gently touched Midori’s burnt palm, it was cool but prickled from the pain. “I can help with that darling.”

Waving her hand slowly a sphere of water formed around Midori’s hand and she watched in absolute amazement as the skin on her hand began to heal. The burn flaked away revealing fresh, soft skin underneath and in less than ten seconds it had vanished entirely.

“Holy crap, you’re incredible.”

Now that she was standing close with all illusions dispersed Midori could see how beautiful the ghost she had saved was. She was older than before with time etching subtle creases in her face that just made her look more distinguished. her hair was a muted brown threaded with silver threaded throughout and she wore it in a loose braid that fell over one of her shoulders. Her eyes, still that sparkling watercolour brown, retained all the kindness and wonder from before.

“You sweet talker,” she said playfully before doing a very slight bow to Rune and the soldiers. “Pleased to meet you, you can call me Sahaela.”

The soldiers threw themselves at her feet sobbing all shouting over one another begging for forgiveness, pleading their undying loyalty and love for her and her teachings of the ‘Love House.’

“I guess we have a bit more explaining to do,” Midori said with a smile.