The Girl and Her Awakening [FINAL]

There is darkness, and then there is nothing.

There was a key difference between the two. If somebody were to rip their eyes out, it would generally be assumed that that person would see only darkness. That isn’t the case. Darkness is the absence of light, the little particles that flit into the receptors of a person’s retinas.

Nothing is the complete lack of everything—yet somehow it is still something, or else there wouldn’t be a word to describe it. It was an unfathomable concept beyond mortal human understanding, unable to be experienced beyond death.

But the girl was certain she was seeing it; the empty face of nothingness, staring right back at her.

It wasn’t like any of her dreams, not even close. She thought she could steel herself for any night terrors that might’ve come her way thanks to Konny’s little talk, but when she blinked, she still couldn’t see a thing. She instinctively held her hands out in front of her, looking for the holes, the blood. None of it was there.

“H-Help,” she tested her throat, not expecting her voice to actually have any weight behind it. When words actually spilled forth, she screamed at the top of her lungs. “Heeelp!”

Her voice sounded a little different from how she remembered it to be, but she couldn’t have cared less. Even though the sour stink of the infirmary had since faded ever since she woke up, a throbbing headache began drilling into her brain, begging for relief. She thrashed wildly against something soft underneath her as she called out for anything that might’ve existed in this empty world of hers.

“Konny? Enoch? Anybody, please—”

Her cries were cut off when a warmth pressed itself to her shoulder—the unmistakable shape of a hand, lithe digits pressing in a firm grip that promised intent. She thought that she might’ve screamed again if it weren’t for the monotonous and strangely soothing voice that spoke up beside her.

“Calm down. I assure you that you are within the safe bounds of your room.”

The voice was unmistakably female, but it wasn’t anything that the girl could immediately recognize.

“What is it that you last remember?”

“I…”

Her head throbbed again. Her brain was overloaded with more information than she could keep up with: terms that held more presence than her existence, almost as if they were etched into her very nature. In an attempt to anchor herself, she scrambled around in the nothingness to hold onto the woman’s arm.

“Ley Lines… What happened with the Ley Lines? Nngh!”

“Hold still. Moving too much may aggravate your wounds,” the woman’s hand slowly began drawing away, but the girl threatened to pull her close. “Do not worry, I will be back. For now, I will leave to acquire your brother. I am certain his presence will ease your worries more than mine.”

Her brother? The girl didn’t have a brother, she knew that much. For some reason, though, her grasp loosened, and as she sat trying her best to make sense of everything, she heard the woman leave with a creaky swing of a wooden door followed by a soft click.

By the time the woman returned, the girl felt a little calmer, still sitting on what she assumed to be a bed after feeling around for her surroundings. The woman mentioned that this was her room, but that didn’t feel quite right. Thankfully, her headache was beginning to dissipate, and traces of clarity were beginning to bleed through the cracks.

Most importantly—her new name.

“Misha? It’s me, Rheed,” A level but concerned voice grew closer to her, and the rustling of cloth suggested that he was kneeling beside the bed. She recognized that name---Rheed. Not from any point in the life that she lived, but rather, from this “Misha” person. He was this girl’s brother, and she must’ve loved him very dearly if she could sigh in relief at the sound of his presence. “Thank goodness you’re okay! So much has happened while you were out. I need to catch you up soon, but I-I’m so sorry... I wasn't able to protect you at the time, and...”

“What are you apologizing for? You didn’t do anything wrong,” the girl muttered underneath her breath, looking in the direction of where she heard his voice.

“Do you remember what happened to you?” The woman spoke up.

“...No.”

“She’s still recalibrating to the Sanctorium’s archivia, so it'd be best if we didn’t try to force her to recall anything right now,” Rheed cleared his throat, maintaining a calm demeanor with his words. “The short of it is that we went to the Meculria Caverns, and you fell into a pit of memoria while a group of menascela were chasing you. Thanks to Kiria here, we managed to get you out of there safe and sound.”

“Who…?”

“Ah, right, you two haven’t met yet. Misha, the young woman beside me is Kiria. She’s got short blonde hair faded into dark purple highlights. Right now, she’s wearing a brown coat with puffy sleeves and a few accents of red. She also has loose trousers that drape like a skirt with a darker brown, pleated around her ankles.”

“I hope you know that it is extremely unnerving to be described in such a manner,” Kiria sounded a little shivery.

“I thought I told you that it’s my way of helping her.”

“Still…”

An image began developing in the girl’s mind. While it technically wasn’t through her own eyes, she could see it: almost like the rough sketch of somebody’s artwork, ready to fade away at any moment. Kiria was standing by the side of her bed, colored in with shades of crimson, marigold, plum, and brown. She recognized that it wasn’t exactly the shape of a person, but it was enough for the girl to attach the image to her voice.

“Ah... thank you, Kiria,” the girl, in her awe of the colors that bled through the nothingness, couldn’t say much else.

“It’s pleasant to hear the voice of one I previously thought deceased,” Kiria said. “And so we meet in earnest.”

“Do you feel calmer now?” Rheed asked. “I heard that you weren’t doing so well when you woke up.”

“I’m doing fine now, brother. I think I just need some time to think, that’s all.”

“Alright,” there was that rustling of fabric again. “We’ll be back soon to pick you up. Arven’s been worried sick about you, too. Kiria, come with me.”

“Let us proceed, then. Farewell for now.”

Once the two left the room, the girl began sorting through the jumbled mess piling up in her mind.

I realized it when Kiria left the first time, but I’m definitely not in my own body. Right now, my name is “Misha.” This person has been completely blind ever since she was born, but she’s always had her brother to help her navigate the world. I was a little confused at first, but I think my memories were mixing with hers… and there’s a bunch of terms I don’t understand. “Sanctorium,” “Memoria,” and “Archivia.” The “Head,” and the “Legs” of “Society…”

Thinking about it too hard was making her head hurt, so she stopped while she was ahead. There was still something that didn’t add up, though.

How did I end up in this girl’s body? If the Ley Lines activated like they were supposed to, then the world should’ve returned to normal. Maybe the world did return to normal and I’m just not aware of it yet, but that doesn’t explain how I ended up inhabiting somebody else entirely.

Her thoughts wandered to her friends.

What happened to Konny? Enoch? Did they switch bodies too?

She couldn’t jump to conclusions just yet, especially because she didn’t have any information to back up her assumptions. All she could do was sigh to herself, falling back onto a warm, fluffy pillow.

If I had to switch bodies, why couldn’t I have been switched into somebody who’s super smart or freakishly strong? This is the worst! I can’t even go anywhere unless somebody else is with me. I feel so bad for this girl, though. How was she able to live like this?

Ah, wait a second. If I’m in a new body, doesn’t that mean my memory retention is better? Haha! Take that! Those stupid tests won’t stand a chance against me anymore! Though I guess it’s pointless if I can’t even read the questions…

She groaned audibly, carefully turning over on her side.

Feels like there’s something important that I’m missing, though. Mm, hmm… ah!

“YAAAAGHH!!! No, you stupid, stupid—remember, remember, remember—a promise—I made a promise with Konny—where did she want to go again?” the girl shot up from the bed, scrambling to hold her head. “That’s right, she wanted to go to—a mall. And a mall is a place where people get together—and we were going to go there together after the Ley Lines activated. But then I promised her we’d explore the world together…”

What? Why is it still so difficult for me to remember things? Aren’t I in a new body? You can’t tell me my memory issues are tied to my freaking soul!

Exasperated beyond measure, she fell onto her back, the back of her palm rested against her forehead.

I can’t believe it. All that talk about being a better friend…

Her thoughts fell silent for a moment. She let a few of Misha’s memories swim around in her mind, trying to gauge the fuller picture.

For some reason, I can remember everything about Misha’s life more clearly than my own. That said, it’s clear that she wasn’t completely helpless. I think I know what Rheed was talking about when “I” was attacked. She tried running away from some shadowy beasts and threw down a smoke bomb to try and escape, but she ended up getting separated from him. Then she fell somewhere, and everything went dark…

Wait. What happened to Misha, then? All of that was her in control, but I’ve got no idea how to do any of that. Maybe she has some crazy muscle memory that I don’t know about yet? I mean, you’d have to have good reflexes for somebody who can confidently run around like that when they can’t even see!

Oh, who am I kidding. I have to think about this one step at a time. First, I need to figure out if anybody here knows something about the Ley Lines. Then I need to brush up on everything I need to know, because there’s still a bunch of those terms that I don’t understand. Most of all, though…

I NEED TO

WANT TO

KNOW

The story of this girl and the world around her, so I can trace her back to myself.

In the midst of her thoughts, she heard the door to her room open up with two sets of footsteps approaching her.

“We’re back, Misha. Are you ready to go?”

“Yep! Could you help me down real quick?”

Rheed took Misha by the hand to guide her until her feet touched the ground, a hum of approval stemming from who she assumed to be Kiria.

I don’t know how or why this happened to me, but I swear I’ll figure it all out. Konny, Enoch. I’ll find you two somewhere, I know I will. This time, though, I won’t make any promises because I know it’d just end up slipping through my fingertips. But…

“You look rather serious, young one. Is something wrong?”

…if I just keep holding onto that feeling, will those echoes remain with me?

“It’s nothing! Let’s get going. I’m just thinking about how funny Mister Arven’s face will look when he sees I’m awake.”

“Hm?” Rheed hummed questionably.

“I-I mean, let’s go! I’m sure he’s excited to see me, and I wanna talk to him too!”