Memories crushed to ashes

Nadia

Søren doesn’t seem willing to accept her proposal. A window opens on the wall, and from it pours a violet light that floods the room. Akanke, smiling, steps back, climbs onto the windowsill, and drops down on the other side. «Need a hand getting up?» she asks, leaning back inside, her thick curly hair bouncing.

I look at Søren, but his wary gaze is as cold as the outside, while Laila, arms crossed, won’t even look at her. “Why are they acting like this? Even if she hasn’t given us food yet, she doesn’t seem like a bad person.”

Clenching my fists, I turn toward Akanke and step closer. «Stop, Nadia!» Søren barks. I glare at him for a moment, sulking, then stretch out toward the woman. She helps me across. Everything is strange — around us there’s a violet starry sky filled with odd clouds. “I’d forgotten about the clouds…”

«Beautiful, isn’t it?!» Akanke exclaims. I just nod eagerly. She takes my hand and we start walking. «You see, what you’re looking at is the sky beyond the clouds, far from our world.»

«Beyond the clouds?» I ask, confused.

«Yes, beyond the clouds lies a vast sky stretching beyond our comprehension.» She turns toward me. «Your friend Laila should know something more about it.»

«Why?»

«Be patient,» she says, tapping the tip of my nose with a finger.

«Welcome!»

«Laila!» I exclaim, turning toward the voice — but the figure before us is strange. She’s not the same Laila I know. She sits on a large, colorful rock, smiling sweetly.

I hear the echo of footsteps behind me. «Why are we in space?» a male voice asks. I spin around and see Søren and Laila running toward me. As soon as they arrive, Søren looks at me for a moment, fists clenched.

Akanke smiles warmly. «I’m glad you decided to join us after all.»

«Finally we’re all here!» the strange Laila exclaims, hopping down from the rock.

Søren fixes his gaze on her. Laila, on the other hand, freezes. Her eyes widen, staring at the strange version of herself. Her face flushes. She points at the copy with a trembling hand, lips twitching. «Y-You! What are you doing here?!»

«You know her?» Søren asks.

Laila whips toward him, flailing her hands. «No! No! Of course not, what are you thinking?!»

«How come?» The strange Laila walks up to her. «Have you already forgotten our little… adventure?» she teases, biting her lower lip and placing a hand on Laila’s face.

«Whoa! What are you doing? Touching?! Don’t touch! Down, mutt!» Laila yelps, jumping back into a weird stance.

«Ahahahaha! That face!» the other laughs, doubling over and pointing at her.

«It’s not funny!» Laila snaps, her face blazing red.

«You’re annoying, aren’t you?» Søren mutters rhetorically.

«Mind your own business!»

I hear Akanke laughing beside me. She walks up to the fake Laila and puts a hand on her shoulder. «We’ve got a lot to see. Could you show us what you must?»

«Of course…» The world around us begins to shift, dissolving into a swirl of black and white. «Once, there existed only Nothingness, Hope, and Existence. From them, the Haab-shu were born.» Bright streaks of color ripple across space — some dart wildly, others stay still or drift slowly, others clash. «Those beings could do anything, so they began to play with creation.»

Countless bubbles appear around us — some bursting, some forming.

It’s so beautiful I can’t close my mouth. But Laila… she seems fixated on a single color.

«What began as a benevolent game soon turned into chaos. They created, altered, and destroyed entire universes at will.»

Strange beings of every shape emerge from the bubbles. «The most powerful inhabitants of those universes rebelled. They were known as the Dyovius — those whom mortals later called Gods. They tried to overthrow the Haab-shu to impose order, but it was useless. The Haab-shu were too powerful, and the Dyovius suffered great losses. Still, they did not give up. Since direct confrontation was impossible and they could not kill them, they forged artifacts from a special material, created by combining the essence of Nothingness, Hope, and Existence.»

The objects, as soon as they touch the lights, suck them in, leaving only black and white. «They used these artifacts to entrap those beings, limit their powers, force them into physical form, and impose rules upon them. Then they cast the artifacts into the multiverse, binding the Haab-shu to serve mortals as punishment for toying with their existence.»

I turn again to Laila, wanting to ask if what her double is saying is true. But she’s far away, hunched over, her back to us, hands clamped over her ears. «Laila…» Søren murmurs.

We turn back toward the fake Laila — but she’s gone. In her place floats a transparent jellyfish-like creature with tentacles, facing a hideous wrinkled old woman with eight grayish-red legs. The scenery around us morphs into a strange forest with malicious faces.

The two figures, and everything around them, keep shifting shape — but only the servant’s expression changes progressively: from anger, to sorrow, to apathy, and finally to weariness. None of us can look away or say a word. Søren, watching the scene, clenches the necklace in his fist until it draws blood.

At last, it ends. Before us are Laila and Søren in a strange room filled with odd objects and tiny books. Laila seems to smile. The Laila in front of us looks back at us. «Well, I’d say that’s enough for your tour here. I wish you a safe journey.» Suddenly, we fall upward — until we land once more inside the house.

«Please, this way,» says Akanke, already standing before a new window. This time, the light spilling through it shines amber.