input(The Proposition (Part I))(iamnothingbutbarrenlimbs)

Agony’s raging blades had ceased their carving of Miu’s mind and were now being replaced by the cold terror of absolute fear. She was on the ground before the ones responsible for all of this. Everything that had gone wrong in the recent years had stemmed from the arrival of these beings in the reality Miu and the world had once known.

They were strange, enormous, ethereally translucent, and were all watching her as she gasped in horror and began to crawl away.

They were the Arcans.

“No, no, no, no!!!” Miu cried as she fell forward in hysteria and tried to pull her broken body away from the hovering crystalline forms that were drifting over her like watchful wraiths.

Silence hung in the air as Miu clawed for any form of traction on the smoothed surface beneath her. There was no doorway to be seen. No exit. Just crystalline walls imprisoning her with the towering beings.

“Her mind is not well, I’ah,” another voice spoke in Miu’s thoughts.

“We did not all agree to this,” said another.

Once again, every voice seemed to be directly inside Miu’s mind, and every voice sounded like hers, just made of different tones and temperaments. As for Miu’s actual voice, it was still screaming in strain and horror.

Every piece of fabric had been burned away in her fiery rage, and now she was naked on the floor, desperate for any form of exit. Death had been denied, replaced instead by whatever form of kidnapping was unfolding.

Within her mind, the beings were still debating what to do with her. More and more variations of Miu’s voice began to appear and argue, until there was no space in her thoughts for anything of her own.

Once more, her eye began to burn. Every touch against the strange floor felt like pins and needles pricking up to aggravate and penetrate her exposed body. Humiliation, rage, confusion, fear, loss, hate, vulnerability, and despair all fought for dominance in her mind just like the myriad voices. It was too much. Screeches of teeth gnashing and bombs detonating and Yuki whimpering sounded in the walls.

Itwasalltoomuch

She had wanted to die.

I T W A S A L L T O O M U C H

shehadwantedtodie

shehadwantedtodie!

SHEHADWANTEDTODIE!!

But she was still alive.

“AAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHWHY DIDN’T YOU LET ME DIE?!” Miu screamed out as her fingernails dug into her skin.

The voices finally stopped and every Arcan turned to look down on the sobbing human that was crumpled beneath them.

“I WANTED TO DIE! I WANT TO DIE! Why didn’t you let me die you godforsaken bastards?!”

Wounded fingers clasped spasming arms for comfort. Exposed, pink legs pulled close for protection and hiding. Vertebrae bent into an arch to press uncovered breasts down and out of sight. Everything was humiliating. Everything was painful. Everything was wrong. Blood returned and ran down Miu’s cheek once more as tears once again stained her skin.

“Give the child coverage. Humans do not like being in their natural state before strangers,” said a softer version of Miu.

White and cyan light appeared across Miu’s body, but all she could do was scream.

“Stop! Stop, stop, stop!!!” she cried as she clawed at the radiance like it was a ravenous animal.

After everything that had happened and after all of the pain her eye had caused, her body had nothing but visceral loathing for any potential Arcan contact, even if it meant she would not be clothed. Mercifully, the light’s embrace stopped, and Miu’s arms returned to gripping her shaking frame for comfort and covering.

Wisps of emanating trails danced around her. The Arcans were near now. As they approached, Miu could feel her eye pulsing- it wasn’t painful, it wasn’t pleasant. It was just noticeable. Even more so than the reactions she had experienced from the shards out in the real world.

While Miu lay there hunched forward, edges of stone appeared in her vision, and she realized that one of the colossal crystal beings was now lowering itself to her level. Horror forced another scream from her lips, and she kicked away, facing the opposite direction. Doing so revealed she was now encircled by a dozen of the beings.

“GET AWAY FROM ME!!” Miu screamed as embers of wrath danced from her skin, threatening the return of her inferno.

But, to her surprise, the Arcans obeyed.

All around her, the glowing bodies and floating beams began to retreat to give her space.

“She is too broken,” said a stern version of Miu.

“Too lost.”

“Too damaged…”

Something about their wording and the fact that they were using her voice caused Miu to become even more enraged. They had already caused so much pain and taken so much. Now they were claiming her voice and penetrating her mind without her permission.

“Get out of my head!" Miu roared as she covered her ears.

"If I am broken, lost, or damaged, it is because of you. You took everything from me! All of this is your fault… If you’d never invaded… if you’d never appeared, things would have been so different…”

Sobs of exhaustion shook Miu once more but she finally dared to raise her head for the first time. Bloody, wild eyes looked up through windblown, chaotic, pink hair. A scowl of defiant hate glared at the otherworldly captors. Rogue sparks and whispers of flame danced across pale skin.

One of the Arcans glided forward.

“‘Invaded’? Is that what your leaders are telling you we did?...” an indignant Miu asked.

The subtlest flex and pull of facial muscle caused Miu’s sneer to relax and her brow to raise in confusion.

“We did not invade your world, brash girl. Your scientists brought us here, ripping us from our realm and hurling us into your reality. And now your leaders will not let us leave…”

As much as Miu didn’t want to believe those words that were now echoing in her mind, something about them was believable enough to carve their potential truth into the walls of her judgement. Even though so much of her wanted to hate them and pin the blame of her sorrow onto their arrival, as she flinched and reflected, she could not help but acknowledge that in reality, it was her own world that had broken her and abandoned her.

It was the humans who had hurt her. It was the humans who had neglected them for all those years while they worshipped their profits and commodities. It was the humans who had beaten, burned, forgotten, and forsaken them. It was the humans who had killed Yuki.

It was humans who she hated.

“...You… you didn’t invade us?” Miu asked softly as her thoughts howled.

“No. And we do not wish to be here. But your scientists and leaders will not allow us to return to our realm. Instead, they keep us here while they try to force us to share our ancient tongue with them.”

“...Ancient… tongue? …You mean the shards? The real ones?”

Now the Arcans were close again.

“Yes. That is what your kind call them. And ‘magic’, I believe, is what you call our tongue. Your kind desires to control that. We have not shared the true language with you. So, your kind resorts to force while they keep us caged within their structures…”

It was too much. All of this was too much. None of it made sense. These were the enemies. The barriers had been for society’s protection. The Arcans were monsters. Mysterious beings trying to destroy the world, and the militaries and scientists were trying to keep everyone safe. That was what the world had been told. That was what Miu had been told.

But now she couldn’t shake that it might have all been a lie.

Memories of the hydrogen bomb’s world-ending fury exploded in Miu’s mind along with images of the mortar shell detonating in front of Yuki, causing her to whimper and clench her eyes closed.

“No. No. No, no, no, no…” she pleaded as she shook her head.

Another flash of the hydrogen bomb’s destruction careening towards the train played in Miu’s memories, and she remembered the barrier of protection that saved them.

“Why did you save us, on the train that night?” she asked.

“Why me?...”

The Arcan nearest Miu tilted its form in seeming curiosity.

“We did not save you, human. You did. The shard that is bound to your body has given you a true connection to the ancient language. Your power awakened on that train, and you created that barrier. That was when we first became aware of you.”