Remembering Loss

[Rei'sari]

19th Ashan, 720

Location: ---


The forest that surrounded Ari'sora was dark and dismal. It was cold, but not unbearably so. Water dripped from the stark, bare branches, and yet the ground was dry as a bone. The path that stretched out before Ari'sora was a long one. A house stood at the end of it. A run down, lonely house in the middle of a forbidden forest. Ari'sora knew that house.

Dread filled her. She looked around, but there was no escape from the path she was on. There wasn't a single soul in sight. But in the distance, she could hear the sounds of a party. The sounds were coming from the run down house. Normally, the sounds of a party would make most people feel happy. Parties were happy occasions, after all. But Ari'sora knew that house. Bad things happened there.

She tried to turn back, but when she did, the path disappeared. When she tried to put more distance between her and the house that frightened her so much, she ran into an invisible wall. When she tested it, she found that the wall rose higher than she could reach. There was no room for her to be able to take to the air, so she couldn't even try to fly over it. She tried to move to one side first, and then the other, but more invisible walls blocked her attempts to leave the path. There was only one way she could go; towards the house that she was desperate to avoid at all costs.

Ari'sora tried to stay where she was. The forest was cold and dismal, but even that was better than the spooky looking house that waited for her at the end of the path. But her attempts failed. Even though she didn't take so much as a single step forward, she found herself inside that house.

The sounds of the party vanished when she arrived in the house. There was no sign of anyone in the entryway. There was no sound at all. Nor was there any color. No light, yet she could still see. No shadow either. A pedestal with a cracked fish bowl proved that this was that house. The house where bad things happened.

She had been here before. She knew she had. But there had been other people then. Now, though...now there was no one but her. And it felt as though she was the only person left anywhere in all the world. It was a very lonely feeling. Ari'sora shivered.

[Rei'sari]

19th Ashan, 720

Location: ---


Ari'sora tried to leave, but the front door was locked. There was no escaping that way. The last thing she wanted to do was move further into the house, but her only hope of escape was to find another exit; one that she could actually use. And to do that, she needed to leave the entry way and look for one.

It was with great reluctance that Ari'sora began searching the rooms. Each room was like the entry way. There was no sound, no color...no proof that there was any living creature in all the world save for her. And when she looked out the windows of the rooms she searched, there was nothing but a misty grey void. The forest, and the path leading to the house...all of it was gone as if it had never existed at all.

When she finally came to a room that had a spot of color in it, she desperately wished she hadn't. On the floor of the room was a large reddish spot that was suspiciously the same color as dried blood. There wasn't enough there to mark the place where a person or a large animal had died. Rather it was the size that suggested a smaller animal...like one the size of a house cat.

"Shadow...?" she whispered in a pain filled voice.

There was no answer. Not that she really expected there would be. The dead can't answer after all...not usually, anyway. And that horrible splotch of color was proof that her best friend was dead. Horribly, painfully dead. And it was all her fault.