Sunday, June 4, 2006

   Part the 1: "Through the Looking-Glass"
First of my thingys from CW. Here's the backstory, or a little at least:

Mikaela is my Kingdom Hearts (1st game) OC. In this part of the fic, she's in Hollow Bastion (after the 1st visit). She was kidnapped by Ansem for reasons unknown. (Backstory on that: in the fic, she fights alongside Sora and the gang. There's more to it, but yeah.)

Ok? Yeah, vague, but it's ok. xD I'll eventually start the damn thing; I'm hoping to start tomorrow.

Well, here's the 1st thing I wrote for class. Enjoy guys!

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The sun was slowly starting to set over the horizon, streaking the sky with vivid colors; deep reds mixed with soft pinks and yellows, streaking across the fading blue, falling behind the mountains. The pale, sandy colored stone of the castle was bathed in a glimmering light as the stars rose, clearly visible from the tower windows, as was the waning moon. The sharp crescent was bright against the growing midnight color of the sky, the slight utterly breath taking.

And yet, for the figure at one of the tower windows, it was nothing more than a sign that another day had come to an end. The figure turned away, drawing thick burgundy curtains across the window; the curtains hid the occupant of the room from the outside world, keeping all the dangers and pains out and away. Yet the coldness of the room, and the sharp bitterness of the impending night, remained.

Bitter. That’s how life felt at the moment, bitter. Like chocolate after sitting in the freezer for far too long. Or like water that had been sitting in a plastic cup or bottle over night.

The occupant of the tower room, a dark-haired girl with smoky eyes, scoffed at her analogy, before turning her attention back to the mirror in her hands. The smooth surface gleamed innocently, and she bit back a scoff at that as well. The pane of shinned glass was anything but innocent. Yet, of course, she knew that complaining would get her nowhere now, though it wasn’t like it had gotten her very far to begin with. Just look at her, here in this…this…

She still had no words for this place. It was like Hell, she imagined, if Hell was a large, cold, empty castle and a stupid hand mirror.

She took her own advice, however, looking down at herself in the very mirror she constantly cursed. She looked away almost as quickly as she had started her gazing. One swift glance in the smooth surface of the looking-glass was enough to remind her that she had been stripped of her humanity. In the name of love, she thought, shaking her head both mentally and physically. Love. Something that, now that she took the time to think about her actions, didn’t seem to be so very important any more.

But, of course, nothing mattered much anymore. It wasn’t that she didn’t care about anything, because she did. It was just that she couldn’t care, couldn’t even try to care. The citadel, the dismal castle, she currently resided in had taken care of all her human instincts the moment she had stepped within its walls. It was as if she really had been stripped of everything she had, down to every last emotion. But what could she have been expecting? After all, that bastard Ansem hadn’t named the place something akin to “Hollow Bastion”, which, she had thought at first was incredibly dramatic, for nothing.

Mikaela laughed softly, before stopping herself quickly, repulsed. Her voice was rough from not being used, and sounded like she had a terrible cold, or worse, had completely lost her voice altogether. She allowed a smirk to surface however, as she thought again about her newest realization. How fitting, to call a place that sucks out your emotions “Hollow”. It was utterly perfect for the way she felt after her time spent where she was. After all, that was how it was truly making her feel. Even when she willed the piece of glass, the small mirror she was still holding on to, to show her her heart’s desires, she couldn’t help but feel apathetic towards what she saw. It could be a mass murder, a birthing of a baby, a graduation, a wedding, a first kiss; it all made her feel the same way. Even when the three strongest people she knew, her best friends, "Sora and the gang", those who were fighting to free her, fell under attack under her gaze, she could do little less than bat an eyelash. And it was all his fault.

That was the power Ansem had, she had reasoned after a while: to make her feel less than human, to corrupt her into this unfeeling shell of a person. It was to make her not care that her friends were slowly walking towards a certain doom, while she watched on, powerless to stop them, and uncaring to if they lived or died. This great apathy, this feeling of complete emptiness; it was his doing. It was driving her insane. And though she knew it, she just didn’t, couldn’t, care.

Lowering her smoke-colored eyes, Mikaela set down her mirror on a small side table, next to the bed. The visions would drive her sanity further from her mind at this rate, if she kept wishing to see them. Better to have the looking-glass out of her hands than in them, if that was what they were doing. Instead, she gazed at the walls around her, the covered window; the cold stone was like a reflection of herself: empty, unfeeling, just standing there and functioning, but never feeling. It had been that way for over half a week now.

Five days. Five days she had been in this stone and marble Hell, with so very little to show for it. What a prize for the fighters. Her friends, -Sora, Donald, and Goofy- had fought so hard, for nearly three months, for this. They had fought tooth-and-nail, through pain and panic, through so many things that should have torn them apart, only to reach this. What fools they had been. What fools, to think that the journey they had been on would end in a fantastic battle of glory and magic and winning what they had been searching for. Instead, in the place of all that, they had won nothing. All they had was what the battle had ended in: them reaching coldness, darkness, and the void of no return.

But only she had reached it; only she had truly reached it. Mikaela closed her eyes at the reminder. The memories of why only she was locked in this terrible place still haunted her, a small portion of the sanity she was fighting to keep, and still had left.

If only she hadn’t been so stupid, she thought, a flare of anger almost welling up within her. If she had just suggested they all break into the castle, instead of relying on her tendency to protect others, stepping in front of them, telling them to hold off the opposing forces of Heartless while she made her way inside…maybe she wouldn’t be in here. Maybe they would have defeated Ansem and his army of Heartless, and she would be back home, safe, with her mind and soul intact. Maybe they would’ve won, instead of falling twenty steps behind.

Maybe.

The black-haired girl snorted, slumping against a wall. Maybe’s and what-if’s; they never helped, did they? She was a fool to think that, even for a moment, things could have been different. It was a fool’s folly that got her here, and it would be a fool’s folly that got her out; there were no second chances, what-if’s, or maybe’s anymore. Not for a girl like her. All she had left was pieces of her sanity, and that stupid mirror he had left in here for her.

The mirror.

The mirror.

For a second, Mikaela could swear her heart had stopped beating. A fool’s folly would get her out? A fool’s folly indeed! The mirror! Why didn’t she think of it before? Rushing to the table where she had left the mirror, Mikaela scooped it up, tendrils of warmth spreading through her. This mirror, this simple looking-glass…it could be her salvation. It would show her anything she desired to see, wouldn’t it? Anything, from what he had said, and from what she had seen while looking in it. So, if it could show her anything, as long as she worded her question carefully, it would…

Taking a deep breath, Mikaela calmed her mounting nerves. Since when did she begin to feel human again? These emotions, all rushing back at once…they were making her head spin. It was worse than being drunk. And she always got drunk with Cid. That was saying something.

Was it a sign? Shaking her head, the girl bent close to the mirror, closing her eyes. She took a deep breath, readying herself. Her knuckles were nearly white as she held onto the mirror, stress evident.

“I want to see the exit to this room. I want to see the exit from this room to the Main Hall. Please. Please show it to me. Help me find my way out, my way home...my way back to my friends. Please. It’s all I want, all I ask for. Please.”

The smooth texture of the glass began to change, shifting under invisible weight. Excitement, like curls of smoke, wove themselves through the girl’s body. When she got out of this, she was going to make sure that there was no way she was ending up in this kind of mess again. Even if someone had to tie her to a moogle! Okay, so maybe not a moogle. Maybe Leon…yeah, definitely Leon. Not the moogle.


~OWARI~

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Love,
-Megumi
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