“How long has it been? What day did you decide your road had no destination?”
For a long while, the girl with no name was alone in this space, aimlessly awaiting oblivion, but now a voice hung heavy in the empty air. The voice, trimmed and folded to perfection like so many sheets of paper, belonged to a lady in white. Her immaculate garb adorned with flecks of golden gems covered everything above her mouth, and seemed to fill the blackness that surrounded her. It were as though she were a pocket of the cosmos in an endless night sky, a beacon in a void that the girl with no name hesitated to see or follow.
“There’s no reason for you to remember something so insignificant, is there? You are here because you no longer wish to exist, after all. I have fulfilled requests of a similar nature before. All that is needed is an affirmation on your part.”
The girl tried to speak, but there was no sensation, no sense of self to allow communication with her phantom intruder floating so close by.
“Not even able to nod? That’s fine. Someone that wishes to be nothing would not need a form in a formless space like this.” The lady in white smiled knowingly. “However, you’ve happened upon quite a dangerous secret. An inclination towards creation rather than destruction is a gift most mortal men will never witness, yet here you are, posthumously squandering it on meager visages and selfish spaces. That affinity of yours is something others simply cannot ignore. By believing that you can be nothing, you have changed the very notion of nothing and given it shape. Your ‘away’ is not something, or rather, somewhere, you can fade into, simply because you see it as a destination. Unwittingly, you have rid yourself of the end you worked so hard to attain. It was an earnest struggle, but unfortunately there was no way a power like yours would allow you to vanish so easily. And that is exactly why I am here.”
The lady in white studied the girl, perhaps trying to find a change of expression on the her face. What she searched for was a shadow within shade, a glint within a glare that would allow her to confirm a response. Whether or not she found what she was looking for, the lady seemed content with what she had received, and continued her monologue.
“As I have already mentioned, you possess a very rare, very special trait that many are seeking, so I cannot just allow you to waste it floating about here. There are, however, alternatives that I can allot to you. The first of these options would simply be passage to the next life, wherein you will be judged and left at the mercy of whatever higher powers grapple you first. It is not necessarily kind, but it is an affirmative ‘end’ that many like you seek. Whether or not this end is permanent is beyond my knowledge, but if you are willing to gamble, go right ahead. The second choice I offer would be my original intentions for reaching out to you. While I do possess some idea of the role and the skills required, I am no harbinger of death, truth be told. My meeting you in this limbo was entirely an accident caused by both my own foolishness and your peculiar nature. These circumstances have made me unable to leave as conveniently as you are able to, if we are to factor in my aid. In that aspect, I am much like you, a poor soul whose journey remains unconcluded. Rather than listlessly float about in this haze, one of us might accomplish something in the lands of the living if I combine what is left of our duo. I’m sure you wouldn’t deny such a brilliant opportunity.”
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She breathed in the nothing around her deeply, and whispered words too advanced for the girl with no name to understand.
“What I offer you is the remainder of my own path. You must pardon my lack of explanation, as I am short on time. I understand my words make not even a scrap of sense to someone like you, but because we are similar, I trust that you will be able to walk this road with relative ease.”
Very suddenly, the sensation of touch returned to the girl. Looking down, she could see the silhouette of a body, her body, being produced before her eyes. Along with it came a rush of indescribable feelings and the vanishing of the light before her, a star whose end had come. The lady in white seemed perfectly content, something the girl had grown accustomed, rather, attached to in such a brief time. Amidst frenzied thoughts, the phantom wrapped the remainder of her form around the girl’s nascent self.
“I must apologize again, as I never actually gave you a choice. However, I told you so, did I not? Your very being cries for formation once again. You were -- are -- such a cute girl, too. I simply cannot allow that to be wasted.”
The girl with no name tried pushing the lady away, but there was no strength in her still-forming limbs.
“I am curious. The world in which you inhabited, was it harsh? Was it unfair? Was it so kind that it smothered you? Or did you just grow bored with the prospect of balancing expectations and realities? This is your chance to try again. Use this life that I am bestowing upon you to experience the wonders you’ve forsaken and ignored. Take and take and take until you can take no more, and when you are satisfied, give what you do not need away.”
The lady in white continued to dissipate.
“It is okay to be selfish. The most celebrated men and women are the greediest of their ilk, after all. And that greed is the only assurance I have that you might be able to fulfill my own selfish wishes. Forgive me one last time for rushing you through this, but my time grows shorter, melding with your own. Use it however you wish, so that you might not need to appear here once again.”
The girl shook her head. She was overwhelmed by the multitude of gifts that she never asked for. It was too much, too soon, and she couldn’t hide her fear for what was expected, and what was to come.
“Allow me to indulge in what is to be my last wish, child. For a damaged, lonely soul like your own, this unbridled kindness must be a sort of venom that stings with every second that passes. I assure you, I mean you no harm. Where you will go, where you will end up, is a place that houses many wonderful and dreadful creatures and memories. The residents, they will hurl you through the throes of despair and fill you with the warmth of joy, but they will do naught but protect you. Cherish them as deeply as I once did. That is all I ask.”
She was gone before the girl even had the time to respond. Not even a twinkle remained in that voracious blackness, not a single soul.