Chapter 2 – Thirteen Years Later

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Twelfth day of the Fourth Lunar Cycle of the Hundredth Ninety Second Year of Helvair

The grandfather clock just told us it is six o’clock, we’re seated at the grand dining room table and I’m so excited! My dad is finally here to spend some time with me! It has been so long since we last got to spend time together. The war has kept him busy protecting our realm, but that just means he is protecting me too! So, I’m not mad about it… but I’ll tell you a secret: I really, really wish I could fight with him!

He won’t let me though, just endless training on how to be a ruler, history lessons, and the like. It’s been boring, but it’s finally supposed to change, you know? Why? Today of course is my thirteenth birthday! Even as I write to you now, Mr. Diary, I am at the table. Yes, at the table. No, don’t judge me! Lele has yet to serve dinner so I’m still writing! She works really hard, don’t you know? Works her bones off, Hehe. Get it? Because she's a skeleton.

Now that I’m thirteen I can –

“Loria, not at the table,” father interrupts my writing, “You can do more after dinner.”

“Of course, father,” I sigh as I close the diary and set it off to one side. “Merely recording an important moment in my life, as I experience, is all!”

“I’m pretty sure the intent is to write at the end of the day?”

“Yes but this is special!”

The doors open from the service hall and our skeleton maid, Lele, enters the room pushing an ornate cart with an exquisitely decorated cake. “It looks magnificent! Murt has really outdone himself, tell him I said so!” No sooner than I say so, Murt joins us.

Murt snorts his piggy nose before giving a low bow. “I figured my dear Princess Loria would praise me, but that isn’t why I come! I wish to say it myself, happy birthday, Princess. I hope you enjoy the cake; I made it with all your favorites.”

“I must second the chef’s words, happy birthday Mistress Loria,” Lele replies with a curtsey of her ill fitting skirt. She insists on keeping it sized for when she was alive, it just looks silly! I can’t help but give a big grin.

Dishes are served in good order; my father cuts my cake for me as is tradition. The delectable dish practically melts in my mouth. Murt was right, he included all my favorite things and didn’t put blood or gore in this time! It’s my birthday so I should be able to eat whatever I want after all.

I won’t lie, it is a bit lonely without anyone else here to celebrate. The guards don’t partake and the other servants have duties to attend. Really, I wish I had a sibling, or my mom was alive. Dad said she had complications and that I was her gift to the world. Reflecting upon my loneliness and motherless childhood brings my eating to a standstill.

“Loria? Is something wrong with your meal?” My father asks me with a concerned voice. He picked up on my sudden change of moods I guess. With a big smile I look up to him and wave his worries away with one gloved hand.

“I’m just fine, Father. Merely thinking of… my future. Now that I’m old enough I want to start the combat training, I really do.”

“War is… not something you should desire. Yet, I do desire you growing to defend yourself.”

“Dad! I know it isn’t glorious! I’ve read enough history books to understand that. It doesn’t change the fact that I want to fight along side you. Help protect you like you protect me!” I blurt out my reasons to him. Even as I do, I feel something itching in my mind. Like, I forgot something else that is very important. Very important.

The skeletal maid refills my glass when I look at her with a recognition. A skeleton! An actual, good to god, animated skeleton. With makeup...? I panic and turn away to stand and flee – only to lay eyes on an old man in the room. Good night alive he’s massive! With fiery horns and wings! Is he a demon?! Why does dad scare me? I scream out as my body begins to convulse, “D-dad!”

“She’s having a seizure! Get her something to bite down on!” Father Helvair practically launches from his chair. Dad’s massive frame is coming my way to help me, please help. Shit it’s coming right at me. Get away. “GET AWAY!” I scream as I try to throw things at the monster. Attempts to grab anything fail as my muscles betray me with their convulsions. My body tumbles to the floor.

“The doctor is on the way, stay calm,” Helvair said leaning in close to me. I’m so happy he is here for me; dad will protect me. I am terrified as the monster gets close. I can’t be calm. That thing will eat me! I have to escape. I have to get away from this. Whatever this is home. I want to stay home. My family loves me. I don’t want to die.

Darkness overtakes us and we are passed out into an empty space.

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Sunlight filters through the glass ceiling of the white room. Two ornate chairs are arranged around a table in the center of the room. Loria sits in one, staring at herself in the other chair. Loria in a red dress, the other in a black dress. A few moments of silence pass before both of them say simultaneously, “What is this?!”

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One Loria leans forward, pointing a gloved finger at the other, “Alright, this is going to get confusing fast. I’m Loria and you are miss hallucination.” The other sits shocked and looked down at her own body.

“I’m not a hallucination. I’m… well I had a name, I can’t remember. I’m supposed to be you.”

“Me? You’re supposed to be me? I’m sorry madam hallucination, but only I am me. I have been since I first remembered. You are merely a blood draught hallucination. Don’t you know?”

“A what now?”

“A blood draught. If I don’t eat the proper foods I... have issues. I’m supposed to feed regularly but I prefer sweets and breads as opposed to meats and blood.”

“Well of course, vampires are supposed to drink blood. Not sure on the meat part.”

Loria smiles to her hallucination – exposing an entire mouth of shark like teeth. Two accented points pop down from a closed position like a snake. “I’m built for flesh, dad says.”

“… that is fucking terrifying,” the hallucination says while staring wide eyed at Loria.

“Language! Even if you are a hallucination you are still in my mind. I will not tolerate such foul-mouthed words.”

“I’m in your body? This is meant to be my body. I’ll be taking it. I think you aren’t supposed to exist, or perhaps we’re to merge into one mind or something like that.”

“I existed first, you just came into existence. You are a falsehood. Stop convincing yourself of that.”

“Great. GREAT. Sari! You little shit, is this because I beat you?! I swear I’ll strangle you,” she cried out in frustration.

“Language! Language! Young miss! I don’t know what is happening, but as I said it is no excuse to be vulgar. If you are not a hallucination, then perhaps are you a spirit who has possessed me?”

“What? No. I’m… I forgot my name, but I’m supposed to be reincarnated into a body. They said on my thirteenth birthday that I’d come to understand.”

Loria stared blankly, “As I have said, I clearly remember my childhood! You do not remember your name and you make no sense. You are either a spirit or a hallucination.”

“Your childhood? You’re still a child.”

“So are you! You’re less than an hour old!”

“No, I’m older. Not sure… how old. I came from… well here, just look at my memories that I have available. If we’re in the same mind I’m sure you’ll be able to see them somehow.”

Loria blinked as the other suddenly went silent. She could feel a slight tug in her mind as she seemed to join the concentration on memory. Suddenly, everything flooded her mind with old memories of another world, fragmented though they be. No magic. No kin. It seemed dull, “What…is this…” she cries out as her nose begins to bleed.

The landscape has changed dramatically. No longer a summer tearoom, rather, now they were both in an apartment. Women’s clothes flung around the room, litter on the ground, half eaten food discarded into a receptacle. Curtains are over the windows, hiding the daylight outside. “W-where are we?” she barely stammers.

“My old room… I think.” The other walks around looking for something to remember it by. "Ah, my old game system,” she smiles as her hand runs over the gray box with a cartridge in it. She stands and looks over at her desk, where a computer sits alongside a stack of RPG books and many little figurines of fantasy creatures.

“What is… this?” Loria looks at the glass box and begins pressing buttons. The old CRT above the game system flickers on. A black screen with illegible text scrolling across. A funny sound emanates from the box along with a male voice speaking words she can’t understand.

“Turn that off,” the other insists as she rushed over and hits the switch. “I don’t want to think about that, lets look for my purse. My name would be in there somewhere.”

Loria blinks and looks about the mess of a room, “If what you say is real and you lived here. Then madam hallucination, you need a maid. I doubt I could find a purse if it was painted bright pink.” She wanders about attempt to pry rather than search.

“Hey. I had a busy life! Work, game mastering, playing games, drawing, writing, and… I should have made more time. Yes.”

Loria turns to the curtain and opens it slowly to peek outside. Burning white that consumes all in its path. She screams in pain, stumbling backwards and pulling the curtain off the wall. Everything in the room is set alight and fire sweeps the room. “I am in so much pain! My head, it hurts, it hurts. Please stop, stop!”

“I can’t, I don’t know how! That’s what Sari made me forget!”

“You’re burning me away! It’s bright! Too bright! You’re killing me!” cried the terrified child. Suddenly they were back in the pleasant room. A summer sun gently shining in through the dirty, vine covered windows. Loria lay on the ground sobbing as a pool of blood forms beneath her.

The unnamed woman is now standing over the child. “Loria. Are you alright?”

“No, I’m scared, I want to be with daddy. You’re scaring me! I don’t know what is going on anymore. My… your memories are full of pain. I can’t, I can’t.”

“Oh gods, I recall your childhood. Ours, perhaps. I’m sorry.” The woman says as she kneels over Loria.

“You… didn’t mean to. I understand,” Loria rolls over, half her face has been scarred from the memory of the window. “Why is this happening to me, I just wanted to be… what did I want to be again?”

“A warrior to help dad out. Why do I know this?” The other sat down with a quizzical look on her face.

“A-are you looking at my memories now? I can only think of that… pain.”

“Yes. Yes I am. Loria I’m sorry. I think I stole some of you.”

“I see why you fear daddy, in your memories. Miss, if I die or change, please don’t be mean to him,” she pleads, “I’m his world. All he has left. He’s a good person even if he smells like blood and sulfur.”

“I will Loria. I think it’s more a case of merging our minds, or it should be. We’re too different.”

“It certainly felt that way… when you shared yourself. I felt like an empty cup being filled to overflowing. I don’t know what to do. Why is this happening to me?”

“What scares me now is, if I take over, will you die? I’d rather stay dormant than kill some kid.”

“I’d rather be dormant than see that pain again,” she says with a soft smile.

“I’m sorry. All this happening to you because of me, I guess. Loria – ”

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Suddenly light! I flinch away from it, but it is not the painful light from her memories. Just genuine candlelight. I open my eyes to find myself in my room. Rolling over, I grab for my cell phone and… ah, no, that was her memories. “I woke up, she didn’t,” I pondered aloud to myself as I climb out of the bed. I grab my diary and begin writing everything down... and reading back to see what memories I might be missing. “Miss hallucination I’m sorry. Please stay asleep,” I whisper to myself.