When I crashed head-first into the ground, it was a pleasant surprise to find that I wasn’t hurt.
In fact, it was a soft landing. I found myself lying flat on the ground, arms and legs spread out as my eyes met the sky.
Never once have I dreamed that I'd end up missing the daylight. But watching the clouds slowly floating against that blue backdrop, relief flooded my senses.
The ground was oddly soft. When I pressed down against it with my hand, I found the odd sensation of fabric, instead of grass. I turned my gaze away from the sky to see that the ground was covered in pillows. They were navy blue with lace around the rim, and sunflowers sewn lovingly into the middle.
I sat up and came face to face with a woman. She looked older than me. Her dark blue hair was done up extravagantly. It flowed out behind her, one piece left loose, two pieces pulled into ponytails at the sides of her head. Framing her face were two short braids that hung just a little below her shoulders. Her cropped jacket was red with large, green patches sewn in place with a weird double-lined symbol. The knee-high boots she wore had dark green spikes.
She grimaced when she noticed me, holding 8 markers between her fingers like knives.
“If you have even a minuscule amount of intelligence, you’ll stand down, return what belongs to us, then let me have your head,” she spoke with slight anger.
Red jacket like the carpet. Green accents like the wallpaper. Markers for drawing upon a blank canvas.
Once it clicked, I could barely hide the venom in my voice.
“You’re the Apparition?” I stood, brushing the hair out of my eyes. “Do you have any idea the damage you’ve done to that woman? This Labyrinth. Its walls, paintings, everything?”
“Comforting” couldn’t even begin to describe the feeling of roaming this place again. Even as I spoke, memories flowed like water. The times I played with Aya, hours wasted wandering the open sprawling hallways before meeting Granny for dinner. It was something that I wished I could go back to, that I’d give anything to go back to.
Yet, if it was similar to my World of Glass, then one thing was certain.
“It’s brought nothing but pain. Let us go now, and leave Granny alone!”
“Leave her…alone?” She stared at me as if I was crazy. “Who do you think you are, thief? You break into someone else’s head and have the nerve to act like the hero when confronted with their insecurities! Don’t start preaching anything to me.”
“You’re the reason she’s like this in the first place. I don’t want to hear it.”
“Like what? You don’t get to tell me what I have and haven’t done,” she snapped back, pointing her markers at me. “For years, I’ve only helped Eli where she needed it. You know not of what she has gone through and definitely not what you speak of, thief!”
“What do you mean by that? Who are you calling a thief?”
She made circle gestures at my head, her lip in a sneer and nose wrinkled.
“The pin. Looks like that pure white freak was a helpful informant after all.” She shook her head. “You’d take a simple hairpin away from a child too? You really are a thief through and through. Despicable.”
“Don’t be dumb, I’d never take something as worthless as this.” I grabbed the pin out of my hair and shoved it into my pocket. Strands of hair messily covered my left eye. “Can we quit it with the accusations here? I’m no thief.”
Her entire body stiffened. She waved the markers around as if she was scribbling in the air. It didn’t take long before three knives appeared above her head, each one staining the pillows with a gray muck that dripped down their blades. I blinked. Something wet splashed on each cheek. Two knives whisked past my head as my stomach churned.
With a flick of her finger, the third one zipped straight toward my face. I held my breath and rolled out the way. When I could breathe again, I clawed at the ground before stumbling to my feet.
Staying still was no longer an option.
I rushed toward the young woman in a zig-zag pattern, the woman slowly adjusting herself with every erratic turn made. As I got closer, I thought about Granny being trapped in here and how scared she must have been. With an almost fully formed copy manifested, it was likely she was alone for a long time. It was unforgivable.
Crouching, I tucked my thumb into my fist and winded back with all I had.
“Just leave the people I love alone!” I shrieked.
The strike connected with her chin as a sharp pain shot up from my wrist to the upper elbow. Despite this, I gritted my teeth and twisted my knuckles into her face.
The woman looked at me as if I was less than garbage. “Just a human. Pitiful.”
She grabbed my wrist and hoisted me up like I weighed nothing at all. Although she didn’t seem affected by my punch, it still left behind a red mark underneath her chin. The woman spat onto the ground before chucking me aside like a rag doll. I landed on my back, knocking all the air out of me.
I forced myself to at least sit up as the coughing and wheezing worsened.
She waved a hand in front of her and all other markers disappeared aside from the red colored one in between her middle and ring finger. She uncapped the marker, raising an arm and slowly drawing a circle in the air. Her movements seemed almost robotic.
A stove burner manifested before my eyes as grease and ash fell onto the ground.
Getting up on the very tips of her boots and hunching her shoulders, she took a deep breath before blowing on the burner. The massive fireball that erupted from the stove colored the entire area in orange and red.
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
“F-Fire…” I muttered as it blasted towards me.
I slipped out of my overcoat and hurled it at the fireball. It burst into flames before fizzling away, not even a single thread remaining. Any semblance of anger I once had was replaced with dread as I backed away on my hands and feet.
The young woman waved both hands in front of her and all eight markers returned to her. With a flick of the green marker on her left, my back pressed against something. She had created a wall. With some distance between us, she aimed her weapons one last time.
A familiar set of voices rang in my head. Mother. And Father. They blended unnaturally as if to mock me.
“Answer me, Husk. You said you did not want to hurt someone else. Yet, here you are, complacent with getting hurt yourself.”
“Not right now!” I yelled, pulling at my hair. “You’re the last thing that I want to hear!”
“Reality is truly a cruel mistress.” There was a hint of sympathy in her voice like she was trying to comfort me. “One second, you’re living through the greatest day of your life. And yet, all it takes is but a moment for everything to be stripped away from you. A world like that isn’t fair.”
I felt numb to her words. I let my body go limp. Shallow breaths followed suit. In and out. In and out. In. And. Out.
“However, it doesn’t have to be that way.” In. The Marker woman seemed confused by my sudden outburst. And out. “Not for someone like you. Feigning mediocrity will not be rewarded under any circumstance, so why not do away with it?”
In. I wasn’t feigning anything. Even if I was, would that be wrong? Am I not trying hard enough? Out.
“You are nothing more than a husk of a human being, but that is alright. You’re too ignorant to do certain things on your own, that too is alright,” she said, the ringing in my ears getting worse by the second. “Perhaps, all you needed to shine was some guidance. A push. I can be that for you. I will be the wind underneath your wings, all you need to do is ask.”
Even now, even in a situation like this, the cafe was on my mind. I hadn’t accomplished a thing yet. Aya brought an audience who might show up. Yuu supported me throughout. Both Yuu and Aya helped with inspiration for the theme and name of the place.
But what about me?
I was confident in my ability to brew coffee but could I teach that? Was I fit to be someone else’s boss? A cafe without a proper owner or drinks is no cafe at all. It would crumble within weeks if it even got that far.
Hearing that creature again, I circled back to a few days ago when I was sick. Only one question prevailed: What was my plan?
Maybe…this whole Apparition thing was something I could do properly. In a world without any failures or burdens, that label couldn’t be put on me. I’d accept that.
“It’s alright to reject the horrible reality that’s been handed to you.”
Reject the reality that’s been handed to me.
“It’s alright to bend the world as you see fit.”
Bend the world to my liking. Maybe finally live the way I wanted to.
“Shiro Hoshino, lay out your Labyrinth at once!”
The words rested on the tip of my tongue. I raised my arm and let them trickle out, “Lay out…my very own—”
“Quit your muttering over there.” the marker woman sneered.
She created a knife and shot it my way. Something fell from the sky, crashing like a torpedo into the ground and creating a cloud of dust. Every single pillow within the area was blasted sky-high, leaving behind large white square tiles. White stuffing, pillowcases, and blue lace fell from the sky like rain with no end in sight.
When the dust cleared, the knife had stopped a mere few inches from my face.
The one holding it by the blade was none other than Yuu, her wings spread out completely. Pulling it away, she rested her forehead on mine. She was breathing heavily and had a nasty gash on her temple. Blood trickled down from her head, onto the bridge of her nose, and finally dribbled onto my face. Drip. Drip. Drip.
I couldn’t manage to get any words out. Instead, slightly relieved laughs left my lips in between heavy breaths.
“Found you…dear,” she said, giving me a quick check-over with a pained smile. Drip. Drip. Drip. “Hope I didn’t keep you waiting.”
Two black strands of hair began to fall but she caught them in her palm and closed her fist with a distant look in her eyes.
That same smile would not last. The moment Yuu stood up to face the marker woman, she flicked the knife and crushed it with her bare hands. Its shards littered the room.
The marker woman scoffed. “I can assume you’re the brawn of the operation.”
Yuu reached into her back pocket and pulled out her glasses. They were completely shot. Both lenses were shattered with only one hinge remaining and even then, it was bent beyond recognition. She crushed and tossed them behind her as well.
She grabbed her sleeve and started to pull it up but stopped herself when she got to the lower forearm. Stealing a quick glance back at me, she closed her eyes for a second before sighing.
“It's…truly just one thing after another today. Thank Empathy I had such an amazing Seeker with me. Had I not known all your poor excuses for knives were dull, I could have gotten far more hurt.”
Had she not been directly in front of me, I would have never assumed it was Yuu who was talking. Her voice, usually sweet and upbeat, went down an octave and had a gruffness to it.
Yuu raised a hand to the marker woman and showed her palm. With her back to me, there wasn’t any way of seeing what she was showing. Regardless, the woman shrunk back.
The air suddenly became thick as I discovered I could no longer move a muscle. It was the sudden change in atmosphere that made things feel so suffocating.
“Seraph…” the woman muttered. “A human and an angel working together for petty crime? Little Miss Number One of all of them too! Paint me surprised. Tell me, did Number Two make you cover her shift?” She scoffed. “With low staffed you guys are… ”
“Hold your tongue, wretched thing!” She glared and the woman perked up. “You’re sure knowledgeable for someone cooped up in here. You should be grateful that it’s just me. If a human is enough to cause a bruise, then you shouldn’t be expecting reinforcements.“
Yuu looked down at her closed fist, an air of melancholy surrounding her.
“Not a single hair…and yet, here’s two…”
Opening it back up, the two strands of hair got caught in the wind and flew away. Even so, she continued to gaze longingly at her empty palm.
“Humans are extremely scary, are you aware of that little fact?”
“I’ve never been afraid of them.”
“Well, I guess you’re not aware of their customs.” She bent her pinky finger. “ Down here on Earth, if you break a promise, they force you to cut your pinky off or even swallow a thousand needles. Considering you’re the one who made the promise break…”
She poked her cheek with a finger but the playful motion didn’t match her stone-faced expression.
“That burden should fall upon your shoulders.”
The woman took two steps back as she pointed her markers at Yuu. This made her throw her head back and laugh.
“Fear not Labyrinth inhabitant, unlike that good-for-nothing Number Two, I am not that cruel.” Underneath each step she took, the tiles cracked and splintered. “Let’s do away with any of that and put you to rest nice and easy.”