Aerith's legs were messily entwined in her soft blanket. The morning sunlight brightly shining onto her half awake face. She turned on her side to gaze at the numerous faces staring back at her "Good morning everyone." She whispered tiredly.
She swung her legs around to sit upright on her bed and admire her collection of porcelain dolls. Rubbing her eyes, she stood up to take a shower before she left for her new school.
Yesterday she had finished unpacking after moving out of her parent's house to live in Tokyo to start year twelve.
***
Aerith shyly kept her head down while she walked down the pavement path, her skirt gently flapping behind her as she made her way to school. Only a few clouds lingered closely overhead, the brunette shielded her eyes as she watched at the pathway ahead of her. Her destination wasn't too far away but it seemed like an eternity in the heat.
"Hey!" A voice from behind called. Aerith kept walking; she knew that it was not for her. "Hey! I'm talking to you!" The persistent voice chimed.
Aerith couldn't help but turn around to see a raven-haired girl; her skirt was slightly hitched up and she wore rings on a chain around her neck. "Yeah, you!" The strange girl smiled at Aerith and waved. The girl ran up to Aerith, who noticed she was shorter than her. "Are you a new student? You're wearing the same uniform and I haven't ever seen you walk this way." Aerith nodded and blushed a little.
"My name is Rinoa Heartilly. What's your name?" Rinoa said as she clutched her bag leaning in to the tall brunette. "I'm Aerith Gainsborough." Aerith said to the outgoing girl. "That's a cute name, do you want to walk to school together?"
Aerith blushed harder and nodded.
They both walked side by side, Rinoa talking constantly and quite loudly. At least I've made a new friend.
***
Once they both arrived Rinoa glanced around to study everyone, apparently looking for somebody but she flinched when she heard someone calling her name. Rinoa spun around and ran up to a tall boy dressed darkly, not wearing his uniform. "Squall!" She squealed as gave him a hug. "This is Aerith, she's new so be nice!"
The boy nodded and started talking with Rinoa. No, more like listening and nodding his head every few sentences.
***
After school, Aerith was exhausted by the heat. At least most people just left her alone. Once she was home, she threw herself on her bed and sighed from fatigue.
She stared at the blank ceiling in her dark room. Back home she would look for patterns until she fell asleep, instead here the ceiling was like a vacant canvas. After a while, she noticed the fine strokes of where the brush had painted, they sort of looked like waves and ripples of the ocean. Eventually she drifted off, dreaming of a white sea.
A few hours later, Aerith woke up to darkness only pierced with the faint lights of the city that seeped through the closed curtains. Everything felt a lot cooler than it had during the day in the normally sweltering room.
She paced to open her curtains to gaze at the buildings surrounding her apartment but froze when she noticed something.
The lights drowned the stars above, the country sky had disappeared leaving the night unaccompanied by the heavens she loved so dearly.
Aerith let out a soft sigh and let her head hang for a while.
I'll go visit home soon...
She decided she would go for a walk and take advantage of the air she would only have at night. She was not going to sleep easily with the traffic roaring out on the busy street.
***
Outside, the lights annihilated any chance of residents getting any sleep. The street was only occupied by a few people but it was still noisy.
She passed the numerous 24 hour convenience stores, gazing into their windows as she wandered by.
As she passed an alley she noticed a large body bag, the lights reflecting off its coarse fabric. Aeriths heart leaped, afraid as she looked around for other people. W-Why is there a body bag in the alley!?
She felt compelled to walk over to the body bag, with each step her vulnerable heartstrings were plucked wondering what kind of person deserved such a cruel fate. It was like a charm pulling and lugging her towards the heaving sack.
As soon as she was near enough, Aerith stopped to stare at the bag, heart pounding in her ears. She wanted to run away and forget what she saw but something compelled her to stay. Reluctantly reaching her hand out toward the bag, the cold was starting to get to her. As she touched the zip her unwillingness subsided and was taken over by curiosity, after all the bag was too small for a human.
What if the limbs were hacked!? Aerith tightly squeezed her eyes shut and quickly unzipped the bag without realising.
Slowly she opened her eyes to see a face staring back at her.
A delicate porcelain face, framed by silky tresses of silver hair. Moonlight reflected off her half open cerulean eyes, the bottomless azure seemed to stare into incomprehensible distances. A dark, not quite black tear was painted under her right eye. For a long time, Aerith gazed at the beautiful piece of art, her uneasiness settled and feelings of pure enchantment arose.
Slightly afraid to spoil its beauty, Aerith unzipped the bag further revealing the doll resting in the foetal position.
First was her full, life-sized torso, then beautiful pale uncovered legs. It was sort of daunting, if the joints weren't covered Aerith could have thought she were a real woman. Lifeless and doomed to rot in this alley until there was nothing left but bones.
Aerith touched her face; it was surprisingly soft and cold. "Hello there…" she barely squeaked, hopelessly expecting some sort of an answer.
Suddenly, the dolls eyes sprung open wide and creepily eased their way to meet Aeriths eyes.
She recoiled backwards in fright, heart pounding as the doll unfolded herself to try to stand up, eerily jerking its joints in an attempt to move, her eyes fixed on Aeriths as she propped herself against a wall, half bent over and trying to stand.
Dolls aren't meant to do this! Aerith tried to run but something compelled her to stay. She couldn't even muster a scream.
She- She looks slightly sinister...
The doll stood upright, her eyes still glued to Aerith in a creepy way. Her long hair cascaded down to the small of her back, it swung to each side with each step she took towards Aerith.
She tried to slowly back away from the living doll, but it was getting closer fast, she had to do something!
"P-please don't go..." she spoke, in a gentle yet perturbed voice.