With her, you start to believe there is something more.
In the dream bubbles, the solution to a life of restriction and pain is stolen from you. There is no peace in death, only a lingering and nonexistent existence. It makes no sense to you, but you know it is not fair. You did your job in life, you died at the hands of the Empress according to plan.
Death was your freedom.
Instead, you regenerated as a being in a constantly changing and disorienting world.
When you meet her, clad in sharp red glasses, the same color adorning a precise teal uniform, everything about her screams authority. Your greeting is the same to every intruder that walks across your path: a stream of insults, a threat. In life, you were never given a voice. You were never taught to read. Your speech consists mostly of broken fragments.
She gives you your space, but she doesn't leave. She is quick to your defense, although it is your firm belief that you deserve nothing of the sort. In conversation with others that come across your path, she is formal, authoritative. You envy the way she speaks with such grace and intention. Despite your communication inefficiencies, she speaks to you as a close friend.
It is foreign to be at her side, to be treated as a kindred spirit rather than an enemy. She continues to ask why. Why, why, why. Unfolding the creases of your past, she gently digs for answers. After some time, you start giving them to her. You trust her. In your heart, there is an attachment growing when you have never felt such magnetism. You begin to ask her questions, in your own broken way. She answers them. She shares herself with you, her past, her feelings, her fears. Your shell begins to break, and like a wiggler you find yourself playful, joyous and laughing for the first time.
Sometimes, the bubbles are more than you can handle, and you seek solitude. Your hands bleed from wringing your fingers together, scratching your skin. When she finds you, she takes your hands in hers and kisses them, softly, bandaging them with great care. She looks right at you and denies all of the lies you had been taught in life. For the first time, you feel seen. She loves you, she says it right to you, and her lips meet yours.
She shows you love, patience, compassion, and everything that has been taken from you is given back to you in this forsaken place.
With her, you are given a second chance.