Persona: Addicts Anonymous
Mona was surrounded in darkness. She couldn't recall the last time she'd felt like this. Cold. Dark. Confused.
Alone.
The last being the most significant. In this moment, sitting here, in darkness, she realized just how alone she really was.
It was a feeling that had been creeping up inside of her for some time. The idea that she was alone, in every sense of the word.
But at least she wasn't surrounded in darkness.
Not like now.
"H-hello?" She called out as she took a step. Solid ground, though she couldn't see anything below her. She took another step. Once again, solid ground. This was strange. After a couple more steps, she became confident that the entire room was ground. She walked forward a bit, making sure to shuffle her feet to feel for any gaps. She called out a couple more times, but there was no response.
The last thing she remembered was being at a party. She recalled the thumping of the music pulsing through her veins, the spikes of alcohol as it coursed through her body, the smell of sweat from all of the people dancing and grinding up against each other, and the way she staggered from her drink obviously having been spiked with something.
A hallucination. That's all this was. She needed to wake up.
"Snap out of it, Mona." She said to herself, feeling completely stupid. Obviously if she was going to snap out of this, it would have happened already. She tried pinching her arm, a brief slap to the face, and even bitting her inner cheek.
Nothing.
Which was what she expected if she was dreaming. She was in some dream state and none of this was real.
"Let me assure you my dear, all of this is real."
She spun around. It was an elderly gentleman's voice that had called out, but not one she recognized. A deep blue replaced the former darkness and a piano solo lightly wafted into her ears.
"The hell…" Her voice trailed off as she looked at a man with buggy eyes and a long nose. He was bald with just small patches of white hair on either side. He had a grin that spread from ear to ear. It almost looked eerie in nature.
He ran his hands along the velvet blue jacket that stuck to his body as if it were one size too small. His small frail fingers interlocked in front of his grin which seemed to be growing wider by the moment. The dark wooden desk he sat behind seemed to be growing out of the floor. In fact, the entire room began to look like dark vines were spreading along invisible walls.
"Mona, my dear." He said.
She jumped a bit, his voice having a shrill almost falsetto tone to it, not matching his short, grubby appearance.
"Y-yes?" She blinked. Her legs screamed at her to run, but something kept her in place. Some nagging tug at the back of her mind, telling her she needed to stay.
"A fate so dark. Much like this very room. It's coming for you. You've always known it. You've felt it in your bones for the last year. Haven't you, my dear?"
Mona felt her right hand move of it's own accord. It slowly made it's way up her side and slid around her belly up to her heart where the beat calmed her. But as she felt it, something alarming began to activate her brain.
The beat was beginning to slow down.
"Maybe I'm just calming down." She said, but she knew that wasn't true.
"You can only fool yourself for so long until the darkness takes you." The man said with a chuckle. As he did, the vines began to grow. The blue was beginning to fade as they grew both in girth and length.
They were coming for her.
"When the clock strikes 12, the moon turns pale, and the howl of the wolf calls to you, I advise you to answer." The man said as he bowed his head. In that moment, one of the vines grabbed her right arm and began to pull.
"What?!" She yelled. She struggled, but it was no use, the vine had her. Then her left leg. She could feel it, the cold darkness she'd awoken to was once again taking over.
"If you don't admit you need help, my dear." The man waved to her. "Then I'm afraid I cannot be of service."
"S…stop!" She yelled at him as the vines grabbed her and began to consume her into the darkness. She couldn't breathe, she was suffocating. And yet her heart continued to slow.
"Don't forget the name Igor."
"Hm." Mona rubbed her eyes. There was a thumping. It was music. People moved all around her. Her vision was blurry and she couldn't quite make out faces as the party continued on. She tried to stand up, but stumbled a bit, her heels doing her no justice in this moment. She had on a black, form fitting, single strapped dress that was making it impossible to do much with her legs.
She still felt groggy.
"Mona!"
She covered her ears as the high pitched voice of her friend, Gen, approached. The girl had a green tank top and short shorts. She bent down and held out a hand.
"Good God, Mona, I was wondering where you'd gone off to." In almost any other moment, this would be the best moment, her friend coming to her rescue after she'd just been drugged. But the fog of the situation and her head still swimming from wherever she'd gone to, it was like standing next to a shrill bird. "What happened?" She asked.
"D…drugs…" Mona held her head as she reached out with her free hand and took it. Her friend helped her up as she staggered a bit and nearly toppled over again.
"Easy does it," Gen slid her hand around Mona's waist for support. "What a dick…" She kicked the cup that had been sitting next to Mona. "Someone spiked your drink I bet. Unless, you got the good stuff?" She raised an eyebrow.
Mona shook her head, her blonde short hair swaying side to side.
"Probably spiked then." Gen said. "Okay, let's get you to a bed." She walked Mona down the hallway. The thumping grew quieter as she continued to walk. Well, more like stagger alongside her friend.
Gen tried a few doors before finding one on the right. Her brown hair, tied in an 80s style ponytail brushed against Mona's face as the door opened.
"Okay, finally." Gen helped Mona who collapsed onto the, somewhat firm mattress. The world was still spinning and her vision faded in and out of blurriness. She could see the window nearby as the moonlight began to come into the room.
"Just…wait here." Gen said standing up. "I'm going to call us a cab, but I don't have reception in here. Don't let anyone in okay?"
"H-huh?" But Mona didn't have time to protest as Gen left the room, shutting the door behind her. How in the world was Mona supposed to prevent anyone from coming in? She could barely move without falling over. She tried to wrestle with the thought process that went into Gen's request, when suddenly she noticed movement to her right.
It was a large figure, blank with red, beady eyes. Horns protruded from it's head. With a clopping noise, as if it had hooves, it walked over and blew smoke in her face.
She coughed and tried to put her hands up, but the beast…or thing…or whatever, gripped her wrists and pinned her down.
She tried to struggle as it began to push her back, continuing to huff smoke from it's nostrils into her lungs. She coughed and wheezed, her vision once again going blurry. It was muscled, like a body builder. Even with her, more than average strength for a woman, she was unable to even move.
"H-h-" She tried to call out, but the smoke continued to fill her lungs. She could hardly breathe, let alone try to call out for assistance.
And then the beast grinned. It had sharp, razor teeth, like a shark. Slowly, drool poured from it's mouth and began to land her clothes, causing it to sizzle as the heat burned through her dress. She began to struggle more, her eyes watering as the searing pain hit her skin.
The beast slowly opened it's gaping jaw and moved in.
It was going to bite her.
Her eyes widened. And yet, her heart continued to slow down, even more than before.
She could feel the darkness close in as it slowly arrived at her neck, a tooth scraping against the skin.
As it did, she finally caught a break from the smoke. Her vision sharpened as the tooth began to dig in. The analog clock on the nightstand chimed, reading 12:00 AM. She could see the pale of the moon shine through the clouds. A distant howling noise filled the room.
Then she remembered.
"H-" She coughed. And then with one finale desperate moment of clarity, she called out. "HELP!"
Suddenly, her heart sped up. It beat loud, and it beat hard. The beast reeled back as light poured from her chest. She felt pressure building on her left side and clutched her chest where her heart was, sitting right up.
"H…HELP!" She called again. As she did, her heart beat so hard that her hand was knocked away. She tilted her head back and called out as with a final beat, her chest exploded in a rain of blood.
She expected pain, she expected damage, she expected death.
But what now hovered in front of her, connected by a red, glowing light from where her heart was, a giant wolf like man. It had all the visuals of a wolf, gray and majestic, fur rippling up and down it's body, but was built like a man, hands with claws protruding, a chest and six pack that ended where the light streamed.
You called? It turned to her, it's soft, yellow eyes staring at her.
"W…what the…what…" She couldn't form any words as she heaved and huffed.
The beast snarled.
Later then, allow me.
The wolf reeled back it's clawed hand and then dug them into the gut of the black, smokey beast. It howled and tried to lurch forward to bite the wolf, but instead the wolf leaned to dodge and then sunk it's own fangs into it's neck.
With a crunching, ripping sound, the wolf pulled back, ooze pouring from the newly created injuries.
Mona continued to look wide eyed and bewildered.
Was that okay? Should I do it again? The Wolf looked back at her.
Mona just blinked and then gave a small nod.
With the savage fury of a wild alpha, the wolf lashed out again and again, the beast, unable to counter the blows. And with one final, bone crunching shred, it finally reeled back and vanished into smoke.
Call on me again if you ever need me. The wolf howled before vanishing into her chest, her body lurching as once again the loud beat forced the movement.
She fell backwards, lying there as she had when she was still in the drugged state. Or maybe…she still was. She felt sweat pour down her brow and tried to form…any sort of coherent thought.
"What just…happened?" She asked as she huffed.
Her heartbeat had gone back to normal.
"Cab is here! Thank god, I was getting worried." Gen said as she slammed the door open and bent down to help Mona up. "Gross, you are all sweaty…and is that a cigarette burn on your dress?!" She shrieked.
Mona looked down. Where the beast had drooled on her, a small hole remained, but her skin was not burned. She shook her head. This was…getting too weird.
"Did you let someone in?!" Gen asked.
"N-no…" Mona said. No smoke anymore, her lungs were clear and the fog around her head had lifted somewhat.
"Weird, okay let's go."
Mona felt her body shift as she was helped to her feet once more. She looked around, there were no signs of a struggle. No beast guts from where the wolf had impaled it. There was no blood or tear in her dress from where her heart had beat right out of it.
It was as if none of it had happened.
A/N: Been awhile since I wrote. Trying to get back in the swing of things. Found some inspiration for a Persona fic as it's one of my favorite series! (yes including 1 and 2). Figured I'd introduce the main character, Igor, and an initial action, very true to persona opening. I have some awesome plans for this and can't wait to see how it all plays out. Thank you for reading and please leave feedback. Welcome to my story, fellow addicts :)