1
The girl sat in her white dress, on the white chair, in the white room, in a castle with walls of alabaster marble. Not a hint of any colors were shown anywhere.
The floor was white. The walls were white. The ceiling was white. The table she sat at was white. Her bed frame and all the sheets were white.
In fact, the only bit of color showing in the entire room was with the girl.
A set of colored pencils in a white metal box rested on the table, and she looked at them with an odd longing, as if she wanted to burn with the red, drown in the blue... allow herself to be surrounded by colors.
Of course, the white was only to make her feel more lonesome. She'd been in this castle so long... she could barely even remember anything else.
It was a place of nothing. Nothing for a Nobody.
A pinked-haired man walked into the room, glancing around curiously.
He had stripped the girl of everything but the clothes on her back. Even the colors in her life were gone, all she had were those colored pencils which were bound to run out. Namine looked up sharply as he entered, blonde hair shaking back as she moved her head.
He walked to her side, playing casually with a thorny rose and leaning down, his pink hair brushing over his eyes, a small smirk on his lips. "You look down, what's wrong?" His voice was smooth as silk, not quite husky, but still holding a deep ring. It was obvious, too, that he didn't care what was wrong, he was just taunting the girl, playing with her pretty little head.
Of course Marluxia knew perfectly well what was wrong. Being trapped in a single room for all of the life you could possibly remember did tend to get one down.
She blinked at him, frowned a bit, and did not respond. Her hands clutched her sketchpad in a grip so tight it turned her knuckles as white as the room.
"Mmmm." He hummed, looking thoughtful. "You seem so tense."
He set the rose on the table, which disappeared as soon as it was out of his grip, and then gently placed his hand on her shoulder.
"It's not nice to ignore someone." he knelt down to her height, a single eyebrow rising up. She flinched, leaning back away from him.
"I-I'm not ignoring you," she told him, her voice soft and quiet, faltering slightly from her fear of him.
His grip on the narrow shoulder tightened and he nodded his head. "Of course you're not." He whispered, leaning forward to study her intently. She was so pretty...So fragile.
The girl whimpered. She didn't want to look at him- she closed her blue eyes to him, not able to stand being so close, and having his gaze locked upon her so intently.
"Please..." she asked, "Why are you keeping me here? What do you want?"
"I have plans." He replied simply, reaching up to gently take a piece of her light blonde hair, rolling it between his fingers. "And you're the main part of it." His gaze moved to her face, studying the delicate features.
"You're special."
"But I don't want to be special!" she insisted, shaking her head no so quickly that it pulled her hair from his grip.
"It's too bad it's not your choice to make." he smirked, straightening up and looking down at her.
She looked at him sadly. "Please," she asked him, "please just let me go."
Go where, she couldn't say. She could barely even remember life outside of this place. She knew only what Marluxia, Larxene, and Axel told her. She was very much alone.
"Where would you go?" he breathed, watching with a smirk. "To the outside world? Where no one loves you? No one cares? You'd be used, Namine. You'll be hurt- but not here, you're safe here."
As if she wasn't already being hurt here. They left her all alone for so long... it hurt. She felt an ache where her heart should have been.
"Please," she implored again.
He leaned down again, head tilting to one side. He seemed to be thinking about it. "....No."
Feeling completely hopeless, Namine bit her lip, closing her eyes again. She wrenched away from him, getting up from her chair and backing away from the man.
He didn't straighten up, just continuing to watch the other with shielded eyes. "What's wrong?" He knew exactly what was wrong.
"I don't want to be here anymore," she whispered, "I-" her voice dropped to the tiniest sound, and she mumbled something along the lines of hating him.
"Of course you don't want to be here." He replied, not sounding the least bit sympathetic. "If I were in your situation, I would probably have killed myself by now." She flinched. If she had the guts for it, she might've. But she didn't. And she knew she didn't.
But she tried to ignore him. She was done with talking to him.
He straightened up, easily dwarfing the small girl. "Hmm. It must be sad, a girl just starting with puberty." He stalked towards her. "All alone, no one for her- Have you had those urges yet?"
She backed away, her steps rhyming with his as she tried to keep the distance between them.
"I-I don't know what you're talking about."
He was easily closing the distance with his long strides. "You don't? You don't want to feed your animalistic instincts? Your human desires?"
"I don't even want to talk about it," she told him, sounding pained as she scrambled further away.
"It's only natural." He smirked, easily catching up with her. "So. Tell me. Have you?"
She backed up, but found herself with her back to the wall.
"Get away from me," she pleaded.
He continued to move, until his body was merely inches away from the other. "Why are you so scared? I've never actually hurt you before."
That didn't mean she was any less frightened of him.
"Please, leave me alone," she begged him, pressing into the wall.
He pressed against her. "But I won't, dear Namine."
She felt hot tears pricking painfully at her eyes. A sob choked her, and her throat felt hot and scratchy. His closeness made her feel claustrophobic.
He reached up, gripping the pale, frail throat gently, but, still giving a bit of pressure. "Don't cry. It makes you look ugly."
Unable to help it, she whimpered as hot, salty tears spilled over her lower eyelids. They fell, tracing down her cheeks.
"P-please," she choked, wanting him to let her go so badly.
He massaged the front of her neck with his thumb. "No matter how much you cry, you're never going to leave..."
Swallowing as much of her tears as she could, Namine forced herself to look at him. "I will," she promised him, voice wavering a bit, "You can't k-keep me here forever."
The finger pressed a bit harder against her throat. "It would be cute how much hope you have....if not so disgusting..."
She took a gasping breath. It rattled in her throat as she tried to twist away from him, but he easily kept her in place, relieving the pressure on her throat.
Namine gasped, taking deep breaths as her chest burned. The tears fell faster, but she was too busy trying to breath to be able to cry.
He smirked a bit, letting all pressure off her neck, now. "Quite your blubbering, it's disgraceful."
"Stop it," she begged him.
She couldn't think what was worse- being left alone, or being forced to endure such company.
"Stop what?" He questioned, finally stepping away from her. His voice had a tone of false innocence. "What did I do wrong?"
Nothing. Everything. Namine shook her head slowly, closing her eyes and taking his backing up as a chance to dart away.
He didn't follow him, just watched studied her. "You're so nervous..."
"What else would I be?" she asked him, twisting her dress hem in her hands. He may not have done anything to physically hurt her, aside from occasional things like the choking just now, but the mental pain he inflicted was torture enough.
He smirked. "I just didn't think you would be so emotional." He nodded his head, pink hair shifting at the movement.
Taking a deep, steadying breath, she refused to answer him, looking away and holding the wall for support.
"But, it's only natural for a girl of your age. Puberty must be hard." He snickered a bit; it was fun to prod at the poor girl.
She stopped for a moment. It wasn't her fault that she was trapped in her age. Nobodies did not age- she would be fifteen and emotional forever. A curse.
"So...How long have you been this age?" He questioned, starting to pace back and forth.
It took her a long time to say anything. Even when she finally did, she wasn't looking at him. "I can't remember."
He glanced over, smirking. "You might have been an old lady by now." he mused. "With a husband and children."
"No," she said slowly, "Not that old. I know that much. I can't be that old." Seeing as she barely remembered life before Marluxia brought her here, she couldn't have been around for very long.
He smirked over. "How would you know, though?" He stopped his pacing, turning his full attention to her. "In these walls-- you have no sense of time, you can't tell night from day, you have nothing to show how long it's been. You could have been here for a week or a hundred years." And didn't she know it.
"But... you know," she said slowly, "You're the one keeping me here."
He nodded his head, not denying it one bit. "But it's for the greater good, my dear Namine." Good, not quite the best word to describe it.
"Oh," she said softly, still not understanding how trapping her here could help anyone.
Of course it helped someone. It helped him. He pet her on the head. "Good girl."
She half-flinched under his touch, but not all the way. Any human contact that wasn't hurting her felt good. She'd been alone too long.
He pulled his hand away, running it through his own pink hair. "I think I'll leave you be." He had lost interest in talking with her currently and turned to leave.
Nodding slowly, Namine watched him leave her. Alone again. She almost wished he would stay. Almost.
He walked out of the room, closing and locking the white door behind him, leaving her alone with her drawings. The girl sat back in her chair, holding her sketchbook close.
Surely there had to be something she could do. Something.