Prologue
Darkness, no matter what direction I looked that's all I could see, darkness, but it didn't matter anyway I had no need for light. I didn't want anyone to see me as I held back my tears. I never, cried I had to be the little trooper my dad raised me to be, but I felt so small, like I was 5 years old again.
"Hey, kimi?" a girl called to me from somewhere in the darkness. I ignored her still focusing on pushing down my feelings.
"Hey, hey kimi, why are you crying?" she asked. I scrubbed my hand across my cheeks to check for tears, thankfully they were still dry.
"I'm not crying," I shouted.
"Really it doesn't look that way to me,"
"I'm not! I'm just…sad, now leave me alone," I whined crouching down into a ball, I folded my arms over my knees.
"Sad? Sad about what?" she asked, with the hint of a laugh in her voice.
"Nothing now could you go away!" I shouted and then held my breath in a despite attempt to hold back my tears.
"Hey you're in my home if you want to be alone then you leave," now, she sounded annoyed.
"I can't leave there's nothing but darkness here and I don't know the way out," even if I did I had nowhere to go. Besides it was comfortable here in the darkness well it would be if she would just leave me alone!
"The way out is deciding to leave. You're here because you want to be, we both know it. You have problems you're not dealing with, and until you start dealing with them you'll just be stuck here… with me… bugging you. So, what's your problem?" she asked seeing right through me. I sighed hesitant.
"I've lost everything and now I'm all alone," I finally whispered, pathetically.
"Hm?" she asked.
"A bomb… there was a bomb in my parent's car. My parents took my brother and me on a trip to celebrate me getting into Imperial academy an exclusive performing arts school. I'd been working my whole life to get in. My dad took us for a drive through the mountains to see the leaves changing. I got out to gather some leave so I could press them… to commemorate the moment. I got about 10 feet away my mom started to call me back when the bomb went off," I held my breath again. Yes I remembered that day very clearly. The deafening sound of the blast that threw me across the ground wrapping my body around a tree. The sickening sound of my bones breaking and worse the sight of three bodies burning.
"AHHHHHHHHHHH!" I screamed covering my eyes I couldn't help it and even though it was dark I could still see it.
"Whoa, whoa what's your problem?" she said actually sounding concerned.
"What's my problem!?" I had meant to sound angry but my voice shook making me sound even more childlike.
"Yeah you just started flipping out," she said putting a hand on my head. "Hm you really got it ruff huh, but is the sorrow so bad that it's worth dying for," she asked.
"Maybe," I said in a pout. "I have nothing left to live for," I said and it was true my hopes dreams and family had all been destroyed blown away by that bomb.
"No I guess you don't," she said casually. "But you could, if you stay here and drown in your despair you'll hurt forever. Never moving, you'll be trapper here being eaten away by your loss… but if you get up and move forward couldn't you be that strong little trooper your dad loved." That struck a nerve.
"What do you know!" I yelled. Feeling a fire ignite in me.
"I know you Amy," She said in a warm voice. "I know that you loved to play in the rain when you were little. When you were six you tried to sell your little brother to your neighbor. You were raised with a strong since of justice, and the thing you hate the most is letting down those who believe in you like your dad and your friends so stop being weak standup and face reality Amy," she said, and I felt like the pressure on my chest was released. She was right nothing was going to be solved by me sitting here, I had to move forward.
As soon as I thought that my feet started to sink into the floor. "That a girl," she said happily to me and for the first time since entering this place I could see something. A teenaged girl maybe a little older than me with short raven hair and a-are those horns and little devil wings!? She had green eyes and a spiked purple collar. The word staff labeled a gold crown on her tank top and she had purple and black jeans on.
"What's going on," I yelled up to her as I reached out to for help.
"You're starting to move on from your problems so you're moving on from this place," she said as she watched me sink.
"Wait! Who are you, and what is this place?" I shouted in a panic as I sunk faster.
"This place is the pit of despair a place where the broken come to rot away… and me I'm just your friendly usher here to nudge people like you to the place you're supposed to be. You can call me ChiNoMiko," she said as she waved goodbye.
"Wait, wait" the floor had almost swallowed me completely.
"Don't worry Amy we'll meet again and when we do I'll answer all your questions then," she said then turned around and walked away.
That was the dream I had just before waking up from my coma and continued to have every day afterwards.