Chapter One ~ A Symphonia Spin
I don't recall going to sleep, or anything of the sort, yet here I find myself awakening from this unexpected slumber. A small tinge of pain runs through my left arm, and I shift it knowingly from under myself. I always had tucked my arms under my pillow so the pillow would cup my face; regardless of the eminent numbness that would set in. It's the only way I could sleep. Last night I probably wrote it off and now I was going to pay for it. Oh well. I think offhandedly. I shift my body to my back and pause when the suns rays gleam off of my skin and warms my cheek. I can feel small pieces stuck to my cheek. As my fingers tentatively investigate, I find myself discovering wet grass. For a moment my mind is foggy and my body freezes. My brain struggles to piece together the situation, and I find myself lying very still for a long while. All that registers is the gentle breeze whispering soothingly against my ear as it brushes past.
My eyes... I blink rapidly until they adjust, the crystal blue sky coming into focus. My chest constricts with fear now and I turn my head to the left to discover long strands of lush green grass swaying in the winds. My stomach clenches painfully now as I wrack my brain for answers.
This isn't right. Where was I last? I cannot picture anywhere... I was... To be honest, the last thing I remember is playing Minecraft on my laptop in my bed, but something isn't right... I feel like I am forgetting something...
I sit up and my eyes scan the hill I've been laying on. The beauty before me I had only seen in paintings and the rare hike.
Mountains line the background and wheat fields surround me. I can see a large water mass in the distance behind a hamlet located on a smaller mass of water to the left of me.
I swallow thickly and am unsure of how to proceed. Slowly getting up, I dust my clothes off, running my fingers through the long length of my black hair before gazing around the area again. Pausing when I see my dinosaur back pack sitting a couple feet from me; I hastily pick up the backpack, confusion now pulsing through my thoughts. After unzipping it and digging through the backpack for what seems like forever I pull out a familiar item. The cool metal sitting heavy in my palm. Looking to find a number to call I take a shaky breath to calm the moment of sheer panic I feel.
Mom, I'll call my mom.
My finger stops from dialling, however, when I see I have no signal. I sit frozen for a moment not entirely sure what to do with this information. After awhile; I try anyway.
I press the numbers much to quickly, "457... 2366." When I get a dead tone I shake my head and try several more times.
After many failed attempts to get a hold of anyone and a lot of crying on my part, I finally pull myself together and take a slow breath. I stuff my trembling hands into the pockets of my red zip up hoodie and turn to look around me. I have no idea where I am. To be honest, even if I did have an inkling of where I was, I'm horrible with directions and would have no idea where to go. I feel sick again but swallow thickly and push back the feeling of vomiting. Once I've calmed down I do the one thing that seems obvious; I head for the very small hamlet on the lake.
It takes several hours for me to get there, and when I do my body feels drained and sick again. I see no roads going in or out of this town that are safe for cars to journey on. I grow weary, but push forward. The town itself is strange to me. Hundreds of small houses made of simple stones and logs speckle the town. The housing is so humble, unlike anything I have ever seen in our modern world. Lamp posts indicate electricity, yet the cafe' I pass is void of laptops and cell phones. I pause when I realize someone is changing a candle in one of the lamps. What the... candles? Passing patrons are walking, laughing, and working and are dressed in such an odd way. Leathers cover most of them, whether they are red blue and green, and most, if not all of the women, wear it in some sort of dress fashion. They are all reminiscence of plain, medieval age attire. Confusion plagues me. As I walk deeper into town, I notice I am getting looks from the locals and they seem more worried for me then distrustful, as I expected a small middle of nowhere town to be. Anxiety induced nausea hits me and I am forced to drop onto a nearby bench. Vision blurring; I see people approach me and I grow weary. I wave them off. I let out a weak noise that would make me embarrassed in any other circumstance. My vision weakens more-so, growing darker until I give into my bodies demands and pass out.
I don't remember at first when I re-woke, leaving the bench, and moved to pass out again but soon I am reopening my eyes to a dark alley with the same stone walls I saw in the small town earlier. My mind is icy cold at this point and I just lay on my back in the muddy ally way. My stomach rolls, but I know I have nothing left to throw up. I stare at the sky.
This wasn't real, it couldn't be, but why hadn't I woke up? I look over my shaking hands. I had passed out and still woke up here? Where was my family? Were they worried? How did I even get here?! My head is pounding again and I can feel a chill deep in my bones. I push myself to sit up and have to hold my head for a moment, taking note it was very sensitive.
Pushing myself to my feet I rub the mud from the alley off me as best I can. Around me is disposed garbage, like broken fishing poles and crates, and I am at a dead end. In front of me I see the quiet streets of the village and my mind protests returning out there. I turn and see that the dead end behind me wasn't completely a dead end. There is a door with a banister hanging over it that had 'Lost Angel Inn' painted on a wooden sign. For a long time I just stare at it. All my instincts telling me to run from it, not to go in there, but the rest of me is tired, sick, and hurting. I just want to stop and so I slowly make my way to the door. The closer I get the sicker I feel and for a moment I consider turning back, but as I draw near I can feel warmth from within the Inn; laughter pouring from its walls. I decide that, being lost, I had no other choice. I find the rickety wooden steps difficult to navigate as they cracked under every footfall, but eventually I am able to touch the handle and pull the thick door open. What is on the other side leaves me speechless.
It is my room, dirty and full of video games everywhere. Clothes cover every surface and it seems unchanged as to when I last looked at it. Slowly, I step into the room and look to the left.
My bed sits messy and covered in stuffies. My marvel comic strip bedding is half on the floor and my laptop sits there like I had last seen it. My closet sits beside it, closed, and probably full of all the stuff I didn't feel I needed out in my room. Blinking several more times I turn my head to the right half of my room. My parent's old plasma TV sits on the black stand I remember they had put it on and my gaming consoles all sit nicely below it. A random bunch of small items all clutter that desk and the bookshelf beside it. The window between the bed and the TV was shut but it looked dark out. I stare at my room a bit longer before I turn and look behind me and back out the door. It is still the dark and scary back alley I remember.
"You are not actually in your room." I jump and fall back in alarm. When I look behind me and on my bed a tall woman I know wasn't there a minute ago is sitting on my bed like she owns the place. I get up in a panic and hurry to the door but it slams in my face and I run head on into it. My head explodes in pain and I quickly hold it. "Relax, I'm not a bad guy. If anything I can be considered your guardian angel. I was hoping this area would sooth you as it is one of the video games you had on your floor but it seems it did not. I'm guessing your room didn't help ether." Her voice is bored and in all actuality; annoys the shit out of me. How dare this creepy magical woman mock me when I'm so scared! I turn to give her a piece of my mind but when I turn, I'm suddenly face to face with the stranger. I let out a yelp, slamming my body back into the door at full force.
She is taller than me, that much is certain, and is probably about 6 feet considering I'm a whooping 5 feet tall. Her face is pale white and eyes are sky blue, somehow identical to my own, but they have a bored blankness to them. She is thin and older, noted by the wrinkles etched gently into her features, and she wears a long golden gowned that flows around her like water and disappears when it hits the end of the dress. She has large, shapely breasts contained barely by a tight top and for a moment I am slightly jealous, but then she moves closer and I forget. A long claw comes up and pokes my cheek. Alarm spreads through my being as I realize she has raven like claw hands. I scramble for the doorknob but when I look it is gone.
"You are being very rude to me, little brat, which is a bad idea when I am the one to decide how you start in your next life here."
"Next life? What the hell is that supposed to mean?" The icy feeling returns to my gut.
"Are you going to sit on your bed and listen? Or keep annoying me when I am doing nothing to harm regardless your insolence. After all I've done to help you in your afterlife... humph." I stare at her as she backs up and walks towards the window. My insides are cold and my hands are shaking so I do as I am told and walk to the bed, sitting down. Great, remind me never to stupidly walk into a random inn again.
"I'm sorry. But this is getting to be too much. I'm talking to a raven clawed woman who looks like a ghost in a magical door that leads to not my bedroom." I take a breath and my hands clench together, "So I'm dead? I died?" The woman ignores me and her hand touches the curtain. Suddenly all the walls fall and my room appears to be on a rock. A floating rock surrounded by stars. I stand up, eyes wide, and look around noting four separate planets we were floating with. Three connected by a spire and one that was much bigger then the rest. I could see the shape of North America now on the bigger one leading me to believe it was Earth. However I had no idea what the other planets were.
"You are dead. This is the afterlife. In all honesty, you shouldn't remember any of this. I picked a planet for you to start fresh on by looking at these games in your room. Usually once you die you forget what made you you on that particular planet. You have subtle memories. For example; you played Tales of Symphonia for hours and wrote so much on it that I knew it was something you found comfort in and so I sent you there in hopes the thing that you recognized would make it easier to meld back into life with."
"But I remembered so instead I freaked out... why was I in earth clothes then? You also make it sound like Sylverant is a real place." My heart beats frantically, threatening to leap from my chest, but at least I was gaining the answers I so craved.
"By remembering, something changed my magic and instead of coming here as a babe born to a parent you were brought here as your earth self and retained all your memories of your old life. By doing that I couldn't change your form or anything so you kept everything that made you you. Seeing that I had to somehow contact you I felt this was the best way. You were looking for answers, a place to rest, this is it." She flies off the land and turns to watch me like a higher being, an angel. I watch her wearily before looking down to my hands and clenching them.
"What do I do with that?"
"Whatever you want. I'll give you a complimentary make-over and then send you on your way. I can't help you anymore, and you need to go find a way to live on this new planet. On the bright side you've played this game so many times it shouldn't be hard!"
"C-complimentary... This isn't some hotel, lady! I remember my old life! My mom and sister and brother! I remember it all! I want to be back with them! Can't you just give me another chance! I can't live in this hostile world! I don't have any skills! I'm only seventeen!" I feel my eyes tear up and my fingers clench the bed sheets. Fear fills my chest and for a moment I think that my terror has changed her mind, but abruptly she shakes her head and snaps her fingers. I fall when the bed below me vanishes and is replaced with a purple tile floor. I look down and then back up to her seeing nothing of my room left. I start to cry. She ignores this and raises her hands. See through tiles surround me and each has something written on it. The one in front of me says 'clothing' in big white lettering. I push myself up and rub my face, yet I cannot control the weeping.
"It matters not. Your life was lost on that planet and so you'll just have to move on. Step forward and click on the clothing button. Of course; if you'd rather just keep your earth clothes and leave my home, you can. It matters little to me. I am being nice here and going out of my way. You can ether leave here Sophia of Earth or Sophia of Sylverant." She seems to be getting agitated and that scares me a little. I step forward, to the edge of the floating rock and touch my hand to the button. Clothes burst around me and I stare at them lamely and unmoving. I can't feel anything anymore and my eyes are almost unseeing, blinded by a well of tears.
What am I going to do now... I am never going to see my family again. I am going to be left alone. I wasn't going to live long here. There are monsters! I'm only a kid! I shake as she crosses her arms and I know she wants me to hurry. I look around and slowly try to pick out sensible clothing that would last. I needed to be smart.
I first end up taking down the best looking jacket for warmth. It is blue and has buttons up the front of it. It flares out a bit at the waist and has a big hood on it too. The inside is lined to the tee with fur I don't personally recognize but it looks cozy and like a solid starting ground.
Next I look through the clothes for everyday type of stuff. I come up with an overall-like garment. It has the overall top with clips on the arms to hold it up but a belt at the waist with a diamond that is blue and reminds me of another game I play. After the belt it splits off into a cloak type bottom that would flow around me and has black trimming down the inside edges, and the bottom of the cloak that accent the pastel like yellow colour that covers the rest. It comes with a tank that is tight and long and goes under the top overalls part to hold up my breasts like a built in bra. It also has black lining over the inside and around the cuffs at elbow length to match the other part. This strikes me as farm girl and so I take it. I finish it off with black jean like pants, I'm assuming only there so I felt more at home, and some tie up sneaker boots that are pastel blue to match the belt I had.
Once done I step back and while thinking about clothes instead of my situation did calm me down, I still feel horrible. Looking to her she nods her head in boredom and moves her hands, moving the buttons. Now I see 'weapons' before me and I feel sick again. I was going to have to fight to live... Wasn't I? I have to take a breath and focus on pushing the button before I gag at the thought. Before me are three separate choices. Staff, Sword, or bow. I look between them and then to her.
"I'm human... why is Staff even a choice?"
"Some humans can use healing magic. Even have a little magic ball pet too. You happen to be the type of human that can." She isn't even looking at me as she checks her claws and floats there. She is so annoyed that I somehow messed up her job, I frown, then turn back to the choice and click staff. Must be so damn hard to be an angel, poor her.
Maybe I can heal myself. The button shines and then I am presented with a oak staff with a star that bares a resemblance to one I saw in Mario on one end, and floating circles down the top half floating off it. The bottom half has a knife like edge and it floats to my hands and I grasp it. Upon closer inspection, within the slightly see through star is a small copy of earth spinning in it. I sigh, she didn't look like she cared but damn was she trying to make me feel better. It wasn't working.
I look back up to her. She waves her hand again and this button says 'present'.
"What's this one for? Just a random present?"
"Indeed. To make up for ruining your new life. You came with a bag right? I put your new clothes in it and allowed you to keep whatever was in it when you came. My way to say sorry."
"Uh... thanks." I press the button softly and my green chibi dinosaur backpack appears and with my free hand I grab the strap. I sniffle when the buttons vanish and look to her. "So... So what do I do now?"
"Whatever you want. You can live a normal life, join the Renegades or Desians, go to Iselia, or travel in that caravan. Whatever you choose now is yours to do just that. But word from the wise... Don't tell them about your old life. It is not your life to live. This is." She waves me off and the door I came from opens behind me.
I turn and see the old alley once more. I stare at it for a long time. This isn't fake this is my new life, I was here. Slowly I walk to it and out the door. It slams behind me and when I turn the door is gone. I stand there frozen for a long time before I sit back down on the ground and hug my backpack. I cry for the rest of the night. My Mom and family are gone, how am I going to live without them?
End Chapter