2. Take Me Home – Phil Collins


Larxene goes back to her Other's world only once. It's one of the few Nobody homeworlds still standing, though none of them can figure out why. It's not special. In actual fact it's a poxy little place, like a boat full of woodworm and dry rot, with black mould growing on the ceilings and walls, and basins under gaping holes to catch the water when it rains – and it rains all the damn time.

She stands in the capital city's main square and stares contemplatively up at the buildings. There are still people in them, but no-one she knows. There's a sense of desolation to the place, though her Other's memories paint it as bustling and full of life. Then again, at the time her Other was pretty chirpy and lively herself.

Larxene doesn't remember the last time she felt chirpy. She doesn't have a specific memory of when the chirpiness left, like a bird shot out of the sky with a well-placed shuriken. It just … stopped being there as the black shadows encroached, and the rumours of spirit-stealing demons increased. Her clan should've been happy at the sudden upsurge in work from people who wanted them to take care of this strange new threat, but they weren't. They were kind of fatalistic about it, actually, as though they saw (or at least accepted) before everyone else that the end wasn't an explosion or a magic war, but the intractable shuffle of small feet.

Fearful eyes watching her around twitching curtains, Larxene calmly calls down lightning to set fire to everything, and then leaves through a portal without looking back.