Normal POV
Back at the Diaz house, Star was still struggling to comprehend why Almana chose to stay with Toffee. She laid in bed just staring at the ceiling with a look of befuddlement on her face; tapping her fingers together on her chest as her eyes gazed around the dark room. She was suddenly hit with realization and jolted out of bed over to her dresser. Next to her dimensional scissors sat the broken phone she had found when scavenging the remains of Ludo's castle. Pocketing it, she carved a portal to the Plains of Time and made a beeline for the Memoratorium. She pulled out the phone and offered it to the large eyeball scanner. As the surrounding screens cut to static, Star began to uncover the deeply rooted memories of Almana's past.
The first screen Star noticed seemed to show Almana and her mother during a car ride. Almana was still in a car seat so it must've been been one of the oldest memories. Her mother had dirty blonde hair with browning roots and the same aegean blue eyes as her daughter. The car ride was cut short when they went to make a turn, and Almana's mother let out a scream while slamming the breaks. They made a head-on collision with another car, enough to trigger the airbag to deploy. The mother retracted her hands from the wheel, arms burned from the heat in the airbag. Almana was curled into her seat, clasping the back of her neck as if she experienced whiplash. Star pondered whether or not that experience could be related to why Toffee has Almana wear a weighted collar on her neck.
Another scanner showed Almana sitting with her brother; a teenager who seemed to be in with the wrong crowd by the look of his cannabis tattoos and the graffiti style he was drawing in. As Almana hovered over him to admire his work, he playfully swung at her, initiating some sibling roughhousing. Having the advantage in size and strength, he was easily able to pin her, much to her annoyance. Star shook her head, thankful she was an only child.
The next screen seemed to jump ahead a few years, and took place at night, as it showed a barely visible bedroom with Almana curled into the covers. She was staring at the door as her parents argued on the other side. The occasional bump and slam suggested that they were under the influence of alcohol. "Stop moving around, you're going to break something." The mother pleaded, trying not to yell.
"I'll break whatever I want, I paid for all this shit. This is my house!"
"Quit getting loud, do you know how late it is? You have work in the morning."
"Don't tell me what to do. You don't like it? There's the door, get the fuck out!" The father slammed a door as if to get his point across, making Almana jolt from the loud startle.
Star noticed a gap in time when she glanced at the next screen, as Almana seemed a bit older. Her parents stood back as she scanned through some cages outside a pet shop. She locked eyes with a small rat terrier sitting on top of the pile of dogs. She had wiry white fur with black patches on her face and back with grey spots on her stomach. Her eyes were glassy and hickory brown, and she seemed to have a resting face of sorrow by how they were shaped. Most of the surrounding monitors suddenly switched to different memories with the dog. One of which seemed to resemble a similar night of domestic dispute. The dog drew her ears back as the yelling continued and jumped onto Almana's bed, using her nose to burrow under the blankets. Almana pulled her close and pet her as she shook.
The next screen also took place at night, but a light was shining on the bed and caused Almana to wake up. She turned toward the connected bathroom where the light was emitting and got up to investigate. She stopped in her tracks when she saw her mother lying on the bathroom floor, pale and cold to the touch. There was a message scratched into the mirror with eyeliner, a final claim of love for her children before giving up.
Without the mother around, the nightly arguing fizzled out and was replaced with collapses from excess solo drinking. Almana even began to sacrifice her own sleep after an incident showing the gas stove being left on. She seemed to be trapped in a routine of frequently checking the house for damage every night, only able to securely sleep well after the sun had risen. Even when a night seemed to be going well, it wasn't worth the risk. She then had to endure the aftereffects during the day, fearing for her life in the car on the way to school with her hungover driver. Her stress had built up to where she had to vent to the dog or even herself just to let out the tension. When one of the screens showed her trying to express her exhaustion, she only got an earful to put her back in her place. "Mind you own damn business, you don't know anything about being stressed. I can't even come home to relax and have a drink without you fucking complaining. You're just like your mother." As she locked herself in her room, Almana sat on the floor against her bed and curled into a fetal position. Shaking and holding back from vocally crying, she dug her nails into her arms; not enough to bleed, but enough to leave visible pink scratches on the skin. Her dog approached and nuzzled under her arm, helping Almana switch coping mechanisms by petting her instead.
Of course, all good things seem to inevitably come to an end. A monitor showed Almana's father receiving a paper that accused them of sneaking the dog onto the property instead of paying the two hundred dollar move-in fee. Even after showing how much he was willing to spend on insignificant decor that made the kitchen resemble a bar, he only saw one way to handle the extra rent. It cut to the dog being dropped off at an animal hospital, abandoned. It took a heavy toll on Almana, her coping scratches becoming deeper and her stability on edge. All the monitors turned red and emitted an almost blinding light for a few seconds, before dialing down as the most recent memories began to play. Star noticed how Almana frequently sought after Toffee's attention, maybe even seeing him as a stand-in for a male influence. Even Marco's accusation of Almana being infatuated with Toffee seemed to be proving true as Star watched further."She wasn't kidding, but what does Toffee even want with someone like her?" Star's concern grew, fearing Toffee could be putting up an act until he feels the time is right. "There's gotta be something we can do." She muttered as she stepped out of the Memoratorium.
Almana's POV
I woke up in a sweat later in the night, nearly falling off the edge of the bed. I'd been having recurring dreams of my long gone dog, only to wake up and realize she wasn't really back. I sat up and took a moment to collect myself; it's strange how if you cry in a dream, you wake up in real tears. Once I was content, I got an idea that even then I thought was risky. I slowly crawled out of the bed and tried to quietly rummage for the dimensional scissors. Once I found them, I carved the smallest portal necessary to walk through and stepped through. Once transported, I carefully peeked through to see if the coast was clear and quietly stepped out. I never thought I'd be seeing my old room again, and by the looks of it, it had been ransacked by police for any evidence of my disappearance. I slowly made my way to a shelf next to the door, and even in the dark I found what I was after; a small glass box with protruding marbles on the lid. I knelled down and opened it, having to hold back the emotions as I picked up my dog's old collar. I removed the one tag on it that displayed her name, -Maddy- and fixed it onto the collar Toffee put on me. I didn't want to leave her memory behind, so at least a part of her would be with me no matter what happened next. It became harder to hold back, having to force myself to stop thinking about it before leaving.
Normal POV
Toffee laid patiently, unmoving from the position he'd been in when Almana left. He briefly opened an eye just before she went through the portal. He wasn't worried, after everything she had done and the behaviour she displayed around him he didn't expect her to just take off for good. Though a part of him was interested in what she was doing. Not even seven minutes went by before the portal reopened. He pretended to still be asleep as he felt her slowly crawl back into the bed with him. He wanted to question it, but decided to drop it for the time being.
