Restless, Part 2
She had been here before.
Images and colors blended together. Faces emerged from the darkness to laugh at her only to vanish into nothingness. Sayaka came striding toward her, wearing her blue Puella Magi uniform, a knight in shining armor. She smiled and extended her hand. Kyoko reached out to take it, but then Sayaka's body fell apart, crumbling into a thousand pieces, each one becoming a tiny, silver-scaled fish. Kyoko grabbed at the fishes. If she could just catch them all, she could put Sayaka back together. But there were just so many, and they were all much too fast.
She had been here before.
And then she was falling, falling, falling, tumbling head-over-heels through the darkness. Voices whispered to her through the black, voices she knew. Sayaka, Mami, Kyubey, Father, Mother, Momo, and a half-dozen others, all of them calling to her but never to each other.
"Don't cry, we'll be okay!"
"You…you did this for me? You think I wanted this…this blasphemy?"
"I'm such an idiot."
"Of course they will listen! All you need to do is make a contract with me!"
"I'm not your enemy! After all…After all, you were the first magical girl who believed as I did!"
"Big sis Kyo? Why is daddy crying? Are you crying too?"
And so they continued, all of them vying for her attention. But in the background of the babble, barely audible at first but steadily growing in volume, was the sound of a little girl, weeping. Kyoko frowned. Why was everyone so focused on talking to her? Why wasn't anyone trying to comfort the little girl?
She had been here before.
Kyoko opened her mouth to ask just that, but then everyone shut up. Furthermore, she was no longer falling. She raised her head to see that she had landed on a smooth, black-and-white checkered floor that stretched as far as her sight would allow. Beyond that, there was nothing but shadows. With a sigh, she lay back down, her cheek pressing against the cool marble. She considered getting up, but she was just so tired, and the floor was so comfortable.
Soft footsteps came out of the darkness. Something was coming. She couldn't see its full form, things were just so dark, but its round, crimson eyes stared at her from about meter above the floor.
Kyoko watched as the eyes came closer and closer. She tried to make out the creature's shape, but the shadows seemed to move with it, hiding it from view.
And then, when it was less than a meter away, it stopped. Kyoko stared into its eyes, neither she nor it blinking. Had they continued without interruption, she might have gotten lost in its gaze, staring at it forever.
She had been here before.
But then a pitch-black paw came out of the shadows to touch the black of her hand, and the creature spoke.
"Gotcha!"
Kyoko recoiled back from the round, crimson eyes, away from the black rodentlike creature. It stayed where it was, sitting on its haunches, watching her as she tried to scramble away.
Then the ground gave way beneath her and she fell.
She fell and she fell and she fell, tumbling and turning through the dark. She cried out, hands grasping for any purchase to stop herself, but there was nothing, nothing but Oblivion.
And then the voices returned.
"Every time I see her, it's always, 'Where is big sis Kyo? Have you found big sis Kyo yet? What's taking so long?' Children, you know?"
"You're stuck here, along with everyone else. Time to start learning the rules."
"There is no place you can go where they won't find you. I'm sorry, but it's hopeless."
"Because maybe you're right. Maybe this is breaking us. I mean, look at us!"
Still screaming into the dark, Kyoko found herself looking down, and her eyes went wide. There was a glowing silver light directly beneath her and growing larger.
It was the fish! The fish that Sayaka became! She was going to be able to catch them, to put Sayaka back together.
Kyoko opened her arms as she fell into the light, ready to embrace it, ready to grab anything that swam close enough. She wasn't going to miss her chance this time.
"I don't know how to be her. I just know how to be me."
Then Kyoko hit the ground with a loud clatter.
Disturbed by the impact, cans, boxes, and other refuse tumbled down all around her, some of it on her. Dazed, Kyoko tried to get her bearings, but everything was swimming around her. The silver light was still there though, but whether it was real or the result of a concussion she couldn't say.
Then a soft paw prodded her cheek.
Kyoko violently shook her head, clearing away the cobwebs. She was lying in an untidy heap in some kind of narrow back alley, surrounded by trash cans and loose garbage. Dark buildings rose up around her on three sides, their bodies dotted with row after row of dark windows and wrapped up by endless levels of stairwells and fire escapes, all seemingly too thin for anyone to stand on. The buildings stretched up high over her head, reaching far beyond her sight.
An alley-cat sat next to her. It meowed, and pressed its paw against her face again. Groaning, Kyoko shooed it away and sat up.
Directly in front of her was the alley, filled with trash and barely wide enough for two people to walk abreast. Now that Kyoko was getting up, the cat bounded off over the reeking piles, heading for the alley's entrance.
There stood a tall, slender man wearing a long hooded coat. He held out a burning lantern, the source of the light. The cat scampered up his coat and stretched across his shoulders.
Kyoko blinked. She knew that man. "Papa?"
The man turned and moved away from the alley. Oh, hell no!
"Papa, wait!" Kyoko immediately sprung up to give chase, but it was not easy going. For whatever reason, the piles of garbage were the smallest at the end of the alley, where she had fallen. The closer she got to the entrance the greater they seemed to get. She climbed over dumpsters and Hefty bags, vaulted over round Oscar the Grouch-styled cans, and practically swam through loose trash. "Please, stop! Wait for me!"
He did not, and the garbage was just getting higher. What was more, the alley walls were getting closer and closer together. Seriously, what kind of drugged-out architect designed this place?
Finally Kyoko reached the end of the alley. There, the walls were so close that she had to squeeze through sideways. Even as thin as she was it was a tight fit. Grunting, she shoved herself through and fell onto her hands and knees on the sidewalk.
Then the rain started to fall, big, fat drops that pounded into her back and head.
As Kyoko moved to stand up, a shadow fell over her, and the rain stopped hitting her. She looked up to see a girl standing over her, a girl wearing a thick winter jacket with the hood up, holding a transparent plastic umbrella patterned with fishes over her.
Though the hood covered most of her head and part of her face, Kyoko saw those big blue eyes.
"Sayaka!" she exclaimed as she bounded to her feet. She reached over to touch the other girl's face. "I found-"
The hood slipped down, revealing short pink hair tied to either side by ribbons. What was more, now that she had a closer look, the other girl's eyes weren't blue at all, but pink.
"Sorry," Madoka Kaname said. "Not her."
Kyoko's arm dropped in disappointment. "Oh."
"We did our best to save her, didn't we?" Madoka said. "But it didn't work."
Kyoko shook her head. "Not yet, anyway. But it's not too late. I'll find her. Her, and Papa."
"I hope so." Then Madoka stood up on her tiptoes to plant a kiss on Kyoko's cheek. "Good luck, Kyoko-chan!"
She ran off, leaving Kyoko alone.
Kyoko donned her hood and set off. The streets were also uncomfortably narrow, with the sidewalks half the size they should be and the street itself as wide as the sidewalk ought to be. Fortunately, now that Madoka had gone, they were empty, with no one but Kyoko to be seen.
Her, and her father.
He was at the far end of the street, still walking away from her, though now he had an umbrella open over his head to shield him from the rain, which was now coming down in a torrent. The silver light of his lantern still shone though.
Gritting her teeth, Kyoko took off running. He wasn't moving quickly, and with no more obstacles in her way she would catch up in no time.
Or…so she thought.
Soon her steps started to splash loudly. Then they sloshed. The next thing Kyoko knew, she was struggling through knee-deep water. The rain was coming down in buckets, pouring off the tops of the building in waterfalls to fill up the narrow streets below.
Naturally, the good Reverend Sakura was not in the slightest bit inconvenienced.
"Papa!" Kyoko called, but thunder clapped overhead, swallowing her voice. Not that anyone could hear her over the roar of the waterfalls. Now the water was up to her waist, and the weight of the water pouring down on her head and shoulders was bearing her down.
Kyoko hunkered down and tried to run, but then something caught her foot and she fell. She hit the water and went right under.
Panic rose up within her. Despite all that she had experienced, despite all that she could do she had never actually learned how to swim. She had always meant to, but things just kept coming up, and now it was too late. The water was rising far above her head. She lunged and kicked her legs, trying with every ounce of energy to reach the surface, but it was like her body was weighed down.
No.
She was going to fail.
No.
She was going to drown.
No.
She was going to die here, and nobody would know of it. Nobody would hear of it.
Nobody would care.
NO!
Then something swam past Kyoko's face, something that glowed bright in the darkness. For a brief moment Kyoko thought that it was her father's lantern, that he had come back for her!
She blinked her eyes and stared. No, it was one of the silver fish, the ones that Sayaka had dissolved into. What luck! She may have lost one of the people she was searching for, but in the process she had stumbled across another.
Kyoko grabbed at the fish, but it nimbly escaped her grasp. Then another swam by. Kyoko grabbed at that one too but missed again.
More glowing fish were surrounding her. It was the entire school. That made things so much easier! All Kyoko had to do was figure out how to make the fish turn back into Sayaka, and her promise would be fulfilled! Sayaka would be saved, and that meant…
…and that meant…
Suddenly Kyoko realized that she was starting to move forward, her body moving with the fish. For a moment she thought that she had suddenly gained the ability to swim, but then she realized that no, she hadn't. Instead, a current had started to build up.
Well, no better time than the present. Thinking back to the motions made by every swimmer she had ever watched from the safety of dry land, Kyoko kicked out with her legs and windmilled her arms around.
Whether it worked or the current just grew stronger, she couldn't tell. But she did start moving forward more quickly. Much more quickly, actually. More quickly than she was entirely comfortable with.
Oh, not good. This is not good. Someone's opened up a drain. It's sucking me in. Kyoko's body was starting to tumble. Gonna get sucked into the sewer like a goddamned Ninja Turtle.
As Kyoko futilely fought the current, the school of silver fish gathered beneath her, their scales flashing like light off of a silver sword. As Kyoko watched, a ghostly image formed in the school, that of a nude girl floating on her back, looking up at her.
It was Sayaka. Well, of course it was, the fish had come from her, after all. But even so, Kyoko was so close now, so close to finally getting her back!
Sayaka extended her hand, reaching up through the fish toward Kyoko's face. Kyoko felt her heartbeat quicken, felt her skin start to heat up. She extended her own hand in return.
Suddenly the fish darted away, and Sayaka disappeared. Kyoko began to panic. NO! No, no, no! She had been so close! Sayaka had been right there, right there in front of her.
The current grew even stronger, and Kyoko found herself spinning head over heels. She tried to kick her legs and windmill her arms, tried anything to regain any kind of control, but she was helpless in its grasp as it tumbled her along and along and along…
The next thing she knew, she was sprawled out on dry land. Coughing, she struggled to push herself up onto her haunches and opened her eyes.
She was kneeling at the entrance to another alley, this one wider and conspicuously clean of trash. The ground was slanted downward, leading to a concrete wall with a single wooden door. The water was draining away, disappearing into holes that she couldn't see.
However, the silver light was still there. Kyoko perked up. Was it the fish? Had she finally caught them?
No. No, it was Papa's lantern, hanging from a hook next to the door. As for Papa himself, he was nowhere to be seen.
A wave of sadness and guilt rose up within Kyoko, thickening her throat. She felt a sob try to force its way out and forced it back down. No. No, she was not going to cry. This was just a another setback. Her life had been nothing but setbacks so far, and she could endure this one. She would just keep moving on, just keep moving forward. Papa had to be near. Sayaka had to be near. Kyoko was just going to have to keep searching.
Then she realized that she was being watched.
The cat that had awakened her in the alley and left with Papa was there, sitting on the ramp and staring at her. Once it saw that it had her attention, it stood up and bounded up the wall to perched directly over the door.
Kyoko's heart leapt in her chest. Now that she had a good look at it, she could see that it wasn't a cat at all. Its tail was too thick, and its head was shaped all wrong, a weird oblong without a nose. Strange appendages that weren't quite arms and weren't quite antennae hung from either side of its head. And its eyes were round, beady, and glowed red in the shadows.
"Kyubey," Kyoko hissed as she rose.
The progenitor of her amazingly fucked-up life tilted his head.
"Where is he?" Kyoko demanded. She pointed at the lantern. "Where's Papa?"
"Your father?" Kyubey's disgustingly childlike voice spoke in her head. "Why are you looking for him? He's dead, after all. He took his own life, and that of the rest of your family. Come on, Kyoko. You of all people should know this."
Kyoko gritted her teeth. "Yeah. Yeah but…I'm dead too, aren't I?"
In what interactions they had had together, Kyubey had never so much as laughed. However, something about the way he looked at her conveyed amusement. "True, but you went to one place, and he…another."
Suddenly Kyoko's vision filled with red, and it had nothing to do with her rage. The city was burning, flames rising from all the buildings around her. The whole place had been set aflame, turning the maze of imposing structures into a hellish landscape.
Kyoko glanced around at the inferno all around her before returning her attention to the smug little prick. "You know," she said. "Sooner or later, once we're done with Reibey, someone's going to figure out how to get out of this place. And when we do, we're coming for your lying ass."
"I really doubt that. You people have had centuries upon centuries to figure out a way, and so far no one has." Then he stood up and turned to walk away. "The odds that you of all people succeeding where they had failed is astronomically low."
"Wait!" Kyoko called before he could leave. "Where's Sayaka? Where'd she go? She ended up in the same place as me, so I can find her at least, right?"
Kyubey was already walking out of sight, but she could still hear his voice. "You've been following the light this whole time, right? Why stop now?"
And then he was gone.
Kyoko looked to Papa's lantern, the light still shining even with the glow of the fire. Then she looked to the door. Through it, she could hear the sound of voices. Voices and music.
Then she sighed. "Oh, might as well. What other choice do I have?"
Leaving the burning city behind, Kyoko opened the door and stepped inside.
…
A small room was on the other side. The red wallpaper was fading, thick coats and old-fashioned hats hung from hooks on the wall, and another door was directly across from Kyoko, guarded by a literal punk.
Her hair was done up in multicolored dreadlocks, and there were so many piercings in her face, from hoops to studs to spikes, to qualify her headbutts as assault with a deadly weapon. She was wearing a midriff-showing denim jacket decorated with band patches, a black shirt with frowning yellow emoji face, a denim skirt, ripped fishnet leggings, and high black boots with large straps. She was obviously a bouncer, and looked utterly bored by her job.
"Hey," said the bouncer between chews of what was either gum or tobacco as she slouched against the wall by the door. "You lost?"
"What?" Kyoko said. "No. No, I'm looking for someone."
The bouncer blew a great big bubble, which cleared up the question of what she was chewing on, though whatever gum she had was of a sort that Kyoko had never seen before, as it seemed to glitter with every color at once. The bubble popped, and the bouncer resumed chewing again. "Name?"
"Sayaka Miki," Kyoko said. "She's, like, yea tall, with short blue hair, might have a fish tail, but-"
The bouncer rolled her eyes and flicked one of her multicolored dreadlocks out of her face. "No, idiot. I don't give a shit about your girlfriend. I mean your name."
Kyoko's eyes narrowed. "Rude," she said.
"Is it? Tough. No name, no admittance."
"Fine. Kyoko Sakura then."
The bouncer pulled a crumpled list out of the pocket of her studded jacket and looked it over. "Huh," she said. "Well, whaddya know? Here you is."
"Wait, for real?" Kyoko raised herself on her tiptoes in an effort to read the list. "Since when do I have a membership-"
The bouncer thrust the list back into her pocket. "Look, you want to go in or not?"
"Uh…sure."
"Fine." The bouncer rapped her hand against the door. A slot on the door slid open, and a pair of beady red eyes on a midnight-black face stared out. Upon seeing Kyoko, the panel slid back into place, and the door cracked open.
"Have a good time or whatev," the bouncer said, already settling back into her slouch and closing her eyes.
Kyoko went through the door, and inside was a club.
An old-fashioned jazz club, straight out of the American 20's. A series of round tables spread out from a half-moon stage, with a small dance floor directly in front of said stage and several round tables beyond that. A small orchestra was onstage, playing a dark piece that set Kyoko's teeth on edge, all of its members seemingly oblivious to the fact that they were all horribly injured, with their arms bandaged or in casts, while wrappings covered their foreheads, bound their jaws shut, or held their middles together. A few even had eye patches. A mahogany bar was set against one wall, and a the place was lit from chandeliers hanging from the low ceiling. A layer of smoke swam around the chandeliers, fed by dozens of cigars, cigarettes, and pipes.
In contrast with the empty city, the club was bustling. Men in smart suits and even smarter hats mingled with women in slinky black dresses. And there were others. Vekoo, jotts, vaskergoros, and other nonhumans were among the patrons, all of them as finely dressed as the humans. Even the cluster of dockengauts surrounding one table all had spiffy hats and bowties.
"Oh great, not you," groused a voice behind her. "They'll let anyone in, I swear."
Kyoko turned to find herself face-to-face with one of the waitresses, who, unlike the bouncer, was at least seeming to adhere to company dress codes, in that she was wearing a black beret in her violet hair, ropes of pearls, and a short silky dress that left her lack of legs incredibly obvious. However, the dour expression on her face was the same as always.
"Annabelle Lee? The hell are you doing here?"
"What does it look like?" Annabelle Lee snapped. "You only destroyed my entire life. Gotta make ends meet somehow."
"I…" Kyoko shook her head. She didn't have time for this. "Never mind. Look, I'm looking for Sayaka. She turned into a bunch of fish and swam away." Then her eyes narrowed with suspicion. "Wait, you didn't have anything to do with that, did you?"
"Like I'd have the time," Annabelle Lee lamented. "With the way this place keeps me-"
One of the dockengauts reared its "head" up and made a shrill whistling sound.
Annabelle Lee scowled with displeasure. "All right! All right! I'm coming! Swear to Christ, this place will be the death of me." Then she turned to Kyoko. "Look, your stupid girlfriend is over there, okay? Now piss off."
Kyoko turned in the direction Annabelle Lee was pointing, which so happened to be at the stage. Her heart suddenly leapt. A conductor was standing before the bandaged orchestra with her back to the rest of the club, waving a baton about. A conductor that so happened to be a girl roughly about Kyoko's height. She was wearing a smart black suit and had on a black derby. Also, her hair was short, shaggy, and blue.
It was Sayaka! The original, no less! With legs and everything!
"Wow. Never thought I'd say this, but thanks…" Kyoko glanced to her side. "Uh, Annabelle Lee?"
Her waitressing nemesis was already gone. Kyoko spied her over at the dockengauts' table, setting the large tray down. She lifted the lid, and though Kyoko couldn't make out what their order was, she was pretty sure it was tied-up and moving.
Shuddering, Kyoko quickly turned away before the dockengauts descended upon their meal. She did not want to inquire any further to what was going on at that table. Besides, she had a job to do.
She hurried across the club over to where Sayaka was still conducting the music. "Sayaka!" Kyoko called. "Hey, Sayaka! Where've you been?" She seized Sayaka by the shoulder and spun her around. "I've been looking everywhere for…uh…"
The gaping mouth and glassy eyes of a giant fish face gawked back at her.
Kyoko made a face. "I liked you better the other way. This is just freaky."
The fish-faced conductor turned its back to her again, ignoring the interruption completely. Just as well. That wasn't Sayaka. Even when she was part fish it was of the cute variety.
"You're going about this the wrong way," said a girl seated at a nearby table.
"And what would you know?" Kyoko snapped at her.
"A lot more than you do," the girl said, turning to her face toward Kyoko. To the redhead's shock, it was Elsa Maria, oversized coat and everything. It would seem that the club was extremely lax about enforcing its dress code.
"Elsa!" Kyoko blurted out, genuinely overjoyed to see her. "You're okay!"
"For now," Elsa Maria said as she stood. "But we need to move quickly. This next act is-"
Then the lights suddenly dimmed all over the club, save for a single spotlight over the stage. The injured musicians and their aquatic conductor were all gone, leaving nothing on stage save for a single metal pole. Despite this, everyone in the club started cheering and applauding.
"-very unchristian," Elsa Maria finished, her face twisting up in disgust.
"What?" Kyoko said in confusion. Then a very sleazy saxophone started playing, and Mami came onto the stage. She was wearing a rather revealing approximation of a tuxedo, one with a short, spangly black jacket with long coattails; a small top hat perched at an angle over her drilltails; a dress shirt that was only buttoned halfway up to reveal a considerable amount of cleavage; and nothing covering her legs save for sheer black tights. In one hand she was twirling a black cane.
"Mami?" Kyoko said, her brow raising. "She works here too?"
Elsa Maria sighed and covered her eyes with her hand. Spying her friend in the audience, Mami shot Kyoko a wink. Then she started dancing around the pole in a manner that Kyoko found equal parts bewildering and mesmerizing.
"Uh…" was all Kyoko could think to say.
Mami removed her jacket in one fluid motion and tossed it offstage. Then, hips swaying, she turned her back to the audience and started to unbutton her shirt.
Eyes still covered, Elsa Maria grabbed Kyoko by the hand. "We need to leave. Now."
"Now?" Mami's shirt was sliding down her shoulders. "Can we…wait?"
The shirt came off completely, and to Kyoko's surprise she saw that Mami was now wearing that cream blouse and black corset from her old Puella Magi uniform. Someone had sat a stool on the stage. Still flirting with the hooting and whistling audience, she sat down and started peeling off her tights.
A second pair of tights appeared beneath them, these brown with gold stripes. Her gold and black calf-length boots also appeared.
Now clad fully in her Puella Magi uniform, Mami leaned back against the pole, stretched her arms up over her head, and started gyrating her hips against it. Though she seemed to have forgotten the whole point of a striptease, it was still very…distracting.
But then something dripped down from above and splattered on her shoulder. Another drop landed on the stage next to her.
"Now," Elsa Maria hissed. She hastily moved away from the stage, practically dragging Kyoko away.
Something was now descending from above Mami's head, something large, black, and sinuous, with a long, thick wormlike body and a bulging head. Kyoko caught a glimpse of an almost comical clownlike white face and a cartoonish smile.
Then the smile opened, revealing two rows of sharp, triangular teeth, right over Mami's head. A hush fell over the club, the hoots and cheers from the audience ceasing immediately, leaving nothing but the music. The blonde danced on, oblivious to her predicament.
Elsa Maria opened a door at the far end of the club and hauled Kyoko through. She slammed it shut, but not before Kyoko heard a loud crunch.
"I'm sorry," Elsa Maria said. "But you didn't need to see that."
Shaken, Kyoko took stock of her new surroundings.
She was standing in an underground train station, with the track running past her through a long tunnel. Near her was a bench, facing the track. Seated on the bench was the punk girl that had working as the club's bouncer. She was lounging over nearly a fourth of the bench with her legs crossed, one arm thrown over the back of the bench and the other fiddling with her phone. If she noticed Kyoko and Elsa Maria than she gave no sign.
Kyoko knew the place immediately. It was the same station where Sayaka died. It was the same station where Oktavia von Seckendorff was born. The punk girl was seated exactly where she had been.
"Why did you bring me here?" Kyoko asked.
"The place where your journey really begins," Elsa Maria said. She pointed down the train track, to where it disappeared into the tunnel. "She's that way, in the grasp of a great monster. You must go to her." In the darkness beyond, Kyoko caught a brief glimpse of something shining and silver before it darted away.
Then Elsa Maria grabbed Kyoko's jacket and tore it off. Kyoko jerked back. "Hey!"
"I'm sorry, but it's necessary. You need to be properly clad for your journey." The dark-haired witch seized Kyoko's shirt and yanked it off. The redhead's boots were next, followed by her shorts, then her underwear. The, though it made no sense, she grabbed Kyoko's ponytail and pulled her hair off her head as easily as if it were just a wig.
Kyoko stood naked and shivering, hands inadequately covering herself. Elsa Maria neatly folded her clothes and set them aside, laying her hair on top of the pile.
"She's ready," Elsa Maria said to the punk girl.
"Uh huh," the punk girl said in a disinterested tone, not even bothering to look up.
Elsa cleared her throat. "I said, she's re-"
"Yeah, yeah, I heard you the first time. Chill." Sighing, the punk girl pocketed her phone and stood up. She made a show of slowly stretching out her arms and legs, and then reached into the breast pocket of her denim jacket.
From it she pulled a brilliant multicolored robe, as stunning as Joseph's. She handed it to Elsa Maria.
"Here you are," Elsa Marisa said. She helped Kyoko dress, setting the robe in place and tying the sash tightly around Kyoko's waist. Then she went over to the station wall and took down something that was hanging there.
It was Kyoko's spear, sharp and gleaming and ready for battle. She handed it to its rightful owner.
Kyoko hefted it in her palms, checking the weight. Perfectly balanced, as it should be. She gave it a practice spin nodded in satisfaction. "Am I ready to go?" she asked.
"Not yet," the punk girl said. She held up on last object.
It was Papa's lantern, the silver flame still burning. The punk girl opened the glass bulb, and Elsa Maria reached inside. She took the fire into her palm and removed it as easily as if it were completely cool to her touch.
Setting the lantern down, Elsa Maria blew on the flame. It rose up and changed color, turning from shimmering silver to bright crimson.
Elsa Maria nodded in approval. Then she slapped the flame right onto Kyoko's hairless head.
Though she felt no pain, the fire spread across her skin, covering the area where her hair had used to be, replacing it.
"There," Elsa Maria said. "Now you're ready to go." She motioned toward the train track. From deep within the tunnel, the frantic clopping of hooves could be heard. A horse was coming, and coming fast.
The horse came into view, coming to a stop right in front of the platform. It looked as if were woven together from yarn, but it was still as fast as a normal horse, and seemed to be just as strong.
"God go with you, Ophelia."
She helped Ophelia mount the horse and gave her the reins. Ophelia peered into the darkness of the tunnel. Though her gaze could not penetrate its shadows, she felt no fear. After all, the way to extinguish the darkness was to increase the light.
"Go!" Elsa Maria cried, and Ophelia kicked her horse into action. It galloped forward, hooves striking the metal bars of the track, its master leaning forward with her weapon at the ready, her light banishing the darkness. Somewhere in the dark the one she needed the most was waiting for her to come rescue her.
She had let her down before. Never again.
…
Birthday update! Been a while since I did one of these, hasn't it?
And guys, I have been waiting so long to do this storyline, you have no idea. I'm not going to explain anything just now, but I do promise it will make sense in time. Well, parts of it anyway.
Until next time, everyone!