Apathy and Uncertainty

Apathy and Uncertainty

***

Chapter 4

"Fata Morgana"

***

That was the worst nightmare she had ever had.

"It had to have been a dream…it wasn't real, Fae, just breathe…" Fae had a hand on her chest, her shirt soaked with a cold sweat.

"Antaremon never did that…he wasn't able…Christ, why the fuck am I dreaming such stupid, silly things?!" Fae threw her covers off of her bed and got up to get a drink of water.

"Stupid…getting scared by dreams…" She mumbled, filling up her glass with water. "It couldn't have possibly ever happened. Just a little kid thing."

"…but…it was so…vivid…" she took a drink of water. "…but it wasn't real. Not. Real. Not real at all, just the left-overs of a stupid, pointless, lonely childhood, just the end result of a crazy, imaginative kid. Not real in the fuckin' slightest. Not real. NOT REAL!!" she screamed and threw the glass against the wall. It shattered, water and glass shards spraying everywhere.

"What the hell is wrong with you?! I liked that glass!!" Fae turned around.

"Fuck you." She brushed past her frazzled mother and went back to her room to get some more sleep.

***

The rest of the night was blissfully uneventful.

Fae had managed to get at least a few hours of sleep before her alarm clock scared the hell out of her with it's sudden, piercing noise. She quickly got dressed in randomly grabbed garments from her closet, but instead of rushing to school like she did yesterday, she decided to sit back and maybe eat something.

If the teachers wanted her to be in school badly enough, they'd call the cops and have her dragged out of the apartment.

And it wasn't like her mother cared or anything.

Plopping down in her rarely used chair at the kitchen table, she quietly ate her breakfast as she contemplated what the dream could have possibly meant. She adamantly believed that her entire childhood and that nightmare last night were early signs of schizophrenia or something. Such things were not products of a healthy mind. There was no way in hell any of that could have possibly happened, and there was no way that little monster creatures possibly existed.

Especially not those that talk.

"All it was when I was a kid was just pretending to talk to a stuffed animal. Stuffed animals aren't supposed to talk back and…that would explain it. I was just a psycho, lonely kid. None of this happened, not a single fucking second of it…" She threw her spoon down into her bowl and glanced down at her reflection in the stainless steel below.

Ringed around her neck in the shape of very large, very bony fingers were bright purple bruises.

"Jesus H. Christ!!" She shouted, jumping up and nearly knocking the table over. She shook her head in disbelief and ran to the bathroom.

"It was just a discoloration of the spoon, that was it!! That crazy-ass nightmare meant NOTHING!! None of it happened!" Fae yelled as she ran to the bathroom to check in the mirror.

She looked at her reflection and rubbed her neck where she had seen the marks. There were none there now, as she could tell, and she was satisfied, but more than a little paranoid.

She walked back to the kitchen and looked at her reflection in the spoon again. It was as the bathroom mirror told it: there were no bruises.

"I am seriously going insane…" She muttered, throwing on her coat and walking out of her apartment door.

***

Even when she walked through the streets with so many people surrounding her, Fae always got the feeling that someone was watching her, and closely at that. She kept stealing glances behind her and all around, never satisfied that she was alone.

She didn't feel like going to school today; she was afraid she might crack in front of the entire school, and then she'd definitely be hoisted away by the men in white coats.

Going to the nuthouse was not the highest priority on Fae's 'To Do' list.

Instead, she wandered the town, searching for something to do and get her mind off of things. The arcade was definitely out. It wasn't even open until school was dismissed, seeing as how most of the paying customers are kids. Going home and sleeping was out, too. Although her mother didn't give a shit if Fae went to school or not (she was over 16, after all, and could legally drop out), she still didn't want Fae hanging around the house. "If you're not going to get some knowledge in that worthless head of yours, at least stay away so I don't have to see it," she always said.

While strolling the town wasn't her idea of 'fun', it was definitely better than being driven away by the 'milkmen.'

She hummed to herself as she walked endlessly, dipping in and out of alleyways as she went. She hated staying in alleys for long, though. She always felt vulnerable most there, away from people.

Little Fae…

Resisting the urge to run out of the alley she was currently in, she stopped dead in her tracks. "Wh—Who's there…?" She called out tentatively.

Don't you recognize me?

Fae whirled around, looking everywhere for the source of the voice. "Just tell me who the hell you are!!" She screamed after finding nothing.

I'm sad, Fae! You don't remember!!

"Remember what?!" Fae had her back pressed up against the back wall of the alley: the one thing that was keeping her from running like hell and going back to her own home, climbing into her own bed, and crawling under her own blankets and sobbing like a baby from fear.

Your promise, Little Fae!

In front of her eyes materialized a creature she did not recognize; it looked as if it could be a lion, it's powerful haunches and giant paws that, Fae estimated, could rip her apart in mere seconds. What made Fae doubt that it was a lion was the scorpion tail that accented it's powerful authority.

"Wh—what promise?" She asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

"That you'd be back," The creature growled, raising a paw into the air.

"Be back…?"

"You said you'd come back to me!! YOU NEVER DID!!" Fae covered her eyes as she cowered in the corner, waiting for the creature to strike and knock her head clean off.

The deathblow never came.

Finally uncovering her eyes, she looked at where the creature was standing. It was, as anyone could plainly see, not there.

"…What the flying fuck was that…?" She whimpered, getting up and brushing the gravel and dirt off of her clothes.

It had said something about 'coming back'…

"Notrealnotrealnotrealnotrealnotreal…That entire thing was not real. Just an illusion. Illusions play tricks on people. I'm gonna go to the doctor and see if I messed with something in my mind. Things like that should not have happened. I'm not sane now, and I'm convinced. Not real…" Fae ran back to her apartment, not even stopping to nurse the stitch in her side.

But where her apartment should be, there was, instead, a grove of trees.

In fact, none of the scenery seemed familiar to the confused girl.

"Did I make a wrong turn..?" Fae asked herself, jogging down to the end of the street and read the street signs. "Still the same…" She blinked in disbelief.

"This can't be happening at all…WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?!"

Come back to me, Little Fae…your chores aren't done yet…

"GET AWAY FROM ME!!"

You said you'd keep your promise to me, Little Fae…

"I DON'T CARE WHAT I SAID!! JUST GIVE ME MY LIFE BACK FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!!"

You said that you'd stay with me forever, Little Fae…we're partners…

"PARTNERS MY ASS!! YOU'RE STALKING ME!! WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU?!"

Partners stick together, little Fae…

"TELL ME WHAT YOU ARE!!!"

"You shouldn't have broken your promise."

That was the last thing Fae heard before blackness suddenly overwhelmed her.

***

Author's Notes: …Last chapter, I should give credit and stuff to Namco, 'cause they be's the ones that own Tekken4. Steve Fox may own me, but I don't own him.

Heihachi, however, does not own me, because he is an old and scary man.