Chapter 2-Rising of Shadows

09/16/05

"Declora, please!" Ana barely had time to stretch her fingers out in desperation as she tripped and fell backward into the chamber, the backs of her knees grazing roughly on the broken glasses on the edges. She watched helplessly as Declora's pale face shifted into a broken smile of pure sorrow, or at least, that's what she took from it. She tumbled back, bracing herself for either collision with the sphere or the bottom of the chamber, but she waited and waited with her eyes squeezed shut. The impact never came. She felt a slow pulling sensation just above her hairline, as if someone had grabbed her bangs and was pulling her through calm waters. She had a strange feeling that she wasn't where she thought she was anymore, the air smelled differently, though she wasn't at all sure how she knew what the air smelled like. She was dragged with her eyes sealed shut and her body frozen solid for what felt like days, what could have been minutes, and might have been years. However, near the end of her float through the abyss, the dragging sped up to the point of where whatever was pulling at her scalp felt like it may tear loose from her head. She screeched in pain as she felt herself being thrown, her body coming loose and…

"Aii!"

A wall. She came blurring through the east wall of an alley, however her transparency broke apart, making her solid enough to crack her head straight into the west wall. The impact knocked her unconscious for a moment, making her blind and dizzy when she woke up. It felt as if a large quantity of smoke had compacted inside her head and was now getting tossed around violently within. Taking her mind off the pain in her crown, forehead, and now a new case of nausea creeping around her stomach and chest, she slid down the wall, now realizing she had hit the wall and stayed standing. Her thoughts frayed for a moment, and materialized with Declora. She sucked in a gasp between her clenched teeth, thinking of how unlikely it was that Declora was even still alive. She had been horrendously outnumbered, at least 50 to 1, her hair was frazzled, her beloved dress in tatters, those creatures swarming around here, even as Ana looked on….

The guilt became too much to handle with her current low state and rolled to her side, feeling what little food she'd had to eat before school creeping dangerously up her throat, her vision blurring and her head pounding furiously, begging her to lay down. She felt her short-lived consciousness fading, but before she faded to black, one more thought crept into her mind.

"W-where…am I…" She croaked softly, unable to speak anymore and rolled onto her side, asleep before she even hit the ground.

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'Colors…they're all swimming together, how beautiful…But there's…someone here with me…but they aren't a color…'

"Why aren't you…a color?" Ana suddenly started speaking without thinking about a word she said and the colorless form before her began to chuckle at her senseless words. Her eyesight was terrible; she only knew she was in a room lying on a bed, the covers in a bunch under her left hand. All of this she could only tell by feeling the bed and covers beneath her and seeing the vague outlines of walls around her, the colorless figure just a blob of black wandering closer to her. She could only guess that she had suffered some sort of strange concussion when she hit her head that had somehow affected her vision dramatically. The blob now backed away and began to pace around the bed and Ana laid back onto her pillow, her head beginning to swim again. She swiveled her hand around her side until she grabbed hold of the cover and pulled it over her lower abdomen, the majority of it trapped under her. She let out a heavy sigh and saw the blob turn to face her, noticing her despair.

"You…can you…fix me? I can't see anything. I want to see…what you look like?" She began to feel like a blind old woman, begging to see the face of a beloved grandson, when she was asking this stranger to fix her eyes when she wasn't sure where she was, how she'd gotten here, and what this person had in mind to do with her here. Still, she couldn't help but feel too feeble to erect her normal hostile shield around herself, jumping straight to insults and violence the minute someone tried to get through to her. Declora was gone…she hadn't the slightest where she had ended up, though it surely didn't feel like home. Though it didn't seem logical or even possible, that matter in the case…

"It brought you here, yes." The blob was addressing her again, now closer as she felt the bed under her rise a bit, the blob taking a seat next to her. Whoever it was brought their hand up to rest it on her forehead, their warmth relaxing her senses a bit. However, it didn't feel quite as warm as her forehead did, telling her she'd somehow come down with a slight fever, perhaps attributing partially to her sight problem. Just as she started thinking about it, the hand on her forehead cool down to the point where she felt she had to be burning, but her eyes began to clear, the blob in front of her incorporating into a tight leather suit, pale skin, and shining silver hair. The hand on her forehead, long-fingered and covered in black leather as well. Somehow, he had indeed repaired her eyesight, though how Ana didn't know, and pondering how would only make her situation worse. Now seeing the stranger for what he was and not a blob, she ruled him to be rather handsome, a rare face that wasn't often seen around Pennsylvania. His hair hung longer, almost longer than hers, ending around his mid waist. His face was closer to hers now, studying her face and eyes, probing for who she was and where she had come from. His green met her brown and locked, his expression tensing in thought. Somehow, her mental space suddenly felt violated and Ana fought back the best she could, though it wasn't easy not knowing how exactly to fight back using only one's mind. She felt something break inside her mind and the stranger's eyes suddenly grew wide and broke the stare, his body suddenly falling back onto his side, grunting loudly in pain as he laid his head on the footboard, panting as if he'd run a marathon and just come in the door.

'Oh no, now what have I done…' Ana somehow felt guilty and rose painfully out of the bed and came to his side, watching his breathing slow and the painful grimace on his face soften. "What happened to you, are you gonna be okay?" Confusion now joined the swirls of thoughts and memories rattling indecently inside her head, begging for some explanation on what was happening now. She got to her knees so her face was rather close to his, though his eyes were still closed as he tried to re-gather his composure. Somehow the pieces came together as she remembered the strange feeling she had felt with her mind, connecting with the fact that he looked her straight in the eye until he fell back in pain. Things were just getting making less and less sense as time went on. "You were the intrusion. You were trying to read my mind and I threw you out, is that what happened?" He nodded weakly and rolled onto his back, his left hand at his side and the right rested on his chest, keeping a tab on his breathing apparently. He looked so pathetic compared to how handsome and strong he had looked only minutes ago. However, Ana wasn't going to help him until she squeezed some necessary information out of him, because she was quite sure that he knew plenty. Mimicking his behavior when Ana had been the weak one, she sat next to his, grabbing the blanket from behind and pulling it over him, thought not tucking in the sides so he wouldn't roast under the heavy wool.

"I want answers and I don't think you're in any position to say otherwise." He nodded again, a little stronger and now breathing through his nose, his mouth taut in anger at his current weakness and inability to resist her inquiries. Ana however looked quite satisfied with his cooperation. "First off, where am I? Not just this house, what is this town or is there even a town beyond here? And how did you find me? I seem to recall I woke up in an alleyway."

"This is…Nalar, city of memories lost." His voice was low and slightly squeaky, as if he'd just woken from a nap. "The alleyway you woke in was the space between this house and the one next door. I heard the crash of you hitting the wall and went outside to see and there you were. I don't know why I brought you in, you looked so pathetic. You threw up before you collapsed by the way." He looked toward the window on the opposite wall, refusing to look her in the eye. Ana found this kind of amusing, since he was avoiding her like he was ashamed of being so compassionate of bringing her into his house.

"Wait, is this even your house?"

"I don't know, it was empty so I took it. I don't…I don't like sleeping outside."

'Well yah sure don't like talking much either.' "Are you staying here alone then?"

"Who are you?" He suddenly turned and finally looked at her again, intent on getting the information he wanted. "I won't tell anything to a complete stranger, it's idiotic." His eyes narrowed at her hesitance as she now noticed his pupils were elongated, like that of a cat's. Normally that would have seemed excessively strange and maybe a bit frightening to her, but current situations had given her a bit of a new take on what exactly was strange. His eyes were probably the most normal thing she'd seen all day.

"My name is…I'll only tell me if you tell me yours." She now got on her knees, bouncing a bit to get there as if she was at a sleepover, about to reveal her deepest, darkest secret.

"Fine."

"A…Animosity."

"Yazoo, nice to meet you."

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Whoo-hoo, I got Yazoo in there! So proud! Now truth be told, this was going to be longer but the other two fics I read both got updated today and I felt like a total lazy-ass if I didn't update today too. O.o Weird huh? But hey, I got it sorta accomplished…I think I'll make this a part 1 so I can introduce the reason for the title of the chapter in the next one. Now explanations, Nalar is the town I created for "My lovely Nue Ehr" which is the last fic I wrote before this, so that's just a tiny reference. Funny thing though, Yazoo was originally going to be Zexion (I love bringing dead people back ;D) but I watched Advent Children this weekend and I just HAD to put him in there cause he had no major role. Great movie by the way. When it comes out in America, everyone should buy it cause it rocks, or you could…well you should know the rest. Another thing! I looked up the stats for the first two chapters and I got 30 hits and 1 REVIEW! This is sad, people! I need to know how I'm writing or I'll never get any better! sob Please review…push the button, for every time you don't push the button…uh…I dunno, something wittingly bad happens, mwahaha! ;D All right, till next chapter!