Fortune 14-Three Sides

The young woman opened her eyes; it was so dark…covered in a blackness so completely that she could not see. She spun through the dark, bottomless void hugging her knees to her chest as tightly as she could as if hoping, by some miracle, she could collapse into herself and just disappear into the black void. Star shivered slightly. No, now was not the time or the place to be thinking such things, no matter what she said she wanted to live, not only for herself but for those whose lives were cut short on her account.

Just as she suddenly regained the desire to live, a brilliant white light shone in the distance, blinding her after such complete darkness. The teenager shut her eyes in an attempt to block out its radiance and held out her hands as she stretched her legs out beneath her. She hoped that she would be able to catch her balance in this upside-down rabbit hole, her own personal Wonderland, convenient. Star stopped spinning and tentatively opened her eyes, the light was still so far away, but it didn't seem nearly as blinding as before.

The girl made her way toward the source of the strange light, her footsteps echoing eerily; the sound resonated from everywhere around her and yet…and yet it felt as if it wasn't coming from anywhere at all. Eventually Star caught sight of the source of the light, a woman with flowing blonde hair and white angel's wings enveloping her. She was glowing, as were the fallen feathers scattered around her. Star took a few steps closer and noticed that the woman's eyes were closed, she was asleep.

"Hello?" Star asked, shuddering at the unnerving echo of her voice. Now, she was standing in front of the woman and saw her eyelids flutter open over her brilliantly colored eyes. "Where are we?"

For a moment the woman looked surprised for a reason that Star couldn't even begin to fathom, or want to. "We are here," her voice was lovely, familiar…like Star's own, but older, more mature and it, too, echoed eerily in the darkness.

"Where is here?"

"The lost world, we are inside of you."

"Lost world? Inside of me? Is this some kind of sick joke?"

The woman did not move at all and her wings covered most of her face so that Star could not see past her entrancing gaze. "There is no joke. This place, this world is my prison as well as hers, and now it is yours."

The teenager wanted to collapse, to fall down and cry on those delicate shoulders. What was going on? She didn't think like that, she had forced herself not to do so a long time ago. "Don't mind me if none of this makes any fucking sense!" she yelled instead. "If you won't tell me where we are, at least tell me who the hell you are," she demanded.

"I have told you the name of the place in which we are confined," the woman said, ignoring Star's choice of words, "and I…I am the angel."

"Give me a straight answer, damn it!"

"I already have, countless times. I am the angel…I am you…I am your future. This is the world in which we wait, she and I, while you are awake. We wait until you fall asleep so that we may escape this darkness…we are in the lost world, we are inside of you," the woman repeated.

Star shook her head and ran her fingers through her hair. "I'll just pretend that made sense," she said, "will you tell me how to get out of this place?"

"You wait…wait until she goes back to sleep…That is the curse which we are forced to bear."

"Is this how you live your life?" The teenager's voice took on a kinder note despite herself. "How can you stand just waiting?"

"This is my reality…to wait for you…to wait for her…. Now it is your turn to wait as well."

"Just how long have you been waiting?"

"For an eternity…for centuries…for decades…for years…for months…for days…for hours…for minutes…for seconds…I have been waiting since before I was born, and yet I have never been waiting at all. The concept of time is lost for us, for me who has yet to be born and for she who has already died. She was waiting for you long ago, but you denied her and so now we both wait. It is finally her turn to see the light."

"Wait…" Blai said meekly as the woman started walking away, then again, louder this time, "Wait!" The girl, Sayako, turned around, her face unreadable. "What have you done with Star?"

"How cliché…" she laughed, that cold sound that not only sent chills down the prince's spine, but now seemed to freeze it entirely. "Don't worry, the girl is still here," she patted her heart, "it is my turn to be out, my turn to be in control."

"Give her back! That body doesn't belong to you!"

Sayako laughed again, she glared at the boy with those hard, blue eyes when her laughter had died. "Simple-minded fool…if this body wasn't mine, how would I be using it? I have every right to it. Besides," she said, turning around once more to walk away, "she can come out whenever she wants, whenever she feels like living again."

"This isn't fair," Star said quietly, her fists clenched at her sides, "This isn't fair!" she said again, louder this time.

"Such is the nature of our curse," the angel said solemnly.

"I'm not going to wait, that just isn't the way I work. How can you stand to just sit around waiting? I could never wait for someone else. I have to get out of here…will you come with me? That way you won't have to wait any more, you can experience life yourself. It's a lot more fun when you're living it yourself and not just waiting for someone else to tell you how to live it." What was she saying? What sort of garbage was coming out of her mouth? Star couldn't believe she was even capable of saying such stupid, sentiment, optimistic words.

"Only one of us may be awake at a time," so that was why she had been so surprised when she woke up. The woman stood up and her wings folded behind her back so that Star could now see her every expression; the angel wore a radiant smile on her face. "It seems as if it is almost your turn again."

What was the woman talking about? Star had no idea how she was going to get out; did the angel somehow think that Star was capable of doing the impossible? Of leaving the void that was her own mind, as she was told it was. "Let me out of here!" she screamed in her own frustration, unable to come up with any other escape routes.

Sayako dropped to her knees, her hands covering her ears and Blai was reminded of a little child who was trying desperately to block out a sound. But there was no sound, at least none that the boy could hear. "No! It's still my turn!" the girl yelled as her hands moved from her ears and she hugged herself as if trying to keep herself from flying apart.

Star heard her own voice answer back, "No! It's still my turn!" it said. It was so strange, to hear her own voice as if it was coming from someone else. What was going on?

"Let me out!" the teenager tried again. She felt something gentle touch her shoulder and turned her head to see the angel standing by her side, facing upwards with her pure white wings outstretched from her back.

"Let her out, my friend," the angel said, still facing upwards so that her short blonde hair fell gently on her face and shoulders.

"Sani? You're awake? You can't be awake!"

Star looked puzzled. Sani? She was about so say something when the angel finally turned her gaze upon the teenager once more and placed a hand over her lips. 'Be quiet' she said without using any words. "It is your turn to go back to sleep, Sayako." Star gasped…Sayako…her old name, the name she tried so hard to forget, the name that carried the full weight of Star's regret and suffering…the name that reminded her of the murders of those she loved.

"No!"

"Stop acting like such a child. Come now, my friend, we are bound by the curse, you must return to your sleep."

"Just you wait until I get back in there, Sani, you will regret bringing me back."

Star looked worriedly at the angel, but the woman merely smiled as she took her hand off of the teenager's shoulders. "At least it will be more interesting than waiting," she said. The moment the angel's hand left her shoulder, Star felt herself being lifted by some unknown force and she was blinded by a white light, just like the one that had lead her to the angel in the first place.

"Star? Is that you?" Blai asked, he sounded fuzzy, far away. Muddled, why? Star opened her eyes, she was lying with her face in the dirt, no wonder the boy had sounded that way.

The girl slowly got into a sitting position and her companion's face came into focus. "Of course it's me." There was no 'of course' about it.

The boy hugged her, blinking back tears; he would not let her see him cry, "I'm so glad you're back…I was scared," he mentally smacked himself, why did he say that?

Star stiffened under the unexpected embrace and patted him awkwardly on the back. She wasn't used to such things after such a long time of trying so hard to distance herself from the rest of the world, but it felt strangely nice. "It's alright," she said before she punched him and pushed the boy off of her, "don't ever do that again."