Darkness.
Just darkness.
That's all she's ever seen.
Or not seen.
Just the deepest black imaginable.
So dark there seems to be no end.
A darkness that just continues to swallow everything within it not once retreating.
A darkness that crushes your very soul without even trying.
Oh how shes grown tired of the dark.
But she's read about the light, the light outside so bright it chases the shadows away. A light so bright is could burn away all the blackness surrounding her. The sun. She has heard stories about the world outside this darkness she lives in. No, this isn't living, it's just being. There is supposedly a world outside of the darkness she sits in. It's full of hardships and suffering. They told her the sun burned out a long time ago because of mans selfishness, that she is here for her own protection, that the world outside is nothing but more darkness, an even darker place than where she is now. She can't remember anything from before the dark, it's just always been dark. But sometimes when she closes her eyes to find herself in just more darkness there are flashes of a past life, a life long passed, who's life she doesn't know but its full of kind faces with warmth that she doesn't recognise; only later to be covered in deep crimson blood with lifeless and empty eyes. She feels like the dream should sadden her but she can't even bring herself to feel anything, not for them and not for herself. That's what darkness does, it makes you numb.
She doesn't even know what her own face looks like, her hair reaches her hips, her body thin and weak. She doesn't own anything for herself. Sure the room she lives in has many things but none of them feel like they belong to her. Books, a bed, pillows, toys she long grew out of. She feels like a blank slate, just a empty shell yet to wake up. Even her own name doesn't feel like it truly is her own when there is no one to say it. No. That's not entirely true. She isn't completely alone, if she were she wouldn't even know that others existed or about the world outside. She is a member of the eight kin of purgatory, that's where she lives. In purgatory. They are the only faces she has seen since this darkness.
All that she knows she has learnt from them or the books they bring her. That's how she found out about the sun that used to light up the sky. The colours it would make. She really wants to see those colours. It's impossible to imagine those colours having never seen them. She almost wishes she never knew a sun existed, that way she would never yearn for a light she never knew. She may be thankful for not being completely alone but she can't seem to bring herself to call them friends. They come every now and then, each person completely different. Ultear was probably the kindest to her always being patient when speaking to her. Meredy was the closet to being her friend because of their closeness in age but even then they never spent anymore time together than necessary. They were usually kind to her making her smile but when they left that smile would leave, it having never reached her eyes. She never understood why they could leave and she couldn't but whenever she asked they would brush it off or get mad at her.
Their leader, is a large and powerful man that comes often and trains her power, for what she doesn't really know but he often says she is powerful, very powerful. He has raised her from a child saying that she would help create something great. He said that one day she would help find the keys to unlock the new world. Her power practically overflows from her small form. She doesn't know why she is here or who is out there but she often finds herself wondering why they would give someone so small and insignificant such power, what would she ever use it for when there is nothing but darkness.
He wasn't particularly nice to nor was he mean. Sometimes he would lose his temper at her if she couldn't do something often scaring her but that rarely happened since she trained harder out of fear of upsetting him. But he just wants her to be stronger so she can protect herself right. She knew what a mother and father were but she didn't think he was hers, she just assumed that she was the only person who didn't have any. He didn't look at her the way a father is meant to. When he looks at her he is seeing her powers and not her. But living in this blackness she would take any companionship she could.
When she is alone which is a lot, she often thinks about the outside. She doesn't know the world but she does know she like to see it, more than anything she wants to know if its true, if there is just more darkness or if the sun really exists. Maybe it came back, maybe she could finally go outside. She is ripped from her thoughts when she hears the heavy metal doors open. Its not surprising but she never knows when its coming, there is no time here, no way to know how long has passed except by the sound of that door opening and her slowly ageing body. She used to count how many times the doors would open to try and keep track but she gave up after counting 3650.
There are two heavy doors separating her from the outside each closing before the other opens keeping the outside out and the inside in. When she was younger she was terrified of what was outside, they told her about the monsters that lived out there but as she grew she thought that maybe the monsters weren't that bad, maybe she could make friends with those monsters in the dark and maybe she could bring the sun back. She has no idea how she would do it but maybe, just maybe she could bring the light back, maybe that's what her power is for.
"How are you feeling Althea?" He asks in his deep rough voice as he steps in the room taking a seat on the side of her bed that she is currently lying on. There he is again. The leader she has grown to know, always close to her but never comforting.
"Fine" she reply's simply in a monotone voice. She rarely has any enthusiasm in her voice much like how she rarely has a smile.
"Are you ready for your traning?"
"yes" she says knowing that it is just better to get it over with now. They get up and he puts a heavy choker around her skinny neck, it isn't a new item to her but he explains anyway "You need to create enough power to keep the necklace from shocking you, if you stop using the magic energy you will also be shocked, understand?" he asks and she nod again before he powers it up with the button in his hand. It starts to shock her painfully for a few seconds before she summons my power.
she creates two balls of white energy from her hands, her power is the closest light she can ever get to, it shows her little things in the dark that she couldn't see before like colour, her hair is black like everything around her but my skin is pale. But she still wants to see the colours she read about, she wants to know what blue looks like, red and orange, pink and yellow. She keeps the energy in her hands shining for a long time before it starts to flicker and she feels the collar starting to shock her.
"come on Althea you are better than that, you are named after the goddess who's power you are wielding, you have more power than you know" he says edging her on as the pain continues.
The type of magic she uses is called Heavenly Body Magic. It is a powerful form of magic that allows her to generate and manipulate the energy of the heavens from her own body. She can create powerful light blasts or beams of high destructive power . This light is not the only substance she can use however. She is also capable of using the power of gravity as well as shrouding herself in Magic so that she can increase her speed to what is called light speed. It is a Magic in which she is able to manipulate and utilise light in various ways. It is said to be the power of the Goddess Althea which is where she got her name from. At first her power frightened her, it was so strong it would hurt to keep it from going out of control but she managed to get control but she is still discovering new ways of using her powers.
She takes a deep breath and closes her eyes before summoning more magical energy and it keeps coming until the collar around her neck shatters making her sigh in relief. "Well done Althea, you know i get no pleasure in seeing you hurt but it helps you to be able to use your power for longer" he says picking up the broken collar or as he likes to call it necklace.
Most of the training hurt in some way but she just tries to get it over with, 'no pain no gain' as he likes to say, she is surprised she can still feel pain anymore although she has become somewhat accustomed to it. "That's all for now, you should rest and i'll be going, i will see you tomorrow"
Althea's heart stops and her eyes widen when she hears the words he let slip but he hasn't seemed to noticed so she reply's simply "okay" before lying back in bed pretending to be asleep. Once he leaves the word replays in her head 'tomorrow'. Hes always been so careful to not say anything like that before but if he said tomorrow surely that means there are days out there which therefore means the sun must rise. It cant all be dark out there.
After all these years in this black hole she has always been to scared to try and leave, afraid of crushing her hope of the light outside, at least if i didn't know it gave her something to dream for but if she went outside and it truly was just darkness she would have nothing to look for, nothing to search for, nothing to live for. She has to know, she can't be in the dark anymore now that so much doubt is in her mind.
She decides that she must know, she must see if there is light out there or if she is forever cursed to live in darkness. She knows its a big risk but its one she has to take. She may never get the courage to do it again so she gets off the bed and head towards the first heavy metal door. 'But what if I die out there, what if i'm just alone or the monsters get me. What if they don't take me back if nothings out there or.. No, no more', she would rather die knowing than live always being afraid of the dark.
She closes her eyes and breaths deeply conjecturing up all the energy she could and throws her arms out in front of her letting the door breaking the lock and pushing it open. She feels so tired after the training and just breaking the first door but she has to keep going. She reaches the second door and again close her eyes and brings forth all the magic she can manage, she pushes the light towards the door. She hears the door bending and crushing in on itself as she propels her light beam towards it. When she finally thinks it's enough she opens her eyes to see the door barely on its hinges.
She walks slowly towards it not bothering to grab anything from the room, not even her shoes as she places her shaking hand upon the door. She slowly opens the door ready to see if the light truly exists and take a step outside of the darkness.
what she see brings tears to her eyes.