The only thing I could remember was falling to the ground, but someone or something caught me before I hit it.
When my eyes opened, I found myself lying in a dimly light space. There were no walls, only a checkered floor was what I could make out, everything else was covered by a black shadow.
In the shadows I could hear faint, soft laughter that sounded familiar to me. As I got up off the floor, I made my way to the noise, wondering what it was and why it seems familiar. The closer I got, the louder it became and the reason that the laughter seemed nostalgic became more clear. Out of nowhere, a light shined over a little girl in a white winter dress with long black hair. Her back was facing me, but I know who it was.
"I'm glad you could make it," there was a slight pause in her words, "Mia," she said happily as she turned to face me, reviling her mismatched eyes.
"No! It can't be! You can't be!" I yelled at her in disbelief of what I am seeing. The girl that was standing in front of me was me when I was five.
¨Now Mia, is that how you always talk to yourself?¨ she laughed as she started to walk toward me, "Of all people you should know that you can't run from your past," she continued talking as she came closer.
"W-where am I and why are you here?" I stuttered as fear overcame me.
Her smile twisted into something that wasn't human and her shadow started to swallow her, "You don't need to know where you are now, because I came to bring you back to where you belong," she answered as she started to turn into black chains.
The chains shot towards me at amazing speed, but I was somehow able to dodge them. As I staggered to my feet the chains surrounded my leaving no room for me to run.
"Do you really think that I'm going to let you get away so easily?" a voice resonated from the chains that wasn't the same as the girl from before, but instead a mans voice.
Being unable to run the black chains shot at me once again, wrapping around my arms and legs. As the chains tightened it felt like my very life was leaving my body, "What are you doing to me?" I asked.
"I already told you, I'm bringing you back to where you belong," The voice answered as the floor under me started to vanish and replaced with a dark swirling void, a path. As the path grow the chains started to pull me into it.
"No! I don't want to go back! Please don't send me back!" I pleaded to the voice, but got no response.
I slowly started to be consumed by the void and unable to free myself from the chains, I closed my eyes and waited to be devoured by the path and be returned to the Abyss once more.
"No!" I yelled, jolting up with my hand out, covered in cold sweat and my heart racing.
It took me a few moments to realize that it was all just a terrible nightmare. I took a deep breath and calmed myself down, eventually, making my heart slow.
I looked down at my hands and realized that they were wrapped in bandages and my blue dress was replaced with a pink nightgown.
Looking around the room I was in, I noticed that I was in a bedroom and not the room everyone was in before I lost consciousness. The room was big and spacious with white walls. On the far side of the room was the bed that I was siting in, on the left wall was a large dresser most likely holding clothes while on the right side wall a desk with paper, ink and pens, in the middle was a table and some chairs.
Something on the table caught my attention. Curious, I made my way out of bed and towards the table, but before I lifted the white covers I heard a rustling sound from under the bed.
The sound made me tense as the nightmare I just awoke from replayed in my mind. Scared and unsure of what made the sound, I slowly lean my head over the side of the bed to see what could have made the sound.
When I looked, there was nothing there. I let out a sigh of relief as my fear subsided, but once more I heard a noise. As fear once again started to build up, I stared at the floor waiting for what was there to come out.
After what felt like hours, something made its way out from under the bed. Scared, I lifted the covers up to my face almost on the verge of tears, watching.
When the creature revealed its self I could see it had a big smile, white hair, and a red eye. Looking at its face for a minute, I realized who it was. As I felt my face grow hot as it turns red with embarrassment, I grabbed one of the pillows and throw it at the mans face yelling, "Break!"
Before the pillow hit him, he rolled on his side out from under the bed and quickly got to his feet. He started to make his back to the bed and I grabbed another pillow ready to chuck at his face at any moment he tried to scare me again.
"Mia-chan, there's no need to be violent. I just came to check on you," he said with his carefree tone and smile as he grabbed the object from the table and sat on the side of the bed.
"Then next time can you use the door! You just scared me half to death!" I continued to yell at Break, staring into his eyes as tears started to form in mine.
Before Break could see me cry, I took a deep breath and hugged the pillow I was holding. When I calmed myself, I looked up at Break and asked, "What's that in your hand?"
"This,' he said as he handed it to me. I saw that it was a book with a brown cover, then he continued, "Is a book that has all the information that we have about the Abyss and Chains. As you can tell it's a decent amount," he finished, tapping on the cover.
It would seem so by the size of the book," I stated as I turned the book around in my hands after placing the pillow back down, then asked, "Just a moment ago you mentioned we. What do you mean by we?"
"Me and the others are part of a secret organization called Pandora, which was put together by the Four Dukedoms Vessalius, Rainsworth, Barma, and Nightray. We take on cases related to the Abyss and stop illegal contractors from causing mayhem in villages, towns and cities. Because we deal with the Abyss, we've become quite knowledgeable about it," he explained.
"What are illegal contractors and why are you telling me this if it's a secret?" I asked becoming interested in the conversation.
Break smile grew as he saw how interested i have become, "Illegal contractors are people that have formed contracts with Chains, not using the system Pandora has created. Illegal contractors can be spotted by the symbol that appears in their chest referred to as a seal. The seal that they have works like a clock, when the dials hand completes a full rotation the contractor and their Chain are sent to the lowest level of the Abyss where they stay till they die. We do this because the Chains, creatures born in the Abyss over time or if a human stays too long near the core, want to infest our world and they will make their contractor kill so they can because strong enough, to what we believe is so they can live without a host. They trick people into contracts by saying...," I interrupted, knowing all too well.
" 'I can make your wish to change the past come true,' " I finished, looking at Break to see his smile disappear and replaced with a frown for a brief moment before turning back.
"Yes, from what we found out about the illegal contractors is that they all had a strong wish to change the past, but we don't know all the details as to why. They come into contact with these people by using a 'path' which is a distortion between the Abyss and our world. Any Chain can open them if the opening is weak and they have the enough power to open open them. As you already know there are paths everywhere in the Abyss, but some ever open. Some people with certain Chains can open paths from this world to the Abyss," Break paused to make sure I understood what he was saying so far before continuing, "As for the reason why I'm telling you is because you've spent so long in the Abyss you'll have more knowledge about it than us so you can answer some of the questions as well as hoping you will join Pandora to help achieve our goal," he finished, looking at me to see what I had to say.
I let out a sigh before speaking, "I'll try and answer your questions the best I can and I'll join your organization, but I'm going to ask you something in return." I said waiting for a response.
"And what would that be?" Break asked, now interested himself.
"Will you help me find the reason why I was sent to the Abyss?" I asked, pulling my knees up to my face and resting it on them.
Break stayed quiet for a while, thinking of what to say before speaking, "I will help you find an answer, but you have to help me find my answers," he finally said