And here is chapter twenty-one. Enjoy.
"Isn't she beautiful?" The woman asked, holding her baby in her arms as she talked to her husband.
The man was standing with his arms wrapped around his wife as he also looked at their baby. "Yes. Just like her mother." He answered, kissing his wife on the cheek.
"Who are these people?" Xanna said quietly to herself, watching the two from a distance. "And where are we? When did I get here?" She continued to talk to herself, looking around and observing the area; it was all black except for the one dimly lit area the two people were. "What's going on?"
"It was a great idea to come to the Alliance museum." The woman told her husband, carrying her baby to look at some sort of crystal thing.
'What's that thing?' Xanna thought, looking at the shiny crystal.
"Yeah, I thought so." The man answered his wife, playing with his baby. "I hope she grows up to be a rogue like her daddy." He said, smiling at the baby.
"Well, I hope she grows up to be a paladin." The woman said, starting to play with her baby as well.
"Either one is great. But ya can't blame a man for hopin'." The man said, kissing his wife's forehead; she smiled and kissed his cheek in return. Then they both kissed their baby when she started to coo for attention.
Xanna was still watching from where she was; she couldn't find a way out, so she just stood there and watched. She frowned at the sight because it made her feel lonely, and wish that she had a loving family like that.
Then the light the people were in went out; there was a scream, sound of breaking glass, and a crying baby. Xanna's eyes widened as she tried to see what was going on.
"Xanna!!!" The woman cried out; Xanna looked around to see who called her name, but she only saw darkness. "Who? Where? What? What the hell is going on?" She said, starting to get worried.
She continued to try and find something in the darkness, running but not knowing where she was going; and then she began to hear some sort of evil laughter to go with the screaming and crying.
Xanna was starting to shed a couple tears out of fear. "What's going on?! Where am I?! Ixxy, help!" She yelled, not receiving any answers; except for one she got from the crazy evil laughing guy.
"No matter where you run, you'll be mine, Xanna."
'What's that suppose to mean? Agh, where am I?! I wanna go home!' Xanna thought, continuing her running and hopeless search for an exit.
"Hey, Xanna! Whatcha doin'? We're over here!" She heard Akazil; she turned her head and saw him and the group.
"Akazil?… Ak-Akazil! Akazil!" She said, running toward the orc and the rest.
They all smiled and waved at her as she ran toward them; she was running toward them, but she wasn't moving. Instead, they were getting smaller.
"No! Wait! Guys, wait! Don't leave me in the dark!" She yelled, reaching out a hand for them; but they still grew smaller. And then they were gone. "No! Guys!" She cried, stopping her running. "Please, don't leave me here…" She whimpered, falling to her knees, then sitting on them as she held herself for comfort.
Xanna didn't know when, but the screaming, crying and laughing had stopped; it was replaced with complete silence.
The lonely elf girl looked around, trying to see if any exit had popped up yet, or any sign of life; but she only saw and heard the silent darkness.
"Please, someone take me home. I don't wanna be here anymore." She said, rocking herself back and forth.
Then she heard laughing children; she quickly looked up and saw the orphanage she grew up in.
A little girl was on the ground crying, covered in bruises and cuts; and she was surrounded by children that were pointing and laughing at her.
"Look at the stupid Halfling!" The main bully laughed.
"You'd think that a Halfling would be more useful than something like this." A little girl mocked.
"Please stop." The little girl cried.
"Make us stop, Halfling!" A boy yelled, throwing another rock at her.
Xanna watched as the horrible children continued to beat and mock the one little girl, starting to feel sick. 'Is this some sort of torture? Haunting me with memories of the orphanage?' She thought, staring at the sight of her past self being beaten and nearly burned.
"Get away from her, you meanies!" A boy yelled, running up to the group to try and shoo them off.
"What're you gonna do about it, fairy?" The main bully said, a fireball in his right hand. "You can't tell on us to our parents. We're all orphans." He smirked at his own sick joke.
"Yeah, and Liane is out buying food." The little girl said, smiling wickedly like her friends.
The little boy that had come to help Xanna just glared at them angrily. "Fine… Then I'll just do this." He said, quickly running up to the little fire mage and punching him, then kicking the other little boy and pulling the little girl's hair, then pushing her to the ground.
"Now leave her alone!" He yelled at them as they got up to run away. "You're gonna pay for that, Cosmo!" The little mage boy yelled as he ran off with his friends.
Cosmo gave the group one last glare, then turned to Xanna to see if she was alright. "Are you alright?" He asked her, kneeling down to her.
The little Xanna sniffled, wiping her nose as she sat up and looked at Cosmo with tear filled eyes. "Please don't hurt me." She pleaded.
Cosmo smiled at her, sitting down on his knees. "I'm not gonna hurt you." He said, pulling the girl into a hug and kissing one of her burnt ears.
The little Xanna was shocked at what was going on; then started to cry from being overwhelmed with such happiness and joy.
The normal Xanna was still watching the memory as it began to fade away, still feeling a little sick at it. 'That's when I met Cosmo… He was the first person at the orphanage to not hurt me… My first friend…' She stared at the ground as she let tears fall down her face. 'He protected me for a whole year after that, then got adopted. And things went back to the way they were…'
"He left you there instead of passing up being adopted." The dark voice said.
Xanna shut her eyes tight, shaking her head, trying to ignore the voice.
"He left you there because he didn't care about you."
Xanna continued to shake her head. "That's not true, that's not true…" She told it, still holding herself on the ground.
"He left you there to die."
Xanna continued to shake her head, hoping that the silence would come back, or anything; anything was better than listening to those lies.
"Xan Xan, I'm getting adopted!" She heard Cosmo's voice from that day; she looked up and saw the memory of Cosmo telling her about the two wonderful people that were going to adopt him. It brought back the horrible feeling that rained down on her that day; the feeling of being betrayed.
"That's…great, Cosmo!" The little Xanna said, putting on a fake smile and fighting back the tears she wanted to cry. Xanna remembered what she was thinking at that moment.
"How could a guardian angel leave the person they're suppose to protect?" The dark voice said, making Xanna hide her face again. "I don't care about this. Cosmo is not a bad person. He cares about me. I'm glad he left. He had a chance to have a family!"
"A family that you should've been apart of."
Xanna gave an angry glare up to the darkness; she wasn't sure if it was there, but that's where she heard it coming from. She knew what the stupid voice was talking about, but it played the memory anyway.
"Oh, I just can't wait to meet our future daughter." The woman said as she smiled to her husband while they followed Cosmo to meet Xanna.
"Xan Xan! Come and meet your new parents!" Cosmo said gleefully to his friend.
Xanna had quickly come out from hiding under her bed and ran to Cosmo's side to meet the adults; only to receive shocked and angry looks.
"This is Xanna?…" The woman asked Cosmo, staring at the little girl with a shocked and fearful look.
Cosmo nodded and wrapped a friendly arm around his friend. "Yeah, this is her. She's my bestest friend ever. And she's really great. You should adopt her, too!" He smiled at the adults.
The woman kept staring at Xanna in shock, holding her husband's hand in fear; her husband just glared at the thing with pure hatred in his eyes.
"Let's just go home." The man said. "Yes. Come along, Cosmo. We need to get you away from here." The woman said, reaching out for Cosmo carefully.
Cosmo frowned at his foster parents. "You're not gonna adopt Xanna?" He said, a hurtful look on his face; similar to the one Xanna had.
The adults shook their heads, then grabbed both of Cosmo's hands and took him away.
Xanna was crying angry tears when the memory ended and faded away. "Stop it! Just stop it!" She yelled out to the darkness. "Why are you doing this?! Just leave me alone!"
"I can't."
"And why the hell not!" Xanna snarled; she didn't like this place or this voice and she just wanted to leave it and never come back.
"Because you're making me do it."
"I am not, you liar!"
The darkness didn't respond, making Xanna even more angry. 'What the hell does this thing want?!'
Xanna looked around to see if the stupid voice would play anymore memories or any other form of torture, inhaling and exhaling angrily, still letting tears fall down her cheeks. "Why don't you show yourself?!" She demanded, looking around to see if it would do it.
Then Xanna saw a mirror, a little confused at finding it. 'I ask for it to show itself and it shows me a mirror?' She thought, standing up to walk up to the mirror.
When she reached it, she saw how angry her face looked; she slowly wiped that look away, and her tears. She sighed and shook her head, looking at her left hand in the mirror; she didn't know why, but she always like to touch her reflection when she saw it, pretending that she was touching some sort of clone's hand or something.
She smiled and slowly reach her hand up to touch the reflection, gasping when they connected; it was real.
The reflection smirked, wrapping her fingers around Xanna's; she quickly pulled it away, jumped back and pulled out a dagger. "Who are you!" She yelled, pointing her dagger at the reflection-clone-thing; at that moment, she realized she didn't like her reflection anymore.
"I'm you." The reflection answered simply, in a dark feminine voice, continuing to smirk at Xanna as she walked closer to her; Xanna just backed away, keeping her dagger at hand. "No you're not. I'm me. So who are you?"
The reflection laughed. "So small minded."
"Am not…" Xanna mumbled. 'Just great. My reflection is like Ixxy…'
"Why do you never think about things, Xanna?" The reflection asked, starting to circle Xanna. "I think about things!…sometimes…"
"Just sometimes. Not all the time."
Xanna just glanced back and forth between random places in the darkness and her reflection. 'I'm being called out by myself… Geez, that's gotta say somethin'.'
"And why don't you ever think about the people you meet? About how bad they can be. About how they can hurt you. About how they can betray you…" The reflection continued to talk and circle, trying to play another mind game with Xanna.
"There's nothing wrong with my friends." Xanna said, glaring at her reflection as she circled. "Really? Cosmo's already betrayed you once."
"He did not!"
"Ixxy will leave you as soon as she escapes your mind and gets her own body."
"N-well…" Xanna said; not even realizing that her reflection said "as soon" instead of "if".
"Makaza and Mokoki are just perverts who only want to see you naked."
Xanna lowered her dagger slightly. "Well… Well, they're still nice!" She said, trying to defend her case of being friends with the two.
"Dethiam only wants to kill. Who's to say that she won't try to kill you in your sleep just out of pure boredom?"
"Well…" Xanna said, now completely lowering her dagger. "And with a paddleball. What kind of death is that for someone like you?"
"A humiliating one…" Xanna mumbled, rubbing her arm as she stared at the ground in sadness.
"And what of Akazil?"
Xanna lifted her head up quickly to look at her reflection, wanting to hear what she had to say about her other orc friend.
"Oh. I see…" The reflection smirked, then let out a little chuckle. "I should've known. He has stuck by your side with no strings attached so far."
"What's that suppose to mean?" Xanna asked, giving her reflection a look.
She just chuckled and circled Xanna some more. "You're so small minded, Xanna." She laughed, walking away. "But soon, you'll see that only he will bring you happiness." She said quietly before fading into the darkness; Xanna was barely able to catch it. 'And what's that suppose to mean?' She thought, looking in the direction her reflection walked off and faded into.
That's when a light shined in the distance; Xanna looked in the direction and began to walk toward it, finding out that it was the exit.
Xanna looked back at the dark place she was just in, seeing some of the memories she was forced to watch quickly appear and fade away; she just gave it a disapproving look and looked away from it. "Whatever this torture was…it's not going to make me bitter." She said quietly before walking through the door.
And that is the end of this chapter. A little dark-ish, but I like it. Hope you guys did, too. ^^
Note: Damn dark voice trying to make Cosmo look bad! *angry face*