The first thing I felt, pain. My muscles felt as if I had been laying without movement for hours. I instinctively grabbed onto my shoulder as a hot pain was coming from it. I flinched before soon relaxing as I recognized a warm hand on my back.
"Hey, you're finally awake." Soul said his voice unusually soft. I turned myself over on the hard floor I woke up on. Prying my eyes open I saw Soul was sitting next to me his eyes full of concern.
"Wh-where are we?" I asked, surprised at how hoarse my own voice was.
"I don't know. I'm not sure where we are or how long we've been here but I wasn't going to leave without you." He told me. He got up and held his hand out to me. I took it and he hoisted me to my feet. I couldn't help but give an involuntary gasp though as fresh pain bursted from my shoulder.
"Are you alright?" He asked quickly putting a hand on my arm as if to steady me.
"Yeah, I'm fine, it's just my shoulder is bugging me a bit." I told him, he looked at me skeptically, "I'm really okay, our priority is figuring out where we are."
"Alright" He accepted it and turned his attention back onto our surroundings. I finally looked around at where we were. The room was poorly lit with only a dim light hanging from the ceiling. The floor boards looked uneven and there was even some holes here and there. The air was stuffy and the room was strewn with small desks and chairs many of them being toppled over and some even being broken. I took a step closer to the wall which was lined with windows but they all proved to be too cloudy with a buildup of mold and dust to tell what was beyond them. However I could tell it was dark beyond these walls. I grabbed onto the seemingly old wood that made up the frame of the window. I pulled up with all my might trying to open the window but it didn't even budge.
"Here I got this" Soul told me transforming his arm into a curved scythe blade and he braced his feet before taking a swing at the fragile looking glass. The blade bounced off with ease much to our surprise.
"Ow, fuck" Soul exclaimed transforming his arm back and holding it.
"Makaaa chop!" I yelled bringing my hand down on his head.
"Watch your mouth!" I scolded him. Despite the glare he threw at me I could tell the familiar gesture calmed both of our souls from the eerie environment we found ourselves in.
"Why don't you use your soul perception to scope out the area?" Soul asked bitterly. I slammed my hand into my face.
"Why didn't I think of that?!" I groaned, I'd been so caught up with our surroundings I didn't even use one of my greatest tools. I shut my eyes for a few seconds before reopening them but instead of seeing Soul and the classroom I briefly saw a map of Souls. I felt the familiarity of a few flashes of souls we knew but I was too quickly overwhelmed by the wavelengths of many large souls. All the souls emanated agony like no other I'd ever witnessed, and there was just so many. It felt like an endless torrent of souls were pouring into my skull. All pushing for more space threatening to make my head burst. But amidst this all there was one soul that most definitely couldn't be ignored. I couldn't do anything to stop this, this feeling of complete and utter helplessness, panic, and fear. It felt like I was suffocating but I couldn't even fight it. I couldn't turn it back off! It needs to stop! Make it stop! STOP!
"Maka! MAKA!" Pretty soon I could see Soul again. He was clutching my shoulders shaking me. Why did my lungs hurt so bad?! And what was that god awful sound?! Wait is that me? My screaming died down and tears welled in my eyes.
"Maka, what happened?!" Soul asked urgently his ruby eyes boring into mine, the normally 'cool' look in them replaced with fear. The pain in my head began to ebb away and I just looked up at him, hot tears rolling down my cheeks. During this I had apparently sunk to the floor and Soul kneeled before me. We both jumped as suddenly the door was flung open.
"Is everyone alright?!" Ox asked running into the room with Harvar in his hand in weapon form. We all stood, or in my and Soul's cases kneeled, in a stunned silence for a few seconds before Harvar transformed back.
"Why were you screaming?" Harvar asked, I thought I could detect a bit of bitterness in his tone.
"My soul perception. There's some very very strong souls in here." I cringed at the shakiness in my voice. I quickly wiped my tears not wanting to look weak in front of these two. Ox always gets defensive whenever I mention my soul perception, it's where he cannot beat me no matter how hard he studies.
"That's all?" Ox grunted, "Seeing a few souls is hardly a reason to cry"
"Why don't you worry about yourself?" Soul asked obviously annoyed with them getting back to his feet. I pulled myself back up onto my feet as well.
"Let's just drop it okay?" I asked them. I didn't want to even think about that anymore and did my best to block out my soul perception.
"Well, did you at least figure out where everyone else was?" Ox asked.
"No, I didn't" I admitted.
"Well then figure it out" Ox whined, "I need to find Kim!"
"No…" I said with a slightly hollow tone.
"Don't be stubborn" Harvar snapped.
"Don't push me to do something I already said no to!" I suddenly shouted at them. I was surprised at my own anger. I felt like it was consuming me for just a brief moment before I got under control again, although a bit of agitation still lingered. I couldn't read them because of Ox's glasses blocking his eyes and Harvar's permanently bored expression. I could feel Soul's eyes burning into me though. I marched past all of them and out the door, admitedly a bit embarrassed of the scene I've made. Soul followed behind me before a reluctant Ox and Harvar did the same.
"Let's just find the others" Soul said.
"Do you want to switch into your weapon form? With those souls around it's definitely not safe here" I asked Soul still feeling shaken by the sheer force of those souls but trying my best not to show it.
"No, I don't want to make you carry me, especially with your shoulder being hurt." He assured me. I decided not to question it as the four of us moved along.
"Have you two seen anyone else since we've gotten here?" Ox asked.
"No, I know I definitely felt their souls though. How about you, do you know where anyone else is?" I asked. After a long dramatic sigh Ox responded.
"No we've only come across you two." That little -no no I am not going to start fighting at a time like this, although the emphasis in his voice on the words "you two" was a little hard to ignore.
After a while of exploring the school it became apparent that the entire thing was run down. All the rooms and halls were dimly lit with an eerie glow and sometimes not lit at all. Some of the halls proved to be too risky to pass with huge gaping holes leading who knows where, and many doors were sealed shut not to mention every window wouldn't budge. Ox grabbed onto another door and surprisingly managed to open it.
"Ugh what is that smell?" Ox said disgustedly, I curiously sniffed the air. Which was a mistake. I recoiled as the stench was one I'd never bore witness to. Soul and Harvar reacted similarly
"Smells like when you forget to clean old meat out of the fridge" Soul grumbled.
"You could just as well clean the fridge too you know" I shot back with a 'hmpf'. Harvar lead the way into the poorly lit classroom and I instantly wanted to turn and leave, something about this room was just so… off. The tension was clear among the others too. My eyes adjusted quickly to the slightly dingier light of the classroom. The room was strewn with papers and toppled furniture but seemed oddly barren compared to the other rooms. I drifted off to the other side of the classroom to inspect a wall when I saw it.
"Soul!" I shouted, he knew what to do in an instant and ran over transforming along the way to land firmly in my hands. Ox and Harvar were soon at my shoulder peering over the desk along with me. What laid behind it sickened me and was undoubtedly the source of the stench. It was a mangled human.
"It must still be alive" I told them bracing myself.
"Is it kishin?" Soul asked.
"Why isn't it moving?!" Ox asked but the pile of blood soaked meat and bones didn't stir. Something was definitely wrong. I jumped back as a blue light flickered up next to it and took the shape of a human soul.
"Is that from the body?" Ox asked.
"It can't be the body should have dematerialized if it was" I told him sharply.
"Hello" A strange disembodied sounding voice said. I whipped my head around frantically bracing myself for an attack and holding Soul defensively.
"Who's there?" I called out.
"Turn around idiots. It's me." The voice sassily told us. I turned in the direction of the voice only to find that blue soul gently bobbing above the bloody heap.
"It's coming from the soul!" Soul hissed.
"How is it speaking?!" Ox exclaimed
"Do you even know where you are?" The soul questioned and when no one made a move to reply it continued on, "This is an alternate plane of existence from the one in which you usually reside. This plane it'self is fractured so time and space doesn't work quite right here. I assume you came here with others, no? If that's the case they likely are on different planes than you currently. There's little chance you'll ever see them again, and no chance of you ever leaving here."
"How do we find the others?!" Ox demanded quickly before I could say anything, although admittedly I was in a daze trying to take in what the soul just said.
"Just try to stay alive" The soul replied simply
"NO, there has to be something more we can do!" Ox persisted.
"You can't do anything. Don't you get that? All you can do is hope and maybe the planes will shift the right way so you can see some of them." The soul's tone grew bitter and it seemed as if the words it said were each a bullet that hit Ox in the chest.
"I don't believe you, I'm looking for Kim!" Ox shouted, he spun around to run out of the room. I could feel the panic radiating from his soul and I grabbed his shoulder to stop him.
"Ox wait-"
"Don't tell me what to do!" Ox pushed me away from him causing me to stumble back. Soul changed out of his weapon from and grabbed my arm to help steady me. I stepped forward about to run after him but I felt Soul tighten his grip and lightly pull me back.
"Let him go, you'll only fight with him even if you can catch him." He told me, "We should focus on figuring this out."
"You shouldn't have done that." The soul said in a flat serious tone. We both turned around to look at it, I shuddered a bit as my eyes glanced over the thing below it again. "You'll likely never see them again." I could feel Soul cringe at hearing that but he just ignored it anyways.
"What is that?" He motioned to the body below it.
"That's my body" The soul's voice almost held some confusion. This made the hair stand up on my neck.
"That's your what?" Soul asked looking dumbfounded.
"My body…" it repeated its patience seemed to be wearing thin, "I don't believe that you come from the universe in which most enter this existence in. I have never seen this phenomenon of human transformation and you don't seem to know what a corpse is."
"Th-that's a dead body?" Soul asked and I shuttered nausea rose in my stomach and I clamped my hand over my mouth.
"We need to leave" my voice came out as a barely a whisper, "Soul, let's find the others and let's leave, as soon as we can!"
"You stupid ignorant fools!" The soul suddenly swelled to a larger size and it wavered, it's voice was filled with venom, "How many times do I have to tell you? There's no leaving here! You will die here! And once you die you will stay here for the rest of eternity as a lost soul! The pain of your death will forever hold you here! The most you can do is hope you can stay alive until the planes shift to die in the arms of those who are damned like you!" It's soft blue tone started to show flickers of red and the entire room seemed to tremble.
I felt all the strength leave my limbs and I nearly just fell to the floor. How are we supposed to fight this? If the words it says are true then what's the hope, what should we do? It felt as if once again my soul was being tugged but I snapped out of it. The soul seemed to flicker more wildly before us and the room seemed to be full of malevolence. I grabbed Soul's hand and turned and ran. I could feel he wasn't taking this any better than me. He transformed into my grip and I ran out of the room with him knocking down the already rotten door.
"Hey Soul," I said over our connection, "It'll be alright. We're going to find the others, and we're going to find a way out of here." In that moment I think both of us felt strengthened as I thundered down the hallway. In that moment I was sure we'd make it out, that soul was wrong.
That was until weightlessness came over me as the result of a crunch. There was a few moments of confused panic before Soul was wrenched from my grasp. And before gravity took over me once again, except this time much harsher. I slammed down into the floor with a sickening smack and with such force my breath was knocked from me. I choked on air itself as I whipped my head up to see Soul skid away from me before finally transforming back. My foot had fallen into the floor and I was stuck. That's when the shaking started. I desperately tried to get up and reach back to Soul but I only fell again before even standing. My foot was stuck in the floorboards and each time I tried to wrench it free pain only shot through my leg.
"Soul!" I called to him as the shaking increased. This was an earthquake like the one that sent us here, who knows what would happen if we weren't together when this happens again?!
"Maka!" He called back getting up and making a desperate run for me. All I could do was look up helplessly and grab at the air in vain. The shaking became so violent I could barely see and it caused my leg to get jerked wildly making me scream out in agony. With tears in my eyes I looked up one last time to see the floor falling away and see Soul's white shock of hair fall down into the infinite blackness before I shared his fate.
There was a moment of free fall.
And then there was nothing.