AN: Hey, everyone. This is a story that I've been stewing over for quite a while now, I think for the past year. I intended to publish it sooner, but for one reason or another, I lost the motivation. And yes, I know that i have a ton of unfinished stories, as well as another rewrite that I'm currently working on. But you know what? I came to a conclusion about that stuff.

I don't care.

I like having all these stories to work on. Sure, some of them are labeled with the "abandoned" tag right now, which might make people question my commitment. But overall, working on multiple stories is just…well, fun. And really, that's all that this site is about.

Okay, that might not be the best justification. So TL;DR, I'm starting a new story. Deal with it. Haters, hate away.

Lol I joke. I hope you guys enjoy this; it's going to be WILDLY different from the original. Hopefully, in a good way ;)

Chapter 1 Fractured

Pain. That was the first sensation I was a aware of. It rested in my heart, gripping it with a tightness that put pressure on every corner of the organ. The blood pumped by my anguished heart was just as tainted, and it put my body and mind through hell. All thoughts that flowed through my mind were like sharp, pointy knives, stabbing the deepest recesses of my being. All other emotions were blunted, or even just entirely canceled out when juxtaposed against my pain.

I shook my head and stood up. As I did, opening my eyes for what felt like the first time (and yet, the billionth as well), my mind reeled at what I saw. The familiarity I had with my surroundings was pretty much nonexistent. It was…sandy, first off. Sand blew over the area, causing the grains to get lodged in my skin. The sun blazed overhead, making my environment feel like an oven. Looking around, I saw very little sign of life. That is until I turned my head northward. I could just barely see the outlines of buildings in the distance. Of course, I could just be seeing a mirage. Knowing my luck, that's probably what it was.

Regardless, I still stepped towards the potential mirage. Sure, if it was fake, it represented a misplaced hope, one that would taunt me until I just dropped dead in the middle of nowhere. What a way to go out. A fitting way to go out for me, with no one around to witness and no one present to express concern. A story as old as time. While I could remember very little wandering in this wilderness, I was at least armed with the knowledge that my existence was one that nobody cared about. Armed with that knowledge, everything about why I was here was directionless.

I pondered this as I moved toward the potential mirage. Yes, I am a being that has flown under the radar. I am a prominent character, one that impacts the very livelihood of…someone. But aside from that one very specific person, I go completely ignored. I am hidden in the shadows, away from the light where people could potentially see me and judge…someone. That someone's emotions matter more than anything else to me in the entire world. Therefore, if they say that I should be ignored then I am ignored.

I blinked. Honestly…all of this is confusing, on some level. The state I just pondered…it was very unorthodox. Sure, it was familiar, a state of being that I was well acquainted with and knew all too well. But, at the same time, it didn't match up with my current state and therefore felt foreign to me. I feel…I feel like I used to be a part of something. A smaller piece to a bigger whole. I…I can vaguely feel other sensations, other emotions that I used to be all too familiar with. I can almost point to them, almost say for certain what exactly they were. The same can be said for some voices in my memory, some faces and people that I know all too well, yet at the same time not at all.

It's confusing. Everything that I'm aware of is confusing. I feel like this existence, the very life that I am now currently living…everything about it is backwards. I was born recently, and yet years ago. I don't even know if I have a proper name. I…I feel more like a state of being than an actual person.

What am I? Is there any answer, cause all of this confusion and questioning and paradoxical components of ME…it feels wrong. This feels wrong, I am wrong, EVERYTHING is wrong. I'm not supposed to be here. I'm supposed to be….

I don't know where.

I sighed, only now realizing that I am still walking. I have a goal; the possibly unreachable and imaginary town. The possibility that I could be walking to the corner of nowhere and no place makes me unimaginably sad. But there is a sliver of hope that I have telling me that I should keep going forward, that the place I am seeing does in fact exist. This hope, present despite every piece of me saying that I shouldn't feel it, drives me forward. I'm gonna get to this town. I'm going to get there.

So, I continue. Walking on the sand is like walking across a ground that is made of the concentrated extract of hell's flames. The sun beating down on me doesn't help. I start sweating, which again ignites a round of confusion in me. I ignore it though, because I want to focus on reaching my goal. I grit my teeth, tasting the salty sweat on my lips as I made my way forward.

I finally get close enough. I blink, pinching myself to make sure I'm completely awake, that I'm actually seeing what I'm seeing. The pinch, as painful as it is, makes me realize that I'm not seeing things. The town is real. I wasn't marching toward nowhere; I in fact have come across a real place in the middle of the scorching desert. My mouth curves upward ever so slightly. I recognize the action as a smile. A bit odd for me, as I'm not used to smiling. Heck, I might not have ever smiled before, considering that I'm halfway convinced that I wasn't even a person until now. But still. If nothing else, I'm happy that the town is real.

I make my way into the town. The buildings, the shells that have comfort and protection on the inside, are painted with astonishingly bright colors. The most prominent is a pinkish, coral hue. Accents consist of aquamarines, royal purple, and icy blues. They form floral patterns, giving the walls a lot more character than they deserved. Admittedly, it looks nice. It's…it has a sort of calming effect on me. It's very faint, but I can detect a hint of…relief in me. That's the only way I can describe it; it's a relief from all the inexplicably heavy pain that I am currently experiencing.

Yes. The pain is still there, sharp in all the wrong ways. I feel like I'm drowning in it. Thoughts fill my mind, suggestions for ways to escape existence and relieve the world of the burden of me walking on its surface. It's so…I want to act on it. I want to get rid of the pain. I want to be free of this burden, as well as the burden of how wrong my existence feels. There's just too much about me that hurts, that doesn't make sense. I'm a question mark when I should be a period. I'm a present without any clear vision of a future, or even a past really.

"Hello!"

I blink, turning my head ever so slightly to the right. I'm next to a stall window. A merchant is running it, someone short with what looks like a skull for a face. As disturbing as that detail probably should be, they emanate a warmth and friendliness that makes balances it all out. The fact that they are wearing as many colors as the buildings also helps.

"Welcome, traveler!" The skull-faced person tells me. "You look like someone who has wandered the desert for far too long! Can I perhaps interest you in one of my famous sorbets?"

I blink. Someone is talking to me and wants me to respond. I open my mouth, unsure if I even have the ability to say something back to them. I'm surprised when a sound comes out of my mouth, one that the influence of my tongue has fashioned into a word.

"Sure."

"Esplendido!" The person ducks behind the counter of their stall. I wait, unsure of what exactly they were doing. After a minute, they reemerge. In their hand is a cup of pink sorbet. It looks pretty cool, with a consistency that looks like it will be soothing to the tongue. A palate cleanser, I guess you could call it.

"This is on the house, mi amigo!" They hand me the sorbet. "Don't be a stranger; travelers are always welcome in Tostarena!"

I nod as I take a bite of the sorbet. The flavor…wow. It's sweet, with just a little bit of tartness that was probably a bi-product of the fruit used to make it. It…it takes me back, in a way. It makes me think of a very vaguely defined time, where all of the confusing aspects of my existence weren't concerns. It was like I was part of that whole I described earlier, an aspect of a more complete, well defined being.

Realizing this makes me question even more. I sigh, lowering the sorbet away from my mouth as I try to form the answers to all my questions.

"Who am I?" I ask aloud. I rack my brain, thinking so hard I feel like I'm getting a headache. Pictures come up as a result. Blobs of color, bouncing around while I'm stuck in a monochromatic state. I feel warm thinking about them. I realize instantly that these are people. People who I have known. Or, rather, the whole that I was a part of knew.

My world goes still as something occurs to me. "I'm a fragment. Aren't I?" I say it softly, not speaking to anyone in particular. Regardless, the question still makes sense to me. These people in my memory…they were acquainted with my whole. They knew not just me, but the other pieces that made up who I am. Or, rather, the person I was.

My head is spinning now. This is crazy. With this realization, I feel less like a question mark. Rather, I'm feeling more like a letter, a letter that makes up a word. I'm supposed to be part of someone. The only question was…who?

I ponder this some more before taking a few steps forward. So lost in thought, I almost collide with a wall of a building. I thankfully stop myself. A good thing too, as this wall holds a mirror. A mirror that displays to me my form, my body.

I gawk at the sight. I can't say I've ever seen myself before. However, I instantly recognize my characteristics. Black, scaly skin. Beady, wondering eyes. Three hairs protruding from my white head. A deep blue mark that resembles a star.

Wait, blue? That's not right; the mark shouldn't be blue. I think it's supposed to be…

I gasp. "Black. Black!" I study the deep blue mark. Perhaps…perhaps the person who I am a piece of has a black mark? Yes, yes! They do; they do have a black mark! So, the fact that I have a deep blue one…

Once again, my spirits fall and I slip back into my gloom. I don't know. I don't know anything. I know that I'm part of something. So logically, if I'm part of a whole, I must have gotten torn away from that whole. The only problem is I don't know what that whole was. And, by extension, I still don't know who I am.

Who am I?