Author's Notes:

I'd like to say, that I am grateful to be safe from the typhoon that passed by the Philippines a few days ago. I'd like to ask whoever is reading this to please pray and hope for the best for everyone who was hit by this destruction.

~.~.~.~.~.

I have lived and stayed at the same place for so many years.

This was my home.

Home had red skies with red orange liquid streaming way down below me. The towers of dark brown rocks stretched to the horizons. My spot in this place was at the top of one of those big mountain rocks.

Whenever I wake up, the scenery is always the same, nothing ever changes in my world, my home.

I had awoken from a long slumber and I was greeted with the same view when I had fallen asleep. Nothing ever changes here and I have come to enjoy this fact.

Red skies that stretched for miles and bright molten liquid streaming down below. Big giant towers of rocks erected around me and the temperature was as it always had been, hot- burning hot.

This didn't bother me though as this had always been home. I was simply used to it. The same thing could be said about the other residents here.

They were similar, no- they genuinely looked the same. White hair with black horns, yellow eyes, red skin and the same piece of clothing that oddly covered their legs.

They too didn't seem to mind the scorching heat.

And so, I returned to my slumber, because nothing ever changes in my home. I would simply wake every now and then to be greeted by the same environment I love: the red skies, the towers of rocks, the red liquid and the residents. And home was very warm.

And then one day, I felt something heavy lean against me, and so I was undoubtedly stirred awake. No one ever bothered me, and so I was confused as to why anyone would dare to now.

Something was gently splattering on me, later on, I would find out it was called tears.

Fully awake now, I realized that you were different from the other residents here.

You had black hair that stopped way past your chin, violet eyes and pale skin. So very different indeed from the residents here; where their skin was mostly left bare, yours was clad in more fabric than I have ever seen them wear.

You were greatly smaller than them in terms of structure- very different indeed.

You said it was scary here.

You said you hated it here.

You said: that after all you've done, you deserved to be in hell.

I did not get it- was hell bad?

But this was my home, and my heart ached when you said such things about it.

Was hell really that bad?

I understood that you hated this place so much. It felt like your voice was dripping with hatred.

I decided, I will return to sleep instead. I didn't want you to ruin my view of my beloved home. Perhaps when I wake up again, you who were greatly different from the constant that I have known, will leave too.

When I wake again you will be gone and I can just think of you as an odd dream. So very odd to dream about someone like you, since you were the first you I had ever seen.

But you often came to visit me and at first it brought me great distress. You were not a dream, a figment of my imagination. I truly wished you were- but I guess it wouldn't make sense to have thought of you so vividly when you were the first you I had seen.

I never thought it was possible to have clothes the same shade as the hair of the resident's here. This was such an interesting thought to have, now that I have realized this peculiarity.

Well, I guess you are now a resident here too. The resident anomaly.

You always wept over the same things.

How much you hated it here.

How scary it was.

How scary your father was.

How scary your brothers were- in the very least this information was new. The residents here, who all looked like one another, were your brothers.

Brothers, I wonder if I had any.

But why didn't you look anything like them?

Why did you have black hair? Why are you wearing more clothes than them? Why is your stature smaller?

These were questions I had no answers to.

Eventually your grievances will start to decrease but the damage is already done, your words have already been planted in me and swayed me. But at this moment, this is something I have not realized yet.

Perhaps my home really was just as awful as you had told me. I just hadn't realized it because this was home for way too long.

The sky was a ugly and unnatural color. The temperature was more than just too hot, and the red liquid beneath was just contributing to the unbearable heat. The same rock formations that stretched for miles in all directions was very annoying too.

These were things I came to feel about because of you.

You talked about a place you loved dearly that you had brought to its own doom.

And listening to you, I too started to believe: that maybe you did deserve to be in hell.

I wanted to see the world you claimed you brought to its own demise. I wanted to see how beautiful it was for you to call my home ugly and dreadful- and deserving for someone who had brought death to an entire planet.

You made me want to see more than what I have always been happy with- my home that you called hell.

An existence that used to bring me agony then became annoying which eventually became endearing- you became so very endearing to me. I didn't know when it happened, but it did, and with that fondness that grew it became a root of frustration for me too.

That should have been a sign that you, who was different, would bring another unexpected variable to my once unchanging life. That my world would be changed again.

That I would be changed.

It was such a clear sign, I should have known better. At this point it is clear that you are a catalyst for change.

I remember that day. You came running to me, you who looked so determined. I wondered why, what could possibly make you look so strong and brave. I wondered what you could possibly do to make such an expression, your motivation and drive.

And then you broke me.

At least, there was another unexpected outcome from you breaking me. I finally saw how similar you are to your brothers. And yet, still, so greatly different.

Their bodies looked so stiff and hard, and yet you, even with red skin, and two sets of yellow eyes, retained the same black hair I've always known you by, still looked soft and fragile with the curves your brothers did not possess. Even with your black horns, I could not fully say you and your brothers were the same.

And yet, you and them are similar enough.

You hated them, you said they were cruel– your brothers and father. Weren't you the same?

I didn't want to be broken. I was full, and now I was just- not even a significant fraction of what I used to be. You broke me without a second thought and placed so much anger and hatred in me.

You called it Trigon.

I was reduced to pieces. I, who had lived here for centuries.

I, who lived under the same red sky, the same towering mountain, above the same orange liquid for centuries.

I, who had asked for nothing and received peace and quiet in return, on the spot I have always been-was broken by a variable Trigon called: Little Girl.

You placed me on the center of your face between what you called brows and there I stayed.

I wondered for how long would I stay against your skin, since now I have come to know that there is nothing but impermanence for me now.

Since your arrival it seems that all I have for my future is momentariness. Something foreign to me has now become the only thing I should expect because of you.

You, the harbinger of nothing but fleeting moments. And me, the one forced to deal with the repercussions you bring.

Soon, I found out that Trigon was who you had said was scary and was your father.

I wondered if all father's made their daughters feel that way.

That was what he called you: daughter.

You ungrateful daughter, I will make you pay for this treachery, were words I often heard. The anger in his words would seep into me slowly, this at least I could foresee.

After all, I did get swayed by your words about my beloved home and you only visited me a little too often than I would have liked. But this time you have placed your father inside of me, I foresee that I will be influenced even faster by your father than your presence that kept coming to me that time I was still whole.

After you trapped Trigon inside of me, you abandoned my home, abandoned your brothers and you brought me with you to a different world.

And yet again, another change.

I had no say on the matter, after all I was forever stuck on your forehead. I wondered if I would forever be housing Trigon within me too.

But this place was so, so, different from my home. I thought that hell was beautiful, but I was wrong, this place you called Earth was even more beautiful.

I came to like it here.

Earth.

You met people that looked like you, not with your red skin when you were entrapping your father inside of me, since it is only your brothers who had such a skin colour, but that of your pale skin but they had different shades and tones, and even that was so beautiful.

Everything was so new.

They asked for your name, and I realized, I never knew your name after all these years. Or I hadn't paid attention, it might have shown how little I actually cared for you.

Raven, was your simple response. After how many years together, I now know your name.

A name. I wonder if I had one.

For the first time, this change was something I really loved more than my home that you called hell. Living in this place, you and the ones that look like you, called Earth.

The water here was different, it was like an accumulation of your tears. It was blue and vast and had many shapes. The ground here had so many living creatures, from what you called insects to plants to animals- to you, different looking creatures that almost looked like you- humans, that's what they are.

I loved it here so much, but the appreciation for the new was difficult with your father constantly yelling: You ungrateful daughter!

I ignore it as best as I can because I wanted to love this unique place that could not compare to home. But still, I missed the red sky and what you called lava.

But I was now stuck to you, where you are is where I will be. So I pushed your father's angry and hateful words away. I pushed the longing for my beloved home away too. And I tried my best to live and love the place you have brought me to instead.

This majestic place you called Earth.

And then you fell in love.

Love.

What a weird feeling it was. What a weird thing to feel for someone that looked like you- almost like you.

Green eyes, black hair, tan skin that was toned.

A toned body- that was what your brothers had, oddly, I missed them. Their unchanging presence from the years I have lived with them. I really missed them.

It was odd to love what you called a person. You do love him a lot. And it was even more odd that I could feel your love for him.

You loved his smile, this man with green eyes and black hair. I, too, came to be very fond of him.

You called him Damian.

And he called you, Beloved.

Did you have many names? Why are you called Raven and Beloved?

Do I have multiple names too?

But at this point, I was already struggling so much. It was so difficult not to be affected by your father's presence inside of me.

I have come to loathe you.

You ungrateful daughter, trapping me in this stone, you will regret it! I will kill him!

Is that my name? Stone?

But I didn't ask to be shattered into many pieces either. Trigon always complained about the injustice, the betrayal, and the pay back he will surely give you, Raven. But no one asked me if I wanted to house such darkness, negativity, pain, loathing and anger.

No one asked me.

And so, that was how I came to loathe you too, exactly the way your father felt about you, maybe because he has been in me for way too long.

You did not ask me if I wanted to be broken and hold your father within me. You did not ask me if I wanted to leave my beautiful, beautiful home. You did not ask me if I was feeling alright.

But then, I saw you smile from a wall that reflected you and Damian. I heard what people called laughter from you, and I saw myself against your head.

I was red. Red. It was the color of my home- I was the color of my home- hell.

I couldn't bring myself to loathe you. Not like this, not because of your father- especially not when I had finally seen and heard you so... happy. Not when I can feel that happiness too.

You gave me happiness and love, just as much as Trigon gave me anger and hate.

I didn't want to hate you, Raven, not when Damian made you so happy. Not when I also shared and relished the happiness you were feeling. And yet, the same could be said about your father's effect on me- I shared and relished his anger on you too.

The days blurred as I struggled to balance myself between love and hate, anger and happiness. And then you placed a vast darkness around your father- cutting him off from the world you are currently living in.

You did this because you were hiding what you and Damian do when you two are alone. I, however, was not immune to Trigon's anger, in fact, it has also become mine. I, too, was not immune to you numbing your father out from what you do and what you see because I wasn't the one inside the stone.

I saw and heard what you and Damian do. And I felt the love you two had for one another.

You and Damian seemed happy, in the very least, and that alone anchored me to at least try and fight the pure rage inside of me that was always boiling and on certain days, boiling so much I can't help but get confused in the loathing that wasn't mine in the first place.

I hated you, Raven, but also didn't want to.

You brat! Give me back my sight!

Your father would yell when you pull such a stunt. He would yell for you to return his sight back, to let him hear and see and know exactly what you are doing. But you won't and for those times when you do such a thing, you do not feel him. But I still do. And amidst this, the warmth you have for Damian, and his warmth towards you was a stark difference to the boiling heat inside of me due to your father.

This too would help anchor me.

You cannot always keep your father in the dark because it would be too straining for you, but I know you are very capable, Raven.

Your life on Earth has also made me realize the importance of life. It made me understand why you hated your father. Although, I admit in my part, it took a little too long for me to comprehend.

You have to understand, you have placed Trigon inside of me.

The drive you, your boyfriend and peers have to protect life made me understand that life had a value. And yet, why was I not part of that equation?

Was I not life? Is my life too insignificant to be considered?

It seemed that your father's effect on me has run too deep. I seem to keep going back to the same thing, a hatred towards you that cannot be fully resolved. I had foreseen this, I shouldn't be so surprised.

Your father will always be angry at you and would seek release from his confinement, and I would be swayed by his anger and think of it as mine. And then I would recall the peace and tranquility I had in my home that I missed for so long now but chose to ignore, and then after that, I would be filled with guilt.

Because, after all, how could I hate you?

You too had not asked for this. You too are suffering because of your father.

But at least you were happy, in the arms of a man with green eyes, who had at least contributed to this warmth I came to love too.

I decided that perhaps, it is better to slumber again and never wake. Perhaps it is better to be strong enough to hold onto Trigon and let you live your life. At least if I go back to sleep, I can still see my home.

Still see and live through a time that has long passed.

I used to live a quiet life, in a world where the sky was red and the water was burning hot, which now I know is called lava.

But it was home and I loved it.

The beings that lived there in that hot climate were all men with red skin, white hair with black horns and yellow eyes. And oh how oddly they were clad.

And then she came.

Broke me to many pieces and that alone gave me the understanding of life.

I hope for the best for you and him- Damian. I hope I will not shatter in even little more pieces so that your father will forever be inside of me, so that, in the very least, you get to live a peaceful life.

This, I truly want for you.

Despite the fact that I did not ask to be broken and be brought here, I truly do love what you have come to love.

And for you to live a peaceful life, I shall fall into the deepest slumber I have ever gone into, and never wake. In this, I can guarantee that I would not be swayed by your father's aggravations and feel myself weaken because of it. In this, I can secure your happiness.

I will just be a stone.

As I was and always had been a stone.

As I fell into my slumber, I saw the red sky and I recalled I used to be bigger than what I was now. The residents here looked so similar. And it was always so very warm.

I will get out of here Raven! You will regret this!

No, you won't get out of here Trigon. I will be your prison for all eternity if it has to be. And with that I felt my outer layer harden even more and my final consciousness dissipates.

Everyone called me a stone.

If a stone was to be cold and hard, you were probably the same. After all, you did not think twice when you thought of breaking me Raven.