Chapter 1: The Portal

And once again, the little child returned to the orphanage after another unsuccessful adoption. Little Anya was once again desolate and sad. Another family had abandoned her.

Ever since she ran away from the laboratory that was experimenting on her, all she wanted most was to settle into a family and be loved by her potential parents and siblings.

With each passing day, she gradually lost those dreams and hopes. And she feared spending the rest of her life alone and sad in this vast world, where people only used each other and then discarded each other, as if they were nothing.

And the fact that she also had a special power to read people's minds, due to her experiments in the laboratory, didn't help her much either. It was fun to be able to read what was going on in those people's minds, but at the same time, it was suffocating, because not everyone had positive thoughts about each other.

All she wanted most was to be normal and not have been created as a possible weapon or something. She wanted to be able to have a family, go to other places, go to school, and have friends. She unfortunately had to avoid interacting too much with other children, as she saw many of them being adopted and many did not return, so it would be better to avoid developing emotional ties with them.

With that, she had to keep hope that one day, someone would come and adopt her and she could finally have her own family who would love her and never abandon her. But until then, she would have to go through more rejections and rejections until she could find her forever family.

It was already night when Anya went to bed, getting ready for another day, hugging her chimera doll. As soon as she closed her eyes, something flashed across her face, making her open her eyes. Through the window, there was a reddish-purple light flashing.

Anya silently got up from the bed and walked towards the window. The window led to the garden, where there was a closed gate, which led to a forest behind the orphanage. The light shone and flickered through the forest, piquing the little child's curiosity every second.

After thinking some more, Anya decided to leave and go to the forest to investigate that. After sneaking past the security guards and reaching the gate, Anya passed through the bars, thanks to her small size, and found herself outside the orphanage. Anya hesitated for a moment whether to continue or not, but the light in the forest caught her attention again. And with that, she decided to move forward, as she had already come this far to retreat.

As she walked through the dense and dark forest, Anya found herself a little scared, but she tried to focus specifically on the reddish-purple light, which intensified as she approached the path. Eventually, the light led to a cave below, which looked rather scary in the moonlight.

Anya held her breath as she realized where she had to go. She looked one last time back the way she had come. They probably wouldn't notice her absence the next day, as some were even frustrated with every time she was returned there. So it wouldn't make any difference if she went back there or not.

With that, the small child began to descend the small hill, entering the cave and following the light that attracted her. As she looked around, Anya noticed that the cave had stalactites and colored crystals everywhere. Maybe that explained that light she saw? No, because the light was coming from the back of the cave.

In the end, Anya continued walking deeper and deeper, being very careful not to trip on the way. After reaching the supposed bottom of the cave, Anya was slightly stunned by what she saw in front of her.

There was a kind of vortex between huge crystals, whose purple and red colors mixed, forming a color she had never seen before. Anya moved a little closer, still fascinated by the sight before her.

She stopped in front of the vortex, and lightly brought her hand towards it. Her hand went through, but didn't pull her in or anything like that. Anya removed her hand, still fascinated by it. Wondering what that would lead to, she sighed and smiled, determination on her face.

She began walking towards the vortex and passed through it, while instinctively closing her eyes. As soon as Anya crossed it, she opened her eyes, and heard something behind. She turned around and saw the vortex shrinking until it disappeared. There was definitely no going back, but that didn't seem to matter to her anymore.

Anya then turned forward and saw that she was in a kind of dark alley, with red hues. The sky above her also shared the same shade of red. Next door, it looked like it led to a street or something.

Anya realized that it was some kind of city, but it seemed to be in the area of lower class people or something, as there were people wearing simple or worn clothes, and others even robbing each other, drinking from bottles or even sucking some kind of paper rolled up and smoke was coming out.

Anya found herself frightened by the place she was in. Every person she saw, every thought could be read from their minds. And they definitely weren't the positive, happy thoughts she was used to hearing. They were more perverse and confusing, but frightening for the little child.

Even so, she began to walk through the city, hugging her chimera doll tightly, while attracting some not-so-discreet looks towards her. Anya might not know where she was, but she knew it wasn't a good idea to stay there for too long. Because you never know what kind of people you would attract.

01/04/2025: For now, here is the first chapter. I don't know where this idea came from, but I kept dreaming about it. I hope you like it and I apologize for any errors in the character's story.