I woke up on the floor of a bathroom that did not look like my aunt Mary's bathroom at all. Her bathroom was an ugly, bright shade of yellow, when this was a calm shade of dark aqua. The color seemed to give me enough energy to sit up.
I noticed my hair was wet and I grabbed the two towels on the tiled floor before anyone came into the room. Drying up, I looked in the mirror, nearly fainting. My long, black hair was now a chocolate brown. The girl in the mirror had hair the length in between her jaw and shoulders, the fronts nearly touching her shoulders.
The brunette's face went pale fast. Her dazzling dark amber eyes went huge and her mouth was shaped into a large O. This person's eyelashes seemed unnaturally long and thick, so I pulled at the lashes to see if they were faux, and then I used my nail to see if she used mascara. No, they were natural. Her hand lightly touched her forehead and I felt it. I was not myself.
Her hair was quite odd after I stood there astonished as it dried. The fronts were very long, longer than the rest of her hair at least. The ends were choppy and I preferred hair that has completely even on the ends. A pair of drab pajamas were laid down on the tiled floor beside a toilet. Both were plaid and extremely soft. Dark blue flannel bottoms that fit me perfectly but were still baggy and an amber button-up top that was also flannel, but nearly went to my knees. What kind of person wears these? A knock on the door made me nearly fall into the empty bathtub.
^###^
I gasped for air the second my eyes opened, my heart pounding and my head aching. A short flashback repeated before my eyes, a person, I had no idea what gender due to the ski mask over their face, about to hit a girl about my age with some bat. The bat was centimeters from her face the second she turned her head. Before it hit her, the vision blacked out. The repeating mental video finally disappeared once my breathing evened out and an old lady, who was beside me the entire time, smiled at me. My entire body tensed.
"Who are you?"
The lady, who I had the feeling was a pedophile by the way she smiled, grinned even wider.
"Shouldn't you be asking that about yourself?"
I gave her a questioning glance. Like it was the answer to my problems, she handed me a large mirror, the edges looked like someone melted big pearls around the mirror and tried to reform them into pearls again.
I slowly moved the mirror to my face. When I saw another girl other than me in the mirror, the air seemed to be sucked out of me. I ever so slowly opened my mouth and showed my teeth, her teeth were perfect, straight and blindingly white. My teeth were usually slightly yellowing. My auburn hair was not auburn, but jet black.
I looked down to see her hair nearly brushing against the couch cushioning. Even my face was different, her skin was paler than my tan skin, she had no imperfections, along with her faux-looking bright turquoise eyes. This is not me. No. Nada. Where am I and who am I?
^###^
"Ko- Um... Uh.. Are you in here?" An elderly female voice shouted out sharply.
I considered saying nothing, but my brain didn't take no for an answer. "Yes, ma'am." My voice was raspy and dry, almost like her's.
"Ma'am? This is just gettin' better and better!"
Her voice mumbled to herself, I had no idea if she was telling the truth or being sarcastic.
Checking to make sure I had pajamas on, I politely told her she could come in. Her appearance frightened me for a few moments. She wore an olive green shirt that was tucked in matching camo bottoms. On her feet were just plain green rain boots. Her snow colored hair seemed to be chopped off with some sort of knife since tiny bits were uneven and her hair was above her shoulders by a few inches. Her sharp brown eyes reminded me of a hawk searching for it's next meal.
"You need to find something that you must never, I repeat, ever lose. It is an amulet that is bound to make you think of darkness, death, maybe even suicide. Do not be afraid of this amulet. You must find it now. I am here only to guide you little-by-little, mostly just to tell you why you are here, and what your meaning is."
I nodded respectfully, gulping at the thought of suicide this supposed amulet could make me think of.
"Where could I find this amulet? Any clues whatsoever?"
I softly asked the scary-ish lady, my mouth barely moving. One sharp nod, she grabbed a small folded piece of paper. Unfolding it, she raked her eyes over the small list of words I could see from the back of the note. Removing her dark eyes from the folded paper, she opened her mouth a little bit.
"The amulet is hidden where no one would ever think to look. It is guarded by two monsters. All the clues you get, kiddo. One last thing, here."
For my defense, I was given a blank card for a game of solitaire. The back was decorated just like any other card. The name of the game printed of the back and either a red or black/blue decoration with the hearts, the diamonds, etc. The color for this card was blood-red.
The puzzled expression on my face was a bit obvious apparently, since the elder snatched the card from me once again. She rolled her mean, dark brown beady eyes at me and put two fingers up, her pointer finger and her middle finger. The solitaire card was in between her two fingers. With just the slight flick of her whole hand, she quickly released the card at the beautifully colored wall beside her. It sliced through a little bit of the wall, half of the card stuck inside it.
Horror and amazement collided and built a heavy weight in my chest. I promised I would never use weapons my whole life! I was not allowed anyways. What kind of place was this?! This time, she did not look me in the eyes, she only gave me the card and opened the door to a hallway with yellow, old lights. Soft carpet like my Aunt Mary's floor was everywhere. I neatly slipped the dusty weapon in the breast pocket of my plaid top.
On such a terrifying and suicidal moment, I started to softly giggle. I did not go insane, I was laughing because of how I looked. I was bare-foot wearing only pajamas, and I had a card for a weapon. Thankfully, the body I was inside of looked fearless no matter what.
^###^
"Yes, this is not a dream. Pinch yourself, punch yourself, hit your head against the wall, whatever. None of those will do anything except make concussions and bruises. You are completely awake."
I let my head go down, staring at the carpet. The lady I thought was earlier a pedophile, gently put her hand on my shoulder. I felt her staring at my hair and my skull. Looking up, she seemed more serious than before.
"You and I are here for many reasons. Alas, our reasons are quite different though. You are here to learn information until your partner finds something incredibly important to her."
I opened my mouth to speak, asking who a partner is. She was quicker, putting her finger to her lips.
"The first thing I think you should know is that you are alone here. This is not a world, only a replica of Earth, mostly. I was sent here for this time only. I cannot tell you too much or I will be instantly killed by plague, enemy, or something anonymous. Same goes for anyone who knows more than you or even me." I answered by only saying, "Hm."
"If you die from telling too much info to me, then we have insanely smart people on our side."
I found them as geniuses because now people have a reason why they can't tell too much instead that we aren't "ready" to know.
"Alright, um, we're getting off topic! You are here by yourself, normally you would be left here by yourself and sometimes with another person. You are the only human on this replica of Earth other than me. All around you though, there are monsters waiting for you. Shards of the dead human souls that were never loved. Sadly, there are millions hiding everywhere. Not just in this replica, but in the real world."
^###^
The air was dusty and the sky was a light gray. Strong gusts of wind were clawing at my skin that wasn't covered by my pajamas and my short hair stayed where it was except for the long fronts that waved at the piercing wind. It pushed me backwards, it even made me trip over a branch and get painful slivers I had to pull out of my foot quickly before rushing around again, looking for two monsters guarding my amulet.
Eventually, the harsh blasts made me give up for a few minutes behind a bunch of strong boards. All around me, there were aged buildings I had never seen in my life. Some windows were broken with their remains in pieces on the concrete and the same were said about the glass doors. Broken signs of stores were still up, but a few were on the last thread from falling to the ground.
Feeling brave enough and once again warm enough, I started walking, staring at the concrete and swerving from random trash all around. I clenched my teeth, attempting to stop from chattering my teeth to the point of breaking my jaw. Did I accomplish that? No, I did not. My jaw begun to ache and my body had the warmth slowly squeezed out of me as I walked for at least three hours.
Then, things got interesting. A ringing very alike to the eerie silence of a dark room with no electricity filled my brain and my head. Moaning and screams of horror were the only background sounds from the painful ringing. No, that was not background sound, shadows with deep red masks were behind me, their black, bat-like wings crooked and awkward shaped, holes were around the edges of their wings. Normaly, I would've stood there like an idiot, paralyzed in fear, but it seemed a few parts of the person who owned this body were left. Uncontrollably, like I was watching a movie of the charactor's point of view, I sneered at the animals like a hissing cat and I sprinted away towards safety, away from the agonizing and irritating ringing in my ears.
^###^
I pushed all my weight I could against the front door, ringing filled my ears, popping the thoughts that trailed around in my mind like fragile balloons. Mary, the lady who told me what was going on, was at the other door that led to her vacant garage. One monster stuck a part of their cloak, probably where their arm was, out at her face, making her force the doors closed again and chop it off.
A leathery wing squeezed quickly into the door I tried to close. My bare feet started squeaking on the tile floors as the wing slowly opened the door with ease until I fought back. The wing threw the door open like it was a piece of cardboard, flinging me at the wall and hitting the hard doorknob at the side of my head. My field of vision was blurry and sound started getting more muffled every time I heard my heart beat. Until a sound like a metal door shutting made my vision black.