"Woah!" Alisa hit the ground with a thud. "I'm getting sick of those cloud tentacles."
She begrudgingly picked herself up from the ground. Her spirit eyes scanned the surrounding space. At least they would have.
Alisa's vision was clouded, obscured by the thick mist.
'What the? Why can't I see?' Instantly, Alisa felt something was strange. Her spirit eyes were never blind. They could see things that no one else could. So, why couldn't she see now?
She swallowed, her nerves growing by the second. 'I guess I'll just walk?'
Each step carried a nervous weight and a strange discomfort. It wasn't just that she couldn't see, but that she didn't know where she was going.
Was she heading to see the Amalgamate Mystic? Was she gonna see Alix? The boy outside said something about Kent being in trouble. Was this place leading to him?
Alisa's brow furrowed. "That guy had no manners at all! He's just like Eric. Rude and pushy. Thinking he can walk all over me because I'm small." She continued grumbling with each step.
She walked an unknown distance. However, an ache in her feet told her it had been quite far.
At some point, the mist shifted. Instead of freezing, it felt like… nothing. It wasn't cold or hot. She couldn't even call it warm.
"Did I end up somewhere else?" The fog continued to obscure her sight, but something had definitely changed in her surroundings.
For one, she could hear old planks groaning beneath her feet. And there was the strangest stink in the air? Yet somehow familiar?
"Oof!" Alisa bumped into something. She fell back. "Ow! Stupid ground clouds. You're making it harder for me to see anything!"
"Are you complaining again, half-breed?" An annoyed voice called out from a few steps in front of her. "Or maybe you just like pissing me off?"
Alisa's eyes shot wide.
That voice.
Deep, annoyed, and reeking with the stench of cheap liquor. "M-Mr. Broncher? Wh-what are you-"
Mr. Broncher. An obese, drunk shop owner who once served as Alisa's guardian. Though Alisa would never call this man's place a home.
"What am I doing here? Cleaning up all your messes like usual!" Alisa flinched as the man's voice raised.
"I-I didn't. I-it's not my-"
"Of course it's your fault! Every damn issue in this shop has been your fault since I pulled you off the streets! I thought helping a lost brat like you would do my business some good, especially sense you got them elf genes! But all you do is make my work harder!"
"I'm sorry..."
"Sorry doesn't make up for all the money I lost because of you!" A hand reached through the fog and yanked Alisa by the wrist. "You damn brat...you're nothing but a waste of space!" The man threw her to the ground.
"Ow!" she groaned, then quickly realized her mistake.
"Ow? Did you say ow? Are you callin' me violent now? After all that I've done for you!"
"No, I'm not-"
"Yes, you are! You're tryin' to make me feel guilty! Well, I'll show you how violent I really can be!" The sound of his heavy footsteps thudded like a warning drum.
Alisa whimpered. She scampered away from the man. Her eyes welled up with tears.
"No…stay away. I don't wanna be here anymore!"
The stomps grew louder. She had nowhere to go. Her hands worked desperately to push back. Until one of her hands slipped into a hole.
And she fell too.
Wind whizzed past her ears. Her heart beat hard inside her chest. "Why was he here? He shouldn't be- he couldn't be-"
*Crash!*
Alisa crashed through a window, which interrupted her racing thoughts.
She rolled through the shards, feeling the cuts on her skin. She lay in the aftermath of her crash, feeling the slow trickle of blood down her arms.
"Where did that window come from?"
"My window! You thief! I can't believe you'd do this to me!" The startled shouting made Alisa tremble. She scrambled up from the ground and looked around, but still couldn't see anyone.
But once again, she knew that voice... "Janquette! I-I didn't, I swear!"
Janquette. If course Alisa remembered her. She was the only one who ever treated her like a friend instead of a freak. At least she used to be.
"Oh, here we go again! Are you blabbering about those stupid spirits again! Alisa, I tried to listen to you, but this has to stop! No one's gonna want to play with the girl that dances with herself in the middle of the night talking to imaginary lights."
"But the spirits-"
"Then where are they? I can't see them. My dad and mom can't see them! You're the only one who can see them. It was fun at first, but I always get in trouble because of you and your fake friends!"
"They aren't fake!" Alisa loudly retorted. "Don't talk about them like that! They're my only real friends, so you don't get to talk about them that way!" Her voice didn't echo, leaving a heavy silence in the air.
"I thought we were friends..." Janquette's voice mumbled, its frosty tone sent a chill down Alisa's spine. "I guess real people could never compare to magic ones..." Janquette's boots trailed away. Alisa's chest tightened at the sound.
"Wait...don't go!" She rushed after the sound, the visage of the girl walking away still clear in her mind. "Janquette I-I'm sorry! I didn't mean it! Don't leave me behind!" Alisa ran as hard as she could but never caught up.
She ran until her feet hurt so badly that she wanted to cry. Her heart felt like it was gonna burst and her throat felt like it was bleeding! "No no no! Please! Someone! I-I can be better! J-just give me a cha-ah!"
She tripped over her own feet, falling to the ground hard. Tears leaked from her eyes, out of her control. She curled up on the ground, tightly gripping her chest. The lonely feeling that she got all the time back then.
It was back.
The only difference was she had the spirits then. Now she was truly alone...
"Mom..." Alisa called in a voice so weak that it was almost drowned out by the silence. "Don't leave me alone..."
"Pathetic." A sharp voice declared. "Truly a pathetic display, suitable for a filthy, needy rat like yourself."
The voice made all of Alisa's emotions freeze. Her tears stopped falling, her hands stopped trembling, and her heart...it felt as though it stopped beating. All because of that voice...
A voice so devoid of care or concern that it alone could make Alisa vomit. This woman's voice was so steady and stern that Alisa couldn't dream without hearing it in the back of her mind. The voice that Alisa couldn't forget, but a pain so deep that she wished she could.
"Look at me..." The tall figure kicked Alisa's side, making the girl wince. "Look at me, this instant!"
Alisa shivered, but obeyed the voice. She slowly lifted her head.
'C-calm down, Alisa. You didn't see anyone else. So, you won't see her either.' She did her best to reassure herself.
But when her eyes saw those familiar expensive heels, she realized that her fear was being realized. Her eyes climbed the body of the person. Her thin Elven features.
That fair skin and tall posture that always felt imposing and demeaning at the same time. Eventually, her eyes locked onto the face of her greatest nightmare.
"...M-Mom?"
"Don't call me that! You never gained the right to that name and you never shall!"
"S-Sorry!" Alisa squeezed her eyes shut. "I-I'll do better. I-I pro-"
"Your promises mean nothing to me. Nothing but useless words from those lips..." The woman glared down at her supposed daughter with disgust.
Alisa opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out. 'This isn't real...this is real...she'd never come here...sh-she'll disappear like the rest.' Alisa tried desperately to reassure herself.
"I believe I told you to look at me girl..." The woman reached out and yanked Alisa forward by the face. Her hand squishing her cheeks aggressively, forcing Alisa to make eye contact with her.
"Those eyes. The eyes that I gave you! Those eyes that should've been mine!" Her arm flexed as she tighten her grip on Alisa's face. "Why must the Goddess treat me with such indignity to give you those eyes when she denied them from me?"
"I-I-I d-"
"What?! What do you want to say to me? That you did nothing wrong? Lies, you foul child! Every day you laugh and you play with the spirits that I can not see! You rub those damned eyes in my face every time you look at me! Those damned, disgusting eyes!"
"I-I don't want them..." Alisa stammered. "My eyes aren't important, so I don't want them. I don't, I-I swear!"
Alisa's mother's eyes narrowed suspiciously. "Is that so?"
"Y-Yes, m-ma'am! I don't want them, I p-promise!" Hope colored Alisa's smile. This was her chance! She could finally have a real-
"What did I say about your promises?" The woman asked coldly, staring deeply into Alisa's eyes. She slowly lifted her hand and traced beneath Alisa's eye with her sharp nails. She deliberately pushed her nail in just enough to make the girl bleed.
"Those pleas mean nothing to me. At least, not when they come from you. But, since you seem so eager to rid yourself of your eyes. I can surely help you with that." The Elven woman's hand reached out like a predator's claw.
"Hold still, Nao-"
"Stop!" The mist in the room dispersed with a loud boom! Alisa was sitting in the center of a large darkened space with the man in white from earlier tightly gripping her wrist...as her hand was inches from ripping her own eye out.
The boy panted. "What do you think you're doing?" He asked with horror in his eyes. "It w-was a test! J-Just a test, so why would you go as far as-" His words caught in his throat as Alisa finally looked at him.
No longer was there the look of a bubbly girl with way too many words, a girl that could probably hold an entire conversation with herself without ever stopping.
Now sat a girl, with no such joy or excitement. Her eyes were dead, unmoving.
Dull.
Her face looked incapable of forming a smile. All that remained was a deep loneliness and a sort of acceptance.
Seeing such a drastic change, it was haunting. This doesn't happen because of a test. This happens from years spent in an unimaginable pain. The girl must have been carrying this weight all alone for all this time?
"You poor thing..." the boy mumbled.
"Disciple." A voice called out from behind the boy, causing him to jolt. Small sparks of static running up his body.
"M-Master! I-I was just..."
"She failed."
"What?" the boy asked.
"She was willing to sever her strongest bond. Had you not stopped her, she would've ripped out her own eyes and cut all ties with the spirits. Thus, she has failed her test."
"B-but Master, she was in pain." The boy reasoned. "Going through such an experience at such a young age must have been horrific. Can't you just...give her another try or maybe change her test?"
"Disciple..." The mystic turned to the boy. Their eyes, which are normally ever shifting, rested on a piercing blue-eyed glare. "...pain is just one part of the journey. Any who cannot grow past it are liable to betray their bonds and fall on the path of a devil. This girl is well on her way down that path."
"N-no she's-"
"Cease this childish pleading!" The mystic yelled. The white clad disciple shrank from his master's sudden anger. Amalgamate stood with a set jaw for several moments before turning and walking toward the mist. "The other girl shall awake soon. Remove that one from the temple and return post-haste. I've had enough of this conversation."
The mist consumed Amalgamate, leaving their disciple alone with the now unconscious Alisa. He stared at her for several moments before lifting her into his arms. And carrying her into the mist.
"I'm sorry..." He whispered, though the girl couldn't hear. "No, child should experience that sort of abuse. Especially from a parent." He walked into the mist, cradling Alisa, then vanished from this mist covered test area.