Luna turned the next page with Theia in her arms. Theia gripped Luna's cloth and rubbed her cheek into her chest.
Luna took a deep breath as she walked through the door frame and up the stairs, darkness surrounding her.
She glanced at the page, and "I HATE YOU" filled it, the words closely aligned. At the end of the page, a small text tucked into the corner: "Day 581."
Luna's eyelids drooped at the sight of the pain she had to endure.
"I guess I can see why she hated him, but five hundred and eighty-one days isn't really that much. So I don't really understand why she would hate him to this extent…"
But as she finished her words, Theia looked up at her from her embrace and said, "It's been One million fifty-five thousand two hundred fifteen days since she was gone." Her voice echoed deeply off the walls. As Luna heard her, she stopped and looked down. "Theia?"
Luna saw her expression—dull and expressionless. Her drooped eyes were like a blank sheet of paper, easily read and empty. "It's been that long since I was alone here."
"One day is long, very long," Theia kept speaking as she stared at Luna's chest. "A year here is as long as a day in the land where you come from."
"She was a frail girl. It's been lonely," Theia mentioned.
Luna picked up Theia, to her surprise. Theia didn't expect that, lost in a state of melancholy, remembering the old days. Luna sat down on the stairs and placed the girl onto her lap.
One day at home is a year here? Without counting the night? If so, then that really changes everything…
"Theia, please tell me everything. I'd be happy to listen. Since you have been here alone for so very long, you had no one to talk to. Now that I'm here, please feel free to tell me everything that you have kept buried inside you. I will listen."
Theia looked up from Luna's lap at her face and muttered, "Really?"
"Really," Luna answered.
Theia swallowed and added, "It will take a while, so I'm sorry for that."
Luna extended her hand and caressed Theia's long white hair, speaking softly, "Don't worry. If it's for you, I am all right even staying here forever." She spoke with a smile.
I really don't know why, but for everything that is here—for the Land here, for the Painting girl, for Theia—I could give up my family for them. It feels wrong, but at the same time, it feels right, Luna thought.
"Then, please tell me if you don't understand certain words I speak of. I'll explain them thoroughly."
Luna nodded to her words and said, "I'm all ears."
Theia gazed at Luna with longing eyes that had waited for someone for so long, and she opened her mouth, speaking the words she had always kept inside for all the time she had been here.
…
"It began one million four hundred thousand days ago. Whenever I opened my eyes for the first time, I was met with a black, overarching figure. That day was the second worst day I ever lived. He stared down at me with white eyes, and he pointed at the girl who was standing behind him. Her name was Nivaris."
"He told me to take care of her, to be her family and never leave her, not even for a moment. So I did. I tried. I tried so hard," Theia said as tears began pouring down her cheek, but her expression didn't change; it was as empty as when she began.
Luna's arms jolted, but she held off from consoling her, choosing to listen for the first time.
"I did everything to cheer her up, to play with her, to occupy her mind. Everything. But nothing I did mattered in the end."
"For her, she only cared about her father, the Creator. I was there! She was never, never alone! The time we drank tea in Arbor, ran down the corridors, lied in the grassland, swam in boats, swam up the waterfalls… she smiled through everything. But… she killed herself." Theia's voice quivered, cracking as she sucked in the fluid that dripped down her lip from her nose.
"Why? I loved her! I loved her, I really did love her! Yet she never saw me as more than a pet! Disposable trash! Was I this useless?"
"Was her father this important to her than me? Even her siblings never bothered to come here, yet she loved them more than me! WHY!"
Theia broke into tears, sobbing profusely as Luna's eyes shot wide open.
"She never saw me as family! Is that too much to ask? I spent years! Years with her! Caring for her! But! But she never, ever saw me as family! WHY!"
"What was the point of my creation? I never loved her because I was told to! I-I loved her because I came to love her!" At this point, Theia's words descended into an unrecognizable gurgle as her cry rang through the dark, empty staircase. Luna's arms shook, the corners of her mouth twitched, and she shot up and hugged Theia as hard as she could.
Luna closed her eyes with a frown as she deeply embraced Theia. Without any words, she held her, but that action made Theia wept even harder. Luna just said, "it's okay, you are not worthless and not useless, you are worth everything that there is in the world."
"I understand it, I do, so please stop crying, I will be your family, I will take care of you, I will do whatever you want to do, I will never abandon you, I will never." Her frown deepened as she said those words.
Luna released her from the embrace and straightened her back, looking over her. Theia's glossy eyes were filled and overflowing with tears; her red, blood-shot eyes stood out against her flushed face. Fluids from her nose trailed down toward the trembling corners of her mouth.
Luna reached for her tears and wiped them with her right hand. "I am your family from now on, so you will never be lonely anymore, okay?" She smiled from ear to ear as she said her consoling words.
Theia looked at Luna, wiped her tears into her sleeve, and placed her cheek into Luna's palm, closing her eyes.
"Did you calm down? Is everything alright now?" Luna asked.
Theia took a second as she opened her eyes and said, "y-yes."
"I-i'm sorry I couldn't control it."
"It's okay, please continue," Luna said warmly.
"Okay…" Theia wiped the liquids from her nose and spoke up.
"S-She couldn't accept it, except that her beloved father could abandon her."
"But the more days passed, the faster she realized that he would never come back. The grief, her 'lonely' grief and what was once love, turned into hatred for him."
"She thought that if she had harmed the one thing he cared about, it would hurt the most."
"So she snuck into the tower of knowledge and stole a book from there. Following the instructions of it, she drew a pentagram with specific symbols to drive her soul away and prevent regeneration. Following that she…" Tears began to flow again from Theia's eyes, but she composed herself in a matter of seconds, wiping them away as she looked at Luna, who patiently listened with a smile. She swallowed and continued.
"... she, from the rope she hung herself in the basement. Just as I arrived there, she barely thrashed, wiggling. She hung swinging from side to side, lifeless, as I realized what was happening. But as I released her from the rope… it was too late."
"She drove her soul away somewhere…"
"I-I couldn't do anything" Theia looked at her hands as they slowly rose up, trembling. Her mouth began to wrinkle as tears slowly dripped onto Luna's clothes.
"I couldn't even take her body to the meadow to bury her, and had to bury her in the holloway in the basement. And all I could do to bury her is… is to plank it away!" Theia burst into tears, hugging Luna's clothes, weeping intensely into her chest.
Luna caressed her head gently as she held her, without a word, she caressed her.
Luna frowned as she thought, I really can't do anything now. All I can say are those worthless words… Theia… I'm sorry I can't really understand what you feel… all I can say is I'm sorry, everything is okay, I am here… those words won't work to make her feel better…
"It's okay, I am here. Please cry, cry every pain you stored inside you. Leave nothing in, let me take it into myself. I'll take away your pain so that you will be happy…"
Luna's words echoed through the staircase—a staircase filled with darkness, alone with only Theia and Luna.
A cry of pain overshadowed her words, a sorrowful cry but an acknowledged cry, a happy cry.