The crowd slowly dispersed. No one stopped to help her; some even laughed at her misery before leaving. Clara, lying on the ground, could barely breathe.
"What did I do to deserve this…?" she whispered, as darkness swallowed her whole.
When she opened her eyes, there was no cold, no pain, no street. Only a vast, endless black space—a silent void with no beginning and no end.
"A dream…" she thought, trying to move. But her body shimmered with a strange glow, almost like a translucent spirit. She lifted a hand, shocked to see it was ethereal, green, and luminous.
For some reason, she felt no fear. She had lived so long in the shadows, through countless power outages in her tiny apartment, that the dark felt almost… familiar.
With nothing else to do, she began to sing softly one of the few melodies she remembered from childhood, a song that used to play on the old radio her mother had left behind:
🎵 "Somewhere over the rainbow… way up high…" 🎵
Her voice trembled in the void, fragile but clear. For the first time, she felt as though someone might be listening.
Then, a deep voice tore through the silence of the emptiness:
"Will you answer its call…?"
Clara spun around in every direction, her heart pounding."W-what? Who are you?"
"I am the Voice of the Abyss. The echo of the Cursed Bloodlines. You have been chosen."
"No one ever chooses me…" she muttered bitterly.
"Will you answer its call?" the voice pressed again.
"…Yes." she replied, not knowing why.
The vibration of the void grew stronger. The darkness itself seemed to hold its breath, awaiting her decision.
"What three desires beat within your heart?"
Clara hesitated. Her lips trembled before she spoke:"I want to stop being weak… I want to become someone impossible to ignore… and I want a destiny that doesn't depend on the cruelty of others."
A moment later, searing pain pierced through her chest. She collapsed to her knees in the void, screaming.
"AGHHH!"
"You lied…" thundered the voice, harsher than ever.
"W-what?! That's what I want!" she cried, shaking, with tears glowing in the air around her.
"Your true desire is to avenge your suffering. Your hatred for humans burns stronger than your wish for happiness."
The words stole the breath from her lungs. Clara tried to protest, but no strength came. Since childhood she had been beaten, humiliated, ignored. Classmates, parents, strangers on the street… all of them had contributed to breaking her.
And now, stripped of excuses, she finally understood.
"…Then… yes," she whispered at last, her voice cracking. "I want revenge."
The void shuddered with her confession, as if the darkness itself had smiled.