Content warning: slightly suicidal, like a line or two, in the first scene
Sunny woke up with a startle.
'W-what? Where am I?'
He saw the priestess' bed, from the cathedral, but the surroundings— they were different.
Was it all a sick dream?
No, it was a twisted nightmare.
'But what happened?'
Then memories resurfaced, he was in Rain's adapted parents' place.
He recalled summoning the bed, barely conscious, as the pain in his chest slowly consumed him.
The screams he felt inside his mind.
His heart thudding in place as it tried to escape.
His hands, they reached his throat with his Memory, in the room. It was the same Memory Neph gave— After all, it felt only fitting for a master's sword to kill their slave
Countless time, countless hours... he felt tears fall from his eyes.
His throat chocked, as he tried to hold everything in.
But it was useless, completely useless.
Fear.
Pain.
Despair.
Regret.
'I failed, I'm sorry mom'
He— He failed. Completely.
He felt something wet reaching his nose, his hair, his skin. He was completely drenched.
He felt something sour on his tongue.
Sweat and tears both mixed.
He turned around and saw his pillow completely wet, cotton absorbed all the water.
KNOCK KNOCK
'Whats happening?'
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK
More frequent, desperate knocks appeared.
"Come in."
Sunny spoke softly in a choked voice.
A man entered. He was blonde and had fair skin.
Next he found himself on a table, a table with breakfast. Everything that happened–
'What happened?'
Yes, he was invited to breakfast. They wanted to talk about Rain's life, to help both sides cope slightly more.
He was obviously the one who needed it more, yes they were both sad but for him— for him, the past crushed him completely. He was, after all, slightly relaxed in his Nightmare, while she died.
While she potentially suffered?
He hoped her death was quick, but he wasn't sure.
Hope. Hope was a poison.
She died 3 months after people left Forgotten Shore.
There were four people on the table, a man, an awakened woman, and 2 kids. Their names were as followed: Fort, Noble, Brock and Blaze.
Fort was the man who he met at the doorstep. Noble had the same height as him, brunette. She was an awakened, her eyes flickered frequently. Her shadow was a little different, she seemed to not be touching any ground.
========
An infant, a girl, was being held in the arms of a protective mother. She had pale skin, black hair and onyx black eyes. Just like the man standing besides her.
The woman and the man were yet to receive a name. It was a gift for the privileged after all.
But still— Still they wished to at least name their daughter, even if it wasn't recorded in it official database. Just like they named their son, Sunless.
A storm was raging outside, the rain poured, the clouds covered the son.
"Rain." The woman spoke.
"What?" The man asked.
"Rain. That would be her name." The woman replied
The child besides them, pale skin, black hair and onyx black eyes with childish innocence nodded excitedly.
"I will protect you, sister."
"Yes. That you will" The man laughed.
The infant shifted in her sleep, woke up for a second and nodded.
Just slightly.
Just noticable.
'W-what?' Sunny thought.
The woman kissed the girl.
Rain was barely a year old now. She didn't notice the person called "dad" or "hon" by someone called "mom".
The woman collapsed on the floor, crying. Her "brother" — "Sunless" or "Sunny" was holding "mom" or "sweetie" as called by "dad", pulling her hands.
Sunny looked a little panicked. A man stood outside, pale skin, blonde hair dirtied by something browning her hair.
Her mom cried, Sunny joined soon after hearing something. He walked towards Rain and pulled her into a hug.
"It'll be alright" he whispered.
And after that day she never saw the man called dad...
The next time something similar happened was when she was 3 years and something months.
She saw her mom lying on bed, a peaceful look on her face.
"Sunless. Take care of Rain for me."
Tears rolled down Sunny's eyes, he panicked reaching for a communicator.
Her mom held Sunny's hands, stopping him.
Soon she fell into an eternal slumber.
Rain blinked, confused.
Sunny held her in his arms, whispering comforting words. She was confused.
They stayed there only for a week more before leaving. All Sunny gave as a reason was that her parents gave them a test to survive alone.
She lay on his arms comfortably before falling asleep.
Next thing she knew was that she was in a different room. Concrete walls surrounded her, a hard bed there.
Uncomfortable.
That's all she thought about her bed.
Then came fear.
Sunny was nowhere to be seen.
She headed out the door, or a sorry excuse of one. It was only a curtain.
She saw stairs and headed down.
There she saw a table, and Sunny.
She sat besides him and he asked her to pretend not to know him.
She realised where they were— an orphanage.
And with it came the realisation that her parents died...
A month later she left him.
That day... Sunny asked her to forget him. He simply... He simply told her he would find her. Find her—soon— and meet each other once again, and she wouldn't let him leave.
She left with a woman and a man. The woman had brunette hair and the man blonde. The woman's eyes were colorful, quite literally! They kept changing. Both the man— Fort, and the woman— Noble, were beautiful.
They bad the beauty beyond anything she saw, after all, she lived in the outskirts. But still they were probably above average. And the woman was an Awakened! A whole Awakened in the flesh!! She marveled at Sunny's connections, it explained why he left the house for few hours once or twice.
Ofcourse she was unaware that it wasn't his connections...
A few months later, Rain found herself wearing a uniform.
A school uniform!
She was excited— and slightly sad.
Sunny wasn't there, he didn't keep his promise.
She knew enough now to know that he either died or simply chose to leave her.
Her mind wasn't as focused on him anymore, she was mad at him.
Noble looked at her, and smiled.
A comforting smile.
"No need to be scared, or sad or nervous. Its only school, you know?"
Rain smiled back, feeling reassured.
She was now 10.
Rain occasionally thought about the time before she was adopted. She would pull out the memories and dust them off. But over the years, they became fuzzy and blurred. Her parents faces, her missing brother—she began to wonder if they had just been a dream. How much was fact and how much was wishful thinking?
With each passing day a little more of her time in the outskirts slipped away.
It was easier to just enjoy the present.
When Fort and Noble smiled at her, Rain knew she was home. Life was good. She was happy.
But sometimes— sometimes—
She hoped that they didn't leave her, but knew the bitter truth deep down.
She refused to accept it.
But then the thought of Sunny dying came back again, it was right after she asked with burning curiosity about them.
Only now, she couldn't forget it. The rumors about her parents dying existed, the knowledge about Sunny disappearing from the orphanage did too.
He was dead.
He was long dead.
And yet– And yet she hoped to see him again.
She longed to see him.
She longed for him to see that she was okay, that she was living peacefully, that he didn't have to worry for her.
But the dead couldn't do that.
She- at the same time- felt guilty that she enjoyed life, she refused to let her parents know, but she knew damn well that her mom did.
She could sense her emotions after all.
Now, as a teenager, she attended higher grades. She secretly loved watching the others playing games, or talking about dreamscape, or Changing Star! She could see through the fact that her achievements were exaggerated but still she was so cool!
She led a whole army, had a cool sword,and had silver hair as if straight out of a novel's
protagonist!
Her wit was sharp and she was elegant. She even helped an outskirt ra— no— a child from Outskirt!
Outskirt rats was a term *others* called, not someone she would! Not when she had family there, even if they abandoned her! She knew better anyways, having a government family.
That boy was probably taught by her, since people there couldn't train themselves for the spell, it was impressive that he survived!
'No... but why did a 12 year old act his role!'
She laughed to herself and continued doing her homework.
Suddenly, she felt something missing when she looked down, towards her shadow. It kept happening ever since people from Forgotten Shore escaped the dreadful place. It brought a feeling of longing, something amiss, something— something that should be here and belonged with her.
Pain.
Her heart ached a little.
Suddenly, alarms flashed.
ATTENTION! ATTENTION! CODE RED!
A GATE OPENING AROUND YOUR LOCATION.
E.T.A 200 SECONDS.
ESCAPE TO THE NEAREST SAFETY BUNKER.
I REPEAT, GATE OPENING IN 200 SECONDS.
GOVERNMENT AGENTS COMING IN 11 MINUTES.
And it kept repeating it, only stopping when the gate would open.
A deafening silence filled the room, like the calm before a storm.
Panic flared through the room, people stopped talking, notebooks, markers and pens falling. Tables being thrown, chairs being thrown back.
And then.
It calmed down. People regained their composure, remembering their training. But training was just that, not the real thing. It was impressive, really, that they could think properly.
Most people definitely wouldn't.
Especially for kids their age, they were young and naive. Their teacher escorted them out and tried containing the few who were still running, and by some miracle succeeded.
The emptiness insider her increased.
They were taken to the P.E. room which had a large available space, was protected by machine guns and even some low damaging grenade type thingy made using spell tech and even some Awakened, so they should be protected...
Right?
What was the worst that could happen?
Rain, despite all the security, was afraid. Her legs trembled.
And within the next two minutes, the worst happened.
It was all a blur.
The Awakened near the gate died.
The security failed.
Almost all the professors died.
All the while, Rain stood their terrified.
She understood what it meant to be weak.
What pain felt.
What desperation felt.
What self loathing felt.
It came from being weak.
From being powerless.
She wouldn't die here, not today. At least, not without a fight.
Today, she would pick up the sword.
She saw a few students being killed, but it didn't waver her will.
She lunged at the first creature she saw, screaming like an anime protagonist, whether or not it actually increased her strength, she didn't know. Nor did she care.
Her sword managed to get in contact but broke, before being thrown back.
The next moment, a light bulb broke, and somehow, nonsensically, there was just about enough current flowing through the wire to kill the creature.
It made no sense.
Yet it did.
Maybe it was because of a recent corpse that was there, maybe it was that there was something that amplified voltage? She didn't know, nor did she care.
She saw another sword lying beside her, a sword which was used by another student just a while back. She coldly picked it up.
Suddenly, a weird instinct took over her... She named her sword.
The next? The sword became sharper. Her soul felt more complete.
Tick tock. The clock struck.
She lunged.
Tick tock.
Next she stabbed the creature.
It died.
And then she moved towards the next target but ended up making a mistake, her body moved with a wrong angle.
She slipped...
Fear.
She tried standing up, but a Nightmare Creature was already upon her. Its head slammed towards her...