Chapter 10 - Paradigm

It felt familiar, but at the same time different.

It was a white space that didn’t feel like there was an up and down.  It was just the feeling of being ‘there’.
 
Wherever ‘there’ was.

Blinking their eyes the youth stood idly as if waiting, waiting for what, they didn’t know.  They felt empty, like something was missing, but it also seemed like they had already accepted that fact a long time ago.  Sighing, they looked around and noticed something on the ground.  Approaching the object, they recognized it as a photograph.  Picking it up and glancing at the image the figure saw a face.

Who was this person?

It was a boy?  No, a girl, the youth nodded in instinctual agreement.  They had dark almost black hair with long uneven bangs and choppy hair that didn’t go past their shoulders.  The girl seemed young and had storming and pale blue eyes that complimented their fair complexion.  It felt like they knew this person.  No, it wasn’t that they knew this person, but something more.

They were that person.

As if in response to the thought, the photograph burst into flames and the fingers dropped the paper in surprise.  As the image began to crumble and turn black, a gray tendril of smoke curled from it, creating the silhouette of a figure.

“The wish has been unfulfilled, but still requires payment.” It was a voice that she thought she recognized.  However something seemed different about it, like it was wistful.

“The first payment of ‘memories’ has expired.  A second transaction is required.  Will you pay it?” She wasn’t sure what to think, but felt her actions move for her unresponsive mouth.

A nod.

“Very well then, I shall take what you have left. ‘Yourself’.” She wasn’t sure what made her say it, but she felt compelled to ask and it felt ‘right’.

“Why me?”

The silhouette didn’t move for a while before responding.

“Because I am curious about the answer as well…” then the silhouette turned almost as if to walk away as its outline dissipated into the air, but before it did, it added her name as if in an afterthought, “…Luce.” And the smoke disappeared.

Was that her name?
   
Before she could dwell on it further, a sensation like she was burning and her skin was being seared suddenly shot from her left shoulder to the center of her chest.  It was excruciating.  Her legs buckled underneath her involuntarily and she crumpled to the floor on her back.  The pain was so great she couldn’t even scream.

And then suddenly the darkness overtook her vision and the pain subsided.  

She felt like she had done this before.  She was so tired and heavy with the inability to move or even open her eyes.  The feel of cement seemed familiar against her back like she had become used to lying on it.  

It felt like a repeat of something she did before.  

However, this time instead of waiting and absorbing what was happening, the girl forced opened her tired blue eyes.  Sitting up slowly she looked around.

Where the hell was she?

A sensation like déjà vu flashed through her as she thought of those words, but although the situation felt like it, her surroundings did not seem familiar at all.  Dilapidated and crude lodgings assaulted her eyes.  The lighting was dim and the ground didn’t even seem to be paved or have a sturdy foundation in general.  If there were a couple of words she could use to describe this place, it was, ‘the slums’.

Standing up on wobbly legs, she realized she had been lying down on the outcropping of a tiered apartment of sorts.  Spying a ladder, she decided to explore the area.

Her mind told her to keep away from being seen by people, and she decided to do just that when she started receiving terrified and pointed stares from the few citizens she did pass.  It was in an alley passing by a puddle did she actually stop and take a look at herself in its reflection.

The girl was quite shocked.  The face she had seen in the photograph looked back at her, worse for wear with tired eyes and pale skin.  Her black thigh lengthened jacket was tattered as was her shirt, but what she saw next was almost unfathomable to her.
 
Blood covered almost the whole of her black shirt.  There was a long rip where it seemed all of it seeped from, as the almost completely red soak stain seemed to indicate.  Peeling the fabric a little she revealed a scar.

It was a thick jagged bloody scar that crossed from her left shoulder over her collarbone to the center of her chest.

She didn’t recognize it at all.  Try as she might she couldn’t conjure the memories, however the color red seemed to stir a myriad of emotions.

Distrust, fear, aversion, and pain the most prominent.

She wanted to rip off the shirt and run away from it as if was the most horrible thing she had seen, but refrained instead to cover her eyes with her hand.  Her confused thoughts were broken by a sudden sound at the other opening of the alley.  She snapped her head to detect the noise of intrusion.

It was a figure, partially illuminated by the dim light.  It seemed to be male from the body type, but she couldn’t discern the face as his upper portion was covered in shadow.  He seemed to be in some sort of dark uniform with baggy pants that tucked into combat boots and gloves that matched.

Apprehension shot through her, and her mind screamed to run.

The two watched each other as if in some sort of frozen trance.  Then the figure slowly took a step forward, and that was that.

She shot away in a sudden spurt of adrenaline.

The figure watched in apparent shock before running after her fleeing form.

“Elliot!” It seemed as if the words were directed at her.

“Elliot, wait!!” The voice kept shouting after her as if in desperation.

But she wasn’t Elliot.

“Elliot, please!  Don’t run!” She kept running, dipping in-between alleys.

“Elliot!” The voice seemed to fade as she ran farther away.

Panting, she sharply turned and hid behind a small shack.  Sweat dripping from her face, mingling with the blood on her body.

She wasn’t Elliot, and yet…

It felt right, but also wrong.

She wasn’t Elliot.

Was she?

Her head reeled in confusion and exhaustion, thoughts ticking a mile a minute unable to understand what was going on.  The only thing that felt familiar was the…

The feeling of being lost.