Colors in the Dark

[48] Return

Everything was white, and everything was silent. Still, it was mostly dark, save for one flickering light by the door, one that had been shut hours earlier.

The redhead girl sprawled across the floor, whose amber eyes had just fluttered open, let out a small groan. Her thin body, dressed only in a worn gray nightgown that now had a few bloodstains on it, was deathly pale; the skin of her arms and legs was covered in fresh, crisscrossing scars, many of which were dotted in patches of dried blood.

At least the flicking images of monsters that had stayed on the edge of her vision had finally disappeared. Her body was sore, but had since recovered from the paralyzing effect of Torment.

Slowly, she clenched her hands into fists, testing to make sure she could move properly before sitting up. Her body was shaking from the cold and the stinging pain, a few tears welling up in her eyes. There weren't even any windows in the room to give her an idea of what time of day it was.

The young girl didn't trust herself to stand, instead curling into herself as she rocked back and forth, leaning her head onto her knees as her body was wracked by choked sobs. It was the only sound that broke the silence, but it did nothing to make it less suffocating.

It was a while before she calmed down fully, having let out all the tears her battered body could conjure. Instead, she hugged herself tighter, the only words of comfort being murmured by the small blots of color hovering over her face; blue, orange, red, and pink.

Not too long after, she suddenly heard the faint sound of a door creaking open from behind the Solitary Confinement door, then the sound of footsteps and whispers so quiet she couldn't tell if she imagined them. She froze, her first though being that her "caretaker" had come to get her, but she was proven wrong when the footsteps stopped outside the door.

"Be quick and quiet! Bring her back as soon as you can; the others will have things ready upstairs! I got the door, so go!"

There was an affirmative grunt before the white door in front of her was slowly opened with a creak. She breathed a sigh of relief as the figure stepped into the light, a stark contrast from the dark walls and pitch black staircase leading down to the pure white room.

That figure turned out to be a golden-eyed teenager with puffy, shoulder-length teal hair. "Hey there, Aya..."

"Tomomi...," she replied, smiling up at the familiar, kind face. "I..."

"Don't worry about it, little one. We're here to get you; don't worry, everyone else is asleep," they replied, bending down to pick the young ginger up. She leaned into the embrace as she was lifted and carried toward the door, noticing a worried-looking Hayako holding the door open, gently closing it behind her as they walked up the stairs.

Once the three reached the top, she immediately noticed Kaname keeping watch outside the door, the faint glow of her The Star tattoo revealing it was active. The peace-inducing ability of that arcana was perfect for guarding, the silver-haired girl had told her before.

She shut the door to the basement and followed them to toward the bedroom, where a blond boy only a few months younger than Kana was had set up a mini-medic station on the nightstand. Tomomi set the girl down, while Hayako volunteered to go find her some clean clothes.

Kana sighed as she stared at her younger sister. "Oh Aya... Things were going so well for you. Did another one appear?"

The girl nodded slowly, wincing as Ataeru began to tend to her wounds, applying a wet rag to her cuts and cleaning off the blood. "It was villains again... They robbed a store where my foster family was, and then suddenly another one was there, and I got sent back. H-his name's Deimos; he can make things out of people's fears, but it's only made Mother Kaibutsu's demon taunts more accurate," she sniffled.