Born of starlight and shadows

~Part twenty seven: Maria~

"Are you lost?" a soft, kind voice asked.

Maria blinked. "I-"

"It's okay if you are," the voice said. "I know I am."

The fog that had filled her vision departed, revealing a girl. A girl with long, waist-length, golden hair-like Rapunzel, Maria thought when she saw its color.

It was difficult to guess her age. She looked as though she could be anywhere from...she took a guess...fourteen years old to maybe seventeen at the very oldest. Those eyes were what threw her off. They were bright green and sparkled even though there was no light around. And something about them seemed made the girl seem older.

She wore a long, tattered gray shirt that looked as though it had once been long-sleeved, and gray tattered pants. Both were made of a thin material and seemed at least a couple of sizes too small for the girl. She didn't wear any shoes, either.

"What's your name?" Maria asked. "And...who are you?"

The girl smiled almost wistfully. "Something about the letter B, but I can't think of what it is. It doesn't seem quite right, though."

She shrugged, apparently unconcerned. "That doesn't matter, not now, does it?"

"Oh, yes," her eyes brightened. "Who I am..."

She frowned. "Well. I thought I remembered. That's okay, though, what matters is that I'm here now."

She turned to Maria. "With you, apparently. What's your name?"

"Maria," she said. "Maria...my last name, it starts with a w, but I can't..."

She was gripped with a sudden panic. "I can't remember my last name!"

"And...and, my sister, her name, it starts with an 'S!' S-Sarah, S...oh, no, I can't-"

Maria looked at the other girl in a wild panic.

"I can't remember my sister's name!"

The girl frowned. "I think I had a sister, too. But something happened to her..."

She got a faraway look in her eye and pain seemed to cloud her face, effectively distracting Maria. "And then, what came after..."

She shook her head, as if to clear it. "Something happened. Something bad happened. There was someone I was supposed to protect, a lot of pain, but I can't think of what it was. I don't want to think about it."

She looked at Maria. "I think what I want is to remember. To remember who I am. I don't know how you got here, with me, but I think I've been stuck here, in this blank-"

"If you start singing Taylor Swift-" Maria interrupted, finding something random and ordinary to bring up all of a sudden.

The girl frowned. "I don't...oh, right, that song. That's what you're talking about."

She gave a quick nod, as if confirming that to herself.

"Anyway, I...I think I've been stuck her, for-" she looked at Maria, who was struck once again by the girl's eyes.

They really were mesmerizing.

And now they had a raw emotion written across them, which scared Maria. The girl looked genuinely afraid.

"I think it's been a while," the girl finished quietly. "Some part of me is scared, but I can't remember why. It was something important, but something scary. I think that's why I can't remember why-I'm too afraid. And, the thing is, I was all alone, here, in this strange world-"