From the Vast

Chapter 20: Misery

"Ayyy, morning Aria! How'd the night treat ya?"

Sprout's voice filled the dimly lit clinic room, its only other occupant immediately perking up at the sound.

"^It went... splendid.^"

"~Good morning Mrs. Aria!~"

The notebook full of scribbles was temporarily discarded as Anne smiled at the Gardevoir, one functional arm waving as well as it could.

"^Anne.^"

The single word sent an icy dread down the girl's body, sounding completely unlike what she'd known of the Gardevoir. Before Anne could speak up and ask about what was wrong, she saw Aria slowly turn her head towards her.

Her empty eye sockets were enveloped in a fierce crimson glow.

Anne's breath was choked out of her lungs as a psychic force she couldn't comprehend, let alone fight pinned her to the bed. She wanted to scream as her joints were being forcefully pushed way outside of their range; each crack and excruciating jolt from inside her body forcefully silenced.

"^I've humored you for far too long. Fortunately, I don't have to do so anymore. Soon enough, you'll be out of here, and everything will go back to how it was before.^"

The words hurt even more intensely than her body being mangled, every single dagger of a word stabbing deep inside her mind.

"^Did you seriously think you were safe here? That you could ever be safe here? You're a filthy nuisance Anne, and us granting you as much mercy as we have is a mistake on our part.^"

Sprout watched idly from the corner, a forced smile splitting her head wide open.

"^Nobody here ever cared for you. Not me, not Marco, not any of my children. Cadence hates you and would love to do every single thing you were afraid of her doing, and Elric...^"

Bones snapped with a squelching sound as Aria's bloody expression was twisted into a mockery of a smile.

"^If he sees you again, he won't hesitate using that stinger of his to the absolute best effect.^"

The pain was blinding, Anne only conscious by the sheer force of Aria's will as her mind was being violated and cleaved apart; every single source of happiness surgically removed.

"^Ember never loved you. She will forget about you, and she'll be so much happier for it.^"

Crimson light flooded the room, filling it up to the Gardevoir's ankles.

"^But no need to worry, you loathsome thing. After all...^"

Aria's face cleaved open into thirteen maws of razor-sharp teeth, what remained of her flesh hanging limply underneath them.

"^YOU'LL DIE FOR THE GREATER GOOD, AND YOU SHOULD BE THANKFUL FOR THAT.^"

A tight embrace snapped Aria out of her screams, the hellish vision dissolving immediately.

Her throat was raw, her body wracked with tremors. She had no idea what had just happened or how; her consciousness full of images of nigh-incomprehensible suffering she just watched herself inflict without being able to stop it. With each passing moment, though, another sensation took up more and more of the space left behind by her nightmare, one so much more familiar.

So much more comforting.

"Aria, honey, what happened!?"

Garret's voice was more alarmed than she'd ever heard it be. She knew how he sounded when he shook in uncertainty or anxiety, but this wasn't like either of those. This was terror, the kind still clinging to the wrinkles of her mind despite her attempts to shake them off.