Two young girls explore a shattered world, filled with sound: a past to be uncovered...
Each awakens in this blank, ruin-dotted world to discover that she is equally blank, remembering nothing of what came before.
And then they make a second discove...
It had been a while, and so she'd grown confident.
In the time since she began she'd explored much of this glass and mirror world, and she'd gathered countless shards. Like an unending scarf they formed around her neck and trailed long behind her. Now, she stood atop a fallen tower and looked out ahead with a smile. The terrible memories of other places twisted behind her menacingly.
She was gazing at a place that had always caught her eye, but she'd refrained from ever going toward it. It was some sort of distant labyrinth turning into the sky with insane geometry. Of course, it was more glass. Of course, she could feel its filth pulsing all the way out here.
Although she still had no idea how to go about it, she intended to be rid of the terrible fragments that followed her eventually. To that end she was gathering them. She at least took comfort in having the bad all in one place. That would make clearing it away one day all the more easier. This labyrinth was particularly bad, and she felt confident in gathering its fragments too.
The maze was surrounded by a glittering and ever-shifting sea of good memories. As she made her way toward the maze, the sea parted, only a few shards coming to join the trail behind her. However, while walking the path and scattering the good shards she suddenly hesitated. Now flanked by hope, with despair before her, she chewed on her lip... and her heart wavered.
Once upon a time, surely, things had to have been better.
The girl remembered nothing, and since awaking in the world of glass she'd only ever known other memories. Because of this, she'd drawn many conclusions and had few second thoughts. She'd been assured of the idea that nothing in the glass and nothing in this world held any worth. Filth and awfulness, tears and pain, a small smile, and death.
But once upon a time, things had to have been better. Simple rules are often true: shadows are begotten from light. Shadow lurked at her back, and now she was surrounded by light.
When she'd stepped into these waves of joy and purity, she hadn't given it a second thought. She'd become so absorbed in evil that she had forgotten simple good. To be honest it was more than her heart simply wavering, now. She was overwhelmed. For every glint of hope that caught her eye on the way to the jagged maze, she paused and questioned everything. There was an answer she did not want to acknowledge, immersed in this scene of light and chaos. She didn't want to think about it. She wouldn't allow herself to think about it.
And, before she really could, she stood before the entrance to the impossible labyrinth.
On impulse, she reached out to the better glass and memories of flowering fields came to follow around her in a ring. She didn't know why, nor if they would help.
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She didn't know it, but she had a name. If she knew it, perhaps she wouldn't have entered the twisted black maze. It may have been a meaningful name that may have made her doubts much stronger. But she didn't know, she ground her teeth, and she reaffirmed her beliefs. The light from before would not shake her, the light of the flower ring would not shake her. She entered the dark structure and started tearing it apart.
Each wall pulled away was made of misery, each facet held horrors, and the corners were comprised of fear. This was a castle of iniquity. Simply put, it was grotesque. It was powerfully grotesque.
And that girl, her grin returned. This was it. Climbing through it, running through it, this was the kind of disgusting monolith that had compelled her into action in the first place. She hadn't been wrong. The glass should only be shattered. The mirrors should only be destroyed.
And as she gleefully pulled away great swathes of the maze, hallways tumbling into the air, her smile became warped. She winced; something was wrong with her head. At the heart of the maze, there was *something* worse than any memory before. She could feel it, close now, calling to her. Her enthusiasm had drained, and her progress had slowed, and she saw a wicked shard of glass turning in space, containing the memory of the end of a world.
With a hand on her face, she looked into the mirrored world. She remembered the sea of pleasant realities below her and the flowers now circling around her. She'd taken down part of the maze's roof and the walls had subsequently fallen away. Dark glass rained slowly around her, and in the distance the better memories shone brightly.
She looked into the end of the world between her fingers. She swallowed, and with newfound strength, removed the hand from her face. She reached out, and dragged the end of the world into her collection of memories. With this monolith toppled, she felt an honest and genuine surge of bliss. However terrible the memories she faced from now on would be, it couldn't possibly matter. She was certain now that she was strong, and she would definitely destroy them all. And so, with a genuine smile and a tired laugh, she came down from the sky, and the tower along with her, landing after with power flowing through her and a mere ruin behind her and so marching forth with unwavering certainty: that of a hero's conviction.
