Every one of her nerves had lit up with a scream of pain. She remembered seeing white, gasping for air, but her entire body went out like a broken light bulb, and then everything was black.However, she got her gasp, standing up much too fast. She could barely feel the ground beneath her, and her eyes were having trouble adjusting to being open. As she got up, she took a fighting stance, taking shallow breaths, feeling a step away from being a wild animal.
It took a few, excruciatingly slow moments to realize her eyes had already adjusted - she was just in a pitch black, seemingly endless, indeterminate place.
"There you are!" That annoying voice.
She whipped around to see a little girl, dressed in stark white robes. She was peering up at Ari through thick black bangs of hair.
Ari let out an annoyed tch. "I don't have time for this. What the hell is going on?"
The girl stepped closer. She was fully visible, as if surrounded by lights, but she cast no shadow in the blackness. Her expression was one that mirrored Ari's own - pouted lips, scrunched nose and furrowed eyebrows. However, the little girl's eyes were wide.
"You're... really cool. I can't believe I grow up to-"
"You don't grow up to do anything! YOU DIED!" Ari stamped her foot, her words coming out in the whiniest voice she had ever produced.
"That's what you keep saying. That's what you've always been saying." The child said in a low growl. "I know-"
Ari shook her head wildly, clawing at her hair. "Don't- don't talk to me- just stop-"
"You always wanted a second chance. You thought it was so unfair, the life we were given. And when a better one was gifted to you, wrapped in a NEAT LITTLE BOW-"
"I have to- I have to wake up-"
"LOOK AT ME!" The girl ran closer and slapped Ari as hard as she could master. The woman gasped, falling back down hard. She kept her eyes low, unable to make eye contact with the child. Her white robes stepped ever closer, piercing through Ari's shelter of hair.
"No... I..."
"I'm you." The word caused a physical pain in Ari's head. The same she had felt when she activated the Drive.
A thousand flashes from that night, from her childhood before the fire, all jutted their way into her closed eyes.
Ari kept her eyes shut, crawling on the floor of the void she was in, as if physically trying to get away from the memories.
It's not like she had forgotten who she was. There had been enough in the blur, enough that her body itself remembered, for her to always be somewhat aware of who she was. But even after having the visions of her own past unlocked by Falter's Drive, she refused to accept them. She felt as she had felt for the past fifteen years.
YOU ARE READING
FALTER
Mystery / Thriller"Do you remember what we used to say?" "Never falter." "Yeah. Forever after." When a familiar cult emerges from the shadows of Youth City, underground rockstar Imti has to choose between hiding his demons behind a mask or finally facing everyone bur...
