Reincarnation: Part One- Earth

Prologue- Lost Soul

He was insane.

He knew he was, without the need to have any tests or professional help because sane people did not see monsters on other people's shoulders or so he was told by everyone who knew what he saw, like his parents, siblings, family, friends, and even his teachers. He had run away from all of them a number of times, always returning after spending a few hours or even a few days alone, but they hadn't minded, he could see that in the rare moments he went back in the middle of his run away attempts and watched them through the window in the garden and the one in the study that was also his room. They were all smiling, and they never ever smiled when he was there and that made him sad, and that upset him because he had promised himself that they would never get to him ever again.

Right now, he was back in his alley, the one in which he had stayed in ever since he left that place, and he was staring at the walls and drawing his knees up against his chest and hugging himself and rocking and trying to feel warm. His alley was a dead-end alley, and he liked it because when he turned his back then he could pretend that it was just him and no one else and no monsters existed and that they had never existed and the past seven years had been a dream and he would wake up soon to a happy family and would soon forget everything. He had once had a monster, a miniature one that sat on his left shoulder. When he had realized that it was not supposed to be there he begged it to go away and it did. Wasn't that proof of his insanity, that the delusions went away when he asked them to?

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Eresia intently watched as the man in front of her expertly mixed chocolate chips, a brownie, an Oreo, and M&M's together into her strawberry cheesecake flavored ice cream. She nodded in approval as he scraped the tiny leftover ice cream bits off the stone and into her cup. She took the cone when it was handed to her and immediately ate some, closing her eyes in bliss as the taste spread over her tongue.

"Eresia!" Her guardian, Dan, hissed. Looking up, she realized that everyone in the shop had a euphoric smile. Dan did too, despite his irritation. She gave him a sheepish grin and pulled him towards the door.

"I need to pay." He told her. Nodding she sat down on a chair and eagerly ate her little cup of ball shaped heaven. When he had finished paying, Dan took Eresia's hand and the two of them walked towards their car. Eresia jumped into the backseat, placed her ice cream on the seat next to her, whipped on her seatbelt, and snatched her ice cream back up.

"Don't drop anything on the seat." Dan warned her as he climbed into the driver's seat and started the car. She made a small noise of agreement in her throat as she continued to eat. Sighing, Dan maneuvered the car out of parking and onto the main road, heading home.

It happened when they were stopped in standstill traffic. Dan patiently watched the cars in front of him, waiting for them to move. Eresia, having finished her ice cream sometime back, watched the multitude of ever changing colors out of her window while swinging her legs.

Suddenly, she took off her seatbelt, opened the door, and took off running, towards an unknown destination, slamming the door behind her.

"ERESIA!" Dan yelled; panic taking a hold of him. The cars before him began to move, and he took the opportunity to use the extra space to pull into a side street and park. Barely remembering to lock the car, Dan took off after his wayward charge.

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There was another person in the alley, he could feel it, he didn't even need to turn around to see, and he wondered whether or not it was a guy or a girl and whether they would be his friend, no they wouldn't they would call him insane too, and...

"Hello. My name is Eresia." A pretty, cultured female voice said, interrupting his rambling thoughts. She sounded around his age. She needed to leave before he got his hopes up.

"I'm insane. You should leave." He told her.

There was a pause, and he waited for her to turn and leave, feeling a bit of pain in his heart. 'That's silly' he told himself. 'You don't even know her.' But instead of leaving, he heard laughter. It started as giggles, and gradually turned into a full blown laugh. Irritated, he turned to look at her, seeing that she was doubled over and clutching her stomach. She had pure white hair. Not old woman white, but white gold white. She looked as though she had Russian heritage. Her eyes had tears in them, but it was easy to make out their color. Or, in this case, colors. Her eyes were a deep emerald green with specks of varying size and color. And these specks were all moving and shifting. Their sizes were changing too. It was freaky, but he wasn't scared or panicky. Instead he felt calm. No, he felt happy. He felt like laughing along with the girl and without even realizing it, his lips kicked up in a smile.

Eresia managed to stop laughing, though with difficulty. She didn't know why she found his words so funny, but she didn't question it. She never questioned her instincts or impulses. Squatting down, she studied the boy before her. He looked her age. He was rather scrawny, with chocolate brown hair and eyes, and wore ragged clothes. He didn't smell too bad though, and his teeth were white, not that ugly yellow. So he had access to baths and a toothbrush. So then why was he here? With the way he talked, Eresia could somehow predict that he had had a hard life at home. She was young, but she had a good idea of the evils of the world and was fairly astute.

"Why do you think you're crazy?" She asked. He didn't reply.

"Is it because you see demons on people's shoulders? Because, if that's the reason, then you aren't crazy." She told him. His head snapped up and he stared at her with confusion and curiosity.

"I see them too. You aren't crazy."

He shook his head. He shouldn't get his hopes up. "That just means that you're crazy too."

"But everyone I know sees them too." She told him. He didn't say anything. She knew what he was trying to do, deny himself the luxury of having hope. So she finally said, "Even if we're both crazy, it's pretty unlikely that we both have the exact same delusions, right? Let's go watch people, and if what demon I describe and the one you see don't match, then we're both crazy."

He nodded.

"Okay, let's go! Wait... what's your name?" Eresia asked, remembering she had no idea about him.

"Draven."

She nodded, and they both headed to the open alley. He pointed at a lady with a green warty creature jumping up and down on her shoulder.

"There's a goblin jumping up and down."

"A goblin?"

"They're little green creatures. They don't have all that great of an eyesight, but their ability to sniff things out is amazing. They can also scout things out and are really good at finding yucky food."

"And that one?" Draven asked pointing at another person, wonder shining in his eyes.

That's how Dan found them, Draven pointing out people, and Eresia describing the actions and characteristics of the demon on their shoulder.