Realm of the Mad God: Novel

Chapter I

You are a child of this realm.
Eternally blinded by ignorant truths,
Oblivious to the peripheral existence
Untold from this dreamless cycle.
...You are a child of this realm.

"...Life."

The girl resting upon the bed suddenly opened up her eyes and nearly jumped to her feet. She looked at her surroundings and saw nothing familiar of this room; it was made of wood (including the walls and ceiling), and a flame-lit candle rested on the desk beside her bed. Placed upon the walls were various housework tools, including rakes and shovels and brooms; there was a sack of hay lying beside the door. To the right of her bed was a small, low-roofed corner where a window resided directly above her head.

"Hello," said a voice that came from nearby. The girl turned her head to see the door to this room open, and in came a tall woman with curly brown hair and gray eyes; she was dressed in blue robes.

"What is your name?" the woman asked.

The girl lying upon the bed shuddered. "I...I don't know," she answered. "I can't remember anything." She closed her eyes, and began to think back to...whatever had happened before she woke up inside this strange room. Fragments of memories pieced themselves together to form various (and random) trains of thoughts, of old homes and familiar neighbourhoods and a somewhat distant recollection of people that seemed, in the past, to be like friends.

She felt in her head a strange, swollen blackness; something about her memory was missing. A part of the past had been taken away from her, yet this past felt so distant, so unconscious, that it seemed almost like...it had taken place in some other form of reality. Nothing of what she was able to recall appeared in a clear and coherent manner; but eventually she became aware of a word, some word that she had been called throughout her whole life. It was...what was it the woman asked for again? Ah, yes. A name.

"Oh, sorry," the girl said. "My name...it's Claire."

"Claire," the old woman responded. "I'm Kathleen. Nice to meet you." She stretched out her hand, and Claire nervously shook it.

"Where am I?" Claire asked. "And why can't I remember...anything?"

"Welcome to the Realm," Kathleen said, nodding her head.

"The Realm? What?"

"You don't know what the Realm is?" Kathleen responded. She smiled and began to back away from Claire. "Then you will find out soon enough." She slowly walked towards the door leading out of the room.

"Wait!" Claire yelled. "Where are you going?"

"To the outside, where the Realm is. I hope to see you again!"

Claire sat upon the bed with a confused look upon her face. What was that all about? Who was that woman? And...why can't I remember anything? Do I have amnesia? What happened to me? And...what is this 'Realm' thing?

She closed her eyes and let her body fall gently back upon the soft bed. Claire began trying to piece back her old memories again, attempting to recall something, anything that would give her an answer to the questions that plagued her head. She tried to think about what happened before she woke up in this room, but could not remember a single thing; the only emotion that she felt was a blackness, an emptiness of some sort taking over her mind. And it began by consuming what remained of those vague thoughts and memories of past consciences, taking them away from her mind's grasp just when she thought that they would fall in place. Those words, those people, those residing in familiarity - they seemed to disappear along with this emotion, leaving nothing behind but emptiness, and her mind felt like a hollow shell.