Kary found herself in her bedroom, her old mattress, one of the few things she hadn’t had to buy for herself, begging her to stay in there, on top of it, slumbering the day away, even if it knew very well the girl would never do that, for throwing a whole day into the trash bin would benefit no one, and they both knew that. So when Kary groggily got up, massaging her still-sleepy eyes, there was no complaint, no struggle, even though both her body and mind yearned for some rest, the being in charge of them simply ignored their warnings, walking on her tiptoes around her room, changing her clothes as if it were a matter of course. She didn’t have to think much, throwing whatever she had on her drawer on. Was there a dress code in her school? She couldn’t really remember, her mind foggy still, probably because of her lack of sleep. Whatever. Without giving it too much thought, the girl went through her usual routine, eventually finding herself right outside her apartment, in front of school. It was funny how convenient going to school was ever since they moved right to the front of her building. Everyone else still had to use buses or cars, and yet she could just walk out of her ohm and into the school. Yet even though she knew it was quite late already, she found no one in there, only silent whispers beckoning her to keep walking around, in the hopes of finding someone. Perhaps she had missed a memo somewhere saying they had the day off today? No that would be ridiculous, why would they do that? The weather was fine, well, not really, it was raining now, but it was fine before! So it must have been something else, right? But what else could it be?

  Well, that didn’t matter, she just needed to keep walking, keep on pushing forward until everything eventually made sense. But it was strange… no matter how much she walked or which direction she picked, she would always end up on that spot, the equipment storage room she used to hide herself, afraid to go out and stumble upon those nasty folks who were always threatening to do something horrible to her, though what it was she couldn’t really remember. But she could hear their voices, outside, no even trying to be sneaky, tracking to each other loud and clear, garbled mess making its way through the air and into Kary’s ears. She wanted to lean in closer, but she was afraid this time she’d get caught. Realistically, she knew they all probably long knew the girl’s hiding spot and were just trying to force her into staying in there, yet the girl still considered this place to be her safe haven, a place nothing could touch her. Not her mother with her angry fists and foul mouth, not her bullies with their continuous stream of verbal abuse, not the teachers who refused to help even though they were seeing everything go off right in front of their dull faces, no one. It was a tiny cardboard box that locked her up, away from everything that could hurt her, except for her own mind. She tried vain banging on the seemingly fragile walls, tension rising as she fought the wall as it stretched and stretched, her efforts pulling her deeper and deeper into the dark, until there was nothing, no matter where she looked, only pitch black darkness consuming everything. It was a place she knew well, the lonely cold expanse she fled to when things go too much, when everything was too much to bear. There was nothing there, and that was perfect, for that meant nothing could get to her. Everything was fine, everything would be fine, and everyone would leave her alone and then she would be also fine!

  At least that was what she wanted to believe, what she desperately wanted to make happen, to just have somewhere, , where her problems wouldn’t follow her. But they were always there, lurking, patiently waiting for her to give up, whispering in her ears, chanting her defeat, knowing that it was coming. The comfort of darkness slowly fell apart, gnawing at her body, nabbing at her mind, until all that remained was a cadaver of putrid emotions and repressed feelings, crying in the empty space for no one to hear as it watched its tears disappear into nothing as they fell, even that little bit of relief stripped away from it. Even after everything it had tried to do, nothing had worked. Nothing had made it truly happy, or mended its broken heart and its shattered mind. For all intents and purposes, it was dead, it simply refused to accept it. A dead girl desperate to live yet forced to watch as everything she ever build was toppled down over and over and over again, with no regards for her. Of course they didn’t have any regards for her, they thrived on not caring about her well-being, of pushing her down whenever she tried to stand up for herself, of spitting, slapping, shouting, commenting on every little thing she did or not, until every day turned into hell, with its red fiery flames where those horrid hopefully now-decaying corpses would end up, judged and sentenced to a lifetime of pain and torture for what they enacted upon others. But she, , the that was once , the one tormented time and time again by that same little group of people and their demonic smiles,

  wouldn’t be there to watch them burn, to see them suffer for what they had done to her. In this twisted train of thought, they might as well have gone to heaven, since nobody who cared would ever know. Whatever their objectives had been they had succeeded, they had gotten rid of the nuisance that was, though not by their hands, even if she — knew it didn’t really matter who pulled the trigger or when, it was clear for everyone who silently watched butt-stuck to their chairs that it was coming.

  It had never really been a question of if, only a matter of when, and, even though resisted, even though she had tried her best to keep things afloat, she had already sunk. She had been sinking as matter of principle, their only objective, the only thought that permeated their evil little minds, minds that she would never have the opportunity to watch rot on the ground, people she would never see decomposing, insects taking over their remains. She was dead, and the people who had tried their hardest to encourage her into this state were still there, enjoying their lives, uncaring for the tragedy they triggered. On the contrary, instead of uncaring, wouldn’t they be happy, knowing the one people they had sworn to break into tiny pieces and throw them into the sea had already broken herself into tiny mangled pieces of flesh? Why should she even care about them anyway? She was free from them, they would never be a part of her life again, the cancer they had always been gone for… well, not for good, but it had worked in her favor in the end. She had people who cared about her, folks she liked to be around, more than one people who would support her antics. Although the world seemed to be trying to end itself every other day while she was staying on that country-that-had-not-yet-been-named, she was mildly happy, which was miles better than whatever she had going for herself back on Earth. Maybe, just maybe, it would be good for her health if just tried to forget the monsters of the past and keep on trying to purge their ghosts from her life. Not that it would be easy, and they sure as heck didn’t want to be forgotten that easily. They didn’t even want her to be hiding in that storage room no more, banging their sickly hands up the wall, bringing down dust from the ceiling as the whole structure threatened to collapse. At that moment, however, she didn’t really care about it, a soft smile painting her cracked lips as she sat there, letting the whole world fall upon her.

  That same faint smile was the first thing Kary saw upon waking up, tired eyelids struggling to keep themselves open, what little light peeked through burning into her brain and very convincingly trying to encourage it to shut itself down once more. Yet through yawns and stretches the girl eventually came to understand what was going on around her. The being staring down at her with a small, albeit worried smile was, thankfully, not any sort of god far stronger and crazed than she could ever imagine, but the one person who had every reason to smack her across the room yet had not done as such thus far. Sitting on top of the bed she was sleeping in for who knows how long, the ever-diligent Marta stared up at her, trying to see if there was anything wrong with her, with Kary herself looking around the room trying to grasp what had brought her there and how long she had been asleep. Of course, things wouldn’t go that smoothly, as there was seldom a streak of sundry penetrating through the grates of the closed window and shining bright spots on her pale body, making measuring the time virtually impossible. She had questions to ask the maid, questions about what had happened after her untimely fainting and about the country they both resided in, lest she be made fun again by Limo, but no sound was able to leave the premises of her terribly dry mouth, only unintelligible sounds not even the greatest minds racking their brain for hours on end would be able to decipher. Not even Kary was sure was she tried to say, so she could only stare at Marta as she scrunched her face into a grimace worth giving to those knights who had so insistently tried to murder Kary, trying to guess what it was that the poor girl beneath her was trying to tell her.

  Using what little common sense remained after her time serving beneath Asteria, however, the maid came to the conclusion that it would probably be better to give her newish friend some water to quench her thirst before she could jump into wild conclusions, even though she kind of wanted to do it anyway just to see what reaction that would elicit. But alas, her kind heart was too big for these sort of pranks, instead asking the girl to wait as she left the room, leaving the still-shaken girl alone to rearrange her thoughts. Of course, she still remembered when not long ago Kary had completely disregarded her body’s condition to try and wander around the streets, barely lasting even ten minutes before collapsing once more, but there wasn’t anything she could do, or rather, the things she could probably do didn’t really cross her mind at the time, leaving a lone girl to think about everything that happened and everything that had yet to happen as she merrily went to go fetch some water. Why had Limo decided drag her into its domain again besides the fun it brought it? What would happen to this country once the war officially started? Would it even have the troops to protect itself, now that a good chunk of knights, both good ones and brainwashed ones, now lay dead at the doors of the palace? Would be safe amidst all of this? And what about Asteria, with her arguably more dangerous job? At least she would be safe here in the capital, far from the crutches of the evil empire, whatever it was they had done to deserve an insurrection, but Asteria? She would be on the front lines fighting tooth and nail for a country that didn’t particularly love her the same way she loved it.

  Once again, in the fully bad she had grown quite fond of, Kary was reminded of her stark weakness, kept the same throughout the kidnapping and brainwashing shitshow she front seats for, as there was no way for her to leave the city without alerting the guards, which wouldn’t be very good, neither for herself nor for the image of Asteria, and so she kept herself quiet, doing odd jobs that weren’t inherently bad, but at the end of the day didn’t really do much for her strength, though a source of steady income would always be appreciated. But she was getting ahead of herself. After all, she didn’t even know if she would be allowed to leave the manor to do anything, for that decision fell on the hands of Marta, who had been forced time and time again to watch as Kary threw herself into danger for no apparent reason. Now, she could try to justify her actions, but she wasn’t quite sure how she could possibly do that without convincing the maid that she shouldn’t be let loose in the world. Even worse was the fact that she could feel how spent she was, despite her unknown amount of sleep, so she knew she wouldn’t be able to go anywhere even if she wanted to, staying right there on her bed until her body gave the green light for her to go around into the wild again. Even though it was completely her fault she ended up in such a pitiful state, it felt bad to not be able to do the things she would usually do, instead relaying on others in order for her to simply function like a normal human being. But hey, at the very least she would get to spend more time with the people that had been so warmly taking care of her for all this time in the absence of their master, addressing her with some level of respect, though not enough that it would make the conversations uncomfortable, always showing her patience whenever she insisted on doing something stupid, always being there to answer whatever doubts she might have… at this point, the girl couldn’t help but wonder where in the world Asteria had managed to get such incredible employees. This, though, would have to wait until the knight herself was back from wherever she had been sent, or until Kary gathered enough courage to directly ask the people she was curious about, though that wouldn’t happen anytime soon.

  As Kary went on with her nigh-meaningless rants inside of her own head, Marta made its way back into the room, delicately opening and closing the door so as to not startle the weak girl residing inside, bringing with her a wooden tray sporting a wooden cup filled to the brim with clear water and a bread that looked surprisingly tasty, with its odd round shape and a golden sheen that gave it an almost divine aspect, even though Kary knew very well there was no way a god would bother baking bread for a mere mortal like her to taste it. Well, now thinking about it, Kary didn’t know many gods at all, after all, besides Limo, she hadn’t really had the chance to sit down and have a chat with any hoer deity. She didn’t even know how common it was for people to talk with gods! For all Kary knew, it was entirely possible, albeit still highly unlikely, that people communicated with gods all the time, and that because it was so commonplace nobody had yet bothered to question Kary about whether or not she could talk with those gear beings. The more likely theory was that, of course, gods did occasionally interact with the mortal plane, but preferred to stay in their respective domains doing whatever they had to do in order to reverent the universe from collapsing in and on itself. Still, the girl couldn’t get her eyes out of the bread now sitting in front of her, mouth barely containing the drool threatening to escape as an exasperated Marta could only watch in amusement from the side, a barely disguised smile flourishing on her lips, now that she knew Kary was well enough to be tamed by bread. Before the girl on the bed risked getting herself injured further by trying to pounce at the bread, the maid slowly turned her head to Kary, who had yet to take her eyes out of the golden food piece, and gave the permission her friend had been so eagerly waiting.

  “Alright, alright, don’t need to look at it like it’s going away, girl. You can eat it, but don’t push yourself too hard, okay? I don’t want to have to drag you back to bed… again. So please take some care of yourself, alright? Do we have a deal?” Knowing there wasn’t really a choice here, Kary simply nodded her head, throat still drier than asphalt during a heatwave, her hands already moving towards the bread, before being rudely interrupted by Marta once again.

  “No, no, no, you don’t get to eat our special bread until you’ve drank all that water in the cup besides it. We can’t have you eating dry food like that without wetting your poor body, right? That would simply be too cruel! So drink up, its for your own good.” With an almost imperceptible sigh, Kary moved the hand that was already well on its way towards the bread in the direction of the cup, drinking up the water in big, almost desperate gulps as her body begged her to keep on sending water downwards, to quench the dehydration that had set after gods know how many days sleeping. Considering how her body was reacting to nothing more than a singular cup of water, Kary doubted how short of a time frame she had spent fast asleep. But that didn’t matter right now, what mattered was that the crushing thirst she had been feeling since waking up had diminished quite a lot, though not in its entirety, and the bread she had yet to ear looked more appetizing than ever. Without even bothering with the fact that there was nothing but fluffy bread inside to complement the taste, Kary started useriously gnawing at it, barely even registering something a teeny tiny bit crunchier than the bread, her still exhausted brain dismissing as a mere figment of her overstimulated imagination or something put in there to enhance the flavor of the bread. After all, it wasn’t hard enough to raise any alarm bell in her system, though her face recognized the strange texture all the same, contracting into a subtle grimace, not subtle enough to hide itself from the trained eyes of Marta, who had been quietly watching the girl eat from the side, her face lighting up ever so slightly more as she got the feedback she had been waiting for.

  Before long, Kary had already forgotten whatever it was that had been placed amidst the soft fluff of the now-gone bread, satisfaction irradiating from her every pore, her brain exerting itself just a little more to keep her well awake, muscles feeling a little less stiff. It was a magical moment, so much so that post-bread Kary wouldn’t even be that avert to the idea of gods baking bread and sending it to her. Sadly, that positive atmosphere couldn’t hold for long, as there were many things to discuss, none of which would be as palatable as the golden, crispy bread she had just eaten. Shaking her head to free herself from the bread that kept on placing itself in the middle of her thoughts, the girl turned to Marta, who thankfully had yet to go away to do her duties, staying there on the edge of the bed, caring for the girl who oh so keenly displayed her stupidity every time it was an option. Guilt, that was the word Kary was searching, what she was feeling towards the always helpful maid she had inadvertently bound to herself because of her own selfishness. As Kary fought for the words she wanted to say, a deep chasm cracking open between her serene-looking body and the mess that was her mind, all the while the subject of this sudden crisis kept on staring at the pale girl, her playful smile never fading from her lips, eyes slightly upturned as she patiently waited for Kary to make her move, whatever it may be.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  “Thank you.” The girl said fist and foremost, her voice leaving in a slightly hoarser note than she had intended, the throat still anxiously waiting for the next batch of fluid. “Thank you for everything you did and have been doing for me since I got myself fainting out there. I… I don’t know what would happen to me if you hadn’t brought me back home… So thank you.” It felt good, to sincerely be able to say this, to not be coerced into gratitude in order to soften the eventual blow or because there were people looking, just a simple thank you straight from the heart. It was weird, after all, that wasn’t really something she had grown used to doing, but it felt liberating nonetheless. Staring at the happy girl in front of her, Marta let out an exasperated sigh, playfully rubbing her temples, an ever growing grin quietly spreading across her face.

  “Why thank you… but it isn’t as if I did anything extraordinary, y’know? I mean… what else would I do in that situation? Leave you and your cute face out there, ready to be kidnapped by evil maids like me?”

  “Well, you could have just left me there, and you didn’t, and now I’m here, well and good, so thank you for that.”

  “Come on, girl, stop with that, else I might want to snatch you away for real. It was just basic decency, nothing special, nothing worth of so much gratitude. You better save up your thank-yous for when you do need it, instead of spending them all at once on this one lovely maid.” Hearing that, Kary found herself unable to keep her straight face, a singular laugh multiplying itself until the room was filled with her soft, yet slightly hoarse laughter, every last bit of tension still lingering in the air dissipating as if exorcised on the spot, the girl herself staring surprised at the walls bouncing back the almost carefree joy she had seldom ever experienced in her life. If she could, she would make this one moment last forever, a snapshot of short-lived bliss that she wanted to preserve forever and ever and revisit whenever she needed it, not just a fleeting memory, bound to fade and deteriorate, distort and blur together and at last lose all meaning altogether, but as a picture of reality that she could simply hop on and revisit whenever she felt she was needing some encouragement to keep on going. But alas, even if there was some sort of magic spell that did precisely what she was envisioning, she certainly didn’t know it, and, although she couldn’t be sure about the people around her, she had a hunch none of them would know it either, meaning all she could do was sigh and let the flame of this moment slowly dwindle away as the invisible flame of time slowly consumed her fuse.

  “Thanks anyways, Marta.” Kary said, almost as if she had failed to hear the maid’s last sentence, the smile on her face the only thing hinting at the fact that she had, in fact, simply chosen to ignore it, her shining eyes staring right past Marta and into the sky outside, with such intensity that the woman being stared at couldn’t help but feel like a deer in front of headlights, head spinning as she tried to understand what it was that had suddenly made the frail girl sitting on the bed in front of her look at her as if she was trying to bore a hole through her body. Attributing it to some other of the many peculiarities that surrounded Kary, she simply chose to try and ignore it as best as she could, thinking that in the absolute worst case scenario she could simply think about it later. Still, it was quite the challenge to ignore those red piercing eyes that refused for even an instant to leave the shape of Marta, focused, waiting for something, though what it was exactly was a mystery for the maid. She thought, and thought, and though a bit more, pondering about what the girl was waiting from her, what it was that

  “Will you stop if I accept your thanks?”

  “Yes.”

  “So I shall graciously accept your utmost thanks, my dear friend.”

  Just then, a faint sound began to make its way inside the room, a male voice, powerful, aggressive, though dulled by the thick walls that separated speaker and listener. Still, it was loud enough that Kary, as fragile as she was in that moment, could still understand that

  was being said, and she, of course, wanted to take a peek at what exactly it was. Before she could even utter a word, however, Marta made her move, playfully shoving her back down into her soft bed and leaving the room, a teasing smile on her lips as she gently closed the door behind her. Knowing things would only get worse for her body should she try to recklessly move around, what little sense of self-preservation she still had holding her back and comfy in the bed. For now, she could only guess what in the world it was that was being shouted with such fervor outside that even her could somewhat hear it, though in her opinion it could be a bit louder still, then she wouldn’t need to even think about going elsewhere, the message someone was so passionately delivering also making its way into her ears. But alas, perhaps it was not meant to be, the sound waves coming just short of presenting the girl comprehensive sentences, instead of the jumbled, undecipherable mess. For now, she could only wait and see what Marta would do. Hopefully she would be back soon. It was solitary, to be left alone alone with the many thoughts swirling around her head just after being graced with the presence, with the company, of another person, someone who was willing to engage with her, entertain her antics, who laughed at whatever meaningless stuff that left her mouth. Now, though? Stuck in this prison of fluff, forcing herself to stay alert as otherwise she might once again fall asleep, everything that she had been keeping at bay, every thought she had been trying to keep hidden, tucked away somewhere far away inside of her own brain, came flooding, a raging stream of thought occupying every space and crevice they could creep their way into, planting doubts and questions, fears and traumas, all of which she knew were far-fetched, things that would hardly ever happen, but still they plagued her mind, still they darkened her world, the room becoming colder — or was it just her? —, lights dimming as the motionless girl drowned in her own head.

  Was she being a bother, with everything she had been doing, everywhere she had been running around? Did Marta and the rest even like her, or were they just keeping up the facade in order to please Asteria? Speaking of which, was she even alive? Was there any way of knowing? What would happen to her, to the workers, to the manor, if Asteria did indeed die? Would she be left alone again, fending for herself in this wild world where monsters ran wild, both animals and humans. Why was she even thinking about this again? Hadn’t she talked about it with Limo? Didn’t it refuse to answer? Wasn’t that already a confirmation of the worst? Did it even matter what she thought? Even if she was alive, Asteria wouldn’t be back any time soon. Shouldn’t she think about herself first? About her injury? About whatever was going on outside? Was it important? If it was, though, Marta would probably do something. Hopefully. But would she really? Although they had known each other for some time now, was it okay to trust her? Not because Marta was a bad person, no no no, if the person she presented herself to be in front of Kary was even the slightest bit like her real self, that hyperactive maid was nothing less than wonderful person. The question was not that, but whether or not Kary herself was okay trusting someone like that. Could she put her faith on someone else like that? Was it okay to let herself fall, trusting the maid would be there to catch her? Was she too personal with her? Or was she too distant? How would she even know that? Asking? Out of question, now way. Should she go away, once things settle down? Go see more of the world, the big vastness she had yet to experience. Then she wouldn’t be a burden, right? She wouldn’t be a problem anymore, no one but herself would have to suffer with her messy little head. Maybe she should even go away as soon as she was healed, wars be damned. It was hard, to be seen as a burden, even if nobody said it aloud, even if no one consciously thought that, Kary knew she was a burden, and that knowledge pressing down on her with every step she took, she wanted to escape it, its crushing weight, pinning her down. But wouldn’t leaving now be a massive disrespect towards every last bit of goodwill she had been shown ever since she had been saved by Asteria?

  The old door creaked open, its witch-like laugh filling the room snuffing the endless screaming of raging thoughts flailing around her mind, little whispers still gnawing at her gray matter as her attention was in one go pulled from the depths of her mind and again into the outside world. Slowly she felt the colors returning, the warmth, the sounds, the distant noises of the still going perhaps-proclamation, dullness breaking apart as all the living, breathing reality all around her pushed the noisy thoughts back down into the depths they had crawled from. The hand that gripped the door knob was then complimented by a leg, a head, a torso, and then Marta was in front of her, whatever she had been carrying with her left at the doorstep as she stared straight into the girl’s face, worry seeping into her expression.

  “Are you okay? What happened?” That was also what Kary wanted to know. Why was she sweating so much, her heart pumping like it was trying to get her out of the way of a predator, her body heavy as if she had ingested lead, breathing shallow and ragged as if she had just ran a marathon? Well, she knew why. She had gone to school, what little free time she had used to search useless facts and information she would never get to use. But still, why now, of all times? When things were going well, when she had even met people she would dare call friends, why now of all times ? Even as she stared back at Marta, heart still racing, sweat still dripping down her face and limbs, she still couldn’t understand the . After a while, how big of a while still to be decreed by the broken passage of time in the featureless halls of her mind, some small semblance of calmness returned to her body, muscles tingling from the draining adrenaline ready for a fight already lost, before there was ever a chance for it to be fought, limbs numb, from what she didn’t know, feeling as if she had been pressing down on them for quite a while. Staring motionless at the ceiling, Kary could feel that static-like sensation permeating through her flesh, down to her insides. Every move she could make a spectacle of self-harm just waiting for its start, Kary and Marta its spectators, a weird pain that didn’t hurt but was felt all the same, almost an afterthought of a thought that never was, drifting through her mind before lodging themselves in her body. It hurt and it felt like nothing and she knew there was nothing she could do about it now and she hated herself for it. The girl could feel her body trying to move away from Marta’s touch as she reached for her forehead, trying to sense her temperature, but her body, poor thing, exhausted and tired, barely managed to twitch before giving in to the warm hand whose back gently pressed against her head.

  “No fever… hm… I wonder what it is… Should we call a doctor?” Hearing these words, Kary half-snapped out of her daze, ignoring her numb body as she quickly moved her head from side to side, before letting letting out a long sigh, shoving the conflicting thoughts piling inside her brain into a corner for her to think later, attempting to at the very least regain some control over herself. In a soft small, almost hoarse voice that betrayed her words, Kary tried answering the maid still staring intently at her, legs ready to move as soon as she had the evidence the pale girl in front of her was indeed in need of a doctor and simply wanted to admit it.

  “I'm okay, really. There’s no need for a doctor, I just need to rest more.”

  “Tired people don’t begins sweating out of nowhere, Kary.”

  “That was just…”

  “Just?”

  “I — I’m not sure.”

  “So you will be seeing a doctor. You clearly need it. Look at the state you’re in! Can you look me in the eyes and say you’re fine?”

  “Not really, no…” Kary answer, annoyance once again rising in her heart as time and time again she had shown herself unable to understand the girl called Kary. She tried and tried all her life, and even now she was trying to understand everything that was wrong with her, everything that wrong about her, her strengths, qualities, faults, and yet out of the blue she found herself being played like a fiddle by a self she didn’t know resided inside of her. If frustrating was the nice way to put it, then infuriating would be the not-so-nice way to describe the feeling the swelled withing Kary, boiling slowly inside of her, an interior she didn’t know, a mind about which she didn’t know enough, even though it was her, even though it had always been hers, sometimes she found herself looking at a stranger. A body all to similar to hers, but a face she couldn’t recognize, who held secrets she had never been made aware of, crawling just under her skin, waiting patiently for the moment to swell and inflate like a pimple of putrid pus, ready to burst and spill disgusting thoughts and feelings over her little miserable life. It made her feel dirty, even more so knowing the fact that, despite how much effort she had put in, despite how much she had learned, tried to learn, she still didn’t know what to do. What were all her efforts in her previous life for if at times at this they represented nothing? In the end, perhaps seeing a doctor was indeed the better choice. Maybe they would be able to tell what was wrong with her. Gripping her hands around this figment of hope, Kary met Marta’s stare, a faint smile creeping upon her tired face.

  “Thanks, Marta.”

  “Hah… it’s nothing much, y’know? I’m just doing what feels right. But you won’t let that fly, right?”

  “Nope, I’ll continue to thank you for everything you’ve done until you accept my thanks once again.”

  “Well, then, gratitude received. You should just keep on resting, I’ll go look for a doctor for you.” Having said that, Marta grabbed the handles of something Kary hadn’t quite noticed before, a weird looking chair with wheels on its legs. Even though the girl was still deep in thought about her own nature, curiosity got the best of her, and before she could even think about it, she blurted the obvious question out.

  “What in the world is that???”

  “Oh, this? It’s how I planned to get you outside…”

  “Oh…” Straining her ears, the loud screaming voice outside had grown quieter, barely audible in the closed room. Perhaps it was already over, whatever was being spoken forever lost, all because her body wouldn’t listen. Recuse time and time again she had insisted on overexerting herself. Even with Marta’s kindness, it hadn’t been enough. All because of her. Hah… Looking into the maid’s kind, unwavering eyes, Kary felt like it would be for the best if she found some pit to throw herself into and disappear forever. That said, she had already disappeared from life once, and although things had indeed grown better since then, saying it was because she had been booted out of Earth without even having a say on the matter wouldn't be just a stretch, it would be entirely wrong. Life had gotten easier not because she had been dumped into this weird world, but because she had found people who had yet to overtly ostracize her. She had been lucky, and even with this golden luck she kept messing things up. Noticing the drooping eyes, Marta quickly interjected, hurriedly blabbing about what had happened outside in order to try and lift Kary’s mood a little bit.

  “You don’t have to worry! There wasn’t really anything interesting! It was just a representative of the king talking about going to war. All that shouting was just him trying to get everyone riled up for the fight… though no one seemed particularly interested. That’s when I got back here, so I don’t know much more, but, from the sound of it, he has already left.”

  “And the sounds outside…”

  “Probably everyone complaining about the king.”

  “Ah, I see. Won’t they be killed, though?”

  “Maybe they will, but I don’t think anyone badmouthing the king so brazenly care about that. So many people have already died, and yet it is only now that they are calling this a war. Heck, how many men even are there still in the capital? And how may of those are willing to go die after witnessing that massacre?”

  “I don’t know…”

  “Not enough, if they had to go and do a pep talk to get them motivated.”

  “Hah… I wonder what will be of this country…”

  “You shouldn’t worry about this kind of stuff, Kary. Look at you: even though you seem better, it still a far cry from someone healthy. You should just close your eyes and rest a bit. Don’t worry, I’ll be here when you wake up.” Said Marta with a wink. With another sigh, the girl decided to listen to the maid’s words, before her body once again decided to act against her desires. At the rate things were happening, this country wouldn’t be lasting much longer. Should she try leaving? Just, leave everything and everyone she knew behind, just because she was afraid of war? It was a scary thought, to abandon life as she knew it or stay and deal with whatever the war brought her. She didn’t want to think about this choice, a single choice that had the power to forever alter the course of her life. But maybe she trust Marta. At least tell her the black thoughts swimming around her heart. Not now, though. She was exhausted, even though she had yet to leave her bed, even though technically she had yet to do anything at all, the girl felt utterly spent. As she slowly closed her eyes, letting the world vanish into comforting darkness, the voices outside morph all into sweet lullaby, the girl made a promise with herself. Once she wakes up, whenever it may be, she would talk to Marta, about her fears, about her thoughts and plans. She wanted to attempt, at least once try, to give the maid the same trust she showed her every time they talked. After all, in her own words, Marta would be there when she wakes up.