Melina wandered slowly within these strange and fractured halls. It was a bizarre place. Endless tunnels as wide as a building filled with miss and countless doors. Brickwork and circular that seemingly went on forever. The floor was wet with a thin stream, and the end of the tunnel always seemed like it was on the edge of daylight without ever emerging outside.
"What a strange mind..." She muttered to herself as she walked along the side. There was a small ledge on each side that let one walk and access the doors along the walls without wetting their feet. Each door was marked in some way and had a wooden frame with a brass handle. All else about each door was different. "Hand crafted memoirs to her memories... she has explored her own mind before."
"Yes. We have on many occasions." A voice called behind her as she wheeled around but found no source.
"Who's there?" He reached for her dagger only to find it missing. "What?" She looked down, panicking slightly.
"Weapons cannot enter this place." The voice echoed. It was quiet and soft. It reminded her of Luna, but it was deeper and rougher.
"I see..." She murmured as she righted herself. "Are you... the keeper of this place?"
"...No. Merely it's first dream, one could say. I can not help you, but I can tell you where not to go."
"Not to go?"
"Doors bearing clawmarks, a butterfly, or bars will not be what you can handle."
"I. I see. What can I do?"
There was quiet for longer than Melina would have liked. "Find the door with a simple musical chord. That is all I have..." Before the voice faded away, and the candle was alone in this unfamiliar mind.
"What... life has this woman lived?" She muttered as she walked. Her fingers ran over doors that, no matter how crafted, how meticulously fashioned, all seemed to be damaged. Chips in the paint. Slashes. Broken boards. Cracked or bent metal. "I thought you were just some, strange... visitor. A stranger in our so strange lands. Perhaps it would seem you were from strange lands yourself..."
She wandered for what felt like hours even as she knew time was slowed and stiller here. It could not assuage her growing anxiety, but she ensured it would not cause her to rush. Each door crossed was scanned, and she ensured that she never missed a sign of what the voice had told her.
She came to one door marked with horrible clawmarks. It was a wolf's claws, and they left frozen slashes across the wood along with a pair of broken headphones. "No... but...." The temptation was deep, but she resisted and turned to walk further still.
Her fingers tread slowly across the cold stone. It felt ao foreign. She had been in a few minds now, but this felt different. It was the closest a mind had been in complexity to her mother and in damage. The walls seemed to crack the gurther in she walked. The doors geew older. Cracked and chipped aith deeper imperfections.
Then I came to a door with bars on it, like the window of an old cell chamber. There was light peeking through. Gentle blue light that soothed her heart a little. "This feels ... right." She murmured, reaching out to toych the doorhandle. Its handle was steel, and its wood had been layered over with metal. When her fingers touched the knob, she felt a shock to her entire body.
A burning rush of images and voices that she could varely piece together that all ached with horrible pain. She saw a cage, a cold room in the darkness, and so much blood that it could make a grown man ill. Cold white walls and foul-smelling halls like acid soaked floors and people who see the living as experiments
'Mama?!'
'She is the perfect subject.'
'She is just a baby!'
'Increase pressure in the augmentative plate.'
'Whe-'
'Strap her down.'
'Subject 013AB is waking.'
Her hand jerked back, eyes wide and shaking as she fell backward onto the edge of the walkway. Her whole chest hurt, and it felt like she had her insides ripped out and replaced with things. Over. And over. Then, a pair of dark red eyes that felt like blood turned into sharp crystals filled with hate.
'Wicked...!!!'
"W-what... was... that..." Whispering softly, her hand clutching her chest as the shockwaves of pain faded in waves. She could hear her heart in her ear, and it was a wardrum.
The door seemed to almost groan ominously at her. A warning of what she might see. The little candle did not need a second warning, and she quickly scurried further down the walkway and tried to rid her mind of what she had seen. The pain felt so real, which meant what she had felt a touch of was a fraction of the real suffering.
"I must keep moving." She muttered softly as she made her way further down. The hallway now was nearly destitute. Broken and missing pieces of brick that left patches of dirt exposed. "Underground..."
Her eyes drifted slowly to an old door now. A red butterfly, missing its left wing. The door was very old, though not as old as the prior. It had fire marks across it, and the handle had been broken clean off once before being reaffixed. It was damaged, but the maker was clearly refurbishing it. "Forgiveness...?" She reached out and touched the repaired handle softly.
She felt a flash of heat right away, but this was different. It circled the heart and became like a chain as it clutched it. She saw flashes of a little half cocked smile and a girl who was far too thin with scars up each arm. She felt long nights of longing, and she felt a sudden pain in her right shoulder like it was ripped off. She saw hatred in a pair of red eyes, contempt. Beside them were a pair of hazey orange eyes. Filled with regret as a sword split apart two clutched arms, and then, darkness.
She stepped back, clutching her hand as the feelings began to fade even quicker this time. She breathed deeply, calming her heart as she drank in these foreign emotions. These memories. "She... she knows true betrayal..." She gulped quietly, slowly shaking away the feelings now as she breathed in to center herself and calm her burning mind.
"What am I even searching for...?" She wasn't even sure what was broken. It... all felt broken. What had happened that so... shattered her psyche. "She said, a musical chord...? I wonder what kind of song it must be." She mused, walking steadily.
Just as she thought of it, did she find it. A strange door as deep as she eas. Everything around it was decrepit, yet the door was freshly painted blue with decorated of a child's drawings of clouds and little foxes. Right in the center was a little musical chord. Little words beneath it. It was a lullaby. "This must be it." She heard someone humming inside. The voice of a woman, gentle and slow as she sang.
"Dancing bears... Painted wings..." It was a beautiful voice as it grew. The song was lovely. It was a song of beautiful times past longed for, yet sung in a soothing way to ease the pain. To help one sleep, and remember, without remembering what those glistening palaces hid.
"Who...?" She slowly placed her hand on the door and braced herself. She did not feel pain this time. She felt warm suddenly. Cozy and safe. This feeling of loving arms wrapped around her and promised to protect her and love her. The door slowly creeked open as she stepped into the room.
The room was simple seeming. It was a child's bedroom. The floor was littered with toys, and there was a carpet that looked like the map of some odd city. There was a chest modeled after old pirate chests that were bursting with Lego creations, and the walls were painted a soft and gentle shade of blue. There were bunkbeds, and a window that showed rained falling so very gently outside.
Right in the center, in a beautiful wooden rocking chair, was a little girl. She had soft blue hair down to her lower back, and a little dress in white covered by a deep red hoodie. She had soft red eyes that were closing slowly, like little jewels of dark pink pearls.
She was held in the warm arms of a woman with dark skin and an oh so gentle smile. Her hair was long, and she wore such a different makeup to those with Melina's complexion. More focus on power and royal bearings in the female face than simply highlighting the eyes while hiding the wrinkles.
"Who..?"
"Don't worry about her. I'll take care of her heart from now on. You just get Marika home for all of us." She gave me this daring smile even as she spoke so softly, rubbing the sleeping memory's back.
"Can I trust you?" Melina asked skeptically, watching the strange woman with trepidation.
"Yes." Melina watched her for a long time.
"What do I do?"
"Bring Marika home to us."
"Home...?"
"Let's just say that time is... pliable."
Melina watched the woman for a longer time than she had really intended to, watching and thinking over what she saw. "Will she be okay for us?"
"Yes. You may need to give her some time, but she will be back. She just needs to do some healing like Marika did. The difference is that Marika is just a god." She chuckled warmly.
"Just... a God." Melina repeated softly. "What is... Luna, then?"
"Oh, just..." The woman gave this soft smile that quieted all of Melina's fears.
"An Old Friend, to all."