Nera

“Alneratia, I want you to promise me one thing.” The black haired girl looked upwards towards her mother, nodding to confirm that she was listening. Her mother smiled at her child’s obedience, “you’re a good child aren't you?”

“Is that the promise?” To this response, the mother softly smiled, leaving the girl in confusion for a few moments trying to wrap her head around why her mother was laughing at her. Did she do something funny? 

“No, that’s not it. I want you to promise me, that no matter how painful things end up being, you’ll wear a smile. You can do that for me right?” Little Alneratia thinks over the words for a couple seconds before raising the edges of her lips in a bright and wide smile. The mother gives a soft smile in return as she pats the little girl’s head. “I’m glad, seeing you smile makes me happy.” 

“Then I won’t stop smiling, so that you’ll always be happy.” 

“Did you hear about what happened to that family?”

“The one with the house at the edge of the village? Didn’t it burn down?”

“Both of those parents girl’s died.”

“That’s really pitiful isn’t it.”

“That’s what I thought...but I think that child’s cursed?”

“She was smiling at the funeral wasn’t she?”

“Everyone’s been saying that she hasn't stopped smiling since.”

“That’s really creepy.”

“Look, she’s over there.”

“She really is smiling isn't she?” The girl had heard those words from the random bystanders around the town, but she didn’t really seem to care for what others thought; plastered upon her face was that same smile her mother praised, and that's all she needed to worry about. Just keep smiling.

“Get away from here you demon!” A rock made an impact with the girl’s head as she turned her head; she found the source of the ridicule to be a young girl of around the same age with a group. She could have sworn that those faces were familiar, but she couldn’t recall where anymore, it really has been a while since she last talked with anyone. 

Currently standing at the outskirts of the town, she had come here to pick up some herbs that she could sell to the shopkeep. He was really the only person who didn’t avoid looking at her in the eyes at this point. The girl just smiled back at the group as they continued to pummel her with various objects scattered around the open field. 

“Please stop, it hurts.”

“Then why are you smiling idiot.” The young girl responded.

“Yeah. You like this don’t you.” A boy joined in.

“You don’t belong in this world.” At this point she didn’t know who was saying what.

“Okay, it doesn’t hurt.” Maybe she had gotten it wrong, maybe pain wasn’t the same sensation she was feeling? The group seemed to agree that what she was feeling wasn’t pain, so it must be that she was in the wrong.

“See! She really is a demon.”

“You should have said so in the first place.” They continued to pummel her with both insults and objects for a period of time she didn’t bother to take account of, before leaving her behind as they went back to town. Having been left battered and bruised, she rose up from the ground as she looked at the sky.

“It’s getting late.” She said to herself while trying to keep that smile upon her face. “Don’t worry mom. I’m keeping our promise.” While telling that to herself, she ignored the liquid coming down from her eyes; turning to leave, her action was interrupted by a noise coming from the bushes. Investigating the source of the disturbance, she found a black blob. 

“A monster?” She commented with curiosity looking at its appearance, a round blob of darkness, whose face turned towards her, appearing to have just two eyes and a mouth. “Are you all alone?” Having been discovered, it attempted to scamper away before finding the attempt meaningless as Alneratia simply picked it up. Struggling within her arms, the girl just continued to hold it. “Where do you want to go? I’ll take you there.” The little blob just didn’t care for her offer and continued to struggle in her arms.

“Do you want to eat something? I have a carrot.” Taking said carrot out of the bag, the faced blob frowned at her attempts to cozy up with it. Finding none of her tactics successful, she just sets the blob down as it sprints away from her, leaving her alone once again.

The next day, she encountered the group once again, and was left in a similar state as the other day. Sitting besides the side of the tree, she felt the weight of her cheeks feeling heavier and heavier as the days passed. “I want to cry.” She couldn’t say those words aloud, even if there was no one around to hear them, she found herself unable to say them; the chance to say those words had long since passed. Continuing to smile, she hid her despondency enough for the other children to continue unabated, but not the small observer that watched over from the side.

“Did you hear that that child is associating with monsters?”

“She really is cursed huh.”

“I always knew that child was suspicious from the moment I saw her.”

“She even broke my son’s nose when he went out with his group yesterday.”

“That’s really awful.” 

“We need to do something about her.” Such conversations started popping up in the town after three children came back from the forest bruised and battered. They told them that Alneratia had sold her soul to a demon, and was using its help to bully them. At least that was what Alneratia heard from outside the basement she was locked inside. Looking down at the chains, she was tied to a well, and no matter how she tugged, the bolt it was tied to didn't seem to budge at all. 

“I don’t remember doing such a thing.”

“What demon?”

“They hit me first.” Even if she had gotten the opportunity to say such things, nothing would change. That’s why she continued the one thing she could still do: smile. Even so, her cheeks started to feel heavier and heavier as her thoughts ran wild. 

“Did I hit them while unintentionally?”

“Maybe a rock hit my head and made me unconscious, and I couldn’t restrain myself?”

“Did I really sell my soul to a demon?”

“Was that black thing a demon?”

“Do souls exist?”

“Have I ever had a soul in the first place?” Holding her head, she questioned everything she had ever done, wondering what exactly she did wrong, where she could have done better, who she hurt, why it was like this. She breathed heavily trying to work her mind to understand it, but couldn’t find anything as she scratched at herself, leaving red trails across her body from the exposed flesh from scratching off her skin. 

Unable to understand right and wrong in her actions, she was left mindlessly thinking about things. Having exhausted the list of her decisions, her mind shifted into thinking about whether it ever mattered what she did in the first place. Looking at the dull wooden ceiling, she came to her conclusion. 

“I didn’t do anything wrong, it’s this world that is wrong.” The girl’s solution to her inability to find a correct answer was to deny reality itself. She didn’t have too much time to think over her warped mindset though, as even after coming to her conclusion, her breathing still felt just as rough as before, if not even shallower. Looking around, she finally came to understand that the room was filled with smoke; she didn’t have time to fully comprehend that thought either as the smell of burning filled her nostrils, and the red of fire filled her eyes. 

Desperately pulling on the chains, her arms bled as the metal chafed against her skin, struggling to escape, the burning ceiling, unable to support its weight any longer, collapsed onto her.

“...I’m sorry mom.”

And that was how the girl named Alneratia died.

“Cool story Fitts, so when do we leave?” The white haired boy dressed in black turned towards his one audience member. The black haired girl picked her ear, having obviously not paid any  attention to what the white haired boy that went by Fitzgerald said to her.

“Aren’t you going to say something? It’s a true story after all; shouldn’t you be weeping and mourning?”

“Crying isn’t my thing, and morning has already passed a while ago. You take too long explaining things.” 

“It’s not that type of morning.”

“Forgive me, thinking is difficult.” She brushes off his rebuke as she stands up, stretching her charcoal black limbs to exaggerate just how long the session was. “Besides, if I don’t experience things myself, I’ll never learn.”

The white haired boy laughs in agreement. “Better to see with your own eyes that follow like a dog I suppose.”

“Dogs run away from us though.” 

“Maybe you should take a shower.”

“Maybe I should throw you off a waterfall.” A nervous laughter is given in response as the both of them look down upon the hill, the horizon extending across the entire view.

“So Nera, what shall we do now?” The boy asked the girl whose eyes had always reflected the radiance of the sun back to him. She grabs him by the arm and pulls her up towards her, just as she had done that day.

“Just the same as always.” She pointed to the sky with her arms filled with darkness, seeking to absorb the suns light entirely, as she held up her one simple wish, smiling as she had always done despite having long forgotten the reason why. “Total world domination followed by absolute destruction!” Allowing the girls to revel in her warped mind for just a little while longer, the white haired boy smirked as he resolved to continue to support her.

Thus the two outcasts set off into the world in order to reject it, all in order to verify their own existences.