(POV - ???)
The little girl felt her skin tear, as if thousands of cracks were opening at once, exposing her flesh to an indescribable suffering. The pain was simply unbearable, a torment beyond any measure.
She tried to find words to express it, but none seemed sufficient. Even remembering every term from the vast human dictionary, nothing came close to what she was truly feeling. It was something beyond language, beyond understanding—an agony that defied any attempt at description.
The little girl had always been curious. Since she became aware of herself, she had questioned why "She" had brought her into the world and granted her the power to control it. The little girl... no, the being, had never found that answer.
No matter how hard she tried to understand, she always hit a wall of silence or the cryptic words of "She" who insisted that humans possessed life more than any other creature. That intrigued her deeply.
What, after all, did "life" mean? What mysterious essence made humans so special? It was ironic, wasn't it? A being created to embody the very concept of life, and yet incapable of understanding its true meaning.
It was then that "She" gave her the chance to learn, allowing her to live as one of those beings. During this period, which to humans would seem like a decade but passed in the blink of an eye for the little girl, the experience proved valuable.
After all, despite having only lived ten brief years—an insignificant moment for someone whose existence stretched beyond what any human number could express—the little girl absorbed knowledge she would never have gained otherwise.
When the girl turned 7, something happened that changed something deep inside her. Her grandmother, the one who always made her laugh with jokes and stories, had passed away. At first, the little girl didn't understand why everyone was so sad.
To her, a simple snap of the fingers would bring her grandmother back, as if nothing had happened. But it was at that moment, amidst the sadness that filled the house, that she realized something profoundly painful: humans did not come back to life. They could not.
The revelation hit her like an unbearable weight, marking a turning point in her innocence. The girl tried to ask "Her" why it was like this for humans, why they had to endure so much pain and suffering, living with the bitter certainty that, at some point, the people they loved would leave.
But when she asked, no answer came. The silence that followed could only mean one thing: "She" was still watching, waiting for something. She expected the little girl to realize something that was beyond her understanding at that moment.
Three long years passed since then, and the little girl began to experience transformations. She witnessed both the light and dark sides of humans, saw their joys and their sorrows, felt their pains and sufferings.
Each day, she became more fascinated, but also perplexed, by humans' ability to continue even in the face of so much adversity. How did they manage to go on after so much suffering? This intrigued her deeply, and she longed to understand, to find an answer to this silent resilience.
However, the little girl's heart—something she had never had before—began to close, suffocated by pain. Everything around her seemed to pierce her being, and, like an ancient being who had never felt such things, she realized that, in her case, the pain became more intense, more overwhelming, growing with a force she never thought possible.
In the end, the little girl understood. Humans were so fragile in so many ways that she could barely begin to understand how to classify them. There was a complexity to their vulnerability that seemed impossible to decipher.
Yet, at the same time, they possessed an immense strength, capable of overcoming adversities in ways she could hardly imagine. But unfortunately, she couldn't say the same about herself.
Her feelings had been building up slowly, a silent weight that grew until, one moment, everything simply broke. She felt the crack inside her, as if the pressure of her emotions had finally taken over everything.
***
(POV – Protagonist)
I couldn't do anything but stand there, my wide eyes fixed on the little girl beside me. She kept breaking apart, the pain visible in every line of her face, as tears streamed from her eyes and slid down her cheeks.
The scene was heartbreaking, and as I watched her, something inside me seemed to scream for action, for help. The urgency was palpable, as if I needed to do something, but the words escaped me, and my body remained frozen.
I didn't know what to do, or how to act, and more than anything, I didn't understand why I needed to act. The feeling of helplessness was overwhelming.
In the end, all I could do was watch in silence as the little girl's slow and painful transformation unfolded. Her skin began to crack, fractures appearing with every passing moment, as if something inside her was struggling to emerge, breaking everything in its way.
Gradually, the back of her body opened, the cracks widening, revealing an indescribable force, as if the pain was just a small price for what was happening.
I watched her closely, absorbing every detail, every movement of the fissures, as if I could see her metamorphosis from all angles, in a vision that seemed to penetrate her deepest layers, capturing even the smallest gestures of this terrible transformation.
Slowly, something began to emerge from the little girl's back. A body, nearly identical in size to hers, started to take shape. The scene, in a way, reminded me of the moment a butterfly frees itself from its cocoon—something delicate, almost magical.
The sight, both curious and fascinating, was undeniably beautiful. From the little girl's back, a golden, glowing form unfurled, as if made of pure light. A crown of delicate, soft flowers with almost ethereal petals adorned her head, while above it, a halo floated gracefully, moving with the lightness of a breeze.
At her coccyx, two golden wings, as radiant as the sun, gently spread out, extending to the left and right, reminiscent of an angel soaring through the sky.
With her body fully emerged, the little girl softly fell onto the couch, letting out a barely audible sigh. The opening on her back began to slowly close, and the cracks that had appeared earlier disappeared within seconds, as if they had never existed.
The being that had emerged from her body floated with an astonishing lightness, as though suspended in its own space, in a state of peaceful levitation, unaware of the world around it.
Her eyes slowly opened, as though they were trapped in a deep trance. There was nothing in them but pure gold, so intense it seemed to radiate a warm and soft light, enveloping the surroundings in a cozy glow.
For some reason, a strange sensation overtook me, as if the being in front of me wasn't truly awake yet. It seemed to float in an ethereal state, as though lost in a distant dream, not really aware of what was happening around it.
While I stood there, absorbed, watching the being that had unexpectedly appeared before me, Arthur's voice from the side cut through the silence and captured my attention.
Instinctively, I shifted my gaze toward him, my focus moving abruptly. He seemed to finally understand something, and his voice, full of revelation, broke the silence: "Now it all makes sense, it's always been you, your name..."
But before he could speak another word, his body simply collapsed. His eyes closed with an intensity that felt final, as if they would never open again.
I stood there, watching the scene, completely confused. Although he was dressed, something caught my attention: a small crack on his cheek, similar to the one I had seen on the being. My mind spun trying to understand what was happening.
I stared at it for a moment, unsure of what to think, until my gaze shifted to myself. Nothing was happening to me. But then, could it be that Arthur being near her was what affected him? I wasn't sure.
As I watched this, something strange began to emerge from within me. A purple mist, as dark as the deepest night, spread slowly, enveloping me with an unusual softness.
Before I could react, a figure appeared beside me. Another version of myself, its body cloaked in impenetrable shadows, its eyes, completely blood-red, locked onto me with a disturbing intensity.
I didn't know exactly why, but there was something in that gaze that told me I understood it, as if it carried a weight of understanding... and disappointment. My Alter Ego seemed to look at me with a mixture of pity and disapproval, though I had no idea what I might have done to deserve that.
Had I made a mistake at some point? What was I really, and who was he truly? Sometimes, it seemed as if he knew more than I did, as if he were my true essence, something more genuine than what I could be.
But if that were the case, did that mean I was nothing more than a farce of myself? These questions echoed in my mind, but the answer was still out of reach.
I watched my Alter Ego carefully as it walked slowly toward the being floating gently in front of it. Its gaze, in some way, carried a deep melancholy, as though this sight awakened a quiet sadness within it.
It moved its lips, but no sound came out. I knew it couldn't speak, either conventionally or mentally. I felt its emotions pulsating clearly: frustration, a silent disappointment with itself, as if it were trapped in an emptiness that only it could comprehend.
In the next moment, my Alter Ego cast a quick glance at me before turning its attention back to the being floating softly before it. With a calm, determined movement, it took a few steps toward the being and then transformed into dark mist.
The mist spread around it, beginning to form a whirlpool that spun precisely around the floating figure. Within seconds, a completely dark cocoon materialized, enveloping the being in an impenetrable shell. Inside it, nothing could be distinguished; the darkness was absolute, as if the cocoon were an extension of the void.
Something even more unsettling happened: I could no longer feel the presence of my Alter Ego. The connection that had always existed between us was abruptly and completely severed, leaving me in a state of emptiness.
I was left utterly confused and lost in the midst of everything that was happening, but then, Arthur's voice, from somewhere beside me, broke the silence: "Ugh... feels like something pierced my head" The pain in his words was clear, and hearing them sent a chill down my spine.
He stood up slowly, his eyes scanning the surroundings in search of something familiar. When his gaze finally fixed on the completely dark cocoon in front of him, an unsettling feeling surrounded him.
His eyes blinked gently, as if trying to adjust his vision, before shifting again to his own hand. There, there was no visible crack, unlike before, as if something was about to emerge from inside, pressing to get out.
"That was... intense" Arthur muttered, his voice low and thoughtful: "I felt like something that should have stayed inside me was trying to force its way out... but the strangest thing is, somehow, I wanted it to happen" He fell silent for a moment, as if trying to understand the meaning of his own words, his eyes distant, lost in his own thoughts.
His eyes, the next instant, fixed on the cocoon completely enveloped in darkness. His gaze was penetrating, almost as if he were analyzing every detail, attempting to understand what was happening.
To be honest, even I wasn't entirely sure what was going on. However, no matter how much I tried to look at it from different angles, my Alter Ego seemed to have interrupted something before it could unfold.