Chapter Text
~~~ Changeling Soul ~~~
You feel cold.
‘Where am I?’ You wonder.
You force your eyes to open. Your vision is hazy and blurred, as though you are looking at the world through stained glasses with lenses not meant for your eyes. After a moment, you manage to get used to it enough to see your surroundings a little clearer.
Before you is a beautiful forest, white with winter’s touch. You're alone on a wooden bench in a small clearing, trees surround you on all sides. The clouds in the sky are as white as the ground beneath you.
It's eerily silent and still, save for the gentle falling of snow but it feels so peaceful, so calm. You look down at yourself, you are unfamiliar with these clothes. A thick dark purple winter dress with white fur trim envelopes your body, a fur hat rests on your head and both your hands bundled up in a fur muff that sits on your lap.
You go to stand only to discover moving feels strange, as though you're floating slightly and time has slowed a little. Taking just a few uneasy steps away from the bench feels like a struggle.
Turning around, you find your surroundings have suddenly changed entirely, gone is the forest and in its place is now what appears to be a train station. The snow continues to gently fall, landing on the tracks through a gap in the glass ceiling above you.
The sharp whistle of a train pulling into the station startles you, causing you to jump slightly as it echoes around the whole building. You watch your reflection in the train windows as it slows to a stop. The train remains still for a moment before a single door at the far end from you begins to fold open. You stare at the door in anticipation waiting for someone to come out. Seconds pass, then minutes? Then, right as you decide to walk towards the door to investigate, a figure steps out onto the platform.
It's a girl, extraordinarily tall, lanky, delicately thin, skin pale as the snow around you and jet black hair that flows around her form like an inky river. Her face is gaunt and her nose is long and hooked. Her eyes are a dark grey but seem even darker under the shadow of her bangs. She wears dark eyeshadow and black lipstick, messy as though she had put it on in the dark. She's dressed similarly to you but where your dress is lavender, hers is as dark as her hair. She's hunched over slightly, looking around nervously, her movements comparable to a bird or small rodent. Her gaze then lands on you and you see a soft, excited smile form on her pale face. She turns and starts sprinting towards you, arms extended for an embrace.
You should be feeling fear at the sight of this unsettling girl rushing towards you. You don't know her nor have you ever even seen her before. Yet for some inexplicable reason, you feel nothing but warmth, happiness, familiarity seeing her, as though she's someone dear yet long lost to you that you can't quite remember. Your arms move out on their own to meet her as she reaches you.
She nearly knocks you to the ground as you embrace, sounds of giggling and unintelligible words echo through the station. You feel like you never want to let go of her. In her arms feels as though it's the safest place in the world to you.
The rest of the day goes past in a blur, flashes of talking, dancing, a large meal shared with her and several other unexplainably familiar figures.
Night has fallen, you and the strange dark haired girl now sit on a balcony together, sharing a tender moment watching the snow fall onto the city, bathed in the serene blue light of the full moon. you don't remember ever feeling this content before as the girl rests her head on your shoulder.
Your eyes wander from rooftop to rooftop, star to star until it meets the moon. You suddenly feel your stomach drop looking at it, it looks wrong, inverted, distorted in a way you can't describe. It feels as though the moon is looking directly back at you. No, not just back at you, it's looking into you. An unnatural panic sets in as you can feel the moon staring into your very mind. Tears burn you as they roll down your face, your skin is itching so violently you feel the need to tear it off. You can't think, you can't breathe as you see a horrifying ethereal face begin to appear on the moon and the soft blue moonlight becomes a haunting sickly green. You feel leathery flesh begin to burst from your neck and wrap itself around your head, as if a cocoon is growing over you. Your limbs crack and stretch, with another set of arms spitting out from your waist as the cocoon now fully envelops your head. Pain wracks your lower half as you feel flesh and long strands of hair growing out from between your legs. The girl is shaking you and calling your name through tears but to no avail, you can do nothing but cry and let out a muffled scream through the cocoon as the moon's gaze gropes around in your mind…
Suddenly, you jolt awake. You're in bed, in your room. morning sunlight creeping in through the curtains. Your pajamas sticking to your skin with sweat as your breathing is rapid and shaky.
‘It was only a dream...’ You think to yourself.
An awfully vivid one, you don't remember the last time your dreams felt so real and that moon… You recognize the face, it undoubtedly has something to do with Rher, the trickster moon god, but what exactly is beyond you. You calm yourself down as best you can and lay back down.
After resting a bit more, the dream already begins to fade away from your memory. Eventually, you decide to pull yourself out from the comfort of your warm bed. Walking to the window you pull the curtains back to reveal the morning skyline of Vatican City, Autumn leaves rolling down the streets in the wind. It's November, which means it will be your 19th birthday in just a few weeks.
Your alarm clock then begins to ring, 7:00 a.m.
‘Classes will begin soon, I had better get ready.’
You go about your morning routine, shower, change into your uniform, put on some makeup, style your hair up into your usual iconic twin tails. However, as you step out of the washroom you notice something is now on the floor besides the door.
A letter.
You bend down to reach it and read the envelope. It's from your father…
Odd. He hasn't contacted you in years, not since you first left home. You and your father have never been close. In fact, you're certain he doesn't care for you at all actually. You open the envelope and unfold the letter to only two sentences.
The paper falls from to the ground as you shoot a hand over your mouth to cover a silent scream.
‘Your mother has passed away. Do not return to Prehevil.’
You know your father wouldn't lie about something like this. How, what happened? she wasn’t sick as far as you knew, was there an accident? Dark thoughts begin to creep through you, was she murdered? Or slain by the church for some dark ritual. If that were true then.. A dreadful thought you almost dare not even think crosses your mind.
‘Could father himself have... killed her? No, there’s no way, he couldn’t have, he wouldn't.’
Tears are freely rolling down your face as you stare at the letter on the floor in anguish. The sound of church bells then begin to ring in the distance, classes have started. You wipe the tears away and try your best to compose yourself as you place the letter on your desk and grab your books.
As you leave your room to head to your classes, you swear you catch a brief movement in the corner of your eye at the end of the hall. As though someone had quickly rushed out of your view. You dismiss it as just hallucinations from your emotional distress.
Morning classes go by but you can't focus in the slightest, childhood memories of your mother push themselves into your mind constantly, causing tears to form once again.
At mid-day, as soon as you have free time, you rush to find a telephone booth and attempt to call home. You call your house, nothing, no connection. You call the church, again nothing but an empty line, You try other numbers, neighbors, businesses, anything. Every number you can think of in the entire city seems to be a dead line.
Something is very wrong, and your suspicion of your father being involved is growing by the minute. His obsession with blood magic, rites that demand sacrifices, especially the blood of innocents and loved ones.
What has he done?
There's no other option, you've made up your mind. You're leaving on the first train home to Prehevil tomorrow and you’ll confront your father in person and demand he tell you exactly what happened to your mother.
The rest of your classes for the day go by in a blur and are over before you realize. The walk back to the dorm feels longer than usual, you feel exhausted and empty.
The dorm hallway is empty and dark save for the dusk light streaming through cracks in the curtain. Anxiety grips you as you think about what will happen tomorrow. Will father even answer your questions? Will he even be there to see you?
Your thoughts are then interrupted by a loud creak from a floorboard behind you. Startled, you quickly turn to face the source of the sound and find nothing but an empty hallway. You again shake it off as just your distressed mind playing tricks on you and continue back to your room.
Throwing your books on the ground, you collapse onto your bed without even changing out of your uniform and try to force yourself to get as much sleep as you can before your long journey in the morning.