Stardra

The World That Never Was [High-Casual]

Anelle motioned for the group to follow her and Melissa did just that. As they walked further Anelle mentioned another person who would be joining them, It must be that guy they wee talking about earlier... M-.. Mark I think it was? She shook the thought out of her mind, why would it matter what his name was? she thought.

They had shortly made it to the room that Anelle was leading them to, it was strange and it felt demonic with the pentagram in the middle of the room with the strange symbols. The two woman went ahead of the group while Corwin laid behind with the others. He tried making conversation with the trio with success as Constantine talked about how he had already fought demons before and that Jessie had only heard of "ghost stories" as a child. Melissa stayed slightly away from the group thinking about anything that she had heard while she was alive. She finally remembered something, although vaguely, "I remember people always talking about a ghost at a shrine who haunted people that dare visit... It was probably just rumors though... I didn't believe in ghosts when I was alive." she paused Alive.. I'm not alive anymore.. She felt cold in the body that she was in, this wasn't a real body. She gripped at the paper, this was what was holding her together, she was just a spirit now just like in those ghost stories she never believed in. She was growing frustrated at the idea, Why am I here to begin with?! They haven't explained anything. She knew she was here because there was something "special" about her, but that answer did not satisfy her curiosity.

Her eyes darted to the two women who were now begging to do some kind of ritual.The red haired woman began to speak in a native tongue and the air started to feel heavy, making Melissa feel uneasy about what was about to go down. The symbols were glowing in a red color making the room grow red as well. Corwin broke the silence mentioning that there were a few minutes left. Melissa figured he had meant until something was going to come out of nowhere, she wasn't prepared to face whatever was to come out of this situation. Her thin body slightly shaking in this red hued room as she continued to stare at the symbols before her.

The World That Never Was [High-Casual]

The air was heavy in the room when the man asked for "C's" name. It only grew more uncomfortable as the woman spoke in a heavier tone to the man. She slumped down slightly and put her hand on her arm and looked away from the pair, wanting to be as far away from the atmosphere as possible but still failing in doing so.
In the silence between the pair, Melissa's attention was brought to Corwin as he began to laugh in attempt to ease the air in the room. Corwin began to take "C" to the other side of the room, obviously trying to keep out of range from the others to keep them from hearing what he said to her. Melissa eyed them carefully and wondered what it was he could have said to her; she assumed something along the lines of "Calm down" as the woman had kept at the other side of the room and waited for the group to begin moving again.

She could tell by Corwin's 'compliment' that he was being sarcastic as he dragged Constantine someplace else; probably to try to get his mouth under control seeing as it made everyone uncomfortable.
After standing there idly for an indefinite amount of time, Corwin finally regrouped with Melissa and Jessie. He tried to brush the previous situation aside as if everything was alright, but from what Melissa could tell, touching a subject like that doesn't come off that easily. He spoke of a place called Erro which she assumed was the main city of this place. He started to rummage through his pockets trying to find something until he finally took out a piece of paper with strange symbols on it and handed it her. Melissa took the piece of paper and questioned what he had meant, Keep my body in tact..?. She gazed at the piece of paper and wondered how such a thing can do so much, she wondered what would happen without the piece of paper, What would we be without these bodies? Just souls? Spirits? She wasn't going to chance it, grasping the piece of paper firmly in her hands.

Constantine and the red haired woman finished their conversation and started making their way back to the group. The woman spoke carefully as she mentioned the existence of demons and what they do to souls. What they can do to souls? Souls like us? We're going to watch that..? she thought, her face contorting thinking about it. She questioned why these people would want them to watch something like that. Were they just supposed to sit back and watch a soul being tortured by something like a demon? She questioned the tactics of these people, but she just nodded and decided to wait and see exactly what it is that they were planning on doing during this "show".

The World That Never Was [High-Casual]

Melissa's attempt in making introductions seemed to head south as the mood of the room changed into something uncomfortable. The robed woman before her didn't seem to want to answer the question at all and it just made things feel even more uncomfortable.She slowly retreated her head away from the woman feeling a little bad for having asked the question as her attention was now brought to an awkward harassment by Corwin to Jessie. It only made the air feel more awkward that she kind of just looked away for a brief moment, noticing a new pair of people approaching them, a woman with long red hair and a rugged looking man with strange eyes by the looks of it. They had finally met up with them and the man seemed to know who Corwin was but seemed to want to know their names too. He blew sparks from his mouth, making Melissa stare in wonderment,That's some way to ask for our names she thought to herself and to answer while they were still on the subject of introductions, "I just told them, but I'm Melissa." she said, with a short smile looking at the unfamiliar pair. She decided to keep from asking for their names as it seemed to lead to weird places.

Corwin began to speak again after awkwardly trying to rub Jessie's arm, So she doesn't like to talk about her name.. she thought to herself as she glanced at the woman beside her. It only made her wonder what her back story was. Why was it that she didn't want to talk about it? She came to the conclusion that it was not a cheerful story to tell and left the subject untouched.

Corwin mentioned that he would answer any questions about where they were or about magic and Jessie rose right up to the offer and immediately questioned the existence of magic. Melissa covered her mouth with her hand and laughed a little, she looked at him with a smile, "After everything you've seen, you really believe there's no such thing as magic at this point?". What with magic doors and rooms and symbols, who wouldn't believe magic was real in this world. And the unfamiliar man seemed to think the same way as he began to throw out sparks of all kinds of objects, even the typical bunny to try to convince Jessie of the existence of magic.
The conversation grew serious as Jessie questioned why he was brought back, the unfamiliar man answered the question right away seeming to know a lot more than they did. She accepted the answer as a reason for her being brought back as well, but she still questioned as to why she was "special". What really was it that made her different from other people?
He quickly changed the subject and asked for our names. She briefly wondered if she had mentioned it to him earlier, but then remembered that she had and that Jessie has still not introduced himself. She kept quiet this time around and looked at Jesse to answer the mans question.
The man spoke again, now speaking to the robed woman beside her. She looked at the man with wide eyes now beginning to feel a little uncomfortable again. The air feeling heavy as he asked for this woman's name again. She furrowed her eyebrows thinking of what the man had said again, He wants to trust us a little more by asking for our names... but.. She looked at the man and spoke up in a louder voice than her usual, "How are we supposed to trust you when we don't even know your name?" she thought before that talking about names would be an uncomfortable subject, but seeing as this man wanted to know everyone's names she thought it best that they should also know his.

The World That Never Was [High-Casual]

Melissa continued to stare into the eye of this woman awaiting her answer until she had turned aside and away from her. Melissa only grew slightly more confused as to why this action had been made, could it be that perhaps there was something serious going on around here? She wasn't sure what to become of this new situation. But before panic grew in her, the robed woman once again spoke after a silence that felt like it lasted forever.

A light sigh of relief made it's way out of Melissa's lips as she heard the robed woman say that they guide the dead to another life. She was sure that that was a good thing and that they were brought to a better place. A thought occurred to her as she thought about this, did this mean that heaven and hell existed? If these places did exist, what is this task that she has to do?, it just didn't seem to make sense to her at all.

She took another look at her surroundings; the room was completely white and although the person before her was dressed in complete black, she didn't seem to be a dark evil being. She took slight comfort in her current circumstance as she didn't feel like she would be in much danger in this woman's hands.

Melissa's feeling of safety was quickly altered as the robed woman changed her tone at the mention of them being reapers more so than angels. She felt her heart stop momentarily as she tried to understand what she meant. "...kill many more Souls than we can ever hope to guide...", are they trying to help them? She couldn't see a reason why they couldn't "guide" certain souls to another life.
She looked around at the ground trying to search for her answer herself, but she couldn't quite grasp it. Her mind wasn't in the right place; still jumbled up from everything that's happened so far she decides to just leave her questions to be answered later.

She shook her head and looked back up to the robed woman and figured that what was to happen next was her fate and that she had to accept it any way it came to her.

The pair that was far off on the other side of the room had caught up to their current location and was now standing before them. The robed woman seemed to make a disgusted look to the man she had been scolding earlier; Melissa could tell from the start that she didn't really enjoy this man's presence as he seemed to laze around on the job.
But she quickly turned her attention to the younger man beside him and tried to act more kindly to him. Melissa stared at the young man, looking him up and down as she analyzed him. She knew from the question that the robed woman had asked him that he was someone like her; someone who had just died and had been brought back. The young man answered the robed woman and even mentioned his name, "Jessie". She thought for a moment, tuning herself out of their conversation, she hadn't asked this woman for her name, yet she already knows the names of the men before her who she had just recently just "met".
She tuned back into the conversation as Corwin had answered the robed woman's question from before. He seemed to act strangely in front of her but she didn't blame him since she looked a little intimidating.

After a short moment of doing nothing, Melissa stepped forward beside the robed woman, looked at the two men in front of her and took this opportunity to introduce herself.
She tried to smile to the men, seeming a bit forced but enough to make her look like she was trying to be genuine as she said, "Uh, I'm Melissa... It's really nice to meet you." She looked at Corwin and slightly nodded with a small smile and said, "..and you again."
She slowly turned to the woman beside her and decided to take this chance to ask her one last question, her smile now gone and replaced with and apologetic expression, "I didn't get your name.. what was it?"

The World That Never Was [High-Casual]

The being turned to Melissa and asked if she had any questions. She opened her mouth, thinking of something to ask, only to have her throat feel tight as she couldn't even manage to release the words from her mouth. She closed her mouth and looked down at her feet, speechless; she has no idea where to even begin. She didn't even know the name of this place, let alone where this being was leading her. She just kept her questions to herself and continued to look at her feet.

There was a silence between the two as they stood in the hallway waiting for her response. Her body jumped a little; startled when the being began to speak again. They noticed.. She looked up to the figure and watched as its hands worked their way up to their hood. She stared a little too obviously as their hands rose closer and closer to the hood; She didn't know what to expect considering what she's already witnessed so far... an afterlife, glowing symbols that open up into a room, some sort of magic.. She wasn't even sure this being would have a human form. She watched intently, wanting to know what possibly lurked under the shadows of that hood.

In only moments, the beings face was revealed. Melissa's lips slightly parted at the sight of this person. Not only that, but that husky voice belonged to a female. She was a little surprised that she almost didn't hear the rest of what she had said.
Realizing that her expression seemed to be a little rude, she immediately closed her mouth, straightened herself up and looked back at her. After fully taking in her appearance, she reacted lately to what she had said. Melissa's face grew slightly confused as she wondered, Not alone..?, her eyebrows furrowed at what that could have meant.
Her question was quickly answered after a brief moment; that she wasn't the only person who had been brought back from death. She wasn't even sure if this was considered life.

The woman's voice got lower suddenly at the mention of the souls carrying out a task for them. Her head tilted to the side slightly,and she spoke aloud, "Our task?" now a little concerned with what they're having the "others" do and what she might have to do as well.
Looking slightly beside the robed woman, Melissa noticed two people approaching them; one of which was the man she had seen earlier, the other unfamiliar and looking fairly young too. She pulled her attention from them and looked back at the robed woman's eyes, searching for her reply.

The World That Never Was [High-Casual]

Melissa continued into the hallway cautiously, noticing that there was another person in it. She ignored the man and continued to walk further into the hallway until the figure behind her spoke out to the man, "Corwin". She began to slow down to keep them from having to stop their conversation together, only taking small steps further into the hallway.

From the way the conversation was going between the pair, she can tell that the man was getting one of his many scoldings from his superior. She kept from making any eye contact with the man as it was a little painful to watch someone who was being scolded at. But the being suddenly decided to forget about it and began to move forward again.

She went back to her previous pace feeling a little out of place as they began to talk to each other casually about things she didn't understand. It made her feel more uncomfortable about where she really was. She still had many questions and she still doesn't fully understand what's going on. From what she heard them just say, someone's been hurt and she doesn't know what could have happened. And to make her worry any further, the being behind her brought up something called the "Spirit Passage", which in the way it was said sounded like something bad was about to happen. She felt a shiver go down her spine as she believed something bad was about to happen to her too, her body visibly shaking in this completely white hallway.

She continued to tread down the hallway still afraid of what's to come; she wondered, How much worse can this get..? I'm already dead... She knew that there was no way for her to escape this and she knew she had to keep going, even if she was afraid.

The World That Never Was [High-Casual]

Sorry, I've been really busy today and I will be tomorrow as well, so sorry if I don't reply!

The World That Never Was [High-Casual]

She quietly walked behind the figure, upon reaching an unfamiliar building. She looked up at it and grew a little unsettled; it was intimidatingly dark and the air around it was ominous.

The figure finally spoke up after the long quiet walk to this place. But it only made her more confused, she wasn't sure if the figure was talking in riddles or if they were being literal. She didn't have a chance to reply to the being as it began to suddenly move its hands across the wall. Her eyebrows furrowed as she watched the being do some sort of ritual to the wall, until suddenly it began to grow a shade of purple. Her mouth gaped in astonishment and she began to back up little by little, she didn't know what was going to happen next, Is this some sort of summoning ritual? Like on t.v.? she wondered as she stopped at a distance that felt safe.

The strange letters suddenly disappeared and a white hallway appeared before the two. That was not at all what she had expected and she sighed in relief it wasn't what she thought it'd be.

The being turned to her and gestured to go in first, at that moment she saw a part of the beings face, not much, but she noticed it had a purple eye and a covered eye, she wondered why the other was covered and if the other had anything to do with the purple symbols from previously. She was quiet for a moment but quickly dismissed the curiosity of asking as it was none of her business.

Melissa complies to the beings request and she proceeds cautiously into the hallway; absorbing the transition from the dark and ominous building to this completely white and cold hallway.

The World That Never Was [High-Casual]

This figured being continues to astonish her, leaving her speechless again. Her face contorts, Watching me?... My soul?, she couldn't fully understand everything this figure was telling her; at this point she decides to just forget asking questions because they just made her feel more uncomfortable and confused with the current situation.

The being continued to talk after a short pause, its last statement surprising her a little, There are other people? she thinks, wondering if they were the same as herself; brought back to the afterlife. ---How much worse can things get if I follow? she shrugs and begins to gradually pace herself behind the being.

She gets one last look around, taking in the last she thinks she will see of her school. This place felt foreign to her now, it wasn't at all the school she went to. She took a deep breath and followed the being before her.

The World That Never Was [High-Casual]

His words shook her, frozen in her place she whispers to herself
"I'm.... dead..?".

Her gaze moves to the ground, How did this happen? There was a long silence between the two, it felt like she had been sitting there for days. She couldn't have been dead, there was so much left to do. Her mind was running back and forth trying to grasp it all, but it wasn't enough time. The figure spoke again and startled her out of her state and her eyes snapped back up to them.

"Where are you taking me?!" She shouted and began to get up, staring at the back of this figure, her hands now in fists beside her.

She wasn't sure if she could trust someone who told her she was dead so easily and then suddenly asks her to follow them. This was the afterlife, how much more can there be than just this? Why was she even put in this situation? Her anger quickly started turning into frustration, and her throat felt as if it was being squeezed as she tried to hold back tears. She looked around once again, realizing just how empty this place feels, where else could she go?

Her hands start to relax again, looking at the back of that figure and asks again in a somber tone, "Where are you taking me..?" Her voice cracking a little as she held in any tears from falling.