Some notes beforehand: This is actually not entirely original. In truth this story takes place before an RP of mine, and that RP is semi-based on the Soul Calibur series. Apart from that, all the content here is original and the copyright belongs to me, with the exception of the character Lianne; she belongs entirely to death adept.

Falling From Heaven

Part 1: Age 10

Old And New

She poked at her food without as much as one shred of appetite. Oatmeal was dull and no fun at all; just like this house. The wooden floorboards were old and worn at best; at worst they were rotten and creaked hauntingly under one’s feet. The place was really nothing more than an overgrown cottage. The first floor was actually just one room, a space that had the living room and kitchen meshed together. The stairs were covered with dust and looked as though they could break under someone’s weight at every given moment. They led up to the second floor, which was smaller than the first and consisted of two rooms; one for her parents and one for herself. The only other thing in those rooms apart from the bed was a small closet. They used it to store away their clothes and what little personal belongings they owned. It was a bleak living condition.

But she had been born and raised in this environment and as such got used to it when time passed. The coarseness and rough edges of the place were something she could adjust herself to. The absence of her parental figures was an entirely different issue, though. The girl hated the fact that her parents were away so much. Once a week they headed to a nearby town in order to buy groceries, but every other day they randomly disappeared from the house to some place – they wouldn’t tell where, only that they needed to be there. More often than not they had horrible timing, and left their only daughter to assemble her own dinner out of the things they’d bought.

She herself had never set a foot outside this house, not even once. Her parents strictly forbade her to go into the outdoors, their only reason being a ‘to protect you from the world’. A seven year-old couldn’t cope with that, what with all the curiosity that bloomed inside every child. She wanted to go outside and play in the grass, but was prohibited from doing so. Maybe, she’d once thought, it wasn’t normal or healthy for kids to be out there. Having never met children of her own age – her parents were the only people in her life – she conceded that this theory was indeed correct and had to be accepted, no matter how much it went against her feelings. Mom and Dad would have it no other way, anyway. There was no use in arguing over that.

And so it stayed. For three more years, the girl did as her parents wished and kept to the confines of the house, although she still played in her mind; she had nothing to actually play with inside. There were also enjoyable moments, though. Every evening the sun cast light into her dark little room, sending warmth through the window – a window that had never been opened in her lifetime. When this happened she created shadow figures upon the wall opposite to the window with her hands, making the shadows look like rabbits or other animals she had spotted out in the grass one time. She was content with the funny things her small hands could create.

But by the time she had reached ten years of age, her heart began to lust after the outdoors once again. The amount of time she spent staring out through her bedroom window increased with each passing day. She realized, with a slight shock, that she wanted to see those animals up close. She wanted to stroke their soft fur. She wanted to know if she could talk to the animals, and vice versa.

One time her wish had nearly been fulfilled. Overwhelmed by her sudden need for the outside world she snuck up to the front door, her petite hand reaching for the doorknob…and then her father’s ragged hand took hold of her extended arm in a vice-like grip. She had been reprimanded at least ten times that day, and their words stayed with her even when the day had passed. She’d been so close, but she had been stopped. Now she needed to see the world even more. Unbeknownst to her, though, she would see her wish fulfilled after all.

She had been staring at her breakfast, a simple slice of bread with old cheese on it, again unwilling to eat that what had been offered to her. She heard the front door click open downstairs (she had been forced to eat in her room so there was no chance she could dash outside) and a slight glimmer of childlike happiness appeared in her eyes. Mom and Dad were home at last!

Suddenly feeling ravenous, the ten year-old wolfed down her first meal of the day quickly before skipping downstairs. The front door was closed shut by the time she started to descend, of course, but what she was there for was her parents. She couldn’t wait to see them again; her father’s sturdy build, mahogany hair and brown eyes, and her mother’s slender frame, blue-eyed face framed by blonde curls. The girl herself, with her black-and-white streaked hair and silver eyes, didn’t exactly look like them. But they had a bond, she believed.

She was halfway down the stairs when she suddenly heard the voice of her father:

“Please, d-don’t hurt us.” She frowned, abruptly stopping her descent to listen. His voice sounded weird, not at all like his usual strong tone. It was like his voice was shaking, or something. It was something she’d never heard before.

“We…we haven’t caused you any trouble, have we?” she heard her mother add. The woman’s voice had undergone the same change as her husband’s.

The girl silently shook her head in confusion; what were those two talking about? Or better yet, to whom? At first she’d thought her parents were talking to each other, but there seemed to be someone else involved as well. And indeed, after a moment of silence she suddenly heard a new voice speak up; the fourth voice in her life, including her own.

“Your time has come.” The voice obviously belonged to a male adult, but part of it resembled a grunt – unlike Dad’s voice, whose tone had always been symphonic to her.

The ten year-old didn’t exactly know what the stranger meant with his words, not at first. Then a strange sound drifted from the living room, another thing that was unknown to the girl. To her, it mostly resembled the sound her father’s knife had made when sliding over something else with its edge. She figured that whatever the man had pulled resembled that knife somewhat.

She stayed put, invisible to everyone else at her spot on the stairs, and listened intently for any other new sounds that she could pick up. Suddenly a high-pitched noise penetrated her ears and she covered them, only to remove her hands again when she realized that sound had her mother’s distinctive tone to it. Had that sound come from her mother? But the woman had never made such a deafening noise before…

She heard something else that wasn’t entirely new to her; it most closely resembled the sound she’d heard when Dad accidentally cut himself while doodling around with his knife. Had Mom cut herself? Her father had never uttered such a terrible sound when he did, at any rate. Next followed a heavy but lifeless thump, as though her mother had fallen to the ground. Well, Mom had tripped before and fallen, but she’d always gotten up quickly. Now, however, the girl didn’t hear the shuffling that accompanied her parent getting to her feet, and her mind was chilled with shock when she realized Mom hadn’t gotten up at all.

And then, all of a sudden, she heard her father’s voice again:

“NO!”

His daughter grimaced at the volume; what, now he had to make her deaf too? One of those sounds was already enough for her poor ears to bear! Her annoyance left her face when she heard the same set of sounds repeat itself; Dad cut himself and then slumped to the floorboards. He didn’t get up either. She had just started to wonder why the other man wasn’t helping them to get up when the sound of footsteps travelled up to her, and the stranger finally walked into sight.

He was tall and graceful in his movements, just as graceful as the white bird that had once perched itself on top of the windowsill and stared at her. This man didn’t bear the same nice colour as the bird did, though; instead his hair was black and he bore a set of very light blue eyes. One of his hands was obscured from view because he had tucked it within his cloak; his other hand was covered by a coarse black glove.

He looked around for a moment, almost as if searching for something, and then turned to the stairs and trudged to it. The girl was intrigued by him and actually rather curious as to who he was, but as he approached the stairs she suddenly developed a sinking feeling in her gut. It was a feeling she’d never experienced before, and it was followed up by another set of emotions, emotions that told her to go to her room. She obeyed her heart after a brief hesitation and took off to the bedroom. She hardly noticed that the man’s pace became quick when he heard her footsteps.

The girl wasn’t used to running so suddenly and was panting by the time she arrived at her destination. She hastily clawed the door open and slammed it shut behind her once she was inside, her bewildered eyes darting from one side of the room to the other before she locked the entrance to her hiding place. She went for her bed – there was more than enough room for her to crawl under it – but stopped when someone banged on the door hard. No doubt it was that man.

He banged his fist on the shaky wood a second time, and then things abruptly went silent. The ten year-old blinked for a moment, but then shrieked when something came through the door. From what she could see it looked like a very long knife, although the steel had been split into three single blades. It was also covered with something red and thick; the smell of it made the girl retch. The emotions warring inside her reached their peak; without knowing what she was doing, she turned to the window and literally broke it with her bare hands. Shards of glass erupted outwards and dropped down into the grass below, while a select few cut into her hand. She also received a cut on her arm when she drew back her small fist, and looked at the substance oozing out of the wound with wide eyes. It looked the same as the liquid that drenched the man’s knife.

Speaking of that edge, it was abruptly pulled back and rammed through a different section of the door a split second later, slowly weakening and demolishing the door. It happened again, and again, and again. Breathing fast but still not thinking, the girl was about to jump out of the window when she looked down…and noticed that she was too high up to jump safely. Even the tall grass wouldn’t be able to cushion her fall. She gulped heavily and turned away from the broken window, quickly scurrying under the bed. Only moments later the man rammed through the door with his body, and immediately walked up to the window. He stared outside for a moment, and then seemed to notice the blood from where the girl had cut herself. He stood there a little longer, but then he grunted and left the room.

The ten year-old dared not move for a long time. She stayed put under her bed, her body making strange movements on its own accord; she was shaking, and she couldn’t stop herself. To her it seemed ages before the silence had finally dragged on long enough to let her believe the stranger had gone. Quivering in fright, the girl slowly crawled out from under the bed and got to her feet on wobbly legs. Her muscles felt like oatmeal. Slowly and carefully she made her way to the stairs and down the steps, one at a time. She scrunched her nose in disgust. A stale smell was drifting up from the living room, and its potency increased with every step she took. When she reached the first floor she stopped dead in her tracks, blinking in confusion and awe at the sight. The door was open. Why hadn’t her parents closed it? They, more than anyone, didn’t want it to be open for her. And then she saw why.

Her gaze travelled to the other end of the living room, the part that she hadn’t been able to see, and her eyes widened even more at what she set her eyes on. Her parents were lying there, on the ground as she’d guessed, but they weren’t moving. The floor was covered with that red stuff. The ten year-old cautiously made her way over to them, the repelling smell assaulting her even more. Then she dropped down on her knees beside her silent parents, and hesitantly gave her mother a nudge.

“… Mom?” There was no response. Her daughter frowned in confusion and nudged her again, more forceful this time. “Come on, wake up…” Her mother still didn’t move.

The ten year-old pouted in childish frustration and turned to her father, poking him on the shoulder. “Wake up!” Nothing. “Hey!” Nothing.

The girl let out a whine. Her parents were faking, she knew it. They just wanted to tease her. Well, she’d just have to think of something… Suddenly she let a clever smirk creep onto her face; she knew what to say to make them get up.

“You need to close the door.” Well, she certainly didn’t get the reaction she expected. They still didn’t budge. She sighed in exasperation and shoved him the best she could – “If you don’t close it I’ll go outsi…” – and then stumbled back in fright when her father’s body rolled over limply, staring at her with wide eyes full of nothing.

“D-dad?” Why was he looking at her like that? She’d never seen that stare before. Hesitantly she rolled her mother over onto her back as well, and skidded away from both of them when she saw the same look in the woman’s eyes. “W-hat have I d-done wrong?” She looked back and forth between her parents, not quite comprehending why they were like this. And then, all of a sudden, she suddenly realized it.

They were asleep. But they weren’t waking up.

Tears welled up in the corners of her eyes as she let the thought sink in. This wasn’t right, not at all. People always fell asleep at night, never in the late morning! And they always woke up afterwards… But her parents weren’t. Why? Had she done something wrong? The tears began to flow down her cheeks, dripping from her chin. A feeling too intense and dire to bear ripped through her. She stumbled to her feet and turned away from the horrendous sight, and she let her feet carry her out through the door. She didn’t know why she suddenly decided to seize her chance; she just wanted to get away from her parents, which was what her feelings told her to do.

The girl had always imagined her first time outside as something spectacular and amazing. Never had she been more incorrect. She felt the wind on her face and through her hair for the first time, the tall grass tickled her legs and elbows and a rabbit skipped out of her way. She didn’t notice, didn’t care, and didn’t know. All she was aware of were her feelings and the salty droplets of water running down her face. The rest of her senses were numb. Her eyes could see, but she couldn’t. She didn’t know where she was going, or where she wanted to go. She knew no one in this new world, and there would probably be no one to take her in.

The sun rose higher and higher into the sky, spreading its warmth across the land. Had the girl been able to feel it, she would’ve known that it was warm, but not unbearably hot. The grass gradually decreased in length the further she went, until it only reached up to her knees. It was when the sun was at its peak of the day that reality slapped her in the face.

She had trudged on and on and on, not taking any note of the fatigue in her body or the steadily darkening sky. All of a sudden (to her) the skies were no longer blue but ashen grey, and the sunlight couldn’t filter through the darkness. Water began to fall from above in thick, ice cold droplets, and the wind’s power increased to the point that the ten year-old just had to notice it. She paused in her walking to look up, blinking against the torrent of water, and then shrieked in fright when a different kind of light flashed through the sky, accompanied by a very loud rumble.

She had never seen this kind of weather before, and as such she had no idea how to act. She edged towards one of the nearby trees, but that white hot light flashed again and struck it. Her eyes widened as the tree suddenly erupted into flames and toppled over with a moan. New tears forced their way out, but they were quickly washed away by the waterfall from the skies.

She walked onwards in the hope of getting away from this bizarre act of sweet, gentle Nature, but this task proved difficult and downright impossible for someone her age. The wind was almost too powerful for her to handle; it was so strong that it could blow her of her feet. She drew in gulps of air whenever she could, but the gusts that were assaulting her body were stealing her breath from her. The rain continued to pour down on her mercilessly, drenching and chilling her to the bone. The dirt that the grass had concealed had now turned into mud, and she found herself slipping at least three times in a row.

It was probably after her fifteenth fall that her strength gave out at long last. She allowed herself to slump forward now, feeling faint in both body and mind, and curled up onto her side. The coldness had gotten to her, but whether she was shaking due to her emotions or shivering due to the cold was unknown to her. She only knew that she was going to fall asleep, just like her parents had, and that she probably wouldn’t wake up. It frightened her, but she had no other choice.

If this was the outside world, then her parents had done right in protecting her. She relaxed and closed her eyes, falling asleep rather easily, and part of her wished that she didn’t have to wake up.

And yet she did wake...even though she didn’t notice at first. A sweet, quiet darkness had taken hold of her when she blacked out, and it was still dark when she opened her eyes. Suddenly, though, she took note of something warm covering her body. Frowning slightly in confusion the girl took hold of the material and felt it for a moment. Confusion abound, she thought,

‘This is soft…’

She didn’t remember something this pleasant. Then again, she seemed to be lying on some type of sheet as well. It was odd…it seemed to resemble some kind of bed but it was unlike her own. The pillow that supported her head was enough evidence for her, though. She wasn’t outside anymore and was no longer smudged with mud. She wasn’t cold anymore, either. Her eyesight finally adjusted a bit, so she tried to look around. She laid eyes on what seemed to be the inside of a tent, with only a few wooden boxes to decorate the ‘room’.

Suddenly the tent flap was pulled aside, revealing a setting sun through the darkness, and someone stepped inside. The girl was alarmed at this and attempted to sit up, but white hot pain seared through her body and she cried out loudly. Her arms, which she had used to support herself, shook for a moment and then gave out beneath her weight, but fortunately she didn’t have to endure a painful fall. Two hands wound themselves around her upper body and guided her back down gently.

Overcome by pain and fear, she looked up at this person that was now towering over her. Some shuffling in the darkness preceded the appearance of a kind face above her own, and her gentle dark eyes locked with the girl’s wide silver ones. The two stared at each other for a moment until the stranger broke the gaze and smiled, brushing a hand through the ten year-old’s strange hair. The young girl kept studying the woman, though, fascinated by this new human being so much that her fear ebbed away. She seemed to be around the age of twenty, only ten years older than her.

“How are you feeling?” Asked person was silent for a moment until she retrieved her nerve to speak.

“I-I, um…” Her voice was hoarse, she noticed, while the stranger’s tone was fluid and caring. The woman’s smile grew a bit wider.

“There’s no need to be afraid of me.” she reassured her. “I’m Zara. Can you remember your name?”

‘Zara, Zara…’ It was a new name for the girl and to her it sounded foreign, but the kindness in the woman’s voice made it sound so much more comforting. “It’s Aegle.” Zara nodded in acknowledgement, although a look of wonder did cross her face.

“An odd name…but I like it.” Aegle allowed a slight smile to appear on her face. She liked Zara, she felt comfortable with her now. “You’d best get back to sleep so you can rest for the night.” The younger girl nodded and settled peacefully under the covers, seeing her caretaker flash her one last grin before she succumbed to the kind of sleep she was used to.

When she faded away into her own private world, dreaming up both beautiful and horrendous things, the things she saw were peaceful at first. She imagined one of those fluffy white rabbits, imagined petting its snowy fur, and could almost feel the soft sensation against her hand. But then reality intervened, and suddenly the rabbit’s white colour turned black.

Its form twisted and morphed into a different kind of creature; a man whose face was shrouded in darkness, but a pair of piercing blue eyes stared at her all the same. The sounds she had heard drifted through her head over and over, and she could do nothing to snap out of it even when the bodies of her parents reappeared. The grief she had felt earlier washed over her again, and all of a sudden she found herself awake and weeping…and she heard a comforting sound reach out to her.

“There there, it’s all right…” The voice was laden with warmth.

Aegle felt herself relaxing at the person’s tone, her crying first reduced to sobs and then nothing, and eventually settled down. The girl rested her head against a strong shoulder and forced her bleary eyes to open, looking up at her comforter with a tear-streaked face. There was Zara, smiling down at her lovingly while the young woman rubbed the orphan’s back in an attempt to soothe her. And suddenly Aegle felt foolish and embarrassed, although she had no idea why.

“I-I, um…I mean…”

She didn’t get further than that; instead she was practically at a loss for words. She felt Zara’s hand moving around on her back in circles, and decided to stay quiet rather than trying to say whatever she wanted to say. She looked into the woman’s eyes and held that gaze, feeling a surge of relief wash over her. She felt comfortable with Zara.

“Had a nightmare?” The question was worded carefully and softly. The ten year-old nodded slowly, trying to block out the sounds in her head. Zara’s hand moved from the girl’s back to her shoulder. “Do you want to talk about it?” Aegle shook her head. Her caretaker sighed. “I can’t help you unless I know what’s wrong.” The orphan considered this piece of information for a moment before she tensed just slightly.

“Okay…” Well, with Zara’s beautiful eyes locked on her face like that, she couldn’t really say no. She couldn’t say no to the woman who treated her like this. “My parents…um…”

“Yes?” the woman inquired quietly, the dread in her eyes going unnoticed by the younger girl.

“This man appeared, and he and my parents were talking…” The girl drew in a sharp breath. “I think he did something to them. Mom and Dad, they were asleep. But they wouldn’t wake up!” Zara looked at her with a look of pity, sympathy and worry all at once. Her stare silently told the girl she could stop if she wanted, that she’d heard enough, but the girl kept rambling. “I hid in my room until he left. What happened, Zara? What did I do? Why wouldn’t they wake up? They let me walk outside; they never let me do that!”

“Aegle.”

The ten year-old looked just about ready to say more, as if heartfelt words were long overdue for her, but the uttering of her name stopped her. The woman looked down at her, taking in the girl’s innocence and naivety and, most of all, her inability to understand what had happened. That wasn’t too surprising, though; Zara fully realized that a girl her age couldn’t understand…because someone so young shouldn’t have experienced such a situation in the first place.

The woman brushed a hand through those odd black and white locks of the girl, seeming apathetic for a moment before she locked her eyes with Aegle’s, and ushered the young girl back under her covers.

“Just get back to sleep. Nightmares seem frighteningly real at times, but in the end that’s all they are.” The orphan nodded half-heartedly and allowed the older female to tuck her in, but grasped Zara’s hand when she stood to leave.

“No, wait!” The woman looked down at her questioningly, and she suddenly felt stupid for stopping her. “I, er…well…could you stay with me?” Aegle’s cheeks burned with embarrassment, but she settled down when Zara sat back down and took hold of her right hand.

“Sure, why not?” the female replied quietly, nodding at the girl.

The orphan was asleep in moments.

She slept deeply and without any disturbance for the rest of the night, and when she finally did wake up it was under the hood of the sun’s warm rays. Aegle had never really felt sunlight this potent before, and she smiled at the warmth that filtered in through the open flap of the tent. It didn’t even occur to her that Zara wasn’t with her until the orphan heard her caretaker’s voice from outside.

“…let her stay here?”

An elderly male voice replied to the woman, “You should know better than that, Zara. We cannot allow a foreigner to become familiar with us. Her presence could very well contaminate the minds of our children!”

Aegle shook her head and blocked out the conversation (or argument) from her mind. Being the child that she was, she didn’t understand the mature words that the man was using, anyway; there was no use in listening any longer. She rose up into a sitting position carefully, examining her own body when the covers fell off. She was dressed in just her pants and shirt. Her palm, the one that had previously been leaking that icky substance, was now wrapped up in bandage. It didn’t even hurt or sting anymore.

The orphan got up after a few minutes and was about to peer outside when Zara entered. The woman halted in her steps abruptly and looked the girl up and down in surprise, but then she smiled and hugged the ten year-old close.

“Guess what?” she whispered mysteriously into Aegle’s ear. The latter just blinked in confusion.

“… Huh?”

Zara chuckled and released her just a bit. “I talked to some other grown-ups. If you want, you can stay here for as long as you like.” The orphan nearly fainted with happiness.