Loneliness.
A strong word, isn’t it? A word so bold and so bitterly cold that when used it can shift cities and move mountains if one dared to wield it so strongly. It’s also a word to describe how it has been… locked away in a cell. For days upon end and visitations so sparse that they seemed like the heavens’ light when someone walked through iron cast doors to stand before the reinforced glass.
While a deal had been made between a Scholar and a Demon to free the beast of a Woman and bring her back to them… there was no guarantee that the process would be quick, there was no guarantee that the process would be easy… Yet with all things that our daring Ranger had gone through… this seemed to be the most cruel.
Trapped in a body that was no longer hers, unable to speak words without a snarl and hiss that felt like the feeling and pain of running water through her vocal chords. Her voice was hushed and rasped, garbled and wavy all the while painfully hushed behind her metal skin. Her mind split between her own and that of the Monster’s skin she wore. Blood red claws running their sharpened points along aetherically treated glass again and again before crashing onto the scarred metal floor. Cold sweat trickled down the beaten glass as blazing steam billowed out from iron scales along its body.
The light above in the room flickered, sparking on occasion as claws, like daggers stabbed their way into the fixture to eliminate it. The only light now was from the far side of the glass, where the safety of viewing lingered, and the green ghastly glow of the metal eyes as the beast shifted in the room.
Day after day, sunup to sundown the guards beyond the metal door could hear the scratching, the screeching and screams of the iron beast that the Glass Network’s several parties worked so feverishly to capture and subdue. It was constant, it was painful… The Scholar had guaranteed the eventual return, but had no say on when it would be… And even now, a fortnight later since their Deal had been struck there has been only a little progress.
The regression of her mind, of Bella’s mind had begun. Little things, icons, symbols… and even pictures, she could recognize and even speak their names if but only rarely. A plush doll of a wyvern and bear were laid out by the base of the glass wall to operate as small constant reminders of her beloved pets at the Farm. It worked for a time, but.. even stagnant things such as these could only do so much.
And the Scholar could not stay in the room with the monster forever. The days she spent away or the times she looked elsewhere, the progress seemed to revert in a painful manner. White eyes of recognition flickered to the monstrous green and the woman inside would be lost to the cold loneliness yet again.
Then… One day, the door opened and out from the outside came a familiar yet brief woman. Raven black tresses wrapped in an intricate bun, silvery steel wrapped around her body in woven armor in the style of the ancient Hingashi samurai. She came to stand firmly by the window, the look of regret flashing deeply in her eyes as the soft colors of reflection came to her from the monster behind the thick glass.
Steam permeated the air behind it, seemingly suffocating the containment cell, hiding away the scars of the days gone by, the scratches and scrapes of rage and agony that had built over time. The carvings of small seemingly insignificant hieroglyphs, and intricate circles hidden away behind the veil of wispy white. The green and white glow of eyes drifted quietly through the choking fog before coming to rise and stand before the woman.
“Bella.” The hingan’s voice came up, breaking even now with the mid-age falling before the emotions she carried with her.
“It’s Setsu…”
The monster behind the glass held silent, painfully so as the white turned into tints of green before the clarity fought back in an attempt from within to speak. Yet as it warred only the sounds of rasped growls could come up as metal claws rose to press palms flatly against the wall towards the woman. In her eyes, her sight became far too filled with sadness to stare clearly forward. Bittersweet tears brimmed over the woman’s remaining eye as she resisted the urge to do the same.
“I’m… I-i’m sorry.” Was all Setsuko could say as she quietly lifted her other hand to place a written note to the glass before her. Each letter in Eorzean was made to be large, so that the beast could see it, so that the beast could understand it… Yet
after everything, Belladonna could not. Her metal maw pressed against the glass gently before moving to rub her forehead against the cold beaten glass.
Each word seemed painfully foreign, the lines jumbling yet remaining clear in sight, her mind failed again and again to read the bitter passage. Each word wrought with sadness and teary eyed farewells and ‘I love you’s.
Both beings stood in silence, staring at the written note before Setsuko finally let it go. The paper slipping from the wall to flutter and bitterly float to the cold floor below. As it fell, the Hingan turned away from the monster. Belladonna quick to cry out with a whine as the thumps of her metal being came while she crashed herself against the wall to try and reach for the woman who walked away.
Bella couldn’t understand what happened, or what was going on, but deep down her heart, how so very little and frail felt as if it tore apart just a little more. It send the monster into a frenzy as the whines and screeches of the metal beast came louder and louder, only muffled by the secure glass. Mayhaps it was the fact she were walking away without saying another word… mayhaps it wasn’t.
As the note settled on the floor, the monster could see the largest of the words written laid on the bottom of the page in bitter sadness…
Goodbye.
The lonely word sat on its own at the bottom of the page itself… and for that briefest of moments, Bella understood what it meant. And from then on… she felt nothing…
Nothing but… painful… loneliness.
It had been sometime since then. The guards could hear her continued screeches and lashing outs when unattended. They seemed endless… more desperate… more pained. There has been rumor, floating among the small group tasked with maintaining the room’s security. The rumor of that they could hear, along with the thrashings and screams…. that they could hear…. sobs..
And since then… No one dared touch the note.
Because… after all..
Loneliness is a strong word…
It's Morphin' Time - XIV 