Luna watched patiently in the completely black space. Glancing up, she saw two sets of gray letters floating in the space.
"Luna Kires"
"Enchain"
Just as she expected, the black space rippled once.
Twice.
'Nothing so far...' Luna frowned.
Thrice. Four times.
Five. Six. Seven. Luna tensed as the ripples got faster and more frequent.
Eight. Nine. Ten. Eleven. Twelve. Thir-
'YOU!' A voice boomed, not at all a whisper.
Chains rattled as another voice spoke up as well, "LET US FREE!"
"WE WILL GIVE YOU POWER!"
"WE KNOW THAT YOU NEED OUR POWER!"
"JUST DO AS WE SAY!"
"LET LOOSE AND SET US FREE!"
A plethora of voices sounded one over the other, leaving Luna's ears ringing from the cacophony.
"YOU ARE TOO WEAK!"
"JUST LET US FREE!"
"If I'm weak, then why can't you just break free," Luna softly announced. At her sudden voice, all the voices settled into a shocked silence. Usually, she would just sit quietly and wait for such episodes to pass by. That was her strategy for whenever these voices started to speak.
'I'm sick of listening to these fuckers.' Luna thought determined. She was sick of listening to their whining about being set free, and most importantly sick of her own cowardice that made her ignore these voices for too long.
"I said," Luna started once more determined to speak her mind.
"If you're so strong then why can't you just break free by yourselves?"
She stood defiantly in the black space, bracing herself for the storm to come.
The black space rumbled and an inky black took over the space. It covered Luna's name and gift, snuffing out the meager light produced, plunging Luna into pitch-black darkness.
Luna looked around wildly, trying to find out the cause.
'What happened?'
'This hasn't ever happened before.'
'I need to get out.'
Luna tried to exit her memory space, yet nothing happened.
'Shit. Try again.'
Luna started to sweat as she tried to leave once more...but to no avail.
'Again.' Luna thought tensed. Her nerves were starting to fray, the darkness enveloping her was...unsettling to say the least. It was just that Luna got the impression that something was watching her from the darkness.
'Another time,' Luna thought frantically as her previous attempt failed.
Slowly yet surely, pressure started to mount on Luna as her body started to tremble.
'...again..' Luna concentrated as if her life depended on it. Frankly, it might just be the case as Luna felt - no- she *saw* her memory space start to rumble. Somehow even in her memory space without any light, Luna could see it tremble and start to shake violently.
'..I need to get out...now,' Luna strained to form clear thoughts. At this point, she was sure that her memory space was tearing apart, as indicated by the cracking sounds that were echoing throughout the space like glass shattering.
Taking a deep breath, Luna clenched her fists as she exerted all the power that she was capable of. All directed towards leaving this crumbling memory space.
'...not enough..' Luna thought as she strained against the barrier preventing her from leaving. It was right there, but no matter how hard she tried, it wouldn't budge or even crack to let her through.
'No choice.' Luna grit her teeth and started to burn her life energy to try to break through the barrier.
A few seconds later, Luna found no change in the barrier and found herself back in Emmia's hospital room where she didn't have enough power.
"Voices! I'll set you free, just lend me your power!" Luna called out desperately. But no matter how much she cried out, it seemed as if the voices were content to let her die here, even if it meant their end too.
Luna started to feel her body freeze up, the pressure exerted by some unknown being was bearing down on her and was still increasing by the moment.
'...not...good,' Luna thought faintly as her body started to falter, even the life energy slowly trickling away. Finally, against the barrier, Luna's mind crumbled with a small outburst of life energy as a last resort and finally shut down.
Around her, the memory space continued to rumble and shake, just on the verge of shattering completely.
As Luna lay unresponsive, the being that was watching her finally uttered a word, that finally set off the final countdown of the memory space.
"Pathetic."
'I guess not this one either. I wonder how long it will take for the next one.' The being thought as it watched the imminent destruction of the memory space.
If Luna could not pass even the simple test of getting out of her own memory space before it was destroyed, then she was better off dead.
Seconds ticked by and the inky darkness started to fall apart, revealing a void behind it.
The being, having lost all interest, stared into the void behind the memory space.
Suddenly ethereal energy rushed into the memory space through the broken cracks with frightening speed.
'Oh?' The being watched with renewed interest as the energy rushed to cover Luna in a protective blanket. Covering her completely, Luna's body disappeared from the memory space just as the last inky black plating was lost into the void.
'Finally. How I've waited for so long!' The being's delight echoed in the void where the memory space once stood. In response to its delight, the voices, once caged burst forth into the void, each a streak of light as they shivered and streaked around an invisible entity.
None of them spoke a single word, as they flew through the void, subdued in the mere presence of the being residing in the darkness.
--------------------
"...luna...."
A voice called out in the darkness. Luna's mind registered it and slowly stirred.
"Luna..." the voice pierced through Luna's sluggish state and her eyes fluttered open.
'...what?....Who's that?..' Luna's thoughts started to flow in her mind as the light started to peak through her half-open eyelids.
"LUNA!" the voice, which belonged to Emmia, shouted out as Luna found herself being shaken vigorously.
Luna pried her eyes open and took in Emmia's face which was etched with worry.
'..she's worried?...for who?..' Luna thought confused as Emmia asked, "Hey are you okay? You just fell asleep suddenly and I thought that was okay, but then you started to shiver in your sleep and I thought 'That definitely isn't normal' and so I kept an eye on you."
'..ahh...she's worried for me....' Luna thought as she shook her head to drive away the sluggishness.
"But then you started to literally shake and then suddenly you just went limp? I was so worried so I tried to wake you up and then you weren't responding so I thought that something happened and then I had to get someone else but then I didn't know if I could leave you here alone and I was worried something might happen to you there. So then - " Emmia's ramblings finally came to a stop when she realised that she had talking Luna's ears off.
"I'm sorry! We should get you to the nurse's first! That was definitely not normal!" Emmia got up in a fluster.
"...I'm fine," Luna looked Emmia in the eyes as she said so. She had already expected such a suggestion from Emmia beforehand and had already prepared her answer for it.
"Are you sure?" Emmia's brows furrowed. "I don't know what was happening, and maybe the nurse should go see to it. Ms. Sophia is pretty knowledgeable-"
"Thank you, but it's fine," Luna cut off Emmia with a soft yet firm voice.
"It was just a bad dream," Luna added after seeing that Emmia still wasn't convinced.
"Oh," Emmia said unconsciously as some understanding dawned on her.
"I see," Emmia dropped the matter of going to the nurse after hearing Luna's reason.
"...thank you for understanding," Luna sighed softly.
'I'm sorry for lying...' Luna apologized to Emmia in her head.
'I just can't let anyone know about them.'
'I'll get rid of them...when I get stronger.' Luna affirmed to herself as she thought of the voices which had been everpresent in her life always trying to ruin it every step of the way.
"Do you want to talk about it?" Emmia suddenly asked.
"..what?" Luna let out in surprise. Focussing on Emmia, she found the girl fidgeting awkwardly in the chair that she had pulled over to sit next to her.
"The nightmare. I'm here to listen if you need it," Emmia offered while lifting her eyes to meet Luna's gaze.
'So pure.' Was Luna's only thought as she gazed back into Emmia's ruby-red eyes.
"..It's okay. I'm fine now," Luna slowly shook her head, while Emmia was her one and only friend, Luna wasn't planning on telling her anytime soon.
'Maybe I won't have to tell her...if I can destroy the voices first then I'll be free..' Luna thought.
Deep down, Luna knew that she would have to find a way to get rid of the voices, or else her sanity would be the first to go instead.