"...So you mean to tell me that there is another world that is opposite to ours?"
"Yes, I mean exactly that."
Nodding his head in thanks to aunt Sylvie who was now wearing proper clothes, he received the coffee from her while continuing his spiel.
"Now like I said earlier, this world is one where the base principles that we thought governed our reality have been flipped on their head."
"How come you never told me about this dad?"
"Well..."
"Yeah Mister Shard? Why tell us now? Is it because of some heavenly restrictions?"
"..." Staring at Roe in trepidation and confusion he shook his head. "No, it is just because I didn't want to involve her in the world that is the dark"
"Wait wait wait, are you calling the world dark because it is dark? Or because it's literal name is dark?"
"...Because it is named Dark."
"That is a stupid name." Commentating those words, Roe continually swung his body around due to the high strung nerves in his body before abruptly stopping.
"We named our own planet Earth."
"..."
Falling silent from the truth that had just left Shard's mouth, Sir Shard continued with his whole spiel.
"Anyways, I won't get into the details of the whole ordeal but you just have to know that I will be gone for a long while and this is the reason why."
Gesturing towards Aunt Sylvie he continued as she flashed a sporting grin. "Miss Sylvie over here will take care of all your needs while I'm gone"
"Can we come Sir Shard?" Grinning brightly Roe eagerly leaned forwards with a gleam in his eyes.
However, that gleam had been ruthlessly shut down by Shana's dad.
"No"
"Why!?" Looking in surprise at Mister Shard who was currently confined to a wheelchair, the question that was at the tip of his tongue nearly flew free if he didn't hold it back.
But despite not bringing out into the light, everyone understood what he was about to say.
And perhaps, even Sir Shard himself understood how ridiculous it may seem.
"Haa..." Letting out a long sigh, Sir Shard pointed at Roe who was currently leaning forwards and spoke.
"Bind"
"Woah!"
A red rope suddenly emerged from the depths of Sir Shard's clothing right as it quickly wrapped around Roe turning him into something akin to a spider's meal.
"Ack! What the hell is this!?" Shouting in abject terror as he was being dangled 180 degrees from his position before, Sir Shard continued.
"The reason why I can do this and you can't"
"That's fair but can you let me down now!?"
"Can you keep him up there?"
Two very different sentences, but only one was to be chosen to be heard by the father of the girl currently being bandaged up by her aunt.
And he followed the latter.
"Hey! Let me down!"
Ignoring Roe who was now flailing in the red rope that had securely wrapped around his body several times allowing nothing but his legs to kivck freely Sir Shard twisted his head to dodge a wild kick.
"..."
Snapping his fingers the rope extended again and locked his legs into the air making Roe get suspended against the ground against his will.
And as an added bonus in the keeping the ADHD gremlin named Roe under control, his mouth was blocked by the rope making it so that not a single peep could leak.
"MFMphh! MPHHHHH"
Ignoring the struggling chaos child, Sir Shard continued.
"Anyways, I will be leaving soon, Shana, A word?"
Gesturing for Shana to follow him she looked at Aunt Sylvie before receiving a nod in return.
Standing up and following her father, Shana slowly rubbed her hands across the rough surface of the bandages wrapped around her arm.
It had been bitten into by the strange monster from the dark earlier, but thankfully it was only a flesh wound so there wasn't much to bandage.
But nevertheless, a lasting memory was carved into her mind as she absent mindedly followed her father up the specialized stairs built into the house for her fathers convenience.
And as they walked upstairs, they finally stopped at the foot of the dead body of the unknown monster.
And as they did, Sir Shard opened his mouth.
"You need to come with me."
"What???" Confusion seeping into her every action Sir Shard quickly doubled down on the reason.
"Now that the house has been exposed to Dark, its not safe any more so I need you to join me."
Manipulating the red string coming from his long sleeved shirt while patiently waiting for Shana to react, when she did the first thing out of her mouth was a question.
"No no no wait a minute, didn't you just say that the others couldn't join us?"
"They'll be fine, but you won't"
"Why?"
Moving back, Sir Shard only calmly looked at Shana's face before bringing back the red string from the living room causing a thud accompanied by a shout of pain to ring out.
"Because of your mother." A rare look of pain flashed through his face as Shana fell silent a multitude of memories running through her mind.
In the past, she grew up underneath two people and two people only.
Those two people were her now ill father and her Maternal Aunt who was a mute.
Growing up, she didn't even know she didn't have a mother as Aunt Sylvie filled in that gap despite the disadvantages of other's needing to learn sign language to communicate with her.
At the least she wasn't lacking in love growing up, but as she did, she came to realize that her mother, her biological mother that is.
She was never there and was instead something akin to a celebrity to her.
Someone that she hears a lot about but never actually met in person.
So when she heard that the reason for her extended leave from the home that she knew all of her life was her mother, her reaction was as follows.
"Why!? Why do we need to leave because of mother?!" A voice of confusion echoing through the hallways Shana's father grimaced.
"Because... She was a... Ugh..." Humming and hawing, Sir Shard's eyes flashed as he hurriedly shouted.
"Shana!"
*Crack!
Swiftly turning around a large hand made of a variety of blades manifested as the segmented hand clawed wildly.
"Fuck!"
Hurriedly cursing, Sir Shard made the rope wrap around the large hand briefly freezing it while he grabbed her hand forcefully.
"There's no more time to explain! Make sure to learn everything at the Hotel of Desire in Dark okay!? Tell them my name and say that the Red breaker sends his regards!"
Grabbing Shana by the hand, the rest of the red ropes length wrapped around her body as it lifted her up into the air and tossed her behind them.
Spinning around mid air, the red rope quickly untied itself as a black crack in space manifested right behind her.
Black lines running across the air like a spider web carefully laid out by a spider, Shana dumbfoundedly stared at her father who gave a foolish smile.
And behind that foolish smile was a large clawed hand breaking through the red ropes and arcing towards her father.
Those were the last things that she saw before she was swallowed up by the void.
---
The Dark
A world where the battle between light and darkness in the ages of Genesis ended with the success of the Darkness.
One of the few battlefields that did so.
And as a result of the Dark's success, the world was molded by the darkness and consumed by it.
And now Shana was thrown into it.
Tumbling through the fragments of a destroyed space and time, landscapes that appeared like visions in her eyes appeared and disappeared as if a mirage.
And they might as well have been with how chaotic and unnatural the landscapes were.
Gargantuan pillars the size of mountains pierced the skies as they held up the sea which in itself was the sky.
The sea in the sky was populated by creatures beyond the norm as strange flat fish like beings had a tongue light up their surroundings like stars.
A frozen wasteland where statues of their frozen victims roamed restlessly as the blizzard claimed all that walked it.
A biological nightmare with several eyes and even more teeth groaned as it's pulsating flesh creeped at the walls of a labyrinth like structure.
Several black skinned beings with ball like bodies similar to the ones that invaded her home scavenged a barren waste.
Volcanoes spewing out magma.
A Tree unveiling it's bark to devour prey.
These images flashed through her eyes in quick succession and Shana suspected that there was even more that she hadn't caught at the edges of her vision which shuttled through several places.
Then nothing.
Feeling a strong impact from the back of her head, Shana slipped into unconsciousness as the breeze of time slowly brought her to the place where her father told her to go.
???"Oh? What a strange set of events this is"???
---
???"So what are we going to do with this one?"???
???"I don't know? Why are you asking me?"???
???"Because you found her."???
'Who is speaking?'
Feeling an indescribable weight on her eyes, Shana slowly came to her consciousness as two unknown voices discussed things besides her.
And from what she could tell, they were... two people, one male and one female.
Nothing else could be known though besides the language that they spoke which was notably English in origin.
???"Oh you're awake already?"???
???"Of course they're awake, unless they're in a coma or dead people would wake up by now right?"???
Listening to their words Shana slowly realized the strangeness that was their voices as an odd artificial touch was added to their voices every time they spoke.
It was as if someone was artificially making a voice, and although the voices could speak fluently enough that it wasn't noticeable at first glance.
The human brain was interesting in that it was able to pick out things that were inhuman with an incredibly odd accuracy.
And in this moment, Shana was able to hear that the voices speaking to her were artificial.
Slowly opening her eyes to an influx of light hitting her eyes, she blinked as a piercing pain briefly filled her eyes.
Adjusting her eyes two figures came into her vision.
And she was both surprised and not so surprised at the same time.
Because two robotic looking 'people' stood in front of her.
Wearing masks with a smile plastered on their faces, simple eyes seemed to track her every movement.
"Who... Who are you people?"
Looking at the two robots interchangeably the one she noted was notably feminine in features but wore boyish clothes adjusted their beret with one of six thin metal arms.
Another thing she noted was that they were wearing clothes that were roughly were from the 1900's.
???"Hmm... It's only fair that you know who are you dealing with, but an exchange of names requires a question in turn, are you fine with that?"???
Shana nodded her head.
*Vwoom
"Perfect" clapping their hands the lights were turned off much to Shana's confusion as they did something in the dark while saying their names.
"Greetings girl of unknown origin, my name is Albert Conningham the butler of this esteemed estate."
"And mine is Lily Evangel the maid of this estate."
"What is yours fair lady?"
"Umm... Mine is Shana Shard Sir..."
"Albert is fine milady."
"Could you turn on the lights?"
"..." The butler paused mid movement as Shana could mentally hear the gears ticking in their heads trying to understand what she was asking.
"Could you... Pardon my rudeness miss, but could you repeat that? My hearing aid isn't what it used to be."
Turning her head, Shana felt something off tickle the back of her mind as she opened her mouth again.
"...Turn on the lights?"
"Hah..." A disbelieving sigh filled the air as Lily spoke "Can you not see with your glasses? Have you been checked out yet?"
"No? I... just want you to turn... on the lights?"
"Oh Darkness above you aren't kidding."
*Vwoom
Lights suddenly turning back on, Shana blinked away the darkness lingering at the edges of her eyes and adjusted her eyes to the sudden changes in lighting that had occurred twice now.
And as they did, Shana was able to notice how the two robots were now much closer than they were before allowing her to notice details that she hadn't been able to notice before.
Such as the fact that asides from their bodies being covered in clothes head to toe except for their arms and legs which showed their mechanical nature.
Their eyes had red lights dancing in them with immense curiosity.
"How curios, you remind me of someone that I once know."
Looking at her from all over, the butler prodded her body with an outstretched finger right before bringing it back as they continued to speak.
"Well I guess that's going into the library of significant events that we have gone through."
"..."
"I'm here! So where's the girl I picked up?!"
Bursting into the room Shana turned to face a giant of a... robot? Shana hesitated to think about whether or not to label the man as a robot or as a person right before the giant continued.
Face also covered in the same mask that the other two were wearing, the giant strangely muscled robotic man adjusted his cap.
"Hey! Why is it so bright in here? I don't think that our guest can even see!"
"Oh don't worry about it Sanders apparently this little lady here can see in the light? Am I correct in saying that Shana?"
"..." Nodding her head, Sanders laughed loudly in disbelief.
"Well what do you know!? I guess you get to see lots of things when you get older."
Slapping his chest the trio of robots quickly fell into discussion as Shana retreated to her corner while thinking about everything that happened.
'So... is this the Dark dad told me about?'
Looking around at the rest of the room which had a significantly similar architecture to that of 1900's Shana thought that this place had a history similar to that of Earth's.
She glanced at the robots who were chattering away at the side.
'Well asides from the robots that is.'
Feeling her heart which was initially pumping with a mixture of adrenaline brought from fear of the unknown and the recent trip into the void, Shana continued to think.
Since her knowledge of Dark was limited to the fact that it was just a world where darkness replaced light in all manner of things, she knew that she had to learn more about where she was.
Even when going on a trip to somewhere new, you had to learn more about the environment so that you weren't caught unprepared.
At the very least you had to know what was the common sense around those parts since places like India had severe no no's regarding cows.
'And since they mentioned a library I should be able to go there right?'
Staring at the trio of robots that had turned to speak with each other, she observed their visages which were chillingly metallic in nature.
Made out of some sort of metal, their masked faces turned their red eyes to her as Conningham spoke up.
"Well now Miss Shana, since we shall be meeting with each other often from now on, where would you like to go?"
Red eyes flickering as they stared at her, Shana fell into thought.
'Logically I should find out more about the Dark since dad really didn't tell me much, but should I explore... this estate I think they called it?'
Thinking about that in her mind, soon enough she would come to realize how ridiculously naive she was as she got her hands on a diary in the library.
+++
Tree