A dodo-like bird perched on the jagged edge of an ethereal island, its shimmering feathers catching the fractured light of an alien sun. The sky above was a tapestry of colors in flux, hues bleeding and blending like oil on water.
Colossal landmasses hovered in solemn majesty, draped in bioluminescent moss that pulsed faintly, their cascading waterfalls vanishing into swirling clouds below. The air thrummed with serenity.
Until the stillness shattered.
Space convulsed violently, twisting and folding forming jagged teeth like marks in the atmosphere. The sky split like the jaws of a ravenous beast, and a rift burst into existence. It pulsated, its edges seething with energy that devoured light itself.
From its gaping maw spilled ruin—a teenage girl dressed in black, tumbling gracelessly onto the pristine ground, her wide eyes glinting with exhilaration.
She was not alone.
Malformed figures followed, grotesque parodies of creatures dragged from the rift like refuse. Their bodies were twisted beyond reason, leaking caustic fluids that hissed against the untouched earth.
Limbs jutted at impossible angles, eyeless sockets blinking with nightmarish regularity, and gaping mouths screaming in silence. But the purity of the realm seared their existence. They convulsed, their corrupted forms continuously being rejected by the very fabric of reality.
The girl paid them no mind. Kneeling, she clasped trembling hands to her face, with quick and shallow breaths. Her voice, soft and brittle, broke the silence.
"I'm scared... I'm scared... What is this place? Is it real? Am I real?"
Her trembling stilled. Slowly, her hands fell away, revealing a grin that slashed across her face. "Oh... Oh, I made it!" she whispered. Her voice rose, bubbling with manic glee. "I did it—I got it right!"
She staggered to her feet, her body coiled naturally, ready to flee.
But before she could take a step, a cold hand clamped onto her shoulder. Pale and glass-like, glimmering faintly.
Her grin faltered.
She turned slowly, her gaze climbing to meet the unblinking eyes of the figure behind her. The woman's gaze glowing with an intensity that pierced through the manic haze. Her expression was calm, unreadable, yet somehow eavy with authority.
"Ah..." The girl's nervous chuckle broke the silence. Tilting her head, she plastered her grin back on, though it quivered at the edges. "I got caught. Hehehe... You're here again. Congratulations, Sister. You caught me!" She clapped her hands mockingly. "But really, isn't this game boring by now?"
The woman said nothing, her steady gaze boring into her. The girl squirmed, masking it with laughter.
"You know," she continued, her tone slipping into something softer, "I'll keep trying. You can throw me out, you can lock me up, but I'll always come back. Again... and again... and again."
The woman's expression remained unchanged, though her head tilted slightly.
"And you know what?" The girl's voice dropped, her grin stretching unnaturally wide. "I'm not the only one who wants passage anymore. They do too. Oh yes, Sister, they do..."
Her voice twisted into a guttural whisper. "And soon... they'll get impatient. If you won't let them in, they'll tear the gates apart. And if that doesn't work..." She leaned in close, her breath cold against the woman's cheek. "They'll wake Him."
The woman's eyes narrowed ever so slightly. "Him?"
The girl's grin widened further, her teeth gleaming like knives. "The Dreamer. The one who sleeps beneath it all. You've heard the stories, haven't you?"
The woman's voice was calm, yet it carried the weight of a glacier grinding stone. "Idle threats from desperate fools."
The girl laughed, shrill and wild. "Oh, you think so? But they've already begun, Sister. Whispers in the void. Prayers that slither where light cannot reach. You can't stop them. You can't stop Him."
"Sigh that's enough," the woman said, her voice cutting through the air like a scalpel. She stepped forward, her presence towering. "Your theatrics finally bored me. However I did enjoy it while it lasted."
The girl's laughter choked into silence. Her head tilted sharply, her raven hair cascading over one shoulder. "Oh, Sister. You think yourself so untouchable, so eternal. But your time is running out. The cracks are forming, even if you refuse to see them."
The woman raised a hand, her fingers trailing faint lines of light. A rift shimmered into existence behind the girl, its edges sharp and cold. The girl's grin faltered, then returned, manic and defiant.
"You're scared, so you do fear death" she whispered. "Well you should."
The woman grasped her arm with an iron grip. "Goodbye, Sister."
The girl let out one final laugh, a sound that echoed like breaking glass, before she was hurled into the void. The rift snapped shut, leaving the island silent once more.
The woman exhaled softly, brushing her hair from her face. Her gaze fell to the remnants of the malformed creatures, still twitching and smoldering.
"And what to do with you?" she murmured, her voice tinged with a faint, unsettling amusement. With a wave of her hand, the air rippled, encasing the husks in a shimmering bubble.
As she turned away, her glass-like figure caught the strange light, refracting it into a cascade of colors. She took light steps until her body turned fainter and fainter adopting a translucent hue till she disappeared leaving the island behind.