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Zayin sat up in bed, eyes wide, body drenched in a cold
sweat. Her breath came fast and hard.
The room she was in was dark, but a dim light
crept through the windows, so she could see a little.
She was lying in a small bed with clean white
sheets that were tangled around her body -- she had been tossing around in bed,
likely.
There were other beds in the room. They all contained
sleeping Neopets. Most of them had bandaged legs or ears or arms or tails, and
a few of them had PetPets sleeping happily at the foot of their beds.
She would have seen a dark winged creature standing
in the corner of the room, if a bolt of pain hadn't hit her head like a heavy
anvil, causing her face to sink down into the fluffy pillow. Sleep claimed her
once more.
***
A few hours later, Zayin opened her eyes again. The room was bright, but she
kept her eyes open wide.
Her paws were bandaged -- her head was, too.
A mirror in front of her revealed that her matted fur was stained and full of
moss.
"Feeling better?"
A green Gelert wearing a clean white doctor's
shirt sat down on a chair beside Zayin's bed. He adjusted his glasses before
speaking again.
"Do you... have... a name?" he asked, rather
haltingly.
Zayin nodded slowly.
"Could you please... tell me your name?"
Zayin nodded again.
"What is it?"
"Zayin."
"Hello, Zayin. You may call me Doc."
"Okay, Doc."
Doc smiled.
"Do you know where your owner is?" He spoke a
bit faster now.
"I don't have one."
"You're from the pound?"
"No, I live with my sister."
"Where is she?"
"I... I... I dunno." Zayin blinked. "Where am
I?"
"The Neopian Hospital. Neopia Central."
Zayin opened her mouth to speak, but Doc stopped
her.
"We can talk more later," he said. "Drink this.
You'll feel better."
Doc handed her a large mug that contained a creamy
pink liquid. Zayin drank it down at once -- it tasted of thornberry with a hint
of melted chocolate. She beamed with delight just before sleep sent her head
crashing down toward the pillow.
***
Doc came back later that afternoon. He gently shook Zayin awake.
"Zayin... I think you've lost your memory."
Zayin blinked. Of course she hadn't! Her sister,
the Faerie, the dream... They had been real. She remembered them. And weren't
the scratches proof of her fall?
"Your owner... she's been found. She'll pick
you up today."
"My owner?" Zayin asked in disbelief. "I have
no owner!"
And that was the absolute truth. But it was also
true that the hospital had received a call from someone claiming to be the shadow
Usul's owner.
"Yes, you do."
And, as Doc said these words, a Faerie walked
into the room.
A Dark Faerie.
The Faerie that was chasing Zayin.
Zayin screamed and flung herself behind Doc,
forgetting about her injuries.
"She isn't my owner! She's evil!
Get her away!"
But Doc didn't believe her, and he gingerly picked
her up and laid her in the Faerie's arms.
"She's distressed from her fall, probably lost
some memory, too," Doc told the Faerie. "Give her lots of rest."
"Ooh, yes, lots and lots of rest." Zayin could
smell the Faerie's rotten breath, which smelled of decay and blood and death.
And with that, the Faerie cackled and vanished,
Zayin still in her arms.
***
Zayin must have fallen asleep, for when she woke up, she was alone. The room
was dark, with stone walls, and the air was damp and had an unpleasant musty
spell to it. Eldritch must have brought me here, she thought bitterly.
That dirty rotten good-for-nothing dungpile of a Faerie...
There was a window, which let a little bit of
light into the room through its black silk curtains. Wondering where she was,
Zayin scrambled to the window, threw the curtains aside, and blinked at what
she saw.
There was no glass on the window, just an open
frame. So when Zayin threw the curtains aside, a fluffy pink substance - like
fog, only thicker - drifted into the room. It engulfed Zayin at once like a
hungry Skeith, turning her entire vision pink. She squealed, panicking, trying
to throw off the veil of... pinkness? But soon, she quieted down and tried to
examine the Pinkness, which was what she had dubbed it.
It smelled good -- like roses and fresh berries
and sugar and candy and everything enjoyable. It made Zayin want to smile and
dance and sing, and she didn't know why she hadn't spent her whole life smiling
and dancing and singing, so she became determined to make up for it by smiling
a great big toothy smile and singing so loud that if there had been glass on
the window, it would have shattered, and dancing so fiercely that she often
fell over, but of course she paid no mind to it and got up again.
And she never grew tired.
Years passed, and Zayin hadn't eaten anything
or drank anything or slept. But she was still happy, so she smiled and danced
and sang. Soon she became accustomed to the Pinkness, as blind ones do to the
blackness, and she learned that life was good. She forgot all her worries, all
her troubles. She forgot the silver girl that had come to her in that dream.
She forgot the Dark Faerie, even.
But soon, Zayin began to think as she smiled
and danced and sang. She was lonely, and the weight of that thought pressed
down upon her like an iron weight. But she knew how to escape. Not to escape
the Pinkness, but to escape the loneliness...
She was going to dance out of the window.
She had forgotten about the fall so long ago.
And besides, the Pinkness meant protection and safety and fun, so nothing could
happen to her.
And so she danced out of the window.
The Pinkness left her.
"Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!"
Zayin screamed until her voice was hoarse. How had she fallen? What had happened?
Where was Eldritch?
All memory flooded back to her, except for the
memory of the Pinkness. But that didn't matter -- it probably would have haunted
her for the rest of her life.
The fall was short, and she landed in a tree
with minimal injuries -- that she was thankful for. She was about to try and
get herself down, but instantly she fell asleep, for years without sleep hadn't
done wonders to her.
***
Zayin was in that same clearing again. The same figure was slumped before
her, and Zayin approached her. The girl, the silver girl.
Only that silver girl -- she was gold.
Color had returned to her cheeks. Her blazing
gold eyes looked up at Zayin, now fearful, but they had a sort of lost pride
in them. Her long golden hair spilled over her shoulders, seeming to fuse together
with her golden silk gown.
But her lips were silver...
"Are you... Are you well, m'lady?" Zayin asked
slowly. "I've noticed... you changed color..." It was definitely the same girl
as last time.
"My color changes with the sky."
Zayin looked up. Gold streaked the twilight
sky. She nodded. "But are you well?"
"Never mind me... but there's something I
must tell you. It's-"
"Silence, girl!"
They whirled around to face Eldritch looming
over them. The girl screamed.
"You're mine, I have you," the Dark Faerie
spat, grinning evilly. "You will help me, you will!"
"Not if she wakes up! Zayin, wake UP!"
And Zayin did.
A moment too late.
Zayin's yellow eyes glinted in the twilight sky.
The tiny shafts of light that still remained avoided her, but she no longer
cared. This was her world, and if it was hers, nothing mattered, nothing at
all.
Except...
A tall boy with fiery red hair ran across her
path, followed closely by a happy-looking Gelert. The pair were laughing and
smiling.
Despicable.
Because now Zayin remembered the Pinkness. And
she was going to take revenge on happiness. Not to hurt anyone -- to protect
them. To protect them from that horrible thing that imprisons them.
No matter what it was going to take.
THE END
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