"Millie."
....
"Millie!"
Someone was calling her name. Was she late for class?
"Milicent!"
Millie wrinkled her nose. "I hate that name, you know!" she screamed irritably at the unknown voice that interrupted her peaceful darkness... That was until she saw herself appear under a fragment of light just a few feet away from her.
Well, something like herself at any rate. The other Millie was somehow taller and wearing the most extravagant dress that Millie would love to own herself.
...Or at least it would have been had it not look like it had gone through a war zone. Tattered in some places and covered in... Milicent wasn't quite sure what it was stained with but she would have guessed some type of acid since it had a constant cloud around it and seemed to be eating holes into Millie. A war zone was likely where this other Millie had been based on the semi-translucent sword she carried in her right hand. What happened to Esu? Milicent wondered.
"Yes, I know." The other Millie said as she dropped the sword to the ground in favor of trying to straighten her dress. "It just makes this whole thing somewhat easier."
"What?" Milicent asked, completely confused.
"Look..." Millie started, but immediately thought better of trying to explain such an abstract concept to Milicent. "Nevermind." Millie grunted dismissively and scowled at the lost cause that was her clothing. "You'd think I'd at least come back somewhat normal-looking..." She grumbled as she tried brushing off bits of Miasma vapor unsuccessfully.
Milicent had no idea what the other her was talking about but she really did want drift back to sleep...
"Nonono." Millie cried frantically. "Please, this is very important!"
Milicent listened intently to Millie as she told her story. Images of faces and places were given to Milicent as flourish details as Millie's story unfurled.
How she was a daughter of a blacksmith.
How her mother died.
How her father fell to illness not long after.
How she had to take a second job to support herself and her younger sister.
Since no one would buy weapons made by a young girl...
How she drowned and became a resident of a kingdom of the afterlife.
A kingdom of gardens that never existed in the first place.
Of her king that radiated joy and optimism.
Of the keymaker and all the other residents of the happy kingdom.
Of the day they were called and given an empty box and a key.
Her trip to the Silver Tower and climbing the stairs.
Falling down into a lake below the tower.
Bringing back a box of miasma to please her king.
How her king was attacked by those closest to him.
How the keys worked by using memories.
How Millie tried defending him.
But ran away instead.
How she became a knight.
Why she thought everyone was a monster.
And so blinded by the Voice's demands for miasma.
That she killed several other kingdom members to get it.
All for a selfish wish to keep her kingdom standing.
How she died a second time from a toxin in the air.
How she was given a second chance.
Armed with the knowledge that they weren't real.
How she went up SO MANY stairs.
Only to spend her time playing with the floor before death came again.
How they were given a chance for tearful goodbyes before the final end.
Every single of of her friends that she would miss and treasure forever.
And that's how fragments of memories that were created stay alive.
Milicent stayed quiet for quite for a long time with a look of thought painted on her face, as if processing this information.
Millie grinned from ear to ear, unable to contain her sheer joy. Yes! After all this, I will exist if someone could just remember me! It took quite a bit of effort not to start hopping up and down.
Finally, Milicent looked at Millie with a strange look on her face. "What's a blacksmith?" she asked innocently.
Millie fell over on the floor as if this sudden sadness at Milicent's inability to comprehend even the most basic of the "odd" things in her story would melt her into the floor. "Of... Of course you don't understand... you're me. Or... I'm you. Or a piece of something based off of you." Millie gritted her teeth as she righted herself into a sitting position on her knees, trying not to break down into tears. "I didn't understand any of it either until the very end..." Millie looked around frantically as if there was something in Milicent's mind that would help, but just like at the top of the tower, there was only darkness and silence. "There's not enough time!" She screamed in frustration at Milicent, unable to explain every little obscure detail before her counterpart woke up.
Millicent felt a pang of guilt towards this other Millie who was on the verge of shedding tears in an emotional breakdown. She was so desperate to be understood... to have this crazy upside down world of hers exist.
A clink on the floor got the attention of both of them. Millie brightened instantly and snatched it up, pressing it hard into Milicent's hand before she could even see what it was. "It doesn't matter if you don't understand." Millie sang eerily to her counterpart.
Milicent felt a twinge of fear as this desperate Millie pushed the key harder into her hand with each word spoken as if she was willing the key to somehow melt into Milicent's hand.
"Just... remember."
"O...ow" Milicent pleaded to Millie to let up a little as her hand started to feel like it was on fire, bringing her slowly to her knees as well.
Millie responded with silence as she stood up and vanished with a death glare painted on her face. As if she blamed her other self for the inability to remember her complex story. As if Milicent was the one that killed her all those times all along.
"I'll remember..." Milicent whispered to the fading figure.
