Welcome to Gaia! ::

Roaming the darkened hallways, Matilda couldn't help but feel like someone... or something... was watching her. She couldn't quite put her finger on it, but there was a tangible sense of dread in the air that seemed to push Matilda to the brink of her sanity. She wanted to find a familiar face, but she also dreaded it. She feared the accusations that she may be met with, feared the guilt of her conscience being thrown in her face again. She could feel herself hyperventilating from the stress. She didn't do well on her own. Her first day on top of the roof after her flight from the roaming undead was proof enough. How many hours had she spent huddled against the door, bawling her eyes out until she finally exhausted herself to sleep? She was afraid of the terrors that could be lurking in the shadows, but she needed to find someone.

Staggering around the corner, she found...Arlene? What was her best friend from middle school doing here? She hadn't seen the woman in ages. And why did she look exactly the same as when they had parted ways so many years ago? Surely, there would have been some inkling to the passage of time.

"How could you leave? Why weren't you there for me when I needed you the most? "

Matilda's eyes widened as her friend stared... no, glared... in the distance. She was furious. Stepping forward, Arlene began a tirade of accusations such as abandoning her in a new, unfamiliar school to move away, not bothering to reach out to her even when she was settled, and trivialities like taking the last slice of pizza when they went out to the mall or showing interest in guys she had her own eye on. Each verbal assault ate away at Matilda as her friend's skin began to rapidly decay, revealing congealing meat beneath. How long had her friend felt this way? Even if some were trivial, they were all true. Little things that had piled up in her life. How could she have let things go so far?

"I... I apologize... I had no idea... you felt this way...," mumbled the distraught woman as tears began to well up at the combination of her friend's words and declining appearance. "Is there anything I can do to make it up to you?"

"Nothing! You did this to me!"

Matilda rocked back as a rotting corpse that had once been her friend screamed its grievances and rage. Before Matilda could even begin to formulate a response the corpse vanished into thin air.

She could only shudder, acutely aware of how cold she felt. Had the firgure been an illusion, or had it been her friend's last words?