The girl awoke, sluggishly opening her eyes, stirred awake by the crimson light of the moon that hung low in the sky, dyeing the world in it’s image. All around her the forest twisted, it’s trees warped and bent, their branches bare, stripped of their leaves. Beneath her the ground felt moist as she stretched, running her hands through the fallen leaves and soil around her. Noticing the world around her she jolted upright, rising from the earth’s warm, welcoming embrace, that was instantly replaced with a cool nothingness.

She continued to look around in bewilderment, uncertain of where she was, who she was, or even what she was doing here. The girl could remember nothing of her existence before this place. And then, a voice so clear, so pleasant, it could’ve been her own:
"Finally awake are you?"

She jumped to her feet and turned, surprised to see a woman figure, dressed entirely in white, her face hidden by a veil that hung loosely before it. She looked like a porcelain doll, pure, white, pristine, with a distinct lack of human warmth. Her two perfect, pale lips pursed in a playful smile.

"Do you remember anything," the figure asked, her voice compelling the girl to answer.
"No, I remember nothing. Who am I? Why am I here?"
"Who you are is unimportant," the figure said. "But why you’re here is an entirely different matter."
"Oh, okay," the girl replied, not once questioning the figure’s words. "So why am I here?"
"For me to propose a deal. Granting you life, in exchange for a favour."
"A favour? Granting me life? None of this really makes any sense. Am I dead?"
"Not yet, but you soon will be." the figure coldly remarked.
"I soon will be? what do you mean," the girl asked, as a sudden unnerving sensation began to spread throughout her. "What’s happening to me?"
"Death, my dear child. The cold nothingness of death."
"Oh, that’s not good."
"No, no it is not."
"I guess... I best take your offer then! But first, can you tell me who I am? I don’t like not knowing who I am, it’s quite discouraging," the girl requested, tilting her head inquisitively as she did so.
"Will that help you make your decision?"
"I don’t know, but it couldn’t hurt."
"Fine," the figure said in exasperation, snapping her delicate fingers with an unnatural grace and poise.

Alice screamed. She screamed harder than she ever could remember screaming. Before her eyes her body changed, wounds reappeared, as if from thin air, bringing with them the pain of it all, her pain, it was unbearable. Everything was flowing back to her at once, the memories, the fear, the agony, all of it. She couldn’t stop it, nothing could. So she just screamed, until she could scream no-more.

"Are you finished," the figure questioned.
"Y-Yes... I think I am," Alice replied through gritted teeth. "So, just who are you? And what do I have to do?"
"A ghost? No, a spirit. Perhaps I am a god, or maybe I’m none of these things. In the end it doesn’t really matter," the figure said, her voice echoing softly inside Alice’s mind. "And what you have to do is simple really. I just need to place something of great value into your care.”
"Okay, but why me?"
"Well, that’s simple isn’t it, it’s all because of this," the woman whispered, suddenly appearing beside Alice, her fingers arranged side by side, bound tightly, almost like the tip of a spear. In the next instant she plunged her hand into Alice’s chest and swifty tearing her heart from her ribcage. Leaving Alice to stumble and collapse to the floor, her strength robbed from her.

The next thing to great Alice’s sight was the scene of the figure standing in front of her, Alice’s still beating heart held aloft in the figure’s hand. All around it different energies swirled, some burned brightly, while others simmered in the shadows, not wishing to break the surface.

"What an interesting soul you have," the figure said, examining the energies as they swirled. "I have never seen anything like this in all my years. It’s really quite beautiful."

I’d rather not hear that when you’ve just ripped my heart from my dying body, Alice thought, being unable to speak.

"I guess this state is quite inconvenient," the figure mused. "No matter. Follow me, I’ll take you to him."

Him?

"Yes, him. The one I spoke of, the child I wish to entrust into your care."

Entrust a child, to me?

"Well I doubt I can really call him that anymore," the figure said, gesturing to a pool of water behind her.

Somehow Alice managed to summon the strength to slowly shuffled over towards the figure, bending down to peer into the murky depth of the pool. Below the surface a second figure became visible, causing Alice to recoil away in shock.

“Don’t worry, he is merely sleeping a deep, deep sleep.”

Alice looked at her with a worried expression on her face, yet the figure just continued to beckon her towards the pool. Crawling forward towards the pool once more, Alice peered meekly at the person who slumbered within.

It was a young man, who couldn’t of been much older than her. There within the frozen pool he lay, unmoving, his eyes sealed tightly. His hair was long, almost impossibly so, it’s black streams twisting and twining aimlessly through the pool. His skin in contrast to his hair was a pale alabaster, which in places seemed almost translucent, allowing the veins and arteries to be visible beneath it. He was dressed in a raggedy shawl that draped loosely across his body. As Alice moved her gaze from his clothes she noticed his bindings, several chains and leather straps bound his limbs together, restraining him.

After a few seconds Alice looked away from the pool and fixed her gaze upon the figure in white once more. Who is he, Alice questioned in her mind.

“A poor, pitiful child. One with the ability to dye the world red, as he has this world. Born of love, yet cursed by ambition and hatred. A monster-

No. That’s not what I meant.

"Oh, you mean who is he, as in his name."

Yes.

"Names... such a silly little tradition, but I guess it would help you to know his, wouldn’t it. Fine, it’s not like I have some reason for not telling you, it’s Alexander, his name is Alexander, the last son of house Black. ’Forged by blood. Tempered in death’. Their family motto, another silly little tradition, but a surprisingly accurate description in his case. What fitting partners you’ll make, like two side of the same coin.”

Alice’s hands grasped her clothes tightly, pulling at them in a nervous manner. Just how much does she know?

“Your answer child?”

Alice ran her hand roughly through her hair, shying away as she did so. She bit her lip loosely before taking in a deep sigh, accepting the situation. Okay I’ll do it. But only because I feel I have no other option.

"Then the contract is formed," the figure said, smiling as she crushed Alice’s heart, leaving the energies of her soul to writhe and shudder in spasm as they sought her out, before they recoiled towards her and dived into the cavity in her chest. In response a torrent of shadows erupting from within, washing over her, healing her. At that moment the world began to fade to black, as if being swallowed by the shadows themselves. Alice’s eyelids became heavy and her body began to feel numb as she faded from the dream, her waking mind beginning to stir elsewhere. And, as Alice faded from that world completely, the spirit turned to the figure in the water, a sad expression now replacing her previous smile.

“I’m sorry I lied to her, about this place, about myself and about you. I’m sorry for the pain I’ll cause her... and I beg your forgiveness for all of it. As the Goddess of this land I beg you to forgive me and to save this land. Please my child, use that power and save her and this land!”

Next Chapter: 8 - Fallen Angel