The Ten Phases Of Ailin Francesc

anger

It was a nightmare.

A segment of reality that Ailin had no intention of keeping stored within her. It was something Ailin wanted to erase completely and leave no traces.

And she had. Right now, it was merely the junk stored deep down in the sea resurfacing with a huge wave. They would sink in deep soon enough.

It was a faint voice, the speaker seemed to be under water, or maybe it was the unclarity of Ailin's dreams. At first the voice spoke barely recognisable words, but later they were clearer "Ailin" the voice said.

There was a hand reaching for her through the water, and with a sudden realisation of not having enough oxygen to breathe with, Ailin realised that it was her who was underwater. What happened? Why was she there? Was she drowning? The last thing she remembered was her vision going black before someone jumped into the water, yellow hair waving like ribbons and a silhouette of a woman swimming towards her. .

Ailin couldn't remember the face tho. Why? Why couldn't she see it? the face. She couldn't focus on it. She had no idea if she knew anyone with yellow hair. As far as Ailin's memory was concerned, she remembered nothing of the past

Red blood mixed into and water and left trails in its wake, a bone crushing pain woke in Ailin. Then she was thrashing, wailing underwater. Her arms flying in all directions, her legs struggling to untie them. And then there was a knife coming towards her.
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Ailin woke up clammy and out of breath, her corset restricting her breathing. She sat up on her bed and loosened the lace of the corset, beads of sweat flowing down her face and her unmonitored breathing alerting the quiet air.

Once, Ailin Fransesc had wished to forget all including her existence. Now she wanted to know. She needed to know. what-what happened? Was she killed? Is she dead already? Is-Is there someone who might know something about her past?

But that look of wanting to know, that hunger of chewing on the truth simply died down from her face. It was like a curse cast on her. No matter how many times she remembers and for how long she remembers, she'll always forget. No matter what it is.

Ailin buried her head in between her hands, and tried to control her breathing to no avail. She felt like she would run out of oxygen and die in her bedroom. She coughed and panted, tried to breathe, panted. The fear of never being able to breathe dawned on her, but there wasn't much she could do about the thought. Soon the coughs died down and the pants came to a halt.

She could breathe again.

chirpings of birds leaked in through the opened windows. It was dusk already. The sun was beginning to rise. With blank and emotionless eyes, Ailin dropped back into the bed and slept again. Outside, an owl sat on the tree branche tilted its head 90° and looked at Ailin with its cat-slit pupils.

The manor was even more unsettled today. Upstairs, where Ailin lay in her room, was a gnawing silence after the birds had taken their flight when hails came crashing down on the tree branches, the roads outside, on the wagons pulled near the pavement, and Ailin's windows. Ailin heard nothing of the sounds outside but the silence in her room.

Her bed was rather fancy. If it weren't for her craziness, Ailin would be similar to the status of a princess. A beloved daughter of a rich father who bought her everything she wished for. In her hand was a beautiful diamond ring, an engagement ring? Perhaps, or maybe it was just something she liked to keep close to her.

She breathed in her sleep and turned around in her regal bed and woke up again just as soon. There had been the sound of metals clanking underneath and then, finally, the sound of glass shattering.

Ailin picked herself off her bed and rushed downstairs. Her steps confused and her body trembling. She seemed still shaken up by her nightmare. The stairs creaked under her slow and steady steps as she launched herself into the living room.

The Fransesc manor had never been this unkempt before.

Shards of glass lay sparse on the floor with water flowing around the room; on the wet carpet, underneath the glass shards, a few droplets of blood here and there and a very torn carpet is if someone had purposely cut it in all directions with a scissor just to rile Ailin up.

The flower vases that stood in front of the kitchen were now nothing but pieces of junk on the floor, the flowers they held lying a little distance away, some of the petals seperated from the flowers. The light atop her head flickered faintly and blew out.

behind her, a glass shard dropped onto the floor. Ailin jumped at the sound, expecting to see someone standing there in await. But all she saw was a broken window staring into the emptiness of the neighborhood.

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"Dear God! Whatever happened here?" Mrs. Juliver's shocked expression broke through Ailin's recollection of the past events. It sure had been a long night. She stared at the old lady in silence as she moved accross the floor in her heels, crushing a few shards under them.

She took a look around the destroyed living room, a long elaborate look at the broken vine bottles on the floor and then finally at Ailin herself, her bloody fingers being the cause of the stifling silence.

"Looks like someone broke into your house, Ailin. Worry not! I'll have someone clean out the mess in your house." she took a pause to look at Ailin's fingertips "Come up, let's give you a dressing"

It would be an understatement to say that Dr.Juliver Dupes had a lot of troubles climbing up Ailin's narrow staircase, the same task which Ailin would have no trouble accomplishing had she worn heels or not. Mrs. Juliver kept fumbling on the staircase, sometimes her blue gown got stuck underneath her own heels, sometimes she took steps upon nonexistent stairs and sometimes she ever mistook she own feet for steps.

After a lot of trouble she turned around and smiled at Ailin staring at her in wonder. The too ladies walked hand in hand upwards and through the corridor to Ailin's room. Mrs. Juliver had her sit on the bed and began dressing her wounds. Morning rays leaked in the through the blinds, lighting up the empty room. On Juliver's hand, something gleamed under the light.

Juliver caught Ailin staring at her ring and exclaimed "Oh! My husband gave it to me. Isn't it beautiful?" Ailin drew her hand out of her grasp, and with a stiff finger touched the cresent moon curved on the silver ring.

These past few days, she had seen nothing nothing but that symbol. Maybe Ailin already knew what it meant but struggled to remember due to her fractured memory, but she was very sure she had seen it numerous times prior to losing her memory, for she felt an undeniable rage upon looking at the sign.

And then she was having flashbacks.

She was underneath water once again, and in front of her was a decomposing body. Insects crawled on the skin of the body, dried blood stuck to the skin. The body was thin and dry, all moisture inside had been sucked out. The face, however....Ailin had never seen such an expression. Never in her life. I was a twisted expression, horrified, bewildered and scary.

The eye socket were opened to the limit with round and bulgy eyeballs sticking out, the nose had already been chewed and the mouth was wide open, wide enough to tear the skin on the corner of someone's lips.

A piercing scream had Ailin snap out of the flashback. Hands violently shook her. Someone was calling her name. The voice was familiar.

For some reason, Ailin's throat was sore and hurting. What-Was she screaming? Why was she screaming? Also, wasn't the corpse wearing a yellow silhouette? It seemed to have blond hair although there wasn't much left of them. Ailin felt like she had seen that person before.

Where?

That however, was the last thing she recalled before she got sucked into the abyss. The abyss Full of unwanted memories. A depth she both wanted to dive into and steer clear of.