Crystal Magic Adventure: A Tale of Discovery

Chapter 3: Restless Nights

The air was filled with the stench of death. The bodies of the dead rotted beneath the sun, carrion birds circling over the skies. Flies ruled over the ghost village of Gladeside, now a blight on the world of Annaris.
How long has it been? A couple of days? Weeks? Months?

Lila lost track of time after the massacre, along with her sense of reality. She refused to believe any of this was real, just a long nightmare.
Yet deep down, she knew all of it could be real.

This is how Lila spent her days lately. Lying on her bed, contemplating what's real and what's not. She tried sleeping once but the moment she closed her eyes, that horrific night played itself over and over again. She decided to not sleep after that, just like how she decided against eating or drinking after she hurled the contents of her stomach with each attempt.
If it wasn't for the Crystal nourishing her with its energy, she would've starved herself to an early grave days ago. Still, even with the nourishment, not being able to eat or drink anything, along with the inability to sleep, took its toll on the young survivor. Dark circles formed around her eyes and her skin turned pale and shriveled. Her hair fell out.

However, despite all that, she once took a small stroll around the village. She thought bearing the stench of death and rot would be easy when compared to looking at the freshly mutilated corpses of everyone she ever knew. She even considered burying the bodies when she walked past them to preserve their dignity but what dignity would the dead have? What good would it do to them anyway?
She asked these questions every time she walked past a rotting corpse.

Unfortunately, bombarding herself with an endless barrage of questions exhausted whatever energy she had left, so much so that she swore to never leave her house ever again. The pain was simply too great for her to handle. Besides, this may all be a nightmare so why should she bother with any of this in the first place?
Thus, she kept lying on her bed most of the time. Staring lifelessly at the ceiling, hoping that she will eventually wake up from this nightmare.

"Sooner or later you will have to accept the reality lass. What's done is done, you have to move forward," whispered Crystal in Lila's mind, trying to make her snap out of it.

This wasn't the first time it tried its luck at making her come to reason but she always ignored the blue crystal.

 
Lila stood silent for a while. But then, surprisingly, she bothered to answer it. Without a hint of emotion,
'Why do you care? This doesn't affect you at all," she muttered.

"Yes, but you are the one who took me out of the cave. We formed a bond kid, there is no going back anymore." The Crystal reminded her, with a stern tone.

Raising her eyebrow, Lila turned around her bed to look at the Crystal floating next to her. She had so many things to say but rather than speaking, she let her expression do the talking.

After taking a good look at her face, Crystal continued,

"You can't run away from reality kid. You'll end up dead if you keep this up. I don't think I can keep you alive for much longer"

A spark of anger appeared in her eyes, Lila finally raised her voice, "Who asked you to do that? Elias... Everyone in the village... They are all dead. Maybe it would be better if I joined them." she protested.

Crystal could see the fire flicker in her eyes. She wasn't completely gone yet, there was still hope for her after all. All that's needed was a small push. She had her time to grieve, now is the time for recovery.

Crystal thought about its options for a while. What could it do to make her explode? What could it say to make her snap? While Crystal was thinking about its options, Lila turned her back on it again by rolling to the opposite side of the bed. Planning to ignore whatever Crystal was about to say.