1 1. Lelia Through the Looking Glass

Song: Lily ft. K-391 & Emelie Hollow - Alan Walker

L E L I A

They say every wish you make will be heard if you work hard enough.

But, they didn't mention all the other facts that comes with that.

They forgot to mention the rules of how one should wish, what one should wish, and up to what length someone can wish for.

A person can live without many things. But without hope? It's just the shell of a human being that can crack and fade in no time.

Lelia? She had hope.

Plenty of hope.

But Lelia was hungry. Hungry for love. She was desperate. And that desperation dragged her into a trench that was never there before, in the blink of an eye.

The person who brought a promise to drive away her hunger for love, who promised to be there turned out to the monster that she ran away from day one.

Oh God, if You exist, please let me correct it all, was the only thought going on and on in her mind like a tape on rewind as she lied in a pool of her own blood, her consciousness kept slipping away like a malfunctioning ceiling light.

Let her relive that day she committed the biggest mistake of her whole life.

You're blind and naïve, was the single answer she got every time she asked herself if she deserved everything she was put through.

Why her? She kept asking herself getting other same answer from her subconscious: Cause you're blind and naïve.

The clock showed different numbers as her consciousness resurfaced from time to time while the date remained constant, '17th August, 2020," before it all went black again.

The blackness from her eyes disappeared when she heard a door being opened and closed rather harshly than needed and her heart dipped in her stomach which was forming itself into knots. She could hear her blood pumping in her ears and the blood draining out of her face.

Fear.

That's what people named it. But she named it to the "need to hide" warning. It made her life easier.

Pain.

Is what she felt as she tried to getting up. But she rather named it an everyday condition as she didn't even remember what a painless body felt like.

Her lower abdomen whined in protest and her legs weren't able to hold her weight although she weighed nothing like she was supposed to as a healthy person. When she started crawling, trailing blood all the way from her bedroom to their washroom.

She looked at the clock hung on the wall, '11:09 PM,' it said.

The tears never stopped falling due to the immense pain she felt as she tried to muffle every expression of pain trying to leave her system. She was confused as to clutch her heart or her abdomen to relieve the pain.

"Lelia," came the sing-song voice of the drunken humanoid monster that took away every hope she ever had.

Looking for a place to hide, her mind kept calculating. He'd find her eventually at any place so there's no use in hiding.

But her mind screamed to just hide. She just wanted to get away for a short moment. Even if that moment is the quarter of a second.

But she didn't know what that human would do to her if he found her trying to hide from him. She couldn't imagine. She wouldn't imagine as it will only feed the fear that was growing inside her since a couple months ago.

Her eyes paused on the big mirror that stood in the washroom. It had a generous amount of space behind it to hide her for some time.

She somehow managed to stand and limped towards the mirror, slid behind it and shut her eyes close while listening to the erratic beat of her heart, whimpering as quietly as possible due to pain.

"Oh, Lil baby, how can you be so dayum obvious?" He laughed as he entered the bedroom and found the trail of blood.

5 months ago, her heart would've warmed up hearing him use that same endearing statement and she'd wrap her arms around him, showering him with kisses.

But that was months ago. Now, it brings an uneasy chill to her spine and she trembled with a feeling she never thought she'd have to feel again.

The urge to kill herself.

Lelia knew she was dead tonight. She knew it wasn't worth it, hiding would never save her. It never did.

But a small voice in her head soothed her with unspoken words and urged her to look up. To just open her eyes.

And Lelia did.

The clock ticked to 11:11 PM.

Where there should've been a wooden frame to hold the mirror in place, contained another mirror which was never there before.

Lelia just kept staring with wide eyes as time seemed to have stopped flowing.

She wasn't afraid, she just couldn't believe it.

Because the mirror never reflected her.

It seemed to reflect only the wall she was leaning on and nothing else.

Out of curiosity—or was it a strange piece of ancient knowledge?—she stretched out her hand to touch it but her hand went straight through the mirror. Leia flinched and pulled it right back.

What was that?! Her mind screamed.

But something in her soul calmed her, urging her to save herself, it felt like someone was calling for her soul from the other side of the mirror when she was torn out of her trance by the loud and wobbly pace of him.

Without thinking twice, she dived right into the mirror and landed on a tiled floor with a dull thud.

"Ow.." She stilled when the place seemed too familiar to be good.

The intense pain in her lower abdomen was gone, there was no blood on the clothes that were now different than what she was wearing a moment ago.

As she stood up, she realized she was in a public washroom of some sort with numerous washbasins and mirrors.

Her whole world shifted and her breath hitched as she looked at her form in the mirror.

Gone was her shadowy under eyes and was replaced by her old bright grey eyes. Her matted knee-length hair which he always liked was replaced by her waist-length wavy, midnight black hair that shined with health.

Her hollow cheekbones were gone replacing them with creamy skin which gave an olive sheen as it glowed.

"Lelia, are you coming or what?" Barged in a girl way taller than Lelia with blonde hair and ocean blue eyes.

Lelia flinched at the sudden intrusion before her brain deadpanned the mane of the girl right in her mind and she paused.

Wait, what?

"Bianca?" She stuttered as she slowly advanced towards the only girlfriend she ever had since childhood.

But one incident made her lose her trust in her and Lelia hurt Bianca so bad Bianca promised never to cross paths with her.

Which was quite supported by Lelia too as her blind trust was won by the monster himself. Lelia was so spellbound that she didn't even think twice before brushing away the only friend she had left.

The way Lelia threw Bianca away the moment she tried to save Lelia a year ago still pains Lelia too much to endure.

But that was a year ago.

And they cut off any form of communication between them some good amount of months ago.

Then how..

"..yeah? Are you okay, Lilly? You seem a bit pale," asked Bianca as she touched Lelia's arm to which she flinched and stared right at Bianca, gobsmacked, when her touch felt too real to be some kind of sick joke of a dream.

What in the world was happening?

Without wasting anymore precious time, Lelia asked the first question that came to her mind, "What day is it today?"

Because she had a feeling what was going on and she was wondering how the hell she was still so calm.

"Seriously Lilly? What, did you hit your head somewhere and develop a short case of amnesia?" Asked Bianca after a short pause while her hand was still stretched out and she retreated it back, "out of all other days, you choose to forget today?"

"Save both your time and mine and answer the god-damn question!" Lelia pressed, scared out of her mind in fear that this might be a dream because the other possibility seemed just too good to be true.

What if it wasn't a dream and he comes looking for her? She had to get out of here.

Bianca's face was the epitome of shock when she replied.

"It's the 1st of February, 2019."

And the sky crashed down on Lelia's head.