Awakening

Zero woke up in the morning. It was a day like any other. However, Zero felt that something seemed off, but she couldn't figure out what it was. She had a mild headache, and her eyes felt uncomfortable, but none of that was particularly exceptional in and of itself. Pushing those concerns out of her mind, she rose from bed and got dressed.

She was still somewhat sleepy as she went into the hallway. Maria had woken up too and together they walked outside and sat down on the grass as they began shaking off the sleepiness. Still, Zero couldn't shake the feeling that something felt different.

"What's wrong, Zero?" Maria asked. "You're quieter than usual."

Zero was staring at the ground, picking at the grass in a daze. "I don't know, something feels weird.

"Maybe we should take a quick walk around the yard to clear your head," Maria suggested. "Come, get up."

While Zero was still dithering, Maria reached out and helped pull Zero to her feat. Zero stumbled a bit, but got her feet steady. She looked up, directly at Maria. For a moment, their eyes locked together and Zero felt a strange feeling overcome her.

"Zero? What is the matter-" Maria's statement was suddenly cut off when a bright flash of white light filled her vision.

An instant later, the two found themselves inside the monastery.

"What just happened?" Maria asked, deeply confused with their sudden change in location. "I saw a bright flash, and now we are inside."

"I don't know what happened. I had a strange feeling, but I don't know what it was." Zero looked around at the empty room. "That is strange, why is there no one here. I think we should go find someone."

The two cautiously began looking around the cloister, finding nobody. None of the other girls were there, and neither were the nuns. There was no one outside in the yard either. Next, they went into the other parts of the monastery. Still, there was no one. The entire building was utterly deserted.

"Hello?!" Zero and Maria's yells echoed through the hallways. "Is anybody there?"

Still, there was nothing but silence that followed.

"Someone must be here right?" Zero said. "They never leave the whole building empty."

"Let's just keep looking. We will definitely find someone." Despite her confident words, Maria's voice shook with apprehension.

The two of them continued to wander around the building, until even their voices and legs were starting to get tired. Finally, the truth was undeniable. There was no one other than them.

"Everyone is gone. What do we do?" Zero asked. "How could everyone just vanish?"

"I don't know," Maria muttered. "This is so weird. We have looked everywhere in here. There is nowhere for them to be hiding. Maybe they went out into the city. Should we go look for them?"

Zero seemed unsure about Maria's idea. "What if they come back. We aren't supposed to leave the monastery. And we don't know our way around, we will end up getting lost and then we can never get back!" She paused for a few seconds as her face fell. "But what else can we do…"

Maria stopped suddenly. "I just realized, there is one place we didn't look. That room we were looking through yesterday. What if there was a secret room there and everyone is hiding in there. That would explain why we saw no one leave but yet this place is empty."

"But why would they do that?" Zero wondered. "This doesn't make any sense."

"None of this makes sense. But we don't have anything else to try." Maria began heading off toward the room, and Zero quickly followed.

Once they got to that small room, they immediately located the hidden compartment and opened it up, revealing a handle. The two of them got a rope, tied it around the handle and started pulling on it.

The two girls put all their effort into pulling the rope, and they felt the wood creak. It had opened up a bit. But further attempts to pull it open made no progress.

"It is opening up, but it is still just a crack." Maria was panting from the exertion. "If only I had one of those metal tools to pry it open."

Suddenly, a crowbar appeared in Maria's hand. Both her and Zero stared at it in shock.

"Where did that come from?" Zero asked. "How did it appear like that?"

"I don't understand either," Maria said. "I was just wishing that I had one, and it appeared."

Zero decided to close her eyes and wish for one as well. Then, she felt a new weight in her hands. When she opened her eyes, she saw that there was a second crowbar that appeared.

"You made one appear too," Maria said. "I wonder if we can do that with other things."

Soon, the room was filled with all sorts of random objects.

"This is amazing," Maria said. "How are we doing this? Do you think we have magic powers, like witches?"

Zero shivered. "I hope not. If we were one of them…"

"Well, surely it can't be that bad," Maria said. "Being able to create stuff from nothing is so fun. I would love to have magic if I get to do that."

"That is forbidden," Zero said with alarm. "Don't even mention it anymore. No magic, there is nothing evil here. We just happen to be in a very weird situation. There is absolutely nothing wrong." After taking a few breaths, Zero calmed down. "Let's just get this thing open first."

Now, the two girls began prying the wooden compartment open. "One. Two. Three!" With a sudden burst of effort, the door came open.

Zero and Maria quickly moved closer to see what was behind it. There was nothing. It was just an empty wooden wall.

"I don't understand," Maria muttered. "How could there be nothing there. Could it just be decoration?"

"This is all so strange. I don't know what to think," Zero said. "Let's close it up again. There is nothing for us to see."

After exiting the room, Zero and Maria walked outside and sat down on the grass dejectedly. They had no idea where everyone was, or what was going on.

As they looked into the distance, Maria had another idea. "Maybe we can go explore the city. It is better than doing nothing."

"I suppose we can do that," Zero said. "Maybe we will find them out there. Are you ready to see the city, like you always wanted to?"

"We can go on a real adventure now," Maria said. "This will be so great!"

The two girls got up and walked out of the monastery unsupervised, something they have not done before. It was time to see the city, and Maria was quite excited, quickly running ahead.

"Slow down a bit," Zero called out. "Don't go so fast."

"I want to see the rest of the city," Maria said. "It is going to be so interesting."

"Don't you think that if you go too fast, you will miss something? Have you realized that there are no people in these streets. Isn't that strange?" Zero motioned around them.

"Eh? That is rather unusual." Maria paused for a second. "Maybe they are all gathered somewhere. We should keep going forward."

Zero and Maria walked through the streets, gazing around at the buildings around them. They were all devoid of people. It was eerie. After a while, Zero noticed something.

"The buildings… they are all the same," Zero said.

"What do you mean?" Maria started looking around.

"I saw these very same buildings a while back, and a while before that as well. They are just repeating." Zero stopped walking. "Nothing is changing, it is just the same buildings over and over. Look, all of these buildings look the same as ones that could be seen from the monastery. There is nothing new."

Maria looked around. The excitement in her eyes was visibly disappearing as the truth sunk in. Was this really the case, that there was nothing new here at all?

Maria turned and began heading into a building. "I want to get on top of a building and look out over the city. Maybe I can see something."

As Maria began dashing up the stairs quickly, Zero followed closely behind, panting as she tried to keep up with Maria. Finally, she got to the top of the building. She saw Maria on the edge of the roof, gazing into the distance. Zero looked out as well.

They could see the monastery a short distance away. But the rest of the city looked dull. It was repetitions of the same things. And in the distance, the city itself became indistinct. It was hazy, as though it simply stopped existing.

Maria looked like she was in tears. "There is nothing out there. This is all fake. What is this place? This is not the outside world."

As Maria became increasingly hysterical, Zero stepped back a few steps to avoid the flailing girl. But moments later, she wished she hadn't. Maria's foot stepped too close to the edge of the roof, and slipped. As she tumbled backwards, Maria let out as gasp as her arms tried to grasp forward to find a place to hold on. Zero quickly rushed forward, trying to catch her friend, but she was too late. All Zero could do was watch in horror as Maria plummeted to the ground.

Zero turned around and began running down the stairs. When she got back down to the street, she quickly went to Maria. The girl was covered in blood and was barely moving. As Zero got closer, she saw that Maria's limbs were bending in strange places. Zero looked into Maria's eyes.

"Maria…" Zero couldn't find any words to say.

Then, Maria's eyes closed shut, and she stopped moving. Zero staggered backwards as her face held a look of horror, with tears streaking down her face. She stumbled and fell backwards onto the ground.

Suddenly, the body in front of her vanished.

Zero got up, running toward the empty ground where her friend's body once was. There was nothing there, nothing but blood, and some small pieces of flesh. For a few moments, Zero stood there, not knowing what to do.

"Zero!" A call came from behind her.

Zero spun around quickly, and her eyes widened in shock. "Maria… How are you still alive?"

"I don't know. I was dying, and then suddenly I was alive again. I feel really tired though" Maria looked like she was in a daze as well. "I do not understand what is going on. All I know is that it is very, very strange."

Zero nodded. She herself was currently overwhelmed by the sheer impossibility of the situation.

"I don't think this place is real," Maria said. "But here, we can come back to life after dying."

"What do we do," Zero said. "I want to get out of here. I don't want to be in this strange place anymore."

"Well where would we go?" Maria asked. "Besides, I want to try something else out."

"What are you going to do?" Zero had just asked the question, when she realized that Maria had already run off. Zero immediately went to follow her friend who was walking up to the roof of another building.

Zero caught up to Maria as she began stepping onto the roof. "Stop, at least tell me what you are doing. Don't just run off like that. You just died!"

"And I got better," Maria said. "Besides, death doesn't really matter here. We can do whatever we want, like how we made objects appear by wishing for them. I wish to have wings." Suddenly, a pair of wings sprouted on Maria's back, causing Zero to let go in surprise.

"Now I am going to fly. I am like a bird now." Maria stepped toward the edge and prepared to jump.

"Wait, that is too dangerous," Zero said. "What if you don't end up flying and you crash to the ground instead?"

"Then I will come back to life and try again. Don't worry, I am not too casual about dying. After all, it hurt quite a bit. Let me try just once," Maria said.

Zero looked hesitant for a second. Then, she backed off to let Maria do what she wanted.

Maria jumped off the roof, her wings flapping. But despite that, Maria continued to plummet to the ground. She hit the ground again. Zero looked out over the edge of the building, looking at the mangled body below.

Then, the world disintegrated.

***

Zero opened her eyes. She was standing on the grass, in the yard of the monastery. "Maria, I just had the weirdest dream."

There was no answer. Zero looked around her, seeing no sign of her friend. "Maria? Where are you? Maria? MARIA!"

Zero's eyes darted back and forth around the yard. She could see that the few people who were outside were now staring at her. Still, this didn't register in her mind at all. Rather, she was still turning around frantically trying to see where Maria went. She hoped that it was all just a very bad dream and that she had fallen unconscious suddenly while her friend ran off to get help.

Suddenly, a wave of images hit her mind, causing Zero to stumble and fall onto the ground. She realized that something felt different about herself. There were countless memories in her mind, that didn't seem like hers. It was all so overwhelming. Zero laid down on the grass as memories began to flip through her mind, a mixture of her own as well as the foreign memories.

She saw herself in some of those memories. It was strange, seeing herself from the outside, like gazing at a reflection in a pool of water. Why would she be seeing herself from the perspective of another? There were also some memories where she simply wasn't there at all, so clearly she should have no knowledge of those events.

It was strange, nothing about what happened today made sense to Zero. She rubbed her head as she slowly tried to process her thoughts. It was difficult as her mind seemed to be in a jumble as she tried to integrate all of those different memories.

After a few moments lying down with her eyes closed, Zero felt her headache subside, and she began trying to think through what was going on.

"I remember all these things," Zero thought to herself. "But those aren't my memories. I remember seeing myself in those memories. And I am in a lot of those memories. Whose memories are those? It is probably someone I meet often. Who is it…"

Suddenly, horror shot through Zero as the pieces began to come together. "There is someone who is never seen from the perspective of those new memories. That one memory with me in it, there should be someone else with me. Maria. But she isn't seen from the memory holder's perspective. She is the memory holder. These are Maria's memories."

Zero quickly stumbled to her feet. "Why do I have Maria's memories? What is happening." Thoughts drifted through Zero's mind as she tried to make sense of the situation. Then, she recalled what had happened before this, how Maria died. It was in a fake world, but could it be related? "Did I take Maria's memories because she died in that world. Does that mean… Maria is dead now?"

"No. No. This can't be happening," Zero muttered. "I must be going crazy. Maybe Maria did just run off somewhere." Zero quickly ran inside to start looking around.

She looked around the main room of the cloister. There were several girls in there, but none of them was the one she was looking for. Zero spotted Sally nearby, and went up to her. "Did you see where Maria went?"

Sally appeared confused. "Didn't she just go outside with you a minute ago? Why are you asking me?"

Without even responding to Sally, Zero quickly ran off. She started looking through the hallways of the monastery, desperately searching for any trace of where her friend went. All the while, memories flashed through her head. Many of those memories were of the two of them together, and being reminded of it constantly only brought greater distress to Zero.

Zero went around the whole building, checking every room, even taking a peek inside the confessional room that she and Maria had been caught inside. There was no trace of her friend, even after searching through the building and the yard outside multiple times.

Finally, Zero sat down on the floor. She was tired. Running through the building several times was exhausting, and she was only driven through all of it by her panic and anguish. But now, those emotions drained away, replaced by a cold, sinking feeling of dread. No one had seen Maria after she had went outside with Zero. There was nowhere she could have gone. It was like her friend vanished into thin air. And it all happened immediately after their strange adventure in the fake world.

It almost seemed like a dream to Zero. The entire adventure in that empty world was so bizarre. It clearly wasn't real, but it had felt so real. They had made things appear out of nowhere, and Maria had even came back to life once. Nothing that happened could have been explained by common sense. While they were in that world, Maria had thought that it was all magic.

"Magic..." Zero's thoughts were already turning toward thinking about what could have caused all of this. "Could it be? If what happened was both real and fake… None of what we did actually happened, yet Maria is now gone. And I have her memories now. I absorbed her. Is this magic?"

"If that is the case, then am I a witch?" Zero thought silently to herself. "Then, this is all my doing. I brought Maria into the fake world, and I allowed her to kill herself in there. Now, she is gone forever, and I have stolen her mind, her memories. I killed her."

Zero stood up slowly, beginning to walk off. She ignored the other girls who called out to her. Her mind was focused only on one thing. The implications of what she had done weighed down on her. She was a witch. Her powers had killed her friend. Witches were the demons' agents, who only sowed chaos and suffering. Zero could understand why. She had killed, not intentionally, but killed all the same.

"Was it really unintentional though?" Zero wondered. "Did I not wish to have my life changed? But I ended up taking the demon's power for myself. Perhaps, deep down inside, this is what I had wanted. I am responsible for this."

Zero walked up to the nun in charge of the orphanage. Zero dropped to her knees and spoke. "Mother Clarissa, I am a witch. And my powers… I killed Maria. I have committed the greatest of all sins. I surrender myself to you and await your judgement."