The void of the dreamscape was vast and empty, no sounds to be heard or sights to be seen. How long ago had the dream consumed her? Minutes? Hours? Days? It mattered not soon enough, because the void was quickly overcome by a bright flash of light.
The school bell rang out loudly into a teenage Elizabeth’s ears as she stood in the hallway. She stared at her locker with an empty gaze. Her lock had been broken off and tossed onto the floor, and the contents of her locker were spilled out everywhere. Papers and binders were ruined, either torn in the mayhem or soaked with what she assumed was water.
A trio of girls hurried past her in the hallway to get to class, but her sharp ears picked up on them whispering and giggling to each other. “What did I ever do wrong?” she thought to herself. It was a thought she had on a regular basis when something like this happened. It would conveniently only happen when the twins weren’t around, which made her almost scared to not be around them.
She reached up and rubbed her eyepatch, biting her lip to keep herself from exploding with emotion. She refused to show outward reactions anymore to the mistreatment, instead bottling it up, lying to her mother about what happened, and not telling anyone if possible. She carefully stepped through her belongings and peeked inside the locker. Smeared inside the back of her locker with red lipstick were simply the words: ‘Get Out’.
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Elizabeth's eyes shot open in panic, her face dripping with a cold sweat as her body lurched upward from laying down. Her chest was pounding while her breaths came out hoarse and erratically. “Where... am I?! What happened?” She uttered between breaths while looking around at the unfamiliar environment she found herself in.
The woman was in what appeared to be a giant lounge area, lavishly decorated from top to bottom. The walls were plastered with elegant patterns that matched the soft carpeting which covered the main area of the smooth wooden floors. A fireplace burned brightly against the wall, with a long glass table situated nearby with seating cushions around it. She herself had been laying down a velvety black couch that was next to the table, accompanied by several large reclining chairs that matched it, giving the area a very comforting feeling.
It took a few minutes of looking around in her seat and rattling her brain before she started to remember the last thing that happened to her. “I... I'm alive?!” she said as she immediately looked down at herself. She saw her bare stomach through the large hole in her shirt, which had now been splattered with dried blood stains.
Elizabeth trembled a little, slowly reaching down with her hand and pressing her fingers against her belly. To her shock, everything seemed completely fine. There was no pain or discomfort of any sort. “I didn't dream all of that right? I'm totally fine but this hole... and these bloodstains.” She was frightened and confused beyond belief, but after what she had been through earlier it wasn't enough to keep her down long.
She decided to find some answers as to where she was first and foremost, and maybe find some indication as to how long she had been unconscious for. Still a bit nervous, she eased herself up from the couch, doing so with extreme caution in case she accidentally reopened her apparently non-existent wound.
She looked down at her feet as she stood up and sighed. Her bag and shoes were missing, which meant at some point she would have to find those as well. With the utmost caution she wandered out of the lounge and looked around in awe, captivated by the luxurious and expansive mansion that she found herself exploring.
The walls were decorated with various paintings that had taken inspiration from mythology and folklore. “Did I get kidnapped by someone rich?” she thought to herself. Another unique skill she had obtained over the years; being able to make light of a potentially dark situation at the worst of times. This setting was a far cry from what she had been accustomed to back home, where almost all of her memories were in a smaller living space.
Just down the hallway from her, she could hear the sounds of what she could only assume was a kitchen. The clanging of metal together, the loud fan, and the enticing scent only reinforced her idea. Elizabeth crept towards the sounds, although not needing to make much of an effort to be quiet considering how loud things were getting as she got closer.
At the end of the hallway she stopped at the doorway leading into the next room. Through the door was indeed a kitchen that had been kept spotless despite regular usage, and someone appeared to be hard at work inside cooking a meal. A woman stood near the kitchen island with her back to the doorway, completely unaware of Elizabeth's presence while she worked away.
From what Elizabeth could see from behind her, her light skin glistened ever so slightly with sweat as the heat in the kitchen beat down upon her. She took a few steps inside the room, remaining unnoticed as she tried to get a closer look.
The woman's bright blonde hair flowed a little past her shoulders, hung up in a ponytail on the side with a thin black ribbon. In a similar fashion to Lilith, she had highlights on her tips, but they were a sky blue that blended upward into her beautiful blonde.
The woman let out a sigh of relief and utter satisfaction before putting down the spoon she had used to stir the pot. She grabbed the nearby lid and placed it on top as steam poured out from the cracks underneath it. It appeared she was done for the time being, as she untied her apron and tossed it over to the nearby dining table.
She grabbed a pair of black fingerless gloves that had been resting on the island and slipped them on snugly. “That's better!” the young woman spoke to herself before turning around.
Then came a short, awkward silence as the woman saw Elizabeth standing near her, appearing a bit startled by her presence. However after her initial little jump, the woman shot a very friendly smile. “Oh, hello there!” she greeted in a calm voice.
“Those eyes... and teeth...” Elizabeth thought to herself, trembling again where she stood. The woman's lime green eyes were sharp and animalistic, with the blue hue from her hair blended into them. When she saw the smile with her small fangs slightly exposed, images of everything that happened to her before she was injured flashed through her head. She took a few steps back, her breathing picking up speed as irrational panic started to take over her thoughts. Her body was instinctively backing her away from the woman, step by step towards the doorway.
The young woman's gentle smile slowly faded into a concerned frown. “H-hold on for a second! I didn't scare you did I?!” she called out desperately.
Her throat locked up for a moment, choking on her own words before managing to get something out. “I-I'm sorry, but I need to go!” she apologized before taking several frantic steps backwards to the exit.
Elizabeth didn't get more than a step out the doorway however before hitting something soft behind her. Without even having a chance to stumble backwards or say 'ouch', a pair of arms hugged her firmly by the waist and picked her up slightly off the floor.
“Liliiith! She's awake now!!!” The girl who had picked up Elizabeth chimed excitedly, loud enough to be heard throughout most of the mansion.
Elizabeth felt the previous panic in her mind get quickly replaced with embarrassment as she became flustered. Her back was being squished while she was being held up by whoever had come up behind her. It wasn’t quite the same as how Lilith had done it before, since Lilith seemed to do it more intentionally. This person seemed totally unaware of what she was doing. The hold she was stuck in was much stronger than it looked, and it was literally squeezing the air straight out of her lungs. “Can you... please put me down?” Elizabeth stuttered out as her head swirled around with dizziness.
She felt the girl's body pause for a moment before plopping Elizabeth back onto the floor. “Sorry ‘bout that!! I just got too excited!” the strong woman apologized to her while giggling.
Elizabeth stumbled a little when her feet touched the floor, pressing a hand against her temple while trying to regain her composure. She looked back at the woman, who stood over her with a childish, fangy grin and blushed lightly.
The strong girl was bouncing in place with excitement. She had long lilac hair that was held in a messy ponytail with a cute yellow bow. She shared the same traits that Lilith and the other woman had; her deep blue eyes had a crimson hue blended with them, the same as the ends of her hair. It was difficult to get an idea of her frame as the woman wore looser clothing, but she was clearly rather tall and strong if anything.
Before any questions could be asked, the young woman from the kitchen hurried over. “Please don't be afraid of us!” she pleaded with a slight whimper.
When Elizabeth looked back to her, she could see very clearly that the woman was upset about her outburst. “I'm not scared or anything! I-I... uhm...” she stuttered nervously. Although it was a bit of a lie, she didn't want the other woman to feel hurt about it. She felt like her brain was going to overload, with too much confusion and too many strangers addressing her at once.
“Ohhhh wait! If she got scared, then Lilith was right ‘bout her being able to see us all normal and stuff!” the strong woman exclaimed gleefully.
“Elizabeth!~” A familiar voice called out from the hallway. Lilith peeked her head around the corner through the doorway and smiled. “Good to see you're awake, sweetie!~” She paused for a moment when she noticed Elizabeth’s overwhelmed expression, along with the polarized states of her two companions. “Maybe we should take this elsewhere?”
To try and calm Elizabeth down enough so that her head wouldn’t explode, Lilith took them all back to the lounge. Everyone took a seat and allowed the young woman to have a couple minutes to relax herself.
After Elizabeth appeared to be settled, Lilith cleared her throat and started them off. “You probably have a few questions for us... or a lot! Either way I think it'll be muuuch easier with introductions first!~” Lilith said while giving her a wink. “You already know who I am of course~”
The blonde woman nodded to Lilith and gave Elizabeth a small wave again. “My name is Euryale, but you may call me 'Yu' for short. It's very nice to meet you!” she greeted her with a kind smile.
The woman in the red hoodie scratched the back of her head and laughed excitedly. “I’m Irisyla, but everyone just calls me Iris! Sorry I almost squeezed you to death earlier!”
Elizabeth nodded to them bashfully and played with her hands. “I'm Elizabeth, it's good to... meet you all as well.”
Lilith clapped her hands together happily and leaned forward in her seat. “Great! Now with formalities and stuff out of the way, what did you wanna know?” she asked her nonchalantly. The way she was handling the situation made it almost seem too ‘normal’.
She paused as the hundreds of questions that came to mind smacked each other around in her brain over which would be first. However, she felt she needed to ask the most important question to her immediate situation. “Why am I alive?” she asked rather bluntly. The questions came out easy enough, but there was a trace of hesitance still in her voice. “That woman... she put a big chunk of ice through me, I thought I was dead! So what happened?”
Lilith's confident expression faded immediately, as that didn't seem to be one of the questions she was expecting to hear. She looked over at Euryale and rubbed her cheek awkwardly. “So like, after that happened, the icicle faded away and you just had a big hole inside you... I took you back here ASAP to get fixed up. But by the time Yu got to you, the hole in your stomach was already completely healed on its own! So, we don't really know what happened!”
She looked down at herself and placed a hand on her exposed belly. “What does that mean though...? I'm just a normal person, I've gotten hurt tons of times before and never had a ‘magical’ recovery before!” she explained while gently placing her other hand near her eyepatch.
“That's actually part of the stuff we do know!” she responded quickly. “You're not a normal human at all!” she stated boldly, sounding a little bit too excited.
“Excuse me...? What does that mean?!” Elizabeth chirped back quickly, sounding a little bit offended by that remark.
Euryale gestured to Lilith and had her be quiet for the moment. “She didn't mean anything offensive by that, you are still very much human. But inside of you, there appears to be an enormous well of magical energy that humans do not normally possess. That is likely connected in some way to your recovery.”
“I have magic...? But in my entire life I've never done or felt anything like this before!” she responded in disbelief. She would have stated that she didn't think magic was real either, but that logic went out the window after her experiences earlier.
Lilith gave her a coy smirk and touched her finger against her own lips. “All you needed was something to break your wall that kept your magic from flowing. Our kiss probably broke it!~”
Elizabeth placed her hands on her cheeks as her face went completely red. She was washed away by the memory of the incredibly passionate kiss Lilith had given her. “I-I forgot about that, my first kiss...” she muttered quietly while looking down at the floor.
Irisyla gave her a curious look while Euryale gave Lilith a disappointed scowl. “You really are the taker of firsts aren't ya?” she commented.
Lilith looked between them both and raised her hands up defensively. “I didn't know it was her first kiss! Besides if I didn't do it, we would have had a lot more trouble to deal with!”
“You were low on power already? But I thought you just slept with a guy last wee—” Irisyla started to chime in, but her mouth was covered before she could finish speaking.
“Iris, don't speak so openly like that in front of someone you just met!” Euryale scolded her, although feeling a bit flustered herself by the subject.
Lilith looked away from them and pouted. “I'll have you know that I've been trying to slow down to waaaaaaaaay less than before!” she glanced at Elizabeth and nodded to her. “Plus with her around, we don't have to worry anymore about that stuff!”
Elizabeth had to hide her face from embarrassment. Remembering their kiss was bad enough, but now that the topic of Lilith's sex life was in the picture it only made things worse. “I-I feel like I missed something. What does kissing and... other stuff have to do with power.” She paused for a moment, then slowly moved some of her fingers from her face to look between them all. “I can see you aren't normal people, and you use magic right? What are you?”
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