We Are Never Truly Gone

Sheik

@Nassar

The sound of quiet crying echoed through the library, bouncing off the books and walls cruelly and resonating back to her. Sheik sniffed and looked down at the words on the pages she'd been trying to read but were now smudged with her own tears. "Oh, no..." she sighed, knowing that if Aurora were here she would be freaking out.

Swiftly, she closed the book and placed it back on a shelf so that nobody could trace the damage back to her. She usually would never dare to do such a thing but the idea of being scolded over a book did not sound appealing at all right now. She was far too sad to deal with much and it felt like everything sent her over the brink these days. It had only been a short while since her Auntie's funeral and she was still grasping at what that meant exactly. Nassar was no longer here... but what did that mean? Her ashes were here, her scent still lingered in the halls. How was she just... gone?

Sheik moved to the doorway, making to leave the library and head to the kitchen to ask one of the cooks to make her something to eat when she heard a noise.

A loud 'thud' caused her to jump nearly out of her skin and she whipped around to see the book she'd placed on the shelf fallen on the ground. Sheik's breath slowed and she looked around, confused. She stepped away from the door and moved towards the book, finding it open to the very page she'd left off on.

We are never truly gone...

The words on the rest of the page were distorted beyond repair from her tears but that one sentence stood out. She had been reading a book about the afterlife, about what came next, and it hadn't been all that helpful. "We are never truly gone..." she echoed, bringing her paw up to touch the page before closing the book again.

Behind her the open door closed and she looked over her shoulder, frowning as an icy chill covered her. "Hello?"

 

play me like a violin

 

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It was colder than she would have thought.

Her sense of time had vanished, disappearing as the passage of the sun lost its meaning. There was no hunger, no thirst. More often than not, all she felt was a floating nothingness punctuated only by brief moments of consciousness. In those waking moments, it felt as though she had been dunked in cold water and finally allowed to breathe. Her memories would rush back and she'd feel the urge to race to her family, to ensure that they were all alright—but then she'd fade again. Sometimes she was lucid for hours. Other times she had only minutes.

It was so unreliable that Nassar was wary to approach her family. Her spirit lingered in the manor, drifting through the rooms. More often than not she couldn't be scene, although that was often harder to bear. The thought of trying to speak to her children only for them to look through her... oh it made her heart—what was left of it—weep.

So she drifted, tracing through webs of old memories and emotions, until she found herself in one of the libraries. And there was a girl there.

At first, Nassar did not recognize her. She lingered, wondering who this could be. Not B...Bast, not... Ly..ra... The names of her children slowly flowed into her mind like water through a crack. As she focused, however, more returned. Consciousness flared and her eyes widened. Shiek. Khepri's daughter. Had she still tears to cry she would have felt them sting within her eyes. How have you already grown so big?

The girl was inspecting a book that had fallen back on the ground, her voice warily echoing through the room.

Nassar smiled weakly, for surely the child couldn't see her. But, slowly, she walked up next to the girl and sat down. "Hello little one," Nassar whispered, more to herself. At least she could pretend that they could speak to one another.

Sheik

@Nassar

The chill did not go away and eventually, it caused Sheik to shiver. She turned around, facing the door now, when she noticed something out of the corner of her eye. Before she could look and see what it was, a familiar and warm voice washed over her. As if she had been struck, Sheik whipped her head towards the sound to see a bleary visage of her aunt. She squinted and then finally picked up a paw to wipe away the vision but when it remained, she only stood and stared.

"A-Aunt Nassar?" she breathed, as if saying her name would make her finally disappear.

But she didn't vanish into thin air and this caused the girl's tail to begin to wag and a wary smile to form upon her youthful lips. "Aunt Nassar!" she barked, diving forward to cling to her aunt's side as she'd done so many times before as a younger child. But when she phased through the vision, she lurched and her stomach churned uncomfortably. She doubled back and gaped at Nassar, unable to understand what was happening here. She was dead, or so they said, but yet here she was right before her. Nobody had explained to her about ghosts and spirits, except the stories her mom would tell her of old gods and what not. Sheik hadn't payed enough attention to them to remember and Nassar was certainly no god, anyway.

Yet... she swallowed and shook her head, not understanding. "What... what happened to you? I thought you were dead. That means you've gone away forever, doesn't it?" she asked tenatively.

 

play me like a violin

 

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