#kudos managers | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

zinfindoll · 10 months

Text

Swan Song | M. Draconia — 00. hiraeth

[ prologue (you're here!) | index | next chapter ]

Rating: T CW: use of [Y/n], she/her pronouns for reader, swearing

The world, as you knew it, was ending. You weren't sure how you got here, standing in the middle of a city that had been reduced to rubble. Black smoke plumed upwards, and the sky was a dark red — not that you could see the sky, since it was covered with pure black clouds that seemed to drip ink onto the world below. It was an acrid smell that nearly burned your nostrils, and you took a step forward, stepping over a large piece of metal that was once part of a car.

You couldn't see anybody else around. It was just you.

In this world of ruin and chaos... It was only you. Where did everybody go?

Walking forward, you kept your eyes peeled for anybody else that may have survived whatever happened here, but...

Nothing.

The silence was unnerving, but you didn't have to worry about it for long — in the distance, you could hear a guttural roar, causing you to flinch backward as the ground rumbled underneath you. It continued to tremble even after the noise had stopped, and you leaned against a crunched-up car to keep your balance. Something moved in your peripherals, and you looked up to see a large creature rising from the rubble, inky black wings batting violently. It had a domed head much like a diver's helmet, filled with ink, and another roar shook the decimated city.

It wasn't ink.

It was blot. In your world.

How did it get here?

Swearing, you turned around and ran, but the creature was much quicker. With claws resembling a hawk's talons, you were scooped up by the back of your shirt before the creature threw you up in the air. Squinting your eyes closed, you waited for impact as you fell back down, falling, and falling, and falling...

Your back hit the floor, limbs flailing in confusion for a moment, tangled up in sheets in blankets. Your heart felt like it was about to beat out of your chest, and suddenly the darkness that consumed your vision turned into a bright light, causing you to squint and try and cover your eyes.

Your dorm mate was by the light switch, looking down at you in disgruntled concern. Her hair was matted and sticking out every which way — she had been woken up.

"Girl... Again?"

You groaned, head falling back onto the carpeted floor with a muffled thump, not bothering to clamber back into bed just yet.

Your roommate, Yuna, just sighed after making sure there wasn't an intruder and flipped the light back off, shuffling back to her side of the dorm and grumbling the entire while.

The digital clock on your dresser read just a bit past four in the morning. Once more, you hit the back of your head on the floor in exasperation.

The dream repeated in your mind like a broken record.

══════════════════

"It's been six years since you've been back." Your therapist, Melanie Dorsett, leaned back into the chair that she sat in, eyes boring into you. Not at all concerned, you were lying on the couch, eyes rolling up towards the ceiling as your feet propped up on the armrest. "And you are still having these nightmares of... overblots. Are you still taking your medication?"

"Yes," was your tired response. "And it's been helping... A bit. The nightmares aren't as frequent." A lie. If anything, they were more frequent.

Melanie nodded, setting the clipboard she had been writing on to the side. You glanced over at her, waiting for her to speak. "What you went through..." She hummed. "It's not something that is easily forgotten."

You snorted. "You don't even believe what happened to me actually happened."

"I'm not here to discuss that," she countered. "It doesn't matter if it actually happened because it's real enough to you that it's affecting your day-to-day life. This alternate world... Wherever you were, you were gone for three years, [Y/n]. It's clear it's left trauma."

Of course it did. You were suddenly snatched from your home and woke up in a coffin, only to realize you were in a literally different universe where everybody except you had magic — and you couldn't even enjoy said magic, because you were too busy playing pseudo-therapist and fighting giant monsters as everybody had mental breakdowns! It was a good thing you couldn't overblot.

You didn't say that, though. You'd just be regurgitating information that you have told your therapist plenty of times before. Tired, you could only ask her: "Do you think that Twisted Wonderland exists?"

Melanie sighed, pursing her lips. ". . ." She was contemplating her words, but her hesitation spoke legions. You knew her thoughts before she finally spoke them. "I do not," she started. You snorted again, averting your eyes to stare up at the ceiling. Of course. "I believe that whatever you went through, wherever you went... Your mind had to make it up to cope with what was going on. I don't believe you're just making this up for attention.

"With that said, I don't believe you're, as you so eloquently put earlier, 'fucking crazy' either."

A dry smile tugged your lips upward, amused at her quoting you. "Appreciated." That smile died down quickly, though. It was nice somebody at least didn't believe you were going insane. Even your parents looked at you as if you were a freak, despite them actually seeing you step out of a mirror into their living room.

So much for familial support, huh?

Melanie looked up at the analog clock that ticked away on the wall, and you followed her gaze. "It seems that's all the time we have today. Do me a favor... Consider this as homework, if you will. I want you to meditate before going to bed tonight. Try to calm your mind, and see if that will help with the nightmares."

You didn't think it would, but you thanked her anyways and promised you'd at least give it a try. Bidding her goodbye, you left the small office, nodding at the receptionist before exiting the building.

Outside, the sun shone brightly, but it only could combat the autumn chill of September so much. Tugging your coat closer to yourself, you started walking down the sidewalk, putting your headphones on and trying not to dwell too much on the nightmare that had disturbed both you and your roommate earlier. It was always the same nightmare, too, although it seemed to add on stuff every time it came to plague your sleep. This time, it was the clouds dripping in blot — that was a new one.

The weird thing was, the nightmares had started recently. It had been six years since you had wound up back in your world, devoid of magic. Granted, you had nightmares from the start, but they had been few and far in between, not to mention anything like these. These nightmares, the vivid ones, had started a few weeks ago, only getting more detailed as time went by. Were your anxiety meds not working? You weren't sure.

You didn't have classes today — besides therapy, it was a rare day off for you, and with nothing else to really do, you started heading back to your dorm.

Beneath you, the ground rumbled lightly for a moment, and you stopped walking on the sidewalk. Other students had stopped as well, but nobody seemed too alarmed. Earthquakes had been weirdly common for the past month, only growing more and more frequent, but not anything that caused too much damage.

You heard car alarms go off, even as your music was playing through your headphones, and once the rumbling stopped, you were back on your way to your dorm.

Nothing else had happened on your way back, and your roommate was out at her classes, leaving you by yourself as you let yourself in and turned on your television. Unsurprisingly, the news was going over the recent series of earthquakes and other natural phenomena that had been plaguing the country. Conspiracy theorists claimed the world would be ending soon; the smarter conclusion was that global warming was causing all of the natural occurrences.

Using the television as background noise, you went over to your bed and pulled out a shoebox from underneath it. It was small with few belongings, stuff you had managed to bring back from Twisted Wonderland. A couple of cards, some trinkets, a bat-shaped charm... But most importantly, and what you were aiming for, was an old cell phone.

At first, you had been afraid that once it died, that was it — the charger for the phone obviously didn't exist in this world, but you had been lucky enough to figure out that wireless chargers did work. The concept was the same, there just wasn't the specific type of cable for the Twisted Wonderland phone (which made sense but had still been annoying).

Unlocking the phone screen, you paid no heed to the "NO SERVICE" that flashed in the top corner. Instead, you went to the photo album, scrolling through the photos you had taken with your friends. Some of them were pretty blurry, selfies of you and your first-year friends progressing into all of you graduating.

You felt homesick. Kind of funny, considering Twisted Wonderland hadn't been your homeworld, and up until you left, your only goal was to survive there and make it back here.

Ironic, how this world works.

If you continued to look through the photos, you'd get sad. Exiting the album, you went over to the messaging app, shooting a quick message to Malleus. It was undelivered, of course, like the hundreds of messages you sent him and everybody else in the past few years, but even just typing out the messages was cathartic.

The messages remained undelivered, the circle next to them all remaining empty. Messages that would never reach the receiver.

There was no point in making yourself feel more down right now. It's not like MagiCam would work, considering it wasn't compatible with the internet in your world, and so you locked the cellphone again and shoved it back in the shoebox. You slid the shoebox underneath your bed before settling back into the covers.

A quick nap wouldn't hurt, especially considering you barely got any sleep prior.

With the television as background noise, you fell into a light slumber.

══════════════════

A scream was what aroused you from your sleep this time.

Eyes wide and heart nearly palpitating in your chest, you shot upright into a sitting position, knees drawn up to your chest protectively.

"Huwha—?!"

You could feel a bit of dried drool from the side of your mouth, but you paid no heed as you immediately looked over at your roommate. It was her who screamed, face ashen and charcoal eyes widened behind her rounded glasses. Nothing seemed out of place. No intruder, nothing grotesque or broken or missing, but she looked terrified all the same.

Still tense, you swung your legs over the edge of your bed, momentarily looking out the window. You had well slept past the hours of a 'nap', but perhaps that was your fault for not setting an alarm.

"Yuna. Breathe. What happened?"

Yuna looked over at you as if you had grown an extra head for a moment. She blinked a couple of times before seeming to snap out of her trance. "I..." She swallowed thickly, glancing over at the floor-length mirror she had set up. It was a cheap five-dollar one, and it seemed completely normal, but the way she was glancing at it made it seem like it was possessed.

Well... Wait...

Your eyes were still slightly bleary from just waking up. Rubbing them, you squinted, noticing something black and smudged at the top of the mirror, and you stood up to try and take a closer look.

"What the..."

Your heart stopped for a moment, before picking up even faster as you realized what was at the top of the mirror, dripping down slowly as if the frame itself was leaking. It was a thick, black substance.

One you were more than familiar with by now.

Yuna noticed your apprehension and slowly tried to explain herself. "I just got back... When I turned on the light, I swear I saw something in the mirror, and it was dripping — dripping whatever this is."

Something in the mirror...?

"Is it blood?" She asked, leaning closer, and you instinctively put a hand on her shoulder and brought her back gently.

"No... It's..." Damn. How did you even explain this? You'd have to fill her in a lot, and even then, you doubted she'd believe you. More importantly, though...

It had been six years since you had last been in Twisted Wonderland. Everything had more or less fallen back to normal, and there had never seemed to be any clue on it existing or how to get back save for what little belongings you had.

Which begged the question...

Why was this happening? Just what was going on in Twisted Wonderland to have it leak into your world?

Whatever it was, you doubted it was anything good.

#swan song #malleus draconia #malleus x reader #malleus draconia x reader #twisted wonderland #twst fic #twst #zinfic #this bad boy has been in my drafts for MONTHS i'm so sorry y'all #the Big Bad is an oc based off a disney villain kudos to whoever manages to guess it

104 notes · View notes