Aurora's POV
"WAKE UP."
The voice was so loud, carried like the thrust of a heavy wind. My eyes fluttered open little by little, and the blinding white light washed over my eyes again. My skin burned really hot under it, for a moment, I thought I was actually dead… but then I realized where I was again.
The same blinding white platform. The same heavy silence. The same voice from above.
The Goddess.
I struggled to sit up while dusting my clothes, every muscle really screaming in pain. My hands were covered in hard dried blood, my body torn and shaking so badly. The last thing I remembered was the monsters coming to me…their claws, their teeth, my screams echoing through the cursed forest. Arrrgghhh…..
I looked up instinctively, but the light was just too much; for my eyes so my vision blurred instantly.
"Don't… look," I whispered to myself, pressing my forehead to the cold ground.
"YOU FAILED."
The Goddess's voice echoed lightly like a storm in my skulls…calm, but yet piercing.
Tears welled in my eyes. "No, please… I…I really tried. I swear I did. I thought I heard him so clearly… Stefano…"
"YOU CHOSE THE WRONG PATH," she said simply. "AND ONE WRONG CHOICE ENDS EVERYTHING. THE TRIALS WERE MEANT TO TEST YOUR SOUL. BUT YOU LET YOUR HEART BLIND YOU."
"I couldn't stand there!" I shouted, my voice cracking. " when he called my name. I heard him crying for help. How could I ignore that?"
Silence.
Then a soft hum. "YOU CHOSE LOVE WITHOUT WISDOM. AND THAT IS WHY YOU FAILED AND FORFEITED ALL THREE TRIALS."
My throat tightened. "All three?"
"THE MOMENT YOU CHOSE WRONGLY, THE OTHERS FELL WITH IT. FAILURE IN ONE … IS FAILURE IN ALL."
My heart dropped.
I pressed my bloody hand over to my chest, feeling the faint rhythm beneath it. "So… that's it? I fade from here and vanish forever?"
"DEATH ISN'T THE ONLY END TO EVERYTHING AURORA."
Her words twisted through the whole air like smoke. I looked up directly even though it hurt me badly, trying to make out a shape in the blinding light. "Please," I whispered. "Please… give me another chance., anything. Please, I'll really do anything."
The Goddess paused, as if she were studying me. "ANOTHER CHANCE WOULD MEAN A PRICE."
I swallowed hard. "I'll pay it."
"YOU SPEAK TOO QUICKLY," she replied. "THE COST ISN'T SOMETHING YOU CAN UNDO. ARE YOU SURE, AURORA OF THE BROKEN BOND?"
"I have nothing left to really lose."
The light dimmed a little slightly… just enough to actually make me think she was leaning closer, though I couldn't even see her at all.
"THEN HEAR ME," she said. "THERE ARE THREE CHOICES, AND ONLY ONE MAY GRANT YOUR RETURN."
My heart raced. "What choices?"
"FIRST," she said, her voice wrapping around me like a cold wind, "YOU MAY RETURN BLIND…NEVER AGAIN TO SEE THE WORLD OR THE FACES YOU LOVE."
I trembled. "No…"
"SECOND," she continued, "YOU MAY LOSE YOUR VOICE. TO WANDER IN SILENCE, FOREVER UNABLE TO SPEAK TO THE ONES YOU LOVE, TO SCREAM, OR TO CALL FOR HELP."
My chest ached, my breath uneven. "And the third?"
"THIRD," she said slowly, "YOU MAY LOSE YOUR MEMORY. EVERY NAME, EVERY LOVE, EVERY PAIN…GONE. YOU WILL WAKE AS A STRANGER TO YOUR OWN STORY."
The air grew still. The light around me flickered faintly, like the Goddess was waiting for my choice.
"I…" My lips trembled. "If I lose my memory… will I ever remember again?"
"ONLY TRUE LOVE CAN AWAKEN WHAT WAS LOST."
My heart clenched. True love. The words burned.
Stefano's face flashed into my mind…his laugh, all his promises, the warmth of his touch on me before it all turned into pain and so much confusion.
Maybe that's what she meant all along. Maybe this was the real trial…love itself.
"I choose… to lose my memory."
The Goddess's voice softened. "SO BE IT."
A gust of wind surrounded so much around me, lifting all my hair as a sharp pain pierced through my skull making it fly in the air. My memories began to slip away little by little, faces, moments, laughter…all dissolving like mist in the sunlight.
I tried to hold onto all of them. "Stefano," I whispered weakly. "Don't let me…forget…"
But it was too late.
The platform cracked beneath me, light splitting into shards. I fell through it, weightless, empty, nameless.
Warm air brushes against my whole skin.
The pain in my chest is seriously really gone…replaced by a very deep, hollow stillness.
My eyes flutter so openly in a dim room, silver moonlight spilling through the thin curtains so sharply. I blink, my heart thundering. Where… am I?
The bed beneath me feels very soft, and very unfamiliar. The sheets smell really faintly of herbs and vanilla. I try to sit up very well , but my limbs feel so heavy, almost not really mine.
My voice trembles. "Hello?"
No reply. Just silence, thick and so distant.
I stared all around. The walls are stones carved beautifully. A candle flickers very weakly beside me, its flame dancing as if it was afraid. I look down at myself…a plain white gown, faint scars on my arms. My body feels so strange, like I've been borrowed by someone else really.
My head pounds. Flashes of light.
But then… nothing.
The emptiness burns.
"Who… am I?" I whisper.
No answer really. Only the soft hissing of the candle flame.
Then.
A whisper curls through the air, faint and cold: "Only love can bring back what was lost…"
My breath catches. "Who said that?"
The candlelight flickers violently. My eyes widen as something moves…a shape, stretching really along the wall.
A shadow.
At first, I thought it was light playing tricks on me, but no… it's growing. Creeping closer. Soo creepy.
My pulse spikes. I can't move. My body refuses to move, it felt like I was in a horror movie.
The shadow slide up the wall, across the floor, reaching toward the edge of the room.
"W-who's there?"