[Alma]

Bright lights, movement, tall figures and even taller buildings and was someone crying somewhere? Ways that would describe a big city for a country bumpkin but none of it was clear. Everything around her head felt nauseating and made her head feel heavy. Was it always this heavy? In a blind stagger to get away somewhere to think a hasty pale hand grabbed onto a wooden latch and flew open a door, slamming it shut after them before finally collapsing on the cool side of the pillow called the floor. The floor wasn't the carpet she remembered and neither were the sounds in her head. It was noisy in the most discomforting of ways. Minutes slugged on as the cool stone eased a sudden fever from nowhere allowing cohesive thought to percolate from the sludge like grey matter. Where was this noise coming from? Elbows scraped the stone floor raw as the woman force herself up to her knees. 'Did I fall off the bed?' Funny how there wasn't much pain accompanying that and even then were it a fuzzy feeling like her brain got pressed in till finally her lazy, sponge like being slipped through the hole and settled into a cool bowl. Long fingers combed through the sides of her head and felt upwards to two strange stocks on her head. Soft at the base and a little fuzzy that extended upwards like branches higher than her fingertips where the awareness of where her fingers sensed from the outside and not from within these formations. A brief tug made her head tilt the same direction in response proving that these were very much secure to her skull. A tug brought a brief second's worth of pain and that was the end of playing with those.


None of this seemed right. The room was dark still and not knowing what was doing on or what happened began to plant seeds of paranoia. She needed to get out. Palms set to the cool stone floor and she shifted to all fores on her knees. Giving time to adjust her eyesight, there were actually dim glows of light at the far end of the room at floor level. Cautious of the noise, what she was feeling, what she was seeing; the woman crawled toward the light before standing up to feel out a door. Standing also proved to almost leave her head in a light spin by the difference in height and center of weight. 'Have I eaten something wrong? What's wrong with me? Ugh, better yet, where is that light switch?'


A passing swipe by the door proved empty but smooth stone work glossing her palm. With no other sources to gather from the room, she raised the latch and pulled the door open. The noises became voices now. The voices of many in a chorus of confusion and wonder. There was happiness, cries for names, talk if anyone knew anything. The overload of all this grew three-fold by the scenery outside. This wasn't the forest of South Carolina and the people she saw were something straight out of an anime. Her eyes turned and lingered to the room with the light from the doorway flooded into it where immediately her voice died. Inside relived an unoccupied store house. Hardly a box or chair could be found within yet no computer desk, bed, or side table filled with pictures of grandchildren. Her chest heaved as those seeds began to take root in her mind thanks to the shadow stretching from the doorway. It looked like a demon. 'The devil himself!? What the hell!' Not the best of times to become religious but the shock made her pull the door shut and she sank with her back pressed to it. Shaking her head in disbelieve made the extra weight all the more real while coming to terms of what was going on. A dream. That's gotta be it! The woman leaned forward then brought her head back to hit against the door with a wooden thunk. It mildly hurt and she did this a couple more times as she sank to the floor in disbelief.


Perhaps this was a different kind of dream. One of those waking dreams she loosely read about somewhere online. Normally pain would be the sure-fire way to know which was what but there are cases where a dream can feel a little too real. Stuff like that has happened before such as hearing an alarm in her dream when it was her phone alarm going off in real-time so, therefore, in reality would she really be tossing and turning in bed with her head hitting the oak head-board restlessly. This kinda of logic took place as she slid her fingers back into her hair as though trying to hold a sense of self. Nothing explained this off sensation and come to think of it, why does her hair feel unusually short? A wish-fulfillment dream where she got fed up and cut off those five inches of dead weight. Sitting in the dark wasn't helping her psyche though. A want to find a mirror came to place. If she knew what she looked like then a few of these worries would pass on to other questions. Suddenly the door behind her started to knock. Her heart nearly jumped in fright and she pushed her back into the door to prevent it from opening in. 'Go away! No one's here! Just move on! Please go away!' Her mind begged with mouth clenched tightly in trying to keep silent in hopes whoever was outside moved on. She didn't feel ready yet to talk as her ears listened in on comments on the other side. The door groaned as the latch clattered in a battle of who could break in. A harsher bang resounded nearly making her lose ground till the voices started to concede their attempts on breaking in.


Cold sweat ran down her neck as she pressed her back into the door and kept as quiet as a corpse for the intruders to move on. The door no longer gave in and shuddered forcefully but who is to say the person on the other side wasn't laying in wait. Till sure they were gone she waited it out and strained her ears to the point of her blood pumping through them was all that could be gained. Pressure in her head began to pop before realizing she was holding her breath. A slightly deeper voice gasped than what was familiar when hiding in the company of darkness. Great... another mystery to wonder. 'Am...I not me?' The question came upon coming to terms that based off of what her hands and ears could tell her, this wasn't exactly her. This person isn't Clair. 'Who...what am I then?'


Like day following night and night toward dawn would the question naturally follow itself into being asked. Alone to her thoughts was she now trying to piece together who she was. Her eyes closed to envision the Clair she knew herself, the last person she saw in the bathroom mirror. In her want of answers did windows seem to form in her mind's eye. With that mind's eye would a mouse cursor start to move in a slow circular motion. By natural instinct did she click on everything that could be clicked upon. Inventory, skills, friend's list, guild list, pet interface, map, world map; all clicked upon and closed in haste till coming to her character window. A show of basic gear of shirt and stat points to the side. At the top read experience bars and levels for three locations with one word larger than the rest: Alma.


"Al... ma."


The mature toned woman repeated and the fears began to sink one by one. That's a name she knew briefly and how could Clair even forget. This was her character's name. This body is Alma's body but Alma hardly existed at all yet! 'I just made her! How can-- HOW!?' Is a character barely even a second old count!? Clair grasped her head in confusion and envisioned herself rolling on the bed in dismay. Not even got the time to log in the game and play in character and then the black out happened! Wait, the black out did happen. "Then... that must mean it was successful!" An odd hopeful tone raised at the more inappropriate of times. A gamer's concern over a save file being spared. Mind Clair went to fixing the windows of her mind to clear up the UI clutter with drag and drop to find another odd aspect that's been over looked till discovering the UI field. 'The game didn't advertise itself as a first person viewer. Mm... scrolling isn't working. So... this is what Alma is actually seeing.'

Comfort settled in to this strange coping thought process. Clair felt to still exist somehow if albeit in her mind but her body was still an issue. This body was Alma and as far as she knew, Clair designed Alma a certain way and from what she's felt from crawling on the floor and hiding like an utter coward was that this body felt things. 'Is any of this real? Or not?' A timeless question echoed by a more calmed girl as she stared up at the ceiling at a loss except for one fact, there's no way Clair er, Alma, could keep hiding in this room forever. Eventually someone bigger and stronger could break down the door. Not even mention of the disgust of dealing with having to do her business in a corner then sleep in the other. Far too unhygienic and gross! Speaking of anyone bigger and stronger out there, as Alma turned to the door with a gross unease. "Please don't let the next person be just standing out there..."


Right away dealing with a person wasn't what she was hoping to jump straight into starting but it was more important that the person she saw next wouldn't be so scary looking. Sneakily, wearily, the door to the empty warehouse opened and a minty deer horned head peeked out at the lingering masses that walked about the plaza of sun bleached stone and paved walkways. 'Just act natural. First we need to find somewhere to see ourselves. A mirror, water, glass, anything!' Her first plan of action. In all likelihood with the information window telling her that Clair was in Alma's body, the matter of seeing is believing was merely to give a peace of mind. Also in all likelihood would Alma not return to this storage place but serve as a reference for, it was all she has now. As she carefully strolled down the road in simple plain sandals in search of a reflective item would her eyes cast a wary look at her measured pace and tall legs. Skin near snow like under the warm sun along with a long shirt reaching a bit past her waist. A careful brush against her side felt the creases of shorts underneath so thankfully Alma wasn't strolling around half-naked in public. Past these minor observations of clothing was the dark shape that scared her earlier. The tall horned shadow strolling with her now. Clair wasn't exactly religious at her age with other topics on the forefront of her mind to care about church but for the time being, she couldn't help but feel a devil did lurk in her shadow every step of the way.  

---

words: 1921     total count: 1921
Toggle skills: None
Comments: A start(?) I plan to linger around the town for the most part on day one if anyone would like to join, fill free to =)