166 Part of the package

A few hours after meeting with the strange tourist that vanished in thin air, Mia had finally reached the location of Avebury village.

Just like the man had mentioned, there were even more stones all over the place just like the ones that you could find in the circle of Stonehenge, but unlike those that were being treated as some kind of off-limits tourist point, the stones in Avebury were just all over the place, free for anyone to touch it as much as they wanted.

As Mia continued to walk down the road and enter the village, she was once again finding herself the target of a particular voice inside her mind trying to talk to her that was for some reason trying to sound like some kind of ghost.

[Miiiiiiaaaa... This is your consciousneeeess... I came to remind youuuu... You have not been a good girl this yeaaaar... Santa will not give you any presents if you keep this uuuup...]

"..." Mia just rolled her eyes and kept walking while trying her best to ignore the voice that just refused to stay quiet.

Mia was really starting to get tired of Evlin using every chance she had to try and annoy her, which was honestly surprising considering Mia hadn't once felt annoyed in the last two-hundred years.

[Oh! Oh! Mia, look!!]

"Look where?? You're a voice! I can't see where you want me to look!"

[Turn left!!]

The ponytailed girl did so and spotted an ice-cream stand right around the corner. The lady handling out was holding a cheerful look while the desserts to a couple of kids.

"Ice-cream...? What about it...?" Mia asked.

[Let's buy one!!]

"Why...? I don't need to eat, my body can feed on the negative emotions from people around me..."

[So you're basically a lawyer...]

"..."

[I mean... Because it tastes good!! You don't have to always eat just to feed yourself, you can also eat just for the heck of it!]

"I don't want to... We have more important things to do..." Mia ignored the stand and kept walking towards the location where she was informed the collection of stones were located.

[By the way, what's your favorite flavor of ice-cream? I always love to take Ellie to eat some with me whenever we tell her mother that I'm going to help her study for her exams. She always ends up trying to eat everything in one go and gets brain-freeze.]

"... Good for you..."

[I myself am a big fan of vanilla. I know it's kind of a generic flavor but I just really like it for some reason... What about you?]

"...Why does it matter...?"

[Because I want to know more about you. I told you that I want to try to understand who you are a little better, remember?]

"... Fine... I like brigadeiro..." Mia confessed.

[Brigadeiro...?]

"It's a type of sweet made with condensed milk with chocolate sprinkles all over it... I tasted it during my visit to Brazil..."

"I visited a ton of places... Brazil, India, Japan, the Morocco..."

[Were you on a vacation or something? You really are Ria's sister after all...]

Mia stopped for a second from hearing the name of her sister and felt something tightening up in her chest. She decided to disregard it and kept walking again. She also noticed people were giving her a couple of odd looks. She wasn't sure if it was because she was talking to herself or if it was because she was dressed in a huge red robe.

"I wasn't on vacation... I was looking for you... I never heard what your last name was so it took me a long time to find the location of a girl named Evlin that suddenly disappeared nine years ago and reappeared four years later..."

[Hehe... I bet it must have been a fun time for you...]

"... It was... A bit... Your world is... Interesting..." mia admitted.

She reached the edge of the city a took a good look at an open field surrounded by the circle of stones being bathed by the sunset.

"Your world is far from perfect... But it was so different from mine... That it just felt... Refreshing..."

[...]

"But that doesn't matter anymore... All my emotions are slowly fading away... And soon it won't matter if I'm here, there, or anywhere... I will be like a walking lifeless corpse... fated to live forever, unable to die by being feed from human misery, unable to feel anything... "

[...]

"..."

Mia continued to walk as she entered the field and spotted a small puddle next to her feet. Just like she would often do, she took a look inside of it to see if she still remembered how to smile. She raised the corners of her lips, but no matter how hard she tried, they just wouldn't stay lifted.

"... I wanted to smile... One last time..."

[...!]

"A real smile... Not one filled with malice or anything... A genuine smile from feeling some kind of honest genuine joy... But the only thing that ever made me laugh for the longest time was the pain I caused on others, that feeling of superiority, of seeing how much better I was than anyone around me, of being able to win against any opponent no matter how tough it was... And now, even that doesn't work anymore..."

Mia's face began to tear up once again, but her eyes remained completely emotionless, as if tears were acting against her body's control.

[Are you sure your only choice is to find someone to end you...?]

Mia wiped her tears while she continued to look at her own reflection.

"I have no other option... I need to do this... Or my existence will become a completely hollow one..."

[Why you don't just ask North to unlock your negative emotions? Maybe you will finally start feeling alive again.]

"I can't... You have no idea how many negative emotions I gathered over the years... I killed so many people, caused so much damage, hurt so many, destroyed so much... If I ever got my emotions back I would be buried under so much anguish that my body would completely turn into a demon..." Mia stared at her own hand for a moment, "I would end up just like my great grandmother... A complete animal overtaken by the cursed energy... This lock is the only thing keeping this body still human..."

[Mia, it doesn't have to be this way... I have a friend called Gustav that has the power to purify cursed energy, he can help you with your curse!]

Mia simply looked down, "My body won't be affected by some simple purification... I'm the descendent of Hana herself... My connection with curses is much stronger than anyone on the planet..."

She tried to lift her smile one more time, still having no luck in doing so.

"Which is why... I need you to go as well..."

[Wait what...?]

Mia began to focus to connect herself with the white void, and before Evlin noticed, the ponytailed girl was right in front of her staring with empty eyes.

"Mi- Mia...?" Evlin began to tremble.

"I know why I keep having these random outbursts of emotion out of nowhere... It's you!"

"Wha- What are you talking about??"

"These feelings... They are not mine... They're yours... I'm feeling your emotions inside your body..."

"..."

"I can feel it... Deep inside of me... You were honestly sad about me... About my past... About what happened between me and my family... That's why you were acting so silly all the time... You were trying to hide how much you feel sorry about me..." Mia described while closing her eyes "You really are weird... you honestly felt sorry for me despite all I did to you... I never met anyone like you..."

Evlin kept staring at her when suddenly some kind of door appeared behind her.

"But I can't risk it anymore... If I keep being affected by your emotions I run the risk of becoming a demon just like my grandma..."

"Mia, hold on a moment..." Evlin tried to talk, but the girl didn't seem to listen.

"I need you to go for good... I require your powers... But I don't require your sympathy..."

The door suddenly opened and revealed some kind of black room on the other side, a room filled with nothingness just like the white void but emitting some ominous feeling, a dark void. Mia was finally strong enough to send Evlin away.

"Goodbye, crossbow girl..."

"Mia?? Mia, wait!!"

Evlin felt her body being sucked into the dark void. Her legs wanted to run but the force was stronger and she kept being pushed against her will.

She took a glance at the other side of the door and spotted all of the souls Mia had absorbed along the years staring at her with coldness in their eyes.

"Mi- Mia..."

Several images flashed before Evlin's eyes from the times she faced these kinds of eyes before.

"Mia please stop!!"

Memories of the demon leader vomiting a large amount of demons on top of her who all kept chanting with empty expressions while falling.

Memories of being captured by the citizens from Emerald dawn and hearing them say that they would cut off her legs so she wouldn't run away while looking at her with eyes filled with greed.

Memories of the time Marcus and his group invaded her dreams to declare that they would come for her head with their rage towards her stamped on their faces.

Memories of the time she was a seven-year-old kid and had her entire classroom turn against her and try to convince her that she was a terrible person and should kill herself, all while she tried to look for someone who could help her but the only thing she found was their eyes of repulse.

"Mia!!!!"

Every time she was faced by some kind of crowd that just looked at her acting like her life had no value, like it was insignificant, like it was not worth saving and that she should just surrender suddenly revisited her mind and filled her body with immense fear and horror. A new form of trauma developed inside of Evlin.

The dark void kept coming closer and closer and Evlin could feel the terror becoming stronger by the second. Her image of an adult of twenty-three years old was completely shattered and she returned to being the age of seven once again as she kept being sucked into the other side of the door, the age where she suffered the first step into her trauma.

At the same time, Mia began to feel some strange sensation emerging inside her. The closer Evlin got to the door, the more her own body started to shiver as well, making it harder and harder tom merely stand.

"MIA!! PLEASE STOP!!!! PLEASE DON'T PUT ME IN THERE!!!!!! I'M BEGGING YOU!!!" Evlin cried. Her body was now floating towards the door and was inches away from entering it. She tried to grab hold of anything but there was nothing to latch on to. She was completely alone.

But just before she was fully locked into the dark void, the door was closed off by Mia's command, not being able to stand that feeling any longer herself, making the young Evlin fall into the ground.

She was completely shaking in fear while assuming a fetal position. Her voice was trembling as well while she kept repeating to herself "No more... No more..." and hugging her shoulders.

In front of her, Mia dropped on her knees while shaking just as much as Evlin. She wasn't counting on Evlin having developed ochlophobia and being terrified of entering the dark void. Every moment of fear that Evlin felt Mia was feeling as well.

"Goddamn it..." Mia moaned. She knew if Evlin entered the dark void, her suffering would be so big that Mia's cursed energy would go through the roof and she would turn into a demon instantly.

She kept looking at the young Evlin shivering like she was about to break at any moment. Mia didn't want Evlin's suffering to grow any bigger or her own suffering would increase as well, so she tried to comfort her a little. She approached the girl without knowing what to do to return her back to normal and started to pat her head.

"It's ok, it's ok... I won't put you in the- Hooof!!!"

While Mia tried to console her, Evlin just pounced and hugged her with all her strength, still trembling like crazy.

"..." Mia just looked at her. She never knew Evlin could behave like this, so frail, so vulnerable. The girl was hugging Mia as if her life depended on it.

She stayed by her side for hours until Evlin calmed down before finally leaving the white void.