When did it happen?
At what point did I decide to allow it to happen?
At what point did I accept my fate?
...
Was it when I noticed the oddities in my body?
Or when I first learned of Blessings and Curses?
...
...Or...
Was it when I gave up?
...
I'm not sure.
...
Or perhaps I am sure.
...I may be merely denying the truth.
But.
Staring into sister's eyes;
At the face that looks almost identical to mine, a face that urges me to gaze away, to crush my own into pieces.
I can see life in her eyes.
I smiled.
Perhaps it was for the better.
For she did not become what I have become.
...But.
My fist tightened.
The urge to raise my fingers, to dig into my face, to peel away this skin that dares to emute that pure girl's face...
I hate it.
-----
Chandelier crystal lights reflected off her dress, dazzling the eyes of onlookers. Holding the hems of her dress off the ground, she took the spotlight with each step into the crowd.
"We greet the Pure One!"
"We greet the Blessing of Light!"
Repeating the same words with their grubby, power-seeking mouths, with their eyes slithering all over her with the intent to peel as much as they could from her young mind:
She walked without a care in the world.
Bold, golden eyes stared at the grand staircase, the untouched staircase.
Her pathway to...
'Sister...'
The Staircase of Blessings.
'May our paths cross once more...'
With this prayer, she walked through the pathway parted solely for her sake.
Ba-dump.
Her heart pounded as the vivid memories of that lovely little face came to the forefront of her mind. That pure baby who held her when she needed it most;
Golden hair.
Pristine, white eyes.
'My sister.'
Stopping before the first step, she paused for a minute.
"Is it true...?"
"Were they not rumours?"
"Are we about to witness..."
...
Curious, whispering voices came from behind.
The High Nobles of the Domain of Light.
Dukes, Duchesses, Marquis, and Marquisettes;
The pinnacle of the pinnacle of this nd.
All stood behind her.
And she...
'Mother, you are watching, are you not?'
She observed the Staircase of Blessings, the pristine, golden-leaf studded grand staircase.
'With this, I may meet her again, correct?'
'It was not a lie?'
Blessings.
She's a girl born of no Curses.
The Pure One, as they called her.
But Blessings and Curses aren't so simple.
Heirarchies, tiers of sorts, exist within Blessings and Curses.
The day she awakened to her Blessing was the st she saw her sister, but today, as she is about to reach the Step beyond the Initial Step of the Heirarchy of Blessings...
As she reaches the First Step;
'I may finally meet her again.'
Ba-dump.
Her heart thumped with anticipation, with that warm emotion that flooded her entire nervous system each time she gazed upon her...
That unfamiliar feeling in her chest...
'I want to feel it again.'
Ba-dump.
Thus.
With the encouragement of the crowd below, in this unfamiliar room where none of the people in the Domain of Light that she knew of fondly were in...
She stepped.
A crash of surging Blessings instantaneously overwhelmed her, drowning her from tip to tip in overflowing sensations.
Yet she did not relent.
She forced her feet onwards, up the Staircase of Blessings; upon a pathway free of Curses;
Upon a pathway ringing with Blessings.
...All the while, she remained entirely unaware of the truth.
...Unaware of the cruel, heart-rending reality of their inevitable pathways.
-----
My Awakening occurred a few years ago.
But that is not the awakening we are talking of today.
I am not awakening my Blessings.
I am not awakening my Curses.
...I am awakening my completion as the perfect being.
My hand lifted itself to the gel-like transparent wall. I pnted it where I could see my sister walking up the stairs in her beauty from afar.
It's begun.
Mother had long left me trapped on this Altar of Curses.
And I can see them coming, the Blessings and Curses raining upon my sister like an endless waterfall;
They're coming.
The Curses, not to my sister.
But to me.
The perfect me.
Sister...
It began to burn.
Dear sister...
It began to freeze.
Let all Blessings rain upon you...
And I...
"AhhhhHHHHHH!!!!!"
I colpsed; I curled; I screamed, scratched, I smashed my head onto the Altar of Curses;
"GhUUuuuUUU!!!"
I endured her Curses.
...Because that is what an older sister should do.
...For her.
CRACK!
Skin peeled from my forehead as cracks rippled like spiderwebs on the inside, blood streamed from my nose like a pouring fountain as all the strength drained from my limbs.
It burnt.
It froze.
It mangled my brain.
It twisted my limbs.
And I heard.
I heard madness.
Insanity.
Their voices.
My fists smashed the Altar of Curses, crunching the knuckles and bursting the veins as bits of flesh squelched off with the skin attached. The blood pooling beneath me began to run along the carvings of the Altar of Curses; a mixture of my blood and whatever materials conjured up this damned ritual.
I continued thrashing about, screaming my lungs out till my vocal cords burst apart. Tearing, crying, and flopping around maniaclly.
I was nowhere to be found.
Only a thing that looked like my sister remained, an ugly thing.
Crimson words suddenly shone on the altar, revealing strings of prayers;
Prayers for Blessings;
For Curses;
And a name.
A name for the creature.
Its eyes darted below whilst the webs of burst capilries in the eyes followed through;
It read the words.
And hoarsely uttered between screams...
"[Cursed Doll]"
The Perfect Cursed Doll.
A living, breathing puppet; A doll.
A Doll to take all Curses; A puppet to be strung along this py called life.
Mother's words almost seemed to resonate in the creature's brain, as though whispering in her ears...
"You shall willingly take all Curses, for that is your role."
Then.
The creature.
The thing that had been attempting to hold it all together.
For its sister.
It bled bck tears.
Cursed tears.
-----
She stood upon the Altar of Blessings.
Beneath her, the subjects of the Domain of Light.
Bathing in the Blessings of the world, her powers erupted with potent strength all around her: mixtures of dazzling fmes, bolts of violent lightning, and a third something.
With no worries for the possibility of debilitating Curses, she stood mesmerisingly like an angel rising from the ashes of the dying mortal realm.
Ba-dump.
She should be excited, celebrating the future possibilities, the soon-to-come meeting with her sister...
Yet.
'Why?'
...
'Why do I feel this way?'
Her heart was emptied out, like something precious had been snatched away at the most important moment. But no matter how hard she searched for the source of this odd feeling, she couldn't find it; almost as though it materialised out of nowhere, miraculously.
Yet the feeling wasn't miraculous in the slightest.
It was terrifying.
Horrifying.
Her facial features stiffened as she continued beyond the Initial Step of Blessings and into the First Step as an Entrant, no longer an Awakened.
Where the jubition should be was instead trepidation, and, in the back of her mind:
Something appeared.
A thought.
[Turn around.]
Or guidance, if you will:
To turn around, face the wall behind her.
'Why?'
She, however, did not hesitate.
Following through with a straightforward swivel, to the undeniable shock of the spectators below, she faced the wall.
The empty wall, the vish yet most certainly simple wall.
Nothing was there.
Even as the Blessings continued to descend, elevating her further beyond; even as the guidance urged her to face this wall;
She could not figure it out.
However, she was not the type to relent, to hold back where she should not.
Thus.
She stepped onwards.
Up to the wall.
Raising her dainty palm, she rested it on the cold wall.
And it returned.
The feeling snatched from her heart; the trepidation and manic fears;
They melted like snow as her heart was soothened by this touch.
She may not understand the reason why...
'This feels better.'
...But for the remainder of the time, she remained there.
Standing face to face with the wall, her hand pnted silently.
-----
Its hand pushed through the gel, pnting mere centimeters away from her fingers. It curled its fingers in an attempt to reach slightly further, but the attempt failed.
However.
...It no longer screamed.
Even as its body shredded itself.
Even as its mind melted into a puddle of goo.
Even as its blood overflowed, turning it almost pale white.
It remained there.
Hand to hand.
Soul to soul.
Heart to heart.
Blessings and Curses engulfed them.
On one side, a ritual sparkling with golden light, reminiscent of the sun.
On the other end, a ritual gushing in dark crimson, reminiscent of the night.
One ascended.
...The other descended.
Each took a Step on this day.
One climbed, basking in the glory of life.
The other sunk, bathing in the horrors of madness.
One took a Step into the light.
The other, a Step into the darkness.
One, an Entrant of Blessings.
The other, a Defiler of Curses.
Their palms interlocked across the unfathomable veil, each connecting on this day of celebration and horror.
A scene regrettably familiar in The Dark World, a world void of all hope.
Standing eye-to-eye, one capable of seeing, and the other incapable;
They both endured.
Relishing in this madness, the creature manically consuming Curses dazedly gazed into the eyes of the one relishing this heavenly paradise of Blessings.
It stared.
In silence.
For what felt like an eternity.
...Till the ritual ended.
...And the Perfect Cursed Doll was born.
