*
Sariel wordlessly held her hand, physically urging her to stand up. Without letting go, she brought Lastia to her home.
"... This..?" (Lastia)
"It's your home. I'm sure the keys are with you, stay safe now.
I'll wait for you to find the keys, if you can't I'll let you stay at my place." (Sariel)
"Alright, thanks Sariel. It's hard having no recollection of my own property. It'll take some time to identify which one's my room." (Lastia)
"Ah. For whatever reason, your parents don't live with you. They're likely renting at some commercial zone and sending money to you regularly. In other words, you have this house all to yourself. You don't have to worry about taking other people's things, everything's yours. " (Sariel)
" I see... Thank you. " (Lastia)
" It's a little late, please get some rest... See you tomorrow, Lastia. " (Sariel)
" Mhmm! " (Lastia)
Having fished out her keys, she slots it gently into the keyhole and turns it clockwise. Strangely it felt just right, as if this wasn't the first time for her fingers. They experience a nearly natural sensation as she pushed the door in deeper until both her feet were inside her home. When she turned back to close the door, Sariel was already gone. True to her word, she only stayed until she made sure Lastia could find her own keys.
She was the first person that her eyes met, the first person who helped her and called her by her name... She felt safe being with Sariel, when her lack of memories made it feel like the world was collapsing on her. When her name was being called, it was like a firm chain tethering her to the ground, preventing her from floating into the scary endless expanse of space in the night sky. It was rigid and cold, but that added to its image of being strong and reliable.
Still, even if the person helping her seemed incredibly kind and composed, there was this melancholy that uncontrollably seeped through her pores. Sariel couldn't hide her frown with her poker face, it wasn't a frown stemming from displeasure, it was grief. It wasn't hard to conclude that they might have been previously close in some way, the Lastia that lasted about an hour or less reached the same conclusion.
Her memories weren't born just now. There was something prior, a predecessor that was lost. Sariel didn't tell Lastia that she had a curse of daily memory loss, but it wasn't difficult to put two and two when she's facing the brunt of reality. Before she noticed, she had reached her bedroom. Her legs walked nearly out of muscle memory as she reached for the door. Sure enough, there was a queen size bed behind that door.
Sitting over the front edge of the bed, she lightly kicked her feet into the air, lost in thought. Her mind rushed through the information she had gathered in the past half an hour, before a wave of drowsiness hit her right as she exhausted herself out. She crawled towards her pillow, squeezing together a couple plushies. Their softness soothed her heart, lulling her into a slumber.
When she opened her eyes, she found a mellow blue light filtered through her warm orange curtains. She lifted her torso up with her arms into a sitting position, before sliding her legs off the bed. Staring idly at her legs for a minute, she exerted strength into her legs and attempted to stand up. Her limbs felt so fatigued when she woke up, it was easier to wait for her blood circulation to get going.
She walked towards the desk at the forefront of the feet of the bed, her bedroom was like a medium sized rectangular room with the bed and desk facing each other, in the centre of the longer side. A large mirror sat atop her desk, an unfamiliar girl on the resided on the other side of the glass. She brings her palm closer to her cheek, feeling the outline of her cheekbone and jaw.
"This... This is me?" (Lastia)
Charcoal black hair full of tangle ends and rough strands, a brush was posed at the edge of the table as if beckoning her to touch and use it. She shifted her hand forward, gripping it around the brush. With practiced hands, her dainty supple fingers filters through her hair while her other hand brings the brush down.
Her eyes focused on what stood right in front of her, only second in conspicuity to the mirror. A diary detailing the life of previous Lastias, she was surprised, she could remember every little detail written down. Not the memory itself, but the writing. Her mind was subconsciously memorising every page, even as she skimmed through it casually without going any deeper.
How did she feel when she finished flipping to the end? Like there's a hole inside if her, something was lacking and she didn't know what it was. No, not knowing is inaccurate. She could feel how it was, this emptiness in her heart, she just couldn't describe it. She understood that it wasn't worth anything to interact with it. Other than that... Nothing. No nostalgia, no exuberance, no sentimentality. It was like someone else's story and their problems. The only thing she shared with them was her name.
Perhaps she was a unique Lastia who was a little different than the others, with a different disposition. The circumstances of where she first woke up must be highly crucial to the onset of her personality, highly volatile and capricious at birth. However there is a contradiction, all of the Lastias, at least those who have written down their experiences, turned out to be morally kind and gentle. They understood the peril they were in, but they still wanted the world to be happy without them.
What happened yesterday? Why wasn't it written down? She could only assume that this time things weren't so peaceful, and she had to wake up from her sleep right as it changed to the next day. She was outside her home, that's why yesterday's Lastia couldn't write anything down. External circumstancess kept her from doing so.
Then maybe the Lastia of yesterday was a little different too. The key difference was that she didn't want the world to be happy when she was gone, she wanted it to grieve. To repent.
"More importantly... What do I want?" (Lastia)
Like a storm brewing to happen, she gazed deeply into her reflection as her hands continued moving. While she understood that the other Lastias wanted the world to be a better place when they disappeared, she didn't sympathise with it.
*Ping Pong!*
The high pitched shriek of the door bell cuts through her thoughts.