The City Of Sleep

Murelea, a place where the mind is just as material as the body, and just as easy to touch. Where it is twisted and bound and used and manipulated. We will be watching everything, do try and be entertaining, it is of utmost importance. Good luck~

My cheek was numb. In fact most my body was. As if I slept on a smooth slab of stone. Murelea, the thought is booming in my. My limbs tingled pleasantly as I begun to shift a bit. Where was I? Murelea, answered something in my head. I was naked, I could feel the pressure of my chest on the surface under the weight of my body. I felt my skin brush on the floor as I turned over to lay on my back, A moment later I was wide awake. The sudden sensation of cold reaching the small of my back made me feel **** and naked. I sat up and my eyes snapped wide open. The floor was a plane of polished, reflective stone. Some gilded marble perhaps? The whole place was huge, walls stretched far and covered in extravagant portraits, draped with elegant silk and decorated with rows of pillars. The spiraling pillars extended out of the flanking walls, one every few meters. The vaulted ceiling made me feel tiny. I tensed up, the echo of foot steps, the click-click of heels walking in an even pace. I should run away, hide somewhere. Do anything. I wanted to, desperately. But I didn't, and that should have scared me even more. Instead I felt my panic starts to quiet down.

'It seems you are awake, Miss.' a cold but unmistakably soft voice called from behind me, intimately near. I must have looked the picture of inelegance. A naked, frazzled girl with a streak of red pressed into her side. That probably shouldn't have been my greatest concern at that moment but it was.

Slowly I turned around, and my eyes met the flat eyes of a woman. She had black, bushy hair that fell symmetrically to her sides. It was braided in thick braids that looked like limp dusters and tied with white ribbons near the end, leaving only a fuzzy bit at the end of each cluster. She had prominent breasts for her lean thin figure. She was dressed as a maid. A black thin fabric made out the basic shape and overlaid with frilly white that highlighted the outfit and gave it volume. She was beautiful, her brown skin flawless, her nails done with a subtle black. Her cold, eerie mannerism only further captivated me. She looked like a doll, yet she was distinctly human.

I could feel myself staring, my sense of self shrinking and hiding in the corners of my reality. She must feel my eyes passing over her body, skittling like tiny legs. A sensation I was familiar with, and abhorred. But she only smiled at me, this ethereal smile that hid nothing behind it, thin as paper.

'Welcome to Murelea Miss, I am Mini.' her words were clean and to the point, clearly not inviting a response. But I had to do something, so uninvited and with an anger dulled by this woman I started, 'Why the hell am-' Mini spoke with a rhythm that crushed my own. I felt bad, like I was speaking out of turn. 'Miss I ask you that we keep polite discourse. I am only here to help you. Our interaction will be beneficent and pleasant if you would cooperate. What is your name, Miss?' Do I lie? She gave me her name but, 'My name is Ada,' I found I already said it, and I know that should bother me but Mini was speaking again,

'Miss Ada you are in the grand chapel of Murelea. First, you were not kidnapped by myself or, as far as I am aware any of my associates. I do not know why you ended here, instead I am here to help guide you in this new reality of yours.'

I open my mouth to speak but I am brushed away. 'Everyone who arrives here does so naked, there is a Tailor in the city, Atelier. She will help you'

'Exiting the chapel, there is a cobbled path through a forest that eventually bleeds into a huge meadow that acts as a popular spot. You'll surely find someone to help you there.'

Her words flowed into my head like the notes of a music box, underneath I could feel a shimmering, volatile panic but it seemed so far away. 'What should I do?' It only seemed reasonable to ask. What else could I do?

Mini tilted her head up a bit, she was slightly shorter than me and after our initial shared looked had been staring rigidly at my chin. 'Miss Ada may I ask a question?' Her voice called for no answer, 'Is there anything for you, where you came from?'

'No.' I found myself saying. A nauseating stillness in my head that washed was left after. Mini seemed sad, she pitied me I realised. Then again it would be just so me to project pity onto a blank surface just for it to piss me off. Her lips parted with a slight tremble to them that did not fit the woman.

'Then, I apologise if I am overstepping my boundaries. I do know my place Miss Ada but, may I give you a small advice?'

this time the question seemed genuine, like a conversation with another person, I didn't like it. I nodded.

'Embrace your situation. You could have a good, happy life here, one way or another. But if a part of you is still back there, you'll lose both.' Mini stopped herself, or at least something did, something that smoothed over the slight expression she had a moment ago. 'Enjoy your stay Miss Ada.'

I found myself smiling, 'I'll see you again Mini. I promise.' I turned around and took my first step, a happy life...