166 Part of the package (1/2)
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...”