Mila was not a girl with a healthy childhood. Her mother dying in childbirth and her father blaming her from the beginning, Mila was always aware of the darker parts of humanity. Beyond that, she seemed to be able to ‘read’ people’s emotions like they were laid bare before her. Using this inherent skill, she worked to make herself invisible, avoiding others. However, this just made her a target for bullying and further ostracization.
She was always forewarned when her father or others were angry at her or others. She trained herself to placate them for the sake of avoiding further harm at their hands. All she did was try to keep her head down and fade into the background. At least that way, they might ignore her.
That was… until she met her.
She shone as bright as the sun. Confident, proud, strong, and graceful. Able to do whatever she wanted simply because she could. Brimming with every single thing Mila herself didn’t possess, and more genuine than anyone she ever met. And yet, this girl looked at her. This girl saw her. For the first time, she felt… important.
Alina became her first friend. She encouraged her to come out of her shell, helping to build her confidence and become… well, herself. She was like an idol for Mila. She was everything she aspired to be.
Yet, as Mila spent more time with her, she realized just how much Alina was restraining herself. Alina showed her what she was capable of, but she still acted like she was just like everyone else. This actually only served to further raise her in Mila’s eyes. All that strength, all that power, and she still treated Mila like an equal. Like a friend. How could she not admire her?
Then, the monsters attacked, and everything changed.
Suddenly, everyone else was able to see what Mila already knew. Alina faced them alone, defeating them with power beyond humanity. When she was finished, Mila could see it on her face as the people cheered for her. She was the happiest she had ever seen her.
If only it could have lasted.
Mila watched Alina continued defeating threat after threat, each time becoming truly dazzled the power she put on display and all she could accomplish with it. However, she also saw how the others reacted to her. Whether it was fear of what she was capable of or anger at her inability to be everywhere at once to protect their loved ones or property. Mila could even see it beyond what everyone else or even Alina did. Such darkness.
But Alina took it in stride. She took it all equally, their praise and ridicule, and bore it with a smile. Mila saw past it though. She saw just how greatly it weighed on her. It was amazing how well she carried it, but Mila was afraid that something like that would destroy her. She couldn’t just stand by and watch her slowly lose herself. To lose the girl she loved so dearly.
So, after much convincing, Mila convinced Alina to give her the power to fight alongside her and carry her burden, and the growth Mila began to see in Alina seemed to shrink.
It was only then she understood just how exhilarating Alina must have felt. Mila felt like more than herself. Like the version of herself she always wanted to be. Like Alina. But she also felt just how terrible the weight it came with was. All those people placing their hopes and fears upon them. All those lives relying on them. All those deaths they were unable to prevent. All the anger and sadness they had to accept from others.
She watched Alina put on a continuous front, smiling even as she cried in her heart. Mila fought even harder, hoping that she could see her smile with all her heart once again if only she could do more. She fought, and fought, and fought, and fought, but there was always more. There was almost no break. Even when the threat was gone, the people themselves refused to give them a moment to themselves.
Every day was a new challenge. Every day was even more responsibility heaped on top of them. Every day was more malice directed at the powerful girl who just wanted to save them and the girl who wanted to saver her. It grew, and grew, and grew, and grew, and it began to take its toll on them both.
Mila watched as the inky growth in Alina slowly began growing once more.
More than that, it was almost unbearable to watch Alina continue to shoulder it without complaint. She hurt more than anyone else every time she failed, but she never let a soul know, and Mila, who did not share Alina’s mentality, began to resent the humans who placed so much on them and yet still deemed to berate them when they didn’t meet their expectations.
This anger grew more and more, and she began to realize that Alina was becoming distant. Not only to Mila, but to the people she was protecting. The wear was becoming noticeable on Mila, but something far darker was growing in Alina, and she was the only one who could see it.
Mila didn’t know what to do. What was going to happen to them? What was going to happen to Alina? Would the people even care? By this point, all they were seen as was tools. The only reason they’d care is if it affected them in some way. What selfish beings.
It finally reached a breaking point when, rather than meeting them with a smile, Alina faced their praise and anger with… nothing. No smile, no frown, no anger or happiness. Just a blank expression, like she didn’t even comprehend what was happening. Mila collapsed when she saw it.
It nearly consumed Alina.
No. No. No!
The wail of her heart echoed out in a nearly palpable wave. Alina reacted as she felt something inside her being torn out in a furious jerk. But it wasn’t just her. Everyone else in the area suddenly went cold as the waved rolled over them, coursing back towards its origin and stealing something from them as it did.
So lost in her pain that she didn’t realize what she’d done. She, in her desire to free her friend from the numbing burden humanity had piled on her, had accessed a power she didn’t even know she possessed.
Mila was a psychic. More specifically, she was a form of empath. Her power, originally only able to read and understand the emotions of others, had been enhanced by the power she gained from Alina. This enhancement gave her the ability not only to read them, but draw them out and into her like an emotional vampire.
All the hate and darkness. All the elation and joy. Every emotion around her suddenly swarmed into her, and it only served to fuel the darkness that had been growing inside her. It overwhelmed her. It consumed her. It raged inside her.
She lashed out at the horrible monsters that had done this to her. She slaughtered them, destroying them for their evil, their selfishness, their anger, their pride. For every evil they denied and passed on to others, she inflicted back on them tenfold. She bore their evil, and she was their punishment!
Which is why it was so shocking to her when Alina stood in her way.
Even now, how could she still defend these people? Didn’t she know what they were doing to her? Couldn’t she see they deserved this? These horrible creatures didn’t deserve her kindness! They deserved her rage! She was doing this for her!
She fought Alina in a mad fervor, no longer able to separate her rage for humanity from her love of Alina. Still, it wasn’t enough. Alina was always the stronger of them, and Mila could only struggle in her insanity as she fought a losing battle. Unable to surrender even at the end, Alina so no other option but to kill her.
As Mila faded away, and as the overwhelming flame of anger cooled into embers, the last thing she saw was Alina, the one she loved, crying as she held her in her arms. But Mila couldn’t do anything. She couldn’t even speak. Even in death, the image of her friend, now bearing a new weight on her heart, was burned into her soul.
And the hatred of those responsible for it.