Chapter Four: Voices

Mr. and Mrs. Aset were wary of their only child. Sisi spent most of her time with her best friend that no one else could see but her. She looked as if she was talking to the air, to the grass, to the trees and to the toaster oven. If she was interrupted from her deep conversation with herself, Sisi lashed out. One time, her parents listened in on her dialogues, but they couldn't understand any word she was blurting out. For sure, it was not of the simlish language.

But Mr. and Mrs. Aset loved her anyway. Sisi was the heir of their legacy after all. They had given her the right education and the support to survive the next generation. As she grew to become a young adult, her parents told her of the legacy she would inherit. Sisi rejected them.

Her mother was distraught. Her father was incensed. It was the first time that Sisi received any yelling and screaming and swearing in her whole life. She was kicked out and was left with no inheritance, no simoleons, no support.

Homeless and penniless, Sisi slept at the park, enjoying her solitude and sustaining herself with what nature offered her. Fish from the lake fed her, and the voices inside her head accompanied her.

There were two voices: her own and her best friend Isis. Isis controlled Sisi's emotions. Isis was loving and affectionate when she felt like it, but she was also scary and dangerous when she wanted. Sisi sometimes tried to calm Isis down in her negative moods, and this struggle between two voices is what put people off.

Alone in the deep forest, Sisi stared at the night sky. The stars glowered bright as darkness surrounded the earth around her. She saw a shooting star arc across the heavens. Sisi made a wish. Her second voice, Isis, asked what she had wished for, but Sisi turned to her side and slept.

Morning came with a cool, calming breeze. As Sisi opened her eyes, the music of the birds were mute. She couldn't hear their music, the music that she listened intently to as the haze of dawn faded away.

A disturbing noise. Her eyes watered at the thrumming sound, warbling and garbling at the insides of her ear. Sisi called out to her second voice, but she didn't respond.

Sisi stood up, and the ground felt like it warped beneath her. The thrumming sound came from around her, above her and below. It was the trees, the grass, the gray sky, the coming rain. She reached for her bag, and the noise swelled. She opened the flap and found a large tome inside.

She jumped back and gasped. The book did not belong to her. She looked around, hoping to find a prankster watching behind the trees or bushes. There was no one there. She took the tome out and stared at it. The book had a tan color, and its texture felt like dried skin. On the face of the book was a large, black diamond that pulsed as if it consumed light around it.

Sisi stared at the diamond, peered deep inside its abyss. The thrumming sound stopped, and Sisi could only hear the whispers of an unknown being. It sang to her. It promised immortality.