Chapter Text
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As Alice boards the empty bus, she can't help but feel a sense of isolation.
She takes a seat and takes her phone out of her pocket. She checks the time, it's 10:30PM, it'll take an hour or so to get home. She stayed at her college for a little longer to redo the painting she had previously messed up, her teacher cut the girl a little slack and gave her an extra day to remake it. It didn't turn out very well though, maybe it's because she was in a bad mood, but she didn't have the same spark of inspiration she once did. It especially didn't help that a couple of her classmates seemed to be holding in laughter when she presented it.
It was supposed to be her first big assignment and she wanted to start off with a bang, but all she did was make a fool out of herself and probably make all the other students question if she was even worthy of being there.
What really soiled her mood though, was something that happened earlier today. As she painted late into the evening, she overheard some discussion in the hallway outside of the painting studio she was in. They probably thought they were being quiet, but either forgot that as a bunny her range of hearing is far better than most, or just didn't realize she was still in the building at all.
"So, that guy, the one with the painting that got all smudged, what's his deal again? I mean he looks nice don't get me wrong, but he seemed a little like...all over the place? Like his head ain't screwed on right, haha." A soft feminine voice said.
"Isn't she a girl? I mean, not a 'girl' girl, y'know, trans girl." Another, raspier feminine voice replied.
"Oh wow really? Haha I wouldn't have guessed oops. I didn't really pay attention when he was introducing himself, so like...!" The soft voice responded.
Alice heard the two girls walk away as the raspy voice replied. "She! Girl you gotta start paying attention to these things before it gets you in trouble. Anyways I don't know what her deal is, I guess she's just a little weird, but a lot of people here are weird. We're a little weird too aren't we, lol. Like omigosh remember last October when Mike brought one of his cats to my high school and-"
After that, Alice stopped paying attention to them, and tried to focus on her painting again, but when a tear started to roll down her cheek, she put her brush down and exited the painting studio. She looked for the nearest bathroom as she walks down the empty halls, not quite familiar with the layout of the college yet, and as soon as she finds a bathroom, she feels relieved to see it completely empty, so she enters a stall, and doesn't even bother to lock it behind her, instead she puts the toilet lid down, which covers the whole thing, and sits down on it, huddled with her knees drawn up, and her arms around them.
She tried to think about something more positive, namely her friends. Although all that that did was remind her of her family, which made her feel even worse. More tears started to roll down her fluffy cheeks, and she began to gently sob. As soon as she did, she tried to stop, hating the sound of her own voice. A voice she considers ugly and manly, a voice that should've never been hers, one Alice feels she was burdened with. No matter how hard she works to sound how she wants, it's never good enough. Her thoughts started to mesh together into a conglomerate mess of self-deprecating feelings. It only made her feel worse, she's supposed to be strong, she's supposed to be the happy one. She couldn't let anyone see this, she couldn't let anyone find out that she's a complete mess who hates everything about herself.
Before Alice realized, her hand reached into her bag, one full of art supplies, brushes, and she grabbed her pencil case. Unthinking and unfeeling, she zipped open the case and rummaged through it until she found what she was looking for, a small box cutter. She grabbed it, and slowly slides out the blade, until it's the size of her pinky finger. But suddenly, some part of her snapped back into reality, and she simply stared at the box cutter.
She put it down on the flat toilet paper dispenser, and brought one of her arms closer to her face, she unwrapped her other arm from her knee, and gently rubbed the fur of her hand. Not to comfort herself, but to see something, scars that are being covered up by her fur, scars that she promised herself would be the last of their kind...but, it's not like anyone would ever find out if she did it again. Her friends don't know she ever did anything like that, as her fur has always hid any evidence.
But, she didn't let temptation win her over, feeling a little better after crying, she stood back up, and headed back to the art studio.
As Alice sits on the bus, reminiscing about her day, she decides to send Zoe a message on Whatsapp. The bunny waits a few seconds, and seeing that her friend isn't replying, she assumes she must've head to bed early...or is too invested in her games. She sends Moth a message, and they don't read it either. This time however, Alice can perfectly believe that Moth just went to bed early, as they aren't much of a night owl and are pretty adamant about their sleep schedule. Before Alice realizes, her eyelids start to become heavy. She closes her eyes but doesn't want to fall asleep, even so...she's far too exhausted after hours and hours of standing and painting with little to no breaks. A little nap won't hurt, will it?
Suddenly, Alice feels a comforting heat envelop her as she dozes off. Behind her, she hears a faint, crackling noise, reminiscent of a relaxing campfire. Little does Alice know it, but the world is on fire. The streets are enveloped in a red flame that doesn't reach inside of the bus as it continues to drive into the inferno. Not that Alice notices or cares, as if anything, she feels more at ease, blissfully ignorant of what is happening around her, not fully asleep, but not quite awake.
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Zoe is alone in her room. The door is locked and the blinds are closed. Not even the faintest glimmer of moonlight fills her room, the only hint of life is her computer screen which lights up her bedroom. Earlier today she was looking for a game to capture her attention. She tried playing Neopets yesterday and it was a ton of fun, but for some reason it didn't exactly vibe with her. She was considering trying out Club Penguin, but when she tried looking for fan-made servers she kept finding out that a bunch of those servers were controversial or breeding grounds for nasty activity, so she gave up on that idea pretty sharpish as well. In the end she decided to take Alice's suggestion, which was Newgrounds. Alice told her that alongside really cool art, the site is a total goldmine of old preserved flash games. She decided to heed her advice and has been trying out some of the ones that catch her attention, favoring older games, especially ones she remembers youtubers playing when she was a kid.
But out of all the games she tried out, the one that captured her attention the most is Epic Battle Fantasy 1. She already beat the whole thing on normal and hard difficulty, and has been attempting to beat it on epic difficulty as well, but it proved a lot more irritating than she anticipated. Maybe it's because of her inexperience with turn based RPGs, those are more Alice's cup of tea. Even so, she enjoyed the game's music, art and charm enough for her to want to see it all the way through to the bitter end! She can already tell that the final boss, Zombie Goku, is going to be an absolute nightmare on this difficulty. She already struggled with it quite a bit on her hard difficulty playthrough, and she needed two attempts to beat it. The problem with that is that death in this game sends you all the way back to the start, so any mistake or miss-click can send you back over an hour of playtime.
She's currently fighting the defender boss, and as she expected, the boss is already proving to require more of her brain power than she was willing to give. Having to constantly keep her party buffed while making sure to keep the party's health topped off, which all proves even more challenging now that the boss is at low health, because it starts using its AOE cannon attack which deals significant damage to both party members. The boss' music is absolutely pumping and makes her feel like she can take on the world! Zoe is determined to beat this stupid thing and prove she has it in her to master this little flash game! If she can't even do that, then what hope is there for her to get her life back in order. What hope is there for her to live up to her sister Courtenay.
As she continues to play the game on autopilot, with the banging music being completely tonally off from the way she feels, she can't help but reminisce on her day. As if yesterday wasn't bad enough, today was the anniversary of the day she got together with her ex-boyfriend. She hasn't talked to him in over half a year now, the two of them ended things off pretty horribly. Was what happened between them really her fault? It must be, she made so many mistakes and did things she shouldn't have very early into the relationship, dooming it from the start. No matter how hard she tried to better herself or repent, it felt like she could never escape the shadows of her mistakes. He was supposed to be her light at the end of the tunnel, her shoulder to lean on, the man she marries! She fantasized about living a happy domestic life with him one day, but even so, the entire relationship just felt so off. There were red flags on both ends from the start, and she was too much of an idiot to break things off regardless of how many chances she got to do so, until it was him who ultimately ended things.
As her mind has wandered completely, she miss-clicks on what was supposed to be her last ditch finishing move against the boss. She uses the quake bushido, a stupid move because The Defender is resistant to Earth attacks. There is a rest shop after The Defender, and she was sort of banking on finishing the boss off without having to heal again, but panicking, she defends with the second main character Natalie, only realizing when it's too late that she should've healed instead, or at least tried to attack the boss with Natalie since it only has a sliver of health left!
She prays to all that is holy, please Defender, please use anything but your AOE attack. Then, the boss proves her life truly is a divine comedy, as it uses the exact attack she didn't want it to, wiping her party and sending her right back to the title screen. Out of sheer frustration, she closes her laptop with force, before regretting it and opening it up again to make sure she didn't damage it. When she sees that there wasn't any damage caused, she shuts the laptop off the normal way, and then closes it, letting it rest on it's lap. Her lap feels warm from all the heat it's absorbed from the device.
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Suddenly, Zoe's eyes start to well up as she contemplates everything. She can't do anything right. She can't maintain a relationship, she can't get a degree, she can't get a job, she can't even complete a stupid Newgrounds game. It's all just so pointless...but maybe this is exactly what she deserves. Maybe she was born to be a miserable loser who can't do anything right. Maybe this really is the only way things could have ended up. Her friends at least have things going on. Moth has a job, alongside friends they go out with and Alice is attending her dream college...but Zoe? She's nothing, she's a total nobody. She doesn't deserve these people...maybe she doesn't even deserve this life.
Too tired to act on any of these feelings, Zoe's resolve starts to waver and so does her energy. As tears continue to roll down her cheeks, and she sniffles to herself, alone on a dirty bed covered in crumbs and snacks, she closes her eyes. Too tired to clean up, too tired to be upset, too tired to keep living. As she drifts off to sleep, a small part of her can't help but hope that she doesn't wake up.
But suddenly, a wave of warmth washes over Zoe, and a gentle crackling noise fills the room. Zoe wonders if her laptop has caught fire. She opens her eyes, but her laptop is still resting peacefully on her lap, and the warmth and noise are gone. She decides it's nothing to worry about. As soon as she starts to doze off, the warmth and noise resume. This time, she just decides to accept it and dose off...it feels peaceful. And the more she listens, the less out of place it feels, like it was always meant to be there. The world is burning around Zoe, but her bed isn't. Her room has been enveloped in a blazing inferno of red, and the ceiling has been covered in a thick all-consuming odorless smoke. She doesn't notice any of it and she's happier not knowing. Her mind is in the perfect place, not quite asleep, but not quite awake.
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Moth is having trouble falling asleep. As seconds turn to minutes, and those minutes turn to an hour, they don't feel any sleepier than before. The reason why they tend to head to bed so much earlier than their friends is something they've always been a little embarrassed about, their insomnia. It makes it a total pain in the ass to fall asleep every night, knowing that based purely on what their body is feeling, the mere act of falling asleep can be a daunting task. At least heading to bed early has helped mitigate this. It still does feel pretty weird, their friends think Moth sleeps so much earlier than them, but the truth is that Moth sleeps approximately as much as them if not even less.
The cat tosses and turns in their bed, unlike Alice and Zoe, they have a very slim bed because they don't like the idea of their bed taking up most of the room. As they shuffle around the bed, they start to think back on their life. In high school, Moth considered themselves to be one of the most popular girls in school. Constantly attending parties and even throwing some themselves when their pretty successful parents were out of town together. Their parents own a big law firm, one Moth had the option of inheriting, but law never interested them. If anything, they were a total lawbreaker. Dabbling in things they really shouldn't have at their age, smoking, vaping, recreational drugs. Though they never dabbled in anything past a cigarette. The strongest drug they ever used was THC, which is significantly less addicting than nicotine. But after their teens, their friends all sought greater pursuits. They stopped going to parties or hanging out together as much, and Moth was left alone. Moth still hangs out with their old close friends on occasion, but it doesn't go further than stuff like the occasional visit to a bar or going bowling together.
Adulthood hit Moth smack across the face, but they aren't willing to realize it yet. They stopped smoking cigarettes and stuck to vaping, and since a couple weeks ago they've quit even vaping, all thanks to Alice and Zoe's encouragement. Although they do still smoke a little catnip here and there. As Moth lays in their bed with their eyes closed, they try to think back on how they met Alice and Zoe...it all started when-
Suddenly, Moth feels a wave of warmth wash over them, and a crackling noise fills the air around them. Moth opens their eyes and...
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"What the-?!!" Moth yells at the top of their lungs as they stare in horror at their room on fire. When they look out of the window, they realize the entire city is on fire as well. Completely paralyzed in fear, Moth is almost ready to succumb to their fate, but when they weigh their options, they ultimately decide their best bet is at least try to escape this situation and brave through the fire. Mustering up all of the courage within themselves, they stand up and jump out of their bed towards the doorframe, for some reason the fire doesn't seem to burn them but it does feel uncomfortably warm. They exit the living room, entering a small hallway, to the left of them are two doors, one to Alice's room and one to Zoe's. They can barely see the doors through the flames and smoke, but they try to open Zoe's room only to find out it's locked, they bangs on it a few times and yell out for Zoe, but there isn't any response.
Moth can only imagine the worst, maybe their friend really is...there's no time to think like this, they tell themselves, focusing on what's important, which is at least making sure they come out of this alive. They don't bother to check up on Alice because they're certain she isn't home yet, she already made it clear she wouldn't be home until it's pretty late. As Moth runs into the living room and immediately heads for the door, they quickly open the front door and run out into the hallway, which is also completely enveloped in a blaze. As soon as they reach the other end and open the exit door, they quickly scamper down some stairs. As all of this happens, Moth can't help but wonder whether or not this fire is even real if it's not hurting them.
As they reach the bottom of the stairs and enter the apartment's lobby, Moth can't tell clearly because of the flames, but it looks completely devoid of life, there isn't even a receptionist at the front desk. As they exit the building in a panic, they come to realize that the entire city truly is on fire, and no matter which way they look, they see nothing but an endless inferno. Moth falls to their knees, exhausted from all of the action so late at night. Their heart is racing like never before and beating out of their chest. Their breathing becomes more burdened and their thoughts become more and more congested.
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Until suddenly, a familiar voice speaks out.
"M-Moth? What are you doing here so late? A-Are you okay? What happened?!" A soft spoken voice says. Moth looks up, and sees Alice in front of them, looking completely unharmed. She reaches a hand out to them, offering to help them stand up again. Moth looks around them, and the fire doesn't seem to have disappeared. But Alice doesn't seem to notice or pay any attention to it whatsoever.
Moth starts to babble in a panic. "Alice?! I-?! But I was so scared that- A-And when I saw all of the fire I-" Alice suddenly helps them stand back up, and wraps her around her friend in a warm comforting hug, patting their back as she does.
"There there, It's going to be okay. Focus on your breathing, okay!" She says, to try to ease her friend's worries.
Alice looks a little concerned, wondering what Moth is so concerned about. "H-Hey, are you okay?"
Moth just holds her closer. "I was so scared you got like...burned by all of this fire or something...god I'm so happy you're okay...!" They say, as they start to tear up, seeing Moth so shaken up is a rare sight to Alice, as usually Moth is the one to comfort her, not the other way around.
Alice softly ruffles her friend's hair as she speaks. "Is there a fire in the apartment? Should I call firefighters?" The bunny asks, hoping that Zoe is okay in all of this.
"I-I don't know! Z-Zoe is still inside and..." Suddenly Alice is a lot more concerned. "Oh god, is Zoe still inside?! I really should call the firefighters then!" She says, grabbing her phone out of her pocket, only to realize the battery is completely drained.
"Oh god! I forgot to charge it before I left college, it must've turned off in my sleep!" Alice starts to shuffle her feet on the floor anxiously, not fully understanding the situation but just wanting to make sure everything is okay.
Through all of this, Moth just feels like they're losing their mind. No matter what direction they look, they see an endless inferno of flames dancing in the streets and coming out of open windows in the buildings. They end up deciding that maybe they're sleep deprived, or dreaming, or hallucinating...but whatever it is, they're going to need to seek serious help from a mental health professional after this. They hold Alice's hand. "S-Sorry Alice, I think I'm just freaking out over nothing because I stayed up too late. M-Maybe we should just go to our apartment." They say, completely unsure of what options they have. They're afraid they're coming across as crazy, and decide to just stay calm and follow their friend's lead.
Alice's eyes light up as she sees that Moth has calmed down. "I-It's going to be okay, Moth, I promise! Here, hold my hand. Let's go make sure Zoe is okay." She says. Alice walks into the apartment with Moth, and then lets go of her hand.
"I'll go ahead and make sure the apartment is okay, alright? Try to walk up the stairs, but if it's too difficult just stay down there and I'll come pick you up in a sec!" The bunny tells her friend as she starts to run up the stairs, uncaring of how loud she's being, prioritizing the safety of her friend above all. Moth meanwhile is just starting to feel lethargic. The fire is still there, so why doesn't Alice see it? It's all just too much for them, they just want to get back to bed.
As Moth slowly walks up the burning stairs, they finally start to notice the fact that the fire doesn't seem to be damaging anything. It certainly didn't seem to be hurting Alice at least., maybe the same applies to Zoe? Either way, nothing is making sense whatsoever.
When Alice reaches the hallway leading to their apartment, she sees Zoe, who is standing next to the open front door, still wearing the same clothes as yesterday. Zoe sees Alice and speaks to her. "Hey, welcome back Alice...I..." She yawns, and then continues. "Where's Moth? They were knocking frantically on my door which woke me up, but when I left my room they were completely gone."
Alice walks to her friend and enters the apartment. "I don't know, I found Moth next to the entrance downstairs and they looked like they were having a panic attack or something, I helped calm them down and they're on their way here now. I ran ahead to make sure you were okay since they were mentioning some sort of fire."
Zoe tilts her head, looking a little confused. "A fire? If there was one I would've probably noticed, I looked everywhere for Moth and didn't find them. I was actually about to leave to look for them." Suddenly Moth opens the exit door on the other end of the hallway, looking absolutely exhausted.
The bunny runs up to her friend, and holds their hand again. "Are you okay? Zoe was looking for you!" She says, which Moth barely processes, their mind already feels kind of fried by trying to understand this entire absurd situation.
"I just...I just wanna go to sleep, I'm sorry." They say, sounding completely defeated.
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Zoe is still confused and wants to ask them something, but decides that the best course of action would be to just give them some space. As Moth walks past the two and heads straight for their room, they start to grow numb to the fire that is enveloping the world, even the warmth it gives off is barely noticeable to them anymore. Moth enters their room, locks the door behind them. The doorknob doesn't feel any warmer, if the fire was real, it should've at least heated it up or something. "Whatever." They think to themselves. "Screw this."
They lay on their bed, but don't put their blanket over themselves, as they already feel warm enough. They close their eyes, and try to fall asleep. The gentle crackling noises of the flames are oddly soothing, and for the first time in a long time, they don't have much trouble falling asleep, already feeling so exhausted from everything that happened before. As they fall asleep, one question looms over their mind...isn't this a little...familiar? The fire enveloping the city especially. Why does it feel like they've seen it all before? Too tired to think this question through, they let the waves of tiredness wash them by, sending them into a deep and comforting sleep.
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Suddenly, Moth awakens. Still laying on their bed, which isn't in their room anymore. Instead, they're in the middle of a dark autumnal forest, with massive black charcoal-colored trees that blend into the darkness and gorgeous yellow and red leaves on the branches high up the trees, forming a giant canopy above that only lets the smallest rays of sunshine through. The forest floor and trees are sparsely covered in blue bioluminescent mushrooms that look a little out of place. As Moth stands up, and steps off their bed, they notice that they aren't exactly wearing anything, aside from a strange fog that covers the more private parts of their body. But for some reason, they don't feel uncomfortable. If anything, it feels freeing. The forest floor beneath them is covered in a lush layer of soft yellow grass that cushions their every step like a pillow.
In the distance, there is a circle of sunlight illuminating a massive tree stump. The stump's bark is black, but the top of the stump is a soft orange color, with red thousands of rings inside denoting the tree's absurdly long life. Moth's body starts to move on its own, slowly walking towards the stump. A warm breeze washes over them, their soul feels lighter than a feather. As Moth looks behind them, they see a trail of glowing mushrooms being formed after every step they take, forming a trail of light that shines through the darkness.
When Moth reaches the giant stump, they climb onto it. The stump has a diameter as big as their entire apartment. There aren't any signs of the top half of the tree.
Moth lays down in the stump, bathing in the sunlight that shines onto them, a sun that doesn't blind their eyes to look at, allowing them to appreciate the full beauty of the forest. The treetops' yellow and orange colors shine through the canopy, soothing the cat as they lay there in peace and quiet.
They continue to lay there in silence for a few minutes, softly breathing in and out, closing their eyes and meditating. Suddenly, a loud beeping noise fills the forest and Moth shoots up. After a few seconds of trying to pinpoint where the noise comes from...Moth wakes up.
That was their alarm on their phone. They feel very well rested, and grab their phone to shut the alarm off. They don't waste any time and get out of bed immediately, knowing that lazing around in bed is just going to burn daylight.
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As Moth walks into the living room, Alice is already eating some cornflakes, as she's usually the first to wake up out of the three. Moth just opens one of the kitchen cabinets and grabs a bowl. The cat sits across the table from her, and takes a hold of the bag of cornflakes.
"Morning." They say to Alice, who looks half asleep.
The bunny suddenly shoots up. "H-Whuh? O-Oh goodmorning Moth, I hope you slept well!" She says, giving her friend a strained toothy smile.
Moth pours the cornflakes into the empty bowl. "Ehhh, I slept fine." They say, not having the energy to continue a conversation.
"That's good! I'd rather you sleep fine than sleep poorly, haha!" Alice responds, not sure how to continue the conversation.
Moth grabs the milk and pours it onto the cornflakes. Then, they look up at their friend. "Y'know, I had a weird dream last night though. I dreamt that the whole world was on fire or something...and after that-"
Alice interrupts them. "Oh that wasn't a dream, you really were like genuinely freaking out. It made me really scared but...I'm glad you're okay now though, at least I hope so!" She says, chuckling a little uncomfortably at the end of her sentence.
Moth looks back down at their cornflakes. "I don't know, I'm probably gonna lay off the catnip for a little bit, I'm starting to be a little scared that my stuff is laced or something." They say, sounding really annoying.
Alice looks down at her own bowl, which is now empty except for the milk. "That might be for the best, I mean I'm not your mom-" She slurps her milk down. "I'm not gonna tell you what to do!"
Moth smiles, appreciating their friend's trust. "Thanks...well, after I went to sleep I had an actual dream. I was in a big dark forest, all of the trees were black and their leaves were orange. It was full of glowy mushrooms, and then I walked towards a massive tree stump and I just kinda chilled on it for a while. It was lowkey kinda chill!"
Alice looks very relieved to see that her friend had a pleasant dream, she's about to tell Moth about a dream she had recently...but then she blinks. And suddenly, the world around her looks like it's been set ablaze. She's in the middle of an endless inferno that has engulfed the building and the world outside, surrounding her on all sides.
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