Xing's POV:
I don't know how long it's been since my reality began to distort once more, but it seems to have finally started calming down as the two worlds have started to separate from each other. I now mostly just see the twisted visions of my past in my nightmares with only short instances of them painting over this strange reality I find myself in.
"Hey, dumbass! How many fingers am I holding up?"
"It's one, and it's the middle one!"
"You're not seeing any faces or hearing voices in your head, right?"
"No, not now anyways!" I answered the little masked girl in glasses as she wrote something on a notepad.
I was and still am so confused at this reality before me. When my mind became stable enough to tell the difference between reality and dreams, I was shocked and conflicted. When I first heard about Nox being Chrystalla's daughter I never could have imagined she was mine. When I regained some of my sanity and realized the truth, my emotions were in turmoil. I felt conflicted, not knowing how to respond, I ended up lashing out at her, only to get another beating of the pain-stick.
To be perfectly honest, I still have doubts about this reality being real as there are so many things that just don't make sense. It should have been impossible for mother to recover from her injuries, but I see her almost every day, healthy as can be, and Nox may have been slightly short for her age, but she definitively wasn't the size of an 9-year-old when we met, and it might just be my mind playing tricks on me again, but I could have sworn she looked much smaller just a week ago. There is also the matter of her backstory not making sense. If she was truly mine, then she should have spent most of her childhood with the Lunaria, but she claims otherwise, though that could just be a lie.
The main reason why I am suspecting this to be the real world is due to the pain-stick. Through some cruel twist of fate, the unimaginably painful experience of being struck by that evil pole of darkness supersedes anything my unstable mind would be able to conjure up. I know that because I have been reliving the memory of being struck by that thing in my nightmares, but it is nothing compared to being struck by the real thing. The pain of the real pain-stick somehow gets incomparably worse with each strike. It's like I am experiencing a fresh new world of pain I didn't know existed every time I touch it, which is something that my mind can't replicate. As messed up as it is, this unrealistically painful experience is the most real thing I've experienced since my mind collapsed, and the reason why I believe this to be the real world and not a dream.
"Why are you here?" I asked Nox as she was packing up a briefcase full of medical equipment that was half her own size.
"Because I walked here! Duh!" She replied, missing the essence of my question entirely as usual.
Even after I was told she was my own flesh and blood, I still couldn't accept her. If not for the threats of the pain-stick forcing me to cooperate, I would have been screaming and cursing at her to disappear every time she walked in the door.
"I'm sorry, but I've made it clear I can't accept you as my daughter! So, why are you still trying to win me over?" I asked, trying to be a bit clearer this time.
"Shit! Your brain's going on the fritz again! How many fingers am I holding up? Do you see or hear something or someone that shouldn't be here?" She said as she started unpacking her briefcase.
"No, I'm fine! I just don't understand why you're still visiting me every day!" I said in a panic after seeing the ominous look in her eyes when she pulled out the hacksaw.
I was told she had volunteered to take care of me after my meltdown, but it's not like she needed to as this wasn't the first time something like this had happened. She has been cooking my meals, doing the laundry and changing my bed sheets on top of helping my recovery, as she refused to let any servants even enter the building I was in. Even my family was only allowed to visit me on rare occasions, like she wanted to keep me all to herself.
"Oh! Are you thinkin I'm tryin to gain your approval because I've got daddy issues?"
"Why else would you go this far to spend time with me?"
"You're really living up to your name, dumbass!"
"Huh?"
"There are multiple reasons, but the simplest one to explain is that the old man and granny would nag my ear off if they found out I let you die on purpose!"
"Saved me?"
"Do you remember when I explained what was messing with your head?" She said as she pulled out a white pill.
"Vaguely!"
"Well, this 'medicine' your family has been feeding you is a drug that clogs up your blood circulation if you don't take it regularly. It's what's been causing you to go loco! You follow me so far!"
"Yeah!"
"Then did you know that it can also function as a slow poison!"
"…"
"The way responsible drug addicts use it is that they take a large dose to trip balls from the lack of blood flowing to their brains, then they wait like a couple months until their bodies manage to filter out all the crap in their veins before taking the next big hit, but you said you never even heard about this stuff before, right?"
"No, I only started taking it after I got ill!"
"The thing is, the black shit this stuff makes in your veins take months for your body to get rid of on its own, and it can also take a while before its effects kick in as the stuff that doesn't turn into black goop will keep the black shit from ballooning. So, if someone took small doses of this on a regular basis for a long time, they could build up a lethal amount of this crap in their body without experiencing any of the side effects."
"Doesn't that mean, that-?"
"It means that if I hadn't drained this shit your fam has been feeding you for who knows how long, out of your body, you would have died from an overdose!"
"But that still doesn't explain why you won't leave the chores to the servants!"
"*sigh* I don't understand what she sees in you?"
"What?"
"Think dumbass! Think! How did it even get in your body in the first place?"
"I've told you! I don't know!" I said as I could feel something clouding my mind.
"I think you do, you're just in denial like your mom! You were poisoned and frequently at that!"
I could feel a painful thought too hard to accept in the back of my mind. I gritted my teeth and clenched my fists as I asked the question I didn't know if I wanted the answer to.
"By who?" I asked.
"Do I really need to spell it out for you? After you guys fled here, who was it that fed you more of this poison?"
*sob*
"My family!" I whispered as tears started flowing out of my eyes.
"10 points to the dumbass house!"
"YOU'RE LYING! THEY WOULD NEVER!" I screamed in anger as I tried to hit Nox only to trip over her outstretched leg as she stepped out of the way.
*Thud*
"It's so sad its almost funny! You all seem so focused on blood ties, that none of you can even imagine the possibility of a traitor in your midst!"
"WHAT DO YOU KNOW?! YOU'RE JUST A STRANGER! YOU DON'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT US!"
"You're right! We are just strangers related by blood!" She said, before stomping me back to the floor when I tried to stand up.
"Ugh!"
"If there is one thing I know from traveling the world, it's that blood relation is just an incentive! I've witnessed countless so-called families kill each other at the drop of a hat, while I've encountered many who would give their lives to protect those, they have no blood ties to! That's why the only family I will ever recognize as my own is the one I choose for myself! So, I don't care what you guys think of me, because you are not my family! I don't know you and you don't know me, and you obviously don't know whoever is trying to kill you! Were strangers related by blood! SO, STOP BEING A BIG BABY AND GROW THE HELL UP YOU SAD PIECE OF SHIT!" She yelled, while giving me a look of disgust as she lifted her foot off my chest.
*Sob*
I didn't know how to respond so I just cried. The memories of Chrystalla that comes flooding back when I look at Nox, and the thought of my family trying to kill me, it was just too much, and I just started to sob uncontrollably.
*Sob*
"Why are you crying?"
"*Sob* SHUT *sob* UP!"
"You're pathetic. Crying won't change anything, so why bother?" She said, as she started packing up her briefcase.
*Sob*
*Sigh*
Just as she was about to open the door to leave, she suddenly stopped and sighed before turning her head to look at me.
"You are a naïve loser! You're a slow-witted, cowardly, weak-willed, self-centered, dumbass with a capital 'D', but worst of all, you're a failure, both as a person, and as a man! You embody nearly every trait I hate, and I will never EVER understand how, or why, but for whatever reason, YOU are the ONLY man my mom ever loved! That's the main reason why I'm still here! Putting up with all your shit! So, stop crying you overgrown baby, and grow the fuck up!" She said, before leaving the room.