The iron gates clanked together as they pulled aside and let into its conjoined airship port and train station the Ragnarok. Magality City was the only location in their world that could connect the two, and it was founded on the exact portal that Lina had rolled into and revealed one fateful night. "Five minutes until the train departs!" the conductor called through his window, "Five minutes!" Lina hurried over from the Ragnarok and dropped her bags off as Zell followed behind her, kind of dragging his feet along.
Before Lina left the gate to board her train she turned to say goodbye, "Zell..." Lina started, then sighed. She'd asked Zell if he could come with her, but he declined, claiming to have business to attend back at Garden according to the Headmaster Cid. Zell would love to go with her--to see what it's really like back there--and to keep Lina safe from the trouble that usually stalked her, but there was no way he could get away from work. "Thank you so much..."
"Of course, Lina," Zell replied, gulping down his apprehensiveness. He tried his best to smile, however it was rather difficult considering he didn't actually want Lina to leave. "Just promise me you'll be back soon as you can."
"I promise," Lina said, nodding her head. The conductor once again announced that there was about a minute left for goodbyes before the train would begin to move. Lina turned to face the train, plain and brown for camouflage--the people of the other side didn't exactly embrace the idea of there being others from a different world outside of their safety drawn walls. Suddenly she turned around and flung her arms around Zell.
"I'm gonna miss you!" she cried, holding on once more. Zell kissed her and held onto her tight.
"I'll miss you too," he whispered in her ear and brushed a hand through her hair. One month wasn't too bad... right? He finally let go of her when the whistle blew the ten second warning. She caught hold of the open door the second it started to move. Hurriedly, she set herself down at a window seat and waved to Zell somberly until he was entirely out of sight.
Lina spent the remainder of the train ride staring out the window, watching the trees she was so familiar with pass by and progress into different types of shrubs and such she hadn't seen in a very long time. They were almost completely new to her, unfamiliar and foreign, yet somewhere, she could feel their presence carve a piece of herself out that'd been so inclined to them. About an hour passed and as the train slowed to a stop, she was fast asleep, her cheek pressed against the cushioned armrest of the seat. "Get up, girl," someone called to her as he or she prodded Lina with a stick.
"Yeah," Lina muttered, eyes half open and cheeks rosy. "I'm coming." She forced herself up with a merciless effort for she'd been so comfortable asleep, and grabbed her bags from the upper compartment. When she stepped out of the train, her eyes widened immediately--is this what is looked like way back when? "Okay... now where did I live?" Lina thought the best way to call a taxi cab and get there the easy way. She gave the driver the address she remembered (figuring she'd start out there) and let him drive her away. As the minutes passed, she began getting nervous--had she really run that far in her conscious sleep?
Finally, the car stopped in the sleepy suburbs of the town. Lina stepped out of the car, paid the amount owned and let it drive away before she could get a good look at the house she'd once called home. Suddenly, she felt apprehensive. There was always the thought that maybe her parents didn't even remember her--what would she do then? She looked up at the two story (the second story being a single game room) with its big French windows and long, flowing drapes. She approached the grand white door cautiously, examining its familiar traits and remembering her past suddenly--how she'd scrambled out one day and made it as far the curb down the street. Apprehensively, she rang the doorbell.
Not too long afterwards, a woman a few inches shorter than Lina with curly black hair and brown eyes similar to Lina's opened the door. They both stood there for a good minute, taking the images of the other in. The woman had grown frail from Lina last remembered her as a robust figure of authority. While in Lina, the woman noticed, she'd not only grown a few feet, but her skinny outline had bloomed into a more healthier figure while being able to be still modest and petite.
"Liz... is that really you?" the lady finally asked, her voice in an awed tone.
"Hi Mom..." Lina said and smiled. Her mom, needless to say shocked, led her daughter into the house and into the dining room to the table where the two of them sat down across from each other and just stared around for a little while. Lina had to sit there and remember that here, they called her "Liz"--a transition she'd find difficult to get used to, but would figure out. (Which is what I'm asking of you, dear reader for a bit)
Liz took a good look around the house, from the blinded windows with the plain brown curtains, to the interior designed living room no one had ever had the nerve to be present in. The changes she could pick out were minor, but otherwise, as her eyes examined the scene, the same familiarity swept at her as it had everyday in middle school coming home from another tedious day at school or extra curricular activities. It seemed that things seemed so much older, the wooden carved portrait hanging on the wall which had once seemed so large and thought-provoking were now pathetic and lifeless.
"I thought for sure that you guys would have forgotten all about me," Liz uttered, rather awkwardly, to break the silence which was even more threatening. Liz sighed and rubbed the palm of her hand out against the polished wood of the dining table. Her mother's features were still distinctly familiar, however they'd grown old along with the rest of her memories with this house; her mother had more gray hairs than Liz remembered, but not enough to make too much of a difference, her smile was still kind of goofy and disheveled, but wrinkles would be visible by the corners of her eye every time she did. Liz thought about how things had changed so much.
"Oh, Liz... don't be ridiculous. You know very well that your friends and your family would never forget about you," her mother replied, smiling rather weakly. Was the lack of energy in her smile due to the fear of exposing her deepening wrinkles, or to hide some connotation that her voice had exposed barely a sign of?
"But... you guys pretty much did last time..." Liz murmured under her breath. Half of her conscience begged her mother not to hear it for it was impolite and just a random disfigured thought impulsively pushing its way through her lips, but the other half wanted her to know of what sufferings she'd had to endure back then--everything from the emotional breakdowns to the hell that had rained on her already marred spirit. Things that even now did not feel the least bit distant.
"Well that wasn't that bad..." her mother sighed. Liz shrugged it off and glanced out the window at the swimming pool; on its surfaced floated bits and pieces of debris that may as well have been sitting there since the day Liz left. After that, Liz was pretty sure no one had swam. "So anyway, tell me what happened after you left!"
"Well... I guess you could say things went perfectly. I met Zell and my life basically fell into place," Liz smiled as she thought about Zell. It may have seemed foolish of her to tell her mother she was in love, but fact is fact, and her mother could read her expression perfectly fine. "Zell, he's my boyfriend. We met on this one project assigned this one time and yeah..."
"Zell?" Her mother looked generally concerned. Liz had lived under an extremely strict "no boys" policy when she lived here in this world. "Your boyfriend? I see..." Suddenly, Liz could see the interrogation coming on--the one where mothers decided they needed to be a part of their daughter's life completely and utterly, to know everything about the boy and how he treats the daughter and such and such. "Oh well... how is he? Is he smart? Is he handsome? He'd better be intelligent. Is he committed to--"
"Mom, please! Slow down," Liz was blushing and her mother finally calmed down. "Okay now, yes. He's good to me--perfectly committed to a good relationship. He's very smart and extremely handsome. You have to have a little trust in me!" Liz cried, throwing her arms into the air. If Zell had come, then her mother would have seen, exactly how Zell is, exactly how perfect they were for each other. "It's been about a year now and we haven't done anything...!" besides you know... hug and kiss and make out and kiss and hug and...yeah, okay.
"Alright then" her mother said. "Well, you know, it's already dark out, so why don't you go to your room, which you'll find has been kept clean and untouched since that day, and get some rest." Lina nodded and headed to her room. She smiled as she entered--completely untouched, the childish posters on the wall worshipping Linkin Park and the drawings of random characters she'd done and taped up for all to see, the class picture taking for fifth graders in elementary school, and the quotes she'd pulled out from passages, typed, and pasted on walls to personalize everything.
She unpacked her bags, smiling all the while; these little pieces of herself she'd left here and there mixed with her new perspective on life and love gave her hope that things would be better than they'd been way back when.