Dissociation

Summary: The last thing that Marissa expected was to be trapped in a world that was nothing at all like the one she knew just hours before. Following an attack, she finds herself in a new world, within the company of a mysterious attractive elf and without her two friends. With his help, Marissa must find out where her friends are, and try to get home.

Chapter Warning: Mild gore.

AN: This is a piece I wrote years ago and I'm revamping it so it hopefully doesn't suck. I'm posting it the now in the hopes that it will encourage me to actually finish it. Let me know what you think!

Prologue

Marissa stared out of the bedroom window, watching as the black rain clouds rolled over the sky. The sky was dark with them, even though it was only just after midday, but the ground below was still dry under their threat. Marissa loved the rain, and as she sat there, watching the clouds above them, she wished for them to open their gates and soak the land beneath it. She sighed, pressing her forehead to glass of the window. It was warm for Autumn, but she was still sitting wrapped up in a blanket. Her hair rolled down her back in ginger waves as she pulled her knees up to her chest. She hated this place, but she did have a few friends.

Katerina was the one she saw most of, the girl was taller than Marissa, with dark brown hair that hung in curls around her face, showing off her high, strong cheekbones and chocolate brown eyes. The two of them shared a room, and hadn't always seen eye to eye. When Marissa first met her, Katerina had went out of her way to try and make her life miserable, she would start vicious rumours to attempt to turn everyone against Marissa, exclude her and disrupt her sleep at nights. Katerina was gorgeous, and the problem was that she knew it. Due to her Greek decent, Katerina had tanned olive skin and curved in all the right places; her slim legs went on for miles and she seemed to have men lining up for the chance of her attention.

The first, and only friend at the start, that Marissa had made was Dante. Dante was Italian – rather, his mother was Italian – and he was very much the eye candy too. The typical tall dark and handsome that every woman wants with his dark cropped hair and blue eyes, Marissa had caught herself numerous times letting her gaze linger. He had been friendly to start with, and only stuck by Marissa more when he noticed the bullying that she suffered from the other girls. That also made him a victim, but he always seemed oblivious to the muttered insults and dirty looks, instead cracking a lame joke and ultimately angering the bullies more from his lack of a reaction. Dante had kept Marissa strong through the ordeal until one day she confronted Katerina in the privacy of their shared room.

She remembered the day as the day that they had became friends but she couldn't remember what was said in her fit of rage. The day was exactly one year ago, and since the three of them had been joint at the hip, always getting into trouble with each other, and somehow, always getting out of it.

Katerina came into the room, biting into an apple just as the first drop of rain escaped its restraints and came crashing to the ground. Moments later there was sheets of rain as the skies opened and Marissa found herself smiling. She really did love the rain. She looked up at her friend as Katerina stopped at her side with an expectant look but only received disdain.

"Oh no. Not a chance in hell." Katerina muttered, shaking her head. "You want to go run about in the rain, go and find Dante. I'm not getting this dress soaked for your fun." She said, tossing a brown curl over her shoulder as she smiled and moved to sit at her desk to reapply her lipstick. Sighing to herself, Marissa stood up and pulled her boots on. Next to Katerina, she always felt inferior. She was shorter, a little more plump and it always took her hours to look even half as good as Katerina did after just waking up. Her ginger wave rarely behaved like her friend's brunette curls. Even her clothes seemed less attractive, her old jeans, t-shirts and boots compared to Katerina's body-hugging, flattering dresses and heels.

"I'll catch you later then." Marissa called, even though she knew she'd get nothing back. She let herself out of the room, hearing the door click behind her as she then dashed off down the hallway. She didn't know where Dante would be, but she suspected that he would be near the lounge so that's where she headed first. She didn't find him there. The only person in the lounge was a younger male that she recognised but had never learnt the name off. He sat on the floor in front of the couch, his back to it, singing quietly to himself. She approached him cautiously, tapping his shoulder to get his attention.

He looked up at her with a smile, tilting his head to the side. "You're Marissa. Katerina's friend." He stated, smiling wider. "She's very pretty. So are you." Marissa nodded mutely, frowning as the boy turned away from her again, singing again. Was that a lullaby? Some children's rhyme? Marissa cleared her throat to get his attention again, but he didn't seem to notice. Sighing she stood up straighter, looking down at him where he sat at her feet.

"Have you seen Dante?" She snapped, not in the slightest pleased that he seemed to be ignoring her. The boy took so long to reply that she didn't think he was going to. When he did, he raised one hand and pointed at the window and muttered one word with fear in his voice.

"Pond."

She left him there, sitting on the floor singing his nursery rhymes to himself as she made her way outside into the garden. Just as the pond came into view and Marissa spotted Dante, a thunderous bang stole her attention. She looked behind her at the building to see shattered windows from the middle floor, and saw smoke billowing out from the smashed glass.

She ran back into the building, concern for Katerina rising in her gut and deafening her to Dante's cries as he called her name. Inside the building, something led Marissa back to the room with the nursery rhyme boy but she froze in the doorway. In front of her stood a strange creature, humanoid in appearance other than the fact that it stood a foot taller than the average human and its skin was flaking off, showing jet black muscle and bone beneath. In its hand lay a bloody heart, oozing a deep crimson that dripped onto the lifeless corpse at its feet.

Marissa screamed, clamping a hand over her mouth as the creature turned to her. It had no eyes, instead, in its empty sockets was a red glow. It dropped the heart, which bounced off its owners thigh and rolled under the coffee table before it stalked towards Marissa. The arm that struck her chest may as well have been a boulder for the strength behind it as it winded her and knocked her across the doorway, slamming her into the opposite wall before she slumped in a heap, her eyes stinging.

Dante stormed in then, screaming her name when he saw her and the creature turned to him, throwing him back into the garden before it followed him. Marissa gasped, struggling to her knees and coughing. The smoke was down here now, and steadily getting thicker. She couldn't fully get to her feet before the floor above her collapsed and rained down around her. Her own scream was drowned out as she was buried in rubble. Her last thought was how she was going to die just before a chunk of plaster smacked against her head and knocked her unconscious.