The sun had set hours ago, but it had been something that Nerissa hadn’t been able to notice when she had been within the walls of a building she had grown far too familiar with; a pharmacy which carried Nerissa’s prescribed antipsychotics, which she had become far too dependent on during those stressful evenings when she simply could not stop the trembling- the unbearable fear that the redhead whom she saw reflected in the mirror would break through the glass and curl her fingers around Nerissa’s pale, slender neck.
Nerissa clasped her fingers around the white paper bag within her coat pocket, which contained her refilled prescription, as she softly placed the bottoms of her old, soggy sneakers upon the street- puddles were scattered about the streets from the day's earlier rainstorm- determined to make her footsteps as silent as possible; she feared the shadows which seemed to dance upon the outer walls of the shops around her, and felt as if she were supposed to fade into them until she was invisible- this was a default setting of Nerissa’s. Invisibility: On. Perhaps if she were to practice going unnoticed by her surroundings for long enough she would actually learn the art of becoming transparent- though she doubted the idea greatly; she would have better luck obtaining the infamous Potter Invisibility Cloak.
The buildings became fewer as the young redhead continued forward, being pushed along the street by the wind like one of the red autumn leaves that rolled upon the pavement she walked upon. The ring of stores grew smaller as Nerissa left them in her tracks, and the street became an alley that she had never intended to enter. Have the funhouse mirrors fooled you, little girl? The pavement had transformed into bricks that had faded in color and had chipped in many places, causing Nerissa to stumble upon cracks within the road with every other step she took.
“Oh no- no no no no,” she whispered, her dead eyes locked on the area straight ahead of her, which she could tell by the increasing darkness upon the walls was a dead-end, one that was filled with shadows. They were going to peel themselves off of the walls of the buildings they had once belonged to and slither towards her until she was suffocated by the blackness. “No, no, no, no,” she continued hopelessly, her whispers beginning to sound more and more like whimpers with each step she took. Stop walking! Stop walking- they’ll kill you! her thoughts sobbed, once more taking the form of a small mouse within the walls of her skull- it didn’t belong there, but it continued to cry aloud, heightening Nerissa’s fears when she had already begun to tremble.
Her pale fingers dipped inside the paper bag that she had stuffed inside her jacket, though she had not commanded her hand to do so, and grabbed hold of the orange bottle within; her breathing had become more shallow and everything within her field of vision had begun to move like static waves; jittery movements, though the objects did not move far from their original position. She had had plans of opening the bottle and drawing it from her pocket to solve the situation that had been created by a few steps in the wrong direction, but she had been interrupted by voices that echoed throughout the long, narrow alley way. She had frozen to the spot upon hearing the words that had haunted her in her sleep for months, "My name...is Ne'Os Emof ".
The voice that had been used in order to speak such spine chilling words sounded so very familiar; it was as if Ne’Os had created a file within Nerissa’s mind in order to preserve every detail that she had collected about him, every cruel word that he had ever spoken, every expression that she had seen upon his face.
Nerissa had taken her hand away from her bottle of medication, her hand slowly moving downward until her fingers had been slipped in-between the outer layer of her pocket, and the main layer of denim that had been sown together to form a pocket within her jeans. She was searching for her wand, but without making a sound in order to avoid alerting the dead man not far from where she was standing, of her presence.
Her sweat-coated hand curled around the slender wand, which she had finally located.
A flame had been lit within Nerissa, a flame that licked her heart and danced near her ribcage; Ne’Os Emof had damaged Nerissa’s mind. He had taken her from her loved ones and had broken her to pieces, pieces which Nerissa could not find all of, and therefore, had not been able to put back together in order to recreate the young, innocent young girl that she had once been. This flame grew, spreading throughout her body until she swore the red-orange would burn the flesh that clung to her ribs- this sudden feeling of rage had overthrown Nerissa’s uncontrollable fear, and had destroyed whatever common sense she had been left with after Ne’Os had been murdered, “You son of a b!tch…” she shouted, but the curse word didn’t sound as strong as it was meant to due to the fact that she had never actually spoken a curse word aloud, making her sound as if she were a child exploring new words- words that so happened to taste like mucus in the back of her throat. Or perhaps it was acid; the fear was putting up a fight against the rage, causing her to stumble a few steps backwards in an attempt to distance herself from the man whom she could not see correctly because of the shadows that cloaked him.
Another was present; Nerissa could just make out the being’s form from where she stood, though she could not see any more than the outlines that kept him or her from becoming a formless blob of color. With a quick, rough flick of Nerissa's wand and an uttered incantation, the darkness flied- and God said, "let there be light"- but the blue light that had illuminated the area made it possible for Nerissa to see Ne'Os, or, rather, the body that Ne'Os had stolen in order to make his return. There was a darkness in his eyes, however, that had not left- the one thing that she could recognize as she stared at him from her side of the street, her eyes wide and her lips pressed firmly against each other, forming a pale line across her face- her expression had betrayed her terror upon laying eyes on Ne’Os Emof once more.