Welcome to the Maiden Zone

Amber was a young witchling who aspired to find the good in everything. In this sense, Nim was her greatest creation - voidspace folded over itself and extruded out into a physical vessel of porcelain and brass. Proof that she could find joy in nothing. Amber's small forest cottage was a wonderland, bigger on the inside and brimming with strange inventions, sentient teapots toddled around on four legs, big woolly sweaters that sighed wistfully and hugged you right back as you donned them. Life was a dream. But things abruptly became a nightmare on the day Amber received a letter from the far Castle Town, sealed with black wax. The King's witch, who taught her everything she knew, had passed. The grief broke her. All around her, Nim saw the homestead deteriorate. Amber did not maintain her sigils or feed her concoctions. Finally, Amber had met the one thing she could find no small inkling of hope in. The calm pastel wallpaper that lined the halls peeled away in reaction to her sorrow, curling like scrabbling fingertips down the wall. Eventually all that was left was Amber, Nim, and the hard, resilient emptiness entombed in her body. Amber changed as the rest of her house fell into disrepair, respite Nim's best efforts. Amber shambled around the home, she hardly seemed cognizant anymore. Then one day, a horrible inspiration struck. "This is my last chance to find happiness, please Nim." Amber pleaded, fishing reluctant consent from Nim, who was already strapped to the makeshift operating table with tough leather. Nim's fear was crystalized by the glint of her Maker's scalpel. But still, with a heavy swallow, she nodded. After much screaming, tears, and shaky, softly-spoken reassurance, the hard part was over. Nim's seal was compromised, and the void lashed aggressively beneath the gash in her torso. "Thank you..." Muttered Amber. "Thank you so much, we can do this, we can make this work." Nim felt like a passive observer to a conversation she was not privy to. In the following days, things had the illusion of normalcy. Amber walked with purpose, though to Nim it looked as though the sickening string of fate was strung around her neck. One late afternoon, Nim delivered a serving tray of tea to Amber's bedroom door exactly on schedule. Usually, it went cold an unanswered, but today, the door was flung open with enthusiasm. "Come in, come in, please." Spoke Amber, with an eager beckon. Her smile was wide but the bags under her eyes were trenched with exhaustion. Nim stepped inside as instructed. As she placed the tray down on a nearby end table, she gazed around the room. It was a mess. Notebooks and papers with jagged runes distinct from what she was familiar with were littered across nearly every surface in a way that she silently hoped was some kind of organized chaos. Amber's eyes skipped over Nim entirely, instead gazing at the wound on her stomach. Teeth had began to fester, lining the edges of her widening incision like shards of glass. "Perfect." Amber gasped, her voice wavering with reverence. "They, um, hurt, when I walk." Nim murmured, unsure if she was trying to make conversation or lodge a complaint. "That's fine." Amber asserted with a distant voice. She snapped to attention, scurrying to her drawers and retrieving a large plastic, curved like a femur bone. "This is a brace, I made it just for you- for this. It'll let the void grow unimpeded." Nim's breath hitched as she stared at the tool, scared of what it'd be used for while already knowing. "But-" "Please?" Tears budded at the corners of Amber's eyes. "This is almost over, I promise. Please, just a little longer?" Desperation cracked her voice, and Nim conceded. It made her ache to see her Maker like this, and despite her fear, it was in her nature to obey. It hurt like a cracked rib as Amber worked the implement inside of her. She persistently felt like she was at her breaking point, only to be proved wrong a moment later and have the wind knocked out of her. By the time it was over, each breath was laborious, and Amber's knuckles were bloody- sliced by Nim's hungry fangs. Amber sighed, and stood up from where she knelt. "That will be all. Thank you, Nim. Tomorrow... Tomorrow this will all be over. Go get some sleep, okay?" Nim was only reassured insomuch as she was programmed to trust Amber's words. Nim's rest was scarce. She could not toss or turn, only driving the brace roughly against her sides, and that was to say nothing of the fears clenching themselves tight around her heart. It was early morning, and the cool sunlight streamed through the blinds. Nim had not slept for a moment, and she had bags to match her Maker. Nim clung to her routine to keep herself steady, and stepped outside her room on her way to begin breakfast for the two of them. The walls were bare now, as if there was no trace of anyone ever having lived a happy life here. Amber was already waiting for her in the kitchen, and when Nim arrived, she smiled a smile that did not match her empty eyes. Amber hugged Nim, and the latter suppressed a shudder of discomfort, easy to do so with the joy of returning intimacy. "This is it, Nim." Amber spoke softly and plainly. "I'm going to go now." "...W-What?" Nim asked, speaking before the shock and confusion had completely processed. "I'm going to disappear. I thought long and hard about this, I promise. This is the only way I have left, to find joy in this..." Amber's words slowed, as if full of doubt. "Disappear?" Gasped Nim. "I don't understand, what-?" Amber pressed herself tighter against her doll's body, like a coiled snake. "That's what this experiment was for. The void within you has grown, and it's so hungry now. It feeds on all sorts, memories, feelings, all things intangible, and in its place, leaves a new void, an empty space." Tears began to drip down Nim's cheeks. She pleaded, wordlessly at first, quivering, before erupting from her as Amber's body began to fade away. "Please! No, you can't- please God, you don't have to leave, we can still be together! We can fix this! I'm sorry your Master died, please- please!" "I knew I couldn't go on anymore." Amber sighed. "Not after this. But I didn't want my sadness to ruin everything we'd worked for. So, this is my final gift to you. You are free from my service. Please, carry on in my stead and make happiness as we once did together." "But, but the house? Everything? It's all gone... It's all gone now... How can I be happy without you?" Amber softly stroked Nim's hair with her slender, fading fingers. "You won't remember me." Nim came to in an empty house, alone. Why were tears rolling down her face?