Days before that fateful night in the execution yard…
Days before seeing her companions die…
Days before her own [Death]…
And days before her new [Resurrection]…
Tristessa met Chaos.
And then, nothing.
“This is wrong.”
Those were the first words that escaped Tristessa’s lips when she saw that everything around her was red.
Red on the ground, red falling in a slow and harmonious pace before her eyes, and red high in a sky dominated by the setting sun.
Her hair, as black as the night that was yet to come, brushed her face, borne by a cold wind coming from the south; a gust that swayed the tops of dozens of colossal trees encircling the clearing.
At its center stood Tristessa, isolated within the lake of red leaves that had fallen and those still descending at an incessant pace.
“Where the heck am I?” the young woman wondered, not having moved at all since she realized her current situation. “What happened to my room?”
She caught one of the fallen leaves between her fingers. She studied its size; its brittle texture told her that autumn had arrived. Then she raised an eyebrow, noticing that her fingers—no, both hands—were smeared with grime, so dirty that the contact with the leaf and between them felt painfully rough.
“No, no, this is definitely wrong. Did I fall asleep and start sleepwalking? Oh, no… Perhaps I was kidnapped!” Tristessa dropped the leaf and looked up, her view partially obscured by those titans of bark and diameter that could span the area of ??a house. And they were so tall, making her stumble with sudden vertigo. “This place… No, what? My room…?”
She couldn’t remember it. She could have sworn she’d been in her room seconds before, but with each effort to recall, that memory slipped further from her grasp, falling into the confines of a mind in a very fragile state.
“Why can’t I…? Ugh, what the hell smells so bad?!” Tristessa groaned, distracted by a strong, salty, unpleasant odor wafting around her. Instinctively, she ducked down to sniff the collar of her purple hooded fleece jacket. “Oh crap, it’s me! What did I do, run a marathon and step in shit, or what?”
Looking down at the ground made her realize she was wearing light blue shorts and no shoes, noticing her bare, dirty feet sunk in the pool of leaves.
“Alright. I have no idea where I am, I stink to high heaven, and my feet are freezing.” Biting her knuckles, Tristessa began pacing in circles around the clearing in that abnormal forest. She glanced again at the giant trees surrounding her, forming towering walls that grew darker the deeper they went in. “And I’m sure there aren’t any trees this tall in… Huh?”
She stopped abruptly, frowning, her hands on her hips. Her head tilted slightly to the side, the realization of something deeply troubling.
“Where do I live?” she murmured, the question being carried by the wind into every direction, with no one near to hear and reply. Her eyes widened at the absurdity of such a question, but she was being honest: she couldn't remember her home, her town, or even the country she lived in. Everything that could connect her to home was shattered into a thousand pieces within her mind. “What the fuck is going on? Where are…Mom…Dad…?”
Biting her lower lip and inflicting a sharp pain on herself, Tristessa searched her memories for answers, but found nothing. Emptiness. Void.
“Dad?”
There were no memories. No name, no face, no voice. Nothing at all.
“Mom?”
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
Tristessa’s hands began to tremble as she could only conjure intermittent flashes of cement walls and iron gates, the catalyst being the very thought of her mother. But, just as with her father, she couldn’t recall the most basic information that every human being who has lived their entire life with a family should remember.
Amid the confusion, she began to feel a slight discomfort behind her eyes, like an itch; it was as if ants were wandering aimlessly inside her head.
That irritation brought with it rebellious tears and snot, forcing the girl to search inside her jacket pockets. Besides finding a handkerchief, she also found a crumpled piece of plastic.
Upon closer inspection, she realized it was a [photograph].
“Oh...”
Tristessa did her best to return the photograph to its original state, all the while fighting against her own hands, which were trembling more frantically. She was more confused than surprised to see five people immortalized in the plastic, with a cityscape in the background. Or at least, that's what she could make out, since their figures were completely altered by scratches and dirt, making any recognition impossible.
Only she herself was untouched. The smallest of the four figures, a cute smile plastered on her face.
“Ugh...agh... What the hell?”
The trembling in her hands became too violent. The inside of her head began to ache. And, to make matters worse, Tristessa began to feel short of breath: she realized too late that her breathing had been accelerating on its own.
Inhaling became a difficult task. She began to taste bile and vomit in her throat, intensified by the disgusting smell clinging to her. Emanating from her own body, from the dirt stains on her jacket and shorts, from her own hands.
“Ugh… Ahh…!” Tristessa managed to keep the contents of her stomach down, covering her mouth for a moment as the back of her neck burned with fresh pain. “Damn it!”
Lowering her hand, she saw she was wearing a wristwatch she hadn't even noticed until she also started feeling her fingers begin to go numb. It was black, somewhat old-fashioned, and broken: the crystal was cracked and the hands were frozen at [7:25:45].
“It hurts… Ah, it hurts! Fuck, it hurts!”
She unbuckled the strap as quickly as she could, as fast as her uncontrollable fingers would allow, desperate to relieve the weird pressure it exerted around her wrist. Once she managed to pull it off, she saw the crisp, golden gleam of the back and caught sight of two words engraved in elegant script:
“Tristessa Irandell.”
Yes, that was her first and last name. She knew that, without a doubt. Perhaps one of the very few irrefutable facts she held in her mind. But there was another problem, much more serious, one that caused her psyche to collapse like a house of cards.
“Who is Tristessa Irandell?!”
The girl soon heard her own heart pounding. A rapid, frantic drumming in her ears, as if it were about to burst. Intensified by the overwhelming silence emanating from the forest, generating extreme unease within her.
“It can’t be… No, no, no, no… It can’t be!” She was on the verge of hyperventilating, her nerves on edge, her legs feeling as if they lacked the strength and support to bear her own weight. “Why? What is happening?! Why can’t I…?”
Her mind spun uncontrollably, plunging into an endless, dark uncertainty. Her conscience had played a trick on her, realizing that something was wrong there, in that clearing filled with red leaves, and with her. In a matter of seconds, the order of reality she knew crumbled, and she couldn't hold onto anything in that fall. There was no hand manifested in solid memories that could save her.
“Why can't I remember anything?!”
There were no answers. Faced with the callous silence, her legs gave way, and Tristessa fell backward. The leaves cushioned the impact, like the mattress of a bed where she longed to fall asleep and wake up again somewhere else.
“Come on, please, let me go home. Make all this a bad dream...” she thought, closing her eyes tightly and praying that when she opened them again, everything would change. Everything would be alright. “Please...!”
She opened her eyes. Everything was still red.
What she expected didn't happen. It wasn't going to happen. Everything was red, and it was going to stay red. And that made her dig her nails into her temples, her frustration growing until it overflowed into a scream containing a repeated question.
“WHY CAN’T I REMEMBER ANYTHING?!”
Her voice echoed through the wall of trees, lost in the gloom that reigned within the forest.
“Why...?” Her question, which she was about to repeat for the third time, caught in her throat. Because, as she focused her gaze on the sky, she saw something that took her breath away. “Ah...”
A beautiful, clear sky, in which two queens ruled that celestial vault. Twin Moons, one larger than the other due to the distance that separated them in the void of space. And both larger in diameter than the single, solitary moon she remembered from Earth.
Lying on that lake of red leaves, Tristessa felt defeated by the implacable nature of the current situation, which could be explained with a simple sentence that also had a monumental meaning:
She had been summoned to another world.
EDIT 1/7/2026 -> I've rewritten the chapter from scratch! Thank you for your ideas and help!
rating or favorite! ????
RR Writing Guild!
Getting isekai'd -> Truck-kun or not?
