Flashback
It had been a week. An entire week since her world had been destroyed and she had been stranded out here in the empty between-space. It seemed like an eternity.
Of course, Euphie had been able to find shelter in the other universes scattered around; the Innkeepers usually let her work odd jobs for a night in a room. She was even starting to know her way around the multivoid, finding certain worlds without markers. But she still felt displaced. This void space was just so oppressively empty, and as nice as the people in other worlds were - they were strangers.
Now she found herself, as she had every day for the last week, wandering back toward the pile of rubble that used to be her world. Her soul was filled with the same conflicting feelings as they were every time. Seeing the broken painting on the ground was heart-shattering, no matter how often she looked at it, and yet she still clung to the impossible hope that, this time, it would be fixed.
Her eyes strained against the white space as she approached the spot, trying to pick out the painting on the invisible wall, feeling the anxious turmoil in her soul. She stopped. The wall was blank. Her soul sank. Of course it was.
But, just as soon as she thought of turning around, she caught something in the corner of her eye. Something was different this time.
Someone was there.
