Valarie

Would death
wait to see her take
her last breath?

A deep throbbing pain in the back of my head is the first thing I feel. The darkness around me does little to comfort me, I reach towards my right to turn the lights on but my hand seems to hit something like a vase, which breaks apart as it falls to the ground. Where am I?

“Echo of the living, still divided are the dead.” A low voice says from somewhere around me.

Before I can place the source, suddenly the lights flicker on. It takes me a moment to adjust to the sudden brightness, and it seems to be some kind of an office. The pale blue walls are covered in pictures of all kinds of animals, while the table in front of me is almost empty, let alone the small brown dossier kept on it.

“Darling, you are finally awake.” A voice comes from behind me. I turn back to look at a woman with blonde hair, her bright colorfull dress compliments her emerald eyes. “How much do you remember about your life?”

“About my life? What are you talking about?” I ask. But the dull pain returns as I try to remember what I was doing. The woman just smiles and takes a seat at the other end of the table.

“Let’s start of small, shall we?” She asks as she picks the dossier up. “What is your name?”

“Valarie Theo-”

“Last names do not matter anymore, love.” She states. I simply nod, confusion clearly visible in my life. “And what is your age?”

“Seventeen.”

Suddenly, my confusion echoes on her face. She checks the dossier again before tossing it away, all the warmth in her composure fades away faster than I can blink. “You are one of those souls.” she sighs, “Pity.”

“One of what?” I ask, my confusion growing by the second. Souls?

She completely ignores my question and continues, “You will be going to Edifice Phantoms, congratulations.”

My head seems to spin but I can do nothing but listen. The lights seem to flicker red and I could have sworn the animals' eyes in the pictures looked demonic. But all I can do is blink as the lady hands a small brown bag. “The cube thing will help you find only one person, use it carefully. Edifice will be towards the west.”

Before I can even to begin question her about what's happening, I’m falling. I expect darkness to return but all I see is some of my own memories playing back at me. Eating waffles with Aria, talking to Javi, secretly dancing like a maniac to my favorite songs, it's all there. Everything, every moment of my life, falling into the unknown with me.

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This time when I finally get consciousness, I don't open my eyes. Instead I laugh at the crazy dream I got and imagine telling Javi how stupid his theory is. I imagine accepting Aria's death as an unfortunate moment and moving on one day. But I don't see my room when I open my eyes, neither do I see the weird office.

It feels as if the sky has fallen down here, mist curling all around the place even though it isn't that cold. But as I look into the sky, I find no fluffy white clouds or the warm comforting sunlight. The dark clouds alight with red thunder in a sky that never seems to end, darkness ripping it’s way to any light I held dear.

I see trees all around me, but none of them have any leaves. There look as if they were made of darkness, of death, all of their branches curling towards one side. My feet feel unsteady as I try to stand up. A small brown bag lays at my feet. I quickly pick it up and empty its contents into my hands.

A small clear cube falls out with an old keypad at the bottom. The top of the cube just holds a small arrow. I look at it for a moment before typing out Aria's name with the keypad. The arrow suddenly starts spinning vigorously and then suddenly it stops. Smoke comes out of the cube and I toss it away, it looks useless.

It feels as if the sky has fallen down here, mist curling all around the place even though it isn't that cold. But as I look into the sky, I find no fluffy white clouds or the warm comforting sunlight. The dark clouds alight with red thunder in a sky that never seems to end, darkness ripping it’s way to any light I held dear.

Without any sense of direction, I pick a path and start walking. I would have tried to go west to this Edifice Phantoms thing but the dark sky and abandoned forest do little to help. This feels like the part of a horror movie where-

“Valarie!” I jump in fear. The side character almost always dies in the movie, only the protagonist survives. In my life, Aria has always been the main charecter. But wait, I am already dead right?

“Calm down, it’s just me.” Javi appears from behind a tree and I almost run to hug him. But then I remember I’m still pissed at him.

“How did you find me? And where are we? And why are you here?” I ask as if we are playing rapid fire instead.

“The D-O-D didn't tell you? We are in hell, literal hell.”

“Hell? Like hell hell? Like Lucifer is here hell? And what is a D-O-D?”

He looks more confused than he should be, but he shakes his head and explains. “The Dividers Of the Dead. You know, the one who gave us the locator?” He pulls out the same cube with the arrow on top. “This is how I found you.”

“I got one of those too, but mine short circuited or something. Smoke started coming from it, so I threw it away.”

Javi literally facepalms, “You are supposed to follow the smoke.” He still has a lot of explaining to do. I hope Aria is here too but at the same time I hope she isn't. But I bet my villian is here, and he is going to pay.

I sigh, death is so much more complicated than life.

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