T W E N T Y - T H R E E
Return to Paradise

PARADISE WAS JUST as beautiful as I remembered it to be. Although I did not have the best memories attached to this place, it was still a scenic spot filled with unrivaled paragon aesthetics. The green that lined the entire span of the forest charged me with a wave of peace and serenity and I couldn't help but wonder what life would be like to live in such a wondrous place. Then again, Hell did not seem that bad either.

"Why aren't we directly in Heaven?" Minnie's voice came from slightly behind me, most likely having her question directed to Dimitri. The question she asked was one in which I perhaps would have questioned myself if I had not known better. Before I could reply, however, Dimitri spoke up.

"Although I am able to access Heaven with the help of the potion, it does not mean that I am able to bring my magic over. In Heaven, I will be rendered powerless and hence the furthest I can transport us is here, in the midway section of Paradise." He answered with a shrug of his shoulders.

"But Dee, aren't there angel camps here?" I asked, frowning. "The last time I was here was when you took me away from Lucius's camp and that time where Fabian got me out of Heaven. Surely they are still here to guard their borders?"

"Not anymore. We've scouted ahead and found out that all the angels had retreated back to Heaven after the battle in Hell. They are most likely preparing themselves for the next war."

"And hopefully there wouldn't be one." Minnie prayed but what she requested was too good to be true. The desire for war lived in everybody's hearts, some just much quieter than others. It was human nature to seek destruction and these angels had been influenced by that negative mindset.

"That is if everything goes well." With a grave expression, Dimitri started to trudge forward, his steps heavy and almost pained. "Come on. We have to cover as much ground as possible before the sun sets. Once the third day is over, Addison will become weaker than ever before and our chances slimmer. It will become much more dangerous to travel so we need to be fast."

The journey towards Heaven's Falls was much longer than I remembered it to be. By the time the sun was ready to set and the world was a blanket of red and yellow hues, my legs were already sore from constantly walking. Each turn and maneuver we made, though undoubtedly beautiful, looked exactly the same as the last and I began to question if we truly knew the way out of this place.

"Are we lost? We've been walking for hours." Minnie grumbled, voicing out my thoughts perfectly. Though she said the words with as little of a whine as possible, it still made Dimitri's eyebrows contort with slight irritation that anyone could see well on his features.

"Paradise is a big place. We'll be there soon," he simply responded, playing with a wire ring on his finger.

Minnie conceded with just a nearly inaudible sigh, her pace picking up once more just so that she could maintain at our average speeds. I, on the other hand, had my attention diverted. When I raised my hands before me, placing it against the bright rays of the last light of day, I couldn't help myself but take in a shocked gasp of air.

While my hands were very translucent and in the shade of the ugliest pale green in the world during the first day, it was nothing when placed in comparison to this. Though my forearms were covered by the long sleeves of my knitted gray sweater, my wrists leading to my fingers were most definitely see-through, so much so that it resembled a sheer piece of artistic clothing. It looked like a piece of fabric drifting through the wind, not even enough to stay solid on the ground when a gust of air blew at it. In other words, I looked deader than even the spirits of Hell.

"Dimitri..." I trailed off, eyes still fixated on my disappearing limbs. "My... my hands."

The dark-haired spirit need only take a single look at my hand before a profanity, so smooth and practiced, flew past his lips and out of his mouth. "Shit," he swore, immediately taking a few steps back to stay at my side. "We have to move, quickly."

With just a knowing glance sent to Minnie, the redhead took off running, sprinting as fast as her legs could carry her. Dimitri took my hand in his, intertwining our fingers together before we were soon off as well, following very closely behind my best friend.

In my mind, I could hear the chimes of the clock ringing like a thousand church bells. The ticking of the second hands sounded like nails on a chalkboard, constantly reminding me of every second that was slipping right past my fingertips. To emphasize that, my mind concocted what I supposed to be the loud chimes of a grandfather clock when the hour came to an end and a new one began. Loud and resounding, it crashed against my eardrums as I gritted my teeth to bite down the on-growing anxiety that was building in the pits of my stomach.

The thriving bright emerald green of the forest was flying right by our eyes, our figures running through the fine blades of grass like a wind delivering a song in its embrace. The thundering of our feet could not even compare to the wild pounding of my heart that was smashing against my ribcage, begging me to take a break and slow down. But my legs refused. I was just running and sprinting, heading off in the direction of Heaven without even stopping once to take a much needed break though we had been walking for hours.

Red, the color of blood and danger. It loomed over us, taking over the azure skies like a drop of ink in clear water. Its rabid tentacles started to spread across the heavens above us, covering every inch of sapphire blue that we could even land our eyes on. When the red was done with its job, came the purples that blended everything out and finally the dark blues that rimmed the edges of the canvas of the world, signifying that night was finally arriving.

The sun dipped below the horizon, its light tragically following along with its movement even though days were supposed to be much longer in Paradise. We must have come when the sun was already beginning to plot its descent and though one might think that it was a bad unfortunate coincidence, it was actually very helpful for it kept track of time and told us when the next day would end and begin.

And right now, my third day had come to a startling halt.

The very second in which the sun was gone, I lost immediate feeling in both my legs, causing me to crash to the ground with a thud as my hands slipped out of Dimitri's hold. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I could hear both Dimitri and Minnie calling out for my name, their voices loud and echoing in my mind, piercing through the void that was desperately trying to pull me in. However, as loud as they were, they could not possibly compare to the allurement of sleep, lulling like a siren singing her deadly song.

-----

"Have you changed your mind? It's been a day and I am getting very impatient."

The first thing I registered was a child-like voice asking me a question and in an instant, I snapped my eyes wide open. Stood before me was Lola, dressed in a white frilly dress that had a pink ribbon tied around her waist. She looked as if she was a flower girl, dressed to the nines with her beautiful and whimsical ensemble.

"Lola," I breathed out, my voice nearing a deadpan. "Why am I not surprised to see you here?" I wondered out loud.

"Because I am always the one here to greet you, Addison. I care more than the others." She simply replied with a bright smile.

"You don't care about me. You care about whether you can take over this body - my body - or not."

"Do not paint me as the villain here, Addison. We are essentially the same person and you cannot make yourself your own nemesis." Lola's words were careful, crafted and chosen with precision. "We want the same thing in the end and that is to be alive. Isn't that what you are trying to do right now? Fight your way towards Heaven so that you can live to see past the fifth day?" She spoke like she was walking on thin ice and that made my skin shiver.

"What are you playing at, Lola?"

"Each time the sun sets, you will be sent back here and you will be faced with the same questions again. Except this time, I have power over how long I want you to stay here and you will not leave until you play with me. I'm bored, Addison. Why don't you play with me?"

"You and I both know that I do not want to be a part of your sick little games." With each second that passed, I was feeling more and more agitated. This young girl, this young personification of myself, really was trying everything in her power to get me to hand over my chance at life. "You had your turn to be alive. Now it's mine," I said.

My words must have caused a sort of rift in Lola for her playful jubilant smile disintegrated into a look of pure shock before contorting one of fury. Her eyebrows were curved downwards, crinkling that bit of skin in the middle as the corners of her lips pulled towards her chin.

"What is it like to be with someone truly alive, I wonder?" She asked instead, her voice a deadly calm.

With a wave of her hand, the scene before us transformed to that of Paradise. I recognized the endless rows of trees and the wafting scent of flowers in full bloom. Stars dotted the heavens above us, gracing the fields with an ethereal light supplied by the moon. Though the scenery truly was incomparably beautiful, there was something else that caught my eye.

It was an out of body experience where I could see all three of us - Dimitri, Minnie and me - gathered under the canopy of trees. The duo had set up a campfire, my limp body resting on the soft grass and moss, completely unmoving. Yet I knew I was still 'alive' due to the slow but sure rising and falling of my chest. My skin, just like how I remembered it to be, was a ghastly translucent and I could even see the starlight right through me.

However, something in which I was unfamiliar with was how closely Dimitri and Minnie were seated. Their shoulders were touching, pressed against one another much more intimately than how friends would be. They were both seated on the ground, hands poised slightly behind them with the palm pressed against the ground for support.

"I heard that the new people like to say a phrase about love. What was it again? Oh, right. 'Opposites attract'. Perhaps Death just wants to find someone alive and not someone, well, both dying and dead at the same time." Lola nonchalantly commented but I could hear the smirk in her voice.

My heart clenched painfully at the sight, mind delirious with a thousand different assumptions. I watched with horror as Dimitri leaned in with a smile, placing a soft gentle kiss on Minnie's forehead. She, in turn, did not move a single inch to back away. I was at a loss for words, simply staring on as my body laid a few feet away from my soul.

I could already feel tears rimming my eyes and as a reflection of my inner thoughts, I could see my body stir just the slightest. Dimitri leaned back and away from Minnie for a split second, turning around to eye my body when it moved as what I gathered as annoyance flashed in his brilliant gray irises. His gaze lasted for not more than a few seconds and when my body stopped stirring, he turned back to Minnie with his usual handsome smile.

"Isn't he one of your reasons to want to stay alive? As well as her?" Lola asked, stepping to my side. "She is very pretty. I love her red hair. It is like a wildfire's flame, burning through the night and bright enough to conquer his dark heart. Such a perfect pair, don't you think?"

I was unable to reply Lola, my lips still numb and heart racing. Love never felt as painful as it did now and I could feel a thousand knives stabbing right through that particular organ. As much as I wanted to blink away from the site, I was unable to do so. The two figures who I held dearest to my heart still sat there, completely oblivious to the fact that I was watching their every move.

When I caught a sight, just a small minuscule detail, however, I couldn't help but break a smile. The weight on my chest was lifted as my posture straightened back to the one of confidence in which I had mastered over my many years alive.

"You are getting good at magic, Lola. Your illusions are almost perfect." I chuckled, folding my arms across my chest before giving Lola a triumphant smile. "That's not really them."

"What?" Lola questioned, faking a shocked look. "Of course it is them," she tried to argue. "I am just opening your eyes to the truth."

"Dimitri wears a ring on his left ring finger. I saw it on him when I died, and every single day after that, I noticed it. He was just adjusting his ring a while ago, minutes, seconds before I fainted. That ratty old wire ring means a lot to him and to think that he would take it off for no reason is just a really questionable act."

"I..." Now it was Lola's turn to be at a loss for words.

The scene before us melted away like a sort of watercolor artwork, dripping far beneath our feet and away from my view. In my heart, I silently bid it good riddance.

"You're caught in your act, Lola." I smiled just as her feet started to disappear, turning into gentle clouds of colored smoke. "And like I said the first time, I want my life and I am not giving it to you. We do not have a deal so back off and learn to listen to adults like children should."

[A/N]:

Thank you so much for your patience. I hope you liked this chapter and I did not give you too much of a heart attack. Got any questions? Leave it in the FAQ section.

xx aurora