T W O
Afterlife

I WAS LEFT in the cold dark silence, the temperature of the room always seemingly cold yet unaffecting as I sat on my bed. My shoulders were hunched over, palms pressing tightly against the mattress as my fingers gripped at the duvet. I was filled with a sudden tidal wave of guilt, a hurricane that swept through my emotions and quaked my mind. And all I could think to myself was 'why on earth had I said that all to them?'

The night had set in, the yolky sun disappearing from the edges of the mountains from what I could tell. There was a dark eery feel that tinted everything the world touched. And through this silence, my mind was allowed to think, to wander. The literal meaning of death had changed me. It threw my entire personality off axis and I felt as though there were multiple voices speaking in my head all at once. They screamed so loudly, some overpowering the other, but never coming out as a singular united voice. The voices demanded different things, wanted different choices to be made, and in turn, tore me into a whole different persona.

What I had just spoken of to Fabian would not be something in which the everyday me would say. My mind was playing tricks on me all around, and I'm not too sure if I like it or not.

There came a knock on the door, small, hesitant, and soft at first. After it paused for a second or two, it grew louder, knocking a loud resonating thud on the wood. "Come in," I said, peering curiously at who could possibly be at the door.

When a red head had popped in, I could feel my heart soar in relief as my muscles relaxed. She glanced around for a second, eyes assessing the dark room before they finally landed on me. For a second, a smile bloomed so very brightly across her face, displaying clear relief that reflected mine. However, the second in which her eyes had properly assessed my situation, that smile faltered.

"Addi, oh my goodness. Thank god you're okay!" Minnie squealed, sighing lightly as she dashed across the room.

I got up easily, feet lighter than ever before, and was barely even standing properly before Minnie jumped into my arms, her own pale limbs wrapping around me tightly. Immediately, a floral scented perfume filled the air around us, hinting at me of the rebirth as I closed my eyes. For a second, I allowed myself the selfish moment of just relaxing in the present without a single worry of the future.

How wonderful it was. If Dimitri was death, Minnie would be a pure persona of life. She had always be kind and positive, showing the world that everything could be better if kindness was brought forward. Represented by the sun in a glistening blue sky, she would always dazzle brighter than anyone in her path. Minnie was just made that way. She was born to bring happiness into the world, even though she was born a mortal and will most likely stay that way. And without a doubt, she had brought rays of luminous sunlight into my mortal lifespan.

"I was so worried, Addi!" She confessed when we had separated, her hands still gripping my shoulder tightly. It was as if she was worried that if she had let go, I would disappear in front of her very eyes. "I saw you dead! Sprawled across the ground in Dimitri's arms with blood all over your dress. And even at that moment, I think I saw Dimitri cry. Heck, even the other boys had tears rimming their eyes. We were all so scared that you would be gone."

"I'm alright, Minnie," I reassured. Gently removing her hands from my shoulders, I held them close to my heart as I smiled at her as best as I could. "Seriously. Dimitri and Fabian did a good job at patching me up."

"You're still..," she hesitated, "dead."

Her words could not be more true. When I looked down, I could see Minnie's pale freckled hands through my own color tinted ones. I was once again reminded that at that very moment, I was nothing more than a wisp of spiritual energy that had to be shipped away as soon as time catches up with me.

"But at least I'm not reincarnated." Shrugging, I let go of Minnie's hands, allowing myself to fall onto the bed with a slightly bounce due to the springy mattress. With my limbs sprawled wide, I sighed, staring up at the high ceiling. "It could be worse. If I were to be reincarnated, I'll never see you or Bella again."

"Or Dimitri. Until you die, at least." Minnie added on before settling onto the bed as well. At her sentence, I bit my lip anxiously. "Speaking of which, I saw Fabian storming out of your room just a few minutes ago, followed by Dimitri. Fabian looked wrathful, but Dimitri... Dimitri just looked... sad. What did you do this time?"

"Nothing!" I yelled, exasperated. "It's just that after I was brought back, I could feel my moods switching and oscillating like crazy."

"Like when Aunt Flo visits?"

"No, like... like when Aunt Flo visits and brings all her friends along with her as well!" I groaned, slapping both palms on my face as I squeezed my eyes shut. "I said things in which I'm not exactly proud to admit, Minnie."

"Oh no." She clicked her tongue, deep in thought as her index finger tapped her chin a few times. "Don't tell me that you reminded them about the boathouse party?"

"Bingo."

"Addison!" Within seconds, Minnie shot up into a sitting position as she twisted her body to face me. I was met with a face of pure shock and horror and I could feel waves of her second-hand embarrassment radiating off of her. "Why did you do that?"

"I told you! I didn't even know what I was thinking. I just got so mad all of a sudden that I just started to spout all this... this unforgivable nonsense and... ugh," I groaned. "They're going to hate me for the next five days of my dead life!"

"Five days?" Minnie questioned, eyebrows raised.

"Dimitri said that I have five days before I will be shipped into the reincarnation system," I started slowly. "So if I don't find a way to get myself back to life..."

"You'll be turned into a baby and forget all of your memories," Minnie completed my sentence with realization. Her jaw was agape, eyebrows furrowed and shoulders hunched. Despair reeked from her behaviour as I sighed, running a hand through my hair. "What about Dimitri?"

"What about him?"

"You're just going to give up? You're not even looking for a way to solve this problem. When you get reincarnated, you'll not only forget us. You'll forget Dimitri and his brothers. They are your friends, even Fabian. And my intuition is right, you don't just like Dimitri as a friend."

"I guess you're right, Minnie." Chewing on the tips of my fingernails, I gritted my teeth in hesitation before sighing. "I think I like him more than that. Maybe even... love."

"Woah there, love is just too quick. He tried to kill you a year ago. Don't you remember that anymore? This 'love' might be more trouble than it is if it's unsure."

"Falling in love was never a plan, Minnie," I sighed, fingers reaching up to rub my temples as I blinked my translucent eyelids. "I was never courting death. No pun intended. And now I'm quite literally a few thousand feet underground, possibly dead, and in love with an eon-old spirit. What else could happen?"

"Losing yourself! Your friends!" Minnie cried out. "Lucius took me from you and Bella and though I'm sure Bella wanted to do something too, you literally went through Hell to find me. I'm not going to give up on you. I am all for a cute little romance between you and Dimitri, but love? You barely even know him."

"The thing is, Minnie, I do know him," I said. Moving an inch closer to her, I concentrated hard on the memories I saw before the poison in the arrow had reached my heart and stopped my muscles from working. "Before I died, I was given a vision. I think they were my memories."

"Your memories? What?"

"From when I was really young. I saw Dimitri in all of them and they were different to how I originally remembered them to be."

"Maybe he was playing with your mind? His magic is powerful, everyone knows that. Even if he did not purposely manipulate your memories, his distraught emotions might have thrown his magic off balance and messed with what you knew."

"Minnie, I'm not joking around. This is the truth and really what I had gone through before I was dead to the world. I had this strong feeling that I was missing something all the time. Even when we were back in the school days with Bella and Porsha, and even Lucius. And when those memories came back, it was as if I found myself again. That the part of me that was taken away had finally returned and resurfaced. Remember the bracelet with thirteen diamonds?" I asked.

"Yeah. You said some of your friends chipped in money and gave it to you as a present." Minnie wrinkled her nose in confusion, shaking her head slightly. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"And my friends did give it to me." I smiled brightly, "Dimitri gave it to me. We exchanged gifts and I gave him some ratty old wire ring that was made by a child. That would also mean that he had provided the bullets in the white pistol that we used last year. He wasn't trying to kill me all along!" I concluded, grinning broadly as realization enveloped me in a caressing embrace. "We were friends when I was younger."

"But you obviously didn't know him when you were invited to the party. So what happened between the gift exchange and the golden letter's appearance?"

The tension in the air rose as my heart sank. There could only be one reason why I couldn't remember anything about meeting the spirit of death.

"He must have wiped my memory." I swallowed a bile in my throat, eyes cast down forlornly. "That's why I don't remember ever meeting Dimitri before the party."

"Why would he do that, though? You said that you guys were friends," Minnie said.

"I wiped her memory because it was safer for her not to know. Lucius would not come after her before she came of age if she stayed in the dark." In perfect synchronization, Minnie and I whipped our heads towards the opened door, eyes wide with surprise as Dimitri stepped into the room, a tray in his hands. "I brought dinner."

The watch that rested on my bedside dressing table started to tick louder than just a few seconds ago, though it seemed as though I was the only one that heard it. The seconds went by as silence ensued, and I could feel beads of perspiration slowly trailing down the sides of my forehead in worry. From where I sat, I could see the hands of the watch pointing at two numbers; number eight and three.

20:15

"Minerva, I would love it if you could give us some time alone. Please."

Without a need for a second request, Minnie stood up just as she flashed a smile at me. 'Be brave,' she mouthed. Just like that, she headed towards the door, placing a single hand on the wood. "I'll just be next door if you need me." Just like that, the door was closed. She did not direct the message particularly to me nor Dimitri, yet she didn't need to. Her underlying words were clear cut and crystal.

'If he dares to lay a single hand on you, just scream.'

"I'm not hungry," I said, gesturing towards the tray of food in Dimitri's hands. In an act of betrayal, my stomach chose this time to growl loudly as I placed a hand over the area immediately in embarrassment.

A smile teased on Dimitri's lips, curving it into a crooked and dorky grin as he placed the tray of food down beside me. "Even ghosts eat, you know. They don't have to, but they want to. Besides, your body and spirit are not used to being one. You function like a human would. Just with a shorter deadline."

I poked at the delicious-looking food, mouth close to watering before I picked up a small piece of meat. "You don't have to remind me constantly that I am a dead girl that still needs to keep to a schedule. Believe it or not, it's more stressful to be dead than alive."

"It's good to remember, Andy," Dimitri said. "After all, weren't you just complaining about me wiping your memories?"

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