A smeared blur of orange, pink, white, and a color that I could barely define as yellow.

A turmoil of voices surrounded me, but out of all the presences, one stood out the most. Something close to what I've always heard people describe angels to be like. In the midst of the commotion, a small, soft object laid itself on top of my hand.

"You must be Z͖̲̒ͣ͠y͇̳̼̩̓ͬ́̓̀p̵̣̼̩̒h̵̦̙̙̱̝̄̋ͅé̫̭̤̾̋́̚r̶͔͍̤̞͖̬͕̰̿."

The picture began to make sense of itself. A manicured hand was in mine and a pair of long, beautiful legs was in front of me. When I looked up, I was face-to-face with Eliza. Her intelligent pink eyes sparkled down on me, her strawberry blonde hair that moved with every head movement was carefully brushed, her orange sundress gracefully whipped around in the slight breeze.

"How do you..."

"Know that?" she giggled. "I know a lot about you, silly."

As I looked down at myself, I didn't see claws or tattoos or my diamond tail. I discreetly ran the back of my hand against my nose and brushed over the golden ring that used to pierce through my right nostril. The human warmth within my own hands and the life of my beating heart surged within me.

I wanted to scream and flip out, but my body moved on its own and pulled me up to my feet, continuing on with the scene. I completely forgot how tall I was compared to Eliza.

She caressed my cheek and smiled softly. "There's much to explain, isn't there, my dear passion project?"

"Passion project?"

"You'll see, you'll see..."

A hot pink light shot in my eyes.

...

When it comes to love confessions, I'm a total coward.

In the fourth grade, my first crush was this girl that sat next to me on the swing set every recess. There were plenty of opportunities to tell her that I thought she was pretty cool, but before I could do so, she moved away to Louisiana or something.

Then in middle school, I had a crush on this guy at my church. That one was going really well too. It wasn't until after sitting through an hour of an impassioned rant about how marriage is strictly between a man and a woman that I found out he wasn't exactly the most, uh, "accepting" person in the world. Longest hour of my life.

In high school, I was head-over-heels infatuated with one of my closest friends. I was so close with that one, man. Like, so close. I planned on pouring my heart out at the Spring Dance, but the moment just wasn't right. Before I could try again, I died in that jewelry store shooting. Talk about awful luck.

And Eliza. Sure, she was my actual first relationship, but it's not like I was the one who initiated anything. I was just along for the ride. I'd say that I lucked out with that one, but...well, y'know. I wouldn't be here if it went spectacularly.

"Z͖̲̒ͣ͠y͇̳̼̩̓ͬ́̓̀p̵̣̼̩̒h̵̦̙̙̱̝̄̋ͅé̫̭̤̾̋́̚r̶͔͍̤̞͖̬͕̰̿,"

"Yeah, Lizzy?"

Eliza squinted at the couple on the TV screen. I couldn't tell if it was jealousy or pure curiosity. "We've been dating for -- what? -- a little over a month now, right?"

"And?"

"And I've been wondering if...." She sighed and snuggled under my arm on the couch. "There's no easy way to say this, is there? Have you ever been kissed before?"

"I thought you knew everything about me already."

"The essentials, but I don't keep tabs on everything. That'd be creepy. You think I have files upon files of every time you've gone to the bathroom or every time you've cheated on a test or-"

"Okay, Eliza, okay. Let me think..."

"If it's gonna take you that long to mull it over, it might make me think that you've never been kissed before."

That's not true. I have been kissed before. It was a long time ago at some party.

Even if I can't recall their face or name, I remember the way their embarrassed lips unintentionally moved against mine. It was an accident entirely, but I remember wishing they didn't pull away. Remember wishing that I could pull them in again and kiss them until the whole world ended.

...Damn.

The wound was still too fresh to want to talk about and trying to find the right way to tell Eliza felt like a task that I just wasn't up to at the asscrack of dawn.

So I shrugged. "Dunno. It must've been a while ago, I think."

Eliza hummed. Suddenly, she sat up straighter and angled her body towards me, batting her pretty lashes. "Then can I kiss you?"

My ears burned red. "O-Oh. Well, if you want to."

"Z͖̲̒ͣ͠y͇̳̼̩̓ͬ́̓̀p̵̣̼̩̒h̵̦̙̙̱̝̄̋ͅé̫̭̤̾̋́̚r̶͔͍̤̞͖̬͕̰̿, do you want to, though?"

"Of course I do, Lizzy."

The excitement she was suppressing finally made its way onto her smiling face. Just like the first day we met, she gently cupped my cheeks and pulled me in towards her. Her pink lips pressed against mine lovingly. She tasted like strawberry flavored lip gloss and a recently chewed on mint. It was hard to not chuckle at the thought of her obsessing over the state of her own breath just to kiss me.

Eliza pulled away just enough to nuzzle her nose against mine. "Are you laughing at me?"

"No," The giggle in my voice betrayed me. "You're just cute, y'know that?"

She pecked me again and returned back to her spot on the couch. "Not as cute as you, lovely."

A pink light engulfed my vision.

...

"Z̸͕̄́͝y̸͔̓͊͐p̶͍͉̹̿h̴̟̭͝ĕ̸͇̎̃r̴͇̅͋,̴͖̖̩͆ ̵̫͙̏̆Ẑ̵̨̙͆y̸̫̞͆p̷̱̟̚h̸͖͙̊e̵̳̭̽͑r̸̯̯̠̐͝,̶̗̓̎̚ ̸͇̩̌Z̷̹͚͎̈́y̶̨͂̅p̵̝͔̄h̶̡̔́͠ȩ̵̎̓r̷͈̖͍͝!̸͇͇̭̌͊ Hurry up!" Eliza grasped my hand, practically dragging me down the hallway.

"Eliza," I came to a halt, bringing her back with me. Eliza whipped around and took both of my hands in hers. She gazed up at me through her perfectly groomed bangs. "I'm excited too, but we have all the time in the world to get this done."

"Yet it's not everyday that someone gets to unlock their full magic potential! I've noticed that your magic has been growing stronger and I sense that today it's at its peak. What better timing, right? It'll be like a lovely present. Oh, I just can't wait to see it!" Eliza's job had always been to resurrect dead souls and train us to our full potential. Nothing more. Having an intimate relationship with me was probably her worst decision. Becoming too attached was bound to ruin something. I should've known that...I should've known that...

"It'd be a little unfair if you didn't get a present in return, huh? Here, close your eyes."

She did so with as much excitement as a kid in a candy store.

I slid my hand over hers. A pink ribbon appeared in her palm. "Open."

Her eyes shined brightly. "What is it?"

"Look, it's magic. Style it the way you want, Lizzy. You can split it in two, merge it back together, change the color. It doesn't matter what you do with it, but it's yours."

"So this is what you've been wasting your powers on?"

"W-Wasting? Well, I-"

"I love it, though. You're too sweet," Her arms hung around my neck as she kissed me tenderly. "Sometimes I wonder if we could stay like this forever. It's almost too perfect."

"I-I love you too...?"

She squinted up to the cracked diamond in the middle of my forehead. Something in her eyes wavered as her smile faded.

"What's up?"

"Nothing, nothing. Let's go." She kissed me again and grasped my hand. After a walk of unfamiliar silence, I was taken to a room with large double doors. Throughout my time living here, I've never taken notice of this section of the house. She pushed open the double doors and led me to a desk piled in dusty books and empty glass viles. There were scribbles on various crumpled papers about failed resurrections and possible monster transformations. One paper was torn and horribly destroyed. Any sign of writing on it was entirely demolished. The aura here was ominous, dark, and cold, unlike the easygoing house that I was so used to. Eliza shoved away most of the debris from my sight. From the way she was acting, she definitely didn't wanna talk about it.

"Z̴̡̢̝̃̌̊ÿ̷͇́̽͛p̷̺͑̋h̸̦̩̞͋͆e̵̮̔̿̈́r̸͖̮͆̈́͛͜," she finally spoke. "Stand over there for a second." Her nose was stuck in some grungy book, flipping back and forth between pages. Eliza waved her hand towards the open area in the middle of the room. If I hadn't been so observant, I wouldn't have noticed the large incantation scratched into the wooden planks under me. I would've passed it off as more dust.

Eliza mumbled mainly to herself, forgetting that I was there. Her eyes went wide and shot up at me.

"What's wrong?"

She shook her head and glued her eyes to the book again. "I can't mess up this time. I can't mess up, I can't mess up..."

This time? The pit of my stomach nearly tore apart. I shivered at the thought of what would happen if she "messed up." Just a moment ago, she was so excited for me to "unlock my full potential." Seeing her mood change so drastically in such a short period of time gave me more reason to feel uneasy.

"Lizzy, what comes next?"

"Oh, I just have to find the instruc-"

"I mean after this whole magic potential business. When this is over and done with, I can continue to help you fight that oncoming danger you're so paranoid about. I get that. But I'd like to stay with you for as long as I can. If this magic thing is gonna get in the way of that, so be it. I'll just find a way around it. So don't worry about me, okay? I'll be fine."

That same desolate look was in her eyes. "Of course."

Her movements now were slow and uncontrolled as she tried to hide a few tears from me. I couldn't understand why she was trying not to cry now. What I said couldn't have been that bad. After what seemed like forever, she stopped flipping through the book. This was harder for her than it was for me. She wasn't the one transforming, so the burden couldn't have been that bad, right? I wanted to say something else, but no thoughtful words would form in my mind. Her hand hovered over the paper and a pink light swirled onto it. The incantation I was standing on lit up in a purple light.

She barely even looked at me. All she did was clutch her hands to her chest and silently cry to herself. I could only hope for the best outcome.

The debris and dust swirled around me and the incantation's light morphed from purple to black. My body was lifted off the ground and submerged in the black pool.

A pink light dominated my vision.

...

"Zypher? Hey, it's me...Eliza. After this, I'm erasing myself from your memory. It's selfish of me, I know, but I can't stop thinking about you. This is...This is best for both of us. I watch over you sometimes and I know that you're losing yourself to -- well -- you. A-And any further thoughts of me would just get in the way of you concentrating on your contract. You don't have much time, Zypher. I wish there was something I could do for you, but...I'm not the one. I sincerely apologize. I love you, Zypher. I love you more than everyone else in the world. Thank you for the memories and I pray that you'll keep me locked away in your heart somewhere. We'll meet again someday and I'll never forget you. Goodbye, Zypher..."

That same pink light from before faded into a bland gray.  

~~~

A/N: Do y'all consider yourselves hopeless romantics? 'Cause Zypher -- I mean -- Diamondback totally is. Don't forget to drop a vote if you're enjoying yourself so far! <3