Sakura tossed and turned the whole night, by the time the morning sun rolled in the room she was pacing her room, and petals fell from her robe as she turned. She turned to the full-length mirror and cautiously looked at her reflection. Unsure if she was looking at herself. She let her hair fall over her shoulders. Her dark hair contrasted against the white streak that now felt more familiar. The vision of the man that stood in the kitchen flashed in her mind.

She took a step back shocked. It can't be, can it? She thought to herself. Her eyes travelled down the red line that lined her pinkie finger. It seemed as though the line had grown thicker. Curiosity got the better of her as she moved toward her bedroom door, ready to go into the library in search of answers. She reached for the door handle but froze when she heard footsteps on the other side. Slowly she moved her ear against the door listening to the person outside. "We need to clear out the angel patches. I think there was a mistake. The life and death counts are off." Igong's voice sounded from the other side.

Her eyebrow shot up in surprise. The Gods can't make mistakes... can they? She questioned. "I'll have to go into the back records to see where the problem is," Igong muttered. She waited for the footsteps to disappear before she lifted her head from the door. Unsure of her next move she moved her hand away from the door, clenching it into a fist before shaking her head and finally leaving her room.

She looked up toward the greenery-filled sunroof, her heart told her to go to the garden, but her mind kept telling her to go back to the library. She tapped a finger against her lips as she thought. Before she knew it, her feet carried her up the stairs to the great library.

She watched as the thorns moved out of her way letting her enter the sun-kissed room once again. She moved through the library and found Igong sitting in the corner. "Morning," She said her voice wavering. "Was that a question or a statement?" Igong said with a grin as he looked up from the table filled with papers. "Statement." She replied. He gave her a nod. "Morning to you too then."

She moved closer to him. "Do you know of any books that tell you about flowers talking back? Possibly Pansies, Marigolds and things like that." She asked. His face contorted into a deep frown. "Why?" He asked, his voice sounding strange. "I could've sworn I heard a flower call to me yesterday so I followed it through these hedges and sure enough there it was a pink and white Pansy calling my name." She said honestly. "Also why are those fields hidden away from the others?" She added.

"Why were you in those fields?" He asked his tone unwavering. "It called to me." She stated. "How?" He asked again. "I don't know. It was in my head at first and then the next thing I knew I was moving toward those arches and saw the flower patches and that flower calling to me. So I took a seat next to it." She replied.

He stood from his seat causing her to jerk back surprised. "Follow me." He stated as he lead her through dusty bookshelves. She eyed Igong carefully as his hand slipped over a bunch of book spines. His hand came to a sudden stop on a dark leather-bound book and pulled it off of the shelf. The book looked as if it had come alive. Its pages moved and whispers fell from it. Incoherent words just stumbling out one after the other.

A gasp escaped her at the sight. "This should answer the question," Igong said, more to himself than to her. Was this the book that could answer all of her questions? Could this tell her how she died or who is trying to talk to her?

He showed her the book. Its cover was made of petals of different flowers and the title read. Book of souls. Confused she looked at it in amazement. "Is this the book of life and death?" She asked. He let out a sigh. "Yes, and I think this will help both of us." He answered. "What do you mean?" She asked, careful not to let him notice her change of tone. He moved past her with the book in hand. "I think... I think someone died before their time." He said defeated. "What! I don't think that's possible." She said.

Was it me? She hoped in her head.

He moved to a clean table and let the book fall open on top of it. The whispers instantly stopped. "Those flowers you saw yesterday... they're called Angel flowers. They either give advice or give specific messages to people. It means that someone is talking to you in the mortal realm." Igong stated panic filled his voice. "What does that mean?" She asked afraid.

"Your body is still there, but your spirit is here. It hasn't decided if it wants to leave yet or not. Your spirit is using my garden as a waiting room." Igong moved to the papers on the desk he was originally sitting at and ran his finger across them. "Like a limbo?" She asked. "Yes, well technically it's like you haven't decided to live or not.

Sakura's mind felt like a jumbled mess. She grabbed the table for support as she took a seat. "So am I dead or not." She asked. Her voice was just above a whisper. Her eyes turned to him, water pooling from them. He looked at her, his eyes filled with sympathy. "I don't know." He replied with a sigh. Her heart sank. "Do you remember anything? Like a memory." He asked, his voice uncertain of how to talk about it. "I do. I remember lots of things. I remember going out with some friends and then things went dark. The next thing I knew was the field I found myself in a few days ago." She stated. "Your body wants the rest, but your soul isn't done. Did that flower tell you something important?" He asked as he stepped closer to her.

"It showed me visions of a guy with stark white hair like this stripe in my hair. It talked of memories of things that hadn't happened, except for one I faintly remember. The guy approached me at a party. It told me to find it." She said, her voice giving in on her. "This morning I also noticed this." She said showing him the red line that had increased in size.

His eyes widened. "Sakura, you're not dead, you're in a coma. I have no idea why you landed here, but you've got something some people can only dream of. A second chance at life." Igong stated as he gave her a gentle smile.

She finally felt her heart fall and shatter inside her chest. The tears streamed down her face as her breathing faltered. "I don't deserve it." She whispered. "What do you mean?" Igong asked.

"I don't deserve it! I was a bad person, with worse friends. I don't deserve to go back." She screamed. She threw her head into her hands as her body shook. "I made all the wrong choices. That's probably why my soul wanted to leave my body." She said. Her voice was muffled by her hands.

Her body froze as she felt a hand settle on her back. "Sakura, maybe that's exactly why you need to go back. You didn't fulfil your duty." Igong said as he patted her back. "Is it my soulmate? Is he calling me?" She asked as she lifted her head. She wiped her eyes with her palms.

"Do you think it is?" He asked. "I don't know." She replied defeated. "Well if the connection was strong enough to call to you here then I think it's worth a shot." He added. "I don't even know him." She said, her eyes burning from the constant rubbing. "You've met him. Otherwise, he wouldn't have talked to you." Igong said with enough certainty to raise her hopes.

"How are you so calm?" She asked him, a laugh falling from her lips in disbelief. "I have witnessed a lot of things in my lifetime. A twenty-year-old with soulmate issues has been the least intense thing I've encountered in a while." He said with a smile. She burst out with laughter. "I'll get us some tea." He stated as he moved to the door.

Nothing has ever felt so off. Not even that time her friends convinced her to jump off the bridge to see if the river was deep or shallow. What if she won't find him when she gets back... or if she ever gets back? Everything feels uncertain and unreal.

She stood up from her chair and walked over to the tall windows. Her eyes were fixed on the brightly-covered lawn in front of her. The rows of colours seeping through the fields of green and the bright yellow sun shone over the blue river filled with lily pads.

What am I going to do...?

***

Sakura picked up the teacup that was placed next to her only moments ago. She took a sip letting the calming liquid fill her body.

"What did you do that makes you think that you're unredeemable?" He asked, his voice suddenly a lot calmer. "I made the wrong friends and then things just went downhill. Drinking, smoking, drugs anything bad that you could think of I probably did it. I almost died of it too and I still didn't listen to this voice in my head that told me to stop." She said ashamed.

"Well those things are bad, but nothing to make you not get a second chance to fix it. It seems as though your conscience was always aware of the issue even if it was ignored." He stated. "Plus you never tried summoning a demon so you should be fine." He added to make the situation less intense.

She shook her head. "It doesn't excuse what I did." She said finally.

"Well, then this is your chance to fix it. Are you aware of how rare it is to find your soulmate and ignore every instinct of it? That's what you did. You need to fix it." He admitted. "Thank you Igong." She said sympathetically.

She took a sip of her tea as she turned her attention to the window. "I'll leave you to finish your tea. I'll figure out how to get you back." Igong said as he stood and walked toward the door.

He placed his hand on the door. "You were a Dahlia, but you never had a colour." He said finally as he left the room.

She waited for him to eventually close the door before she jumped to her feet and ran to the book containing the meaning of flowers. She slammed the book open, searching for the page about Dahlia's. A smile stretched onto her lips as she read.

These flowers offer guidance and serve as a warning that something needs to change in your life. Be prepared to go through a transformation. Not much else is known of these flowers or the souls that are tied to them. They are few far and few in-between fields of roses and sunflowers. They are mainly alone in spirit but always brighten the world for those around them.

Nothing else was on the page. A Dahlia stuck to the page. Its colour is completely gone. She let her hands fall over the fragile flower, the touch alone making her tense up like a bolt of electricity had filled her.

***

She jumped from the last step as her heart raced. "Igong!" She shouted through the hall. "Kitchen!" He yelled back. She moved through the halls as she did yesterday finding him in front of a book at the kitchen counter. "Is that my flower in the book?" She asked out of breath. He lifted his head from the book. "Yes, you're the first Dahlia I've seen in the past 10 years." He stated. She showed him the flower in her hands.

"We need to plant it. Or I will die. I felt a pulse of electricity jump through me when I touched it." She said.

"Come with me." He said jogging out of the kitchen and through the hedge. She followed him as he moved through the overgrown arches that had called her. "We need to plant it. Put it next to the one that called you." He stated as we reached the rows of flowers.

She ran up to the striped Pansy and open a small space for her flower to be placed next to it. She gently folded open the petals and placed it on the ground. It instantly reached into the mix of ground and weeds. As if it was tethering itself back to life. "Close it up again and grab some water from that bowl for it," Igong said with urgency in his voice.

She did as he said and watched the flower. It still looked limp and dead compared to the others. "Why is nothing happening?" She asked confused. Her eyes locked in on the grey flower before her. "Be patient it needs to adapt to the ground again." He said. She moved her gaze to his, but his face didn't mimic his voice. There was a hint of fear in his eyes. "You don't know if this will work, do you?" She asked him. "I have no idea. I've never done this before." He stated a hint of fear in his voice. "Then why did you tell me to do it?" She asked her voice panicked. "Because I will not let my mistake ruin your chance at life after all you've been through!" He screamed. The trees seemed to shudder at his sudden outburst. The ground was thunderous and even the sky grew dark, just as it did yesterday. He was the result of the storm.

He let out a huff in frustration and turned. "You. You did this?" She asked shocked. He shook off her question and started walking away. "Don't turn away from me when I'm talking to you!" She screamed at him. He turned, but his eyes were darker. "Don't test me Sakura." She let out a gasp. "You are no God. You're a coward." She knew she was lying to herself when she said it, but that didn't stop Igong. His shoulders shook out of rage and within seconds he had vanished.

She sank to her knees, her breathing felt heavy. What if there was no way back, and I'm just stuck here till things ended in the mortal realm. She thought. Her mind drifted to the potion she made yesterday and the idea finally sparked into her mind.

She crawled to her flower and carefully took a petal. "Don't worry. We'll figure this out." She said to the flower. She held it close to her heart. "I got you, we're going to fix this I promise." She whispered over the petal as she stood up from her spot on the ground.

She grabbed a small bowl and emptied the water onto the other flowers, watching as they instantly grew brighter and turned as she made her way to the river. She approached the clear water and scooped the bowl full. She took a seat in the field she woke up in only days ago and put the petal into the water, she stirred it with her finger as she muttered a small prayer in the hope to achieve what she needed to.

The water turned from its clear blue state to the grey of the Dahlia and then suddenly things went stark white. She squinted as she looked into the bowl. There she was. In a hospital bed with a bunch of machines around her, the room was clean and nothing seemed out of place. She looked pale and skinny. She never noticed how sick she looked. Next to her sat a man she had never met, but his white hair was something she'll always remember. His head rested on her bed next to her. As soon as her eyes landed on the paper in front of the bed, the water became murky.

"No. No, don't go yet." She protested as the water turned to its normal state. She slammed her palm against the ground, aggravated by the potion's bad timing. She huffed in annoyance as she let her head fall to the ground. Please let me just get out of here. Let me have my second chance at life.

She grabbed the bowl and threw the remains into the river before trudging back to the tall building. Just as she reached the steps a splatter of rain fell right onto her head. She tore her eyes up to the sky and watched the thunderous clouds grow closer. "Please let this work." She said as she breathed out a sigh. Her head dropped once again as she made her way inside.