"Born to die? How can a person be born just to die?" I turn to ask the light but it is fading away from me until it was just me standing here all on my own.

Blank, that is all that is left.

Nothing but a void now that I have made my choice.

There is no going back.

Leaving everything behind, the warmth of the light that was near me is now gone.

I'm alone.

However, another light is open.

A doorway, a way out possibly.

I run towards it, the momentum to run towards the light is drastic as ever. The need to feel warmth in my fingers again is saturated deep within the marrow of my bones.

Just in reach, my fingertips outstretched themselves. When I feel like I am almost within reach of the handle. The light has disappeared. My eyes are closed, everything has become once again dark.

In a second it feels as though I am falling. But it also feels as though a thousand hands are grabbing onto me pulling me in all different directions. I want to scream but I am paralyzed in fear, I can't move any part of my body besides squeezing my eyes even tighter shut.

However, a chilling whisper flows through my ears convincing to open my eyes once more.

Open.

Open.

Open. Your. Eyes.

OPEN!

I gasped out loud, landing onto hard rock. What was in front of me was something I never thought ever existed. A long line of lost souls following the trail of another doorway.

This can't be real, I thought.

"The weighing of the heart."

*

*

*

Taking a deep breath as I exist the eleventh door. This has been hell so far Walking through each door showing me the progression of my life as I have to battle my own demons to show my worth and the weight of my heart.

The road to the last door felt as if I had spent an eternity waiting to be judged. This doesn't make any sense to me at all. How on earth am I in the underworld of Anubis?

I am a creature of the Moon Goddess. Aren't I supposed to be in the moon once I have gone into passing? These question flood through my mind as I have ventured further through the twelve doors that will lead me into judgment.

I want to leave but my body protests.

It ignores the action I want to do, instead it follows the trail of lost souls in front of me to the last door.

Everyone of every background is here.

Rich.

Poor.

Ugly.

Beautiful.

Human.

Supernatural.

We are all here.

The comfort that brings me is death does not discriminate.

That here in death we are all the same. We all share the same tattered garments of cloth, except.. I wear red while the rest are all in the various shades of white some as pure as ivory while others wear a white that is almost grey. Why have I been singled out into a different colour?

I am disturbed from my deep thoughts as I hear a few miles away of the next person being judged by their heart.

"What is your name? And why is it that you believe you must enter?" A deep, voice that makes my joints ache at the almost familiar sound. I look through my memories for any indication that I've met or heard this person somewhere before. Yet, I find nothing.

"I'm James Matthews and I have lived the life many desire. People want to be me, and even after death they will want to emulate me," the man in the front speaks with such boisterous attention. He exudes class and egotistical wealth.

"We shall see," Anubis looks towards the scale that holds a single white feather. With it, the scale on the left weighs down, too far down that James gasp.

"You may not enter with the dead!" He holds a staff and slams it hard against the floor and the doors have turned a deep crimson red that leaves a burning sensation.

A sensation of dreaded oblivion.

"No!" He yells out but just as he was here he was then gone as his entity was sucked in through the crimson door.

Who knows where that leads too... But I have a feeling it is nowhere nice, I shudder at the thought that I could end up wherever he went.

A few more others were met with the same fate. It seemed others haven't learned just as the man who boosted his own horn.

Once my turn has came, I was met with the same man who held my fate in those scales. I could feel myself wavering in my worth but I knew better. Deep down, I knew I was going to be alright.

"What is your name and why do you believe you should enter into the afterlife of the dead?" He was staring at me, with eyes questioning my motives. He must be wondering who am I, wow, of course he is Liana.

With much needed courage that I could muster. I inhale a deep breath closing my eyes imagining that I can pass through if I believe I can.

"My name is Liana," I speak up once I open my eyes. But when I turn to look up, the man who stood by the gates had done nothing but stare at me with such intensity that I stood there with nerves tingling my body.

I felt uncomfortable under the questionable scrutiny he was giving me.

"And why do you feel you should enter?"

I stood to think for a few moments. Why did I want to enter? Well for starters I don't want to be gone forever. And even though I had given up my life to save my brothers. I still can't help the sinking feeling that I got the short end of the stick. I fidget between the answer I want to give, fiddling with the only pendant I have brought with me. In a way, it brings a calming sensation over me.

Looking up, I know what I must say.

"I feel like my life was robbed from me. I had more to give and I'm not ready to say goodbye. I feel as though my life's only meaning was to save my brother from harm and yet I still feel like I have unfinished business. That I have more to do and more to give." That was all I could say, I didn't live a very fulfilling life where I have come to know the secrets of the universe. I have yet to meet my mate and have a family, have the life full of love that I desire more than anything.

I was robbed of my life.

It's unfair!

"We shall see," was all he spoke.

We both turn to face the scale that held my fate in its golden plates. The feather that could ultimately be my demise permanently.

I couldn't bare to watch, yet my eyes stayed glued to that stupid scale. The scale tips slightly low which led the feather upwards but then it would tither high with the feather becoming low.

It does this several times.

Then it would lower down to the ground which makes me think I am a goner forever however, it would then rise higher than before and the feather would sink low. It repeats these actions several time before it comes to a conclusion.

It stays in the middle.

Everyone surrounding me, especially the deities gasped as the watch this.

Everyone whispering around me, giving me accusing looks. Even the man that guards the gates, Anubis himself, stares at me as if I have broken the scale.

"What? What's going on?" I ask but I think even they don't know how to answer this.

"You, my dear Liana, cannot move to the afterlife nor become nothing for you do have unfinished business."

That did not sound good at all.

"What does this even mean?" I couldn't quite fathom what I was hearing. Was I to finish my life?  This brings a slight hopefulness to me yet his eyes gave a different meaning.

Whatever hope I had diminished the minute I saw his eyes.

"I don't know yet," he answers, everyone else behind me began to groan impatiently spewing words of annoyance of my predicament.

"Just kill her!"

"Move out of the line!"

"What's taking so long!"

"Silence!" Anubis slams his staff against the ground shutting everyone behind to silence. It frightens me a bit to the point I don't think I'm even breathing.

Wait, why can't I breathe? Oh because I'm dead that's why.

"You!" I look up to Anubis as he brings back my attention back to this twisted reality.

"Yes?"

"I will be the one to decide your fate." My stomach dropped as he tells me of his plans. His brows bridging between as they think deeply. Scratching the scruff on his chin. He then stares down to look at me with utter annoyance.

As if I seemed to have ruined his plans.

What else does the god of death has to do besides take count of the dead?

"You will not enter the afterlife," my eyes widen at what he says.

"Why!" I scream on the edge of hysteria. I don't want to go and turn into nothing. Even as the door turns into its crimson red, I stood back away from the door yet my advances were futile as two large hands grip my arms with such intense grip that it almost brought tears to my eyes.

"I am not going to risk something I have no desire in trying to figure out," he says it so nonchalant that it makes me mad that he is this careless for the ones who are different.

"I thought death is not discriminative!" I yell as the two guard dogs try to drag me towards the door of nothingness.

"It's not, but I am not death."

I try to thwart their advances towards that dreadful door that will end my fate. Yet their strengths outmatched my own. I close my eyes hoping that if I looked away, it'll end quickly.

"Uhh..." groans are heard as the two muscles that held me captive in their hold are taken off of me. No longer their grips on me yet lingering hand prints mark my skin.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Anubis growls out his disapproval as he stares towards the person that might have possibly saved my life.

"Now Anubis, is that anyway to greet your goddaughter."

My eyes widen as I met with the beauty that stands before me. Eyes of such intense green illuminate her bronze skin. Dark, black mauve hair that shines beneath the graying dull skies. A dress that hugs her bodice in such a tight grip it almost makes me want to faint. Breasts that grapple against the top to overflow if it weren't for the corset that kept everything in place.

The air around her had an electrifying effect on everyone, including me. I could sense she was someone of great importance, especially if Anubis knows her well.

"I would ask you how you are but I am in no mood for any faux pleasantries." His eyes glare daggers at the woman that is introduced as his goddaughter.

"Aw, that's too bad. I was so hoping we could have a little chat," she sighs loudly as she walks over to where she then moves to stand turning her back to sit on top of the grand scales. Her weight never wavering the feather.

My mind boggles as I watch this woman not even weigh against the scales. What could this even mean? So many questions, none of them getting answered if I don't speak up.

"About the fact you destroyed my guards or the fact you have entered the weighing of the heart without my permission?" He sounded as if he was growing with an anger that was sizzling in containment.

"Oh I'm so sorry, oh wait, I'm not. If you've forgotten who actually runs this place than I suggest you should look at the handbook," the woman than hops off the scales walking straight towards me. She gives me a sly smirk with a wink at the end that reads anything but friendly yet she's here defending me.

He laughs a deep throaty chuckle that makes me want to hide behind the woman as she stand tall against him unwavering at his menacing growl.

"Oh you are quite charming, I so missed that wit of yours however as I do recall. Your banishment is still in effect which makes you a trespasser in the underworld." The woman doesn't waver from this statement. She simply lifts a corner of her lips smiling at Anubis who is somehow also her godfather.

"I know my sudden appearance has put a damper in your work but I came to collect this young woman off your hands," ignoring his statement, she answers laying her soft hands on my shoulders. I didn't realize how tense my body was but the minute her skin touched mine all nerves that I had dissipated into thin air, like magic.

"Now why would you want her?" Anubis asks with such skepticism. Questioning the woman's motives.

"Let's just say someone called in a favor dear ole goddaddy." She wraps her arms around my neck, nuzzling her cheek against mine. As if we were no more than sisters if some stranger were to look at our interaction.

"Is it her?" He asks, his voice deep with such longing for whoever this her is.

"Now now, you know a demon can never reveal who they make deals with. I am only here on deliverance." She holds my hand, when touching hers a sudden warmth engulfs me. I can see from the corner of my eyes her skin glows a warm hues as it transfer to my own skin.

Anubis stays quiet once more, deciding whether his goddaughter will take me. What seemed like forever for him to answer were only mere seconds before he finally nods his acceptance.

"Fine. Take the girl. I'm sure she is of no use for me."

"Much obliged godfather," she grabs my hand walking us away from everything.

"Just remember Madeline, I am not always going to be lieniet of your endeavors if they are from my wife." The way he mentions his wife fills with both disdain and sorrow. As if he couldn't fathom of what has happened between them yet anger still lingers it's nail deep in his skin.

"I would expect nothing less uncle," I assumed we would go back through the twelve gates of Hell, instead a black mist engulfs us making us disappear from their sight.

Once again I am covered in the blanket of darkness.

Waiting for what lies ahead of me.