Celebrate good times, come on.

***

CHAPTER 19:

GUARDIAN

I've never been afraid of swimming. Whether it's a pool, the sea, or the ocean... No matter the size, water has always been my closest companion since I was a little kid. But today... it was suffocating me, pulling me down to the depths, wanting to annihilate me. I struggled. Resistance was futile. Unshed screams lodged in my throat. Aside from the pressure weighing me down, there were dozens of arms in the darkness that had trapped me. They slithered, struck, seared wherever they passed.

I had died once before. I shouldn't be able to die again. Yet, I felt life being ripped from my body. The chains that bound my soul to this realm were breaking one by one. I had failed. Both at dying and at returning. I was a foolish soul, who couldn't even grasp onto purgatory. I was leaving. Into nothingness... Into the void... Into endless oblivion...

I gave up struggling. I had no strength left anyway. At that moment, light enveloped the darkness, swallowing all the shades of white and black. Perhaps this was how the end looked like. When you reached the finish line, there would be nothing left to see. The pressure was gone, the pain vanished, the torture ended. My brain stopped thinking. My body ceased feeling. Slowly, I disintegrated, crumbled, dissolved, merged with the light, expanded, grew.

But there was a mistake. Amidst all this tranquility, a new sensation emerged after a while. It was warm. Wet. And... sticky. An unsettling impulse spread within the void, like a coffee stain dripping onto a pristine white carpet. So much so that the dimensionless light now had boundaries again. Awareness was returning. I wasn't infinite. I wasn't nothing. Senses, emotions, thoughts filled the shell of my being. And then, as if someone had spat me out of a womb, my eyes suddenly opened to colors.

The first thing I saw was a pink nose, a pink tongue, and long whiskers. That tongue licked my cheek and left behind warm, wet, sticky saliva. When it withdrew, its eyes, resembling purple beads, entered the picture. Pink ears, white fur, a big butt were added to the scene. It was a cat, and I knew that cat.

"Meow."

Memories flooded back to me with painful intensity. I straightened up as if surfacing from underwater. But I wasn't in the water; I was in a bed. My movement startled the cat, causing it to jump to the corner. It toppled onto its rear and happily licked its paw. In stark contrast to its comfort, I scanned my surroundings in horror. I was in a large hall. Rows of beds, more than I could count, were arranged side by side and facing each other. Bright sunlight streamed in through the windows, revealing a lilac sky beyond.

It wasn't night anymore. I wasn't by the lake anymore. I wasn't wearing Ursa's tailored clothes anymore. How did this happen? How did I escape that monster, how did I manage to emerge from the water? I examined my arms. Not a scratch. I tossed aside the cover and pulled up the nightgown. My wrist, which I was sure had been burnt, was intact. My skin looked even healthier than before.

How?

"Don't worry, everything's fine."

I sprang up on my knees, completely disoriented. The cat beside me had puffed up and hunched over. Somehow, I had managed to grasp the pillow like a shield between my hands, and it was against my chest. I needed to learn not to trust my reflexes, which thought that a pillow filled with goose feathers could block my enemy's attack. But then again, the enemy wasn't really an enemy. There was a mischievous grin on angel Ria's face when my eyes adjusted to the light and saw her coming towards me.

"Calm down," she said with a motherly kindness. "You're safe here."

I glanced around again. "Huh... am I still in the Dorm?"

Angel Ria understood the underlying message of my question. After all, she was an angel.

"If we had been a bit later, we might have lost you," she said honestly. "But you were lucky. We managed to pull you out before you went too deep. So yes, you're still in limbo."

She smiled. I couldn't. The coldness of nothingness had once again seized my soul. Horrific possibilities lined up before my eyes. What could have happened, what I could have lost...

She handed me the cup of milk, as if to awaken me from a nightmare. Then, she retrieved the pillow from my lap and returned it to its original position, gesturing for me to lie down. Without hesitation, I reclined against the pillow, observing as she tucked me in, then took a sip of the milk. The honey-colored liquid warmed my palms as it tickled my throat, leaving behind a sweet, velvety taste.

"The thing in the lake..." I said after taking a few more sips of milk. "What was it?"

As if it would take some time to explain, the angel pulled the chair from the corner to the bedside and sat down. The cat instantly leaped into her lap and settled there. Angel Ria petted it for a while and then looked at me.

"You know there are two places where souls can go when they leave the Dorm."

I knew. Either you returned to life, or your soul passed on to the other side. I nodded.

"When the time comes, the gates to the other side appear in the lake," she continued. "That's the only way to leave the Dorm. So protecting the lake and the gates is of vital importance. That's exactly what the Guardian's duty is."

"That arm I saw..."

"It belonged to the Guardian. Normally, you wouldn't see it. In fact... very, very few souls have seen it. It quietly sleeps in the depths of the water unless it senses danger. But... bringing your pet along changed things, of course. It has a different interest in furry creatures. Their presence somehow drives it crazy."

She chuckled. I still didn't laugh. "I... didn't know," I said. I wasn't sure who I was angrier with. Myself, for being foolish enough to carry around a Tamagotchi, or the Dorm authorities for not making a single warning about this...

"Actually... a warning text should've arrived in your mailbox," angel Ria said, raising her eyebrows. "During the days when the souls gather by the lake, a message reminding them of the rules is always sent out."

I was sure she could read my thoughts. A giant elephant seemed to have settled in my stomach. Since there were no classes that day - and I had hastily left the room like an angry ball - I hadn't thought to check the mailbox. The rest of the day had passed in Ursa's atelier, in her room, hanging out with the others. I was a complete fool. And with my stupidity, I had put all the other souls at risk, including myself. I hung my head in shame.

"I'm sorry," I murmured.

When she reached out and held my hand, my gaze lifted to the angel's face with astonishment. She wasn't angry. In fact... that mischievous smile was still lingering on her lips. "We all make mistakes, Olive," she said with tenderness. "Isn't that the purpose of being in Limbo? To make mistakes, to err, to stray from the right path... How else can we find the truth?"

"I gazed at her, unable to close my mouth. Whether it was due to her divine aura or not, her words didn't merely reach my ears; they seemed to penetrate my very soul. While I had no doubt about the truth in her words, my mind fixated on another matter. 'We all make mistakes,' she stated. 'Isn't that the essence of being in Limbo?' My gaze involuntarily returned to her once more. She bore no wings. Was that ordinary? Or was she, too, here because... because of a mistake?"

"I know you're struggling," she interrupted my thoughts. "If I were to tell you that things will get easier, that everything will be fine, I would be lying, and as an angel, that would be quite inappropriate."

This time, I couldn't stop my lips from curling upwards. Her smile grew too.

"Just remember that there's a reason for every event you experience here, for every soul you encounter, and they all lead you to the end you need to reach," she said. "So, no matter what difficulties you face, no matter what mistakes you make, you'll always find the right path."

Sadness wiped away my smile. "Maybe what you said could have been true if I had a soulmate like everyone else,' I murmured. 'But I don't. I can't succeed in any of my classes. I'm completely alone here."

Angel Ria narrowed her eyes. "Hold on a second there. Are you saying all those kids who stood in front of that door all night, giving me the hardest time with their questions, aren't your friends?'"

"What?" I said in shock.

She shrugged. "It seemed to me like they were pretty worried about you. In fact, if I hadn't sent them back to their rooms, they might not have left here at all."

"I..." I couldn't find what to say. I hadn't realized that someone would worry about me in this realm. But when I thought about last night, none of my friends had left me while the others were running away. Their screams echoed in my ears until the last moment. They really wanted to help me. And it seemed they had truly been afraid for me.

"When it comes to soulmates..." the angel said, "we need to correct a little misunderstanding here. People think their soulmate is the other half that will make them happy. They believe they'll find perfect harmony in their partners. But your soulmate is the one who complements you, Olive. They come to fill the void within you. They help you break down your walls, grow, and develop. They challenge you, sometimes make you restless, sometimes drive you crazy. Your path is different from theirs, but you help each other along those paths."

I had never thought about it that way before. A perfect life companion wasn't my expectation, as angel Ria said, but it was true that I hoped for someone who would move in harmony with me, think the same way I did, and want similar things. I was only realizing my mistake now. Such an arrangement wouldn't really help me develop. I could understand the need for a different perspective to grow.

"This will make more sense with time," the angel finished my thought. "Don't rush. You're still at the very beginning of your journey."

I sighed with distress. "I hope it won't be too late by the time I reach the end of that road..."

"Too late?" the angel asked, raising one eyebrow. "Too late for what? Hasn't anyone told you that everything in the universe happens when it's supposed to happen? Neither sooner nor later..."

I was sure someone had said similar things before, written books about it, given lectures on it. But none of them were an angel, and certainly none had such a profound effect on me. I could feel the invisible light emanating from Ria seizing hold of my heart, illuminating my soul, dispelling the shadows, fears, and anxieties. She must have sensed the transformation she had instigated in me, as she lifted the cat with a triumphant, teacher-like demeanor and rose to her feet.

"I believe you've heard enough from me," she remarked. "I'm certain there are far more enjoyable topics to discuss with your friends."

Before I could ask what friends, an orange head appeared at the entrance of the room. Ursa... Diego, Lark, and Helene followed her. I couldn't help but feel my heart warm.

"Can we come in?" Ursa asked hesitantly.

Squirrel Lola and meercat Meer rushed in without waiting for an invitation. As they approached the cat left by the angel, the three fluffballs began circling each other, sniffing curiously. Observing Ria's lack of objection, my friends trailed after their pets into the room. The broad smiles that lit up their faces upon noticing my restored health brought a grin to my own.

"Olive, you're awake!" Diego exclaimed with excitement. There was a tone in his voice as if he was saying I had come back from the dead. He wasn't entirely wrong. I had indeed narrowly escaped death. Once again...

"I knew it," Ursa clapped her hands. "I knew you wouldn't give up!"

Lark and Helene looked at each other with pride, as if they had won a bet. Maybe they had consulted the cards, read from the stars that I would live. They were right. I hadn't given up. I was alive. Maybe not exactly alive, but for the first time, I understood that surviving Limbo wasn't so different from living.

***

And just like that Olive is back from death 🔥

The message on my illustration says: anywhere can be paradise as long as you have the will to live. This chapter I wanted to remind us all this. Let's hope that Olive gets the message. Will she be able to use her 2nd -sorry 3rd- chance wisely? We'll see about that :D

A sweet chapter is coming next, get ready to grin. 

And until then, take care lovelies, EC.