Synopsis:

What do you do when you suddenly start seeing - no, not dead people - but people in their final moments before death embraces them as its own...before they drown in its darkness and succumb to nothingness...?

Aradia didn't foresee such a turn in events on her eighteenth birthday.

But, then again, who would?

Join Aradia on a journey full of...death and mysteries. A journey toward questions that never crossed her mind and answers that only fed a growing curiosity.

Join Aradia's journey to memories she never had, and recollections of a past she should've had.

Chapter One:

With slow, clumsy steps, a hunched figure trudged across the sidewalk. Eyes cast downward, she wished for all the noise around her to disappear.

Maybe, just maybe, she could have a quiet life where no one called her names or bullied the will of life out of her.

"Freak." The low hiss was so harsh it couldn't have been missed even if it was mumbled on another planet. Spiteful words always found a way to her ears, no matter what she did. Perhaps, she'd grown so accustomed to them that her selective hearing was honed to only pick up the insults.

A silent sigh parted her lips.

Whispers followed her everywhere she went. Her 'episodes', as the school counselor called them, worsened and so did the bullying.

"Creep."

Her hands itched to cover her ears in a feeble attempt to calm the ringing echoing in them. She tried her best to ignore the ones that participated in passively tormenting her by scrambling away from her, scared they might catch a disease she was yet to get diagnosed with.

She passed, endless fingers pointing at her black curtains of velvety strands shielding a rosy face. Skin pale as a sheet, her eyes – dark abysses that drew you in, in, in – darted around, following the cracks on the ground that swirled in deep, intricate shapes.

For a brief moment, a twinge of pity pricked her heart, comparing her life to that of the asphalt beneath her heavy feet. Everyone walked all over them, not paying them a second thought.

"Don't worry, Ava, you have me. Always." Her sister's words echoed in her head, bringing a sense of momentary relief. But, as her eyes lifted, the voice was accompanied by a face.

A face no one has seen in over a year.

Except her.

"I know," Ava murmured – willing the figure to disappear – before proceeding to walk home.

Too late to react and step away from the foot that appeared before her, Ava stumbled. Unable to regain her footing, a push sent her flying and she landed hard on the uneven sidewalk. A soft gasp slipped past her lips when her scraped knees throbbed with pain.

"Watch where you're going, freak." Amber's poisonous laughter was amplified by her minions' giggles as they sauntered away, high-fiving each other.

Tears sprung to her eyes as Ava pushed herself up, resuming her journey home. The breeze brushed her sticky cheeks while her fingers fumbled to insert the keys in before she pushed the door open to heavy darkness.

The silence that greeted her was suffocating. The house looked abandoned, forgotten, so lonely. She heaved a sigh, walking further in and hesitantly dialing the only numbers she memorized by heart.

Her mom's reply was short and concise. "Sorry, I won't be coming home tonight. Order something."

Her dad's response, however, tore through her crumbling defenses and demolished the walls around her aching heart, leaving her bare to the onslaught of whirlwinds of sadness, grief, and resignation. "I'm busy, Alina," He said. Her airways constricted. "Can't drive you to practice, sorry. Don't forget to finish your homework before bed, love you."

The phone clicked shut, her heart sinking with it, too heavy with bottled emotions and twinges of stuttered breaths and thuds. She leaned against the wall, unable to stay upright anymore for muffled sobs shook her thin form.

Ava never had practice, and never left any homework undone. That was all Alina.

She was alive but not remembered, unlike her sister: dead but never forgotten.

With a heavy exhale, Ava dragged herself upstairs, passed her room, and headed to the one next to it. She threw her drained body on Alina's bed. Inhaling as much as she could from the faint smell that still lingered in the bedroom, her bloodshot eyes fluttered shut as sleep took over, bringing a sense of temporary tranquility.

The weekend passed in a blur of disturbed sleep, headaches, and loneliness. Despondency loomed over the house as she awoke on a cloudy Monday, mustering what little energy she had to get ready for school.

The doorbell sounded so strange, lifting off the haze of abandonment that smothered the building.

A woman ruggedly swathed in multiple layers of black, silver trinkets and opaque veils cascading to her hips, greeted her. Ava's lungs stilled as a decaying voice bounced inside her skull.

'Death is lurking, watching, nearing. Crimson spellbound blood is bound to be shed for powers are sought.'

Despite the paralyzing fear, Ava found herself saying, "W-who are you?"

'If I was you, I would mind where my feet take me, dearest. For darkness craves death and shadows expect to be fed.'

"What..?"

'Living a lie doesn't make it true, Aradia.'

Ava jolted up, black spots filling her vision. Her chest rose and fell rapidly, her heart hammering against her ribs. Scrambling to her feet, she scurried downstairs for a cup of water and then made her way to the bathroom to wash away the nightmare with trembling hands.

As the water cascaded down her body, she wondered if that was a threat. A warning? A promise? Ever since Alina's death, she's never had a single dream. Ava shuddered despite the warm shower.

The sight of the tall woman and hunched shoulders, paired with the nasal, distant voice left her shaking for the whole day. Skipping classes was for the best, she convinced herself. Everyone already thought she was weird so there was no need to keep on proving them right every day.

Towel-drying her hair, she mulled over what the mysterious woman had said. It sounded so real.

Ava must've drifted off to sleep for she awoke to faint whispers and a shadowy touch across her arm. Goosebumps covered the large expense of her exposed skin as she lay wrapped in her bathrobe on her bed. Rubbing the drowsiness out of her eyes, black orbs skimmed the dimly lit room. Shy rays of moonlight tickled the surface of what it managed to reach as it trickled through the window.

Looking up, Alina stood before her in all her translucent glowing glory, beckoning her to come closer, to follow.

And follow, is what she did.

MEANING OF THE NAMES USED:

Ava is a Latin name that means "life".

Alina is a Greek name that means "light".

Aradia, a variant of Erodiade, which is the Medieval Italian pronunciation of Herodias. Herodias is a Greek name meaning, "to watch over", "to protect".