Death's rejection.

"Unbeing dead isn't being alive."

—E. E. Cummings.

Leticia.

Leticia's eyes opened, and she blinked thrice to readjust to the bright shining light. A figure lay beside her but she could not make out the features as her sight was blurred.

She blinked again and was able to make out the complexion of the person. It was fair, fair and... She reached out her hand and grazed the skin. Hairy, the skin was hairy.

Leticia knew this person, she could tell, but her eyes were just not agreeing to cooperate. She shut her eyes for a while then opened them as slow as she could. The blur vanished almost instantly, and she could see his face.

His pink lips were tugged up to a smile, white dentition as attractive as ever. His eyes glittered, and it was not the normal colour she knew. It was a colour she could not explain, one so beautiful. He was like an angel, her angel.

It then dawned on her who it was. It was Maverick! He lay on the bed beside her with a boyish grin, grazing her baby bump with his soft palm, then he drew her closer by her waist. They stared into each other's eyes and their faces drew nearer until their lips joined.

It felt good. Electricity zapped through her nerves as they kissed, sending more signals to her brain. Her heart fluttered, the butterflies in her stomach also fluttered, her toes curled, her hand bunched his shirt.

Then all of a sudden, she was ripped away from his arms. She wanted to protest but he stood up. Leticia copied his movement. When she looked into his eyes this time, they were red and murderous. The complexion of his face was a deep shade of red. He looked so angry and scary.

"What is it? Did I annoy you? I'm sorry, please don't be so mad," she pleaded as she stood to her full height and moved to the spot where he stood. Leticia grabbed his hands, his soft and gentle hands but he drew his hands away as though he got burned.

"Don't touch me!" He screamed.

Leticia jumped, startled at the sudden outburst. "M-Mid-e w-why are you--"

"Shut up! I don't want to hear anything." Maverick grabbed her shoulder and shook her.

"You're hurting me!" She cried, trying to release herself from his grip.

"Get out!" He shoved her away. So harsh that she stumbled and was close to falling but managed to regain her stamina.

"Why are you doing this to me?" Tears ran down her eyes as she asked.

"I don't ever want to see your ugly face. Your eyes haunt me, they give me the chills. You're like a witch, a horrible one at that." Maverick moved closer as he spoke, anger increasing as his tone increased.

Leticia backed away until she hit the wall. Then it pushed open like a door. Maverick started to laugh. His laughter was hard and maniacal. He hung his head as he cackled, and by the time he rose his head, there was a different face.

She gasped. His eyes were blue, clear blue and glittering like an ocean. He flipped his hair backwards as he laughed and the new face registered in her brain. Angel! It was the devil himself.

"I told you; you can never escape me!" His height increased by the passing seconds until he was more than double his original height and towering above her. Her heart raced the more, pumping blood with a huge force and her throat dried up. Her form trembled like a leaf in a raging storm. "You can never escape me!"

Leticia let out a gut-wrenching scream as he took a long knife from behind him and raised it to stab her. Then she fell through. The pit was so deep that she kept going deeper but there was no end.

Then darkness. Pitch, black darkness; one that left her to doubt if her eyes that felt open were actually open. Wait. Was she dead? Could it be that she had left that world?

That would be a great relief. Leticia stopped searching for an end to the tunnel. Maybe she was on a journey to hell. At least the original hell would be better hell on Earth. When she met the devil she would ask him why he let his alter ego roam around Earth, because no matter how much she thought about it, it was just unnecessary.

She landed. There was no thud sound, however. Or was she hanging on the air? Curiosity got the best of her and she tried to twist around to see underneath her.

A scream would have left her lips, but it could not. The lips could not open, not to mention the sound coming out as her lips felt caged. She tried lifting her hands to see if she could take off whatever it was that had blocked her speech. Another futile action, as her hands had refused to work with her brain.

It was crazy. Leticia had done everything possible to get out of whatever was caging her. And by everything possible, it meant she could give directions with her brain but aside from her brain no other part of her body was responding.

What in the world was wrong?

The darkness had not faded one bit, and she still felt the pain of trying to twist around to no success.

After what felt like minutes of resting from the stress, she peeled her eyes open. Again, she could not tell the difference between her eyes being closed and being open. Had she not arrived at hell yet? Why was it taking so long? Were they preparing some sort of welcome party for her there or what? A welcome party wouldn't be so bad anyway.

Maybe if she slept for twenty to thirty minutes the preparations would be over.

"When... is going to... up?"

Leticia could not put together the complete statement after that but she could at least hear some voices. Who were they? Demons? The Devil? His attendants? It was boring already! Could someone just get her out of the cage? Exploring hell was a catchy idea after her release too. She wanted to know if it was as bad as they said it was.

The third time she opened her eyes, she was met with something she did not expect. Light. Light so bright that it blinded her for a long time until she was able to see a blur. What was with her and seeing blurs in less than half a day?

The people Leticia could see were women. Two women; one was taller than the other, and from the plenty hair on their heads, she could tell their backs were turned to her.

Why was it so? Was it hell? At least she had expected to see creatures with horns and arrow tails, not literal humans. Had she been deceived about the looks of demons all along? No wonder Angel looked so perfect. Demons did not have all the horns and sharp fingers that children storybooks illustrated. They looked human.

Well, what a discovery. Hell didn't seem so bad. She just hoped she wouldn't meet Angel. Anyway, when was she going to be released from the cage? It wasn't so comfortable anymore. Not like it ever was.

Leticia was about to call on them to release her from the cage when one of them turned all of a sudden. She was startled, wondering why the woman whipped around so fast and even more startled when they both began to run towards her.

Jeez! The welcome seemed too enthusiastic. Were they that happy to see her?

Leticia's vision had gotten a bit clearer and now she could see them almost eighty per cent clearer. The smaller woman had red, long hair and she was on a white coat similar to what the other woman in front was wearing. Another defeated theory. Demons didn't wear black and red. The discoveries were getting more exciting.

The woman that stood above her, her mouth was moving. This one had short brunette hair. They were both whites. What was she saying? She held two fingers before Leticia's eyes and was waving.

For Heaven's sake, what was she doing? Did hell also have lunatics?

"...See..."

See what?

"Can... Hear me...?"

Well, she couldn't hear the complete statement because the woman was speaking to herself. How did she expect her to hear?

"Miss, can you hear me?"

Leticia heard that one very clear. Of course, she could hear. But her mouth was caged and so were her hands. How did they expect her to reply? Leticia sighed. This was frustrating.

"Miss, can you hear me? How many fingers are these?"

Two, silly. Why would demons ask such stupid questions? She had to find a way of answering if not they wouldn't understand to take off the cage.

"Two." Leticia mouthed, taking her time to pronounce the word letter by letter.

"She's conscious! She can count the fingers without trouble." The woman sounded so excited.

Conscious?

Okay... It was probably a way to say she arrived hell safely. If not what were they saying? Could it be. . . No way! That was not even possible. She was dead.

Nah... It couldn't.

"Go get the doctor, Rita. I'll stay here with her," said the red-haired one.

Doctor? Rita?

No, no, no. It was not possible. There was no way she was alive. No way!

The woman sat beside Leticia and held her hands. Her lips drew into a smile as she stared at Leticia.

"I knew you were a fighter. I knew you were not going to give up. You fought really well. You fought really well!"

A tear dropped from her eyes as she kept speaking with a smile.

She was smiling. Smiling when Leticia was on the verge of going bat shit crazy as she had just realized she was still alive. Still on the face of the earth; the planet she thought she was never going to see again.

This wicked, horrible place that contained the real devils. A vivid picture of their hands slithering on her skin, inside her, everywhere. The kiss of sizzling metal on her skin, the whips across her back, they all came rushing back into her head. Memories that she thought would be locked up in the deepest part of her mind when she arrived at hell came back floating on the surface.

Leticia tried to understand just why. Why was it the same circle over and over again? No matter how much she wanted to deny it, she was back to the real hell again. For just one reason.

Death had rejected her again.

The big release is finally here (although it's not that big) 😂😂.

I know, I'm not consistent and all but please forgive me. I do this over and over again, I don't want to be so inconsistent, honestly, but situations just arise and I'm left paralyzed (uhh, it rhymed🤭). In a nutshell, I'm sorry.🥺

Oh and, something so big happened to me like 5 minutes ago and I'm happy.

More updates are following this.

I would LOOVEEEE to see your comments so please do so😩. Don't be a silent reader, I promise I'll reply every comment 💐

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Yours faithfully, Caupcayke ♥️