It's your average brazen morning, the skies painted in vibrant hues of yellows, the sky askew with dark orange clouds that hung uniformly from the sky. At that very moment, I, Nicola Aetos awoke. I woke up later than usual, due to the late-night stroll I had taken late last night. I lay in bed, feeling the soft hug from my sheets. I lay in bed, the bizarre concoction of fatigue and confusion rushing, bombarding my mind. I lay in bed... confused.
I sat up, dazed, confused, bewildered. I examine my body, starting from the oily tips of my roughened fingers, and making my way down to the soft skin on my elbows. One thought kept with me, one thought.
"I'm... Still alive?" A sinking feeling had started making a home in my stomach. Digging deeper, I felt as if my eyes fell, along with my heart, then the lungs, then my intestines, every organ held within this body fallen, fallen, falling. No.
I brush myself off, chalking all this to nothing more than a feeble nightmare, or a fatigue-fueled delusion. These thoughts subsided as I submitted to my usual daily routine: bathing, skincare, et cetera, and et cetera.
I hit the streets, walking towards class. Class? Why was I thinking about school? As much as I try that sinking feeling sits with me, like a ghost that hung over me, pestering me at every step. Did I really die that night? or was it nothing more than just a fervent dream? No... I can't shake the feeling. I try to calm my mind, walking into a store, buying whatever drink was there, walking out.
Buying items always seems to calm my mind while, yes it would be an incredible waste of money, on the other hand, I never usually feel on edge. However, as I started walking out a familiar figure became apparent. It was a friend of mine, his brownish hair swaying flamboyantly. Holding his hand up to his heart, the other on his protruding hips, thus he spoke:
"Morning Nicola... I didn't expect you here this early." His voice was soft, feminine. I had often wondered what was his true intention for becoming my friend. He was Akira Fushihara, a fellow classmate and long-time best friend. "Early? Weird I thought I was gonna be late." I responded only partially joking. He perked up, noticing the drink in my hand. The drink in question was an Iced coffee, something I often drank early in the mornings.
The drink was chilled, practically sweating as I held it firmly, however not firmly enough for Akira, his hand moved in a blur swiping my drink for his taking. I sighed, as he glugged down the remained of the child drink, all before handing me an empty can.
"Thanks for that Nicola." I felt disheartened, but immediately disregarded this feeling
"I... Uh, no problem."
"Anyhow what is an owl, like you doing at such an early hour?"
"Early hour? I could've sworn I woke up at the usual time." I paused checking out the highlighted clouds swarming the sky. "It's around seven in the morning... right?"
"Ah, no silly~it's actually five-fifty in the morning." I gasped, the sudden feeling rushing back to me. But suddenly I remembered something... The night I died, last night. when was it again? If it's the morning after then, it should be a Wednesday.
"Hey... quick question Akira... What day is it today?"
"Why it's-" He paused, as he pulled out his phone. There I catch a glimpse of his background wallpaper, a photo of me, odd I question why. "It's Tuesday." I felt my entire body fall as if the gravity on this earth had suddenly increased, my heart was beating, bu-bump, bu-bump. Faster and faster with every beat the more I fell.
"My~ what's the problem, it looks like you're about to drop dead any second now." I couldn't think, fear rushed through every artery in my frail body, from my heart, it pulsed outwards. Suddenly I found myself running, running, I ran and ran, Akira yelled something, and I couldn't fully comprehend the words out of his mouth. I kept running, the buildings blending into nothing more than a dulled gray blur.
"Are you conflicted?"
A figure suddenly appeared, whispering into my ears. I pause... confused, scanning the environment frantically. The voice that spoke to me, was abrasively soft and feminine in nature. Until I saw her...
There, a hooded figure, cloaked in shadowed like garbs. She stood eloquently beside an apple tree. She grasped the apple softly. She bit into the apple with her fang-like teeth, biting aggressively as if the apple deserved the pain she put it through. Only for her eyes to meet mine.
"Tell me.. boy." Her eyes were vibrant yet horrifying, akin to a blood moon. A vibrant red that is all-consuming, and all-evil.
"Who... Who are you"
"I'm Death."
"You're... death?"
"T'is true, I'm Death. T'is a problem?" She spoke funnily yet her voice was soft and low. I stood there befuddled. She wore a ragged black coat, with the edges of the cloak slivered as if a sharp knife was taken to it repeatedly. Her silvered hair blew gently in the wind. Her sunken eyes and fair pale completion. This girl was neither normal nor regular.
"Regardless, I require your full attention-" She took another bite of the apple. "This is not your destined timestamp to die... Something has gone fatally wrong." I blinked suddenly her sunken eyes an inch away from me. Too close, so close I manage to make out a small spiral spinning between her eyes. I felt her humid breath linger on my lips. "Boy... Tell me, you must remember what happened last night." I back away instinctively.
"I'm sorry but... I don't seem to remember anything." That was a lie. In truth, I did seem to remember something from last night—the spiral. I saw a spiral, the same spiral engraved on her iris.
"Listen, boy, I might not seem it but..." She places one index finger on her sunken eyes. "-I can see your own thoughts, boy."
"I uhh.. uh." In the blink of an eye, I suddenly find her an inch away from me, with her index finger pressed gently against my forehead.
"Do you need help remembering, boy?" She flicks my forehead. Thoughts rush bombarding me, memories blending into a blur as they speed by me. I see it—the truth—of what happened last night. I stumble back, dazed.
"What... did... you do to me?"
"You're a smart one, right, boy? Figure it out." She turns her head. "However, for me, T'is all I needed to see. Once you see me again, that's when you know you're out." Out? What does she mean by out? I look around once more, suddenly, for no real reason. I started focusing on the world around me, they looked normal. I looked closer, no— it's farther than normal. I look at the vibrant yellow sky, the green shrubbery that houses thousands of minute bugs, and the gray loosened concrete. No, it all looks wrong.
For no discernable reason, I could understand that the object I was looking at was false, a fake. As if it was a three-dimensional object, that was flattened and printed on my iris'. It's a facade to make the two-dimensional aspects become three-dimensional.
A two, point five - dimension. I focus on these objects. The "world," behind me slowly disappears fading into nothing but absences, and darkness. I've lost my way, slowly floating in nothing more than a void of nothingness. Why am I here? Suddenly the light surrounds me, it's bright, too bright. The light starts burning away the darkness.
I awaken... I looked around, it's the same park that I walked in, everything was back to how it was supposed to be, except her. She stood forebodingly as I lay on the ground. I sit up, on my knees. I can feel the frigid blood lower my temperature, some have hardened, and those snap once I move crumbling into nothing more than marooned dust, others still drip, drip, drop. She grinned, and a scythe hung daintily on her shoulder.
"Hey welcome back! I'm real sorry for this."
"Wha-?" In one clean-cut swing, she fully lopped my head off.