Breathing in. Breathing out. The icy moisture burned inside her lungs. The air around her mouth exhaled in puffs of steam. The snow that pillowed underneath her numbed her nerve endings to the point that she no longer felt the pain that scorched around her abdomen. The little warmth that she felt was from her lifeblood that crimsoned the snow around her. She felt her heart palpitating in her chest cavity. It attempted to pump the blood that no longer circulated. Her fingertips were the first. No longer being able to feel the snow beneath her sent warning signals to her idling brain. They triggered the heart to beat faster which made the remaining blood to pour out more quickly. Her breathing became labored but if it was from the loss of blood or the oncoming panic attack, she was not sure.
Looking up at the night sky, she tried to recall memories, but none would answer her. Who was she? How did she end up here? Was someone looking for her? She was alone with the stars and snowflakes. They say that when death comes to collect, a lifetime plays across the brain for one last comforting embrace. For her, however, it was a cold abyss that slowly consumed her. She only heard the whistling of the wind. She only saw the snowflakes that gathered on her lashes. Her eyelids began to drift close when she heard it. The crunch of snow under an unknown weight. She tried to turn her head towards the sound, but her body felt weighed down despite losing most of her body mass.
A shadowy figured loomed over her. A silhouette that she could not make out. Not even when the presence knelt next to her. She blearily looked at a hand coming to rest over her eyes. It felt oddly cool, but she opted to believe that it was due to her body going haywire. The figure began to chant in a foreign language. As she began to fall into the void, she saw a white light that started to warm her very core. The alien tongue slipped farther and farther way.
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She bolted upright in her bed. For as long as she could remember, she had the same dream – no more like a nightmare. Every time it shook her out of her own skin with such intensity that it always left her questioning which was her true reality. She knew that it was a part of the past. The ever-present scar across her stomach was the only evidence of a past that she had no recollection of. As a Fae, her biology was wired differently than that of a human's. She knew that her kind had the ability to recall memories as early as the age of one, but for some reason she remembered little before the age of eight. Fare Blackglade was the only information that was freed from her imprisoned memories.
As Fare pulled back the covers from her bed, she could see the ragged edges from her scar peek out from under her shirt in the mirror across from her. She stood and stared at her current form. Her black hair was sleep-messed, and her murky green eyes almost looked black in the rays of moonlight that escaped from behind her closed curtains. Fare lifted her shirt and slowly ran her finger over it. She memorized every bump and every edge years ago, but she sometimes had the urge to reaffirm that it was still there. The only piece of her past that continued to tug at her physically and mentally. She touched it in the hopes that the phantom pain that still lingered each time after her nightmare would be enough to shake things loose. It never did.
Fare sighed as she put down her shirt. As hard as she tried to not allow hope to grow in her chest, it still bloomed slightly. She looked over to the clock on her nightstand. 3:20; another sleepless night. She sighed again and reached for the doorknob. As she made her way across her living room, she grabbed the blanket that she had hanging on the back of her couch and went over to the window of her apartment that led to the fire escape. As she settled herself on the landing in her sock-covered feet and blanketed shoulders, the lights of Meridia were something of a spectacle. If someone were to just look at the lights illuminating the night, they would be unable to guess that there was any sort of danger. Meridia was a two-faced chameleon. Its looks were deceiving and would not hesitate to free a soul from man or Fae.
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The Heart Collector (Under Editing)
FantasyFare Blackglade's life was not easy. She had no memories of her past other than her name. Her sister had just been murdered by some supernatural force. Her family had to stay a secret because of the Fae Council. AND on top of that, she will have to...
