Afterlife

• Chapter Two •

It was far too easy to tell that something was wrong.

     In truth, it was normal for the recently deceased to reject the truth of their demise, but something about Celestia scared her greatly. 

     The group watched as the girl walked away, mumbling incoherent words under her breath. Arielle passed a worried glance to Millie, the ant returning the look before looking back at Celestia. She undoubtedly should have told the girl who she was, it was incredibly important information yet she let it slip her mind. Nevertheless, Arielle knew that was the least of the girl's worries. This situation was a lot with zero time to process, but what could she do to help?

"Let's go."

    Arielle brought her attention back to Celestia who was now facing the group. Despite the confident look on her face, Arielle could sense the inner turmoil the girl was going through. She wished she could sit her down again, allow her to process everything before heading off to meet her mother. It was too late for that, the look on Celestia's face told her all she needed to know.

     "Alrighty, Arielle will take the lead, as always, and you just follow our leads, sound good?" Millie had taken upon herself to wrap an arm around Celestia’s shoulders, attempting to be somewhat comforting. She watched the girl give a smile back, however, underneath she could see the discomfort. Arielle took a mental note not to touch her again without permission.

     "I would like Celestia to walk in with me if that's alright. Mother doesn't know she's here so it would be best if they met right away. Is that okay with you honey?" Celestia's cheeks visibly turned a shade of pink before she gave a quick nod. "Yeah, yeah that's fine. We should probably go now, right?” “Yeah, let’s just go instead of standing around talking about it,” Levi groaned, making his way towards the door without a glance behind. 

     Arielle slowly trailed behind, rather annoyed at Levi’s lack of respect. Silently, she headed out the door, propping it open with a foot for the others. Celestia was the last to leave, her face downturned in a frown. With a quick glance at the others, Arielle found herself walking beside the newcomer, attempting to find something to say to her.

“Hey… shoot, I’m bad at this. Are you okay? I can tell you’re struggling right now.”

     For once, Celestia look relieved for only a moment. “It’s just… I’m sorry you probably think I’m a total weirdo. This is just a little too much for me to handle, I mean… I guess I can live with the fact that I’m not living. But, I can’t help but think somethings off…” Arielle took a moment to process the words, her brows furrowing in thought. “Would you like to talk about it? I’m not sure what I could do but, I want to make sure you’re as comfortable as possible.” 

     She felt relieved when Celestia gave a thankful look. In silent agreement, the two would talk later, to Celestia’s comfort of course.

     Arielle allowed her eyes to wander around the hallway, noticing the new addition of flowers lining the walls. Upon closer inspection, she could see the gentle fluttering of wings coming from her mother’s luna moth souls. They were all a bright white, however, you could see through them if you looked close enough. Their castle was far more colorful than most, thanks to Ethan’s gift. Normal plants would be a bright white, but since he is in tune with nature, he is able to produce living plants. 

     She trailed her eyes over to Celestia, seeing how in awe she was with her surroundings. Arielle was only able to get the more prominent parts of Celestia’s life, but even then there was a whole world of her she didn’t know. It always felt wrong to look into the memories of those who died, she believed there were better ways to connect a soul to a person, but couldn’t bring herself to find out.