The Immortal Prince ✔️

33

Word Count: 1780

~Vaela

As consciousness creeps up on me again, my mind scrambles to piece together the fragments of memory that are missing.

Splitting pain rears up in rolling waves, assaulting my head as my eyes flutter open.

I was hit. And now I'm splayed across a wooden floor, limbs aching in protest.

Raising my gaze, I scan the unfamiliar room I've been discarded in, spotting a person sitting at a table close by, back to me.

I'm dead. Or I'm dreaming.

Either way, my world is ending.

It can't be him. I haven't seen him in decades, but last time I did, tears were streaming from his eyes as he paced back and forth, yelling at me. My gaze was pinned to the knife in his hand, that would end my life swiftly only moments later.

It's Trace. I once loved him. And he murdered me.

I lean upward, bracing myself up on my elbows. "What...What the-"

He turns around immediately, discarding whatever he was doing.

"Vaela, you're awake," he murmurs, striding over to me.

Dropping my head, I squeeze my eyes shut past the pain. Those deep brown eyes are so painfully familiar. They could express such kindness and compassion, that would quickly flicker to anger and frustration in an instance.

"Trace..."

"I'm so happy to see you," he exclaims as I tug myself up into a sitting position, wincing at the pain echoing through my head.

I look up at him and that goofy smile he sports, gritting my teeth in anger. "You...You hit me!"

"I had to knock you out, just for a bit to get you here," he explains, trying to soothe my rising anger. He sounds demented, trying to make an excuse for striking me square on the head and dragging me to this random apartment.

"You could have killed me." I drag myself back, leaning against the wall. If I stand right now, there is a good chance I'll just go hurtling back down to the floor.

Trace rubs the back of his neck. "It was just a hit."

"I'm mortal, you idiot." Reaching up, my fingers brush over where he hit me, to find fresh blood seeping from the wound.

I really could be dead right now...

Trace frowns, looking over me with a curious eye. "Oh, so that's what's strange about you. How-"

"I need to get out of here." I look around, seeing a door that I can already sense is locked. But Trace is clearly out of his mind, and if I don't leave...I hate to think of what he is capable of doing to me.

He crouches down in front of me, grabbing at my hands. "You can't leave. We have been reunited, after all these years."

I rip my hands away, drawing my knees up to my chest. "What? What is wrong with you?"

"I've been trying to find you, Vaela. I had a very long sentence in Death's realm because of...You know. But I'm here now, so we can be together," he insists, almost as if I should be the one taking the burden for him murdering me.

"You killed me. You slit my throat," I remind him.

Bracing myself against the wall, I slowly force myself upward, my legs shaking under me. The longer I stay here, the more unhinged Trace may become.

Trace shakes his head at me. "It was an accident. You know how my temper flares sometimes. But that doesn't mean I don't love you."

I pause, allowing the reality of the situation to sink in. And it hits me.