All flowers will bloom-Karina

three

words: 3.4k

It was late at night, and the only way you knew was because it was utterly silent. The dead didn't sleep, but the night was their quiet time. It was their time to reflect and be alone, and it was almost sacred to them. You knew that no one would be around to watch you in the garden, whether you failed or succeeded.

You woke up one morning starving. Your stomach was rumbling in a way it never had before, and you groaned at the feeling. Had you really not eaten anything the whole time?

You rolled out of your bed and opened the door to your room, walking blindly down the hall and trying to find something, anything. The urge to eat was strong, and it was calling you. You vaguely remembered Karina telling you about a kitchen, and how the humans who used to cook in their past lives took residency there and cooked for everyone who wanted to eat, even though feeding wasn't necessary to the dead.

You weren't dead just yet.

Your feet were taking you somewhere, past souls who couldn't care less about your presence and then past others who stared at you like you were from a famous myth. Either way, none of them spoke to you, and you didn't speak to either of them. You were just hungry.

"Are you looking to eat something, darling?" A voice crooned, head peeking out of some double doors.

"Yes." You cleared your throat. "I know it's early, but, are these the kitchens?"

"They are," the woman said, and you noticed how her form was slightly more wispy than all of the others you had seen. "We haven't started yet, but we have some things left over from yesterday, if you'd like."

"Yes, please."

"Come in, child." And so you did. Your steps took you further while something in the back of your mind was urging you to go the other way. Your stomach called for the exact opposite, and it won. Your steps got faster despite the bells going off in your head, and then you were standing over a table of pastries.

"Wow, these look beautiful," you murmured, eyes catching on multiple different dishes. The bells got louder, but you ignored them as you finally reached for the one on the far right. You smiled at the woman, who was watching you with hawk eyes, poorly hidden anticipation on her face as she waited for you to eat. "Thank you for allowing me to have one, miss."

"Wait, don't let her eat that, she's not dead!"

The pastry was slapped from your hand just as it was about to go into your open mouth. You gasped as you were turned by your shoulders to meet an unfamiliar face, yet another woman. She was more solid than the other one behind you, who you discovered had faded away at the sight of the new arrival.

The woman had brown hair and light green eyes, bordering on blue. She was breathing heavily, like she ran miles just to get to her spot. Her eyes were wild and worried all the same as she shook you twice. "Why the hell were you about to eat that?"

"What?"

"You're alive, what are you doing?" You matched her worry, hands shaking and eyes wide as you stared at her in silence. "Do you not want to go home?"

A strong presence seeped into the room slowly at first, and then it was suffocating everything and everyone else. And just like that, the woman who saved you stepped back from and faced the doors, doing the same as everyone else and kneeling with her head bowed. You looked towards the door and saw Karina walking in, her aura dark as she commanded the room without any effort.

"What's going on here?"

There was a heartbeat of silence, and then the woman closest to you was speaking, head still hung low in respect. "A nymph tried to feed her, Your Majesty."