Haunted Beauty

Faith Of The Void

I never really understood why people were so afraid of dying. I always thought it was something that happened, and we just had to deal with it. Our own opinions didn't matter, we had to let it consume us without complaints.

But here I stand, in a darkness unattainable by any light. Here I stand caged within the bounds of my mind and soul. Trapped in the depths of nothing, devoid of all sound and feeling. I am left alone, thinking.

I am afraid of death.

But here in your arms, I think I can forget about its ruthless clutches. Because you can see me. Because you can understand me. Though we are not the same, we are together.

I am dead.

But I am no longer afraid.

🕯️𓆩♡𓆪🕯️

The bright sun felt colder than normal, as though its rays weren't penetrating the ozone layer as they had done for eons. The streets were gray and dull, desecrated by hundreds of shoes walking across them. Cracks in the roads, cracks in the buildings, cracks in the hearts. Everything was crumbling.

There was no color, no joy. Nothing was paradisiacal as it used to be. The childlike innocence that clouded our judgement and changed our perspective of the world, was long gone. Faded with the reality that nothing ever lasted forever. Ignoring the crude, nonsensical, materiality of this universe, it's actually not half-bad.

When you get a chance to really understand the hauntingly beautiful side of what lies beyond this plane of existence, it becomes easy to just forget the sadness and melancholic truths of this planet. Just something to think about.

I don't know when my dream of becoming a hero slipped through the grates of my mind, shattering within the depths of my very being. I don't know why I couldn't put the pieces back together, why the edges never seemed to perfectly line up. It was an unsolvable puzzle, so I threw it away, every last piece.

I'm surrounded by the dead and the living yet I'm always alone, the spirits tend to drift by, stuck in their own twisted fantasies. The humans just keep to themselves, hoping that locking away who they really are will somehow improve how others perceive them. Loneliness isn't something I fear, rather something it's I expect. I don't know where my friends ended up, whether they were a thousand miles away or right behind me wouldn't make a difference.

I spot a familiar face in the distance, it almost made me smile when I recognized them. Only for my smile to fall when the usual ghostly aura surrounds his body when I approached him. I just didn't understand, how could he be dead? We were the same age, in fact I think he was a year younger than I was. Ripped from the safety of life so early must've been a whirlwind of emotions for the guy, and for his family.

"I never thought I'd get to see you again in this world." He spoke to me, when our jeweled eyes met. His a cool sapphire and soft pearl, mine dazzling rubies. His facial expression seemed to have darkened over the years, I wonder what he had seen. The familiar vowels and consonants of his nickname pressed against the back of my teeth, I spat them out quickly as though disgusted by the taste,

"IcyHot."

He closes his eyes, his chest static due to the lack of heart and lungs. I don't keep walking, even if he couldn't stop me if I tried. His body floats off of the ground, hovering around me. I don't say anything despite the endless stream of questions swirling around in my mind. I don't voice my thoughts, I don't want to scare him away. His presence has somehow brought back the tiniest sliver of colored tint to my surroundings.

"Would you believe my last words were 'I'm scared'"? Todoroki inquired, though I don't know if it was a rhetorical question or not. I swallow the saliva that was building up in my mouth. I'm thankful no one is around, otherwise I'd be labeled as the lunatic who talks to thin air.

"I can't blame you. I'd be scared too." I respond, my body motionless as he flies in circles.

"How is it that you can see me? Hear me? Talk to me?" Shoto asks, finally settling on one position. Lying on his stomach with his arms holding up his head. I look up slightly, in order to properly get a good look at his facial features. He looks almost the exact same, how long has it been since he died I wonder.

"I'm a psychic medium or whatever fancy word is used to describe that nowadays. See you aren't the only one with two quirks Halfie. I've always been able to look at and communicate with ghosts and the like, I just never told anyone except my parents." I explain, my sentences lacking the usual flurry of curse words that they usually bore.

"Isn't that neat, I never would've guessed." The bastard replied, his way of speaking hasn't changed either. I don't know what else to say, save for the obvious questions I'm dying to know the answers to. That may be insensitive but I don't really care.

"How did...it happen?" I eventually ask. He smiles knowingly, as though he was waiting for me to ask that. He stands up and sets his feet back on the ground, that's when I realize he isn't wearing shoes. And his clothes are actually a hospital gown. Ghosts wear the clothes they died in, so IcyHot died in a hospital.

"They say a quirk malfunction is rarer than a plane crash. But one look at me and you'll know you should never tell me the odds, two colored-hair, heterochromia, two quirks. One of which landed me in this position. I always thought I could live without using my father's side, that was a lie. My ice quirk acted up one day, slowly freezing all of my blood vessels until well...I died. My fire was no match for the wrath of the ice, it was like it had a mind of its own. Nothing could stop it." He reminisced on that time in his life. A quirk malfunction sounds like an awful way to go. I don't think I've ever met another spirit before that died of such a cause.

"And you died afraid, uncertain of what lies beyond the white light." I finished his anecdote, letting out a deep sigh.

"Mhm. You got it all figure out Bakugo." I wish I had seen him before then, maybe I could've comforted him in his final moments. Made them less, scary. Because the void that envelopes you once you pass the threshold between the living and the gone is not painful. At least not from what I've heard. It's just...cold. And lonely. As though you were forgotten by the fabric of reality itself, as though you were obliterated by time and space altogether.

"It's nice seeing your stupid face again, even as a paranormal being." I say to him.

"Thank you. It's nice seeing your face again, as a normal being." And in that moment I feel my high school cockiness and confidence resurface once more, resurrected from the bowels of my memories, and I smirk.

"I know it is." Todoroki smiles at me, his eyes tired and hopeless. I feel pity start to grow in my gut, out of everyone at U.A I'd say he had the most potential, the most to live for and achieve. But I want to know why he's here, why is he not in the Afterlife yet? Unless he died like, a week ago, he should be there by now.

Unless he doesn't have faith in the void that was meant to take him. Unless he fought the eternity of peace and serenity awaiting him. Because the fear of the unknown, the uncertainty of what awaits you when you close your eyes to never open them again, corrupts your mind and thoughts. I hope he'll be able to rest soon, to finally leave the frivolous idea of life behind.