Of Love and Death.

The Future Chapter 18: And So It All Ends Pt. 4

Everything was blurry. Vaguely, she was aware of seeing something. Endless gray. It extended to the horizon. No...not to the horizon. It went past the horizon. There was no horizon. The gray just kept going with no end. So endless it wasn't even separated from the sky. And yet it was. There was a border, a line, that kept it going forever.

It was so hard to see though. So hard to focus on anything for more than a moment. It was like something was actively fighting her. Actively working against her, trying to drag her down into all of that gray. Trying to split her apart into a million little threads of fabric. A million little strings. It forced her eyes to dart around.

There was something though. Something right in front of her. Spilled out on the floor. A...a hand? Was that right? Or was it the clawed paw of a monster? Of a creature ready to rip out someone's throat for the slightest missteps? She tried narrowing her eyes. Tried bringing it into focus. But it didn't work. It kept fading away, crystalline blue leaking out in little strands of blackness. Standing out and yet blending in with the whole rest of the world.

A hazy thought darted through her, taking not even a moment. Lasting for not even a hair of time. She should be wondering about where she was. What was happening to her. But she just couldn't. It hurt to wonder about her circumstances. Lightning pain darted through her. Screamed at her to stop thinking. To just give in, just fade away!

Well...she could do that. But some last vestige of hate sparked inside of her. Begged her to keep fighting back against the pain. Because if she just fought back long enough, well then, wouldn't it be able to win? Again and again and again? She cared for that hate. Used it. It was her, all she was. All she'd ever been. All she'd ever wanted to be. The pain was just nothing to that-

A distraction stole her attention. It was so easy to do right now. No part of her seemed to want to exist. Much less think or feel. So, she focused now on this odd thing. Two boots, long ones that ran up past her flickering field of view. Black, she thought. Although maybe they were yellow. Or maybe they were white. They also seemed to have a skirt on, whomever these boots belonged to. And that was purple and yellow and white and everything all at once.

"Stand up." Two words, said by a voice out of nowhere. They echoed. They came from everywhere, and nowhere. No...no that wasn't it. The words, they were everything. They were everywhere. From the horizonless expanse, to the boots in front of her. Even almost from Cold herself.

Cold?

The words were like a torrent of ice water, they woke Cold up from her trance. Forced her eyes to snap open. Forced knowledge and understanding to cascade inside of her. She remembered what had come before the haze and before the gray. She remembered blood staining her dress. She remembered handing Payne a dagger. She remembered challenging Shu and Valt to the battle. She remembered threatening them. She remembered the battle. She remembered White Eye coming to her. She remembered the day she'd seen Mind and Fire kiss. She remembered the moment Mind tossed her away. She remembered dating Mind for the first time, how annoying he'd been at first. And she remembered the fight in the beginning of everything, between her and her brother.

Everything became crystal clear. The gray came into focus, although there was still no horizon. More pressingly however, Cold became incredibly aware of the two black boots in front of her. There was someone else here. There was someone else here. She was dead. She was in a place of death, and there was someone else here.

Bolting upwards, Cold landed on her two feet and came nearly face to face with whomever else was standing here. They were a few steps apart, but she still got a good look at them. Tall, taller than her. A maniac expression on their face. Pointed teeth spread into a wild and unknowing smile, tongue lolling out. More than that, the look in their eye. Their right eye was covered by their hair, but their left...it was jet black tilted in such a way. Terrified and excited. Uncaring about anything. The expression managed to send chills up Cold's spine. Chills. Up Cold's spine.