O Death ⇉ Paul Lahote

thirteen

Heidi's eyes opened to dusk around her, standing up from lying on the tarmac. She looked around her to see if she recognised where she was but there was nothing. Taking a deep breath, Heidi slowly walked forward and tried to keep herself calm in this alien situation.

Something didn't seem right – she just couldn't put her finger upon it.

As soon as Heidi wished for a light and a signpost, both of them appeared right in front of her. The words "Welcome to Pepin; If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything" appeared on a dark green sign in front of her, under a large and almost blinding spotlight.

"This isn't real, this can't be real," Heidi whispered, her head shaking slowly.

"It's as real as you want it to be," a voice came from in front of her, a dark figure stepping out from behind the sign. They were tall, slender and seemed to be dressed in a dark suit with a black hat on.

As they stepped into the light, Heidi saw that it was a man with dark eyes and was honestly, downright gorgeous. But the sad thig, is that he wasn't Paul. This man had pale skin and was slightly taller than Paul was – but was undoubtedly attractive.

Gulping Heidi spoke up. "And who are you, the white rabbit?"

The man smirked, but not in a malicious way, as he slowly walked in circles around Heidi, inspecting her every move. "Only if you're Alice."

Heidi's eyes followed him. "What is this place?"

The man stopped, his hands folding over each other. "Whatever you want it to be."

Heidi frowned, taking a step towards him as she folded her arms over her chest. "What's that supposed to mean?"

The man took a step towards Heidi, towering over her. "You control this world, Heidi. This place is your domain – whatever you wish to happen, will happen."

Heidi glanced at the sign beside both of them. "That's impossible."

"I assure you, it is entirely possible. You see, all this is going on right here," he paused to gently pat the side of Heidi's head, "inside the wonderful brain you have. Anything you want, anything you desire will happen."

She paused for a moment, thinking over his words and nodding subtly to herself. "But there's a catch, there's gotta be a catch, there's always a catch... what's the catch?"

He smiled once more. "No catch here."

She closed her eyes for a moment and silently wished for snow and when she opened them, snow was steadily falling from the dark skies above their heads. Smiling, Heidi reached out her hand to catch the snow and watch it melt in the palm of her hand.

"So I think of something and it happens, correct?" Heidi asked, turning her attention back to the man in front of her.

He nodded. "Yes, that is correct."

Heidi smiled a little, nodding to herself. "How do I get out of here? I mean, clearly this place isn't my home – so how do I get out?"

Any sign of kindness left the man's face within an instant, his demeanour changing from one of comfort to one of almost murderous intentions. "You don't," quickly realising what he had said, he relaxed and tried to smile. "I mean, who would want to, right? You can have anything you want here."

Heidi frowned, shrugging her shoulders. "I guess, but I still would want to go home at some point – I mean, I'm sure the people I care about in the real world would want to see me," Heidi raised her eyebrows a little before walking off past the man.

The man power-walked after her. "Where do you think you're going?"

Heidi didn't turn around to face him as she continued to walk, picking up the pace. "Home. If this is my hometown, my old home will be here somewhere."

Almost on cue, her old street appeared before the pair with her old home being directly in front of them. Heidi had a pack of matches in her hands and looked up at her home one last time before taking out a match and striking it, watching the small flame lick and devour the match.

The man's eyes widened, grabbing Heidi's arms that held the match. "What the hell are you doing?"

Heidi glared at him with a look akin to killing someone as slowly and as painfully as possible and watching the entire thing, slowly shaking her head as she snatched her arm out of his grip. "I have no home."

She threw the match towards the house and watched as it became engulfed in flames within seconds, the other houses in the street engulfing in flames too, with no chance of the flames ever burning out until everything was burned to the ground.

The man grabbed Heidi's shoulders, his eyes fixated on hers. "What the hell are you doing? You shouldn't be doing this."

Heidi's eyebrows raised, her head cocking to one side. "I shouldn't be doing this? Mister, you're forgetting that this is my domain, I can do whatever I please. And besides, I didn't imagine you, I don't even know who you are; why are you here?"

The man sighed. "Yama. You can call me Yama. And I'm here to be your guardian, your... advisor, of sorts."

Heidi frowned a little. "Okay, Yama. If you're my guardian, you should know how we got here and what this place is exactly."

Yama nodded. "You're correct, I do."

"And?"

"I can't tell you."

Heidi threw her arms up in annoyance, rolling her eyes. "Are you actually serious? Why can't you tell me?"

Yama folded his arms over his chest, looking down at her. "Simple – I've been given rules and I have to follow them. Surely, you've had rules you've had to follow."

Heidi stopped at his words, frowning a little. True, she'd had rules she had to follow but surely this is different. Perhaps she did belong in this dreamworld; at least in this world, she didn't have rules to follow and she could control what happens – surely, it would be a dream come true, right?

It's everything she wanted – a life without boundaries and where she didn't have her curse. But something was stopping her, something was telling her that this wasn't right and she couldn't ignore that thought.

Note

This chapter was re-written so many times, it's almost a joke.

What by Dreamcatcher and Believe by The Bravery really helped with this the writing of this chapter so I recommend you listen to those songs while you're reading this chapter.

And yes, the name Yama does hold significance as Yama is the Hindu god of death, but Yama isn't all he seems, and you'll see soon. Not gonna lie, I pictured Lee Dong-wook as Yama – blame Goblin for that.