Short story- The beauty of Eternity.
Rain splattered onto the blood red and orange umbrellas of everyone who happened to be walking the bare and narrow streets of New Jersey; the dim and almost broken street lamps causing their shadows to be even more intimidating then they were in reality.
All of their faces were horribly flawed, monotone looking thin chapped lines for lips, drowsy almond eyes which showed no hint of colour or emotion- jet black orbs like children's marbles.
On their hands were boils and warts, and razor sharp daggers, or as some may call them nails- caused by their hatred towards everyone and everything.
A dismal cloud of sorrow stalked every individual on the streets,
Coincidently the weather matched the mood of the streets, as the occasional racket of thunder shook the air and a sharp spike of lightening hit the ground a couple miles away.
But hidden within all that orange and red was a beautiful girl who went by the name Primrose, Primrose was unlike any other on the streets that day.
Unlike the individuals that surrounded her, she viewed the world in a different way. Primrose saw beauty in everything, in every crack, every creature, and every place.
Her face however was perfectly imperfect- but in the most charming way. Her cheek bones were sharp, yet also soft, giving her that hint of feminism.
Her eyes were perfectly rounded and shown the sun and sea, the secrets of the unknown... Her lips were plump and Rose pink, her hands being soft and dainty, almost as if they were carved by God himself out of the purest slab of stone.
She was by far the most innocent out of them all, still a little girl at heart.
Primrose held no umbrella, she thought they were for the common, instead she wore a black hoody with the signature Cheshire Cat grin on the back. The hood slightly hovering over her head to protect her unnatural platinum curls.
Tugging the hood closer to her chest she crossed the road, keeping her gaze to the ground incase anyone tried to catch her attention, luckily she found the pebbles and cracks in the cobblestones beneath her rather interesting.
She wondered where they all came from, who put them there. Maybe some got washed up from the beach a couple miles away and blew to New Jersey in the wind; or maybe some were just there by pure coincidence...
Her head shot up, as she heard an ear piercing scream. Suddenly her instincts kicked in as she frantically pulled down her hood for extra eyesight and searched for the source. Someone was in trouble. And she was determined to save them, not a care in the world was given to the rain soaking her once freshly dry hair., her curls now transforming into soaked straight lines. That wasn't important.
Her view were brought to an alleyway and her eyes widened in a mix of shock and horror.
There she saw her childhood bestfriend, slumped against the graffiti covered alleyway wall, her ghostly pale hand holding a stab wound that leaked Crimson blood out with every second, transparent salty tears running down her freckled olive cheeks in pain and agony.
Without another thought she ran as fast as her short legs could carry her weight to her long lost friend.
"Maci! Maci!" She panted breathlessly as she crouched down beside her broken, bruised body trying to avoid pressing her palms against the shattered pieces of glass which had been left the night before by drunkards who only went to the bars to drink away their pathetic and miserable lives; well at least the lives they had left. She heaved a long breathy sigh as She stared at her appearance. Maci was now one of them. She could tell. A few lowly tears escaped her eyes as she realised she let them take her alive. She promised she wouldn't, and she relished the memory's she had with her friend when she was still sane, but her attention drew back to her friend In a sharp second.
"What...what are you doing here, Primrose?" She asked barely above a whisper, venom lacing every word, her gaze travelled up to Primroses face only for a split second before tucking it back into her shoulders, the pain was obviously too much for her to handle.
"You let them take you. You promised you wouldn't! Why would you let them take you!!" Prim asked, her shouting mixed with pain and tears, her mind desperately wanting the answer.
"Well..." She began to speak, but hissed in agony half way through, her once green but now black eyes crinkling. "When... When you left, I was all alone. You were my only friend in this cruel world, the only person who I trusted in this hell hole. But then you left me. For no reason! You...you didn't even say goodbye..." She was now full on bawling. Trying as much as she could to push Primrose away, her wart covered hands trembling.
Guilt flooded over Primrose, it was all true. She left her bestfriend for no apparent reason. At the time she thought it was the right thing to do, Maci had good grades, a loving boyfriend and seemed to stay her happy and cheerful self always talking about her future, and how her main goal was to have two beautiful twins and how perfect her life would be. Primrose thought she was a distraction, thought her leaving would make Maci's life less a burden.
"I'm so so sorry" she apologised, salt filled tears of her own, escaping her own dark blues.
"I didn't know." She finished, wiping her eyes dry with her hoody sleeve, leaving a red aura blotching around her face.
"Bit too late for that" Maci spat with hatred
Suddenly Primrose was brought back to the real reason why she was crouching next to her dying friend in an alleyway.
"Oh my god your stab wound!" She panicked, shaking her hands around every where, putting as much pressure on Maci's stab wound as she possibly could, as much to Maci's protest.
"There's no point." Maci said blankly.
"What?" Prim asked in disbelief, she couldn't believe Maci would say that. No point? Of course there was a point! She had to live! Had to! The creatures of the underworld couldn't take her that easily, not on her watch.
"There's no point. I'm going to die anyway...I've already lost too much blood to survive." None of them were crying anymore, they had gotten past that stage. All that was left now were short and shallow breaths coming out of both of their mouths, the condensation creating little whirls of mist in the atmosphere.
Primrose didn't want to admit it, but deep down in her soul she knew Maci was right. In all logic and reality she knew Maci lost far too much blood to survive, she just didn't want to believe it.
"I don't want you to go...I regret everything. I regret leaving you. I regret the argument we had before I left, I regret the fact that the last ever thing I said to you was an insult. If I could go back to those days and change everything I would in the blink of an eye... I've only just found you a, I don't want to loose you again..." She poured her heart out, raw emotion, she meant every word she said, from the bottom of her heart.
She saw Maci's eyes soften and her breathing get slower, her chest rising and falling in irregular short patterns.
"It's okay... Don't worry about it. The past is in the past, just remember that even though I'm leaving you, I'll always be here. With you." She was close now, they both new it.
"And primmy?"
Primrose lightly chuckled at hearing her old nickname, she hadn't heard that in so many years.
"Yeah?"
"I forgive you" Maci breathed, barely even talked, her once short and staggered breaths now ceasing to a stop.
Prim's chest rose irregularly as she realised that the girl she new since she was just a little girl was now dead.
"No!! No!!" She screamed as she shook her body repeatedly hoping that in any second she would wake up and tell her it was all a joke, and they would then laugh about it. But she knew this was reality, now make belief, and that reality is a cruel thing, that likes to take the purest and kindest souls fist.
"No..." She whimpers as she aswell slumped against the alleyway wall.
Holding her bestfriend's cold, lifeless, dead hand, she knew that If Maci died here, she would too.
The weather had seemed to have dropped about 6 degrees, enough that If you spent enough time in it, it would surely give you hyperthermia.
It was decided. She would be with her bestfriend once again.
Away from the cruel fate of reality, away from New Jersey; into a world much better, more peaceful, where everybody was happy and young, full of life again.
Many hours later, it was time.
Time for Primrose to move on to the other side.
"I'm coming Maci..." She breathed as she closed her eyes for the last time, a smile plastered onto her face as she thought about what lay ahead. The beauty of eternity.
