Life Eternal

1

"I know the light grows darker down below
But in your eyes, it's gone before you know
This is the moment of just letting go

She said if you had life eternal-"

"Please! No! I'm not sick! I swear!" Shouting at the top of her lungs she sobbed as the men with masks surrounded her. "Momma? Papa? Anyone?" But as she closed her eyes, the dark abyss overtook her.

Surrounded, in a room of disease and left to rot, the stench of death surrounded her, she lay across her bed with tired eyes and a saddened heart.

"What is your name little one?" He asked gently, the man in the mask. He wasn't like the others, He was different. Kind. And a halo of light surrounded him from where he stood. He towered over her, comforting, like an angel. And angel sent from God above. It took all her might to force the smile on her cracked and pale lips.

"Arabella." She responded in a hoarse and broken tone. She almost wanted to reach out to him.

"Arabella? " He repeated as the cold eyes of his beak mask stared back at her. "That's lovely." There was a pause as the two watched each other with curiosity. "Don't worry little one-" He eventually said. " You'll be alright."

She believed him. What a fool she was.

Arabella softly smiled, her pale face and weak eyes showed a sense of thankfulness in the dim light, but all that quickly faded as the black rats began to swarm and scurry across the floor in their direction. Their claws scracthed at the stone flooring. They let out quiet squeaks, but to Arabella they were howls.

She cover her ears. She shut her eyes. She cried out in fear. And in her mind, she pleaded with the Lord above, for mercy.

The simplicity of mercy.

"It'll be alright..." His voice echoed. And she believed him. Just as the rats were closing in.

Arabella awoke with a gasp as she sat up in her bed suddenly. It was only a dream.

Thank God, just a dream.

Rain pattered harshly against her window. She ran her hands through her messy red locks, feeling hot all of a sudden. Ever since the outbreak, Arabella has had these terrible dreams. She was afraid, of the doctors taking her away, of being infected. It seemed that every day, the rate of death seemed to grow in numbers in her town. And this mysterious black plague continued to spread violently.

But she was okay.

Her breathing calmed as she slowly loosened her clench on her sheets, Trying to focus her mind on the patter of the rain, as if it was music. And to her it was the sad song of reality. Arabella furrowed her brows.

"Arabella?" A soft knock at the door caused her to jump slightly as she fidgeted and pulled the covers over her nightgown. Her long hair fell messily around her frame. She was still on edge.

"C-Come in." She peeped out eventually.

A quiet creak escaped the wooden door as it slowly swung open. Her mother stood at the doorway offering a small yet stressed smile.

"Arabella," she eventually repeated quietly. Arabella hugged the sheets against her chest and looked back to her mother with her large and beady eyes. "Are you Alright? You've been sleeping nearly all day."

Arabella raised her brows and pressed her lips together in a thin line as lightning struck.

"I have?" She questioned back quietly. Her mother nodded.