Life Eternal

Chapter I - Remembrance

Only one last gasp of cold steam... & it was finally over.

Memories shrouded, every single star in the sky - choked & clouded. The world around seemed to keel over & fall into darkness everlasting, slowly fading into a sanguinary fog that dreadfully settled upon the planes of the In-Between like dust on a battlefield, literally pulling the air from your lungs until there was naught but emptiness left. Devastating, unforgiving emptiness; the same kind of emptiness you used to feel whenever you had been forced to embrace the fact that that one soul you admired the most, in spite of its haunting absence, had almost inevitably fallen into the merciless clutches of death. And now, after all this time, you too had found your way down into afterlife's abyss, though not for eternity as you would soon come to discover. . .

' What happened..? '

Thoughts unspoken & unshared, chasing ever so wildly through your head like whirlwinds; your weary eyes, once bountiful with life & ambition, radiant in their brilliance, now darkening as the seconds went by. Only slowly & with much effort did you manage to lift your eyelids; eyelids heavy as iron, merely your breath felt heavier. Although... Were you even breathing at all?
You failed to recall breathing to be a part of death, not as you knew it anyway...

Your hands, raised ever so slowly in order to reach up & touch your own face, unable to feel the usual warmth your skin was radiating with when you were still roaming the face of earth. However, there was something else that reminded you of 'life'; something that you had been unable to notice earlier while still attempting to comprehend what had happened seconds before your passing. And now, now that you finally succeeded in lifting your gaze towards what most people would consider a sky in the midst of a dead world, you recognized what it was.

" A moon..? "

Your voice rang out at last, thin & fragile as a whisper, barely able to make it through the imperturbable darkness that surrounded you like a solid brick wall. With the luminous beauty above you, patterns soon would form into contours & reveal your environment which - to your very surprise - looked oddly familiar:
Trees that stood tall & motionless, with only their branches swaying gently in the wind; a wind that wasn't even meant to blow in this world; shapes of distorted mountains in the distance in front of grey horizons whereas the light of the freezing moon appeared almost 'soothing', faintly illuminating the path to your feet. A path moulded & weed-infested, leading further into the gaping mouth of darkness in a straight line.

Your arms reached around your own violently shaking frame, the alarmingly fast dropping temperatures causing the air to freeze to the point where you began to question how dead you really were, still able to feel so much yet understand little to nothing.

Maybe this was all just a dream... & soon you would awake?

Before another so preposterous thought could cross that already troubled mind of yours, the sound of another voice tore apart the silence that reigned this godforsaken place, shattering in it in the mere blink of an eye & sending even more chills down your spine:

Don't be scared...

A voice strong & clear yet audibly overflowing with grief, sadness... Almost unbearable sorrow even.
A voice devoid of warmth & life, reaching through the night like a pair of hands in search for a throat to strangle. /Your/ throat.
A voice so familiar, so unforgotten, however breathless in its ancient brilliance...

" Pelle...? "

In an instant your frame spun around, your vacant eyes piercing the cloak of night in search for the voice's source, eagerly scanning the area for even the smallest movement or shadow as though to reassure yourself that you weren't alone in this desolate place after all. The cold was merciless, growing more intense with each passing second & soon the very air turned to razorblades, bringing every single inch of your skin to scream at its touch. Breathing - if what you were doing in your current state could even be considered as such - soon became a torture.

Finally, the deliverance you had longed for; the sound of his voice once again, now echoing out even closer than the previous time:

This place can sense your fear, & it will use it against you if you are not cautious.

" I can't see you... Where are you...? "

I am where I've always been...
Where I've always belonged...

So alien, this feeling; fear-evoking & deeply unsettling yet able to fill you with an emotion you remember to be excitement, a strange kind of happiness almost.

So you had been right all along.
He was here too... & this would be the hour of truth.

" I want to see you... ",
you managed to whisper before your voice died off for a moment, the freezing cold reaching nearly inhumane magnitudes as you already felt how a thin layer of ice grew on the surface of your trembling lips, making it hard to speak.

" More than anything... "

Deafening silence once more, a short wintry breeze that cut the air like a scythe before fading away again softly blew across the pathway, though not without leaving a pained expression on your features. The moon shone down upon you still as if to claim your soul, plunging the world around into even greater darkness.

" ...please... "

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