Sins Chaos

Chapter Eight

Aerin

TRIPLANET KINGDOM DIMENSION

PASUL LOCUITORULUI

WHYNTHER'S MAYNE

I moaned, opening my eyes slowly. Did anyone happen to get the license plate of that Mack truck that just ran me over? My head was killing me. I actually tried to shush the Slayer concert rocking out in my skull. My bad. All that ended up doing was agitate the mosh pit even more.

My last hangover wasn't this bad.

Was that really just last weekend?

I went to take a deep breath...and ended up on my side, curled up in a fetal position, coughing and sputtering like a drowning victim that just had CPR performed on them. Except, in my case, no water came out of my mouth and I was completely dry.

Oh, wow. My chest hurt something fierce. I flopped back onto my back, gasping for air like a displaced fish after someone knocked over the fish tank.

I rubbed my chest. My hand froze over my heart, my eyes popping open in surprise. There was a hole in my favorite white tank top and there was a dried substance caked around the small hole in the fabric.

I was lying on the floor, which was cold and hard underneath my back. I blinked up at the massive wooden beams that crossed the living room ceiling in the cabin.

Oh, this couldn't be good.

My heart started beating against my ribs like a drum, threatening to tear its way out of my chest with every rapid beat. My pulse sped up like I was running a 10k race lying down.

I attempted to take another deep breath, steeling myself as I looked myself over. Thankfully, the pain in my chest was receding and it was getting easier to breathe.

Yep. There was no doubt about it; there was a nice sized hole in the center of my tank top. Oh, and that dried, caked-on substance around the hole? Yeah, that was blood. My blood. It was a really dark red.

And I could smell it like it was fresh. It had a pleasant smell, causing tingles all over my body. I so didn't want to contemplate what that meant.

There were multiple small tears in my favorite pair of Levi's. And, somehow, I was missing one of my shoes...

I was lying on a dark hardwood floor. There was no throw rug underneath of me, so whoever had brought me here didn't want blood on the expensive rug.

Somehow, I had awoken at my family's cabin in the mountains. At the back of my very confused and befuddled mind, I knew that this wasn't where I had died. This is where they had brought me to...

I sat up, jumping to my feet. "Whoa," I muttered as the world spun on its axis, taking me along for the ride like an out of control merry-go-round.

"Teryl Aerilyn Inigo-Auden! You need to lie down!" my mother cried out, grabbing ahold of me before I face planted on the very hard floor. She shuffled me over to the flowered couch, allowing me to collapse onto it. "Here, drink this," she ordered as she stuffed a glass of water in my face.

"I died," I mumbled, taking the glass from her with shaking hands. I downed the water like I'd just spent the last few days in the desert without a single drop.

"Yes, dear. You most certainly did," my mother said sadly. She raised an eyebrow, crossing her arms over her chest. "And, apparently, somewhere between your last breath, crossing over into the netherworld, and your first breath as an immortal being in this realm, you forgot this little thing called manners. You're not a dog, young lady. You're spilling more water than you are ingesting."

I set the glass down on the table beside the couch, glaring at my mother. "Well, excuse me, Mother. I'm trying to wrap my head around the fact that I just died. Oh, and let's not forget that I happened to die at the age of seventeen. And, it's kind of disconcerting that I clearly remember dying, yet here I am talking to you like it's any other day."

My mother glared right back, placing her hands on her narrow hips. I had a distinct feeling that she was avoiding the whole immortal topic. "That is not an acceptable excuse, Aerin!"

"I was shot. After being stabbed."

"You survived."

"I died! How is that surviving?"

"Yet, here you are talking to me, breathing like any other human being."

I threw my hands up in frustration. "You don't seem at all surprised that I arose from the dead. You seem to understand the shock and fear that comes with dying and then waking up alive in a strange place, yet you are avoiding telling me what the hell is going on. It's like you think telling me is going to bring on the ten plagues of Exodus if you do." I couldn't keep the accusation or the sarcasm out of my voice.

Guilt crossed over her face. She shuffled her feet, her hands slipping from her hips. She studied the grooved wood at her feet. "What you just experienced is called 'The First Death'," she said softly, so softly I almost didn't hear her. "The First Death is what transforms you from human to immortal. You aren't immortal until you die for the first time. As you are probably realizing, you aren't normal. You've known about your magic for a while, but now that you have died, the other half of your genetic code has been activated. The half you got from your father."

I stared at my mother in open mouthed shock. Who was this woman? How could she keep something like this from me?

Keeping something like this from me was unacceptable. My mother has refused to talk about my biological father. Still, you would think to mention that he passed on immortality to me was something she could find the time to tell me.

Honestly, I was too exhausted to be any angrier and hurt than I was. I closed my mouth, deciding to let the subject drop for now with a, "After I take a long, hot shower, you and I are going to sit down. You are going to tell me everything." My tone left no room for argument.

She nodded, still not looking up at me.

I noticed then that she looked like death warmed over. Her long, black hair was pulled back into its normal bun, but a few strands hung tangled around her heart shaped face. There were dark circles under her dark brown eyes and her dark olive skin was a few shades paler than normal.

There was blood on her red flannel shirt and dark stains all over her tight blue jeans. She was only a couple inches taller than me, so I didn't have to look too far up at her from my slouched position on the beat up couch.

Even looking like she was dragged into Hell and had to fight every demon in the known universe to get back home to me, Clarity Inigo-Auden looked beautiful.

I studied my hands, guilt gnawing at my stomach like a dog with a bone. My whole world had just been turned upside down, but that was no excuse not to notice the toll all of this was taking on my mother.

"How long was I legally dead for?" I asked softly.

"Ten hours," she replied quietly.

I pushed off the couch, pulling her into my arms the second I was vertical. "I'm so sorry. You had to be freaking out even knowing that it wasn't a permanent state."

She hugged me tight, tears streaming down her face. "I was so scared. I always hoped you would get further along in life before you had to experience this."

I smiled, pulling back from her. "Well, at least I almost made it to adulthood."

She cracked a smile, adding to her beauty. "Yeah, we still need to talk about that hangover of yours last weekend..."

"And, on that note, about that hot shower. I think I hear it and clean clothes calling my name," I said quickly, edging—okay, with one shoe, it was more like limping—my way towards the spiral staircase.

Her laughter followed me as I kicked off my remaining shoe and ran up the stairs like my immortal life depended on it.