The Vampire's seal lll : Love over immortality

Checkmate

Michael

I never understood why in a person's last moments, they see their life flash before their eyes. Once your dead, you're never supposed to come back. So what's the point in watching memories over again... memories that you'll never get a chance to experience yourself one day? The whole concept is just mean... But experiencing the flashback itself? It's painful.

Thinking back, I've come close to dying a couple times. I was allegedly dead when I was eight. I almost died fighting Kelo, almost died when I was transferred powers, and almost died fighting Kelos's younger brother Reddrik.

And now? I was dead. I am dead.

And yet for some reason, the voices of the living rang in my ears, refusing to die out.

"Anastasia ...?" It was Marceline's overwhelmed voice as she faced her mother for the first time in years. Her voice was filled with suprisement... with hope. But I could almost feel her tensing as she looked down at my body, only to look back to her mother. "Ana..." she repeated, seeing her mother's dull apolegetic eyes as they greeted Marceline's hopeful ones. Sorrow was at the tips of her words.

When silence followed, Marceline's eyes grew red and she let loose an antagonized scream that caused two others nearby to flinch and drop to their knees gripping at their ears. Antagonized, she yanked her hand out from my limp body.

"Wait, what are you-" Freya began panicking, seeing blood seep out of my body from the gap in which Marceline had pulled her arm out. Anastasia cut her off though, her tone monotonous.

"He's dead, Freya. The boy is dead."

Ana's tone was dull and flat, and I felt myself suddenly feel guilty.

I'm sorry I couldn't stay alive long enough to meet you again... And I'm sorry I ruined your reunion Ana.

I began to feel Freya begin to shake as she staid beside me in the ground, and I could feel her eyes glued to my body.

"Mike's... dead?"

She slowly began to pull her arm out, as if she was afraid of hurting me. Anastasia and Marceline watched her silently until Freya's shaking bloodied arm emerged from my body.

Freya gasped when she saw the blood gush from one of the two holes through my body, and clenched her fist into tiny balls. It seemed like she wasn't sure what to do, stammering until she just buried her face into my still warm chest and cried. I could sense the shaking of her arms, the heat from her face, and the pained cries as she sobbed. I could sense it all.

But I couldn't feel any of it.

I would have done anything to hold her in that moment though. Her shaking, her cries of confusion and pain... No one deserves to have a loved one ripped from their arms.

No one.

Freya had betrayed me in the worst possible way. She lied about our relationship and took advantage of my oblivious human self. She decieved me into thinking I was father of her children... she broke me and Marceline up. She used me, and lied to me for months.

Maybe it was all fake. Maybe our relationship was fake, and maybe the love I thought we shared was fake.

But the tears that fell onto my skin was real. Her tears were the only things I could feel, and it began to make me think that it would be possible to make me stop slipping from this world.

Freya's tears... To think that Freya, of all people, could very well be the anchor that could help me feel again.

So close, the taste of control over my own body began to drive me insane. The tears made me feel her sadness, but one emotion is better than none. I was absorbing her sorrow, and it was almost enough to almost make my heart beat.