Chapter Text
White mist. Swirling. All around her. Beyond that, darkness. Where am I?
She’s scared, terrified beyond words. She can feel her heart thumping painfully against her ribs.
She takes a tentative step forward. What if I… fall? She doesn’t even know what she’d fall into. In a strange world like this, who knows what is under your feet?
She halts, shivering, and huddles into herself. Where am I? What do I do? I want to go home…
The fear overwhelms her, and she starts crying, whimpering softly. The quiet sound echoes, the white mist somehow projecting the sound.
A figure appears, floating, from the mist in front of her.
She screams at the sight. She immediately thinks, this is a ghost, and it’s going to eat me, and I’m going to die.
The figure quickly stops and waves its hands, signaling be quiet.
She keeps screaming, but then logic takes over. What if there are even worse monsters out there in that mist? This… doesn’t look so bad. So she shuts her mouth.
The figure comes closer cautiously. She can see that it’s actually a girl, looking somewhere around her own age, with short blonde hair. Even weirder, she has wings protruding from her back, as if she’s an angel.
The girl speaks. “Listen, I don’t know what you’re doing here, but you have to be quiet. There are… things out there that can and will hurt you. You can’t let them know you’re here.”
She gulps.
“Why are you here? Are you new?” the girl continues.
She can only shake her head. She has no idea where she is and how she got here.
The girl floats closer, curiously inspecting every part of her. She nods as if in confirmation. “Yeah… you’re one of them. Follow me.”
“One of what? Who are you? And can you explain… where I am?”
The girl sighs and stops in her tracks. “Look, I can’t stay here all day. It’s dangerous, remember? I’ll take you to where you have to go, then I’ll leave.”
“But how do I know I can trust you?”
At that moment, a strange, otherworldly screech is heard in the distance. The girl snaps her head in its direction and curses under her breath. “Seriously, we gotta go, okay? If it makes you feel better, do I look like a monster to you?”
She has to admit that this girl, despite being snappy and suspiciously vague, doesn’t seem dangerous to her at all. So she shuts up and follows in the girl’s direction.
The girl leads her in a winding, seemingly random path. She doesn’t even know how she can find her bearings in a place like this, where all directions look exactly the same.
Soon, she becomes aware of a huge, looming presence along the path that they’re taking. She’s so focused on trying to place the presence, she collides into the girl, still floating, in front of her. “Ow!”
The girl shushes her quickly. “Alright, here we are.”
She looks around. “Where, exactly, is ‘here’? It looks exactly the same. And what’s that… thing?” She gestures in the vague direction of the presence.
The girl shrugs. “To answer your first question, this is a place that’s safer than where we were. There’s less chance they will hear us here. And that,” she points toward the presence, “is just a wall. It’s unscalable and insurmountable.”
She starts to ask another question, but the girl cuts her off. “I brought you here so I could tell you where you are.”
“This is the Realm. Every creature in this area has one thing in common. So, I hate to break it to ya, but you’re dead.”
“What?!”
The girl lunges forward and slaps her hand over her mouth, glaring at her. “What did I tell you? Be quiet. One more time, and I’ll leave you here by yourself to die and rot for all eternity.”
“S-sorry. Bad habit. What do you mean, ‘dead’?”
“Dead? I mean dead. No longer alive. Seriously, how old are you? This is basic knowledge, even for a child.” The girl grumbles to herself.
She knows she’s being insulted right now, but she can’t help but think how cute the girl is being.
“Anyway, you’re dead. Got it?” The girl resumes talking. “And, when things die, they either go to heaven or hell. Please tell me you know that,” she adds under her breath to herself.
She nods attentively, taking in all the information.
“Whether you go to heaven or hell, or rather become an angel or a demon, is determined by what you did in life. This, the Realm, is where things first appear when they die.” She sweeps an arm towards the rolling white mist.
“Angels are supposed to have an escort to heaven, which is somewhere over there.” She points. “Demons, they don’t have a path anymore. They appear here, they do whatever they like. Sometimes, they don’t ever leave the Realm, hence the monster noises. There’s also the living world, which is over there.” She points in another direction.
“You, of course, are an angel,” she continues.
“How do you know?”
“For one, you’re gorgeous.” The girl smirks at her.
She’s too stunned to react, and the girl keeps going. “Nah, that’s not a factor. Though you’re the prettiest thing I’ve seen in a while. Anyway, I could tell by your wings.”
The shock of being called pretty by someone so attractive is replaced by the shock of knowing she has wings. She almost says what again, but remembers just in time.
The girl smiles at her. “Good, you remembered.”
She’s blown away by how cute the girl looks when she smiles.
“That’s all you have to know. Cat got your tongue?”
She manages to speak. “N-no, I’m fine. So, are you my… escort?”
The girl shakes her head. “I don’t do that stuff. I just happened to be passing by when I heard your crying.”
She looks over her shoulder at her wings. They’re brilliant white with hints of blue at the edges. She smiles at the sight. “Blue’s my favorite color.”
“It suits you.”
She looks at the girl’s wings. Only now does she take in their color. They’re not white, like hers. They’re a solid black, seemingly sucking in the faint light from the mist.
“Why aren’t your wings white like mine?”
The girl hesitates for just a second, then tells her, “Wings can be any color. Anyway,” she quickly changes the subject. “It’s time we go. We’ve been sitting in one spot for way too long as it is.” She floats upward.
“Wait! Can you… can you teach me how to fly?” Up until now, she’s been walking.
“Oh, you should know that, yeah. Flying is way safer than walking, especially in this place. A piece of advice: fly whenever you can.”
“Can those monsters fly?”
The girl shrugs. “Some of them, yeah.”
She shudders.
“You’ll be fine once you get to heaven. You can stay there forever if you want. It’s your choice whether you want to come back out or not.”
Flying is way easier than she thought it would be. She masters it in a matter of minutes.
“Now, follow me.” The girl floats up, spins to get her bearings, then sets off at a fast pace.
It takes her some effort to keep up. “Can… can we slow down?”
“Slow down?” The girl keeps flying while looking over her shoulder. “No, we… we need to get to heaven fast. Come on.”
She doesn’t know why they need to move so fast—heaven isn’t going to leave without her—but she doesn’t argue and instead focuses on flying as fast as possible.
Even flying at that speed, it takes them a good amount of time before she starts to see the mist clearing. Ahead is strong light, like noon on a summer day, which is quite a contrast from the dim light of the Realm.
The girl descends to ground level and halts on the edge of the mist. “Here we are. Sit down for a second to catch your breath if you have to.”
She does have to, and she flops down on the ground, panting heavily. The girl, on the other hand, doesn’t even look winded.
“Aren’t you tired?”
The girl shakes her head. “I’ve had practice flying that far this quickly. I’ve had nothing else to do,” she adds darkly under her breath.
She doesn’t have enough breath to ask. And when she does get her breath back, the girl tells her, “This is heaven, obviously. You just need to go that way. When you get to the gate, tell them you’re new. They’ll let you in. That’s it.” Then she floats up again.
“Wait! You’re… you’re not coming in with me?”
“You’ve got it from here. You don’t need me.”
“Please. I’m scared.” She makes puppy eyes.
The girl rolls her eyes, but she can see a hint of a smile. “This is heaven, what’s there to be scared of? Fine.”
They continue forward. The ground of heaven is not the dirt of the Realm; it’s shining white quartz. The soil and dust they track onto it from their feet vanishes behind them like magic.
Soon, they come to a wall. It’s made of white bricks and seems to stretch upward forever. The girl takes her to the right, and they follow the wall until they come to a gate.
“Here. I’ve taken you as far as possible. Now, get inside and be safe.” The girl pushes her forward.
“Come in with me. We can be friends. Come on.”
The girl bites her lip, but shakes her head. “I don’t like being inside walls. If you decide to come out, I’ll be around in the Realm.”
She starts to protest, but suddenly another figure, dressed in all white and donning shimmering white wings, appears from the gate. The girl’s eyes widen and she mutters a curse, quickly rising into the air.
“Hey! We don’t want your kind here. Vermin, all of you. Get out!” The white figure shakes her fist at the girl.
“I have to go. If you come out sometime, I’ll see you around, okay? Be safe,” the girl shouts to her from the air.
“But—” her reply is cut off as the white figure gently but firmly pushes her inside the gate. As the doors close, she looks back. The girl is there, hovering, watching her. She locks eyes with her. Then the gates close with a resounding clang, and their gaze is cut off.