Welcome to Gaia! ::

This is recent and the only thing decent enough of mine to work as a short story. They make me squirm for some reason.

My eyes lifted barely. The vision fuzzed. Everything was black and lifeless. Everything around me was composed of darkness. Nothing more, nothing less. But the darkness brings us something. At least, I want to believe that now. It makes what happened to me so much easier to understand and maybe, just a little more easier to bear.

Before this, I was a seventeen-year-old on the verge of collapse. My parents fought like crazy, so I evened out the pressure with drugs. I smoked in the bathrooms. I hung out with gangs. I hung out with transvestites even, their weirdness made me smile, made me feel wanted. Because I sure wasn't wanted back there. All I was was an excuse to argue, to fight for. They couldn't really care. All I was is a trophy.

I was sick of it. I became sick of it when I heard that my classmate Zachary died in a car crash. It knocked me off my a** and into my senses. Life is not immortal. It can't last forever and if it doesn't go anywhere, then what the hell have you done?

So, I rushed out, doing as much as I could. Drugs too. It sent me on a spiral.

And then I woke up here. A blackened room in God knows where. I tried to peer through, but the darkness was inpenetrable. But I did figure a few things out. I was on a bed, my legs tangled within velvety sheets. I was naked and the sheets covered that fact, but I still realized that.

And then, I realized I couldn't move. My arms, my leg were all completely numbed. Like they were being controlled to be locked in place.

I heard breathing. From my right? No. My left? No. My front.? I couldn't tell. I tried to face forward, to lock in on the breathing. "Hello?" My voice shivered with fear.

"Hello, yourself…" Cold fingertips felt the back of my neck. "Felicia…"

I couldn't recognize the voice. Was this some sort of dream? Was she being raped in a serial killer's basement? But the air, it was so different. It wasn't fear. It was just cool apathy.

But this person knew my name. "Who…?" I whispered. It seemed my breath was frozen when it came out. You know that feeling when you swallow a breathe mint?

The fingertips massaged under my chin. "Nobody." A wet tongue crossed my cheek. "Just your new master.. But you don't have to be so formal with me. After all, in this world, there is only you and I."

"You and I?"

"Nobody else," He repeated. "No parents. No teachers. Nobody. You and I. No one will interrupt us."

The darkness dimmed and I saw his eyes. They were of a light blue. The kind that reminds me of the purest ocean waters. Places I wanted to visit, but I never had the chance. But as I looked through them, he had no face. Just eyes.

His arms reached below my waist, covering my skin. I cringed. The fingers…they were frozen. I shivered to his touch. "You're so cold…" I whispered. No one should be like that.

"And you're so warm…" He answered. "Felicia, you know what you are…."

As the cold sent shockwaves through me, I realized what he was talking about. The image of my body, drifting asleep while holding those pills entered my mind. I was…I was….

"You are dead. You threw it all away," whispered the voice. "But instead of kneeling before the angels…you kneel before me."

"But why? Are you….?"

He chuckled. "No, I am not Satan, child," he said. His fingers stroking up and down my back. "I'm too ambitious. I'm in between. A door to your dreams, maybe."

"Why can't I go?'

"To heaven? You could…."His voice leaned into my ear. "You could go both ways, really." His tobgue slid down my neck. "But why go?"

"…" At first I had no answer. He continued to massage me, make me ache for him. I looked back into the direction his eyes had once been. "But heaven is where I belong," I said earnestly.

His nails dug into my back. "You think so?"

"Yes?" More a question than an answer.

"And who is up there in Heaven that's waiting for you. Who wants you, Felicia?" No one!" His voice grew louder as well as a new violent edge accompanied it. "Who wants you in Hell? Maybe the devil, but you don't want him! There's no one there!"

I was at a loss for words. A small wetness appeared in my right eye. My parents weren't there either. My friends…they probably didn't even remember me. I ahd no siblings. There is no one else. "….I…." My voice stifled a sob.

The tongue worked it's way up my cheeks to lap at the tears. Then he pressed a mouth to mine. The tongue swirled against my lips amking me drink the remainder of tne tears on his mouth. Was it a kiss?

He stopped and pulled back for a moment. "You belong with me and no one else, Felicia…" He sang for me, his hand stroking my thighs. "Let's burn into eternity, you and I. No Heaven or Hell barging in the way." I now felt his entire body pressed upon mine. "In Heaven or Hell, you have to wait for someone, an I've done my waiting…" His hand swept my stomach.

And I melted into him.

But his voice followed me in my sleep. "….I've waited…."

Why wait for me if there was no one there for me?

I awoke in the bed. A tint of sunlight appeared through a window and I saw the room. It was like a royal chamber. A circular bed was the one I was placed on. It had red, velvet sheets which were once again tied around me. The room was empty, but huge and almost oval-shaped. The window was like a diamond, the glass sparkled in harmony with sunlight.

I moved and it hurt badly. It was the first time I could actually move before I got here. I stood on my leg s and all most fell on my face. My spot hurt. My legs were jell-o. I stumbled to a closet and opened it. It was full of bright, blood-red clothes. I sighed and took out a robe an tried it in on. It was too big for me, but it shielded my nakedness.

I turned back to the bed. Whoever….it…was, it was gone. Did I…actually sleep with him? My insides aching told me the answer. Which meant he took on an actual form. But he gone now. Where was he? Maybe, it was best that I didn't find out.

I trudged out the door to the room, surprised to even find a door. I slipped through the wide, red halls. In darkness, red seemed to make it darker. Finally I stopped at a door at the end of what seemed like a maze. I opened it and stepped out onto a balcony. I looked up.

There was a whiteness and song of joy. Horns played. Clouds of white danced to the rythem. And then I saw it. A young boy, no more than two I guessed, flew up to the cloud. By flying, I meant I saw the full, feathery wings on his back.

Without thinking, I jumped nd waved the boy down. "H-Hey! Over here!"

The boy looked back down at me and flew back to me. I reached out to him and nearly touched his fingers. "Hello," I said. It was an angel. His smile formed so beautifully, his teeth shining at me.

But before I could do anything, the boy was swooped up by another, much older angel. The new angel scowled at me and pulled the boy back to the clouds.

My smile disappeared. I felt miserable. I was obviously not one of them and they didn't want me to be.

I turned back to the door and went back in. I saw another door across from mine. I took it.

I was in a large room, very much like the one I was in. But it was full. Everywhere I looked, I was I saw pictures of myself on one wall and then on the other, I saw…

Zachary? My classmate who died in the car crash…What was his pictures doing in my Master's house? I took a step back, looking into his eyes in the picture.

Blue, ocean eyes.

"I was waiting for you," said a quiet voice behind me.