Chapter 1
A heart to care, a heart to share
A heart to run and hide for.
A heart to love
A heart to spoil
A heart to above all die for.
The snow packed chilling air became more and more intense; I would definitely die here if I didn’t do anything soon. I knew it was a bad idea to come out here when the storm was still raging but I couldn’t stay in that house a second more. Hitting screaming and throwing things was a common occurrence and one that I couldn’t stand any longer. Tonight it had been too much, almost 4 broken bottles and a thrown knife later here I was; out in the midwinter cold storm probably freezing to death within minutes.
Well strangely enough it was fine with me; I hadn’t done much to be proud of and nothing left to cherish. So here I was once again, laying on my side soon buried in ice and darkness, not feeling my legs or my hands; but this time not because someone had knocked me out so hard I fainted, no.
For the moment dying was the best solution and to feel nothing was a blessing, the dark shadow that fell over my eyes was inviting and I felt I could rest safely here in the cold snow. Feeling my conscious slipping a bit more for every breath I drew, cutting deeper into my lungs and filling my head with cotton; this must have been one of the better ways to die. Letting my frosty eyelids slid shut the only thing left was a feeling of emptiness.
A strange warmth begun to spread through my face that should be buried deep down in snow by now, spreading to my chest and I knew this was the last step; last thing before I would fade away and it was still fine with me.
As you never should say, it couldn’t be worse right. Because dying was the ultimate step and nothing could prevent it. The warmth continued to spread to my temples and down my chest and legs, and it hurt.
Hurt more than anything should ever do and suddenly I wasn’t so fine with dying any longer. I had thought that you would simply fall asleep and not feel anything, but this was different.
A wild fire was spreading through my veins and into my blood, eating me up from the inside and out. The roaring wind of the storm was gone from my ears and all I heard was flowing blood and fire. I screamed in my head, screamed and tried to push the heat away, tried to move but nothing worked, why did things like this happened to me, couldn’t I even die the right way…
“Are you gonna lie there forever?”
I sat up too fast and a shrilling noise filled my ears in the sudden silence, had I heard something? My muscles cramped horribly in protest of the sudden movement and blood must have flown to my head because everything spun, made me sick and it hurt even more when I crashed down on the ground again, unable to keep my body up straight.
I hadn’t bother to open my eyes because of what strange thing was going on around me, but the resistance were too great after everything had stopped moving; whatever I was about to witness, this was not something I was prepared for. What was going on, where did the snow and the storm go? Wasn’t I about to die?
I found that concentrating on breathing was the best thing to start with since sitting up had clearly been the wrong one. In out, in and out; deep breath and try to calm down. It was so easy to tell myself to be calm but apparently it was harder to actually listen. Prying my eyelids open the brightness was crushing my poor sight and I could barely distinguish the growing headache from the rest of everything that already hurt.
Easing out eventually I continued to breath calmly and took everything in slowly.
The scenery that lay before me where foreign, a summer field so far the eye could see and not the place where I last found myself. Trying to sit up a second time, slower made it easier to absorb everything around me.
The absence of a roaring wind was overwhelming and I didn’t hear a thing for a moment but as my ears begun to adapt I heard bird’s song and a gentle breeze rustling the leaves of… summer?
“Not quite it’s spring.”
My poor head was not going to survive long if I kept this too fast movements-thing up; I swear my neck cracked loudly when I spun around at the sound to the same voice as I thought I heard before.
I did not expect someone to stand a short distance away from me, a person and he looked… weird. I had to blink a couple of times to make sure he didn’t disappear, I would not be surprised if I hallucinated, and as I slowly calmed down; turned and took in the scene all around me. The edge of a newly ripped forest, a dazeling blue sky and a meadow of grass was reaching out from under me and towards the horizon. The strange boy was standing with his back to the forest and head tilted to the side, just a couple of steps away from me and glared. Clearly not real, none of this could be.
Had I died? What this what they called heaven? This strange scenery of summer…
“Spring!”
“AHH FOR FUCKS SAKE!!!”
I scrambled to my feet, not ready for another heart attack if he was going to scare me like that again. What was his problem? What did he want, couldn’t he see I wanted to enjoy my heaven alone and not with some strange creature with a ridiculous rod scaring the shit out of me. What was he anyway, did he even exist?
He didn’t say anything just stood there and watched me with a bored face, arms crossed over his chest and head still tilted to the right.
Something wasn’t right; I couldn’t quite put my finger on it but he looked odd. Maybe it was his eyes that was maybe a little too blue and not blinking as much as they should? Or maybe it was his hazel colored hair that seemed to dance in the wind and not apply to gravity at all. Or just his strange outfit and the way he seemed to read my mind.
“Not read, hear.”
That did it, I had enough.
“Okay listen here psycho kid, I don’t know what’s going on, where I am and what the hell just happened so instead of messing with my head and telling me what I’m thinking; could you just fuck off, huh?”
My frustration level was sky high and despite sounding embarrassed, I was scared as hell. The warmth that had hurt me so much before was slowly slipping away and I found myself missing it. Because regardless of what I had felt, the cold that it left in its wake was ten times worse than the burning the heat had created.
The boy before me had yet to answer and I considered just turning and walking away without any explanation, but one thing still nagged me….
“So, did you save my life or something…?”
I was curious as hell how I ended up here and maybe a different approach would sit better with the stranger.
“Something like that, I’m not sure what the results will be thou”
He turned and begun to walk away from me, walk into the forest and something alike to fear gripped at my throat. No, I couldn’t lose him now, not before I had got some answers to what happened; if I really was dead, then what?
I stumble after him and the cold chilling in my bones made it hard to move as graceful as he did.
“I’m Sirinjikith by the way”
What the…? Now he could be pleasant?
“Sinriki..huh?”
I swear I am mad, strangest name I ever heard.
“Sirinjikith, but you can call me Rinji, so you don’t have to butcher my name all the time.”
“Oh…okay…”
Ah a name, that’s a good start right…
“I’m... Michael and I… where are we going?”
It was a tad bit hard to think, everything that should make sense didn’t, maybe because I was dead?
“To the forest, to safety”
“Safety? What’s out there that’s not safe?”
I turned and look back at the peaceful meadow, not seeing anything that could possibly harm us.
“Creatures, spirits, shadows… anything that would like to have what’s mine.”
He stepped in to the forest and I had no choice but to follow him if I wanted any answers; even if my guts said to stay in the sunshine as long as possible.
“Wait! What do you mean take what’s yours, what do you have?”
This time he did stop, it took a second for him to turn but when he did it was only with half of his face; like he wanted to hide something. This were getting out of control and that fast.
“I may have taken something that wasn’t mine, and even if I had all rights to it; I should have honored the laws of taking what’s not yours to survive. I didn’t and therefore I have to face the consequences.”
If my head hadn’t been a mess before, his answer didn’t exactly clarify anything for me.
“I don’t understand… what did you take?”
This time he tipped his head down so I couldn’t see his eyes, almost like the truth was shameful.
“I… may have eaten your heart…”
I swear the forest didn’t even breathe as we stood there. And then all the blood in my head came rushing down to my face.
“YOU DID WHAT?!?!”
“It was an accident, I didn’t mean for you to still be alive!!!”
“WHAT DO YOU MEAN NOT MEANT FOR ME TO BE ALIVE?!?! WERE YOU GOING TO KILL ME?!”
“No you were already dying so I thought it was okay for me to eat it just like before but after I kissed you, you sort of regenerated and woke up and I...”
“YOU DID WHAT!!!!?!?!?!?”
“I PANICKED OKAY?! I DIDN’T KNOW WHAT TO DO!”
Somehow I thought this couldn’t be more hysterical and embarrassing that it already was… but apparently I was wrong. My face was the color of a overgrown tomato and I felt like I was going to faint and throw up at the same time. And the worst of all was the cold that had now crept into my bones and into the empty place of my once much needed heart.
And after some more battling with my swirling guts the first alternative won and I fainted.
