One Life Down

A short story inspired by a writing prompt from Max Kirin.

One Life Down

The bright red sun was blazing through the afternoon sky, surrounded by fluffy clouds as Mary was prancing on the pavement. The tips of her raven hair were dancing on top of her shoulderblades while she was humming. Her hands were clutching onto the straps of her backpack, her head tilting back slightly, allowing her to take in the surreal view of the sky.

‘So pretty…’ she thought whilst turning a corner, placing one foot in front of the other, her brain filling itself with the lyrics of the song. Her stomach started roaring suddenly, causing her to stop dead in her tracks and grip her stomach. ‘I should hurry up. Mom must have cooked something already.’

Mary started picking up her pace, closing in on the traffic lights which stood in front of her. Waiting for the light to turn green, she freed her left arm from her bag, slinging it around her shoulder, leaving it to rest against her stomach. Reaching inside, she searched for her phone. Feeling frustrated upon not finding it in the messy confinement of her bag, she ripped it open further to take a look inside.

“Backpack my a*s, black hole would be a much better name…” She murmured angrily. Seeing a silhouette pass by her, Mary assumed the lights had turned green. Deeming it safe for her to cross the street, she started walking, not lifting her blue eyes from the inside of her bag. The thought of what her mother might have cooked for the two of them was enough for her to flash a small smile.

Ever since her father had abandoned the two of them, they had been left to fend for themselves. Not having any other relatives nearby, Mary felt that she had an incredible bond with her mother. Feeling grateful for everything the latter has done for her, she would diligently go to school and after school tutoring classes with the aim to achieve perfect grades in order to earn a scholarship.

Once she would find a good job and settle down with the man of her dreams, Mary had planned to support her mother financially, so the woman wouldn’t have to work for another day of her life. Distracted from her thoughts and her attempt to find her phone, the hysteric voices and screams of the people around her were getting drowned out. 

‘What if mom made lasagne?’ she thought, a goofy grin resting on her chiseled face. Hearing tires screeching loudly, she turned her head slightly to see what the commotion was about. Upon noticing a car approaching her rapidly, her smile started fading. Her entire body froze in fear as her heart started pounding violently against her chest. 

Suddenly the drowned out screams of the people hit her full force and it felt as if the world had started to slow down. From the corner of her eyes, she could see a male approaching her agonizingly slowly, his arm extending to reach her while screaming something in her direction whereas the car was struggling to stop. Mary’s eyes widened in realization, her blood running cold at the thought of what would happen if the car was to hit her.

“What about mom?” she whispered, a lone tear escaping her icy eyes before the vehicle collided with her nimble body, throwing her several feet further. The last thing she felt was red warm liquid running down her eyes with her stomach crippling in pain. Several people were running to her aid but before she could further assess the situation, her vision had turned black.

***

“Who’s this?” a velvet voice inquired, “A new one?”

“Mh, seems like it.” Another rough voice piped, “This one’s pretty young though. Do you think they’ll let him get away with it?”

“What else can they do? Take her back? That’s against the rules Jason- “

“Yeah but mistaking your prey and failing your job miserably is not?” The rough voice that belonged to the man called Jason responded grimly. “That prick’s been annoying me since day one- “

“That’s only because Vivienne showcased some interest in him- “ the velvet voice interrupted, only to have Jason cut her off short again.

“Shut up Julie, I can’t deal with your know-it-all-ness right now. We have bigger issues at hand.” 

Said issue turned out to be Mary, who was lying motionless on a large bed, a woolen blanket draped over her body. 

Upon hearing the two bicker, she stirred, a groan escaping her lips as she brought her small hands up to rub her eyes.

“Oh oh oh, look! Look! She’s waking up!” The girl with the velvet voice, whose name was Julie, chirped excitedly.

Mary fluttered her blue eyes open, trying to take in the visual stimulus of all the vibrant colors that were surrounding her. After the initial whiteness that had invaded her sight had vanished, the walls, which were a deep purple with blotches of white, came into view. 

Straining her vocal cords to ask her whereabouts, she managed to croak out several inaudible words before her eyes met a pair of brown orbs belonging to a darkskinned man, whose face was contorted into an angry expression.

“M-Mom,” Mary whispered, breaking out into a series of heavy coughing, struggling to breathe as her heart started constricting painfully.

“Jason stop staring like that!” Julie whipped the man across his head whilst sighing, “Look, you’re scaring her!”

“My… my mom- “ The raven haired girl wheezed while trying to push her body off of the bed, “I need to- “

“Easy there,” the rough voice of Jason was suddenly right next to her ear, this time warning her rather gently as he managed to catch her just in time before her body hit the ground.

“You shouldn’t get up just yet sweety,” the velvety voice muttered softly, the hands of Julie reaching to get a hold on Mary’s upper body, helping Jason place the young girl back on the bed, “Your body still hasn’t adjusted to the atmosphere and the oxygen here, so you shouldn’t move around too much.”

“I bet you have a lot of questions on your mind right now but taking in your currrent state, it’s safe to say that it’s going to be a while until you can voice them out, so I’ll be giving you a quick run down of what’s going on- “

“Shouldn’t we wait for Zeref to come first? After all, he is the one responsible for all of this!” Julie stopped him abruptly, heading to the large window, looking out at nothing in particular.

“There’s no knowing as to when that b*****d will show up again. It took him months the last time something like this happened.”

“M-Mom… Where… Is…” Mary croaked out once more before falling victim to another coughing fit, feeling the gentle hands of Julie rubbing her back comfortingly.

“Hey uhm… “ Julie looked helplessly at Jason’s direction,

“Mary. Maren Winston,” he helped out, 

“Ah yes, Mary sweety… Uh how do I put this? You see… Your mother… She uhm… She’s not here- “ the blonde woman stopped upon noticing that the girl beneath her tensed up, “Wait well, it’s nothing bad! Kind of… I mean- “

“God, you suck at this,” Jason pushed her off the bed before seating himself on the edge of it, “Your mother is fine, so don’t fret. She’s just not here as in not in this world.” 

Mary furrowed her brows in confusion, her hand going up to gently grasp her burning throat.

“Okay Mary, I want you to listen to me and I want you to remain calm, alright?” Earning a weak nod in return, he continued, “You died.” Jason halted in order to measure her reaction, going on with his explanation when she did nothing but stare at him dumbfounded, “What’s your last memory?”

Mary thought long and hard, clasping her eyes shut tightly before the image of a car shot into her mind, the sound of tires screeching still vivid in her ears. 

“A car hit you on your way home and you died of severe internal bleeding before the ambulance even had a chance to take a look at you.”

‘I died?’ Mary thought to herself with the air around her getting harder to take in, ‘Am I in heaven?’

“No, you’re not in heaven.” Jason said solemnly, watching the young girl’s eyes double in size.

‘Hell?’

“You’re not in hell either and no, I can’t read your mind. It’s just… We’ve had many cases like you before and those two are usually the first questions asked.”

“You’re here, because you weren’t supposed to die Mary.” Julie said after not having talked for a while, “While this may seem confusing to you now, I promise it’ll all make sense once your body gets used to this world.”

‘This world?’ Mary wondered, tilting her head slightly to see Julie looking out the window with a sad expression, her eyes focused on the clouds, almost as if she was yearning for something.

“This world… This world is for the ones who died before their time had come.”

“You really have a way with words, don’t you, J?” Jason shook his head before continuing his explanation from earlier, “Basically somebody else was supposed to die but the dumbass who was supposed to pick that person up, messed up and killed you in their stead- “

“Hey, don’t talk like that about a god of death! You don’t know what might happen- “

“I might die? Or go to hell? Guess what, both already happened.” Jason snorted humorlessly, “This place is just like hell anyway, so that shithead can be my guest. It can’t get any worse than this.”

Mary closed her eyes with a sigh, overwhelmed with all of the information she had been presented with, conflicted as to whether she should believe what she had been told. Was this some kind of sick prank they were trying to play on her? She could still feel the tightness of her chest, the stinging sensation in her throat as if her entire being was fighting to keep her conscious when suddenly the memory of a silhouette passing her on the streets flashed before her eyes.

“Anywho, Zeref, the god of death, fucked up for god knows what reason and casted a spell that would rid you of your life. Which is why you are here with us now. For people like us, there’s no heaven or hell. We’re locked inside this building until… Actually, even I don’t have the answer to that,” Jason smiled sadly.

“Jason was the first one to arrive here. He says it’s been over thirty years since then but as you can see,” Julie pointed at his young features, “He doesn’t really look like someone who is over thirty, right? So we’re assuming that there’s no sense of time in this space. The people here don’t age.” The female moved back to the window, placing her palm against the cold glass, 

“We’re not allowed to get out of this building for reasons we haven’t been told. It’s been several months since we last saw Zeref and… well… how do I put this?”

“The last time Zeref showed up, a huge commotion had erupted, which caused almost all of the inhabitants of this building to riot against him, all of them rushing out of the building in hopes of escaping this place.”

Mary opened her eyes again, finding herself believing the words of the two whose eyes showed that they have been through more than she could ever understand. She looked at him as if asking him what had happened afterwards.

“They vanished.” Julie choked, her hand curling into an angry fist, “They just disappeared into thin air. Right in front of us. As if… As if they never existed. All of them… They just- “

“It’s okay Julie,” Jason sighed, “I’ll take it from here. Listen Mary, you must be feeling tired and confused right now, am I correct? All this information… You don’t know if you should believe us or even if you want to believe us, but right now… Right now you need to focus on getting better. 

Your body still needs to adjust to the differences in this world and once you’re healthy and fit again, I promise I will tell you everything. But I need you to promise us something in return, okay?”

Mary cocked her head to the side, wondering what kind of promise the darkskinned man could want from her. Despite his gloomy appearance, he seemed to be caring and compassionate. Julie on the other hand, looked like clumsiness in human form. Not knowing how to properly voice her thoughts, the latter seemed to quietly lurk behind the shadows, letting Jason do all the talking, only coming in when deeming it necessary.

Not knowing how to feel about this entire ordeal or what to think about it, she looked into the dark abyss that were Jason’s eyes, which were locked onto her own blue ones.

“I need you to promise us that no matter what happens, you won’t leave this place. I need you to promise me that you won’t do anything reckless and disappear on us like our friends did. I’ll find a way to get all of us out of here, I promise you, but just please. Trust me, okay?”

What would otherwise spark absurd laughter from Mary caused her to fall silent this time. Closing her eyes and feeling the air getting lighter around her, she took a moment to take everything in. Still unsure what to think, she gripped the sheets beneath her tightly. It wasn’t as if she had any choice. She was at a place unbeknownst to her with people she had never seen before. 

The only thing Mary was sure of however, was that if what those two had said turned out to be true… then she had no other choice but to trust them and stay with them if she wanted to get back to her mother. After all, she died before her time had come. There should be a way for her to get back and continue living until her time comes. ‘There needs to be a way for me to go back…’ 

Releasing a breath she didn’t know she had been holding, she opened her eyes and faced two hopeful pair of eyes, which were glued to her face nervously,

“I promise.”

Author's Note

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