LOVEME

2. How It Began

I look down at his body with my usual indifference. He isn't the first person to lie at my feet in that way, and he certainly won't be the last. As I walk away, leaving him on the floor, I think back to how it all began.

***

When I opened my eyes, I was lying in the sand next to the water. I looked down and saw myself barefoot, wearing a long, black dress I had no remembrance of owning.

Where am I? I stood up slowly. My knees wobbled slightly. as if it had been forever since I had last walked. I closed my eyes as I tried to remember what had happened to me last.

A group of teenagers laughing. Them whooping with glee as they each took turns cliff-diving into the water. Me also jumping into the blue sea, and someone reaching for me. . . .

At that last thought, a sharp pain pierced my right temple.

"Ow," I muttered, raising my hand up to relieve the pain as I began walking. I didn't know where I currently was, let alone where I was going, but I had to end up somewhere.

A few minutes later, I saw a male -- either a teen or a young adult, I couldn't tell from here -- standing at the edge of the shore, his hands in his pockets. He was facing the direction of the ocean, where the sun was beginning to set. No one else was around, so of course I headed for him.

"Excuse me!" I yelled loudly as I jogged over to him. "Could you please tell me where I --" The male turned around to face me, making me stop in my tracks. He was actually a teenager, and eighteen year-old. But, more importantly, he was --

"Calvin," I whispered. I didn't know what that name meant to me, but I knew the male standing a few feet away from me was Calvin. I didn't know I knew this, when I didn't even know my own name, but something inside me told me he was Calvin. "My boyfriend."

He blinked at me twice, shook his head, and looked me in the eyes again. "I-Ingrid?" he asked so softly I could barely hear him. "Is that you?"

Ingrid . . . the name seemed to ring a bell. Was that my name? I looked up and saw him walking towards me. "My name is Ingrid," I said aloud to myself. Yes, that sounded familiar.

"Ingrid, you're alive!" Before I knew it, Calvin had his arms around me. "It's you! Oh, you're so cold -- what happened to you?"

"Oh," I said, not knowing how else to respond. "I was actually going to ask you that question. What did we do the last time we were together?"

He pulled back and closed his eyes, as if the memory haunted him. "We were cliff-diving," he said solemnly, "you, me, and the others. It was your turn, but after you jumped and we heard the splash, you never came back up."

I frowned, more confused than before. "But, I'm here now," I said slowly. "It's all good, right?" However, as I said this, I knew I was missing something important. Something was wrong. And Calvin was beginning to suspect this as well.

"But, you look a little different from when I last saw you," he said, glancing me over. "You never had anything like that dress in your closet, and your complexion looks so much grayer." He reached out to briefly place the back of his hand on my arm. "And you're not wet, but you feel so cold." He withdrew his arm, but I suddenly wanted his warmth against me again. I hadn't noticed this before, but I was now feeling so cold. The hot sun shone down on my skin, but it was nowhere near as warm or welcoming as Calvin's touch.

"Calvin." I reached for his arm with both hands and closed my eyes as the warmth consumed me even better than it had before. It was as if the heat from his body was transferring itself into my own. I heard him shudder and gasp my name, but I didn't care. It was so warm. . . . 

Eventually, he was no longer warm. He actually felt ice cold. Not needing him anymore, I opened my eyes and pushed his arm away. My vision lightened in time for me to see him slump to the sand, skin gray and no longer breathing.

I raised my eyebrow as I looked down at him. Was he dead? I bent down to shake him with my hand, when I noticed that it looked a lot whiter than it had before. I held my arms and legs out in front of me, and I couldn't find gray anywhere. It was as if I had been given a new chance at life. I looked down at Calvin again.

Congratulations, a voice in my head said. You have taken your first life.

I had taken Calvin's life? As I wondered what I should do, a memory came flashing back to me.

"I'm sorry, but it appears you have died," the woman in the water said indifferently. "The seaweed trapped around your ankle prevented you from going above water quick enough to reach air. Please follow me."

"No!" I screamed easily, although I was also completely submerged underwater. "I need to live! I have friends, and a family, and a future!"

The woman smiled, although her smile didn't look too sincere. "There is another way for you to continue living," she said, "if you wish to know what it is."

"Yes!" I yelled. "Please!" I was desperate. Calvin and I, we had our future laid out perfectly in front of us. I couldn't leave him to follow that future alone; it wouldn't be fair to either of us.

"If you want to live again, you must take the lives of ninety nine others," the woman in the water said. 

"I wi--" My agreement died on my lips as I actually took in what the woman had just said. By 'take the lives of ninety nine others,' did she mean I had to kill that many people?

The woman's smile somehow looked different from before. "My power does not turn you into a full human," she explained. "I can only put breath back into your body. To live and be treated as a human, your body must take in the lives of ninety nine humans. Only then will you be able to live as a human."

I wanted, no, needed, to be with Calvin desperately. But, was it worth killing ninety nine innocent souls?

"I will give you nine seconds to decide," the woman said calmly. "Nine, eight, sev--"

"I'll do it!" I interrupted before I could change my mind. "I'll accept the offer." Better I be alive than others, right?

The woman laughed. "Of course," she said. "Now, you'll learn that there are rules to life-taking. You'll figure them out as you go. Good luck!"

Wait, rules? Before I could ask more, the woman had disappeared.

The flashback over, I looked down at Calvin's lifeless body. I had decided to live to be with Calvin, but the first life I had killed was Calvin's.

As I waited for something to happen to me -- cry or at least feel anger -- the ends of my lips curled up slowly. Who cared if he was dead? The warmth of his body had nearly faded away, and only a small sliver of heat remained in my body. It was a shame he was dead, but I loved the feeling of someone's life transferring into mine. I would live just for that reason, if I had to.

So, without a second glance, I stepped over Calvin's corpse and searched for new victims.

***

The River Witch laughs victoriously. The girl doesn't know that the souls she collects are transferred to the Witch, as well. She has no reason to know this, though; both she and the Witch are doing this to remain alive.

She probably should have mentioned to the girl that cheating death comes at a price. Her first kill will be of the very person she chose to stay alive for. However, one kill is all it takes for the girl to find a new purpose to "live." Her new goal in her not-life will be to give the Witch ninety nine souls until she has enough to finally leave the River. 

She needs only eight hundred thousand seven souls now, and the new girl should subtract the amount left by at least a little. Until then, though, she'll have to continue killing more girls and trick them into becoming Soul-Eaters for the Witch.

~~~~~

Well, this is the end! I hope you enjoyed this chapter and didn't find it too confusing. If you did, feel free to comment questions and I'll do my best to answer them.