Do You Wish To Live

Prologue

It hurts... Why does it hurt?

The gaping agony was all that shot through the fog drifting across her mind. Her flesh burned where it had been viciously severed from itself, barely soothed by the cooling liquid pulsing its way out of her body. Her guts only held inside by the delicate balance of gravity.

Tears shuffled across her face, and blood-sodden floorboards glued themselves to her back. Gold and red flittered at the edges of her awareness, softly calling attention to it with intricate dancing.

Weakly she turned her head. The action leaving her panting and the muscles in her neck ached.

Wha... Fire...? Why is there...?

Crackles from the fire sparked through the predatory silence.

The stench of iron dragged itself into nose of the boneless girl, and began its attack on her brain. A thick layer of bitter smouldering ash buried her tongue and narrowed her airways.

Her mind was fading in and out of the pain induced haze. Each breath she took, diming her sight ever so slightly more. Each thought flittering into her mind for a second only to dart away, as if it was never there to begin with. Hovering just out of reach, disappearing like a ghost you weren't sure truly existed.

The silence was broken by footsteps that echoed on the flame filled room. She clung to the sound with ferocity; it was the only clear piece of awareness in that grey vacuum which had taken the place of her mind.

Dark laced boots came into view of the girl, shining red with thick liquid. The whipping ends of a trench-coat teasing at the edges of her vision.

A warm hand was placed on her cooling head. The single appendage spreading a feeling she could only liken to a hug. Unlike the furnace incinerating the house around her, this felt like a safe kind warm. Similar to an older sibling giving comfort or a parent assuring all would be right in the world soon.

"Child, I am truly sorry for your fate. If only I had arrived earlier, if only I could have spared you this pain."

The confusion planted in her mind wrenched itself deeper. Why would this stranger be sorry? It was all her fault, her mind screamed at her. She knew it was her fault. It always seemed to be her fault.

The thought sent a sharp pain through her chest, though it was dulled by her fading consciousness. It had been drilled into her so often yet the thought still wounded her? Who could hate her so much that all misfortune automatically fell on her shoulders?

"I am only asking you this because I truly believe you deserve this, more than anyone I know. Do you wish to live?"

She had already assumed she was dying, but now this man confirmed it.

But did she really want to continue living? Did she have the right to? She had always believed death should be accepted when it came for you. No one was above the natural order of life; no one could cheat death and not suffer the repercussions.

So why am I considering this? To go against everything I believe in?

More tears were added to the collection, dripping down to create the river of sorrow and regrets. The gaping hollowness of all her hopes and dreams of the future was, much like her body, torn apart and left to rot.

It was hilarious really. She thought death would be different; a swift moment of pain, and then relief in the release of life's burdens.

It was slower, more drawn out than she had thought in the past. Where was the acceptance? A life lived is a life fulfilled, but why was she so desperately clinging to the dwindling hope? Her body had already given up, when would her soul?

She forced herself to look at the strange man kneeling over her. She wondered if he understood how precious his life was, or if he was just like every other human, wasting his life on things that barely mattered.

Lifting a blood stained hand to his face she tried to convey her discoveries, but became distracted; she was entranced by both him and the red dripping onto her face. It didn't seem real, or hers.

Certainly, she could feel her life steadily flowing out of the major wound, leaving her feeling oh so cold and empty.

A small whisper of cloth brought her sluggish mind back to the unfamiliar figure looming over her body. A murmur of a thought spread across her mind, wondering if he was the angel to take her to her final resting place.

He was beautiful, she realised. Like a blond angel, so innocent of all evil; untouched by the cruelty of reality.

But tortured sky blue eyes that understood far too much pleaded with her. His face screwed up with unshed tears clinging to the lifeline of his lashes. One lost the battle to emotion and fell from his face and onto hers, intermingling until they became the one, evaporating before reaching the ground.

Smudging the thick red onto his face with a trembling hand, the girl tried to comfort the stranger. But all she achieved was a tight smile warping his features even more.

A stranger cared about me?

The thought made her want to laugh. It made her want to cry.

She tried to give a kind smile, grateful that such a being was there at the end, only for it to fall into a grimace. No matter, it gave her the comfort that she wouldn't be spending her last few moments as she had spent during the majority of her life.

"Please, you need to make up your mind!" the voice called out, cracking near the end; emotion gripping the throat and strangling the words.

She sluggishly thought over the offer before finally answering the desperate man. Her voice croaking and waning as the words made their way out of her mouth.

"Who am I to decide to live when fate has dealt me her hand? If she has decided it's my time shouldn't I accept it graciously?" she chuckled in mirth as she realised something, "But maybe you coming here was also fate? I'll leave it in your hands, Mr Fallen Angel. Why don't you take a gamble? Do you hold Lady Luck's favour?"

The last of her strength was spent and her hand crashed to the ground as her vision darkened. The last thing she was aware of was the deep voice above her.

"You are to live, my Emerald. I will never allow myself to lose you."