Lanes of Memory

Tarja's POV
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Darkness. Complete blackness, the kind that would terrify you and drive you into the realms of insanity. The silence, was much worse. Almost deafening in it's grandness.

I felt feathered touches drag across my skin, but followed by a comfortable innocence. The type of innocence that only a child possessed. Beneath my fingertips I felt the familiar texture of what I knew as snow. I gripped it in my hand, but it was absent of it's coldness.

How odd?

I could see a soft light behind my eyelids and slowly they fluttered. I awoke to the sight of snowflakes kissing my soft, pale pink cheeks. I slowly sat up and found myself in the midst of a field. One that I had not seen but many a years ago. I was home.

As I slowly got up, I realized that I was barefoot and I had on a white dress that shimmered like crystals in the sun. Never had I seen something so beautiful, as it clung to my chest and down to my waist, before cascading like a waterfall down to the ground.

My Raven black was styled into two braids that connected from either side of my head before becoming one on the back. With a fair amount of it being loose and flowing with the wind.

As I began to walk through the snow, I came across a mirror made of gold and encrusted with precious stones. I held my finger to it and touched it, small ripples emerging from where these two forces had met.

Similar to when how one would throw a pebble into a lake and the water would ripple from where the stone had sunk.

"Tarja" a voiced called out, the sound so melodic, that it dripped with honey and purity.

"Yes?" I responded to the voice, I was not afraid, there was no reason to be, I just knew.

"It's time to go" the angelic voice said and I turned around to come face to face with the owner of the voice.

Her blonde hair cradled her circular face and her hazel eyes were filled with warmth, despite the snow that fell around us.

"Don't be afraid" she spoke, "I've come to take you home."

I stared at her in confusion. Home? Where was home? I didn't want to go back home, I liked it here.

"Tarja, you can't stay here forever" she said with a hint of humor in her voice.

"Well, may I ask, why not? And...while I'm asking questions...why am I here? Did I get lost? What is your name?" I said as reason began setting into my mind.

"Come for a walk with me and I'll explain" she smiled to me, her hand outstretched towards me. I took it in my own as we strolled in the snow, she looked ahead and the evergreen trees began shading us from above.

She took in a breath before speaking.
"My name is Charlotte. I am here to guide you into the Afterlife. Tarja...you're dying as we speak and our journey is soon to begin."

"Dying?" I asked, but to my surprise I didn't sound...scared. But more so shocked at this revelation.

"Yes. Your time on Earth is coming to a close. You were born, you grew, you lived, and from the ash that you once came from...you are returning. As so many before you have done."

"Did I live a fulfilling life?" I asked Charlotte, to which she gave me a shrug.

"That is for you to judge. Did you love what you did?" She asked me, not condescending, but with honest curiosity laced in her voice.

"Well...yes" I responded to her, thinking of the dream I was leaving behind. The dream that I planted since I was a little girl and how it slowly began to grow throughout the years. Blossoming into my singing career.