A Written Destiny ||A Music Freaks Fantasy AU

Chapter Eleven: Resurrected

"...Star?"

Black swam before my vision. My eyes lifted, and a blurry, white landscape met my eyes. I blinked, and then realized I was lying sideways. Groaning, I slowly lifted myself from the position.

Where... am I?

I looked all around me, but there was no sight of the person that called out to me. Perhaps they had gotten lost in this sort of snowy landscape. With ice that was laid almost artfully across pathways and roads, snow blankets covering everything, icicles dangling from trees.... It looked like a true winter wonderland.

A smile spread across my face. I loved winter, and the beautiful sights always amazed me. But smiling seemed to hurt. It felt like I hadn't smiled in a while, and I rubbed my face, confused. Surely that couldn't be right. Yet my body ached, and there were no wounds to be seen.

What happened?

And then all of it came and hit me in the head as if someone had hit me in the head with a brick. The battle. My torture session. The fight between Amelie and I. Laura. Zander.

I felt my heart race at the thought of his pale, bloodless face and peaceful expression. Without another moment of hesitation, I jumped to my feet.

"Star!"

I whirled around, and this time I caught sight of the figure that had called me. She seemed pale, and ghostly, with barely any colour, and I almost mistook her for part of the winter landscape. But I would never mistake those sparkling, black eyes.

"...Esme?"

"Yes, it's me," Esme's eyes softened, "Come, let's walk."

She waited patiently, and I joined her side as we slowly made our way through the frosty terrain.

"Do you know why you're here?" asked Esme.

I frowned, trying to make sense of her words. "Well... I suppose it has something to do with magic, huh?"

"Everything has something to do with magic in one way or another. Some magic is just more visible to the eye to others," she responded.

"Well... er... I suppose I'm dead, then. I remember Amelie yelling something at me... And then... I believe she shot a spell at me?"

"Why are you asking me?" asked Esme, amused. "The true answer lies with yourself.

"I'll take that as a yes, then... So I really am dead," I said thoughtfully. It didn't occur to me, but somehow, it felt like I had known all along. The fact that I was dead... didn't seem to confound me at all.

We walked on for a little while. The snow stretched across from to each end of the horizon. It was rather like walking in a white room. Crunches from the snow under our feet and the soft wind running through tree branches were the only sounds available to the year.

"Where do you suppose we are?" she asked, gesturing to the winter wonderland.

"Er... Heaven, I guess. I mean... I didn't think it'd look like this..."

She chuckled at these questions. "Of course, a tricky question of deciphering which is Heaven, or the Underworld. The answer is, both don't exist. There is only the Afterlife, where all species gather after they die, regardless if they performed good or bad deeds in their life."

"So the oldest legends..."

"Legends are nothing but myths and whispers," said Esme matter-of-factly, "the real truth is never spoken."