I remembered the first time I went to the spirit world — the beautiful yet eery cobblestone pathway leading to forever darkness. But I remembered the trees. They were beautiful with small flowers in them, and whenever the wind blew, hundreds of flowers went with it. But somehow, the tree still had flowers on them. But the trees hid something else, something that drew me in even more. Elk.
They were breathtaking — all of them ten pointers or more. And unlike most elks, they let me come up and touched them. They seemed to like it too. And we would run for miles. And I would spend hours with them until they lead me back to where I started.
And I wished I could go back. I wanted to see them again. But I learned that the elk were what elementals called spirit keepers. They ruled over that land. My wish of going there was diminished when I discovered that I was with dead people. But, it was meant to be. I came back, this time the place was even more beautiful.
I kept coming back, and each time, the elk would greet me like an old friend. And I was happy, so happy that I thought I knew the place. But, that was child ignorance. I went astray and ended up getting lost to the dark side where they kept all the souls that killed. And somehow, I got to the part where they kept the worst of the worst.
Here I was, an innocent child wandering around and seeing cereal killers murdering and torturing their victims. I was terrified. But one of the people that got the privileged to walk freely, there weren't many few who could notice me and walked me to the path. I never went back.
But when I found out the answer, it hit me in the face. It was like getting a test where you got an answer wrong because you forgot to carry the negative. I felt so stupid. But that was soon overruled when I realized that I would have to go back.
However, there was a small distant part of me that felt like it belonged there. And, so here I am getting ready to travel to the land of the dead. And Eric standing in the back trying to pretend that he isn't scared. He's not fooling me, and he knows it.
But that isn't important. Right now, I have to do something that I sware myself I would never do. So, I'm pretending to be listening to Oliver and his rant about how I should come back without any horror stories.
"I think that's enough," it was Grace that said it. I'll thank her never. It would save me the pain of blister on my feet after a long day of shopping.
"See you soon," Julia's whispered was the last thing I heard before I submerged myself into my conscious.
The spirit world is a place only I seem to get to be on my own. However, in my early visits, I saw the elk running into the trunks and disappearing. According to my research, they do that when they have to collect the souls of the fallen. And I also found out that the different coats of them meant what souls they collected. The ones with a black and red pattern coat gathered the souls of the wicked, while the ones with a yellow and white hair collected the souls of the innocent. And then there were the ones with just a brown glossy fur; they gathered everyone else. Each is beautiful in there own way. But for some reason, I was attracted to the ones with black hair.
It wasn't like I hung out with them more, in fact, all of the types of elk ran with me, I just felt like I had a better connection. But, I loved the yellow and bright ones. Most likely because they were so vibrant my kid self must have thought that they're better.
And once the connection is finally complete, and I entered from the blinding light. I see it. It's just the same.
"Hello Princess Elena, we've been expecting you," a voice said.