Chapter Text
Drip. . . Drip . . Drip . Dr-
The steady increase of droplets battering the bus window was soothing against her frantic nerves. She was a creature of habit, going outside of her routine always made her get overly anxious. And it just so happened to be a day where both her parents worked with her bike deciding to give up living not even a few hours before.
Since she didn’t want to bother any of her extended family to come pick her up, she’d chosen to ride the public bus. It wasn’t the first time she’d ever rode a bus, no that was far from true, but it was the first time she’d ever rode it alone.
One of her sneakers tapped incessantly against the floor below her. The bus was making its way rather quickly through its route. It wasn’t a busy day, just a glance around at the seven other passengers with her was a sign of that. One of said passengers was a peacefully sleeping infant so she didn’t even know if they counted.
Her phone buzzed from within her hand, she flipped it over on her skirt covered lap. The password was put in with easy movements and she read the text she’d just received.
‘Make sure to lock the door behind you when you arrive home’
‘I know’
‘Good’
‘Stay safe, don’t talk to strangers’
‘I already know. <Stranger Danger>’
‘LOL’
‘Get home in one piece please. Love you Bells’
‘Love you too Mom'
She didn’t hesitate to turn her phone off after that. Normally she’d have already put in her earbuds and put on music but being alone put her on edge. She continued to stare out the window, looking at nothing yet everything at the same time. As the bus drove their surroundings blurred and the droplets on the window began to fall faster. Her eye caught onto a particular droplet as it raced against another slightly larger droplet.
‘Hurry little droplet, I put my bets on you. Don’t make me lose my money!’
Her breath hitched as the droplet raced closer to the bottom of the window only to be consumed by a much larger droplet. She let out a heavy sigh. Her imaginary bet was lost. Looking around she couldn’t even recognize where the original larger droplet went.
She dropped her head into her right hand and brought up her legs. Setting the heels of her shoes against a metal bar under her seat she propped her elbow on one of her knees. Outside the window the bus slowed to a stop. It seemed to go on endlessly, so she decided to rest her eyes for a bit.
Moments after closing her eyes she could swear the breathing of the passengers grew ever so slightly louder. Or perhaps she was just paying more attention to it.
It took another forever amount of time before the bus started forward. She could swear they hadn’t even gotten halfway through the intersection before a high-pitched screech met her ears.
Her eyes flew open as she fought back the urge to wince from the sound. She only had less than a second to realize exactly why the noise had been made.
On the left side of the bus was a car speeding through the red light.
It was speeding towards them.
It was heading straight for them.
In the next moment she was thrown to the side. Her side slammed into the hard metal walls- that would surely bruise -her hand outstretching to latch onto the seat in front of her. Alarms lit up in her mind as her vision blurred further.
Time seemed to stop as the bus suddenly lurched to the side. Her ears were overwhelmed by the shrill sound of metal crunching and shredding. Her eyes locked onto the place where the wall began to indent.
In the back of her mind, she registered many sounds.
The low humming of vehicles.
A person behind her smashing their leg into her seat.
The rain bathing the street.
The distant wail of a baby.
The crunching and cracking of something that couldn’t be metal.
A bloodcurdling scream coming from a young-looking mother.
Yet...
Even as she watched as she was lifted from her seat her mind could only stay eerily still. Her mind was firmly settled onto the faint buzz that her phone made against her palm.
Ah...
Her mom texted her.
.
. .
. . .
CRASH
Pain
It Hurt
Everything
H
U
R
T
S
She pried her eyes open.
Her breathing was heavy.
Something burned her nose.
Her ears rang.
Her body felt tingly.
Where . . .
Oh. . .
Her movements were sluggish as she lifted her head. Her neck hurt but she bared through the pain to gaze around.
Not far from her was something warm. It sparked and crackled.
That can’t be good. . .
Her stomach hurt. . .
Her vision blearily dragged itself around.
Something wet met her fingertips. Her hand felt like lead, but she forced it in front of her.
Her once white sleeved coat was stained with a dark crimson hue. Her fingers wiggled weakly at the sticky liquid coating them.
Huh. . .
The surface under her rumbled. A loud pop overwhelmed even the loud ringing in her ears.
Something slid across the crumpled metal from the shaking. It had a dark blue case that made her fingers itch with need.
Her red hand reached forth grabbing at nothing as it refused to move where she wanted it.
She grits her teeth as another shake jostled something that had been poking at her ribs further. Finally, her red stained fingertips met the ridges of her phone case. She curled it around one of them and dragged it closer.
A loud wet gasp met her still ringing ears as she H U R T .
More crimson liquid dripped into the growing puddle below her. It tickled her chin as it flowed from her gaping mouth.
Ah-
Her grip tightened, accidentally turning on her phone in the process. The screen was completely shattered but that didn’t matter.
Not as much as getting this thing unlocked it didn’t.
Pressing onto the screen only coated it in red. Loose glass shards dug into her skin.
She pressed harder, slowly, so so slowly, worked her way through it until finally-
Her screen suddenly blew up with light as it tried to accommodate for her abysmally dark surroundings.
Her eyes watered but muscle memory helped as she went for her messages. Through her tears she stared at the letters before her.
‘Make sure to be ready by seven. We’re having dinner at Grandma’s today.’
“Ha-” she let out a weak laugh that was cut short as she choked. Coughing up more blood she could only feebly wonder what the chunks dropping into the dark puddle were. Her head churned.
Was. . .
No.
This was how she died... Wasn’t it?
How funny.
She never thought she’d die at fifteen. She had her entire life waiting for her. She had planned to do and try so many things.
Yet- yet it stopped here.
She wouldn’t get another chance.
This was her only one and it stopped today.
She couldn’t help but laugh. Even as her coughing grew worse and more frequent, she laughed.
It grew louder until it was all she could hear. Breaking through the ringing. Overpowering the crackling of flames. Drowning the sounds of rain. She just stared at where she had dropped her phone.
Her hand no longer worked. It simply laid limply by her side as her phone was buried beneath a lake of red.
The last thing her mother had ever told her wouldn’t be words of love but instead an expectation to be ready. To be ready for something that she wouldn’t live long enough to experience.
Her laughing shifted to whimpers as strength was sapped away with every second that passed.
She-
She didn’t want to die.
She wanted to live. To experience the world. To learn all the languages she had planned to learn. To visit all the countries she had planned to visit. To finally get active and get rid of her twig physique. To finally finish one of her books and release it for all to see.
She had so much she wanted to do. Yet she wouldn’t get to do them, would she?
.
. .
. . .
. . . . No
No
NO
She refused.
She didn’t want to die.
She wasn’t going to die.
She tried to force her limbs to move. She only got a weak twitch from a finger. She clenched her teeth, trying to shave them down with how hard she bit down.
Her arm twitched.
Her arm shifted.
Her arm moved.
Her arm reached for a rod sticking from the ground.
Her hand clenched around it.
She pulled.
She didn’t move.
She pulled harder.
She still didn’t move.
No
NO
She wasn’t going to die here!
She wasn’t going to die today!
She’d survive this. She’d survive this. She’d stare death in the face and tell it to fuck itself before crawling her way back to the land of the living.
Death was a peaceful thing. She knew that. But she wasn’t ready for peace yet.
She had so much to live for before she succumbed and let herself rest.
Something cracked.
Something tore.
She pulled herself forward.
Her other arm remained limp. But that didn’t matter, one was enough.
Her fingers bled as they dug into the sharp edges of shredded metal. The pain was so insignificant that if her throat wasn’t currently full of blood, she’d laugh at it.
Her vision blurred.
Move
Her world swayed.
Move
Everything ached.
Move
Everything hurt.
Move
Her chest grew warm.
Move
Her hand grabbed for another ridge.
Mo-
It stopped. It stopped.
It hurt. It hurt.
Everything hurt.
She didn’t want to die.
Her vision clouded until she couldn’t see anything anymore.
She wanted the freedom to choose how she died.
Her eyes felt hot... her chest felt boiling .
Her body rested against the cold. Everything seemingly draining her body of warmth. Yet her chest only grew hotter.
She didn’t want to die.
She was only fifteen.
She didn’t want to die.
She had so much to do.
She didn’t want to die.
. . .
Why did she have to die?
Couldn’t she just be given another chance. . . be allowed to do something different with her life. Perhaps. . . perhaps then she wouldn’t die with so many regrets. . . . . .
A blazing inferno bloomed in her chest.
Almost everything disappeared into nothing the moment her eyes shut forever.
Almost.
What was left was ARCOBALENO .
+-*!*-+
There was nothing for a long time.
An empty void.
Yet it was ever shifting.
Never staying as one thing for more than a few moments yet never being anything to begin with.
She didn’t know when it appeared. But by the time she noticed it she knew it had been there for a long time.
It stood there. Staring at her. It looked familiar. She couldn’t look away. She didn’t want to look away. She knew if she did it would disappear, and she would never see it again.
She didn’t know where she was. She didn’t know why she was here. She didn’t even know who she was. She just knew .
Her eyes were locked onto it.
Those eyes were the only things unfamiliar about its form. They were such a foreign gold color that she might have felt uneasy if she could feel anything at all.
Its mouth opened, it spoke, yet she couldn’t hear a word it said. As though its words were blocked out.
For a moment it turned, as though about to leave and take that familiar form with those unfamiliar eyes with it.
Don’t leave!
It stopped in its place.
Please!
It looked back at her. Those gold eyes once more locked onto her own.
I don’t want to be alone!
I didn’t want to die!
It’s unfair! Why did I have to die? Why do I have to be alone?
It moved in a movement that she knew wasn’t one to leave yet-
Please don’t leave! Being alone is scary. I don’t want to be alone anymore. . . please don’t leave me alone.
In its movement it had raised its quite frankly stick like arms and held it out towards her. She hadn’t noticed it had been standing so close before. Its fingers just barely hovered over her forehead.
It opened its mouth and she expected to hear nothing once more.
It opened its mouth and she expected to be left alone for eternity in an ever-shifting place of nothing.
“R̴̞̲͗͊̽̾́̃͆̅̉̐e̴̡̬͚͎̫̩̜͎̣͕̺̣̹̙͌̑̌̋̿͋̀͝ś̵̰̬͔̘̳̟̪̲̙̥͓̬͑͜͜͝ţ̶̝̥̯̙̗̥̺̥̟̮͍̓̉͌̈́̂̍͗̈́͜͜͝ ̴̡̦̣̳̗͙͚̹̊̊̄͗̈́̌̓̈́̓͊̉̕n̸͉̱͈̪̟̳̞̗̟̤͍̽̈́̓̄͑ͅö̷̧̧͓͔͕͉̬̲̼̪̫̙̗̇͊͌͊͒͜w̸͔̻̱͕̱̣̃̔͋̋̌̓̈́̅͒̊̽̇̏̕͜.”
Golden flakes of light lifted off of its almost ghost-like pale skin. The golden light morphed and shifted mimicking the shape of a butterfly before sinking into her skin. It's almost eerie gold eyes glowed and the only thing she wanted to do was continue to look into them.
Her eyes felt heavy, but she fought to keep them open. She wanted to stare into those suddenly warm seeming golden eyes for just a moment longer. The last thing she saw before she succumbed to darkness was it disappearing into a shower of golden motes, leaving her alone once more.