Mortem

It was a numb feeling, like water rushing over the skin, it wasn't exactly peaceful, but it wasn't tremendous pain either.

Of course Criysa didn't really expect it to be a comfortable sensation when dying from something she'd been battling her whole life. She did expect more pain, a lot more pain, not the suffocating trickle that rushed over her body. It had been a tingle at the back of her spine that spread out like static on a TV, annoying, but not over bearing. The echo of the heart monitor was still in her ears, she could still remember when her heart stop tapping against her chest, it was as if the memory of her dying was burned on the palm of her hand. Every little detail of it played out in her mind in a clear picture, the moment she felt something was wrong, the exact moment her heart stopped beating, and when she passed over.

She remembered dying.

So why could she feel her heart beating in her chest?

THUMP! THUMP! THUMP!

It was like her heart beating, was teasing her, the sound of it pumping, flooded in her head. Until her eyes snapped opened, a gush of air rushing between her lips. Her eyes dashed in frantic motions around her until she registered that she was standing in almost complete darkness the only light being a grey tint highlighting the inky void.

She died!

Criysa knew she died, so how was she standing here, breathing?

Then the words were hissed in her ear that changed her life completely.

"Criysa Lison, you have...

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Dying was easy, it slid over your body until you took the last breath you had and the life left you.

It was the coming back that hurt like a bitch.

Criysa knew there would have to be a catch though, when she was defying the law of dying and all, but she had no clue it would hurt this much.

"You can lose your soul or take another's," The raspy voice breathe.

The beating of her heart pumped in her head as she stood staring into the darkness, she was beginning to think that her heart wasn't really beating at all.

"This is a trick isn't it?" Her voice flowed into the darkness, bouncing off and echoing in the void.

"What do you mean?" The hoarse voice was smothered in amusement, melding into the darkness, until Criysa had a hard time telling where the voice was actually coming from.

Criysa knew what it felt like being alive, it was pain. You breathe pain, you felt pain, you heard pain, life is pain. What she felt now was no where to close to the living of pain, this was numbness. As if her emotions had been tuned down, weakened, or made lethargic on purpose.

"My heart isn't really beating, is it? But, why would you want me to think it was?"

The darkness shifted, she saw it move, it was as if the darkness was the voice. Like it wasn't human, but something different, something she would of never dreamed of.

Criysa's eyes snapped to the side her head whipping around in the darkness, trying to focus on something, anything, but there was nothing to really attach onto to. When it seemed as if the darkness was hovering above she screamed out, "What are you?"

The sound of it bounced around in the inky void, until it faded out and died. A dark chuckle resounded around the empty space and it had a shiver racing down her spine.

"Your are very clever Criysa," her name was spat like a dirty word, "To answer your question I am neither a something, but am not a nothing."

A shock of fear slithered across her body as the darkness grew larger and seemed to dance across the space.

"Its time to make a choice! Will you live again by giving me your soul or fetching me another's?" The gruff voice yelled crazily.

A gasp flew from Criysa's mouth as she took a step back, her eyes searching the darkness, but seeing nothing. Pain erupted behind Criysa's eyes, before she even opened her mouth to reply, white hot it seared throughout her body. Until it hurt so bad that a scream tore from her mouth .

Pain was something she was use to, the eating pain that made you too tired to even get out of bed, to weak to even keep the simplest of foods down. Pain soared inside of her now, until light ceased to be seen and her mind started to go blank. When just the last thought of she would live now echoed in her mind.

With one last thump inside of Criysa's chest, her heart stopped and everything turned to darkness.