Death Is My Frenemy (Book Three)

Chapter 13: Facing the Truth

Warning: I've been told I kinda rock. ;p

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The transition from Earth and the Unknown was so quick that my brain hadn't registering that there was no oxygen in between. My butt hit the ground hard, then my head, and my eyes instantly flew open at the sun straight above.

My retinas burned with the brightness and I tore them away. Where am I?

I  slowly took in my surroundings. In front of me spurted tall blades of grass and weeds and even a few stray flowers. I lay in damp mud and putting my hands to my eyes, my finger nails were caked with dirt and grime.

Almost instantly I became aware that even though everything before me was in three dimensional and looked entirely real, I couldn't smell anything. Not a single thing.

Then it clicked. I was in the Unknown and somehow my sense of smell had been affected.

I spotted a patch of onion grass shadowed underneath a tangled weed and took a huge sniff. Nothing. Messaging the sides of my nose, I drifted my eyes over my attire. I was wearing the same clothes as I was in the funhouse.

"Alexandru!"

My eyes jerked up and my ears prickled with awareness. My heart thudding wildly in my chest at the closeness of the voice.

The woman's voice became more urgent. "Alexandru! Alexandru! Ubi sunt vobis?"

There it was again. And I could perfectly understand what she was saying. It was Death's mother calling out to him, asking where he was. I couldn't bring myself to look over the grass so I listened to my breathing and tried to make due of what was happening. Where was I? What time period? How had I gotten here? Could they see me?

I shut my eyes and had the vague recollection of falling through darkness. The sensation that I couldn't breathe in between worlds.

This is what you wanted, I internally reminded myself.

Then why was I so scared?

Finding a small ounce of courage, mostly sparked from curiosity, I slowly got up from my spot and peered over the grass. A young woman, a few years older than myself  crouched with her back to me, and peering over the tall grass just as I was. Down her back lay smooth, spirally golden hair that created a halo of light around her as the sun threw its rays upon it. And when she slowly maneuvered herself so that I could see the side of her, I saw that the woman was almost my age, with high cheekbones and olive colored skin. Who I assumed was Death's mother was beyond beautiful.

The woman had grown silent, watching the grass at it swayed slowly by the wind. When her eyes grazed over my spot I muffled a gasp. Immediately, I felt a sense of remorse for the woman. Death's mother was undoubtedly upset, her light green eyes pooled with tears and her cheeks flushed. Across her right eyebrow lined a decently sized cut that looked a few days old. The beautiful woman reached up fix a strand of hair which had fallen in her face, and turned away from me. Her hands were tremulous.

She hadn't paused or frowned when her eyes had grazed over me. She couldn't see me.

I became well-aware of the time period when the woman stood to her feet. She wore an off-white, long stola and a matching shawl over it which draped over the left shoulder, under the right arm, and then over the left arm. At her breast was a golden clasp holding the two components of the stola together: the bottom and the top, and then  curbing down to her torso were an assortment of buttons. When she took a step forward the stola swayed with the wind like a dress.

I hadn't realized the woman's eyes were fixated on someone until my eyes drifted in the direction. A small boy, whom resembled a wild cat, had stuck his narrowed eyes over the grass and was watching the woman intently. The boy's hair was cropped short with pieces of grass in between it, and stuck up in all angles in small blonde tuffs. Dirt and mud scattered the plains of his sun kissed skin. His thin coppery tunic fell loose around his frail body, its short sleeves reaching his elbows. His cheeks were flushed as if he had been running vigorously. I knew he had been holding his breath within the grass to be silent by the way his chest was moving up and down in quick heaves.