O Death ⇉ Paul Lahote

four

By the time Heidi had finished her story, it was almost nightfall and the pair had to rush through the dark forest to get back to Paul's home. Thankfully, Paul knew the way like the back of his hand and Heidi had to rush to keep up with him at some points.

Just as Heidi was about to jump over a fallen tree trunk, she heard someone call her name; loud and clear almost as if they were right beside her. "Did you hear that?" Heidi paused, looking around her but she saw nothing in the dusk.

Paul stopped too, looking back at Heidi as he frowned. "Hear what?"

Heidi kept looking around her for the source of the voice for a moment before turning back to Paul, shaking her head as she forced herself to smile, "doesn't matter."

Before Paul had a chance to say anything, Heidi jumped over the tree trunk and was making her way through the dark forest. She vaguely knew where she needed to go but she was moving at a glacial pace due to how dark it was and how the forest floor was littered with slippery twigs and rocks beneath her feet.

Paul reluctantly followed after her, keeping an eye on her as they made their way through the forest. In truth, Heidi was practically falling asleep as she walked while also ignoring the voices call her name over and over again. After having to deal with the constant bullying and cruel words back home, Heidi learned to block out everything and only focus on her own thoughts.

Leaning against a tree, Heidi took a break to catch her breath and she must have fallen asleep since when she woke up, she was in a warm bed and had her clothes removed and placed over a chair in the corner of the room. Looking under the covers, Heidi noticed that she was wearing a long sleeved top, shorts and some warm fuzzy socks, her gloves still on – which gave her some relief that she wasn't naked.

Just as she was about to drift off back into sleep, Heidi sat upright in her bed, her eyes wide as she looked around the dark room, just in time to see a dark shadow dart out of the open window. Frowning, Heidi pushed her covers off her body and walked slowly towards the window, being careful to not wake anyone up as she reached it.

Looking out of the window, she saw the shadow waiting for her, beckoning her to follow after it before it flew up into the sky and burst into a ball of blue light, illuminating the darkness around Heidi.

Heidi's mind was telling her not to go out but something was telling her to go after it, almost like she was meant to follow it. Against her better judgement, Heidi removed her gloves and climbed out of the window to follow the light. Once she was standing under the light, it moved ahead of her and waited once more. Heidi laughed softly as she ran through the silent forest, following the blue light. Strangely enough, she didn't feel cold as she ran through the forest. It didn't make any sense to her, but she didn't really care in that moment.

After running for what seemed like mere minutes, the light stopped in the middle of a clearing and allowed Heidi to catch up to it and stand underneath it. The blue light turned into an orb that slowly drifted into the palm of Heidi's hands, the light shining through the gaps between her fingers. She gave the orb a little push and it flew back into the skies above her head, illuminating everything around her in a blue light. Heidi smiled as she watched the orb, and felt her feet slowly rise from the ground and the feeling of weightlessness came over her as she slowly began to float.

She drifted slowly around the orb before leaning backwards until she was resting on her back, her smile still on her lips. The orb faced her before it grew smaller – almost to the size of a marble – and floated towards Heidi's mouth before Heidi stopped it, suddenly confused as to what was going on. She tried to explain her confusion but no words came out of her mouth and the orb moved closer to her mouth again, but she tried to stop it again but her limbs wouldn't move, no matter how hard she tried.

The orb fell into Heidi's mouth, causing the girl gasping before her head tilted backwards and fell limp, her eyes closing as the blue light dimed until it was complete darkness.

Note

Sorry this chapter is shorter than usual, I had writer's block with this chapter and I've been so busy with work but I wanted to get a chapter out for you lovelies. The next few chapters will be a lot longer, I promise! Everything will be explained soon so hopefully, you won't be so confused for much longer.