Sempiternal- Chapter One

The first time I saw her, she was laying in the snow beneath a tree outside my house. The moonlight illuminated her pale skin and the cherry-red slush around her. It was around 4 in the morning on a Saturday and I'd gone out to look at the moon after failing to fall asleep after a nightmare. Only a few steps into the cold December night air and I saw her, laying on the ground surrounded by blood-soaked snow.

She was beautiful, despite no doubt being dead. In her left hand she loosely held a butcher's knife, crossed over her body inches away from her right arm. Her right hand was left severed from her body, with all but her middle finger tucked slightly under her thumb. On her middle finger were tattooed the words "fuck the world" in cursive. Locks of hair lay strewn about around her. Black as a night without the moon.

I looked to her head, and saw the choppy layers framing her face at chin length. Her deep red, perfectly full lips were in a slight smile, like she was trying not to laugh. She had snake bite piercings- one ring through each side of her perfect lips. Pine-green eyes stared open at the moon. Her skin was as white as an iceberg, holding no color but that of the tattoos she had on her arms and chest. I have tattoos too, all the way up my arms. She wore blue skinny jeans and a Bring Me The Horizon t-shirt, the yellow Sempiternal knot now splattered with blood.

Standing there, silent, I took in all of this in mere seconds. Helplessly paralyzed I saw something shimmer on her cheek and snapped into motion. I looked toward the glimmer of reflected light and saw something impossible. A single tear dripped down from her emerald eyes, shining in the moonlight with a sparkle that said ""fairytale" while the rest of the scene screamed "nightmare." Her eyes had a melancholic beauty I could never have imagined before seeing her.

I stared into them for what seemed like hours until I'd memorized every shade of green that spiked in towards her pupil. I didn't notice the reflection of something hanging in the tree above us until a breeze like a whisper brushed through and made is sway and catch the light. I looked up. Hanging by a thread was a single rolled up piece of paper. I hesitated, remembering laws about interfering with crime scenes, but I reasoned not to care at this point, and pulled it down anyways. That was either my best decision or my worst, I don't have a clue anymore.

I carefully unrolled the paper and turned so I could read it in the pale light of the moon. There were only three words to read at all, and a drawing above them. I recognized the Sempiternal knot immediately, drawn flawlessly in black ink. I glanced down to the words written beneath it- in blood instead of ink. "Never ending. Everlasting." was all it said. Before I could fully understand that the words were the definition of "Sempiternal," I was pulled backward by my belt loop.

I landed on the girl's lap, who was sitting up now and had pulled her finger out of my belt loop. Her right hand was attached to her wrist once more, and the blood splattered and smudged all over her was fading fast. I watched in pure shock as the cuts shrunk to nothing and her skin regained color- though only a little. It seemed her natural skin tone was nearly that of it when she was dead. I opened my mouth to speak, having no idea what I might say. I didn't get a chance to anyways, because she narrowed her piercing eyes and put her finger on my lips, mouthing the word "silent". I watched in pure shock as the cuts shrunk into scars that I wanted so badly to kiss. If only I could say something to help her. Unfortunately, it seemed I was more helpless than her at the moment and speaking would probably make her angry.

We waited there for the longest minutes of my life as my thoughts rushed. Her finger didn't leave it's spot on my lips, resting between my angelbite piercings. I didn't dare move for fear the icy tingle she forced onto me with her fingertip would disappear. After a few moments her hand moved to hold my cheek as she whispered,

"Follow me- quietly" with a wink. She brought her hands to my waist and pushed me off of her gently. She started crawling through the snow towards the forest behind my house, and if I had any sense of the idea not to go with her I didn't pay attention to it. I trailed behind her as quietly as possible, imitating her cat-like crawl as we wandered into the trees. Once we were about 20 meters in, she stopped and stood up. She held out a hand for me to get up as well, and although I didn't need help getting up I took it just to feel the little shock her touch gave me. She didn't let go, and let me to a huge Walnut tree where she promptly turned, grinned at me, and said,

"Climb."

I was confused at first, but her beautiful welcoming smile that had that slightly amused look made me feel like I was just hanging out with an old friend. I laughed to try to play along and joked,

"Fine, but you aren't the fucking queen or anything and you'd better explain this whole thing soon!"

I grabbed a branch of the tree and pulled myself up onto it. She gave my ass a shove and winked as I pretty much exploded in fire at her touch. She clambered up after me and stood up on the branch I was sitting on. She lifted herself effortlessly on to a limb above me, sat down, hooked her legs around it, and swung her upped body backwards. Her head was right next to mine and she giggled when her shirt slipped up a little from her upside-down state. I pulled the edge back to her hips for her in a flirtatious way, laughing as if what was happening was perfectly normal.

We calmed down and just sat there for a while, as she and I stared into each other's eyes quizzically for a moment.

"You have beautiful eyes," we said to each other at the same time. I blushed, but I don't know if she did because I looked down so quickly.

"Sorry," she said. "I've just never seen human eyes before." I looked up.

"What are you then, if not human? Where do you come from? Weren't you just dead!? I'm sorry, I just really need to know, I'm so confused and you're so beautiful and I... I don't know, I think I love you."

She smiled, in a way that looked almost sympathetic.

"I know, I should tell you... Okay, promise you'll still love me? Because I love you too and I can't lose you already."

"I promise," I said with a smile. My heart was beating faster and faster.

"Okay... I, um, I'm a suicide victim."

"O...kay, continue?"

"Yeah, um, I killed my self, and that was the thing you saw, was what I looked like right after killing myself. I died right there a month ago, I lived in this house before you did- you must be new?"

"Yeah... so you're dead? A zombie?"

"No! I'm not a zombie. I'm not gross, and I don't want to eat our brains." She giggled. "I killed myself, and I never got to Heaven or Hell or any of that, I just got to a big, pitch black open space. The only people there were people I cared about- some living and some dead. Band members, poets, just everyone I've ever looked up to or cared for. They all just welcomed me with smiles, hugged me, shook my hand, and collectively told me one thing: I wasn't meant to be dead. I asked a lot of questions, and found out a lot, and it was so crazy and amazing I don't even know where to start."

"Just tell me what happened to get you back here, beautiful and touchable and alive." She smiled at that, and it made me feel wonderful to see I'd made her happy.

"They said I wasn't supposed to die. Apparently all suicide victims, people under 16, accidental deaths, tragedy victims, etc. get taken to that big black space. They get to see the people they care most about, and they think they're dreaming the whole time, so they don't freak out or anything. Then they send you back to Earth for a Sempiternal life. You can take it a a blessing or a curse, or as being blessed with a curse, but you can't escape it. They send you back just the way you left, after a month spent with your favorite people. The only rules are that if someone sees you in the few seconds that you're in the scene of your death, they can always see you, unlike other people. Everyone else can't see you unless you want them to."

"Oh..." I whispered. "So I can always see you?"

"Yeah. You're the only one. I didn't want anyone else to see me once you saw me." She blushed. "I thought you were perfect and I didn't want anyone but you to be able to see me. I don't know what I would have done if someone had called the police. Also you were super sexy," She said in a quick and quiet tone. She bit her lip and looked away, still hanging upside-down. I lightly turned her head back towards me with my fingertips.

"What's your name?" I asked.

"Emily", she replied shyly. "And yours?"

"Sam", I said. "Now come down here so I can kiss you, Emily."

She smiled and flipped backwards onto the ground feet below.

"Catch me then, Sam!" With that she began running through the snow, laughing and tripping. I jumped off the tree and rushed after her. She was extremely quick, but I caught up to her when she collapsed, giggling and out of breath, in the snow by my house. I fell down next to her and pulled her on top of me.

"Fine, you earned it," she whispered and smiled. She leaned in and kissed me, our piercings touching and making tiny clinking sounds as our lips pressed together and her tongue swirled around mine. Her breasts pressed against my chest and I could feel her heart beating- and damn was I glad it was.

TO BE CONTINUED!