• You try to fight to stay alive to prevent seeing the gates of the afterlife...but what happens when you lose that battle.

    .:{{Vision in Arisa's Perspective}}:.

    Weak...I felt incredibly weak and in pain. I was aching and hurting all over; my throat stung, and my ribs, wrist, and leg were incredibly sore, and it felt as though every inch of my body was bruised. My eyes were closed; I didn't want to see anything. I didn't want to open them and see Minoru's malevolent face or Kai's pained face. I wanted to stay in solitude.

    My body acted against my mind and I opened my eyes. I squinted to adjust my eyes to the bright lighting, only to realize I was standing in another completely white room. Every wall and the ceiling were white and the ground I was standing on was plush, like foam. I felt something trickle down my face and I glanced down to see some blood drip to the ground. My all-white dress was being soaked in blood, as was the ground below me.

    "What...?"

    "Arisa," a familar voice called gently. "Arisa!"

    I furrowed my eyebrows together, "Hello?"

    "Arisa..." the voice repeated.

    I inched my way closer to the voice and my heart dropped as soon as I realized who it was standing in front of me, "Aya...?"

    "Well look at you!" Aya smiled. "You're so pretty."

    I looked down at my clothing, still spotted with my blood, "Aya, I'm bleeding,"

    "Come here," she ordered a sentimental smile.

    I inched my way over towards my twin, my other half I had lost over two years ago. Even though I was in pain, I was walking and talking and breathing normally; the pain wasn’t fazing me. As I was headed towards her, I observed the environment around me. It was still a completely white room; there was no sign of a dungeon or prison cell anywhere. Maybe I was in the hospital? Oh no…where was Kai?

    “Do you hurt?” Aya asked.

    I nodded, “A lot,”

    Aya’s face fell, “I’m so sorry,” she looked down. “I’m so sorry you’ve had to go through all of this.”

    I smiled halfheartedly, “It seems as though everything fell apart since you died,”

    “Mom finally told me how it was I died,” she smiled weakly. “Who’d have thought that we would both be born with weird blood?”

    “My life has been backwards since you and mom and dad died…”

    “Well, not exactly,” she corrected me. “You finally found yourself a boyfriend. A fiancé, if I might add.”

    I gasped and clenched my stomach; there was still a slight bump there. The babies were still safe, despite all I was going through. I stared at Aya in concern, “Why am I here? Where am I?”

    Aya reached her hands towards me but they ended up pressing against an invisible wall. I raised my hands as well and also ended up pressing against a clear wall, probably six inches thick. Aya sighed, “You’re at the border of the afterlife, Arisa,”

    My heart ceased, “I-I’m dead?”

    “Not yet,” her face fell even more. “Kai is panicking.”

    I backed away about a foot, hyperventilating, “How do I go back? How can I wake up?”

    “That’s up to what the doctors do,” Aya mumbled. “If they can bring you back, you’ll wake up.”

    I groaned as I continued to bleed and ache. How was it that I was feeling pain when I was at the border of the afterlife? As those questions were buzzing through my head, mom and dad approached out of nowhere and stood on either side of Aya. I took some time to observe my family I had lost over two years ago. Mom and dad didn’t look any different and neither did Aya; she was still sixteen years old, the same age she passed away.

    I took a step forward and pressed my hands against the wall again with tears brimming my eyes, “Mom…dad…”

    “Arisa…my baby…” mom smiled. “You’ve grown up so much.”

    “Very mature,” dad agreed and nodded.

    “You guys are all here,” I choked on the lump in my throat. “I…I want to wake up…”

    “Please try to fight, Arisa,” mom pleaded, pressing her hands against the wall. “Try your hardest. Do it for Kai. Do it for the babies.”

    I released a sob and looked down, leaning my head against the glass. I was trying to fight; I wanted to survive and have the babies with Kai. What a horrible time it was for him and me to take our relationship to the next level. I couldn’t believe I had gotten pregnant; and right before my execution too.

    “Mom, I’m hurting…” I cried.

    “You need to wake up…” mom continued to plead. “You need to show us your strength. You need to make us grandparents.”

    “It’s so hard…” I gasped. “I’m exhausted…”

    I could hear somebody calling out my name, but it sounded very distant. It wasn’t mom or dad or Aya; who else was there? It was after a moment that I realized it was Kai’s voice I was hearing. He was truly panicking, calling out my name continuously. Was I unconscious in his arms?

    “Daddy, help!” I sobbed. “Help me wake up! I need to get back to Kai!”

    “Honey, there’s nothing I can do,” he pressed one hand against the glass, which had thinned a little. “If I could help, I’d wake you up in a heartbeat.”

    “I don’t want to leave Kai; I don’t want to leave everybody!” I continued to cry. “Kai and I still have to marry! We have to have these babies!”

    “We’re almost there, Arisa…” I heard Kai’s shaky voice and the sound of rumbling thunder.

    “Kai!!” I called out, on the verge of a meltdown. “Kai, I’m here!!”

    "We're almost there, Arisa," I heard Kai's panicking voice. "Arisa, I love you...I love you so much; please hold in there, please don't give up on me...You're my wife." He mumbled; I paused at the "wife" part; I had forgotten that we "married" just before I fell unconscious.

    I laced my hands through my hair and sobbed uncontrollably. I couldn’t bear to hear Kai’s suffering; I couldn’t bear the fact that I was alive but he couldn’t tell. I was still in pain; the bleeding was continuing and my breathing was heavy. My hands moved from my hair down to my stomach, feeling for the babies. It wasn’t too noticeable I was pregnant, but it was still there. I figured I would have miscarried from all of the stress and neglect I suffered for the past week.

    “Somebody get a doctor!” I heard Kai shouting, probably in the hospital. “Somebody help her; she’s dying!”

    A few moments after that, a shock jolted through my body and I ceased my breathing for a moment. It hurt; it hurt so much. But, what was strange was that my wounds weren’t hurting as much—almost as though they were going numb. When I looked down, the blood was fading out of my dress and I could feel my cuts healing over.

    “Mom? What’s happening?” I asked with a trembling voice.

    “They’re using a defibrillator,” Mom mumbled. “Arisa, you’re dying…”

    I shook my head vigorously, “No, I can’t die!!”

    My body weakened incredibly and I leaned against the glass. Aya pressed her hands against the glass and started sobbing as well, “Arisa, we don’t want you to die,”

    “I’m trying not to, but…” I mumbled, “I’m so exhausted…”

    The glass I was leaning against was thinning even more; it was probably half an inch thick. There was another shock through my body and I groaned, weakening even more. Aya’s crying started to build up and I could notice a few tears streaming down mom’s face too. They didn’t want to see me, not in the way they were now. They didn’t want to see me until I had lived a full life. They wanted me to grow old. They didn’t want to meet up with me so soon.

    “Daddy…” I cried. “Help me…” I inhaled unevenly. “I don’t want to end my babies’ lives.”

    The glass continued to thin and Aya continued to beckon me to wake up. My whole body was starting to feel so much better. The pain was disappearing, the cuts were gone and so was the blood. There was one more shock through my body and the glass wall shattered. I tumbled forward, almost in slow motion, into Aya’s arms and we collapsed onto the ground.

    “I’m so exhausted…” I exhaled with heavy eyelids.

    “Arisa…” Aya embraced me tightly and sobbed.

    As my eyes started to flutter shut, my ears, heart, and mentality were scarred by the sound of Kai’s sobbing and pleading in the real world…