He wouldn’t sleep, wouldn’t eat, wouldn’t stop. He would search all the way to the void of the afterlife if he needed to.
He started sprinting, sniffing the air for just a hint of elderberries and red roses. Reia…
He paid no mind to the Demons he ran past.
“Orpheus.” He heard her voice, but it sounded distant – like it was far away in his memories.
He shook his head with a whine, the jingle he heard making him sprint faster. I need her.
Orpheus didn’t just want her, he needed her. He needed her to chase away the darkness he’d always felt by brightening his life.
His sight was so dark that he could barely see, but he would look until she was with him again.
“Orpheus.”
He heard her voice louder this time, but it pained him so acutely he let out a bellowing roar to the forest in response.
It hurts…
Reia started as she regained consciousness, her eyes snapping open.
She felt no pain, like her wound was gone, as she looked up into darkness. Where am I? She thought she might be dead, but she realised that it wasn’t empty darkness she was staring into, but a quick movement of tress as she passed under their branches.
Am I in the forest? She turned her head to the right to see the shadows of dark tree trunks passing her vision.
Seeing she was moving as she lay down on her back, she expected to feel the bite of wind, perhaps the cold of it. She couldn’t feel it. Actually, she felt nothing at all.
Not the air, not her own heartbeat, or even her own breaths.
She tilted her head forward as she lifted her arms, only to go wide-eyed. I’m transparent. She could see the shape of her hands like a white glow, but she could see through it, see her body and the forest behind it.
Am I a ghost? She touched her face to feel it, knowing she felt pressure, but not the actual touch of either. Not her face upon her hands, or her hands upon her face.
It felt as though her body was floating and she looked down to see what she was lying on. Except she wasn’t lying on anything but floating above it.
“Orpheus?” she asked, seeing him below her and somehow dragging her along.
His only answer was a whine and she frowned at the suffering she heard in it. She turned over and tried to touch him. Her hand went through him!
She recoiled and brought it back. I can’t touch him.
There was a flame between his horns, tied to them by inky, goopy, black string. She felt the warmth of it when she tried to touch it, but her hand went through it as well. It did flicker brighter, though.
“Orpheus,” she tried to yell, wanting him to stop running so she could figure out what was going on.
His heart-aching roar made her shrink.
Shit, he can’t hear me properly.
She wanted to stop floating with him and show that she was here. Is he searching for me?
Looking down to her palms, her eyes crinkled in confusion. If she was a ghost, she would be able to be with him forever, but what point was there in this? She couldn’t touch him, he couldn’t hold her, and it would be meaningless.
This wasn’t what she wanted. I want my body back!
She started sinking through him like a heavy weight in her gut was pressing her down.
They separated when she touched the ground, and she felt it. The coldness, the dirt, the hard stick that poked her in the arse. Thankfully, she was still wearing the dress she had been wearing before she died, otherwise that may have truly hurt.
The sound of his footsteps thumping grew softer as he kept running, not knowing of what just happened. She once more turned her gaze to her hands to see they were solid, and she almost slapped herself in the face trying to touch it.
I’m physical again? All she had done was want her body back, and she had it.
Rustling in one of the trees brought her attention to the fact she was now physical, and alone, in the forest of the Veil, in the dark, in what must be the middle of the night.
Reia scrambled to her feet, reaching her hand out in the direction he’d gone.
“Orph—” She didn’t get to finish her shout before a Demon tackled her to the ground.
Her scream was cut short when fangs bit into her throat as claws sliced across her chest. Burning pain invaded her senses, and Reia fought and struggled as she felt herself being eaten alive. The sound of her skin tearing, her own gargles, were the last thing she heard alongside the snarling and smacking of lips.
The creeping chill of blood loss washed her under, numbing her of pain, until she faded from the world.
When she opened her eyes once more, she found herself staring up at the canopy of trees swiftly moving over her. She turned to find she was floating above Orpheus once more.