August 27th, 1999
Finally, today’s the day! I’ll give Marcus my answer. My name is Amethyst, yes, I know, the jewel. But it’s true, Amethyst Diamondiase, just because I was born with mysterious purple eyes. My name always seemed like a joke, Amethyst as my first name and my last name had the word ‘diamond’ in it, I was the ‘jewel’ of the family. I live alone in a small house, trying to mold my life with the money that my parents left me. My mother and father passed away when I was small, so I didn’t know them much. I knew them enough to remember what they looked like and remember very few memories we had together. But I didn’t remember them enough to appreciate everything they did for me, if they even did anything at all. Aside from my family being incredibly rich, there weren’t many things my father left me, such as love. He never loved me enough, my mother too, they were always working. They didn’t know what I liked to eat, what my favourite color was, what I was scared of. It was like I was a stranger in the house.
My father left me a fortune of stuff (like money) and a little sister, Eliza. She was my tiny, precious treasure and I would have given up life for her, she was silent, calm and really smart. We were both smart and we were never outsmarted. Eliza was my opposite though, despite us both being smart, our personalities were completely different. While she was the shy and silent one I was the outgoing and exciting one. Until one day she came home from school and she was really happy, she was smiling. She became like me in just a few days, she smiled more and laughed a lot. Eliza never smiled, never, even as a baby. Sometimes I would ask her why she never smiled she would tell me that smiling would only create scars in the future. I didn’t know what she meant, but I loved seeing her happy and cheerful. It was my wish; my only wish in the world was to see my little sister Eliza happy. Now it was my hatred to the world that dominated, I swore to myself I would destroy the world and create a better one, one where my sister Eliza can be reborn into, a world without cancer. A world where everything was calm.
I got in my black SUV that used to be my father’s and thought over to myself, is it okay to get married when you’re 20? Will Marcus still feel the same about me? Do I look okay? I still hated the world for giving up my sister and I wanted to move on but I would always end up hearing her laugh and seeing her smiling at me. I now understood what she meant about smiling, I kept smiling though, for Eliza. Only for Eliza. Whenever I smiled, Eliza shone in it. Even when I am scarred, I will stand back up and move ahead before anyone else.
The weather was blazing hot and humid, the air was so humid that nobody wanted to go outside but the wind blew every five or ten minutes. The sun was the problem; the big flaming ball of heat was burning everyone. But, without it, we would freeze to death. So there wasn’t really a point in complaining. My skin felt sticky from sweat, normally I didn’t sweat much but when I was sweating, the temperature was really hot. I tried to stay simple when I was picking my clothes in the morning, I didn’t want Marcus to think I was already picking out a wedding dress or something, but then again it’s not like I’m not picking out my wedding dress already. I wouldn’t normally sit for an hour, thinking of what to wear but there was a first time for everything. I wore a black and green tank top and a pair of denim shorts that were way too short for my taste.
My mother or father didn’t have pale skin but I was super pale and I disliked tanning in the sun so I stayed this way, my friends, Sara, Marissa and Tammy would always joke around and ask me if I was a vampire or something. My jet black hair was silky and long, even wrapped up in a ponytail, my hair would still be able to reach my waist. My friends would joke about that too, they called me an anime character, long black hair, unusual coloured eyes and a “laid-back, violent” personality. If someone said they hated me, I would say that I hate them back. If someone was picking a fight with me, I would punch them in the face. If someone was criticizing me, I would sit there and say thank you or good for you. They normally called me a strange person since I laugh when I’m mad. It seemed like the best way to hide my feelings but I guess it just scared everyone. I’m pretty sure I gave my best friend, Sara the creeps because she made a strange face and ran away screaming. But afterwards she got used to it and didn’t mind my strange method of raging.
It was just a few days ago when Marcus proposed to me. It was classic, we were on vacation with his family and at the dinner table in the restaurant he got on one knee and said, “Will you marry me?” He presented me with a golden ring that had his name and mine engraved on it, I cried that day and I didn’t know what to do, so I told him to give me three days and I would answer him.
His family looked shocked how I made a deadline kind of thing but they understood how I felt confused, since they told me that it was someone’s birthday, so I would come on the vacation with them. Marcus chased me around on the first day and begged for an answer, he followed me like a puppy and I was so irritated that I ended up kicking him in the stomach. On the second day he kept calling me, my phone was ringing nonstop and I went crazy, went to his house and kicked him. Today, he only called twice in the morning which meant I didn’t have to kick him, yet.
He was the girl’s favourite in high school and now that I think of it he was also the girl’s favourite in elementary school, I think in elementary school there was a Marcus fan club and they would go around stalking him. He was so popular that everyone would have probably been drooling by his feet and if I’m not mistaken someone did drool over his feet. The fan club took votes from all the girls of our grade and then they made a weekly update on who were the top three boys that the girls would date. It was really awkward for me, since whenever they asked me for my vote, I didn’t want to vote for Marcus because the girls would tell Marcus that I liked him or something. And besides the last thing I needed was a rumor about me going around the school that I was in love with Marcus. Because it was no rumor.
Marcus’s hair was never straight and whenever I tried to fix it he would ruffle his part blonde, black and brown hair back into its normal messy state. His eyes were mesmerizing, they were a strange colour, and they seemed to be a mix of blue, green and gold together. He was like an angel that fell from the sky. I giggled to myself as I drove to his house, I fiddled with the golden ring on my left hand fourth finger and when my eyes were back on the road a bright red motorcycle zoomed past me and cut me off. Not having time to slow down, I quickly swiveled to the lane on my right.
Gosh, if this were a one lane road I would’ve crashed and probably died. No, don’t think so negatively, it might actually happen if you do. I thought to myself, I wasn’t superstitious or anything but trouble seems to find me. Usually I talked my problems over with Eliza, not even knowing if she understood a single word I said but now I would think all by myself.
I was safe, but my cellphone fell on the ground because I suddenly stepped on the brake. That was fine though, I could just pick it up when I got to Marcus’s house. But my phone rang; it repeated the same jingle every three seconds, it sounded like a bird early in the morning and it was very annoying. I never bothered to change it since I picked up the phone right away but now I was stuck in a situation like this. Wow, I have bad luck; it just had to ring the one moment I can’t reach it.
My cellphone was also a gift from my father, actually almost everything of mine was either a gift from my father or was my father’s; it was neon green and had zebra stripes on it, green would always be my favourite colour. It had a decorated golden locket strapped to it. On one side, there was a smaller locket in the slot and on the other; there was a picture of Marcus. The other locket was empty; I didn’t know what to put in there so I left it empty. I would have put my sister’s picture in it but there were none. My phone kept ringing; I looked down and saw that the caller was Marcus! I had to get it, what if it was about our marriage, I reached down, at the same time I was trying to keep my eye on the road, but my seatbelt was restraining me from reaching down any further than a few centimeters.
I took off my seatbelt and tried again, the one mistake in my life was now, the moment I took my eyes away from the road. When I got the cellphone, I looked up and saw that a truck carrying a lot of wood in front of me had stopped. This time, I knew I couldn’t save myself from crashing; I prepared myself for death and thought of Marcus one more time. Eliza, I’m sorry, I can’t change the world for you. Marcus, I’m sorry, I can’t marry you. But, I’ll be able to see my parents again, right? Once I die, I’m sure my parents will be there to meet me.
The tires screeched as I stepped on the brakes. Time seemed to slow down as my car smashed into the truck in front of me. I rolled out of through the front of my car, breaking the window. Big logs of wood smashed the remainder of my car. Little shards of glass covered my body. The moment I hit the ground, I knew I was dead and I thought to myself, this is it; I’m dead, no more life. Goodbye. But my heart didn’t stop and I didn’t feel any pain, I opened my eyes and I was alive.
I stood up and saw my gold wedding ring on the ground covered in blood. I tried to pick it up, but my hand went straight through the ring. I gave a small yelp of surprise and looked at my hands, they were slightly transparent. I saw the pavement through my hands and the pavement was splattered with my blood. I quickly stood up, ran to my car and looked inside, and there in the driver’s seat was…me.
I backed away, shaking my head in disbelief, at first I couldn’t even shake my head, my mind went blank and then I was trying to fling my head off. I couldn’t believe it, I wouldn’t believe it but in my mind I knew it was true. Blood streamed down my face, covering my eyes and my mouth. My hair looked damp as if it were drenched in blood. I heard my breath quicken and there was no heart beat in me. I turned my head slowly and looked at myself in the rear-view mirror. My hair was jet black as usual; my purple eyes were still there for sure, since I was still able to see. My face wasn’t covered in blood and I wasn’t covered in blood anywhere. I was fine, fit as a fiddle. I was wearing a refined silver cloak and an obscure dress, it made me feel depressed. I looked at a passing man walking along the sidewalk and asked him,
“Hello? Can you tell me what happened?”
But, the men walked pass me and said, “Hello, miss, are you okay?”
I followed his gaze and saw that he was talking to my lifeless body. I started to panic; that man acted as if he didn’t hear or see me, is it an act though?
I went around asking people along the sidewalk, if they could see or hear me. Just like the other man, they couldn’t see or hear me. They just went to see my dead body. I stood in the middle of the sidewalk and took a deep breath, I told myself that I was dreaming and that I’m sleeping in my room, wrapped in many warm blankets. People walked through me as they talked on their cellphones and chatted with their friends. They told their friends that there was another car crash by a drunken woman. Normally I would have slapped them across the face but I was petrified; I didn’t know what to do. I looked up, my vision started to blur as tears formed in my eyes. I wiped them with the back of my hand and looked around for any clue of what to do next other than cry, on the sidewalk, there was a boy, he looked my age. He glared at me. Maybe he can see me… I’ve got to try and ask. I picked myself up off the ground and slowly approached him and whispered,
“C-can y-y-you see me?”
He still stared at me. I sighed, probably through me; it was too good to be true. I turned and started walking away, when I heard a voice, a boy’s voice say, “Of course I can see you.”
I spun around and looked at him, he kept talking and gazed into my eyes, “I’m Arty, the 6th gate of Hell.” He turned around and started walking then he looked at me and said, “Aren’t you gonna follow me?”
I shrugged and thought about my home and family, there was nothing left for me so I answered, “Why not?”
We walked off into a forest, I felt scared but I kept reminding myself that I was still alive and that this was a bad dream. I accepted to go with this boy but I still didn’t accept the fact that he was a god and that I died. I was more confused than ever, I felt so frustrated that I wanted to kick a tree.
“I don’t understand any of this.” I said nervously, I couldn’t decide whether to believe this person called Arty or run for my life and scream my head off.
“The only reason you died today is because of the crime you committed, a long time ago, remember?” He looked away and said casually, “you murdered her, that girl, what was her name again? I don’t know, do you recall that girl’s name?”
I inhaled sharply and thought, how does he know? He smiled a cold smile and carried on, “Strange, I can read all your thoughts but not as clearly as the others. Most of the others that died silently left their life in the human realm to Hell. Don’t try to hide anything from me, I’ll know. For example, you think that I’m just a ‘weirdo’ and that you’re dreaming and you’ll wake up soon.”
My god, he actually does know everything…
“WELL SUCK IT UP PRINCESS, YOU’RE GOING TO HELL!”
I crouched down on the ground and once again started muttering to myself that I was alive and that this was a horrible dream and that a really cute guy popped into it. He smiles again as if he was taking pity on me and then said calmly, “You have a chance though, you will go to the six gates of hell and one gate of heaven. If they accept you, you will become a spirit. A death spirit.”
I looked up and tried to smile, then, the 6th gate of hell, smiled a warm smile that melted my heart and said, “I accept you.”
Then he vanished. I laughed an unsure laugh and started to feel worried. I still didn’t understand what he meant by the gates of Heaven and Hell, but it was too late now.

“Wait a minute, how do I get to the gates or whatever you said earlier? Hello? Arty? Do I have to dig myself to Hell?! Help me!” I yelled at the spot where Arty disappeared. I started screaming at the spot when another presence entered my mind; Arty’s voice rang in my head, as he whispered,
“Follow the sound of my voice, if you can’t follow my voice then you are still alive somewhere in your body and you will probably die there very painfully. Just believe in yourself.”
“Oh…thanks.”
Arty started humming a slow, scary song. I felt like I was being drawn towards the song, I felt relieved since I was able to follow his voice, if I couldn’t I would have died painfully, or so the weirdo says. He kept humming, the more I heard the song the more I thought it was sad instead of scary. My eyes started to tear up as a warm tear rolled down my cheek and landed on a tiny leaf, the leaf was burned. I started running through the forest; the trees were blurred as I ran. How fast am I running? I thought.
I looked down at my feet and noticed I wasn’t even running, I was floating. When I looked up, I screamed as I flew through a tree, an oak tree, just like the ones I would climb with Marcus back in high school. Arty kept humming and I kept floating, but, a bit slower this time, trying to keep control over my new ability.
Finally, I came to a gigantic rock. Seriously, a rock? I thought out loud I guess since I wasn’t trying to shield my thoughts from anyone. Then I felt Arty’s presence in my head once again. He stopped humming and he whispered in my mind, yeah, it’s a rock but it’s a spell that will open the rock.
A spell? To open? The rock? I thought back to him, holding back a laugh. There was no way this rock would open, ever. Unless there was some magical force that would get the rock to split apart, like Athena’s head. He was kidding, right? He better be joking because if this is a joke I would probably punch him.
“Wow, you’ve got great power, talking in a god’s head like that. I can hear you loud and clear if you whisper. Very rare. Not many spirits can use their sixth sense that well, especially after dying. You’ll make a fine death spirit.” He said proudly as if he picked me out from a convenience store.
“Why thank you.” I said, “Wait. Is that a compliment?”
“Indeed.” He said smoothly as his mind brushed against mine, for some reason, I blushed.
No! No. The only person I love is Marcus. Or maybe I could have changed since I died and all…..no, Marcus is the only one for me. Don’t think anything else, Amethyst!
Arty chuckled and said in my head, “You just blushed now, right?”
“None of your business!” I snapped. Arty winced and said,
“Please, don’t scream.”
“I’LL SCREAM ALL I WANT!” I yelled out loud and in my thoughts. Arty was pushed out of my mind and he appeared in front of me. His hair was silver and he wore a silver cape and green robe, his eyes were glowing as he swiftly approached me and said calmly with no sign of anger,
“Think deep within yourself, find the key to the shrine and recite the spell. Remember, I accept you.”
Then he vanished again, and I blushed again. I shook the thought out of my mind and told myself that the only person I love or loved is Marcus.
Think of a spell, think of a spell. A key, a star, the shine. I got it!
“Oh key of the star, near and far. Shrine, open with all your might, release the way to the light.”
The shrine started to open slowly, and I started my journey to the Gates. When I walked inside it was dark and cold. The walls were wet and after the rock had opened it had begun to shine on the inside. The rock was filled with crystals that glowed every once in a while. I gasped and looked around and then I walked onwards, even though everything was bright, I still couldn’t see the ground. I followed the faint glow of the crystals and saw an opening.

“Hello? Arty? Gates? Gods?! Arty! Help me! Again.” I yelled out to the darkness, for Arty, for anyone who was able to see or hear me.
Arty appeared again and this time he looked more human, like when I first saw him, his eyes were no longer glowing. He had brown hair and brown eyes, it kind of reminded me of a teddy bear. Dark brown eyes and light brown fur. Arty smiled and said cheerfully,
“You made it! Great job, a few more seconds of waiting and your head would have been cut off! The gods don’t like to wait that long. Now, you can’t meet the other gods in those poor death spirit clothes.”
“I think these clothes are actually really pretty, for a dead person, that is.” I admitted while blushing.
“Nonsense! You seriously can’t meet the others in…that.” Arty said, still cheerful, it was a bit creepy. Arty smiled again and snapped his fingers.
The sound resonated in my head. I gasped, as a warm glow took over my body. My hair was braided into one long braid, and my cloak became a bright red with a symbol in the middle. The symbol was a star with two small wings on each side. My face wasn’t changed at all other than the fact that I had blush and mascara on. My dress…my dress was BEAUTIFUL! It was black and silver, strapless and….so pretty! It was indescribable. Ribbons were wrapped around my feet like shoes. When my ‘transformation’ was complete, Arty looked satisfied as if he did a good job at dressing me up. As we walked, well, floated in the darkness, Arty told me that what I was wearing was a ceremonial robe that is used for special occasions, like turning one into a death spirit. He also told me that I was probably the first female in the century who would become a spirit. We reached a wooden door that looked as if it was scratched over and over again. It had a golden sign on it that was engraved with the word “sladaur”. What the heck was sladaur?
Arty whispered, “It means throne room. Trouai Amethyst Diamondiase makisage.”
“Open, Amethyst Diamondiase has arrived.” I translated. Arty looked surprised, then smiled and told me that I was becoming more of a death spirit. I frowned; I didn’t want to become a death spirit or any kind of spirit, EVER. I just wanted to go back home where I spent time with Eliza.
The door opened and I slowly floated inside and I saw seven thrones. The one in the middle was white and the others were black. I noticed that there were people sitting on the thrones except for the last one. Arty left my side and flew to his throne and sat there, his smile disappeared. Images flew into my mind of a swan, wolf, tiger, dragon, lion, leopard and phoenix. It was the symbol of the gods.
“Shield yourself from our magic. If you fail, you’ll already be dead so that’s pretty straight forward and if you pass, then you’ll just have to wait and see.” The swan said.
I screamed as the gods tried to enter my mind, was this the test? They pecked and bit into my mind. I tried to push them out, but the pain was unbearable. They felt like a thousand needles each, stabbing me, peeling away my skin, clawing at my face and my body. Then I forced myself to focus. I cleared my mind and only paid attention to one thing and that was Marcus. My mind was relieved of the pain as I felt the gods trying to break my new and improved barrier of Marcus. When the pounding stopped, I opened up. I looked at all the gods, Arty was obviously the youngest out of the seven. The throne with the swan symbol in the middle, turned away, as if it wasn’t needed. I saw the one on the white throne stand up and walk away.
“Indeed she is not needed. She is the 1st gate of Heaven and it’s very rare to have someone die without any mistakes in their life. Amethyst, you are not one of those few. You have committed murder, am I right?”
Memories flashed into my mind, a knife, hatred and blood. I fell to my knees and yelled, “Who are you?! What do you want with me? I just want to go back.”
Arty seemed hurt how I was being tortured with only a few words, but he didn’t do anything, or he couldn’t do anything.
“To home, there is no home left. Even Eliza left you. I am the 2nd gate of Hell, since the first gate of Hell is collecting souls of the dead of a war, I will be taking his place for now. You may call me Sam, though my real name is more intimidating than Sam, this name will have to do.” Sam announced.
“Eliza didn’t leave me! The earth let her die and I couldn’t stop the gods from doing that can I? Anyway what do you want?” I asked him. Sam laughed, so loud the whole room seemed to rumble, and then he said cheerfully,
“I want you to remember…”
Sam stood up from his throne and walked out of the shadows. He had dirty blonde hair and his eyes were light green. Sam stared deep into my eyes and snapped his fingers.
I gasped as memories overflowed my mind and slipped out like an endless fountain of water. A piece of my memory flew into Sam’s hand; he looked at it, smiled and threw it at me like a Frisbee. I raised my arms as if I could protect myself from my own memory.
“Marcus, I-I love you. I’ve always loved you and I’ll never stop loving you until I die.” I said.
“I’m sorry Amethyst, but I’m not in love with you. I can’t return your feelings.” Marcus confessed and with a big sigh, he walked away to another girl named Chrissie, leaving Amethyst alone. Tears streamed down my face as they kissed. My fingers curled into fists, as I walked back home. The phone rings as Chrissie picks up, I ask her if she would like to hang out in the forest just for fun, Chrissie accepts and heads towards the forest. I take a knife from the kitchen and head out too, with a smile on my face. Gullible Chrissie, seriously did you fall for it? I didn’t hesitate as I drove the knife into Chrissie’s heart. I regretted it but my life moved on. A few years later, I was the one kissing Marcus.
A tear went down my face as I sobbed on the ground. Sam just stood there, but Arty came to comfort me. He wrapped his arms around me and I jerked away from his touch.
“You’re too soft on her, Arty.” said the leopard.
“I agree with Michael. You shouldn’t take her side just because she’s the first death spirit in like a hundred years. Or maybe it’s something else, you are a rookie and all. Do you perhaps, have more feeling for this girl that aren’t supposed to be there.” said the lion, following behind Michael.
“My name isn’t this girl, I have a name you know, it’s Amethyst.” I muttered, but everyone ignored me.
“Don’t spoil her, she’s dead, by the way I’m the dragon, my name is Daniel but you can call me Danny and the lion is Lace….oops, sorry, I mean Jace. It’s not my fault he has a name that sounds like lace which is used to decorate pretty dresses. And we know that you’re name is Amethyst, we probably know more about you than you know yourself.”
I stood up and looked down at the defenseless phoenix, Arty. I held out a hand and when he took it, I smiled. I held my gaze on Michael, he had brown eyes that stared into my eyes, and his blackish brown hair was ruffled and brushed off to the right. God, please take me away from these incredibly good looking boys. I restrained myself from saying anything and I blocked my mind too. Michael winked at me and smiled, then said,
“I accept you.” I blinked as if I just woke up from a dream, did he just wink at me?
“I do too.” Sam said from behind Arty. Danny and Jace looked at each other then glanced at me. I built up my courage and said,
“Danny, right? Well, aren’t you a bit of a hypocrite saying that I’m dead when you are too, I mean, you must have done something worse than I to become a god of death.”
Jace started laughing and whispered to Danny that I had basically pinned him to the ground, if this argument was a fight. Then, he turned to me and said, “I like you, so I accept you.”
Danny looked at me and glared into my eyes, I had a cold chill sent down my spine as he grunted and said, “I guess I’ll accept you and see what you can do.” He turned to Arty and scowled and muttered in his ear, “If she fails, I’ll be the first to know.”
I started to think about what I had said would make me regret it later. Danny looked like he was the person to hold a grudge. And the person who would wait patiently for their revenge. My hands began to tremble; it was too late to change anything. Michael put a hand on my shoulder and he attempted to smile. I smiled back at him and thanked him for the effort.

“Amethyst Diamondiase, you have been accepted by the 6 Gates of Hell; the first gate of Hell accepts you too. He has been listening to us for the whole time and has contacted us.” said Sam.
I looked at all the gods of Hell. Sam, the one with dirty blond hair and green eyes. Michael, the one with blackish brown hair and brown eyes. Jace, the one with light brown hair that looked like gold and very light purple eyes. Danny, the one with chocolate coloured hair and grey eyes. Arty, the one with brown hair and light brown eyes. I’ve never met the first gate of Hell or the one Gate of Heaven. Arty snapped his fingers as my clothes began to change again, Arty smiled and said,
“You’ll need actual death spirit clothes now that you are officially one.”
I wore a pair of shorts which were bright red, the colour of blood and a bikini top which was also blood red. My top and bottom were both surrounded by lace. The bottom was too short and the top was too revealing. A necklace appeared on my neck, it was a light silver chain with a silver heart attached to it. My hair was still the same, it flowed down my shoulders and my eyes stayed the same shade of purple. I also wore knee high red boots that were tied with pink ribbon. Arty kept smiling and said,
“This outfit was made by all the 6 gates of Hell. The lace was by Jace and the boots were by Sam. Danny doesn’t really like you so he did your hair and I’m pretty sure he did nothing to it. Michael made your top and I made your necklace. The first gate of Hell made your shorts. You probably won’t be wearing these clothes often since you’ll be travelling around a lot in the human world.”
I grinned and whispered, “Thank you.” Even if I wasn’t gonna be wearing these clothes a lot, I still appreciated the work they put into the outfit, I looked at Danny and he looked at me. I rolled my eyes and turned to Arty. He looked at everyone and the others left the room.
Arty went over some rules and there were about a thousand of them. In the end, Arty told me that he would have to erase my memories of Marcus for it was part of the rules.
“NO!” I screamed. I will never let someone take away my memories.
Arty took hold of me and put his hand on my forehead; I flinched from his touch and blocked him out of my mind. Arty’s presence pressed against mine as he tried to get in. Then, he stopped pounding on my head and whispered, so quietly I could just barely hear him,
“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry,” Arty closed his eyes, “alsia, dochdei.”
I fell to my knees and screamed in pain, I curled into a ball and whimpered. My fingers felt numb as I tried to hold my tears, but it didn’t work. I refused to cry in front of Arty but my sobs couldn’t be muffled. I cried softly on the ground. My tears fell onto my numb hands and when I looked at them, they were lavender; the colour was so faint that I could just barely see it. I gasped in surprise and stopped crying and then I muttered, “Why are my tears purple? Why? What’s wrong with me?! Am I sick? Am I gonna die, again? Tell me.”
“Death spirits show emotions through tears, purple means sadness, I can clearly tell that you love Marcus and you don’t want to forget him,” Arty said, slowly and gently, “but…..how about I tell you about the tears. Purple, as you know is sadness. Black is anger, red is pain, pink is love, green is happiness and blue means you’re tired and annoyed.”
“What about white?” I asked Arty. His face seemed to get tense but then he quickly recovered and said,
“Angels can only cry white tears, Amethyst.”
“Oh, I see…But, it must mean something. Like happiness for Angels or frustration or something like that.” By the look of his face, it was pretty obvious that he didn’t know, I looked down at my feet, “Um, Arty? Can you take away my memories of Marcus? I don’t want to forget about him, but I understand that my only chance of living again is to forget about him.” I said, a bit unsure yet sure at the same time. It was the only way.
Arty whispered something that sounded like ‘goat cheese’, and suddenly, all my memories of Marcus rushed into or out of my head, it felt confusing. I saw all the memories that we spent together but then I couldn’t remember what I had just seen. When we first met, when I confessed my love for him, our first dance together, holding hands when no one was looking, how close we were at school, our first kiss, making out on the beach, Marcus proposing to me and it ended there. I stared at Arty, tears pouring out of my eyes. I asked him, “Arty, why am I crying?”
“Do you remember Marcus at all?” Arty asked me. My mind went blank and the tears in my eyes seemed hollow, pouring out without any emotion. I blinked once, twice, then said,
“Am I supposed to know him? Is he even a guy? What is a Marcus? Is it even a word?”
For a moment, Arty looked a bit sad, he took my hand and slowly led me out of the throne room as he said,
“It’s okay, he’s no one you’re supposed to know.”
I stared at him, confused. I don’t get it. What’s with him? He’s talking about some guy called Marcus…but now I know something, Marcus was something important.

“Alright princess, your job as a death spirit is to capture the lost souls of children whose dreams have been crushed.” Arty announced, he made a fist with his hand and labelled it as a crushed soul.
“Oh, you make it sound so horrible. You make it seem like I’m ripping away someone’s dream.” I muttered to myself, but Arty just smile and he continued talking,
“You will know if the child’s dream is crushed or not when this hairpin starts, well, talking to you.”
I raised one eyebrow as Arty handed me a flower pin. When a guy gives a girl a flower, there is a high chance that it will be a rose. But this one, wasn’t a rose, it looked like a Korean flower, the petals were pale pink, and in the middle the petals became magenta. It looked like a hibiscus and I was pretty sure it was a kind of hibiscus. I smiled down on the flower admiring its beauty. Then, I took it and put it in my hair, Arty smiled again and said,
“Wow, it looks really pretty on you.” I tried to hide my blush but then again, I couldn’t. Arty looked down as if to hide something. I gasped as something flew into my mind. It seemed like something hit me on the head causing me to remember something.
“I love you.” She said.
“I love you too.” He said back to her, “I want to give you something.”
He handed her a necklace. It was a silver snowflake hanging on a red chain. The girl put it on and smiled.
“Wow, it looks really pretty on you.” He said, as he leaned closer, his hand was lighted placed on her cheek. Her face tilted up. Closer and closer, then…..
“Amethyst! Damn it, my memory erasing powers are so weak! Amethyst!” Arty yelled while shaking me, his hands gripped firmly on my shoulders. I stumbled into his arms and whispered,
“Marcus.” Arty’s arms gripped tightly around me as I put my head against his chest. Where I was supposed to hear a heartbeat, there was nothing. I felt my hands quivering and I buried my face into Arty’s shirt and I asked him, “What was that? Who’s Marcus?”
“That…was nothing. Marcus is nobody. Believe me.” Arty’s voice was low and it had no emotions as it sank into my mind like it was melting a part of my brain. Something about his voice was making me forget, it was so easy, to forget. Marcus was nothing, nothing had happened, I believe Arty. But, it makes no sense, how can Marcus be nothing if it has a name? I couldn’t tell Arty that I think Marcus isn’t anything or he’ll do that again, whatever it was it was making me believe his voice and everything he says.
“Well, well, seems like you two have gotten a lot closer. Like, a lot in that short time too.”
Arty and I quickly let go of each other and spun around, but there was no one. “Over here.”
A hand was lightly placed on my shoulder, I turned and saw it was Michael and Jace. Arty looked down at his feet, I wondered why. Jace started grinning, then he was trying to hold in a laugh and once he started laughing it seemed it would never end.
“You actually love her, don’t you? I was right, right? Michael, if I’m right which I’m pretty sure I am then you owe me a whole jar of star candy.” Jace said, while facing Arty. Arty, looked up a bit, “Falling in love with a death spirit breaks rule number 732, you know.”
“I don’t love her!” Arty yelled at Jace and looked him straight in the eye, I noticed that he was blushing! Now, can gods blush? I don’t know, but Arty was definitely blushing. This awkward argument kind of put me on the spot. Michael decided to skip in a bit in the conversation; he joked around and said,
“How about we teach our jewel here, how to catch a soul, right? I mean, that’s why we came.”
“Yeah, that’s why we came.” Jace repeated.
Then, my hairpin started glowing and a tiny little fairy jumped out of it. The fairy looked like a human but with wings and pointed ears. It smiled and said,
“My name is Irene, I’m your fairy or your soul detector.”
She had light green and pink hair and purple eyes, like me. Irene wore a tiny miniskirt that was red. It was shaped like a flower, her top was also red. Arty looked at Irene and said,
“So that’s your real personality, cheerful and fun.”
“What?” I whispered, still staring at Irene. Michael brushed Irene’s cheek with his finger and said,
“Your fairy is an image of your personality. Usually, it’s the personality you want to hide the most.” I snatched Irene away from Michael when he brushed her cheek, I didn’t know why though. Michael continued talking, “Also, you feel what your fairy feels and she feels what you feel. So, in other words, if you die, she dies. Until death do you part.”
“But I’m already dead.” I said. This time Jace talked,
“Death spirits aren’t dead, but then again, they aren’t alive. When a death spirit dies, they become a ghost.”
“Aren’t I already a ghost?” I asked Jace.
“Stop asking me hard questions! Ghosts are left to wander aimlessly, anywhere they want and death spirits have a chance at living. Okay, there’s an easier way to explain this. A death spirit is a soul that is walking a thin line between death and life, when the death spirit fails to achieve their goal, they fall into death. When they succeed they get their one wish granted and fall into life in this case, your wish is that you want to go somewhere where there is someone who loves you.” Jace replied.
Irene started flying around yelling, “Soul! Crushed soul! To your left, 15 year old, her name is Emi.”
Irene took out a small wand and chanted cheerfully, “Dori! Dorim! Dorima!”
A crystal dagger appeared in my hand, it wasn’t clear like a diamond or shiny like silver, but red, like blood.
“This dagger can only cut children with a crushed soul,” Irene explained, “it’s called Lilian. She’s very stubborn, but if she is wielded by a specific person, she’s very powerful.”
“She? Is this another spirit?” Irene nodded, “So, how does this work?” I asked Irene. She tilted her head in confusion and asked,
“What do you mean how does this work?”
I sighed and started explaining to Irene, “If you appeared and started yelling that there’s a crushed soul and that the person’s name was Emi, then shouldn’t we follow the soul?”
Everyone seemed clueless, they all stared at me, then burst into laughter. Arty was laughing so hard that he was crying and Jace and Michael were rolling on the ground. I waited there, my hands on my hips, still waiting, for an explanation. I knew they were joking, they were joking, right? Hopefully. Jace got up off the ground and then became serious and said, “We should go, it’s not like us to be so forgetful so it’s kind of funny.”
Arty and Michael agreed, as they all followed Irene through the city. I looked down at Lilian and kept thinking, she? Irene called this dagger a she; it should be another spirit then or something. Why does this world have to be so complicated, can’t someone just say, “this is your dagger, it is alive, take care of it, goodbye.” Instead of leaving me in this suspense.

“There, I found the soul, it’s in that girl over there.” Irene exclaimed, while pointing at a girl who was running towards a school.
“Emi, age 15, high school girl, top of her class and she wants to be an actress.” Arty announced, while holding a small book. He smiled at me and said, “Information book, gives you information on any person you like. Should I read yours, Amethyst?”
“No! Oh gosh, no.” I screamed, then asked, “If she’s 15, how am I supposed to act her age, I’m 20. How am I gonna collect her crushed soul?”
“Please master, leave that to me.”
It wasn’t Irene, no, this voice was different, it was softer and more firm. I looked around and saw that my dagger was glowing, I yelped and dropped it.
“Ouch! Please master, be more careful with handling me, I’m one of a kind. Actually I’m one of…one. They only created one of my kind before the Angels thought I was too dangerous.”
I blinked and a scream built up inside me, a dagger was talking to me, talking to me. Arty put a hand over my mouth. My dagger kept talking,
“As you know, my name is Lilian and I’m your spirit, well, part of your spirit. There’s Irene, me, you and another person in your life. Here’s your first lesson, if you want me back in your hand, say this, ‘Natai Lilian’. Try it, the ground is colder than it looks.”
I repeated after Lilian, “Natai Lilian.”
A mark appeared on the back of my left hand, they were several glowing stars. They flashed red, then, Lilian flew into my hand.
“Wow,” I whispered, “did I do that?” I looked at the boys, I needed proof to make sure they didn’t make Lilian float into my hand.
Michael, Jace and Arty looked pleased and they all smiled at me, I felt my cheeks grow hot and I tried to hide it. But, then again, I’m terrible at trying to hide my blush. Jace and Arty seemed to blush too, but they had better luck and were able to hide it. Michael just looked at me with curious eyes.
“Master Amethyst, you have shown great power, I know that you can capture that soul.” Lilian said.
“But this doesn’t help me capture a soul, getting you, Lilian, into my hand doesn’t help me capture a stupid crushed soul!” I yelled in frustration.
“I was getting to that,” Lilian said, “if you want to capture Emi’s soul, then you have to follow my directions.”
“Okay, that’s easy but, I still don’t look like a 15 year old.” I reminded everyone.
Arty stepped forward and smiled. He snapped his fingers and a warm light, once again, started surrounding me. My hair seemed to be cut on the spot, like a bullet shot one side of me head, cutting away half of my hair. One side was short and the other was tied to flow down my right shoulder. My eyes became a bright blue, since purple was an unusual colour. I wore a pair of jeans and a t-shirt that said, “Don’t talk to me, I’m dead.”
I started laughing, then said, “’Don’t talk to me, I’m dead’?! What kind of line is that?!”
It was hilarious. Even Jace and Michael were laughing. Irene giggled and Lilian kept silent. Lilian started glowing and so did the star on my hand, she yelled into my head, “GET THE STUPID SOUL!”
“Right, sorry Lilian. Uh, how do I get to her high school?”
“That’s easy, repeat after me, ‘Fledge’.”
“You do know that ‘fledge’ means to grow feathers, right? So, you want me to grow feathers and somehow transport to a school.”
Lilian was silent, she didn’t say a word, nobody said anything and the message was clear. They had no idea why the transportation spell was the word that defined to grow feathers.
The moment I said the word, everything went black, it was like somebody blew out the sun and I was all alone. Suddenly, the wind blew and the smell of pizza filled the air. The darkness changed into a building, it was Emi’s high school, and running into the doors was Emi. Arty looked at me then looked at the school and whispered,
“Better hurry school girl, class is starting.”
I started to walk towards the high school and when I looked back, Arty, Jace and Michael had disappeared. I took a deep breath and walked through the doors and the first thing I noticed was the amount of students. There were hundreds of students all trying to get to their next class. I’m late… I thought, no matter, when I was in high school I ended up coming to class when it ended so I was able to take the punishment and sometimes escape it.
Lilian transformed into a book, a history book, god I hated history when I was alive. “Well sorry, master, for picking the subject you hate most.” Lilian said a small hint of laughter.
“You did it on purpose didn’t you?” I demanded.
“No master, I would never do that.”
“Once I capture this soul, I’m gonna get to know you and Irene better.” I said, while walking into Emi’s history class, I made it just in time.
The teacher introduced me to the class and said, “Class, this is Amethyst and I am Mrs. Almira. Now class, Amethyst has transferred from far away so I’d like you guys to treat her nicely. She will only be staying for today, until her school is back into shape.”
I looked around the class, all the boys seemed to stare at me and all the girls glared at me, their eyes filled with hatred of me. All except for Emi, who sat at the back of the class, looking out the window. I took a seat next to her and said nothing.
What was I supposed to say? There was nothing to talk about, like what did she like? What did she want to become? Wait. Arty said something about her, with an information book. If only I had one. I needed help. I opened my history book and wrote in it,
“Lilian, how do I get an information book?”
Slowly, words appeared in my book, it said, “That’s pretty high level magic, are you sure you want to try it?”
“Of course, I’m willing to try anything.”
“Okay, repeat after me, ‘Irai el ameria soujul.’”
I whispered the spell to myself and a book appeared in my hand. I smiled, but then a sharp pain stabbed the back of my head and I saw myself in a hospital. My dead body was on a bed and a boy sat beside me, holding my hand. The doctor walked in the door, through me and said to the boy,
“I’m sorry Marcus, but we don’t know what has happened, she should be awake. She isn’t in a coma or anything so now we don’t know if she’ll wake up. If this goes on too long, we might need to cut the life support.”
“NO!” Marcus and I both yelled, Marcus continued as I started to fade back to history class, “Please doctor, give her more time and besides you need…”
The bell rang and people were heading out of class, for lunch. I gasped and took short breaths. I was alive, and I was in a coma. Or at least basically in one, the doctors just don’t know anything.
Who’s Marcus? I thought while staring at my hand that he was holding. What did the doctor need? I could almost feel the warmth of his hand. Why does he sound so familiar

I didn’t have time to worry about whomever or whatever Marcus was, I had to capture a soul. While Irene made me a lunch, I looked through the information book.
“Emi, age 15, high school girl, top of her class and wants to be an actress. I know that much myself. Isn’t there anything deeper? Oh, here’s something, her dream of being an actress was crushed on September 17… wait, that’s today. I wonder what happened, your thoughts Lilian?”
“I think we should be doing something else instead of waiting for Irene to cook us some, some, whatever that is.” Lilian complained.
“It’s beef stew!” Irene pouted.
“Well, it’s not like she’s hungry. Irene, I hate to break it to you, but, Amethyst is dead.” Lilian said slowly, emphasizing each word.
Lunch went on, I ate the beef stew even if I wasn’t hungry and I listened to Irene and Lilian fight over how I was dead or how I was still a person. When the bell rang, I headed over to science class, but Emi wasn’t in the back of the class. I sat down in the chair beside the one that Emi would’ve sat in. The teacher came into class and introduced himself,
“Hello class, my name is Mr. Butt,” at this, the whole class burst into laughter, “yes, yes, I know my name is Butt, but, I’m introducing myself since we have three new transfer students. There’s Jace, Michael and Arty.”
I looked up, startled by the names, then thought, nah; it’s not possible, right? But then again they probably did follow me.
Emi walked in the class and apologized for being late; the teacher frowned and then excused her to the back of the class.
Three boys walked into the classroom after her, the first had light brown hair and purple eyes, the second had blackish brown hair and brown eyes and the third had brown hair and light brown eyes. At that moment, I felt like I was going to have a heart attack. It was them, it was really them.
Arty, Jace and Michael all walked to the three empty seats beside me. Michael smiled when he walked pass me to take his seat. Jace waved at me as if he were seeing a long lost friend. Arty winked at me when he took his seat, which caused me to blush. I quickly turned to Emi and saw that she was staring at me. I jumped back in my chair and froze. Emi smiled, held out her hand and said,
“You’re Amethyst, right? The transfer student?” so she was listening, and I thought she didn’t deserve to be the top of the class, “I’m Emi, it’s nice to meet you.”
“It’s nice to meet you too, um, do you want to hang out after school?” I said, trying to get right to the point and not waste time. Emi looked at me curiously and then said,
“Sure, I’d love to.”
She was my first friend after death or at least I hoped she was a friend. I smiled to myself and focused back to science class, which was easy, for a 20 year old, but since Emi was on the top of the class, I tried to hold back from answering simple questions.
After science class, I went to French class then music class. Finally, when class was over, I walked with Emi to the bus stop.
“You were in every one of my classes, Amethyst, are you following me?” Emi asked and stared.
“It’s not good to stare at someone you just met and yes, I am following you. Who wouldn’t want to follow the school’s top student?”
Emi flinched and looked down at the ground she whispered in a small voice, “Was. I was the school’s top student, but not anymore.” Emi walked to the bus stop and we stayed silent. When the bus came, she looked at me and said, “Goodbye Amethyst, it was nice to meet you.”
The next day, I saw Emi entering the school; once again, we were late. I couldn’t get the time right, it wasn’t that long ago when I went to high school but my body wouldn’t wake up at the right time. It seemed like Emi had the same time problem as well. I caught up to her and smiled.
“Hey Emi. What’s up? I wanted to ask you something.”
“What is that?” Emi was panting; we were both running up the flight of stairs to history class. We were almost there when I heard the teacher close the door and say,
“You girls can stay outside with the others, why are you always late?”
We both stopped in front of the door and looked down at the ground, “That was the question I wanted to ask you...God, that teacher has mind reading powers and what did Mrs. Almira mean by the others?”
“Yo, what are you here for, Amethyst?” The voice was familiar, I looked to the side and saw Jace, Arty and Michael, and they were sitting on the ground eating apples.
“You heard Mrs. Almira, didn’t you? We were late.” Emi said.
“Same goes for us, but I guess being late isn’t that bad.” Jace said while taking a bite of his apple. I picked up an apple and threw it at his head. He easily dodged it and he smiled.
“Stop smiling! This is a serious situation, now Emi can’t go to class and it’s probably my fault.”
“No, it was my fault for being late, I slept in and I didn’t notice the time. When I woke up, I realized it was too late to even try to get to school in time, but then again, my mother told me that I’d better get to school on time if I wanted to see my phone again. I ran like crazy but I was still late, the school’s going to take my picture off the school cover since I’ve dropped down a few grades and my phone will be taken away. My mother will figure out in the next school concert and then I’ll have to leave this school.”
“Hey Michael, do you know when the next concert is?” I asked him politely, I didn’t want another enemy like Danny.
“Uh yeah, it’s on September the 25th. Amethyst, you’re not thinking of trying to change Emi’s grades are you?”
“How many tests are there until the concert?” I asked him, ignoring his question.
“I think there’s two in history class and one in every other class. Amethyst, answer me, are you trying to change her grades completely before the concert?”
“What do you think? Of course I am.”
“I don’t mean to make you feel bad but no one has matched me in any subject.” Emi said shyly.
I smiled at her and said, “Don’t worry, I have the brain of a twenty year old.” I wasn’t lying, but I hoped Emi would just take it as a joke. She hesitated and then she laughed. We all ate apples and sat in the corridor doing nothing until the period ended, I don’t even understand how the boys got all the apples and I didn’t want to ask them either. Maybe later.
Our next class was science. Emi was late in that class almost all the time, we left our history detention a bit early without Mrs. Almira knowing and rushed to science class. Emi still thought that it was impossible to change her grades but I guess she knew that I wouldn’t take ‘no’ for an answer. We were the first to enter the class and Mr. Butt was really surprised.
“Well Emi, you’re surprisingly early. When did this happen? Why the sudden change of heart? A few days ago you were trying to fail school purposely and now you’re trying to succeed? Strange, very well, I might as well help you.”
“What? You’re going to help me stay as the cover of the school?” Emi smiled and her eyes seemed to sparkle.
“My job is to help you through life. You’re alive and you need help. What else am I supposed to do, it’s not like I have a choice.”
“Stop being so stubborn and just help us.” I muttered to myself.
“Ms. Diamondiase, I expect more respect from you, you’re fifteen, and you should treat your elders with more respect. You’ll learn a thing or two before you go back to your old school.”
I’m twenty, so shut up and help Emi, the real fifteen year old. I smirked and shook it off, it wasn’t that important as long as Emi gets her cover or whatever.
Mr. Butt helped Emi with a few questions after class for a few minutes and whenever they both didn’t know something, they asked me. Of course I knew the answer; I would solve it and then look out the window. Even when Mr. Butt was older than me, I was smarter than him and I knew all the answers to everything, mainly everything. It was lunch, so we had time to practice science and history at the same time. I stuffed Emi’s sandwich down her throat and then we were running to our next class which was French class. I learned how to speak French when I was seven so I was pretty good at it. In class, I acted like a normal fifteen year old with limited knowledge and then after I would help Emi like crazy and criticize the teacher for making grammar mistakes. Emi never questioned how I knew everything but in music class she asked me about it and it made me nervous.
“How do you know all this stuff? You came to this school yesterday and you seem like you know everything about every subject,” Emi put down her flute and came up to me and I was smashing the drums with my drumsticks. “you even play an instrument better than me. You’re literally rocking on that drum set.”
“I, um I’m…” I didn’t know what to say, I froze up and started spinning one drumstick in my hand. My mouth tasted bitter, I needed to come up with something,
“She’s tutored with us. Which is why she’s so smart, I don’t know where the music talent comes from though, she never told us about that.” It was Arty and the others, Jace glanced at me when Arty mentioned the music talent. Emi nodded and then said,
“Are you guys following me, too?”
“No, we are following Amethyst and Amethyst is following you.” Jace said. Michael stayed silent for the whole time; I guess he didn’t want to be a part of anything. Emi nodded again and started practicing her flute again. There wasn’t a problem with her flute playing so she would pass that test. We had fun during music class and got in trouble for being so loud. We laughed at that and then we left, Emi was still the cover of the school so they didn’t change it yet. I told her to come to my house to study, she called her mom to make sure it was okay and once her mother approved we walked to my house.
Where are you going, Amethyst? Are we allowed to follow you there? Arty’s voice rang in my head. I thought back to him,
We’re going to my house when I was alive. Yes, you can come, that shouldn’t be a problem.
I told Emi that Arty, Jace and Michael would help with the helping, she shrugged and followed me. My house was pretty small, there was a partially finished basement, two bathrooms and three rooms. The kitchen was pretty big and so was the dining room. We didn’t have a TV since my parents thought that education was more important. I never watched TV before and I don’t think I cared that much either. We aimed our studying at history. Emi was a science girl, she was really good at science but she wasn’t that good at history. We practiced and practiced. The boys looked inside my refrigerator and took out some ingredients.
“What are you up to? Don’t make me come in there.” I yelled to them. Jace covered the entrance to the kitchen and said,
“Sorry Amethyst, you are not allowed to come in here until we’re done. It’s a good thing we’re all good at cooking. Just study or I’ll kill you.”
“You can’t kill me, I’m already dead…on the inside, my soul is black now let me in my kitchen.” That was close.
“Stay away from this kitchen.” Michael said while taking out a bag of flour. Curse you, I will figure out what you’re doing, I can read Arty’s mind, whatever he thinks will fly into my mind.
All connections to Arty’s mind was blocked, I walked away from the entrance and continued studying with Emi again. The room was soon filled with the scent of rich chocolate. I told Emi to keep studying, she understood what I was going to do and I knew that she was also curious of what was going on in my kitchen. I looked through a tiny hole in the wall which my sister made by accident with a drill when she was five. I smiled to myself and saw that they were cooking. Well obviously they’re cooking, it’s a kitchen, but they’re baking a cake. I never knew they could cook…
Another person entered the room, it was Danny, he appeared with a basket filled with strawberries, he smiled and said something to Jace and then he disappeared. “Did you find out what they are doing?” Emi whispered to me, she leaned closer to look through the hole, I quickly covered it and smiled, I can’t let her see them poofing up random ingredients. “They are making a surprise for you, I think.”
“Did you find everything you were looking for?” Michael said, he was standing at the entrance of the kitchen and he saw us bending down on the ground to look in the hole. We both smiled innocently and ran back to the table. Michael smirked and covered up the hole.
“Stop being so mean, Michael.”
“Mean means you’re average.” He said while entering the kitchen again, damn you Michael, stop reading my memories from elementary school. Stay out of my mind.
As you wish, Amethyst. Michael’s voice hummed in my head. I pouted and complained to Emi about how they are always doing things their way. She laughed and then continued with the history. I helped her as much as I could and kept staring at the kitchen, it was too distracting to have three good looking guys in my kitchen and one guy who hates me. I saw Danny appear again with a basket of peaches this time, he was in plain sight and now if Emi looked back into the kitchen she would notice the strange increase population in boys. I slowly moved my chair to the right, to cover the sight of the entrance, Emi didn’t seem to notice that I had moved and she didn’t bother to look into the kitchen. After a few minutes, she looked back; I also looked back and saw that Danny wasn’t there anymore.
“I wonder what they are doing. It smells really good.”
“Uh, yeah it does.” Where did he go? Danny would have left a bit of magical powder behind. He’s still there, in the kitchen somewhere.
“Thank you, for helping me study. I really appreciate it, I don’t understand how you’re so smart and how those boys appeared but I’m in your debt. I can’t even thank you enough.”
“No, it’s okay, I might as well help you, since I’m only going to stay here for a week or two.” I smiled at her and told her to continue studying.
I got out of my chair and slowly approached the entrance from the side so no one would see me. Michael, Jace and Arty had their backs facing me so they didn’t see me about to enter the kitchen. I quickly entered when I saw Danny leaning against the wall. I flew back but, Danny caught me by the shoulders. I almost yelped in surprise but he kept a hand around my mouth. I struggled and fought his grasp but then I heard him whisper, “Stay quiet and I’ll let you watch.”
I gave a small nod and he lightly lifted his hand off of my mouth. Emi saw me and she gave me thumbs up and said, “Oh, now I get it. This is easy now, thanks Amethyst.”
She was pretending and that gave me more time to watch. I sat on the white ceramic tiles with Danny and watched them. Their movements flowed into one and it seemed like I was listening to music. They sliced fruit and lightly brushed on white icing. I smiled while watching and then I felt tired. I leaned against Danny and I saw him pull out an apple from the inside of his shirt, I looked at him and the message was clear; where the heck are you getting the apples?
He snapped his fingers and disappeared, a few seconds later he came back with a whole basket of apples. My jaw dropped to the floor, I made strange hand gestures trying to talk to him without actually talking.
Did you steal them?
No.
Then how did you get them?
Danny shrugged and took a bite of his apple. “Danny can you get us some apples?” Arty said, not taking his eyes off of the cake or cupcake or whatever…the dessert. Danny stood up, picked up the basket of apples and said,
“I already have them here and once you bake that cake, why are you giving it to Amethyst in the first place?”
“Well, if she succeeds then we’ll give her the cake, if she doesn’t we’ll eat it and get fat.” Michael responded. I frowned and thought,
Greedy pigs…
“What? Danny, did you say something?” Arty asked him. Danny had moved away from me so when Arty faced him, he didn’t see me.
“I didn’t say anything. Maybe a ghost was whispering in your ear for life.” Danny said with a big smile on his face. I stayed quiet and sat on the kitchen floor for five or ten more minutes. I leaned against Danny again and fell asleep, it was tiring to move around a lot in the human world.
He doesn’t seem scary and it doesn’t seem like he wants to kill me. Maybe Danny is actually a nice guy but wants to look calm and cruel and stuff on the outside, what a jerk.
Danny flinched, I woke up and whispered, “Did you hear me thinking? I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay, I’m not offended. I do admit sometimes I am a jerk.”
“Amethyst, what are you doing in the kitchen!” Jace yelled, he picked me up off the ground and started pushing me out the entrance.
“Why can’t I come in the kitchen, I mean it’s my house. Besides, it’s not like there’s a door to the entrance!”
“Michael, make a door, now!” Jace yelled. Michael sighed and then waved his hand in the air. A wooden door appeared and he pushed it into the entrance. It fit perfectly and it slammed into my face. I jerked backwards before it literally hit me in the face. I gave my full attention to Emi, I made her study hard so she would ace every test that flew into her hands, even if it wasn’t a subject she was in. I laughed like a mad person and I think it made Emi a bit scared of me because she seemed slightly stiff ever since I got kicked out of the kitchen. I saw Danny running around the kitchen with the basket. He looked at me and threw me a few fruits when the others weren’t looking. I smiled at him and mouthed the words ‘thank you’. He just nodded and moved on. The room now smelled like nothing, as if the smell of cake had disappeared into thin air. That’s when Emi started to become curious. We both got out of our seats and moved closer to the door. I put my hand on the door knob, we were about to open it when Arty flew open the door and stepped out. We bumped into each other and the cake began to fall, I crashed into Emi and she began to fall too. I closed my eyes, too scared to look at what the cake would look like after it landed on the ground. When I opened my eyes, I saw Danny looking at me,
“Are you okay?” He asked me, his grey eyes stared into mine.
“I’m fine.” I said quietly, his hands tightened around me. Then, I just noticed that he had caught me before I fell, I looked at Emi, Michael caught her and Jace caught the cake.
“Nobody caught me.” Arty grunted, I looked down and saw Arty flat on the ground. Emi started giggling and then we were all laughing, Arty sat up and he also started laughing too. I jumped out of Danny’s arms and blushed, then joined their laughter. Jace placed the cake on the table and cut a piece for Emi,
“Thank you. Aren’t you gonna have some too?”
“No, we’re going to eat later.” Arty said.
“Oh, I forgot to ask you, who is that?” Emi said, pointing at Danny. I quickly thought of something to say,
“He’s my brother? Yeah, he’s my brother from…Florida.”
“Really? That’s so cool, my cousin lives in Florida and he might be the same age as your brother.”
“Hello Emi, my name is Danny and Amethyst has told me about you, I’m twenty one years old.” Danny said, Arty, Jace and Michael looked a bit worried.
“You’re kidding! My cousin is also twenty one, his name is Dylan.”
“Dylan. Dylan…no I don’t know him, I’m sorry.”
“That’s fine; it would have been really strange if you did know him. This cake is really good, what did you put in it?”
“There is an apple base and bits of apples in the bread; we also put some strawberries in it too, with a mix of chocolate. The icing is made from scratch, it also has strawberries in it and peaches.” Arty said.
“What an unusual combination. I never thought that you guys would be the ones who would end up baking.”
We talked and laughed and did a bit more studying. When Emi left the house, I fell to the ground. I turned invisible again and my appearance changed back to what it was before. I couldn’t move, I sat there; in front of Danny, Arty, Jace and Michael. Arty was leaning against the wall and Jace stumbled. Danny and Michael looked perfectly fine though, Arty’s face began to turn white. They also turned invisible too, I whispered, “Why am I so tired?”
“You used too much energy, like Arty and Jace. Staying visible for the whole day is really tough, it takes years of practice. Michael and I are used to it, which is why we aren’t tired like you.” Danny explained to me.
I tried to stand up but my legs refused to work for me. Danny bent down and placed a hand on my forehead, “Get up.” He commanded. My legs felt light and I instantly stood up. I was about to brush off Danny’s hand on my forehead but Michael stopped me, he said,
“Do that and you’ll fall again, stay in touch with Danny for a while.”
I nodded, I was exhausted, we decided to stay in my house until I capture Emi’s soul. Danny placed me on my bed, the moment he let go of me, I felt like a stone sinking in water. I couldn’t even turn over so I just slept while looking up at the pale blue ceiling. I heard the gods fighting over who gets the couch and who would sleep on the floor. After that, I fell asleep instantly.
I woke up at three in the morning, my energy was back and I was able to move. I got up and walked to the kitchen, I saw Jace on the couch, Arty and Danny on the ground. Michael was sleeping on the counter in the kitchen. I yawned and drank a glass of milk, I saw Michael stretch his arms and open his eyes.
“I’m sorry did I wake you?” I asked him silently.
“No, I normally wake up at three, drink a glass of milk and then go back to sleep.”
“Wow, that’s like me.” I said, while yawning, “Well, there’s milk in the fridge, good night.”
I crept back into my bed and fell asleep. I woke up at six. I screamed, took Lilian and Irene and floated out the door. I floated down the street and then snapped my fingers, I looked the same as yesterday, except my clothes were different. Once again I was visible and that meant, running. The others weren’t following me; I saw them walking behind me about a hundred meters away. I heard Jace yell to me, “We don’t care if we’re late, you’re the one doing all the work!”
I rolled my eyes and kept running. When I got to school, I wasn’t late and I saw Emi sitting at the back of the class. She waved at me and smiled, I smiled back, her eyes seemed so innocent, they were a light blue and her hair was a light brown colour like Jace and it was long. That was probably why people didn’t like her, because she was so innocent yet beautiful and smart and all the boys seemed to like her. I don’t think Emi noticed herself and I was going to fix that. We had the same routine as yesterday, studying, laughing, eating, studying, laughing, studying and repeat. Jace and the others left us alone and they switched classes because I was too ‘distracting’. At the end of the day I told Emi to come to my house very early, like at three in the morning.
“Three in the morning! Amethyst, you do realize I would be sleeping.”
“Please, I want to show you something. I’m gonna make you shine like a star, you’re going to twinkle and it’s going to be obvious.” I said.
Emi shook her head, “No, I like being unknown and besides no guy has ever cared about me, they would probably go after a popular person like Vanessa.”
“You’re kidding, Vanessa isn’t even pretty, she just acts like a queen.” I snorted, I looked in the information book and it said that Vanessa was a poor girl and that she was nowhere near popular. I tried to remember what it said,
Vanessa Henderson, age 15, her mother died when she was 5 and her father treated her like she was a ghost because she looked like her mother. Vanessa has long blonde hair and blue eyes. She is heavily abused by her father but at school she acts really popular because she’s afraid of others treating her like her father.
Emi looked at the sky and then she looked straight at me with a big smile, “Let’s do it.”
I ordered pizza for everyone and then went to sleep early, I woke up at two and waited an hour until Emi came. At three, she actually ended up coming. Her hair was a mess and she was still in her pajamas, but she looked completely awake. Emi smiled and entered my house, she saw where the boys were sleeping and she laughed. I told her to take a shower and then come to my room.
I listened to her sing in the shower, she had a sweet voice, it was light and clear. When she walked out, her body was wrapped in a towel and her damp hair was cluttered down her back. I gave her a tank top and a pair of shorts to wear for now. Emi sat on a chair in the bathroom and I looked for all my hair supplies. I quickly dried her hair and then sprayed it with something my mom gave me, before she died she told me to always spray this onto my hair. It smelled like my mom and it made my hair smooth and silky. It was a weird gift until I figured out that my mother had made the spray herself, I started using little by little, trying not to waste any of it. I remember when I used to try and figure out how she made it and I would fail at remaking it. I brushed through her light brown hair and then took a pair of scissors.
“You’re going to cut my hair?” Emi said. I nodded; Emi seemed to want to keep her hair so I only cut a bit. I cut her hair so that it was short in the front and it gradually became longer in the back. I took a few curlers and a curling iron. I used the curlers for the layer on top of her head and her bangs. Then, I started curling the rest of her hair. When her hair was finished, it looked beautiful, there were bouncy curls on her head and her bangs were no longer covering her face. She gaped at the mirror and gasped, “Is that me?”
“I’m not done yet, so don’t get too excited already.”
She closed her eyes as I did her makeup, Emi didn’t need any makeup actually, she was glowing with natural beauty. I did put on blush and mascara though. It was four in the morning so we had lots of time. I made her wear a skirt. It was a high-waist skirt so it was pulled up to her stomach. It was a bright blue and was covered with black and white flowers. She also wore one of my crop tops, which was neon green. Her shoes were also neon green, I smiled and told her to get out of my house and go show off her new look at school. I walked with her to school and this time we weren’t late. We were early, I sat on a bench with Emi, when people started entering the school, a boy came up to us and looked at Emi,
“Emi, is that you?”
“Oh, hey Tyson. What’s up?” She got the attitude right, but why with him?
Tyson; his birthday just passed and he is now sixteen, he has green eyes and brown hair. He used Emi to get someone else jealous. In other words, they used to date, Lilian told me.
Now I felt awkward sitting beside Emi, but she was going to give Tyson a piece of her mind.
“Wow, you look great, actually not great, gorgeous. What happened?” He said staring at Emi. Emi looked at Tyson and I could tell that she was nervous.
“Nothing happened to her, she just wanted to change up a bit and it’s not good to stare at people.” I said, Tyson looked at me in the eyes, which gave me a chance to read his mind.
Whoa, who is this girl with Emi? She is so hot, I should use Emi again and make it seem like I changed.
I smirked and looked at the field, Tyson looked at Emi and said, “Emi do you want to hang out some time?”
“Sure, I would love too but can Amethyst come?”
“Of course, I would love that too.”
Well, at least he’s not a person who would lie that often. He’s telling the truth about liking me to come and he also didn’t confess his ‘love’ for Emi.
It was Friday so we decided to meet up on Saturday at a small café. Everyone stared at Emi and I had to say, “It’s not good to stare at people.” About a thousand times. Even the girls stared at her and they seemed to hate her more. Vanessa’s boyfriend was caught staring at Emi and Vanessa shrieked in the middle of class. Emi and I looked at each other and laughed. Emi got many requests to go out with them and I acted like a bodyguard. I was able to tell with one look that Emi was still interested in Tyson even after he broke her heart. It was like one of those my heart will only be broken by you, kind of thing.
On Saturday we walked to the café. When we entered, I saw Tyson sitting at a table, looking at the menu. We greeted each other and then ordered some coffee, until Emi said, “Danny, you work here?”
I looked up and yelped, the café was empty so I didn’t embarrass myself, “Danny, you never told me you had a part time job!”
“Who’s that?” Tyson asked me.
“That’s my brother, Danny. Danny Diamondiase.”
“Oh, that’s interesting. DD! Can I call you that? How about double D?” Tyson said while smiling. I saw Emi looking at Tyson and then at me.
“No and no.” Danny glared at Tyson and frowned, I smiled at Tyson as if to apologize for my ‘brother’.
We all ordered black coffee and when it came I saw words appear in my coffee, like when Lilian talked to me through the book. It said, “Be careful.”
I took a fork and drew letters in the foam, “I know what I’m doing.”
“So Amethyst, where do you live?” Tyson asked me.
“Near Emi.” I said in a bored voice, I waited for another sentence to appear in my coffee but it didn’t come. Tyson took something out of his pocket, they were concert tickets,
“Do you guys want to see the concert by the new band called Strong?”
“Yeah I would love to go!” Emi said cheerfully, Tyson ignored her and kept his eyes locked on mine,
“Would you come, Amethyst? I would really like that.” Tyson said.
“I have to go to the washroom; I’ll be right back, okay?” I said. I pushed my chair back and walked to the washroom, when I got out, I saw Tyson waiting for me at the door. I turned back to hide in the washroom but he grabbed my wrist and pinned me to the wall where Emi wouldn’t see, he whispered in my ear,
“You know you love me, everyone falls in love with me.”
“Stay away from Emi.” I said firmly, Tyson just came closer and said in a low voice,
“Just accept the fact that you love me.”
A hand shot out and grabbed Tyson by the collar of his shirt, Danny hit Tyson over the head lightly and asked me, “Are you okay?”
I nodded and saw Tyson’s eyes burning with hatred and fear, “You got your brother to protect you. Is he even your brother? There’s no resemblance what so ever.”
Danny tensed and threw him on the ground; I walked back to the table where Emi was sitting alone, Tyson followed behind me shortly after and pretended nothing happened. He straightened his shirt and smiled at me, “So would you come to the concert with me?”
I looked inside my cup and it said, “He’s still doing it? I can’t wait until he dies.”
Emi looked at her lap and whispered something, but no one heard. I stared at Tyson’s green eyes, it was a warning look but Tyson didn’t take it.
“You know it would be like a date, you and me. We could really go far with this.”
“Stop, please.” Emi whispered. Tyson ignored her again and continued,
“You know you seem so smart and you’re so beautiful, Amethyst,” He touched my face, “you know that you want me.”
I picked up my coffee cup and threw it at the wall, hot coffee splattered everywhere, and Tyson took his hand off me. Emi looked at me; there were tears in her eyes.
“Danny, get over here and bring a plate of cookies!” I yelled towards the kitchen, Tyson had no fear because he continued his cruel talking,
“Oh, you’re feisty, another thing I love about you.”
I heard Emi push her chair back, she stood there, her hands tightly gripped on her skirt. Danny came a second later with the plate of cookies on a tray. I snatched the plate and ate two small cookies. I smiled and said,
“Want one? They’re really good. Tyson to tell you the truth there is something I wanted to tell you.” I put my arms around him he leaned closer to my lips; I stopped him just before and said,
“From the moment I saw you, I…” Tyson had his eyes closed as he leaned in, “thought you were a retard.”
I slapped his face and threw the rest of the cookies at him. He looked at me, clearly astonished of what I had just done. I looked outside and saw that people were looking at what I was doing. I bent over, pulled down Tyson’s pants and pushed him out of the café before he had time to react. He screamed like a little girl and pulled his pants up. People were laughing at the sight and Tyson came back in the café, he slapped me across the face. I took the pain and I heard Emi yell at Tyson, she pushed him off of me and yelled, “What is wrong with you? I didn’t mind you trying to hurt me again but I do mind when you hurt Amethyst. Amethyst is right, you are a retard. Stay away from me and Amethyst, she’s leaving soon and I want her experience at this school to be really awesome so shut your mouth and leave now!”
I saw Tyson getting ready to punch Emi and I quickly stood up to block it for her. I stood in front of Emi and waited for the blow, but it never came. I looked behind me and saw that Danny had blocked us; he looked at me and said,
“You forgot that you have an older brother who will take care of you.”
I smiled and took Emi by the hand, we ran out of the back door and I heard Danny yelling at Tyson about how there was a thin line between cruel and a jerk. I laughed to myself and we ran to my house. We were almost there when Emi slowed down to catch her breath.
“Are you okay, Amethyst? I’m so sorry; I didn’t know Tyson would do this.”
“Why are you apologizing? You’re not his caretaker, I’m fine and besides I think you were hurt more than I was.”
Emi looked at me, her eyes were still filled with tears and then she began to cry, I sighed and hugged her. She cried on my shoulder and afterwards she said cheerfully, “The next time I pick a guy it’s going to be one that cares about me and comforts me, like you!”
I laughed and then we parted to our houses. I stayed up until Danny came back, it was seven and Danny still wasn’t back. I started to feel worried, but a few seconds later I heard a light tapping on the door. I rushed to open it and I saw Emi, “What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be home?” I asked her.
“Tyson is waiting at my front door, I can’t really get in and my parents think I’m already sleeping in my room.”
“So just call them from my house and did you by any chance see Danny?”
“No, he’s not back yet?” Emi said while picking up the phone. I shook my head when she was dialing the numbers. She talked with her mother and then she started fighting with her mom, they were yelling and yelling and finally Emi hung up.
“She told me to just stay where I am.” Emi sighed.
“So, why did you guys fight?” I asked her.
“That’s all she said; stay where you are. What if I was at the park? Or what if I was lost? Stay where I am?! She should at least feel a bit worried about me, she’s always fussing over my little sister.”
“You have a little sister?”
“Yeah, you know about my cousin but I never like talking about my sister, she’s so annoying. I guess she can’t help it, I mean she’s five years old. You know that feeling you get when you’re the center of attention in your parent’s eyes and then it gets taken away by your own flesh and blood?”
“I do know that feeling; my sister Eliza always had the attention.” I said, my voice sounded hollow, I felt uncomfortable talking about my sister.
“Where is she, I haven’t seen her at all.” Emi asked me the most difficult question ever.
“She’s gone. She left home a long time ago, to the afterlife. Once I figured out that she had cancer, I started giving her all my attention too. My mother and father died and then she died. I was left all alone, except for Danny.”
“I’m sorry to hear that. My sister is with my mom right now having one of her tantrums.”
“How do you know?” She couldn’t know that much from one phone call, or maybe she can. Is her sister that loud?
“I can hear it through the phone, she screams and throws things at every living creature, she has allergies to dogs and that’s when we had to put down my dog. I was so angry after that and I stopped talking, playing and feeding her. I pretended she didn’t live and I pretended that I never even heard of the name, Charlotte.”
“I remember that feeling when I got my little sister, she was so annoying and she always got in my way. She was always getting her way too. I thought she was a pest, but you’ll get over it, once they start to mature you can boss them around.” I smiled at her; I felt really depressed after talking about Eliza so I went into the kitchen and started cooking dinner. Arty, Jace and Michael all waited for me to cook something, I bet they’re going to criticize it.
I seasoned some chicken and then started cutting some lettuce. I chopped tomatoes, cucumbers and sweet peppers. I started making sauce and then started cooking the chicken on a pan. Everything seemed to become busier, there were four people in my house, there was chicken on the pan, a salad that was waiting to be mixed and a missing boy who could be anywhere. I sighed and sat on the floor, my friends were talking in the living room so they didn’t see me lying on the ground. I got back up and quickly cooked the chicken and mixed the salad. I put it in a six plates and served them as fast as possible. I pulled off my apron and opened the door,
“I’ll be back, if I don’t come back, you’ll know because my dinner will still be there on the table, good-bye.”
I closed the door behind me and ran, it was September the 20th, that still left five days until the concert, and Emi already passed her music test. That left two history tests and one French test. I looked for Danny, even if it took me all night. I went to Hell and checked but he wasn’t there. I asked Sam and he told me that he was still in the human realm. I went back to the café and saw that the chairs were flipped over and there were still pieces of glass from the cookie plate. I made myself invisible and went through the glass window; I looked around for evidence of where Danny could have gone. I noticed, right on the carpet floor; blood.
Please don’t tell me they actually beat up each other to death. I hope Danny was a good fighter when he was alive but then again, there would be a body. Why do I even care about him? He’s the one who hated me, and disagreed on me becoming a death spirit. Right, he’s my brother, if I don’t go after him, Emi will probably think I’m heartless. Still, I do care about him, even when he dislikes me.
I left the café and became visible again, since he was only able to hear me if I was visible, “Danny! Where are you?” I yelled.
The night was silent and cold, and I was still in a pair of shorts and a tank top, in the day it was hotter than ever but at night it was freezing. I shivered and coughed, I kept running though, Danny could be more hurt than me at the moment. Now I had no idea where I was, I knew my neighbourhood really well and I took my car everywhere else, but I never came to this place before. It was so dark you couldn’t even see your hands in front of you, it was an alleyway. Would a dragon hide here?
“Danny?” I whispered in the darkness, a hand lightly grabbed my hand; I screamed and quickly became invisible. I turned to see Danny on the dirty ground, his face wasn’t covered in blood but his hands were soaked with it. He kept his hands near his stomach; I became visible and fell to his side, when I removed his hands I saw that he had been stabbed.
“He had a knife, I didn’t see it coming. I was eating a cookie.” He gasped in between breaths.
“Why in the world would you eat a cookie in the middle of a fight?! How long were you like this? Why didn’t call me with telepathy?”
He grunted and then managed to say, “Cookies tasted really good. About three to five hours. I couldn’t.”
“What do you mean you couldn’t?” I asked him while taking off his sweater.
“For one to become invisible or visible, they need energy. I have none left.” He whispered, he closed his eyes but I slapped him and that made him wake up.
“Don’t sleep, stay awake until we get home.” I tied his sweater around his wound. He winced in pain and began to close his eyes again and I slapped him across the face again.
“Stop slapping me, I’ll be fine.”
“No you won’t be fine, my sister said that to me before and now she’s dead so shut up and listen to me. If you fall asleep I can’t take you home because you’re too fat.”
“Amethyst, do you even know where we are?” He asked me, his eyes were closed but he was still awake.
“Not really…but I’ll find a way. I can call Arty.” I said.
“Do you even have any power left? You could be in the same situation as me.” I slapped him again and tried to turn invisible, it didn’t work.
“Stop being negative, of course I still have power.”
“You can’t turn invisible, can you?” Danny said while laughing and then coughing.
“No. We’ll just wait until morning. Right now it is one in the morning, so let’s just go to sleep.”
“Finally, good night Amethyst.” Danny’s eyes were shut tightly.
“Danny? Don’t die okay? When I wake up tomorrow, I want to see you smiling at me, promise me.”
“I promise, now shut up please.”
I dragged him into a deep alley, where no one would see us and I fell asleep by his side. It was uncomfortable sleeping on the ground but it was better than sleeping in a tree or something. When I opened my eyes, it was so bright that I was blind for a few seconds until my eyes adjusted to the light. I looked to my side and saw Danny sleeping. His hands were still putting pressure on his wound; I untied his sweater and looked at it. His sweater wasn’t gonna be worn for a while, until the blood was all washed off. His wound looked worse, it was still bleeding constantly and Danny’s hands looked like they were painted red. I was going to listen for a heartbeat but then I remembered we had no heart beat so there was no way to tell whether he was alive or not. We didn’t even need to breathe, I checked to see if his chest was rising or falling, but it was still. I ripped off a part of my shirt that wasn’t bloody and covered his wound.
Arty, wake up and come to me, now!
Arty didn’t come and after five minutes I tried it on Michael and then on Jace. I tried again and again. I thought of a better way. I took out Lilian and asked her to transport us to my house.
“Master, I don’t think that’s a good idea, your powers are still pretty weak, if you end up using more you would probably kill yourself.”
“I don’t care, I’ve already died once, I just don’t want him to die.”
“As you wish, master Amethyst.”
I grabbed Danny’s wrist and took Lilian in my other hand and whispered, “Fledge.”
It was dark and now the darkness wasn’t that scary, I was alone and then I appeared in my room. Danny woke up when he fell onto the carpet, he looked at me and I fell onto my bed. The last thing I remembered was Danny, Arty, Emi and the others rushing towards me and screaming my name.
“You think she’s okay?”
“It’s my fault; I am a horrible person, if only I didn’t eat that cookie.”
“You were eating a cookie, in a fight?!”
“Danny, that’s so stupid.”
“I’m sorry for not being able to resist the taste of a cookie and besides he had a knife.”
“Amethyst, please wake up!”
“Emi, you should go to school, we’ll let you know when she gets up.”
“I made a promise so I have to stay here, you guys should go too.”
“Are you sure?”
I heard the door close and the sound of footsteps faded.
“I know you’re alive. Arty thinks you’ll die after using all that power, Jace thinks you’ll go blind for some reason; Michael has been looking for a cure in case you actually go blind. Emi is worried sick, she hasn’t left your side ever since you came back, but then Michael told her to go to school with them. I’m sorry, I don’t blame the cookie, it was my entire fault. I’m so sorry, if I could turn it back; you wouldn’t even have had to have to search for me. Wake up, Amethyst and I’ll greet you with a smile. It’s September the 21st. Four days left until the concert. Emi is studying hard and everything is moving steadily.”
I didn’t hear anything for a while and I felt water trickling into my mouth. I don’t know how long it has been but the next time Danny talked to me he said,
“Amethyst it’s the 22nd, wake up soon.”
And the next time,
“Amethyst it’s the 23rd, wake up.”
Was this what a coma felt like? And the next time,
“Amethyst it’s the 24th, please wake up.”
And the next time,
“Amethyst it’s the 25th, please wake up, Emi aced all the tests but she wants you to be at her school concert, please wake up in time, it starts at three in the afternoon. I have to go to school, so bye.”
Good-bye Danny.
“I knew you were alive. So please wake up.”
His footsteps faded away and I couldn’t open my eyes, I wanted to but I couldn’t. I wanted to move my body, but I couldn’t. I tried to talk and I was able to say Emi’s name. I don’t know what time it was but school started at six and my watch beeped every hour so right now, I think it was noon. Or it was one. Wake up! I’m going to miss the concert.
My watch kept beeping every hour and I think it was two. My eyes fluttered and I slowly opened them. The room wasn’t too bright so it didn’t hurt my eyes. I tried to sit up but my body still wouldn’t let me. I looked down at my watch and saw that it was 2:30.
I have to hurry and get up! Why can’t I get up? It’s been like four days; shouldn’t I have enough energy already?! What is wrong with me?
My hand twitched and then I was able to move it. After a few minutes, I was able to stand up, but I still had trouble walking. It was 2:50! I screamed and grabbed a cardigan; I was still wearing the same clothes as a few days ago. There were blood stains everywhere and I didn’t have enough time to change, or I would be even more late. I skipped to running and I tripped a few times on the way to school. I pulled on my cardigan trying to hide as much blood as possible. I ended up getting cuts all over my knees from falling and my hair flowed down to my waist, I never bothered to tie it up or something. Lilian was also strapped to my waist and I forgot to cover her up before someone yells,
“Knife!”
Lilian heard my thoughts and she said you’re not having history class or any other class so I can’t really turn into anything; you’re just going to have to hide me well.
I tied her sheath around my waist, under my shirt so no one was able to see it. I saw the school and looked at my watch, it was 3:17, I was late! Emi could have already finished playing, but there’s always an intermission in the middle. I could still make it. I ran into the school and found the gym. I rushed inside and noticed that the intermission had just ended and the song after has started. The audience was silent and the door slammed behind me. The song continued, and no one noticed me entering. I saw Emi playing the flute and the other people in the band. I smiled and I stood in the back of the gym. When the song ended I sat beside Arty and the others. We all enjoyed the music and I spotted Emi’s mother in the crowd, it was pretty obvious because she kept telling Charlotte to sit down. Charlotte’s hair was light brown like Emi’s but it was shorter and really curly. Her eyes were brown and they were huge.
Her mother was really beautiful; she also had light brown hair and her eyes were green. She looked graceful and elegant, but the only person I didn’t see was her father. When the concert ended we all applauded and I sneaked backstage where Emi was cleaning her flute, I was about to approach her when I heard someone say,
“Twenty mistakes in the whole concert. Sis, no wonder you failed the audition for the musical, you suck.”
I looked around and saw Charlotte and their mother walking towards Emi-Emi didn’t move from her spot and she just continued cleaning. Charlotte kept talking,
“Why would you even want to become an actress anyway, you knew people were going to make fun of you, yet you still did it.”
Was Emi gonna let this go? I looked at her and saw that she didn’t really care what they said about her, no, she does, she just doesn’t want to show it. I stepped out from behind the shadows and said,
“She did it because it was her dream.”
“Who are you? I never saw you in this school before.” Charlotte scowled at me, she looked at me from top to bottom and then back to the top.
“Stop being rude, Charlotte, even I know how spoiled you are.” I told her.
“It seems like my sister has been talking behind my back, that’s so mean. Mom, tell her to apologize, I demand an apology!” Charlotte turned her back on me and grabbed her mother’s shirt. Her mother looked down into her eyes and I saw that Charlotte was crying, I looked around me and saw that everyone had already left. I swiftly pulled out my knife and grabbed Charlotte, I placed the knife lightly on her throat and looked at Emi,
“Apologize to Emi! You may want to because today can be your last day.”
“Emi, help me! She’s going to kill me.” Charlotte whimpered. Their mother was silent; she didn’t do anything but stand there with her mouth open in fear.
“Charlotte, if I were a god of death, you would deserve this. Except, I’m a human, who has feelings and dreams and I hate to admit this, but my life would be a lot easier without you or mother.”
“What?!” Charlotte yelled and struggled against my strength, but she stood still when I dug the knife deeper. The knife was only able to cut children with crushed souls, so even if I wanted to kill her, I couldn’t, this was just a bluff. I turned to their mother and looked at her in the eyes,
“You did this to your family, remember that when you watch Charlotte die. If you never neglected Emi, I would have never appeared and then you wouldn’t have to worry about this knife at Charlotte’s throat. I’ve heard about you from Emi and if you have no clue of what I’m talking about I can spell it out for you. Can’t you see that Emi wants to be loved! She loves you and you ignore her for this brat!” I yelled at their mother and I felt bad because I kept thinking that I was yelling at my best friend’s mother. I threw Charlotte in the direction of her mother, her mother didn’t catch her but she watched me step towards Emi. Emi took a step back and I placed Lilian in front of my face, my lips began to move by themselves,
“Be gone broken soul, el ameria noto korina.” Then I stabbed Emi in the heart and a purple aura left her body, she gasped in surprise and screamed,
“Start your dream again, don’t give up and give it your best. Thank you Emi, for giving me my high school experience again.”
Her sister and mother stared at me as if I had just killed her, but the knife doesn’t kill, like I said before it can only cut the ones with crushed souls and it heals their soul. I turned invisible and watched what happened next, the purple aura still flowed above her.
“That aura is her soul; it represents her feelings, like your tears.”
I spun around and saw Arty, Jace and Michael staring at me. “I didn’t know you would get this far.” Michael said they were also invisible.
“It’s not good to stare and why is she sad?” I asked them.
Just when Jace was about to answer, Emi’s soul turned green. I gasped, it was neither dark or light it was the perfect shade of green.
“Happiness,” I said slowly, “she’s happy now.”
The aura went back into Emi and she started to fall, I expected her mother to catch her but I had to do it myself. I turned visible and glowered at Charlotte and their mother, I quickly spun around and took her home. Michael erased her memory of us and her family so that no one would remember us. I told Emi to try her best at becoming an actress, and then Michael carried her into her room. Irene came out of my hairpin and started yelling cheerfully,
“Soul captured! Soul captured!” She flew around and celebrated, Arty, Jace, Danny, Michael, Lilian and I all laughed and made a memory of this moment.
The day I purified a crushed soul, September 25th. I kept an eye on the family for a few days and everything was a lot better. Charlotte was no longer a mini brat that ordered the house around and their mother was kind, beautiful and elegant. She loved both of her children equally and she made time for them when she didn’t have time. Emi stayed as the cover of the school and she passed the first audition for becoming the main role in the musical.

One day, Arty asked me if I wanted to take a walk in the park, while being invisible, of course, since it was a park near my house there may be people who recognize me. I accepted and we floated around and checked to see if anyone had a crushed soul, but since most of the people at the park were kids, they didn’t really have a dream yet. After checking everyone’s hearts I asked Arty,
“How many souls are there anyway? I should at least know how busy I’m going to be.”
He looked a bit troubled then said quietly,
“There’s about 500….per person.”
“What! You’re kidding! Tell me that you’re kidding.”
“No. Unfortunately, I’m not.”
“You mean I have to purify 500 souls….PER PERSON?! This is outrageous!” I screamed at Arty, my vision covered by anger, I stormed off, leaving Irene, Lilian and Arty. I didn’t know where I was going, but anywhere would be better than with Arty.
I wandered around, and went inside a building. I didn’t look where I was going since I could go through walls, but when I looked up I went through a door that was numbered 119. I stopped and looked around the room was really familiar and it was painted white. I heard a slow beeping sound, I looked to one side of the room and there was a vase of flowers and a coat on a chair. On the other side of the room, there was a boy pacing back and forth in front of a bed where someone lay. I slowly approached them and looked at the person in the bed and saw that it was me. Of course! This was the room I saw during history class, I was in a coma and some human called Marcus was with me, I faced the boy and the boy stopped pacing and it seemed as though the boy was staring straight at me. He had dark brown hair and green eyes and he looked as if he had been crying, we stood in front of each other for a while and then I whispered, “Marcus.”
He looked around when I said his name, “Amethyst? Amethyst?” he said, his voice shaking as he looked around everywhere, “That’s strange, I thought I heard your voice. Then again, that’s impossible.”
“Marcus! I’m right here! In front of you. Please…” I yelled helplessly. I didn’t know this man much but I had the feeling that he was important to me.
Once again, it seemed as if he heard me, he looked at me and said, “Amethyst? Is that you?”
“You can see me?”
“Not well, but I can see a faint image of you. You look like a glowing, transparent spirit.”
“The only problem is, I don’t remember you. I can only remember you being important in my life in some way.”
“Amethyst, we were gonna get married, please remember. I don’t understand how you can forget that.”
“I don’t get it. Me? Get married? I don’t believe it. Oh my god, this is like my death all over again and it’s only been like a month or so.”
“STAY AWAY FROM HER!” I looked around the room and saw Arty floating into the room, through the window. He snapped his fingers and became visible, then he made me visible too. Marcus stared at him and said,
“Who’s that?”
“I-I-I don’t really know him well yet, but he’s a guy, in this room, yelling at you.” I stammered.
Arty looked really angry as he took my hand and started dragging me towards the window. Then Marcus grabbed my other hand and said, “Come back later, okay?”
Marcus quickly kissed me, full on the lips and then, I was gone.
It was raining outside and since we were in human form, the rain didn’t go through us. After five minutes, we were completely soaked and drenched all the way through. Arty sat beneath a tree and groaned, “I’ve used too much power. Making you visible is hard without your goal. You can only turn visible when you have to purify a soul, without one, I could have killed you. No matter what world you’re in, you can’t live without power, even when you’re dead. What possessed you to meet…him?!”
“What’s wrong with meeting Marcus?”
“You even know his name?! Oh no, this isn’t good, I can be exiled from the throne and turned into a ghost. You’ll probably meet the consequences after you finish your goal.”
“What’s wrong with that?! That’s not the point right now, you lied to me!” I yelled.
Arty sighed and buried his head in his hands then looked up with worried eyes and whispered, “I was protecting you. Do you remember him?”
I looked into Arty’s sad eyes and the angry flame in me died. I looked away, not being able to look at him and hoped that his facial expression wouldn’t affect me. Remember Amethyst, you’re mad at Arty because he lied to you.
“He’s important to me. I know that for sure.”
Arty slowly stood up and moved towards me, he pinned me to the tree, looked deep in my eyes and said, “Marcus is nothing, forget about him.”
I almost wanted to believe him, but I wasn’t going to fall for it again, he’s lying don’t believe him.
“No.” I said while looking at the ground
“What?”
“I said no, I’m not gonna forget about him. Arty, I was going to get married, until you came and took away my life. Couldn’t you have waited until I got married and then killed me like a week after the happiest moment in my life?”
“I’m sorry.”
“What? Why would you apologize?”
“I was the one who was sent to kill you. I put that truck there, at that time. I’m so sorry.” Arty whispered, looking down. His arms fell to his sides, ashamed at himself, he fell to the ground and lay down in the mud.
I took a deep breath and sat down beside him. I picked up his head and lightly placed it on my lap. We couldn’t hear how fast or slow our own hearts were beating. Except mine. In the hospital room where my body still lay, the heart rate on the monitor changed. It wasn’t steady, it was faster than before. We both smiled, obviously he knew how I felt. His grip tightened around me and he leaned closer to me, I closed my eyes and,
“Hey.”
We let go of each other and spun around to find us looking at Marcus, standing in the rain.
“You….were about to kiss my girlfriend…..” he said in disbelief.
“Noooo, I was going to stab her with a knife, of course I was going to kiss her! Until you came.” Arty said while frowning. Both guys glared at each other and both guys held one of my hands.
“Um….Marcus? Arty?” I said while looking at both their faces.
“So your name is Arty.” Marcus said.
“You better remember it, because when you die, I’ll be there to take you to Hell.”
“It’s funny, since you’re dead and I’m alive, I can actually still live a life while you go collecting souls or whatever.”
“Well, you can’t touch your girlfriend when I make her invisible again.”
“Like you can.”
“Well yes, I can make her invisible just as easily I made her visible and I’ll still be able to kiss her, you know, since, we’re dead and you’re alive.”
“STOP!” I yelled, “What is wrong with you two, just accept the fact that Marcus is my….was going to be my husband and that Arty is a god of death.”
“So he’s not your boyfriend of the dead?” Marcus asked.
“You idiot! Of course not, he’s just a guy that…”
I never got to finish my sentence because Arty pulled me into his embrace and kissed me. Then he snapped his fingers and we were gone.

The darkness once again surrounded me and I grabbed on to where Arty was. When we got to our destination, we were in a small room. Arty lay on the ground and said, “The gates told me to take care of you since I killed you. You can have the bed, I know we don’t sleep but you should lie down from all that frustration.”
So, this was his room…
There wasn’t much to it, his information book was on a desk in the far corner of the room and his bed was in the other corner beside a window. Other than that there was a closet and that was it. I looked out the window and the rain kept pouring. Lightning flashed across the grey sky and thunder gave a loud boom that shook the room.
“Well I’m off to bed.” I said in a hurry. I crawled into Arty’s bed and pretended to sleep, well, at least be lost in thought.
“What’s with the sudden change in attitude? A few seconds ago, you were fighting me and now you’re obedient, that’s not normal.” Arty said while picking himself off the ground.
“Um, there is no reason why I’m being obedient; I just wanted to think about what has happened.” I said slowly.
“Amethyst…are you by any chance…scared…of thunder?” Arty hit the target. I flinched and kept my back facing him.
“No?” I said in a small voice.
The thunder continued and I hid under Arty’s blanket. A gigantic thunder clapped in the sky and I yelled out,
“YES! Yes, yes, yes! I admit. I’m scared. It’s not my fault that god made me this way!”
“And you’re a 20 year old….” Arty said almost laughing.
“It’s not funny, I was always scared of thunderstorms, I like rain. Just not those…”
“Go to sleep, it will go away.”
“Easy for you to say…”
He was right, after a while, I felt a bit better since Arty stayed by my side until I actually fell asleep. Death spirits don’t need sleep, it doesn’t mean they can’t sleep. I woke up some time after and the thunderstorm had stopped, I looked down and Arty was lying on the ground, sleeping too. Arty winced in pain and I wondered why. I crawled out of bed and looked at him sleep. He looked fine until the sudden cries of pain. His hands gripped tightly on his shirt where his heart would have been. Oh god I shouldn’t be doing this…
I unbuttoned his shirt to see what was wrong and a red mist covered his chest. It looked like red food colouring in water. But it was all around the area of his heart.
Maybe… no, that’s not possible right?
Arty is the youngest out of the six gates of Hell, which means he joined recently. Does that mean… there’s a chance Arty’s body could be in a coma too?! He could be pulled into his body, but he’s a spirit, god, same thing. There was a rule on this, or a warning.
I looked in my information book.
“Show me the warning rule I want to see.” I whispered, trying not to wake up Arty.
Rule #259
If a spirit, god, same thing. If a spirit or a god is pulled into their own body without their goal being finished, they will both (body and spirit) cease to exist. When the spirit or god’s goal has been completed, they can either choose to go back to their body or discard it and become a god. When a spirit or god starts to remember what they were made to forget, they will start being forced towards their body and will be tortured with a red rose. The red rose contains their body’s blood which would spread where there heart was, creating a small mist. If the red rose isn’t destroyed by their fourth side. They will die.
Fourth side…
Lilian told me that there was me, Irene, Lilian and another person in my life. This means, Arty has another person in his life. But, who? He doesn’t even have a thing like Irene. Or a weapon like Lilian. So who or what is it?
I’ll have to ask him when he wakes up.
Through the night I stared at him and wiped away his sweat and in the morning I cleaned Lilian’s blade since there was nothing to do.
Once he woke up, he looked around the room and then he saw me staring at him.
“Why are you staring at me?” he said, clearly uncomfortable with my staring.
“Oh nothing, say, Arty, do you by any chance have something like Irene?”
“Yes, of course, he’s right here in my watch. His name is Brim.”
“Do you have something like Lilian?”
“Yes, my weapon is a bow and arrow. Her name is Flaris.”
“Do you have a fourth spirit or god or person in your life?” I asked Arty quickly.
“Why are you asking me this stuff?” Arty said with a hint of frustration.
“Stop being such a cranky morning butt! Did you know you had a red rose?” I asked him seriously. The whole room seemed really tense after that. Arty didn’t speak but he looked at me in disbelief. His jaw dropped and his eyes were wide then he gulped and said slowly,
“How did you know?”
“It’s a bit hard not knowing when I sleep in the same room as you.” I said while smiling. I handed him my information book and he skimmed the rule,
“I know.” He said quietly, “I know I have to find my fourth person in my life, but it’s hard. The fourth side is also supposed to pop into my life like Flaris and Brim did, but…the spirit is just not coming.”
“Same here, but then again I’ve been here for only a short while. How long have you been waiting?” I asked him.
“Waiting for the fourth person? Well, if you think about it, everyone starts waiting when they are born…”
“So you’ve been waiting your whole life for just a person to pop into your life?”
“Pretty much.”
I wonder if I’ll ever find my fourth side. Arty smiled and told me that I’ll find my fourth side for sure. Then the day went on as usual, I got mad at him for reading my mind as always and he teased me like always. We both smiled on the outside but we knew on the inside that if Arty doesn’t find a fourth side soon, he’ll die.

“Do you remember what you were made to forget Arty?” I asked him.
His whole body flinched and the atmosphere seemed tense, he relaxed a little and said,
“Yes,” Then he paused and got a cup of water, “I was supposed to forget the most important person in my life, like you, Amethyst.”
“Who was that?”
“Who is that?” Arty corrected me, “Who is that. She’s still alive and she’s looking for me. Her name is Jess. She was my girlfriend, until, of course, I died.”
So Arty had a girlfriend...okay, for some reason that makes me mad at him instead of happy for him. I wanna punch him, yeah, let’s punch him!
I didn’t know why but I did punch him, then started yelling at him, “You idiot! You have a girlfriend who’s waiting for you because she believes you’re not dead, yet you kiss me!? What kind of person are you?”
“I love you! Amethyst, I love you.”
I looked down at the ground now, not knowing what to say at this confession. But, Arty held my gaze, which made me even more nervous. He stared at me, in silence, having nothing to say. Then, Arty whispered over and over ‘I love you’, it was a silent whisper that seemed to grow in the back of my head. I realized that he was thinking it into my mind, I refused to think back anything. I shut away everything around me and I thought of nothing. Arty kept whispering it in my head, it was silent but loud, strong but gentle, horrible yet beautiful. It made no sense, no sense at all.
I fell apart, my mind filled with the thought of Arty, the way he laughed, smiled, talked, and says my name, the way he comes near me and how I try to resist. It was perfect. Arty then smiled and kissed me, his hands ran through my hair and I held his shirt. We would have stopped if someone came in the room, but no one did. After a while, someone knocked on the door of Arty’s room. Arty told me to ignore it and we just kept kissing, my hands were tangled in his hair and his were tangled in mine. The knock came again, Arty’s shirt was magically off. The knock came again, and this time, the person didn’t wait for someone. The person behind the door yelled out,
“EXPLOSION!”
The whole door exploded and in came, Jace. He seemed a bit mad at first then smiled, “True feelings shine through at last, and we were starting to think this would never happen. The fourth spirit.”
Fourth spirit? Where? I looked around the room and saw no other living thing that wasn’t me, Arty, Lilian, Irene or Jace. Jace laughed at my confusion and said,
“Amethyst, you’re Arty’s fourth spirit and Arty, you’re Amethyst’s fourth spirit. Goodbye, that’s all I had to say.”
Then he left us in the room. We froze and looked at each other that was weird and awkward… I thought to Arty
I know… Arty’s voice seemed to ring in my head so clearly now.
“Why do I feel like we seem more tied together now?”
“Maybe because we are, after knowing that we’re each other’s fourth spirit, I’m pretty sure our connections have become stronger.” Arty explained to me.
“Let’s go see your body.” I suggested. Arty shrugged and followed me.
We floated into every room looking for Arty and we also looked for crushed souls.
“There’s a dying old man in that room.” Arty yelled to me.
“I’m in that room,” I yelled back, then flew into the next one, “hey! Arty, I found you.”
Arty came flying back to me, we both turned visible and looked at his body. “It says you were on a train, and the whole train flipped over, but you were the only one alive and in a coma.” I read out loud the clipboard that the doctor put on the bed. Slow footsteps approached the room,
“Oh no, people are coming. Hide.” I said while panicking. We quickly made ourselves invisible again and waited for the people to come in.
It’s a good thing we practiced making ourselves visible and invisible, right Arty?
Yeah, without it, we could’ve gotten caught. We thought to each other and used it as communication. The door opened and in came a little girl about 6 years old and a doctor. The girl had long brown hair and light brown eyes; she looked exactly like Arty, but as a girl. Her hair was put into pig tails and she wore a cute little dress. The moment she walked into the room she screamed out in a pained voice, “Brother! You look worse today, are the doctors treating you well? Should I stay for a while? Please wake up soon.”
BROTHER!?
We both thought to each other, I looked from her to Arty and back again. I kept thinking,
The brother, the sister? Well, they do look alike but I never knew Arty had a sister. Actually if we didn’t search for Arty’s body today, I would have always thought that he was an only child.
“Aria, I’m sorry about your brother. There’s nothing we can do but wait.”
“Then I’ll wait forever. Mom and dad are dead and the other relatives don’t care, so you can only disconnect the life support when I sign the papers, right? I just won’t sign them.” Aria said stubbornly.
Wow, your sister’s tough.
Arty laughed at that and then looked again at Aria. She’s six years old, she lives alone and has a dying brother, yet she manages to move on. How is that not tough?
“I’m sorry, Aria, but, sooner or later you’re going to have to come to the orphanage and once you’re adopted, it’ll be your new parents’ job to sign the papers.” The doctor explained.
“Never! I don’t want new parents, I want my brother back!” Aria stormed out of the room, she slammed the door in the doctor’s face and cried.
We became visible again when the doctor left. Arty looked sad as if he saw the saddest movie of the year, maybe even the century.
“How could I leave behind such a lovely girl?” Arty asked himself, “I am a despicable human being.”
There wasn’t anything I could do to help him, all I did was stare. He went up to his dying body and put his hand on the life support. I quickly took a step forward, but Irene shook her head and whispered in my ear to let him do what he wants. I stopped and looked at him. Desperately searching for hope in his eyes, but there was none, he looked dead…er…I mean more dead than usual.
“Arty…” I started slowly, “I know how you feel, leaving the one you love. Marcus is the one who has to sign my life support papers since my only relative died 6 months ago. It was my sister. She was nine years younger than me so right now she would have been 11 years old, since her birthday passed just 2 weeks ago. She had cancer and the doctors told me that it was already too late to try and fix it; she suffered through the nights trying to get rid of the pain that grew in her heart. She suffered through the mornings, having no education because she was always too sick to go to school. After, all that suffering, she killed herself. She couldn’t take it anymore so Eliza, she told me to tell dad and mom that she loved them. But, my mother and father were dead at that time. She jumped into the ocean on a stormy day and the waves took her away. Which is why I’m scared of thunderstorms, they remind me of Eliza.”
“I’m sorry for teasing you about the thunderstorm thing, I didn’t know.” Arty said, his hand moving away from the life support.
“It’s okay, if Eliza knew you, she probably would have asked me if I were going to marry you. That was what she asked me every time I was walking with a boy who looked cute in her eyes.”
“I look cute in her eyes?” Arty asked me, his eyebrows rose slightly, in curiosity, “Then how about you? Am I cute in your eyes?”
“No.”
“Not even a bit?”
“No.” I said in a straight voice while trying to hold my smile. Soon, we were both laughing, I couldn’t help but smiling and I was happy since Arty took his hand away completely from the life support.
“Are you sure?” Arty asked me one more time, serious this time.
“Arty. We’re dead. I can’t even remember what love is anymore.”
“Don’t make excuses, Amethyst. The way you were resisting me when Marcus was around, I’m pretty sure you remember and I’m pretty sure you can still feel it.”
“How would you know?” I said stubbornly and turned my head to face the window.
“You’re a special spirit, I could see the glow when you became my fourth spirit. I can see a tiny glow around you now and it’s pink. You’re in love.”
I gasped as I finally noticed that he was right, I could barely see it but when I focused my eyes on Arty I saw a tiny glow around him too and he was…pink.
“You look really cute to my eyes, Arty, especially that shade of pink around you.”
Arty quickly turned his head away and said, “Is it actually pink?”
“Don’t be embarrassed, mine’s pink too. Arty, it’s beautiful. The most beautiful shade of pink on earth and Hell and maybe even Heaven. I love you.” I felt awkward at first saying I love you to Arty, but I didn’t regret it. We shared a few kisses then went back to his room.
“Have you ever wondered what Heaven looked like, Arty?” I asked him while we huddled against each other on his bed.
“No.” He said while looking up at the ceiling.
“Can you try and wonder it now?”
“Hmm. I always thought it would be white, very white. Since Hell is very black. I just thought, whatever it is down here, it should be the exact opposite up there.”
“Fair enough. Me too, I think everything up there would be the opposite of what’s down here. You know, tomorrow we should try and do the opposite of everything we would normally do in Hell and maybe we’ll see what Heaven is like.”
Sure, Amethyst? Arty thought in my mind.
Yeah?
Be quiet now.
No.
Fine…

“Arty! Today is backwards day!” I said cheerfully, waking him up. Arty grunted underneath the covers, refusing to get up. I sighed and raised my hand and slapped him then yelled in his ear, “Get up!”
Let me sleep just a bit more…
“Oh, come on, you don’t even need sleep. Seriously get up.” I pulled off the blanket and noticed that his face was in pain, real pain. I was able to see the red rose through his shirt now. I almost screamed and then stopped myself since the other gods would worry and come up, then they will all know that Arty was possessed by a red rose.
Oh my gosh, what will they do if they find out; lock him away so he can’t get to his body? Or maybe they’ll punish him for not telling them? Or even worse, they’ll kill him to get rid of the pain! Oh no, for all I know I could be killing him myself!
Arty laughed, I stopped panicking and he smiled at me, obviously trying to hide his pain, “I’m,” his voice seemed to be lost for a few seconds then he continued, “I’m fine, they won’t kill me for not telling them or for having a red rose. You should hurry and get dressed for backwards day.”
That same smile, the way he looks, hiding his pain like that makes me want to cry. I wish I could help him some way. Right, I’m his fourth soul; I’m the person who’s supposed to destroy his red rose in the first place, why didn’t I think of that, but, how? It’s not like there’s an order on how to get rid of a red rose. Besides, if I don’t fix him soon, I’ll grow a red rose too. I snapped my fingers and my clothes changed, I tried to look more human, so I thought of my clothes in my own closet back when I was alive. I wore a pair of denim skinny jeans and a light blue tank top. I temporarily cut my hair, since I could make it grow back again. My hair flowed down to a small part on my back, it was still long, but not short either. Irene braided three braids into my hair and then braided the braids together. So now my hair looked like a black bundle of braids braided into a big braid. Lilian complimented me on how I look and she told me too remember to put the red flower hairpin. I told her to stop nagging at me like she was my mother but she just responded by telling me to also wear the necklace that Arty made for me.
I didn’t say a word and I just put on whatever she told me to wear. Arty was already changed; I guess he doesn’t take as long as me since now I’m fussing over my appearance all the time.
He wore a pair of jeans and a checkerboard shirt. His hair stayed the same as always, dark brown hair and dark brown eyes that stared into mine as if he were trying to drill a hole through my head with laser eye beams. I laughed at the thought of Arty with heat vision then we left and tried to do the exact opposite of what we would do normally. The only thing we didn’t change was meeting our bodies and soul capturing. We captured many souls on the way to the hospital, apparently you don’t have to get to know them very well, as long as you have the handy information book. If you don’t have one, it makes life harder than usual, but when you do, I could just swoop down and whisper, “Begone broken soul, el ameria noto korina.” while holding up Lilian, then cut through them and obtain their no longer crushed soul. Arty watched me as I healed the souls of random people, but I can see in his eyes that his mind was elsewhere. I asked him a few times but he snapped back to earth and smiled then said,
“Everything is fine.” In the same tone of voice and the same facial expression. Finally after collecting about twenty-seven souls, I stopped in my tracks and stood there. Arty stopped and looked back as if he noticed that there was something missing, me.
“What’s wrong?” He asked me, concerned but stupid for being concerned for me.
“I should be asking you that. Arty, what’s wrong, for the whole day, your mind has been wandering.” I said.
“It was not.”
“Don’t try and turn this around, trust me, as your fourth spirit I know when you lie and right now your mood is sadness. You’re glowing purple all over.” I took a breath and was about to continue on my proof of Arty being distracted, when he responded,
“I’m worried about Jess. Should I go check on my still alive girlfriend?” he asked me.
Wrong question to ask me, Arty. I thought into his mind. Arty tilted his head a bit, in confusion of my answer. Then, he knew what was coming, he didn’t dodge it though, he let me land my punch.
“I’ll go check on Marcus then.” I said stubbornly, we made a promise, the night before to try and not meet our lovers of the ‘past’, since it would pull us farther into our in-a-coma body.
“You can’t go check on Marcus!”
“Why can’t I, you’re going to check on Jess.”
“It’s not the same.”
“Of course it’s the same! Are you stupid or something?!”
Once again, Arty and I were fighting. Then Lilian, Irene, Brim and Flaris came up with the best idea they could think of.
“Just suffer through each other’s meeting!” they all yelled at once.
“No!” Arty and I yelled at once.
In the end, our spirits ended up winning since they took aim at us, Brim and Irene both had wands in their hands and Lilian and Flaris were ready to fire. Arty and I were both unhappy but after a while I started thinking that maybe this was the best solution. On our way to Jess’s house, I noticed we forgot about opposite day, and if we started opposite now, we wouldn’t be able to meet Marcus or Jess. A smile crawled onto my face as I told Arty about opposite day. He seemed completely bugged about it and ignored me as if we never even spoke about opposite day.
Guess your girlfriend is more important than me, huh? I thought to myself, making sure that Arty can’t hear my thoughts, I cursed in my mind and screamed and yelled, all my words aimed at the boy in front of me, Arty.
Once we got to Jess’s house, Arty turned visible and turned to me,
“Do not turn visible. No matter what. I’m going to tell her about what happened after I died, it might freak her out and make her think I’m crazy or I’m some sort of evil person there to kill her, but I have to tell her.”
“I understand.” I said smugly. I don’t understand! You turned visible when I was with Marcus, doesn’t that mean I can turn visible when you meet Jess?
I didn’t want him to hear my thoughts of jealously but it was tempting to let him know. He rang the doorbell. A girl with blonde hair and light brown eyes opened the door. Her eyes looked like she has been crying for a long time but the moment she saw Arty, her face lit up. She tackled Arty with a bear hug and brought him into her house. Arty didn’t say a word and he followed her in. The door was slammed in my face before I can enter so I just went through the door and excused myself for ‘breaking in’. Arty and Jess sat on the couch, before they even started talking Jess brought in some coffee. They were in tiny teacups that were decorated with bright yellow daffodils. They drank in silence then Jess put down her cup, looked at Arty and asked him,
“Where were you for the last few months?”
Months? He was gone for months?! Wow, yet they still haven’t pulled off the life support, that’s surprising. Arty tried to ignore my thoughts that poured into his head and he smiled and said, “I was busy with…stuff.”
“What kind of stuff is that?” Jess asked Arty, clearly suspicious of what happened.
“Um, well, I. Jess. I’m dead. I died a few months ago on the train. The last place you saw me, you told me to come back home safe and I promised you that nothing bad would happen to me. Then, the train crashed and I fell into a deep coma, my spirit was pulled away from my body and I became a god. I know this sounds crazy but I could prove it in many ways.” Arty looked worried as if Jess was going to take her teacup and throw it at him. Jess took it pretty well though, she sat there drinking her coffee and after another awkward silence she said,
“Prove it.”
Well, it’s obvious now my time with Marcus is going to be delayed because of you so I’m going to leave first okay?
No. You are not leaving without me. Don’t worry, it will be on our way to the hospital, where I’m pretty sure Marcus is sitting in the chair holding your hand.
It’s not like you ever cared about me.
I do.
Prove it. I thought to him in the same voice that Jess did, he shuddered at the sound of my acting and then he thought back to me,
I will, but not now. Then he spoke out loud to Jess, “Place your hand on mine. You’ll see that it’s cold as ice and that your hand will probably pass through it.”
She did as she was told and yelped in surprise when her hand went through, but she still wanted more proof. Arty turned invisible and she didn’t believe it at first but when she walked through him, she felt a cold presence. She made a final request, “Show me your body, you said you’re in a coma, right? Show me yourself.”
God damn woman, how much proof do you need?! He just disappeared in front of your eyes and your hand went through his! What more do you need?
Arty was expecting this and he told her to go to the hospital and look for Arty Hensley. We waited for her at the hospital and when she came she whispered Arty’s name in the room. Arty quickly became visible and said,
“This is my body.” Jess followed Arty’s gaze and she ran to the bed and started crying. Then she leaned down on Arty’s broken body and was about to kiss his cheek when I lost control and turned visible. I stomped into the direction of Jess and slapped her. She cried in pain and looked at me, I heard her thoughts loud and clear and they were pretty flattering. I refused to let her know my voice so I thought in her mind as she thought into mine.
My god that girl is beautiful, she thought.
Stay away from Arty.
What? Who are you? Why is your voice in my head?
Death spirits can do this and I can hear your thoughts speaking out to me. Once again, stay away from Arty.
You still haven’t told me your name.
You are not worthy of knowing my name, just know that while you’re talking to him, he is slowly dying because of his past!
“Amethyst!” Arty yelled at me, “I told you not to turn visible!” He took hold of my wrists and I screamed back at him,
“It doesn’t seem like it’s important anymore, if I’m visible or not.”
“Of course it’s important!”
We argued and Jess was still on the ground, staring at me and thinking that I was beautiful, even when I had just hurt her. Jess thought that I was an ideal princess.
“We’re done.” I told Arty in a flat voice, “It’s over, everything that was between us is now gone, I’m moving in with Jace. Goodbye, happy opposite day.”
“You guys were together?” Jess said in disbelief.
“Yeah, that’s right sweetheart. Believe it.” I turned invisible and floated out the window, going back to hell.
I heard someone crying, it was Jess. Arty tried comforting her but she yelled at him and told him to leave and never show his ugly face. I guess my anger took over because I gave her my strength to beat the tar out of Arty.
She opened her heart to me and I gave her my energy, I heard more arguing and then Arty screamed.
Oops, I might have overdone it. I thought to myself but when I thought of Arty, if I had a heart it would have been racing, I pushed the thought away and smiled at myself. I did the right thing, I know I did.
I moved in with Jace, he didn’t ask me anything while I was moving my stuff out of Arty’s room but when we got to his room he asked me,
“Did you have a fight with Arty? You know I may be a god, but I can keep secrets from the other gods.”
“Yes I had a fight with Arty. We went to go see things of his own past, because he has a red rose. So we went to see Jess, Arty’s girlfriend, since Arty was worried about her. I thought, that you know, we were now officially together, but when we took Jess to the hospital to see Arty’s body. She leaned down to kiss Arty’s cheek and I lost it.” My voice seemed to break apart and Jace snapped his fingers and a glass of water appeared in his hand. He passed it to me and I whispered thank you, then continued, “I turned visible when Arty told me not to and I slapped Jess. I feel so horrible now. To just watch Arty die while they speak so casually, I know I’m his fourth spirit but there’s nothing I know of making spells to make Arty’s red rose disappear.”
Jace listened in silence and when I finished, I think he was struggling a bit with how to help me feel better. He put his arm around me and pulled me close, I took comfort in his arms and rested there for a bit. Then, I said sorry to Jace for stealing his room, but he said he didn’t mind and that it actually made him happier to have company instead of talking to dust bunnies. We laughed and joked around. Jace says that I could use his bed and he’ll just sleep on the floor. Might as well sleep since there’s nothing to do at night. It was 6:00, when we heard a knock on the door. I opened it and Arty stormed into his room and pulled Jace out of the room and he slammed the door in my face.
That’s two times in one day that someone has slammed a door in my face, it’s a record… I thought to myself and then I tried to go to sleep. It was lonely without anyone there, there wasn’t Jace or Arty there to comfort me. I sighed and hid under the covers. The door opened and Jace came in swearing and kicking everything in his way. I looked up and raised my eyebrows, searching for an explanation. Jace saw the look on my face and he told me,
“Arty is so spoiled, wanting this, wanting that. Arty should just leave you alone since you want to be alone and away from him.” He sat down, with his head buried in his hands.
“What’s wrong?” I asked Jace in a small voice, trying to not trigger any anger issues that could have happened outside with Arty.
“Arty’s moving in here.” Jace says. My jaw dropped and I started cursing as much as Jace. Then we made up a tiny plan that might help get Arty to leave.
Ignore him no matter what and speak through our minds. Remember to block off all thoughts from Arty. Jace, you should come up on the bed, I don’t mind and it might get Arty mad enough to leave.
Good idea.
There was a knock at 7:00. I opened the door and Arty came in and just as I expected he slammed the door in my face.
Three. I should write this down somewhere. Jace chuckles at my comment and lies down. It was really silent and I think it was for the best. Arty lay on the ground, his back faced to us and Jace and I lay on the bed, facing each other.
We ended up telling jokes in our minds and started laughing. Arty ignored us and we started talking out loud. After a few hours of joking around and trying to get Arty to leave, we decided to go to sleep. I went to turn off the lights when I saw a glimpse of Arty’s red rose, it grew a lot within that small timeframe and it was causing a lot more pain than I expected. When I was passing him, I whispered as quietly as possible,
“Happy opposite day.”
His red rose faded a bit and his eyes opened, he looked at my face as if he were trying to say thank you, then he fell unconscious. The more I remind him that he’s living in Hell, the more the red rose will be pushed back by a bit. As long as he isn’t reminded about his life as a human, the red rose won’t spread a lot, I have to keep him in his normal state.

“Hey, Amethyst, do you any request of what to do today? I’m pretty bored so we can go anywhere you want.” Jace asked me.
“Do you guys have a lot of free time or are you delaying everything for me?” I asked him.
“A little bit of both. Why do you ask?”
“I don’t know, maybe because it seems like you guys do nothing for the whole time.”
“You haven’t noticed?”
“Noticed what?” Now I was confused.
“Every time you aren’t looking Arty teleports to take someone’s soul away after they die and then he would pop up beside you.” Jace talked as if I was crazy to not notice.
“Okay well, I guess I’m really bad at noticing things.” I said, “Let’s go to strawberry field, I want to eat strawberries.”
“Alright, let’s go, but you do know that you won’t really be able to eat the strawberries.”
“Well, if I’m visible, I’ll be able to taste and digest the strawberries.”
But that means we actually have to pay to get in and we don’t have money.”
“Then we can go in while being invisible and then hang around a group for a while and then sneak out of the group when no one is looking and pick strawberries.”
Jace and I quickly got changed and left, Arty was still sleeping. Or we thought he was. Jace let me capture as many souls as I needed and I let him take his time with sending dead people to Hell. The only problem was, when I tried to heal a little girl’s crushed soul it didn’t work. There was nothing, she was still in the same depressed matter and I kept it secret. Jace didn’t know and no one else was watching me.
I’ll find that girl again afterwards.
Once we got to the strawberry field. We picked many strawberries while staying invisible. Since we couldn’t pick up anything when we were invisible, we made our hand visible and collected them in a small basket. We picked little at a time and ate most of them the moment we picked them since it would look weird to see a floating strawberry. Then, I spotted the strangest looking strawberries. They were fully grown but they were still white.
“What kind of strawberries are those? They’re white even though they’re fully grown.”
“Those are called Pine berries.” Arty said. Wait, Arty?! He’s supposed to be in Jace’s room!
Jace hid me behind his back and stared at Arty, unsure whether to say hi or to ignore him or to punch him. I decided to speak up instead of waiting in silence. I picked a berry and ate it. It was delicious and sweet, it was the perfect berry. I smiled at the taste and said, “It’s delicious. This is my new favourite fruit.”
“And what was your favourite fruit before?” Jace asked me, amused by my happiness after eating a fruit.
“A strawberry.” I answered him with a childish smile.
Jace laughed and ate a berry himself, Arty also ate some and then I almost forgot that I was mad at him.
“Why are you here anyway, Arty?” I asked him in a firm voice.
“I wanted strawberries too, is that a problem?”
“Not really, I guess it doesn’t really matter anymore.” I said, then thought to Jace,
You should keep an eye on him, not literally, please.
Okay, I mean yes ma’am.
I punched him lightly and smiled. I’ve never smiled like this with Arty, it somewhat made me feel happy to be smiling even after my death. With Arty it was too straightforward; I never really had a chance to know him as well as Jace. Jace and I were good friends, nothing more and I like it that way. We all picked many strawberries and tried to make it look like it wasn’t floating so we can bring some back home. I mainly ate the Pine berries and loved them even more after every bite. After a few hours, we went to pick cherries and a few peaches. It took the whole day to pick all the fruits but it was worth it. It was a bit strange having Arty there but I liked the company, I never liked being alone when I was alive and I don’t think I changed much after death, other than hiding my happy personality, which I once had. We went to a park and turned visible, since we didn’t think someone would notice who we were. We sat under an oak tree and ate the fruit we picked. That’s when Jace asked me, “Truth or dare?”
It was the game that I think mainly everyone knew. I always picked truth back when I was alive and I guess I wanted to change a bit because I ended up saying, “Dare.”
“Alright. I dare you to pick truth the next time I ask you okay? It’s your turn now.”
“Arty, truth or dare?” I asked him. I didn’t want to ask Jace since he would just ask me again, so I asked Arty.
“I don’t know, truth?”
“Okay, would you rather fall off a cliff into a stormy sea or fall off a cliff into a gigantic pile of broken glass?”
“The sea, definitely the sea. I would probably drown faster than die faster with a bunch of pieces of glass in me.” Arty responds then asks Jace, “Truth or Dare?”
“Dare.”
“I dare you to go jump off that cliff into the sea.” Arty says and points towards the cliff.
“Okay, I’ll be right back.” He stands up, winks at me then leaves to the cliff. While he’s gone, Arty and I don’t talk or even look at each other. It was just silent. Then Arty looks at me and says,
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay.” I tell him, but then regret it because I forgave him that easily. I shouldn’t have said that, I should have stayed mad at him for caring about his girlfriend instead of me, his current girlfriend. It’s too late now.
Jace came running back and he wasn’t soaking wet, he thought to me that he jumped and then turned invisible before hitting the water. He smiles at me and it wasn’t a friendly smile it was more of an ‘I’m going to kill you smile.’
“Truth or dare?” Jace asked me, with a smile on his face.
“Truth…” I said nervously.
“If you had to choose between me or Arty, who would you choose?”
“Why would you ask me that?”
“Why wouldn’t I?” Jace was waiting for an answer and it may not have looked like it but Arty was also waiting for an answer. I think back and forth between Jace and Arty, thinking out loud so they could hear my thoughts too.
Jace? Jace would smile.
Arty? Arty would smile. This went on for about three minutes. Then I smiled and hid my thoughts from them and I said, “Or.”
“You can’t pick ‘or’!”
“It was in the sentence!”
“Pick one Amethyst.” Arty told me, his eyes were begging for an answer.
“I don’t know. Give me some time okay?” I muttered to myself.
“Okay.” Jace and Arty said at the same time. The next question after that comment would always be,
“How long is that? Giving you some time?” Jace asked me.
“Just, drop it.” I said, trying to avoid answering something like some time is a week or a month or a few years. Something like that. As long as they don’t force me to answer.
We walked back home together, we walked. Not floated. It was nice to feel human again. On the way back home, Jace and Arty waited for me to capture souls and I waited for them to send people to Hell. It doubled the time on getting home and it made us a bit hungry but we had a fair amount of cherries, peaches and strawberries. We ended our game of truth or dare after Jace’s question so we played a different game and this one was really hard, especially when you were trying to go home as fast as you can. You would all start on a starting point like a race then you would play rock, paper, scissors. The person who wins takes three steps forward and the person who loses would stay where they were. Then you play again and again. The first person home wins something you bet.
We bet the rest of the Pine berries since they tasted the best. I won every time we played this game when I was alive, but I wasn’t going to tell Arty and Jace that. We played and played and played, until finally one of us got to the rock in the forest and that was me. I took the rest of the Pine berries and laughed at them. They looked slightly offended that there was a way to lose in rock paper scissors, other than how the game was based on pure luck. To me, a small game of rock, paper, scissors was not made of pure luck; you had to have skill in order to win.
I left them for a while and told them that I was going to collect more souls, I happily ate the berries and they stared at me. When I was out of sight, I heard them yelling at each other. I rolled my eyes and ignored it.
“Irene, locate that girl who’s soul wasn’t healed.”
“Ahem, Amethyst you need to learn your manners.” Irene said.
I sighed and rephrased my sentence, “Irene, please help me locate the girl’s soul.”
“That’s better.” Irene waved her wand and then pointed towards a mountain.
“Don’t joke around Irene, seriously, where’s the girl?”
“I’m not joking, she’s seriously up there.” Lilian glowed in my hand and she whispered,
“Master, Irene speaks the truth, the little girl is up there, in the mountains.”
I sighed again and started to look for a spell that would get me up in the mountains faster than a normal human. Lilian hit me on the head all of the sudden and said, “Remember, fledge?”
“Right, the feather thing, how could I not remember that?” I closed my eyes and imagined the mountains, “Fledge.”
I felt a cool breeze on my face and when I opened my eyes and there was snow everywhere. Snow! It was early December and there was already a whole bunch of snow. I shivered and changed my clothes. I was now prepared for winter and anything that came my way. Now that I think about it, how were the strawberries in season? Actually wait we were indoors, in a greenhouse so I guess strawberries could grow but it would be hard to handle them. Then again, if growing strawberries in early December was weird that means a girl in the mountains would be impossible. She looked about eight or seven years old, there was no way she could have gone far. So, I traveled on foot. I wore a white and blue striped hat with a pompom on the tip. A red wool scarf was wrapped tightly around my neck. My coat wasn’t one of those poufy ones that made you look like a gigantic marshmallow. It was flat and I was guessing, a snowboarding jacket. One of those long coats that didn’t provide a lot of heat but were probably my favourite kind of jacket. My boots went all the way up to my knees and for a good reason, a lot of people would have preferred boots that only went up to their ankle but the ones that went up to your knees kept the snow from entering your boots and getting your socks wet. They weren’t the most stylish but they were helpful, unless you enjoyed having to thaw your bones at the end of every day. Irene was wearing the same clothes as me and she lightly tapped me on the shoulder.
“I don’t know where she is exactly but I can tell you when I don’t sense her anymore.”
“Thank you.” I whispered, too cold to even speak clearly. Lilian’s blade began to freeze, I felt her shaking in my hand and I pressed her lightly to my body. I quickly grabbed Irene and put her in my scarf. She fit perfectly and she sat on my shoulder on the inside of my scarf. I put Lilian back in her sheath and tried to stuff her in my pocket. I kept walking to what I thought was forward, I ended up crashing into a tree and tripping a lot of times.
“Try not to squish me, okay?” Irene mumbled, she was cuddled up on my shoulder and tied herself to my hair so she wouldn’t fall. It was a smart idea and I would have loved to be in her position at the moment. But, I was the one walking. I felt like I was playing hot and cold, every time I moved farther away from the girl, Irene would say colder and when I moved closer she would say hotter.
I got tired and so I sat down for a break, I tried to make a fire but failed. I made a spark with a few spells and then got it to light. I took a deep breath and told Irene to come out and enjoy the heat while my energy lasts. She looked very grateful and happy, I took out Lilian and cleaned her blade with a handkerchief. Suddenly, I heard the sound of snow crunching together. I quickly stood up and held Lilian near my face, to both cover my face from the stranger and to be ready to heal the girl, if it was the little girl. A dark figure rushed towards me in incredible speed and grabbed me by the wrist where I was holding Lilian. I screamed.
“I’m sorry did I scare you?” It was a voice I recognized but was too scared for my brain to process who it was, instead I was able to gasp out,
“Yes, what do you think? Am I laughing?”
“I’m sorry, I’m really sorry. Listen I’m not supposed to be here, I came here because I knew you would never find her.”
I looked up slowly, I was so surprised I didn’t notice the tears running down my face. His fingers ran across my cheek, wiping my tears away. I pulled away from him but he pulled me closer and he hugged me. “Let go of me, Danny.” I said my voice was muffled in his…T-shirt.
“No way, not until I’m sure that your face won’t freeze.”
“Shouldn’t you be more worried about yourself, you’re literally wearing a t-shirt and a pair of jeans.”
I tried to push him back, but most of my energy was used to keep the fire going. I held onto his shirt and lay my head against his chest. Even in the cold his breathing was steady. After a few minutes, I felt him shiver, I whispered something and he let go of me.
“Irene, can you get Danny some winter clothes?”
“Of course.” Irene said cheerfully, probably because she was warm, Danny’s body began to glow and then he wore the same equipment as me.
“Now my body heat won’t keep you warm, I guess we depend on the fire now.”
We both sat in front of the fire, my energy wasn’t coming back but it wasn’t fading away either. Danny asked me if I was able to turn invisible and when I tried, it was hopeless.
“Now you’re going to have to spend the night as a human in the middle of this snow storm.” He said, “I’ll stay visible too, just in case.” I didn’t try to protest since I knew he would just do it anyway. I felt tired all of the sudden and lay down, Danny looked at me and he gently put my head in his lap. I closed my eyes and asked Danny,
“What did you do to become a god of Hell?”
“Me? Well I was a thief.”
“That’s not that bad. Many people are thieves. You know people steal stuff and one day they get caught. That’s the end of that.” I said, I opened my eyes and saw him staring at me.
“No this is different, I was good, really good. Maybe a bit too good. I guess I am fit to be a god, when I was alive I was the god of thievery.”
“So? I stole something in my life and what if I was the god of thievery; it’s not a big crime. It’s not like murdering someone who was your friend at one point. How did you die?”
“I was going to steal something when this man took me and asked me for a favour. He asked me to steal something called the Eyes of the Pejite. I knew what a Pejite was and it wasn’t the best thing in the world, I accepted though, but he told me to take a team with me. I hired the best after me and when we entered the museum to steal it, they betrayed me. My own team took me by the hands and tried to put me in front of the security camera and that’s when I killed them all. My speciality was stealing but when I learned how to steal I learned three things; to kill, to deny everything and to pick a lock in less than twenty seconds. It was like detention in elementary school, I learned how to eat food without making noise. How to listen to music without anyone knowing. And how to sleep without getting caught.”
I laughed a bit and then he continued, he was also smiling at his memories, “I always hid a knife in my boots so when I fell to the ground I took the knife in my mouth and cut someone’s face. When they let go of me, I slaughtered all of them, I became an animal and then one of them had a gun and he shot me down.”
“That’s amazing.”
“What dying?”
“No, I meant how instead of just giving up you fought back.”
“Because I didn’t want to be caught. I was a coward, I would kill a thousand people before I let anyone know what I looked like.” Danny spat on the ground as if it was a disgrace to even show his face to me. My mind drifted off into a deep hibernation, I couldn’t feel my fingers or my toes but I was able to sleep. Danny stayed by my side and he made sure I wouldn’t freeze, since he had more energy than me he was able to maintain focus. Unlike me, who started seeing a purple polka dotted platypus flying around.
When I opened my eyes, I woke up seeing white, it hurt my eyes at first but my eyes adjusted faster than a normal human. When I looked up, my eyelashes were white and my fingers were frozen. The fire was still going and it looked even stronger. I tried to turn invisible and it still didn’t work, I sighed and looked at Danny who was awake and staring at me.
“Good morning, I see your power didn’t come back.” He said. His hair was a mess and he had dark circles under his eyes, not so handsome if you ask me.
“I see your power disappeared completely and did you stay up all night?”
“Remember, we don’t need to sleep and my power disappeared a few hours ago.”
“No, a death spirit needs sleep when his or her power begins to fail, it’s like getting knocked unconscious. About how many hours was it when your power disappeared?”
“Nine hours ago…” Danny mumbled.
“That’s great, that’s perfect. Okay, I have a bit of power so I can still do this.”
I stopped channeling my power to the fire and told Irene to get back in my scarf, she obeyed me and I helped Danny get on his feet. We walked for about half an hour and Danny face planted in the snow. He lay down and he wouldn’t talk, I started to feel worried so I flipped him over and he was dead.
No master, he’s just unconscious. Lilian said in my mind. I started breathing again and let him rest. I was going to make another fire but Irene told me to stop since my power would completely disappear for about two weeks if I make another fire right now. I sighed and I held him close to me. I heard snow crunching again and I pulled out Lilian in front of my face, just like when Danny appeared. I didn’t let go of Danny which meant I couldn’t stand up. I saw something poke out from behind a tree, an arrow. It flew towards me and I dodged it, my heart started pounding like crazy, it felt like it was going to jump out of my chest and run away. I saw another arrow and when it sped towards me I raised my hand and when I closed it into a fist, I caught the arrow and it snapped in two. I threw Lilian towards the trees and then stopped the knife right before it hit its target.
“Come out or this knife will penetrate your skull and you won’t feel too good afterwards, I guarantee it.”
The pine needles on the tree rustled and just as I suspected, the little girl came out with her bow and arrow. She had good aim but she was a bit too brave.
“Why did you attack us? Or do you normally kill humans that go hiking and then get split from their group?”
“Liar! You came here to take me to him!” The girl said, there were tears in her eyes but she didn’t move away from Lilian even when I told Lilian to move closer to her forehead.
“I’m gonna ask you again and if you don’t answer, something bad is going to happen. Why did you attack us?”
“I won’t tell you!” She screamed and then tightly closed her eyes, I wasn’t supposed to kill her so I didn’t know what to do. Instead of killing her, I told Lilian to give her a cut on her cheek and when Lilian did, blood ran down her face. I smiled when she opened her eyes and told her to sit with me. The little girl sat down as if she had no choice. She glared at me, with terrified eyes.
“How were you so sure that I wouldn’t kill you?” I asked her. The little girl looked at me as if I were a monster and then her eyes softened,
“You won’t kill me.”
“How did you know, though?”
“The way you’re holding him,” She said while pointing to Danny, who was still unconscious in my arms, “the way you’re holding him isn’t what a killer would do.”
“So you made a prediction, what if it was wrong?”
“But it was right.” She said while smiling. I smiled too, she’s smart, or at least she could tell when someone lies.
“My name’s Amethyst.”
“Aili. My name is Aili. May I ask who he is?”
“He’s Danny, my friend.”
“Only your friend? Nothing more? Last night, it didn’t seem like he was only your friend.”
I felt my face heat up, I said nothing and we talked together, I tried to move away from all questions about Danny. After about two hours, I asked her, “Why are you in the mountains anyway, you’re like nine.”
“How did control your knife like that?”
“You go first since I asked you first.” I said and then without thinking, I snapped my fingers and made a fire since I had enough energy. She gaped at me and then said,
“I’m hiding from these men who came to my house a few weeks ago. They killed my parents and they told me to come with them, I ran away to school where there were a lot of teachers and they disappeared but when I was going home a few days ago, they were waiting at my front door. So I stayed at my friend’s house but then they rang her doorbell so I ran away to here.”
“Wouldn’t they just follow you here? And it would be better to stay in public.”
“I didn’t want my friend to be murdered like my parents and I’m ten years old.”
“I…am a magical being from the world underneath.” I said, Aili raised her eyebrows and then I started reading her thoughts,
“I can read your mind, you really miss your parents but you don’t show it. You’re scared but you don’t show it, you lie to yourself so you can get past all these feelings. The truth is, you want to leave with the men but that would mean leaving everything.”
This is why I can’t heal your crushed soul. You’re having doubts. Aili was still staring at me and the wind had stopped blowing, the storm had passed for now.
“You really are a magical being.”
“I know.” I said, I laughed and then I told her that she should just think about what was more important, getting a home or sticking with her own home.
“I don’t know. How do I know those men won’t kill me like they killed my parents, the only reason I won’t go is because they killed my parents!”
“Well, it’s obvious you don’t trust them, but some part of you wants to leave. Why is that?”
“Because one of the men who came to take me was my brother.” Now I was surprised, I looked at Aili with a confused look on my face. Everything in the world seemed to shift out of balance,
“Your own brother murdered your parents? That’s not normal.” I muttered.
“My brother, Max, he left our family when he was sixteen and when he came back on his birthday he told us that he was moving out. He swore an oath and now he is bound to it. Max has to do whatever they say and if he doesn’t I will die. So he left and he never came to visit. Until the day they came to take me away. They wanted me because they thought I would make a good thief since I’m small, I can squeeze through small spaces. But, in the process my parents refused and they murdered them. Max was furious, I was able to see it in his eyes but he held back and reached for me, I ran away. I never wanted to see my brother again and now they’re hunting me down.”
“What’s your dream? What do you want to be?” I asked her, since in order to heal her soul I have to know why she’s crushed. Aili looked at the ground and then instead of answering my question she asked me,
“Do you know why snow is white?”
“Um, no…”
“It’s white because it forgot what colour it was and now I feel like that too. Do you ever feel like that?”
“Yeah, I do.” I said quietly, thinking of Marcus. When I repeated my question to Aili, she started crying. I didn’t move and I waited for her to speak, she wasn’t the kind of girl who I was able to comfort. When she calmed down a bit, I gave her a cup of warm water which I summoned. She looked confused and I could tell she wanted to ask how I got the water but she thought twice about it.
“All I wanted was to live with my brother again, like it was before. I just wanted him back from the ‘Chained Hearts.’”
“Is ‘Chained Hearts’ the clan or pack or wherever he went?” I asked Aili and she nodded slowly. Danny was still in my arms and he seriously looked dead. His lips looked like a pale blue and his cheeks were pale as if all his blood was gone. His hair was already frozen even under his hat.
“You look worried, shouldn’t you be busy keeping him warm? He’s your boyfriend after all.”
“He’s not my boyfriend, he’s a boy and he’s a friend but he’s not my boyfriend!” I yelled, I felt my face grow hot and I looked down at Danny’s face. His eyes fluttered open and he lightly touched my cheek,
“Zoe?” He whispered, my fingers lightly brushed the frost off of his face and then I flicked him in the head, hard.
“Wake up Danny, I’m not Zoe, I’m Amethyst. And who is Zoe anyway?” I said.
“Maybe Zoe’s his girlfriend.” Aili said while staring at Danny’s stirring body.
Danny’s eyes were now fully open and he took off his mittens to rub his eyes, he blinked and looked at me. He had a melancholy look on his face and then he sat by the fire, “She’s a Pejite, and she’s not my girlfriend.”
He completely ignored Aili since she was a part of my job. Aili just watched what he did and then continued talking to me, she trusted me and she didn’t doubt me. She was still curious about how I was able to use ‘magic’ that well, but I always steered the conversation away from that. I didn’t restrain myself from using magic in front of her though, since she already knew. I gave her a warm sleeping bag and I tried to get Danny in a sleeping bag too but he kept telling me that he would keep watch. I lay down beside Aili to keep her safe and fell asleep. I was able to feel my energy seeping out of my body.
The next day, I freaked out the moment I opened my eyes because Danny was lying down right beside me and I was able to feel his breath on my cold nose. I hastily got up and looked around, Aili was still sleeping and the fire was still going. I took out my information book and searched for Max, when I found him it said,
Max, age nineteen, older brother of Aili, swore an oath to the ‘Chained Hearts’ because his father forced him too. His father didn’t know that the oath would cause his own son Max to murder him. Father’s name is Anthony.
I looked up Anthony and it said, Anthony, father of two, Max and Aili. Age forty, wife’s name is Elizabeth. Anthony was the former leader of a clan called ‘Chained Hearts’, who are well known thieves.
I dropped the book and woke Aili, she mumbled in her sleep and then I screamed in her ear to get her attention. When she finally got up, I read what it said in the information book and she began to cry again.
“My brother was forced into doing this? But, he was the one who killed…”
“Your parents, but your parents are the cause of this, you can refuse to become a thief, they won’t kill you since their leader just died, Max now has control.” I told her and then I heard rustling in the trees, “Looks like they came here on time too.”
Aili looked up and I grabbed her close to me, a boy stepped out of the trees with a gun, he gasped when he saw Aili and pointed the gun at me. I had no idea what Danny was doing at the time but he definitely wasn’t helping. Aili jumped out of my arms and yelled, “Kill her and I’ll kill myself, Max.”
He grunted and lowered the gun, I raised Lilian and he looked startled, he began to raise his gun again when Aili raised her hand and faced me, “What are you doing Amethyst?”
“I can heal you. I can make all the scars on your heart go away and you can be happy again.” I said, Max was looking at me as if I was crazy but when Aili nodded, all he did was watch.
“El ameria noto korina,” I sliced through her soul and it became green and pink, she couldn’t see it but Max was able to. When the soul entered her body again, she skipped towards Max and they hugged each other. Max took Aili by the hand and he listened to her apologizing for everything. Before he left, he gave me a glance that said ‘thank you’. I smiled and I tried to become invisible again, it still wasn’t working. Light footsteps approached me from behind, Danny pulled me in and kissed me lightly on the mouth and then we disappeared.
When I fell in the throne room, I couldn’t remember any exact details, I probably lost a bit of my memory because it was so cold. A ll I knew was that Aili’s soul was healed. When I looked around, I could have sworn Danny was there with me but he wasn’t anywhere to be seen. I walked into Jace’s room where Arty and Jace were waiting, Arty locked the door and Jace crossed his arms, they both had a frown on their faces. They looked at me and said,
“Where were you and which one of us do you choose? We’re pretty sure that you aren’t going to tell us for a really long time.”
“How did you know I wasn’t going to tell you? And where I went is none of your business.” I said, crossing my arms and I started thinking of a way to get out of the room.
“We’ve known you for a while now, Amethyst, I’m pretty sure we know when you lie. Other than when you were able to beat us in rock paper scissors. I think I will never get how you can manage to win every time.” Arty looked worried, he must have been waiting a lot for me to come back.
“I’m not choosing, no matter what you say I’m not choosing.” I said firmly, avoiding their eyes.
“Why won’t you choose?” Arty asked me.
“I think it’s wrong to choose between you two.”
“How is it wrong?” Jace asked me.
“Because, you both love me and I only love one of you! Or maybe none of you!” I got it out of my head but the expression it left wasn’t what I was expecting. They were smiling and Arty said, “We know! This is why we want you to choose.”
“Well, Arty, what if it isn’t you? Or Jace, what if it isn’t you?”
Both guys looked slightly depressed now, but they still insisted that I tell them. I snapped like a twig and screamed. The first person to rush in and break down the door was Sam. He looked around quickly and started yelling, “What’s wrong? I heard Amethyst scream! What happened? Did a demon get out? Are there Angels? God, I hate Angels!”
“It’s okay Sam, I’m not hurt. I just wanted you to open the door so I can get out of here.” I said.
I left the room and started walking around blindly then I ended up in the throne room. All the chairs were empty except for the one in the middle. The goddess of heaven, the swan. She sat there, facing me; she showed no expression and said,
“My name is Celeste, the only goddess of Heaven. Do you know why there’s only one goddess of Heaven?
“N-no.” I stuttered, feeling nervous of Celeste. Her voice sounded soft but it echoed around the room which made her seem like an angry mother. She looked like the person who would probably yell at you when she was mad.
“It’s because, many people die with many mistakes and that creates a flaw in their afterlife. This is why there are more gods for Hell than Heaven. Since, many people don’t go to Heaven. I thought one of the gods explained this to you.”
I couldn’t even speak, she was probably the most beautiful person I’ve ever seen. She had long flowing blonde hair; it was even longer than mine. It went all the way down her chair to her feet. She had a silver crown placed lightly on her head. It wasn’t a big crown it was more of a circlet. It had pink roses around it and silver vines and leaves. Her dress was white and it had many layers to it. She had blue crystal earrings that were in the shape of icicles, it could have been used as a weapon if it weren’t so small. She wore a pair of white heels and her eyes were a bright shade of green, it reminded me of Sam. The angle of her cheekbones were the same as Sam too. I blinked and looked again, I would have asked but she seemed kind of scary.
“I must remind you of Sam right? Well, there’s no surprise in that.” She seemed to be pointing out an obvious fact.
“Were you reading my mind? Why does everyone do that?! Can’t you people ask me before bursting my personal bubble?” I pouted.
“Personal bubble? You sound like a preschooler. I probably remind you of him because I am Sam’s older sister, not a lot of people notice it since people don’t usually see us in the same room or live to see both of us separately and live. An Angel or a death spirit only sees either Sam or me, if they see both of us, they don’t live to tell the story of the two opposite siblings.”
“WHAT!” I yelled, how many siblings have I not met? There’s Arty’s sister, Aria and Sam’s sister, Celeste. Imagine Jace had a sibling, or Danny, or Michael! God, I can’t even think of Michael having a sibling. Does Danny have a sibling? I don’t remember him telling me anything about his past.
Sam walked into the throne room and screamed. He screams like a girl… Sam rubbed his eyes then looked again and then screamed, again. The scene obviously didn’t change, Celeste was still sitting in front of me. Then he yelled at Celeste, “What are you doing here?! Get out, Celeste! You are not killing another death spirit!”
“I live here with you dead people, remember? Besides, it’s rude to talk like that to your elder. And this girl is…different, she will live to see us both.”
“Why are you talking to Amethyst? And it doesn’t matter if you’re older or not, get out. You’re not even supposed to be here.” Sam yelled like he was furious but he sounded more annoyed.
“Why can’t I talk to Amethyst? Once again; it’s rude to talk to your elder like that.”
I have no idea what to say between this brother and sister fight. I never fought with my sister; I always kept my feelings to myself. What do I do?
“Umm, Sam? I’m sorry for talking to your sister. I didn’t even know Celeste was your sister. I’m sorry.”
Sam seemed to soften up and he sighed, “It’s okay, I know you didn’t mean to interfere with the work of Heaven, but just try and not get caught up with it. Ever.” He glanced at Celeste. “Heaven may seem like a pure white, silky thread, drifting in the clear ocean but once you get caught in it. The thread becomes tainted with red.”
“I’m sorry. Goodbye Celeste, it was nice to meet you.” I told her before I left. She got out of her throne and lowered her voice to a whisper.
“It’s my fault, I’m sorry Amethyst and if you ever have any questions about anything, I’m always here.” Celeste whispered in my ear so that Sam can’t here.
I return to my room, well, either Arty’s room or Jace’s room. When I walked into Jace’s room, I saw both guys staring at me and they both yelled, “Me or him?”
“Him.” I said. Not pointing to anyone or jerking my head towards someone. I just looked straight ahead and said the one word.
“Who’s him? Me or him?” Arty asked me.
“Figure it out.” I snapped back at him, and then I stood by the door of the room and said, “I’m sleeping in Arty’s room so you guys stay in this room, okay?”
“But…” Jace started, but I cut him off before he could continue,
“I said stay.” It made it seem as if I was teaching a dog. I stormed out of the room with my stuff and made my way to Arty’s room. Once again, I heard arguing between the two gods and I heard a few clear things. Jace yelled,
“Explosion!” or “Destruction!” and a second after, I heard a loud boom. Then I would hear Arty yell, “Ice!” or “Fire!” and I would hear flames burst up or I would hear the sharp sounds of ice hitting against each other.
Since I was only a few doors away I heard every spell and everything that happened in there. I hit the wall sometimes and told them to shut up and they would, for about five minutes, then the fighting would start again. I couldn’t believe they were fighting this much over me. I fell asleep sooner or later though and I fell into a dreamless sleep. I slept in complete darkness, then two faces popped into my mind. One of Jace and one of Arty. I told myself to choose one. So in my mind I killed Jace and I screamed and woke up. Then I slept and killed Arty this time and I screamed, then woke up. I felt so frightened that I crept into Jace’s room and slept right in front of the door. It was really scary to kill each one in my dream but I did know something. I figured out the answer to Jace’s question. I now know who to pick. It wasn’t any of them, it was a different face, one I didn’t really like.

I woke up on Jace’s bed, covered by thick warm blankets. I saw Jace and Arty both sleeping on the ground. The room was completely trashed. There were bits of burned places here and there, there was a hole in the ceiling and some water from the ice that melted. Apparently, if you are lucky, once you die you would be granted two or one powers. Out of all the gods, Jace and Arty were the only ones with powers. Jace had explosion, which obviously explodes stuff. Arty has ice and fire, which he can use as if it were unlimited candy. I always wondered if I had a power or not, since I never tried to use anything that was offensive other than Lilian. If I did have a power I wonder what it would be. I sat up on Jace’s bed and looked around once more.
Ew, I don’t know why, but I have the urge to clean this room up. I picked up Lilian and looked through my information book,
“Show me the spell I am looking for.” I whispered, trying not to wake up the boys. Words appeared on a blank page of my information book and it said,
“Itai neguri.”
Clean, I translated. Well, good thing I looked through this. I held up Lilian and whispered the words. Lilian started glowing red then a bright green. Oh goody, Christmas colours…
The green glow swirled around me, Jace, Lilian, Arty and Irene. Then the red burst around the whole room. I closed my eyes and hoped that I didn’t mess up in the spell and after a few minutes, I felt relieved, because I didn’t mess it up. Jace’s room was the way it was when I first entered it. Very neat and tidy. His desk was proper and every piece of paper was back in a pile where it was supposed to be. The burned marks and water puddles disappeared and were replaced with a fresh new carpet. Same carpet, but cleaner, whatever same thing. The hole in the ceiling was, still there. That’s strange, I don’t get it. Why is that the only place that is not fixed? Maybe it was too big of a mess. Or maybe, Jace is just a lot stronger than me so it makes his mess harder to fix and since Arty is my fourth spirit, it makes him almost my equal. I saw Jace rub his eyes and stretch. I gasped and quickly pretended to be fast asleep. When Jace got up, I heard him gasp, and then he shook Arty awake and whispered as loudly as possible,
“Arty! Get up. The room. It’s clean. Hurry up and get up! There are no more holes and burn marks everywhere, except for that hole in the ceiling!”
He moaned and muttered to Jace, “Be quiet, I’m trying to sleep, and whatever you’re seeing is a dream, you’re still sleeping like a baby.”
So Jace decided to go back to sleep. Once I heard him sleeping again, I quietly got out of the bed and opened the door to get out of the room. The door made a loud creaking noise so I stopped. I looked back and saw that they were both sleeping.
Curse the doors of their house. They put a spell on the walls so that they could get some privacy. I should try and undo their spell of not being able to go through the walls.
Then, I realized I had almost forgotten of something important. I whispered, “Levitation.” Jace started floating and I levitated him all the way to his bed where he would be comfortable. Once again, I tried to open the door and it squeaked. I’m never going to get out if I don’t get past this stupid door. Curse you door, you are my strongest opponent yet.
I banged my head on the door, a little louder than I thought it would be. I quickly turned around and saw Jace slowly rub his eyes again. I swung open the door and closed it behind me, then made a run for it. Hopefully he didn’t wake up, but why am I being so sneaky about it? Ah, well, I’m out of the room, the room is clean and I’m….lost. Again. It’s the same hallway and Arty’s room is only a few rooms away, it’s like the rooms move.
I looked around me, I ran out of Jace’s room and ran in the direction that I thought was where Arty’s room was, I guess I was wrong. How long has it been since I’ve lived here? A month? Maybe two, and I still can’t get myself around the house, well I’m stupid. I walked down the hallway, maybe I’ll run into Celeste and she can tell me where to go, or maybe Sam or Michael or Danny, please not Danny.
No matter how many times I thought it, Danny was the first to find me. He glowered at me then tried to casually walk past me. He smirked and said, “Keep going down this hall and you’ll die. Turn back and then take the next left, then enter the door on the right, that’s Arty’s room and yes, the room’s do change places.” He started to leave when I caught his hand and said,
“Thank you Danny, you are a lot of help.” I smiled at him optimistically and left. When I looked back, Danny was still standing there and his facial expression was as if he couldn’t believe that I had just smiled at him. Then he snapped his fingers and disappeared. Hmm, I could’ve sworn he smiled before he left, oh well, I know my way now. I wonder what he meant about that hallway and how if I keep going, I would die. Why did he tell me anyway? Doesn’t he hate me? What if he’s leading me into the actual hallway that would kill me? How can I trust him? Now this is confusing me… well, if I’m going to trust him, now is the time to do it.
I took a deep breath and walked down and took a left then entered the door on the right. Danny was right, it was Arty’s room, it’s a good thing I trusted him. Which means if I actually kept going down that hall I would have died? Wait, didn’t Danny come from that hall, why isn’t he dead? Even if he’s a god, he’s about the same as me in power. Unless… oh no, this is horrible, it can’t be. The only way that Danny could’ve lived in that hall is if, he isn’t even a god, but then again he isn’t human. So what is he?
I ran into Arty’s room and locked the door, I got to get to Arty and Jace, if only I didn’t leave their room but, if I didn’t I would have never figured out this information. What do I do? Then something hit me, not literally but it made me feel even more stupid for not realizing it. I called out to Arty with my mind, wake up, wake up, wake up you lazy butt!
What?
I need you to come back into your room.
Why is it so clean in here and is my room clean?
I cleaned it and no I didn’t clean your room. Now get over here.
No, I’m tired.
Okay, then I’ll go see Marcus by myself…
I was cut from Arty’s presence and there was a silent knock on the door a second later.
“It’s me. Open the door.”
I unlocked it and Arty stepped inside. I told him everything that happened starting from waking up in Jace’s room. Arty silently listened and took it all in as if it weren’t new information. Once I finished, he nodded his head and said, “Amethyst, Danny isn’t human or a god,”
“I know that much, I’m not stupid.”
“He was born in Hell, the offspring of two spirits. Danny was sent to the human realm to live as a human. His immortality was taken away and he lived as a normal human, he had no memory at all of where he was born. When he died, Alec took him in and made him a god.”
“Alec? Who’s that?” I asked Arty.
“Alec is the first gate of Hell; I forgot that you never met him during the ritual. Well, his name is Alec and now you know him, or at least his name.”
“Doesn’t that mean Danny is unable to hold the place of a god?” I asked Arty.
“Exactly.” Arty answered.
“So then, who is the 5th god of Hell?”
“We don’t know, until he or she is back from where ever it is, Danny holds his or her place.”
“You have no right to tell her that!” Danny yelled as he pushed the door open.
“It’s not like we know what the 5th god or goddess even looks like, that is, except for you, Danny.” Arty said turning to face Danny, almost as if he knew Danny was there the whole time.
“Danny, I’ve got two questions and then I think I’ll understand some things. One, were you standing there for the whole time listening to our conversation and two, why did you even warn me about the killer hallway in the first place when you hate me?” I questioned him.
“I-I um, I was standing there for the whole time and it’s not like I hate you…”
“Oh really? I couldn’t help but notice you hating me ever since the ritual.” I talked back to him, my voice rising. Clearly, he was having trouble with my question and I wasn’t going to take pity on him for it.
He managed to get out in a small whisper, “I don’t hate you. I don’t think I hate you…”
“You don’t think you hate me?! So you know you hate me?!” My voice was now at the yelling point. He flinched and looked into my eyes and I saw at least 10 seconds of courage in his eyes because what he said next surprised me more than anything. It may have even surprised Arty more. He said,
“Actually I think it’s the opposite of hating you.” He gave me a small smile and left the room in silence. He walked out and went through the halls. Once we couldn’t hear the footsteps Arty looked at me, raised his eyebrows and asked,
“What was that?”
I stayed silent and felt a jolt of energy surging through me, I delicately lifted my hand and I saw a spark jump around my fingertips, sparks in the shape of dragons. It was a power.

“I can’t believe it’s Christmas week already, this is the time of the year with the most deaths.” Arty said while shaking his head.
“How is Christmas the most tragic time of the year?” I asked him as if he were crazy, Christmas was wonderful. Being with your family, the gifts, staying up all night, it was all so different than the way people act in the city.
“Many parents make a rush with Christmas shopping and then they never pay attention to their safety on the road, so they die.”
“Well. You could have put it in a better way but yeah I get your point.”
“I can’t believe you have two powers. Lightning and dragons, but a dragon is Danny’s symbol so then after his confession you gained that power and I have no idea where the lightning came from. Anyway, I’m not gonna be able to be with you a lot since I’ll be busy sending people to Hell. You should spend some time collecting souls too and maybe later we can go have a check up on our human selves. You know we haven’t seen Marcus lately.”
There he goes, changing the subject, being all happy about Marcus. Wait, did he just say Marcus? I looked at Arty and saw him smiling at me like a happy little boy who just got one hundred lollipops. I ran down the halls screaming for help when I ran straight into Michael. He caught me before I tripped and face planted on the ground then he asked me,
“What’s wrong Amethyst, it looks like you saw something creepy.”
“I did. Why is Arty so happy today? He shouldn’t be that happy, especially about Marcus. Did something happen? Tell me.”
“Whoa there, one question at a time. Let’s see, Arty is normally overly happy on Christmas because that’s the day he can visit the dead of his past. So in other words, his family and nothing has happened to him.”
“Oh good, so he can only see his family on Christmas?”
“That’s right.” Michael smiled and left.
That’s so sad, if only I can see my parents too. They wouldn’t know me though, they sent me to work at the age of 5 and they never even liked me. Now that I think about it, instead of divorcing each other they basically divorced me. Once, Eliza came along, mother and father died and then Eliza died. Maybe I can see Eliza! I could have a chance again to see Eliza! I better work hard and hope that I’ll be able to see my family too.
I ran out the door and floated around the shopping malls and collected many souls, I haven’t seen Arty or Jace for the whole day. Once I got back to the house I saw Arty walking down the hallway and he looked at a door that I’ve never seen before. It was bright red and had a gigantic black X.
“Arty, take me with you to see your family, I want to see Eliza. Please, this is one favor I ask of you so please I’m begging you.”
“How many souls have you collected?” Arty poked at me for answers.
“I’ve collected a thousand, today.” I said proudly and smiled up at him. I swear it’s almost Christmas and I’ve been smiling as much as Arty.
Arty gasped for air and he yelled, “One hundred?!”
“No, a thousand just add one more zero.”
“A THOUSAND!!! Not a day in history has a female death spirit ever captured that many souls in one day. Amethyst, you just broke a record, our last record was two hundred and something!” He screamed then picked me up and swung me around in circles.
I lost my patience and lifted my hand and shouted, “Let me go. I summon the lightning dragon!” A small spark ran through my fingers then they formed together into a humongous spark and took shape of a dragon, it shocked Arty and he let me go.
“I’m sorry I had to do that, but stop changing the subject on me. I want to see Eliza and hopefully if my parents recognize me I would like to see them too. Will you take me with you or not?”
Arty looked a bit worried then he said, “Why not? You broke the record so that gives you a way to get out of trouble. Come on, let’s go.”
He opened the door and we both stepped inside. He whispered in my ear silently and lightly, “This is the inside of Hell, have fun finding your family. I know where mine is but you’ll have to find your own. I’m sorry those are the rules. Good luck, oh yeah you only have an hour to find your parents and an hour to meet with them. So you’ve got two hours on your hands.”
“Oh no, I barely even know what my parents look like after they died. I might as well find Eliza, I have to. Goodbye, see you in two hours.”
I looked around everywhere. Every house of the living dead, every stone, every single possible space, I searched it all. I called out Eliza’s name every few seconds and checked everyone’s face. I also checked my watch every minute or so, just to see how much time went by. After 20 minutes, I was lost. After 40 minutes, I felt numb and I couldn’t see straight. After one hour passed, I heard a voice, a little girl’s voice, calling my name over and over. I spun around and looked in the distance of the fiery flames that tried to engulf me since I was the one who was the most alive. A short little girl almost half my size was running like mad towards me. She wore a pink frilly dress and she had blue eyes, just like my father. She had black hair, like me and my mother. Eliza. It was Eliza, I found her! Actually she found me.
Beautiful as always, Eliza hadn’t changed. I took hold of my mother’s eyes and my mother’s hair while Eliza had my father’s eyes and my mother’s hair.
“Amethyst!” Eliza called out to me, I couldn’t hold back my happiness and I called out back to her,
“Eliza! I missed you so much. Why did you leave me like that? I’ll never forgive you, but first you must give me a hug.”
We embraced each other and both cried our tears were a mixture of green, purple and pink. Then we walked down the street and talked about everything that happened. Eliza didn’t have much to tell, she said,
“There’s nothing much to tell, I mean all I do are the chores and I’m also a messenger for Danny the 5th gate of hell.”
“Wait. Do you mean you’ve been hanging around with Danny for the whole time and Danny didn’t even tell me! Wrong move, Daniel, you’re gonna go through a whole bunch of shocks tonight.” I felt so frustrated, how everyone knows something except for me, even my sister knows something that I don’t and she’s dead. Eliza saw my confusion and she read my future,
“You’re in love with someone,” She gasped then squealed and screamed, “is it Danny!?”
“No! Are you crazy? Not in a million years would I like that dragon.”
“You two seemed like a good match, anyway. You’re in love with someone but he’s very far away, is that Marcus? I thought you were supposed to forget about him.”
“I was supposed to forget about him, wait how do you know that?”
“I’m a sightseeing spirit. I’m able to see what is to become and what is happening. Okay, now be quiet I want to finish this before you leave. Alright, you can’t choose your fate between life and death. Which means you can’t choose between Marcus and Danny.”
“I don’t like Danny!”
“Shh. You will enter a path that will seal your fate and then you’ll die…unless, the one you love that is alive, gives up on you. Then you have a chance at living in the dead. I see something else, but it’s very blurry as if something is not letting me see it. You will meet at a crossroad that will either take you to the blurry side or the side where you can die. That is all, I’m sorry Amethyst, you have to go now.”
She was right, not by the future; I have no idea what she was talking about, but about me having to go. We were talking so much that I didn’t notice the time. I felt myself being pulled away from Eliza,
“I’ll come back next year, so don’t… don’t disappear. Wait for me!”
“I promise I will wait for you.”
Then, she was gone and I was sitting in front of the door beside Arty. I refused to cry, it’s not like I wasn’t going to see her forever, it’s just for another year. You’ll definitely see her again. I thought to myself.
I stood up and said, “Thank you, Arty. For taking me with you, I can’t thank you enough. If there’s anything I can do for you, just ask.”
“Well, you can kiss me.”
“On second thought, not anything, how about anything possible that won’t make me feel awkward.”
“It was worth a try.” Arty sighed and then we both walked down the hall to his room, hand in hand. Once we got to his door, I told him to go in without me and that I would be there after a while. He looked worried again, but he let me do what I wanted. I saw him enter his room and I made sure he didn’t follow me. I tried to find my way to Danny’s room and then I remembered what Eliza told me,
“I’m a messenger for Danny, the 5th gate of Hell.”
I’m going to kill him for not telling me. I also have to make sure that he doesn’t work her too hard. I stormed down the hallway and took a piece of paper and a pen with me so I can draw a map while walking. Even when the rooms switched places, they would end up in the same place in the morning, or at least that’s what Danny said. Starting from Arty’s room, to the left was Jace’s room followed by Danny’s, Michael’s, Sam’s and then Alec’s. To the right of Arty’s room was Celeste’s room in a different hallway. I lightly knocked on Danny’s room and opened the door slightly. It made a loud squeak and I stopped,
I hate these doors! One day I’m gonna destroy all of them with my lightning. My fists were clenched then I loosened them and drew in a calming breath of air, maybe later I’ll blow them up, but right now I have to save my energy to beat up Danny.
I quickly swung open the door and Danny wasn’t there. The hallway, maybe he went to the killing hallway or whatever. Where was it? I think it was past Celeste’s room. I turned around and started walking down the hall when I heard a voice say,
“Looking for me?”
It was Danny, I felt my cheeks flush then I muttered, “It’s not like I was looking for you or anything, I was just walking around and I saw your room and then remembered something. Why didn’t you tell me my sister was your messenger?”
Danny looked stunned then he laughed a bit, “That was your sister, I thought I saw something in common, but I never considered that little girl to have a sister. Who would’ve thought that the person I pick as my messenger, was your sister!”
“You didn’t know she was my sister?”
“Of course I didn’t know, that cute girl? Your sister? Impossible, there was a resemblance but I didn’t know anything until now.”
“You’re lying.” I said, one hundred percent sure of myself.
“Aww, how did you know I was lying?”
“Why didn’t you tell me, tell me why you didn’t tell me?!” I said, ignoring his question.
“I didn’t tell you because what would you have done if you knew?”
“I would have demanded to see her no matter what.”
“And I would have probably hurt you.”
“I don’t care. I would have tried everything.”
“Oh come on now, you had almost forgotten about her until Arty triggered your heart.”
“That’s not true. Why are you so cruel to others around you?”
“I’m not cruel, I have a heart unlike you people, I don’t have a heart in my body but I feel differently about everything, about you.”
My cheeks flushed even more at this. I felt the sparks go through my fingers, Danny saw this and he smirked then said, “Still trying to control my power, are we now Amethyst?”
“Your power? It became rightfully mine after your confession.”
“So is this what you do? Make the gods fall in love with you and then once they confess you steal their powers? You’re pathetic.”
“What are you talking about? The gods don’t like me!”
“Are you stupid? Or blind? Can’t you see that Arty, Jace, Michael, Sam and I have all fallen in love with you?!”
I fell into silence. I had noticed that Arty and Danny liked me, but not the others. I thought to myself, come on Amethyst, in times like this, be stubborn.
“No, as a matter of fact I haven’t noticed that. You confessed your love for me so obviously I know that. Arty kissed me so I’m pretty sure that means something. I think Jace just likes me as a friend.” I pouted.
It seemed as if Danny lost his mind at this point, he took hold of my wrists and pinned me to the other end of the hallway, I stood tall and held in the pain in my back. He leaned in and kissed me, then he loosened his grip on me and he whispered, “Jace likes you as a friend? Oh yeah, that’s true, a really good friend, a close friend, so close but just below the line of loving you. Love may come and go when you were alive, but in Hell, down here, love works differently.”
He let go of me and started opening the door to his room, it squeaked and then he put his hand on the door and yelled, “Lightning.”
The door flew off of its hinges and was broken into pieces. He looked in my eyes, cold at heart and mind then he lay down on his bed. I stood there; still shocked by the kiss, then I walked down the hall, back to Arty’s room. When I opened the door, I saw that he was sitting on his bed, waiting for me. He looked at me suspiciously, then he asked me a question that freaked me out more than anything, “Did Danny kiss you?”
I gasped for air and then tried to stay calm as I said, “Why in the world would you ask me that?”
“I saw it.”
“How would you have seen it, it’s not like you followed me.” I asked him.
“I followed you, after you made sure that I wasn’t following you.”
“I would have heard the door open if you left, they’re so squeaky I would have been able to hear it from the throne room.”
“I didn’t close it all the way so I tried to make myself as small as possible so I can squeeze out.”
“So you saw…”
“I don’t mind, after all it’s not like you love him.”
That comment caught me off guard and I looked at Arty for a while then I left the room and went into an empty one to sleep. I slept peacefully that night and had no dreams. When I woke up I thought about Eliza and Danny and how Arty was able to spy on us. I left my room and went to the throne room, I was so happy that I drew that map of where to go. Once I got to the throne room, I saw Celeste waiting for me she looked at me for a second then smiled and waved at me. I smiled back at her. She looked beautiful as ever. Celeste said, “Amethyst, would you like to save the ones you love? I know a way to get rid of Arty’s red rose and a way for you to live again.”
Is this the crossroad Eliza was talking about? It’s pretty obvious of what I should say. “I really want to save the ones I love, please tell me how Celeste.”
“Very well, there is a land in Hell, if you go through the inside of Hell. There is a small house owned by a wizard named Amphion, he specializes in medicines and spells. If you find him, tell him that I sent you to get a cure for the red rose. He’ll give you a test and it’s up to you to pass it, I can’t help you with that. There will be many dangerous monsters coming after you and maybe some angels. They won’t like you trying to cure someone in Hell, we angels believe that once punished you’re always punished. You may take one god with you for support in power, I suggest Danny since you hold his power of lightning and dragons, but you may choose whoever. Be very careful, and please take my crown with you, wear at all times until you come back, it will protect you when you are in grave danger.”
“Thank you, Celeste.” I told her, as she took her circlet off her head and placed it on mine. Celeste told me to only travel during the day because the demons became stronger at night and so they would obviously attack me at night. She also told me that a lot of people will probably follow me. I didn’t quite understand that but I guess I would find out soon. Amphion, what a wonderful name, he must be a powerful wizard because I sense that name holds great power. It just sounds intimidating, a lot more intimidating that Sam. I hope I pass that test Amphion is going to give me.
“I’m going with you no matter what you say. I’m not gonna argue with you about this situation, I am going with you no matter what.” Arty said behind me.
“Relax, no need to worry, I was going to ask you to come with me.”
“Then you have you add me as well, or I’m gonna follow you everywhere, wherever you go, I’ll be there.” Jace said coming from a separate hallway with Danny and Michael. Danny avoided my gaze and Michael looked at me. I looked only at Jace, smiled then said,
“If you can keep up with me and Arty then you are welcome.” It sounded almost as if I wasn’t just talking to Jace. Danny’s face lit up and it looked like he was plotting on how to follow me without being caught by Jace and Arty. Michael’s face also lit up.
They’re thinking the same thing. They’re gonna follow me, what have I done, no one will be here to help Sam and Alec. It’s okay, they might just leave. I nodded to reassure myself then l walked to the door that leads to the inside of Hell. I’ll have to make them so worried that they would leave me, or at least some of them. They all had the sense of determination in their eyes and it didn’t look like they were going to leave me any time soon.

Once I entered the door, it had changed. The flames that tried to engulf me were gone and it was clear like a blue sky. I never knew Hell could have happy days like this one, but it was so strange since it suddenly became blue skies when I entered. I saw all the houses clearly now and I saw that the windows were shut and the streets were deserted. Eliza came running towards me and she said, “The towns people are scared of you, they heard Celeste talking and they all hid from the one who will change their own fate. Amethyst, you have a title now, which means I am now the sister of the one who will change their fate.”
“Eliza, doesn’t that mean they will be scared of you too? I mean you are her sister.” Jace asked her nicely, but at the same time his tone was in a rush.
“Of course, that’s a good thing, now they won’t hit me every time I do something wrong. Even the adults can’t come near me.” She gave me a hug and a big smile and then she left into her small house.
“I feel like I just ruined her life, aside from the people not being able to hit her anymore.” I mumbled.
“No, you made her happy; really happy which is really unusual.” Arty told me.
“Yeah, but now, if she ever had any friends here, they will be scared of her.”
“Come on, Fate Changer. It’s time to go; we should travel as much as possible before dark settles and by the way, where is everyone?” Jace said.
We walked down the street and I noticed at the corner of my eye, Danny and Michael were following on a trail beside us trying not to be seen. I smiled at them and yelled,
“Come walk with us! I know you’re behind us on that dirt trail.”
They refused at first but then I told them I would go there if they didn’t come and there was a slight chance I could hurt myself. Danny and Michael shyly approached us and walked with us. It was almost dark and we had barely made it across town we stopped in front of a forest. It looked like one of those forests that appeared in horror movies, foggy, old trees and vines everywhere. It looked so gloomy.
“That’s the Phantom Forest.” Danny said while looking in the distance of the forest.
“Phantom Forest…you know, there was a song long ago about a Phantom Forest. I wonder if it’s the same one.” I said.
“Yes. It’s the one about this forest. It says turn back before the winter comes, make it rain before summer comes. Don’t let the monster take over you, stay back at night and harvest in the morning.” Danny recited.
“But it makes no sense, winter is now since it’s almost Christmas but I don’t get the rest. What does harvest in the morning mean? I am so confused.” I said frustrated.
“Let’s just sleep for now.” Arty told me, putting an arm around my waist as if he were protecting me from…Danny? Yes, Arty was definitely glaring at Danny, but Danny’s a friend, so why would Arty protect me from him? We lay down, under the glowing stars as they took over the light of the sun. It seemed like none of us wanted to go to sleep and since we didn’t need sleep we all took watch and talked with each other.
“Do you know any quotes, Amethyst?” Jace asked me.
“You mean from the internet. I know a lot. I used to look them up on the internet every day because it seemed a good way to connect with life, some were really accurate and others were just boring or funny. There’s one that says, ‘Laugh your heart out. Dance in the rain. Cherish the moment. Ignore the pain. Live, laugh, love, forgive and forget. Life is too short to be living with regrets.’” I said while looking up at the stars.
“Hey, that one is pretty good, I’m pretty sure we all lived with regrets since we’re all here, in Hell.” Michael said and he had a smile on his face. I looked around and everyone had a smile on their face.
“Life is like an hourglass. Eventually, everything has to hit the bottom and all you have to do is wait it out until someone comes along and turns it around.” Arty recited.
We all laughed a bit and then it was silent again. That’s when Jace told us a quote that the humans made about god, “Someone once said, ‘What surprises you most about humans?’ to god, and god replies, ‘that they get bored with childhood, they rush to grow up and then long to be children again.’” We laughed and Michael yelled out that it was true, “That they lose their health to make money and then lose their money to restore their health. That by thinking anxiously about the future, they forget the present, such that they live in neither the present nor the future. That they live as if they will never die and die as though they had never lived.”
We all laughed now. “It would be funny if Sam was lecturing us about that.” I said while brushing a tear from my eye.
“I can if you want.” It was definitely Sam’s voice, but we couldn’t see him, “I’m talking through Lilian, it’s like a web cam, but more interesting because you can cut yourself by accident while talking.”
“Sam! Were you listening for the whole time? I’m sorry we didn’t really mean to talk behind your back if that offended you.” I told him bowing my head down; I guess it was one of my habits. I studied in Japan for about a year with Marcus so now every time we apologize or say thank you, we end up bowing our heads. I normally resist it but this time it came naturally. Nobody questioned what I had just done but they looked at me funny.
“Yes. I was listening to you for the whole time, not to lecture you, but to just give you a quote that might help you. Trust is like an eraser, it gets smaller and smaller after every mistake.”
“Hey, I saw that on the internet once. I loved that quote, I used to look at it every day.” I said.
“Well then, keep it close to your heart it’s going to be important.” Sam warned me then he left.
I wonder how a quote from the internet is going to help me with finding Amphion. Unless, one of my friends are about to betray me by making a mistake to make the eraser smaller or something like that. Who would betray me though? I think it would be Danny, since he hated me at first but now he loves me. Arty was always near me with Jace and Michael is a good friend. I guess I’ll just have to wait and see. For now I guess I’ll just have to keep my eye on all of them. I made sure that Celeste’s circlet was still on my head and then I fell asleep, huddled next to Irene and Lilian was gripped tightly in my hand. Whispering voices called out to me in my sleep, they told me to betray the ones I love and kill them with the knife in my hand. I ignored the voices and tried to sleep, once I did, the dreams came.
When I woke up, the whispering voices came again; they begged me to kill my loved ones that were beside me. I didn’t know how to use a bow and arrow but since Flaris was right beside me I took her in my hands. It seemed easier to kill several people with a long distance weapon. I strung the arrow and aimed at Arty, I couldn’t move my body and my head felt like it was clouded with evil. Arty woke up and saw the sharp arrowhead pointed at him, he stared into my eyes and waited. He didn’t move, he didn’t run. Arty knew that I was possessed by something and that I wasn’t in control of my body, Flaris couldn’t resist my power, since we were basically equal in power. My hands started trembling, I kept the arrow pointed at him but I couldn’t shoot. This arrow will kill him, I can’t do that.
Kill him! End his life right now! The voice whispered in my head, I wanted to tell the voice to shut up but then I would be letting my guard down. I drew in short breaths, knowing that sooner or later I would have to give in to whatever was controlling me. I tried to take my soul back from the thing but it didn’t work at all. Arty didn’t wake anyone up, he just looked into my eyes as if he was either expecting death, or expecting me to take control over my body again.
“Run.” I whispered, “Run away, get out of here, I’ll end up killing you.”
“Like I’ll leave you, shoot and we’ll see what happens to that demon inside you.” Arty’s voice showed no emotion, he didn’t move an inch; he was still perfectly kneeling down in front of me, his eyes narrowed and my grip was beginning to become loose on the string and arrow.
“You don’t understand.” I said, my voice was shaking, I was afraid to lose him, “Get out of here, now, please Arty just leave.”
“If I move you’ll shoot me, if I don’t move you’ll shoot me, it doesn’t matter where I am.”
My grip was really loose on the arrow, I closed my eyes and I felt a tear roll down my cheek. My fingers slipping, sweat beaded my forehead. My breath quickening. Everything stopped.

My fingers let go. It was quiet enough to hear the arrow speeding through the cold morning air. A millisecond before I shot Flaris, I felt something push me down. I slowly opened my eyes and saw Danny staring at me. He had knocked me over before I shot the arrow and I looked to see where the arrow landed. Arty was behind Danny and he wasn’t the one who took the arrow. I looked at Danny and saw the arrow, it was snugly in between his ribs, but his expression was worried,
“Are you hurt?” He asked me, I shook my head slowly, still staring at the arrow. I felt the demon trying to take hold of my soul again, Danny noticed that the demon was still there and he leaned down to kiss me. I turned my head to the side, rejecting the kiss but he whispered to me,
“This is the only way to get the demon out of your soul.”
“Then it’s a stupid way, I’m fine, I’m not going to go crazy and shoot another person.”
He didn’t listen to me, he kissed me and I was still on the ground. Danny’s blood was warm on my jacket, I blushed and then pushed him away, Arty was still staring at Danny, he thought to me, I can’t believe Danny took that arrow for me and how dare he kiss you!
There was a light gold powder that left my body and it was the demon that was destroyed by the kiss, I saw Danny place his hand on the arrow, he whispered a few words and it disintegrated in his hand, his wound was healed and he looked just like he was a few minutes ago. I was so surprised by what had just happened and I couldn’t believe it, I stood up and then when I tried to take a step, I fainted.
I was following a river upstream with Arty, Jace, Michael and Danny; they were all smiling and happy. They told jokes and we all had a good laugh, that’s when a deep rumbling shook the ground under our feet.
“Run! Run, Amethyst!” I heard Arty yell as he took hold of my hand and dragged me off. The others followed close behind us and the rumbling became louder with every step. The river seemed to stop flowing and the wind had stopped too. Every living thing around us started to shrivel into death. We stopped and looked around in confusion of why life had stopped. The rumbling disappeared and everything was still. A red mist rushed at us through the trees and the boys were engulfed by it, leaving me stuck in time, waiting and watching every little detail in the river, the plants and trees. They had all left me.
I woke up, startled. I looked around and saw that they were still there, sleeping silently. I put a hand over my mouth to muffle my crying, I was relieved to see them still by my side. My tears were purple.
What was that dream? What did it mean? Is it a warning about the eraser quote? Are they going to leave me? No, by the looks on their faces in the dream, they looked terrified of that red mist, do they die? Red mist, red mist, I’ve definitely heard that before. The wind howling through the Phantom Forest scared me. It sent millions of chills up my spine and I couldn’t stop my shivering. It was 5:00 in the morning and the sun had just slightly begun to shine light on the edge of the horizon. At the sight of the light, the ghosts and monsters hurried back to the forest. Once touched by the light, they disappeared into thin air. Leaving only a puddle of sparkly liquid, humans would probably call it Avery.
It healed mainly anything and you would be able to find it everywhere. Monsters die almost anywhere on the earth, humans just can’t see them, but they can see the liquid. When ghosts get hit by the sunlight, they also turn into Avery but it does the opposite of healing, it kills you in one taste. Humans would call this, Averius. Avery is good and Averius is bad, I had to remember that and of course it wasn’t that hard. Dead monsters are good, dead ghosts are bad. I better remember that. I got two jars and filled one with Avery and one with Averius. I marked them, so I don’t end up killing someone by accident. I snapped my fingers and they vanished, they will be safe in my ‘safe box’.
At six o’clock I woke the gods up, I still couldn’t believe that a demon ended up possessing me but I moved on from the fact that I shot Danny.
“Move your lazy butts, come on, let’s go. The sooner we get this over with, the sooner we could have our lives back or at least our lives after death.”
“I saw you collect Avery and Averius.” Arty said while getting up.
“Oh no, you caught me. Why wouldn’t I collect it?” I told him.
“I understand why you collected Avery, but why would you collect Averius?”
“Why not?” I asked him the ultimate question that usually had no answer to. He looked at me then changed his clothes into something warm. He wore a warm thick jacket and a pair of jeans, he had gloves on and a black knitted hat. Jace, Michael and Danny, all wore the same thing except their hats were different colours. Arty was in black, Jace was green, Michael was red and Danny was yellow. I snapped my fingers and changed too. A red poncho appeared on me and long black track pants appeared over my legs. I wore a purple hat and gloves.
“I haven’t dressed in winter clothes ever since I was alive. It’s strange how we don’t need warm clothes in the human world, but in Hell, we need to dress appropriately for the season.” Jace said.
The moment we entered the forest, we all wanted to turn back. It was dark and gloomy and foggy and muddy and wet and depressing and everything. Overall, in one word to describe it would be; negative. Every little thing in the detail made me feel either spooked or depressed. The trees looked like someone had burned them, and then tried to put them back together. Then burned them again. The ground was muddy and covered with dying grass that looked dark blue. There were vines hanging from the trees all the way down to the ground and the sky didn’t help. Outside of the forest were blue skies and a lot more cheerful than in here. The sky in Phantom Forest was grey and black. Grey clouds, black sky. The fog just made the path harder to see. The people of the dead should take a big paint brush and dip in glow-in-the-dark paint, then paint the path so no one would get lost. Unless, the point was for us to get lost. We stared into the darkness, and then they all stared at me. Four pairs of eyes were glued onto mine, I knew what they were trying to tell me, they were saying,
“Help us, Amethyst, please do not make us go further.” I wasn’t gonna listen to their pleas. I walked forward onto the path, and stopped after a few steps. I clapped my hands and a bucket appeared on the ground with a big paint brush, I tossed it at Michael and told him to paint the path while we walk. Michael shook his head and said,
“I’m sorry Amethyst, but this is as far as I go. I can’t go further than this, Sam and Alec are calling me back for more help on the guiding to Hell after all I’m the next in responsibility, I’m sorry.” He gave me a quick hug and a kiss on the cheek then he left.
“I don’t know if that was an excuse or the truth, but okay then, Jace you paint.” I ordered him.
Jace took the bucket and brush and then slowly started painting the path. We took turns painting the path since it would be back breaking to bend down and paint every part of the path. The Phantom Forest seemed to never end, I thought it would’ve been a small frightful forest, but I was wrong, it was a big surprising forest. Nothing jumped out at us, no monsters or ghosts or other things. We didn’t encounter anything for a long time. We did encounter something, just not for a very long time. It was a…I don’t really know how to describe the animal, it was a monster for sure. It had one horn like a unicorn and it had half a body of a tiger and the other half was a lion. It looked really creepy but sort of cool at the same time. It didn’t bother us until Jace sneezed. We all glowered at him and hoped we didn’t catch the lion-tiger-unicorn’s attention, but when we turned to check, it was already sprinting after us. We jumped into the bushes and turned invisible so we can fly. Just like Jace said, everything in Hell will be able to touch us, which means turning invisible has no meaning but flying.
“If we don’t kill it soon, it might call other monsters or maybe even ghosts which can fly too.” I warned Arty, Jace and Danny. They nodded their head and tried to keep the things attention. They yelled and teased it; they stabbed it with a stick and taunted it. I gripped Lilian and cautiously approached the lion-tiger-unicorn. Lightning surged through my fingers and into Lilian, I now had a weapon that would send someone flying with just one stab. I always had bad luck and because of my bad luck, I snapped a twig underneath my foot, I hated not being able to be silent in Hell, I curse the rules! The lion-tiger-unicorn looked at me and lunged for me, I knew I couldn’t save myself from crashing, wait crashing?
The truck had stopped in front of me; I froze in my tracks not having the strength or mind to fly up, I knew I couldn’t save myself from crashing, my car slammed into the truck and I died. The gigantic cat had now jumped to rip out my throat. “Explosion!” Jace yelled, the big bomb exploded the cat into pieces and the remains fell at my feet. I stood there frozen in fear, my mind had stopped working and I couldn’t hear Jace yelling at me, he shook my shoulders and kept saying something. When the world started working again, or at least when I started working again I heard him yell at me, “What were you thinking?! You could have actually died, for real!”
“How is it dying, if I’m gonna just live in that town with my sister, I think that would be a better option. Why should I just suffer here?” I mumbled, my mind was dancing around and spinning in circles, it was another piece of my memory.
“Remember you’re being punished, we cannot allow you to die until you finish your deed.” Jace reminded me, still holding me by the shoulders. I saw Arty and Danny looking around for any other monsters.
“Why did Eliza go to Hell?” I asked him and then I felt my mind falling into a deep sleep. Why did Eliza go to Hell?
When I woke up, the first thing I saw was Arty, the first thing I said was, “There’s a ghost behind you, Arty.” And the first thing I did was pass out again.
“What if she doesn’t wake up?” That’s Danny’s voice, I thought.
“Do you know what she saw to make her freeze like that?” That’s Jace’s voice, I thought.
“She saw how she died and it must have frightened her.” That’s Arty’s voice, I thought. Everyone was still there; no one else had left me. My eyes shot open when I heard a voice in my head, it wasn’t a voice I knew but it sounded like I’ve heard it somewhere before. It said, your eraser has just become smaller.
“She’s awake!” Danny exclaimed and soon enough, three pairs of eyes were looking at me. I rubbed my eyes and sat up, I asked them,
“How long have I been asleep?”
“About, 2 days.” Arty replied.
“2...days?!” I yelled, “That leaves 3 days until Christmas.” I was going to try and get you all presents too. Now I have to finish this within three days’ time.
I stood up and ate a spoonful of Avery, my energy was fully restored and I felt like I could lift up a car. I looked at the bucket of glow-in-the-dark paint, it was almost empty so I got about 10 more buckets.
“Don’t expect me to carry that.” Jace said while staring at the heavy buckets of paint, I looked at him and said,
“I don’t expect you to carry them, I will.” Jace looked at me as if I was crazy after the cat unicorn thing but I was perfectly fine.
Jace looked at me and then said, “I’m out. You scared me to death, to a farther death than I am now. I don’t want to worry so much. So I’m gonna go back and think that everything is alright. I’m sorry, Amethyst.”
“Suit yourself. Levitation.” I whispered, the paint buckets lifted up in the air and the first one started to pour out while we walked and once that was empty, the second one would start to pour out while the first one got refilled. “We should hurry and we should call that thing a cat man.”
“Cat man?” Danny repeated.
“Yes, a cat man.” I repeated myself and Danny. Jace had already disappeared back to the throne room and that left me, Danny and Arty. Now I bet they thought I was crazy. We walked on, through the forest and we killed many cat men and ghosts. There were other monsters like the part monkey and part horse, which I called the monkey man, and there was one monster that we couldn’t name because it didn’t look like an animal. It was more of a really big brown puffball. So I called it a beard man. We spent one more day in the Phantom Forest and then we made it to the end. I was so happy to see a blue sky and to see a small house in the middle of nowhere. Amphion’s house looked like a wreck, it was totally made out of rotting wood. When we were about five meters from the house, we were flung back by an invisible force. I got up and tried again, but I ended up flying back into Danny’s arms. I was afraid that Celeste’s circlet would have been destroyed while walking through the Phantom forest so I put it in my backpack, but now seemed like the time to use it. I put it on and I ran with all my strength, into the force field. To my surprise, I wasn’t flung backwards, I was pushed in.
The house looked really nice from inside the force field; it was more like a mansion and Celeste told me Amphion lived in a small house. There was a small stream in the front yard and it had three benches right on the edge of the stream. A bridge went across the stream; I walked across it and looked back to where I saw Arty, Danny yelling at me, through the force field. If they saw what the house actually looked like, boy they would be surprised. I stood on the bridge, not knowing whether I should go in without Arty and Danny or I should just wait here until someone comes to get me. I sat on the green lawn and waited; I picked a few flowers and threw them out of the force field. Arty and Danny saw the flowers and understood that on the other side of the force field it was Heaven. A man came towards me, he had short grey hair and he wore a very fancy tuxedo he glowered at me and said,
“Who are you and how did you get past my force field?”
“I’m wearing Celeste’s crown, so I was able to get through. Celeste sent me to get a cure for the red rose.” I explained to him.
“How do I know you’re not lying and that you could’ve stolen the crown off of Celeste’s head?”
“Celeste’s not that weak.”
“You’re right, which means you must be really strong.” The man tried to punch me so I pulled out Lilian and added my lightning power into it. Arty and Danny were shaking their heads vigorously behind the force field, but I was ready to fight this old cripple.
“I see. You’re a death spirit. Why would a death spirit from Hell be friends with a goddess of Heaven? Now I definitely know you’re lying.”
“Would a liar know that Celeste is Sam’s sister?” I told him, trying to give him as much proof as possible. Even if he’s old, he gives me bad vibes, almost as if he’s stronger than anyone.
“How do you know that? Celeste never even told anyone but me. Unless, you tortured her into telling her all her secrets.”
“Enough with the excuses! She told me to go and get a stupid cure for a red rose, she told me you would give me a test and then she told me to go all the way back to the throne room and give her the cure and then she told me to go to my room and wait. Is that enough to ask?!” I raised my voice; lightning was jumping from hand to hand.
“Oh yes, how about if you can pass my test I will give you the cure and remember you as Amethyst not Amethyst the thief.” He smiled.
“Wait, how do you know my name?” I asked him, slowly calming down. Arty and Danny were sitting in front of the barrier and waiting with a really mad look on their faces.
“I’ve been expecting you for a while, Amethyst. My name is Amphion, which means I am the son of Zeus, which is a Greek god. You see, if my name does not hold power, people will think I’m just another old man on the street, but no! I have power!” He laughed.
“So why would you call me a liar if you knew I wasn’t?” I asked him, starting to feel confused.
“I don’t know.”
“You. Don’t. Know?” I said, enunciating every word. I smiled and thought, I’m gonna kill him, I might actually kill him.
“Hand me a jar of Avery and a jar of Averius. Please and thank you.” Amphion said with a hand pointing at my backpack. I pulled out the two jars. Amphion emptied them and put them in a neat pile on a bench. He pointed to the one on the left and told me that that was Avery and the one on the right was Averius and then he handed me a spoon.
“See if you can figure out which one is Avery after I mix them. Eat a spoonful, and if you die well, you’re dead, if you live, I’ll give you the cure.”
He used a levitation spell like me and mixed them around; it was slow at first but after it became really hard. Averius is on left, left, right, left, right, right, right, and right.
Once he stopped he smiled and said, “Pick, which one is Avery?” he pointed at the force field and it evaporated, Arty and Danny came running in and they told me to pick left, but I was thinking right. Amphion told them to shut up since if they choose for me, I would automatically die on the spot.
“Stop making it sound like I’m a video game and seriously shut up I’m thinking.” I told them.
“I changed the jars, so whatever you’re thinking is the opposite.” Amphion said, still smiling.
“How do I know you’re not lying?” I asked him.
“I don’t lie. I’ve never told a lie in my life.”
“How do I know that’s not a lie?”
“Your choice is to believe me or not believe me.”
Zeus was the king of gods; he was an honest person, apparently. Amphion could either be tricking me into this piece of history or he could be honest like his name, why didn’t I pay attention during history? I took my spoon and went towards the left and then I scooped a bit in the right pile and ate it. I swallowed it and fell to the ground. Arty and Danny were now screaming and then they stopped and looked at me, tears filled their eyes. Amphion laughed and said, “She picked the wrong one. I didn’t even know myself which one was which. I can’t believe it!”
“You think I would die that easily?” I whispered, my face facing the ground. Amphion stopped laughing and now everyone had their eyes on me. I stood up and then I laughed and said, “I picked the right one, old man.” He froze in place and said, “That’s impossible.”
Danny looked at how surprised Amphion was and he asked him, “Why so surprised, old man? How was it impossible? You make it seem like you knew for sure she was going to fail.”
Amphion put his head in his hands and pulled at his short grey hair, he yelled, “It’s impossible because both of them were Averius!”
“You’re lying.” Arty said, letting go of me, I grabbed onto him and told him not to leave, he stayed by my side and looked at Danny. It was an obvious message, you do the beating up, and I’ll protect her and make sure she doesn’t die on the spot.
“I’m not lying! One jar was actually Avery but I switched some molecules around and made it into Averius. I don’t get how Amethyst was even able to live, for all I know, she could die any minute now.”
They all stared at me again; I clung onto Arty’s arm and tried to hide myself from the burning eyes that watched me. I know exactly what happened but I don’t want to tell them, I thought to myself, unfortunately Arty heard my thoughts and looked at me. He was searching for an answer and he knew how to get it. While Amphion and Danny were arguing about how I could die. Arty stared into my eyes and whispered in my mind, how did you do it?
I don’t know what you’re talking about.
How are you alive right now if you ate Averius?
I don’t know.
Amethyst. I’m not deaf, I can hear you loud and clear. How did you live from eating Averius?
You can’t make me talk, Arty.
I know Danny can get you to talk. You’ll probably tell him, right? Since you’re his power?
Is that why you’ve been mad at him?
Mad at him? What are you talking about?
Your eraser has just become smaller. It’s that voice. I froze once again, Arty heard it too. He looked around and said, “That was Alec’s voice but why would Alec be talking to you and telling you that an eraser is getting smaller?”
Your eraser has just become smaller. Your eraser has just become smaller. Your eraser has just become smaller. Your eraser has just become smaller.
“I looked at the molecules and saw that they were both Averius so I changed one into Avery, please stop saying that line over and over! Stop!” I screamed.
“Amethyst, what’s wrong?” Danny asked me.
“Alec is saying something to her and it’s making her scared.” Arty told him.
“More like terrified.” Danny said.
“That looks bad, your mind has been scared. Come into the mansion Amethyst. I’ll help you and make the potion that will cure your red rose and Arty’s red rose.” Amphion said while observing me, he picked me up and carried my through the big oak French doors. Arty and Danny followed close behind and tried not to get caught in another force field. I don’t remember much of anything, but before passing out I remember Amphion saying that I was incredible to be able to change the molecules since it was something that very few were able to do. Arty and Danny were arguing with each other for some reason and then Amphion put me on a soft bed and told Arty and Danny to not enter my room or it would trigger Alec’s voice in my mind. When I woke up, I couldn’t remember anything. Just Celeste and Amphion, the rest was empty and my brain felt hollow.
“Hello? Sir Amphion, where are you? I need the cure for the red rose.” I said while walking down the big marble hall. The flooring was white marble and there were large pillars going up all the way to the ceiling. It was simple but very stylish. A boy with brown hair and brown eyes walked pass me, he looked at me and hugged me tightly. He kissed me on the cheek and told me to meet him later. Whatever that was about, I couldn’t trust anyone in this building except for Amphion. Another boy walked down the hall and kissed me on the cheek, this one had brown hair and grey eyes. I have to admit, he looked better that the first one. I walked all the way to the end of the hall where there was a blue door. Amphion’s room, I entered the room and looked around for Amphion. Once I found him, he was mixing weird plants in a pot over a fire. When he saw me, his face lit up and he smiled then said cheerfully, “Amethyst! You’re awake, that scar in your mind was hard to fix. The cure for the red rose is almost finished I just need the sweat from a red dragon. Tell me, do you remember everything?”
“No. My mind is as blank as a sheet of paper.” I said, why don’t I remember anything?
“Oh dear, I thought this would happen so I got you this potion. Drink up, or your two boyfriends will hate me forever.”
“What? Boyfriends, you mean those two boys that told me to meet them later?” I asked Amphion. “I don’t know them or love them. So, do I have to drink this potion?”
“Yes. No matter what you have to drink this potion. Amethyst, drink it.” Amphion handed me the tiny glass bottle and I whacked it out of his hands, opened the door to run away but then I crashed into both of the guys. Amphion caught the bottle and threw it at the boy with brown eyes. He yelled at them, “Get all of that potion into her mouth and make her swallow it, she’s got amnesia. Go!”
I pushed them out of my way and ran around the house, it was so familiar. The house was super big so it was pretty easy to hide but the one with brown eyes was able to find me a lot faster than the other. “Amethyst, it’s me Arty. Drink the potion and let’s go home.” His voice was gentle and nice but I yelled back to him,
“No! I’m gonna stay with grandpa Amphion!”
“I heard that!” Amphion yelled from the other room. “I’m not that old and I’m not your grandfather!”
“Amethyst, don’t you remember me?” He asked me, looking in my eyes.
“Stop looking at me like that. I don’t know you or the other one; I only remember Celeste and grandpa Amphion.”
“Stop calling me that!” Amphion yelled.
“So you don’t know how to do anything else?” Arty asked me. His name sounds familiar.
“Do anything? Why did you use the word ‘do’?” I started feeling suspicious and backed up little by little. Someone grabbed both my arms from behind and pinned it behind my back. I yelled in frustration and the one behind me whispered in my ear, sweetly and calmly,
“Hello princess Amethyst. You probably won’t remember me either. I’m Danny, I’m gonna be your new best friend.”
What is wrong with these people? Are they mentally insane?
“There is actually nothing wrong with us, Amethyst and no we are not mentally insane. It’s you that has the problem.” Arty said while opening the bottle.
“Even if I did know you, I bet I hated both of you. If you were my friends you wouldn’t treat me like this just to get me back. It’s as if you need me to complete something. Arty, I keep having the feeling you want me to answer a question and Danny, I think you just need me for some reason, both of you guys need me to accomplish something in your life. Even if there is a cure to my amnesia, I wouldn’t want to go back. I like it here and I also like grandpa…I mean Amphion.”
Now they both looked ashamed of themselves, Danny let go of me and Arty closed the bottle.
“Come on Danny, let’s go get the cure and leave, if she wants to live here then let her. It won’t be long until she dies too.” Arty said and closed the door behind him. Danny stayed in his spot and looked at me. Why aren’t you going? I thought, I noticed that they could obviously read me like a book.
“I’m not leaving this house until you get better, even if it takes forever. I’ll live here with you and protect you.” Danny’s face was serious, he was actually going to live in this gigantic house, until I remember everything.
“Why would you do that? Why are both of you doing things for me? Trying to get me to remember, leading me away from the hallway and protecting me from the cat man.” Danny face lit up completely and he smiled,
“You remembered something. The hallway and the cat man. You know why, we’re doing this for you. You just can’t remember it.”
I gasped, he’s right, I had no knowledge of the hallway or the cat…man, what a strange name, until now, let’s keep trying to remember. “So Danny, try and trigger any memories in my mind, I’ll try and remember without that disgusting potion.” I told him.
“Should I call Arty?” Danny asked me. I shook my head and sat on the bed in the bedroom and Danny sat on the desk. He asked me so many strange questions like, six people planned your death, and do you know who? He also told me awkward comments like how many people liked me and how I died and stuff. After a few hours of comments, I remembered everything, well at least mainly everything. So Danny, tell me if this is right. I’m 20 years old, I was gonna marry a guy named Marcus but I died because I murdered a girl and you guys decided to punish me by making me collect souls. Irene, Lilian and Arty are parts of my soul and I’m Arty’s fourth soul, the only one who can help him out of the suffering and pain of a red rose. I too hold a red rose but it has been well contained. I am madly in love with Marcus.
“Not quite. You’re not madly in love with Marcus. You never told any of us who you truly love but you’ve kissed Arty and me before.”
“I did? That’s sort of creepy.”
“Yeah, thanks Amethyst. I was also once your brother. It was role play though.”
“That’s even more creepy. Sorry, let’s go get the potion, I think I want to remember and grandpa Amphion isn’t that fun. He usually yells at me every time I do something wrong.”
“Wait, the only thing that’s strange is how you know your ‘past’ with Amphion but we only spent a few hours here. It sounds like you knew him for years.” Danny commented.
“Of course I do, I played in this house ever since I was born and then I don’t remember anything else starting from age 16. I remember growing up in this house and then Eliza died and then something that I don’t know and then I ended up in the human realm.” I said.
“So if you don’t know your parents and you remember your past right now of living in this house and you called Amphion grandpa. Amethyst, do you think Amphion is your grandpa and he casted a spell on you to forget everything except for Eliza’s death? Once you got amnesia for the scar fixing, he disintegrated his spell and now you remember your past. These are thoughts. Another piece of proof that you are his granddaughter is that you and Amphion knew the same spells. Levitation and molecule changer. Amethyst, we have to check! Come on.” Danny grabbed my hand and ran down the hall, when we passed Arty we took the bottle from his hand and I drank the whole thing. Arty was running behind us and he kept asking us why we were running. We stayed silent though, we were in too much of a hurry to answer and explain. I slowly began to remember everything on the way to Amphion’s room and when we smashed open his door with lightning, I remembered everything. I realized my power with Danny was a lot more powerful, it was like a giant cannon just exploded 500 mines or something. Amphion flew back and then got up and started yelling at us of how we could have contaminated the cure and then he would have had to redo the whole thing. I rolled my eyes and embraced him; he looked surprised and started calling me crazy for hugging a wizard.
“Grandfather,” I whispered into his shirt, “why didn’t you tell me that you were my grandpa? I lived all my life knowing that I had no parents or relatives, you left me!”
“I-I-I…Amethyst, I didn’t leave you, I had to or they would have taken you away from me and turned you into a god of Hell. Once you are born, certain people are predestined to become a god. When I noticed that you were incredibly strong, I, well, I put a mind block in your memories to prevent you from coming back.”
“What’s the difference though? If I came back or not, it’s not like I did anything wrong until I became a human.” I didn’t understand anything.
“If you stayed, you would have taken the place of the 5th goddess of Hell. Amethyst, you were predestined to become the 5th goddess. Since they couldn’t find you when they were naming gods, they took my friend’s son, Danny. He became the god while I changed you into a human and tossed you into their world, the human world. It’s true that Eliza died here in this mansion and I’m pretty sure you remember what your parents look like.” When Amphion finished, I tried to understand by repeating some important facts,
“You tossed me into the human world?! What kind of grandfather are you? So when I was born, I was predestined as a goddess, but if I became a goddess, it would have been very hard and you didn’t want me to become someone who tortures others. So, you turned me into a human and tossed me into the human world. Instead of taking me, since I wasn’t there they took Danny. The closest person that was equal to my power. So I’m also a made creature like Danny? If we lived together then that means we had the same reputation. We were born as ghosts then turned into human and then we died. Amazing, what a fun life.”
Danny was still staring at me and then at Amphion, he said, “I don’t mind being sold off since it was for Amethyst, but there’s no resemblance at all between you two.”
Amphion rubbed his eyes and took out something. Coloured contacts. He had purple eyes like me, and now there was a resemblance. I smiled and hugged him, even if he did toss me into the human realm, he was still family. I had found my missing piece in my heart. Grandpa Amphion.

It seemed weird to call him grandpa so I just called him Amphion. Once Amphion gave us the cure, we grabbed our stuff and started to head back to the Phantom Forest. The path glowed like mad because of the paint. We hurried back, blasting every cat man, ghost or beard man in our way. Danny and I did all the blasting since our power was super deadly when we held hands. Arty followed behind us and he had a deadly stare. Once we got back to the town, people cheered and danced around us. They’re welcoming us, but they were scared of us like a few days ago.
I think Eliza convinced them… Arty thought back to me. He pointed at Eliza who was in the middle of the crowd. She wore a short black layered dress that was made of silk. She had white slippers and a red veil on her little head. She had a smile on her face as she spun in circles. She looked beautiful, just like mom. We were almost at the door when a boy flew from above and landed in front of us, blocking our way. He had the face of an angel, literally. I saw picture of the angels in Jace’s room and they always had masks on, a mask made out of bone and blood, they carried around a golden pocket watch since that was their lifeline, if their pocket watch hit another Angel, both of them would die and if their pocket watch ran out of time, they would die. He had long white wings and a sword in one hand. He had a bow and three arrows strapped to his back. I guess he doesn’t miss since there are three of us and three arrows. I laughed nervously as Arty pushed me behind him. I looked back and saw that everyone was still dancing, they didn’t notice him and I don’t think they want to notice him once I die and I definitely didn’t want Eliza to see this. I ran back down into the town and yelled, “Angel!”
Everyone looked at the Angel and ran back into their houses, they didn’t scream in terror though; they quietly walked into their houses. Eliza looked at me and she mouthed, ‘Come back’. I nodded and shooed her away with my hand. When I got back to the door, none of them had moved. Almost like they held the fight until I came back.
“I will not accept you taking this cure back into Hell, I thought the monsters and ghosts would have taken you but I guess the 5th goddess of Hell is stronger than she looks. Why don’t you show your true form, Amethyst?”
Oh my god, this Angel knows everything; he probably even knew that a tomato was actually a fruit. Danny and Arty stood in front of me, ready to attack. The Angel flicked his wrist to his right and they both went flying. I stared at the Angel, trying to hold in my feelings and trying not to think anything since he was strong enough to read my mind even if it was blocked. I slowly walked towards Danny and held his hand. Energy flowed through me and I yelled,
“Lightning!” a lightning bolt flew out of my hand and it was perfectly aimed at his heart but he was either really fast or he can teleport because he appeared behind me and swung his sword. His sword was also aimed perfectly at my neck. He was trying to behead me. I ducked and my head was buried in Danny’s chest while he still lay unconscious. The Angel ended up cutting half my hair, my disguise I used for Emi, I thought. Half my hair was short up to my neck and the other half flowed down to my waist. My hair fell to the ground and I closed my eyes. I already gave up, it was impossible for me to defeat an Angel.
“Good night, Amethyst.” The Angel brought down the sword but it didn’t hit me. I opened my eyes and looked at him, Arty was preventing him from stabbing me. My face was cut and so was his, we were all bleeding which seemed impossible for the dead. I took Danny and brought him to the door. I opened the door and tossed him inside, great, I’m tossing hopeless people like grandpa… I kept the door open. Jace, Michael and Sam all looked at me. They started running towards the door so they can get in and help me but before they were able to enter I levitated Arty into them and straight through the door, like a bullet. They fell backwards when Arty slammed into them and I flicked my wrist just like the Angel. The door was slammed shut and I whispered,
“Lock.” The door made a soft clicking sound as it was being locked. The Angel smiled and a tear fell down my eye as I heard pounding on the door and my name being yelled over and over. I smiled and laughed; the Angel put down his sword and pulled out his bow and arrow. I snapped my fingers and I also grew wings but mine were black, my clothes changed, they weren’t death spirit clothes, they were the clothes of a goddess. I had a pair of really short shorts and my top split in the middle where it met my bellybutton, everything was the colour black and my hair stayed the same.
“I can’t believe you didn’t notice. The cure is with Arty, I threw it in with him, as long as he has it, he’ll live. I don’t mind death. I’m not scared of it anymore. After going through it once, the second time won’t be so bad and besides my inner goddess has been revealed.”
My name was still being screamed and then I heard Jace yelling explosion as the door was being beaten to death. The Angel brought up the bow and aimed at my heart, he shot the arrow and it sped towards me. Many things happened at once; the arrow shot me as I fell to the ground I saw that the door had been exploded by Jace, Arty and Danny. They all rushed towards me and I smiled slightly. The moment I hit the ground I knew I was dead. I heard the Angel leave while laughing. Curse him, I’ll get him…I will get him. I swear it. Watch out Angel, the moment you turn your back on me, I’ll be there to stab you.
I woke up again, to my surprise; something is seriously preventing me from dying. Yes, that has to be the answer, people just won’t let me die. I opened my eyes and I heard a few gasps. When my vision cleared, I saw everyone staring down at me. Arty, Jace, Danny, Michael and Sam. I looked at my chest and saw that the arrow was still there. I screamed and sat up, when I pulled out the arrow something broke off with it. A light silver chain and a sliver heart attached to it, Arty’s necklace had saved me. The arrow was stuck on the heart, I guess the Angel had really perfect aim. I stood up and saw that I still had cuts and bruises on me. I smiled at them and said cheerfully, “I’m back.”
They started breathing again and then Sam said, “Celeste wants to see you immediately. Like right now. I’m sorry that we can’t explain much to you and you just woke up too but Celeste really needs to see you.”
“She also wants to see gods from two to six, so all of you in the room have been summoned.” Alec was standing by the door, this was the first time I had ever saw him. He had chestnut hair and turquoise eyes. He looked so perfect and his voice sounded so familiar. Almost like I heard it not that long ago. He kept torturing me about the eraser thing but there’s something else that reminds me of him. We all followed him down the hall into the throne room. I kneeled down in front of Celeste and gave her-her circlet back. Alec took it and placed it on her head, she smiled and kissed him lightly on the cheek, our mouths fell open and we stared at them. Sam was especially surprised since Celeste was his sister.
“Stand everyone. You have all broken rules in Hell and Heaven. You remembered your past Amethyst, Arty and Danny. You obtained a cure which wasn’t supposed to happen. You also used glow-in-the-dark paint and that for some reason is illegal in the land of Hell and Heaven. I don’t know why so do not ask. Amethyst you also entered the inside of Hell without the permission of Sam or Alec. You should be sentenced to death for this.”
We all looked at each other and had a silent conversation; I looked at Celeste and said, “I would like to take the place of all of these gods by being sentenced to death, if you would please let them excused.”
“You would sacrifice yourself for them? You didn’t even know them until you died, they barely know you and you would still sacrifice yourself for them? Michael, the one who left you before you barely went through the Phantom forest. Jace, the one who left you after worrying him. Arty, the one who killed you. Danny, the one who hated you and wanted to get rid of you. You still want to sacrifice yourself?” Celeste asked me, her voice was cold and her face was rock hard. Everyone shook their heads but I nodded and said,
“I wouldn’t mind sacrificing myself for them. Each one of the gods taught me something and I would cherish it forever. Even if I don’t know them much and it wasn’t that long since I met them. I would still sacrifice myself for them even if they were cold to me, like Danny at first.”
It started snowing and then I noticed that it was Christmas and I never got to give them the gifts that I made for them. I looked at Celeste with tears in my eyes, “Will you please let me give a goodbye gift to all my friends?”
“I will allow this. You have 2 minutes to say goodbye.” Celeste said but she looked slightly disappointed.
The gods looked at me for a few seconds and then they all hugged me. I couldn’t breathe but I managed to say, “I want to give you a Christmas present. I’m sorry I couldn’t stay with you guys for a whole year but it was pretty close.” I took something out of my pocket and showed it to them. They were carefully sewn animals. There was a tiger, dragon, lion, leopard and a phoenix. I handed the tiger to Sam, the dragon to Danny, the lion to Jace, the leopard to Michael and the phoenix to Arty. They took their animal out of my hands, their hands were trembling and I knew that time was running out.
“Please do this for me. Smile, smile no matter what happens.” I gave them a cheerful smile and took a step back.
“Don’t go, Amethyst. Let us go, why would you try and protect us?” Danny asked me.
“Why not?” I asked him.
“Time’s up.” Celeste said.
Traitor, you gave me a chance to get a cure so you can kill me. Stupid swan, I curse you, even after I die you will forever be cursed by Amethyst Diamondiase. I thought out loud so that everyone could hear what I was thinking. I stood tall and proud.
“As I was saying,” Celeste continued, “you took hold of a cure that was forbidden and you broke several rules,” I stared in her eyes and the gods stared at me, “but, you took hold of the cure because you loved someone. You wanted to protect that person and that is a hard emotion to achieve from a death spirit. Even when you broke the rules of both Heaven and Hell, you will become an angel.”
“What…” I started to say, but a warm, bright light surrounded me and the other guys. I saw Alec talk to his spirit and then he said,
“Congratulations, Amethyst, Sam, Danny, Michael, Jace and Arty. You will all become angels.”
My clothes changed from dark and depressing to light and happy. My dress was like the one that Eliza wore during her dance. It was white and layered; it flowed down to my ankles. The dress was made of silk and fleece, it was soft on my skin and warm. The silver necklace that Arty gave me, was repaired and back on my neck. My hair couldn’t be changed back and it stayed short on one side and long on the other. My shoes were white ribbons that covered my bare feet. I looked to my right and saw big, elegant white wings. These are my wings, amazing. Each feather is a snow white. Except for that one, it has an image of a polar bear. The other gods wore a white and blue shirt and a normal pair of jeans. They also had white wings and each had their symbol on one of the feathers. They stared at me and then at each other.
“We look really plain compared to you, Amethyst.” Jace said. I laughed slightly and felt tears roll down my cheeks. I cried and laughed at the same time. We all hugged each other and then I felt something strange. The aura coming from Arty was so weak and Danny’s aura was so strong. Did I change fourth spirits? That’s impossible, right?
I looked at Danny and knew he was thinking the same thing I was. We were dismissed from the throne room, I ran into Arty’s room and screamed, “What happened?!”
Arty hurried in after me and closed the door behind him and then he answered me, “I…have no idea.”
“Well, that’s a lot of help.” I said while rolling my eyes.
“I know what happened,” Danny said quietly behind the closed door, Arty opened it and let him in, “once your job of healing Arty was complete your heart transferred its spirit to the person you love most.”
Arty stared at me and then at Danny said, “The one Amethyst loves the most is you?”
“That’s right.” Danny replied.
“No, something is wrong; the one I love most is not Danny.” I said. Danny looked at me, his aura was purple. Truth is, I do love him the most after the whole amnesia thing, I didn’t want to admit it in front of Arty though. It was pretty obvious that Arty already knew I was lying, he told me to leave his room. I opened the door, it squeaked, I took Danny’s hand and left. Once we were almost at the end of the hall to my new room in the hall of angels.
I slapped Danny straight across the face and then kissed him. I had no idea what was going on in my mind, but I definitely knew that I was going crazy. He didn’t resist anything, he didn’t even stop me on the slap but once I stopped kissing him, he pinned me against the wall, again. I looked down the hall avoiding his gaze and thought, déja vu.
He chuckled and then looked up. We fell silent and then he pressed his body against mine and whispered, “Be quiet, it’s Alec and Celeste.”
I looked and saw them both walking down the hall, I gasped when I saw Irene with them. Danny, Irene can sense my presence if they come any closer Irene will fly to me and start screaming out my name or something.
Don’t worry, my presence is hiding yours, Irene and the others will know that I’m here but they won’t know you’re with me, he thought back to me.
“Amethyst doesn’t know that you were around us the whole time?” Alec asked her.
“Nope, she doesn’t know me much and once I was born I didn’t talk to her much either. She doesn’t even have a clue that Alec was the angel or that I was a spy for you guys.”
“Shush. Daniel’s nearby.” Celeste said harshly to Irene. Irene shrunk back and started to fly away when Alec grabbed her by the wings and said,
“Don’t worry Celeste, Danny always wanders around. Where do you think you’re going, Irene?”
“Back to Amethyst or she might start looking for me, I should hurry, sometimes Lilian asks me where I go.” Irene whispered.
“Does Lilian know that you’ve been spying on them?”
“Not a thing Mr. Alec, sir.” Irene’s eyes were filled with fear and she looked like she was going to cry. On the other hand, I felt angry and stupid for not noticing that Irene was betraying me. At the same time I felt bad for her and wanted to protect her.
“I can’t believe I had to follow the promise of the prophecy.” Celeste complained to Alec while slipping her fingers through his.
“You mean the prophecy of how a death spirit will achieve the feelings of love?” Alec said while leaning down for a kiss, but Celeste stopped him and said,
“Yeah, that’s the one. What if Amethyst isn’t the death spirit who achieved it? What if it’s the next female death spirit achieved the feeling of love?”
“Celeste, no death spirit has ever achieved the feeling of love before.” Alec said while brushing Irene’s hair. Irene was trying to get out his grasp but was struggling real hard. Alec squeezed her tiny body and she looked like she was going to explode. I fell to the ground and whispered,
“Irene.”
Everything was silent and Danny quickly grabbed me and put me on a bed in some random room. It was an obvious message; pretend to sleep. I hate feeling everything that Irene feels, especially pain. Danny left the room and I heard Alec and Celeste talking to him a few seconds later.
“Hey Danny! What are you doing here so late at night?” Alec said, he’s probably ruffling his hair or something.
“Nothin’, what are you doing here? You know better than to wander around at the time of demons.” Danny said in a low voice. I could just imagine his smile on his face.
“So Danny, why is Amethyst sleeping in that room?” Alec’s voice again, where’s Celeste? Knowing her she would have been the first to talk.
“Amethyst!”
Irene! That’s Irene’s voice. I swung around and saw Celeste hurdling at me with Lilian in her hand. I quickly rolled off the bed, placed my hand in front of me and yelled, “Natai Lilian!”
The first spell I ever learned and it’s pretty useful too. Lilian flew into my hand and she thought in my mind, try not to overdo it with the lightning.
A wide smile played along my face as I yelled, “Lightning dragon!”
The lightning was ready on my dagger and now I waited for Celeste to make a move. She also smiled and said,
“I know why you’re yelling.” She does? “You’re yelling so that Danny will hear you and come inside, right?”
“I was yelling from panicking but thanks for the idea.”
“Too late princess! The only thing Danny can hear is himself and Alec fighting and the only thing he can see is us fighting in the background, you see Amethyst I have made the walls invisible and so now he can see every cut and hear every scream.”
“Amazing, you made the walls invisible. Now, sit back darling and let Amethyst show you what she can do.”
“You are just a small girl that cries every day and needs a person to hang onto, or else you’ll come crashing down. Awww, poor baby, are you gonna cry and hang on to your dear Danny?”
Okay, I could take everything else but now she was just getting on my nerves. A part of me wanted to just stab her and a part of me wanted to tease her. This reminded me of the fights I had in grade seven
I rolled my eyes and said, “You need Alec with you. Don’t you love him with all your heart and soul until you die?”
“Silence! I don’t love him, I’m only using his powers to gain control of Hell and Heaven!”
Now we were all silent, Danny and Alec on the other side had stopped fighting. I smiled and teased her, “Oh no, looks like somebody heard. What will you do now, Celeste?” I spat out her name as if it was acid in my throat.
Alec stared in disbelief and then he looked like he snapped back to his own body and instead of trying to kill Danny he was trying to open the door.
“Sorry baby, the door’s locked, with magic. I would open it but then again I can’t, I’m a bit busy.”
Now they were both trying to smash the walls, Danny used lightning and dragons and Alec turned into an angel, wait, an angel?
Isn’t that the same angel that attacked me? Like he’s got the hair and the battle sword and bow and arrows and you know, he has the bone mask. Wow, that’s where I saw him and Irene had mentioned him too! How ironic, Alec is the one who has been trying to kill me. Alec noticed that I noticed and he started screaming that he was sorry and at the same time he was trying to beat the wall. Danny looked a bit lost but he was still beating down the wall and Celeste had her eyes on me. She pulled out a knife from her hair.
“How did you keep that in there?” I asked her.
“Oh, I have a sheath on the back of my neck so my hair just covers it.” She smiled cheerfully; it was the face Celeste gave me before my quest to the cure, it was an adorable face. But, behind that mask was a cruel, murderer. A liar.
I swung my dagger and made a star form in front of me. The lightning held the form of the star and sped towards Celeste, I don’t think she was really paying attention because she actually got caught in my star trap. I laughed and she glared at me. Her eyes were no longer cheerful and happy; she really looked as if she wanted to destroy me, which was pretty obvious. She raised her hand and said,
“Angel warriors come to my aid and destroy the girl in front of me, Amethyst Diamondiase.”
A white mist appeared in the room, Angels shot out everywhere, they had their bone masks on their faces and they had their battle swords and daggers ready. “Are you kidding me?! Celeste stop being such a stuck up queen, if you’re going to fight me, fight me fair and square.”
“Well, I’m definitely not a square.”
“You’re keeping your humor in place, aren’t you, Celeste?” I talked like I was ready for anything but the truth was, I was too busy trying to avoid any Angels from cutting my head off or something. Celeste knew I was scared and she didn’t give me a chance to do anything she told every Angel to attack me and kill me at once.
I dodged the first few that came racing at me with knifes and I killed the archers as fast as possible. I got hit by many and stabbed by some. They didn’t hurt a lot since we were both Angels, it makes their attacks weaker than usual. Suddenly I felt my Angelic force fading. I looked at my white wings; they started disappearing slowly, every feather burning as they hit the ground. I heard Celeste say,
“Time’s up, you will no longer be an Angel.” She smiled and gave another signal to attack. This time everything hurt, even the wounds I got as an Angel hurt. An arrow flew past me and I fell to the ground. I heard Danny and Alec panting from hitting the wall about a thousand times, my friends may be the most stupid. Call for help or something!
“Explosion!”
“Fire!”

I saw Arty and Jace running down the hall to the room. Sam and Michael were beating the wall with Alec as the others used spells. I screamed as an arrow fell deeply into my left thigh. I took deep breaths and grabbed the end of the arrow. I have to pull this out…
“Alec gimme your spell book!” Danny yelled.
“What why?”
“GIVE IT TO ME!”
“Okay…” Alec took out his spell book and gave it to him. Danny quickly flipped through the pages as I prepared myself for a million jolts of pain. My hands tightened around the arrow and I felt a hand gently placed on mine. It was Danny, but how did he get in?
“Teleport, the spell will transport you directly to your fourth spirit, you are only able to use it if you have a fourth spirit, obviously. Ignoring the pain I smiled a bit. Danny took hold of the arrow and I held his shirt, really tight.
“Don’t count to three. Please, it will scare me even more.” I said, he nodded and put up a small barrier around us. The Angels were trying to break the barrier while the gods were trying to break the other barrier and Danny was trying to find a way that would hurt the least for me. He was ready to pull out the arrow and I was ready to destroy Danny’s shirt, by accident. My hands were now sweating while holding his shirt. I looked outside the barriers and saw Jace staring at me. His light purple eyes almost fit the shade of mine. I used it as my distraction. It was almost as if I was taking a needle shot, I would stare at something colourful and grip something with my other hand. Jace’s eyes were my distraction, light and colourful, Danny’s shirt was my grip, cotton…yay.
Danny pulled on the arrow as hard as he can but it wouldn’t budge. I bit my hand and my grip tightened around his shirt. Jace looked straight in my eyes and he knew he was my distraction. Danny stopped and then examined the wound. He told me to lie down for a while. I lay down on the old carpet which was now covered completely with my blood.
“Danny! She’s losing too much blood from an Angel wound, she’ll die!” Sam yelled at him. I was pretty sure Danny knew because he yelled something back at him but I didn’t have time to hear, I was fading away. Danny started yelling at me now, he tried to get my attention and held my hand and finally he used pain to get me to wake up. He pulled at the arrow again, but I felt numb, my whole leg was numb. Danny leaned in closer to me and he kissed me, he held me in the kiss for about ten seconds and I noticed he had pulled out the arrow at the same time. I woke up and blinked a few times. My vision was blurred and I saw black spots everywhere. I fell backwards but I felt Danny’s arms wrapped around my shoulders. He smiled at me and helped me get up; I tried to remember what had happened in the last few minutes,
I got shot by an Angel’s arrow; since Danny is my fourth spirit he was able to teleport directly to me. He pulled out the arrow and helped me up and now our barrier is about to break and about a thousand Angels are about to attack us. No problem at all…
We saw the barrier beginning to crack, we didn’t feel worried or scared, it seemed casual and a normal routine to die. Unless, something is always preventing you from dying because any god of any place needs you to complete something. Maybe I murdered that girl because god wanted me to come to this land and help the other death gods. That cat man that attacked me was supposed to kill me, but it didn’t. The Avery and Averius, I didn’t even know how to change around molecules until then. The arrow that the Angel shot, it hit my necklace because god was telling me it wasn’t my time to die. The arrow that hit me now, I saw his face, that Angel had a clear shot into killing me, which means something is still preventing me from dying. Might as well use it as an advantage, if no one is allowed to kill me on purpose then I have a chance, and if they do kill me, punishment maybe? I don’t know exactly, let’s hope and pray I am right.
I started predicting every move and where every hit would land, if I can find the pattern between every Angel, there could possibly be a way out of this crowd without having any major injuries. I noticed that every Angel had a bow and arrow and a battle sword and a pocket watch…
I smiled and stood tall; I ripped off a part of my angel dress and wrapped it around my thigh, tightly. Let’s also hope that I don’t feel a thing while my plan takes action. Danny knew what I was going to do, but when he tried to stop me, it was already too late. I ran swiftly into the pile of clashing Angels, while running by them I stole someone’s bow and I also stole about twenty pocket watches. I quickly picked up some loose arrows on the ground and I twisted the golden chain around the arrows. I shot the arrow at an Angel that was trying to stab Danny and it hit him perfectly in the back. He exploded into a white dust and I saw at the corner of my eye another Angel exploded into dust.
My plan had worked, when another Angel’s pocket watch touched a different Angel, they would both die. I chained more watches to my arrows and I saw Danny collecting more for me, he was a really fast collector, what else can I expect from a thief? I tried to create a chain reaction, so right before an Angel attacked me I shot their wing. I had pretty good aim for some reason and the moment it hit it’s wing, the Angel turned into dust and the arrow went through his wing and into another’s. Soon there were about five Angels left. They kneeled on the ground and begged for mercy. Celeste looked furious; she got into her own Angel gear and decided to fight me. She had a mask on but I could’ve sworn I saw a smile. She had the same gear as the other Angels but her sword was longer and it looked a lot sharper, instead of a bow and arrows she had a gun. Oh, this is bad, she’s got a gun, what kind of fool gives a goddess of Heaven a gun. I thought they were supposed to be clean and pure. Clean and pure?
Once again, my mind hatched a plan but this time Celeste already knew of it before it happened,
“An Angel warrior does not need to be clean and pure after death, they just need to die clean and pure. They can be as dirty as they want afterwards.”
“And you, Celeste? Did you die clean and pure, or did you lie to everyone and kill the former goddess’ and gods so you can claim the prize of ruling?”
Celeste flinched, “I know nothing of what you are saying.”
“Oh really, that’s not what my information book says.”
“Information books lie!” Celeste yelled.
“Then was Emi’s information a lie? Were all the spells a lie? I don’t think so, they all worked didn’t they, and shall I read aloud your information? It says, Celeste Hardreford, age 25. Died on January 5th, she was an only child and she murdered her parents at the age of seven, using a pistol. After death, she argued that she didn’t deserve to be a death spirit and that she deserved to be an Angel. All the gods disagreed and Celeste broke out in frustration, she knew that she was stronger than all the gods and it was true that her spirit energy was stronger,”
“Stop it.” She muttered.
“She pulled out her gun and she,” I said louder.
“Stop it.” Celeste seemed like she was close to tears.
“Shot.” I continued, ignoring her pleas.
“Them.”
“Stop it! Please, stop! They deserved it, they didn’t let me be an Angel.”
“Did I become an Angel? No. Was I happy about it? No, but I’m here now and I’m grateful that my future ended up like this. Or at least happy that it isn’t me dying everytime.”
“I was going to get married…” Celeste mumbled, looked down at her feet.
“And so was I.”
“How can you let go like that, Amethyst?”
“You don’t, you never let it go. Leave this world Celeste and go back to the human realm, live again and try to undo your mistakes and maybe someday you’ll be back in that throne with a smile on your face.”
She nodded and smiled at me, there were tears on her face, she snapped her fingers and disappeared.
It was strange how the guys were so silent for the whole time and they never tried to stop me, right, Alec, Sam, Jace, Michael and Arty were on the other side of the invisible wall and Danny was lying on the ground in pain. So there was no one who could’ve stopped me.
I froze in my place and then ran towards Danny; he opened his eyes and asked me what had happened, I told him what had happened and he shot up.
“What?! You sent her back to the humans to live another life? You do realize she won’t remember what happened down here in Hell and that if she does come back the same thing could happen.”
“I know. I’m just hoping that something changes this time.” I told him. When the invisible walls became normal walls again, Arty busted open the squeaky door and ran in, followed by the others. I stood up and looked down at my left thigh, it was dripped blood and I was leaving a trail of it too. The whole room smelled like blood and my mind snapped into life, my leg started to hurt and I felt a surge of weakness. I stumbled and fell into Arty’s arms. I felt Danny’s arms take over as he said, “Leave this one to me, she’s mine so back off.”
I felt Arty’s arms let go of me and Danny carried me out of the room and into a white one. He placed me on a soft bed and started working on my leg. Sam came in and helped him. I blacked out the moment Alec came in and my mind fell into a pit of darkness. I felt dead, again.

Once I woke up, I felt like I could run a thousand miles. Alec smiled at me, it was a warm, thoughtful smile, “Hey Amethyst, I’m sorry for listening to Celeste and being brought to try and kill you. I guess I was a bit caught up in love.”
“I get it already, you don’t have to say another word. I know you tried to kill me, I know you loved Celeste, and I know that you’re sorry. I don’t hold a grudge for that long so I didn’t really care that you tried to kill me, well I did at the time I figured out that you were the Angel. I understand what it’s like when you want to do everything for the person you love. I feel like that towards Danny, Arty, Jace and Marcus. I love them all equally…”
“I always thought you loved Daniel the most, since he’s your fourth spirit and all that. Do you love him?”
I was silent for a while, I didn’t know what to say, my face grew hot and I looked down at his shoes. “Yes.”
“Then you should go after him, he’s been sulking in his room for a few days now. After he carried you here, he just left without a word. We all thought he’d be the first to see you wake up, but it ended up being me, sorry if you’re disappointed.”
“No, not at all, I actually think you being here is for the best. But, it would be nice if Danny was here. I love him.” I looked up at Alec and saw him smiling at me, his hand slowly lifted and pointed at the door. My eyes slowly followed his slender hands, standing by the door was Danny, his eyes wide. I put my hand over my mouth, I had just realized what I said and he heard it. Alec grinned and left the room. Danny was frozen by the door and I still sat still on the white bed inside the hospital room. We didn’t say a word to each other, just stared into each other’s eyes. His grey eyes didn’t show any emotion at all, they just looked at me. I felt scared, he heard what I said, he knows how I feel, but nothing was happening. And so, I did nothing too. I felt uncomfortable and it was awkward to just sit there. He quickly vanished and then reappeared beside me, lightly landing on his feet. Everything was done so fast that I didn’t have time to react. My eyes flicked to the side, he kissed my cheek.
“I never knew you felt that way, I thought you still love Arty. Who knew that you had a love interest in me? That just seems unthinkable. Don’t you think, Amethyst Diamondiase?”
“Do you have a problem with that? I just said what I felt and Arty’s just a friend. I loved him, but he just, wasn’t right for me, and he was pushing it.” I looked away from him, looking at him in the eyes, just seemed wrong. My fists curled around the blanket, holding it tight. Danny still showed no emotion.
“Arty seems to love you more than anything in the world, but he obviously realizes that you don’t love him like he loves you. He won’t give up you know, he doesn’t quit. Amethyst, don’t I push you too far? You probably don’t remember when I kissed you in the mountains. Covered in snow, completed frozen, you lost your memory after staying in the cold too long. You only remember that you accomplished your mission and that everything was fine.” Danny smiled slightly, just barely, but visible.
“When did that happen!? I don’t remember that!” I spun my head to the side and looked at him straight in the eyes.
“Did that happen? Maybe I’m lying. How do you know you could trust me?” Danny said, he straightened up and walked over to the window, looking outside. The light reflected off his dark brown hair making it look like gold. His grey eyes looked silver and sparkled as if there was something magnificent waiting outside for him. I loved him, more than anything else. He was the one who hated me in the beginning. Danny was the one who saved me from Tyson. He helped my with Aili’s crushed soul. He’s the one who warned me about the hallway, the one who helped me get my memory back. He was my neighbor a long time ago when I was small. He was the one who saved me several times. He was the god of thieves and the 5th god of Hell. He was Daniel…
“And Daniel doesn’t lie. He is kind, smart and I know he doesn’t lie.” I slid out of the bed and slowly walked towards him. I put my arms around him, I missed him. He hugged me back, his face pressed against my hair. I looked up into his eyes again, there was something about his eyes that made me feel calm. He leaned down and kissed me. This time the kiss wasn’t pushed, it wasn’t forced onto like Arty. His lips were soft against mine, slow and lingering. He whispered over and over that he loved me then went back to kissing me. I tasted salt, and felt wet tears against my cheek. He was crying. His arms were wrapped around me tight, one right above my waist and one below my shoulder blades. I kept my arms around his neck, looping my fingers in his hair. His hair was soft and silky. He let go of me and I pulled away slowly. My hair fell lightly over my face, I was reminded that Alec cut half my hair off. Danny pushed it away from my face and behind my ear.
“So does this mean I could rightfully call you my girlfriend?” Danny said while interlocking his fingers with mine. I laughed a little, the answer should be obvious already.
“Yes. But that means I could call you my boyfriend.”
“That might have to wait though. Alec’s been telling everyone that there’s a new threat. There are four other kinds of gods that want us gone. They want to control over Heaven, Hell and Earth and since we’re the balance between all three worlds, they want to destroy us. I don’t know when though, so that could happen any minute.” Danny had a frown on his face, his arms crossed. I put my hands on his shoulders,
“And what kind of gods are these four people exactly?”
“Apparently they’re four old men, I thought they were Pejites at first but these people have the power to control fire, wind, water or ice and earth or rock. It’s like the power that Jace, Arty and we have, but you know, no lightning.” Danny smiled at me, he walked me out of the room and we slowly walked down the hallway. I didn’t even want to ask him about the Pejite thing.
“It must be nice to be able to control something like earth or fire and water, that’s good too. Even though we have lightning, something different for a change would make a different perspective.” My arm was linked around his.
“Many have tried to overthrow us, but they all ended up getting killed, mainly by Alec. He’s the longest god to hold the throne. I don’t want to kill anyone anymore. I just want to live happily with you.” He faced me.
“I know, I want to just live happily with you too. But if that threat keeps getting in the way, I’ll probably lose my temper.” Once we got to the throne room, I saw Alec looking at a few pieces of paper. When he saw me he handed me one of the pieces of paper and a pen, he grinned at me,
“You have been assigned to be the goddess of the gate of Heaven and the goddess of the 5th gate of Hell. If you sign this, it is official. You may quit whenever you want, but then you will be sent to the inside of Hell, with the other souls.” His voice was steady. I let go of Danny’s arm and took hold of the pen. I neatly signed my name at the bottom of the paper.
“I will help as much as I can. But I’m not sure how long I could keep it up. I may not be here for a long time but I will be able to help with the new threat.”

A few hundred years has passed, Amethyst decided to give up being a goddess of both Heaven and Hell and she happily left to the inside of hell to live with her sister, Eliza. I still get to meet her once every year, after all, am I not Danny? Sometimes if I’m lucky I get to meet her more often. I can do anything when I set my mind to it.
It was lonely and very sad without Amethyst around. The others agreed too, so I spent most of my time in a coffee shop in the human realm thinking about her and looking up at the sky. She was so cheerful and she made all of us happy in some point of our life. Amethyst may not have noticed it, but I was that oak tree she crashed into the day she died. I almost laughed my head off but I was on a serious mission, it was to see if Arty does his job well, since he was new, he was the hopeless rookie. I had to help him at first and when he was nervous he signaled me. When I first met Amethyst, I was disguised as Arty and I would never forget the words she told me when I was disguised as him. The way she said it made me fall in love with her. It was probably the moment I fell in love for the first time and then I got nervous to talk to her and just acted cruel. Truth is, if I can turn back time I would have made her hair all pretty during the transformation! It was too late now.
One day I heard that Amethyst had gone missing in the inside of Hell and that she had just disappeared into thin air. After two years, I spent the whole day at the coffee shop on the day that Amethyst disappeared and I didn’t do anything but drink enormous amounts of tea and coffee. I saw a girl walking by and she looked really sad and lonely, I thought that I needed the comfort so I asked her,
“Would you like to sit with me? You look sad.”
She looked up and her black hair flowed down to her waist, coincidence… a lot of girls have black hair.
She gave me a small smile and said, “Sure.”
She sat down with me and I didn’t really pay attention to her, I looked up at the sky and wondered if I would ever see Amethyst again.
“So why were you sad?” I asked her.
“I lost a very important friend. We were in love.”
“Same here, I lost a friend, more like my girlfriend. I guess you don’t realize how much you love the person until they’re gone.”
“I see. I only have one picture of this person and I’ve been looking for him for about two years.”
I jumped out of my seat, two years, but that’s how long Amethyst was gone and she has her hair and now…I have to see her eyes. This girl wore a flowing white dress, she wore a sunhat woven with straw. It was decorated with red roses.
“Why in the world would a girl like you, sit with a stranger like me who has been drinking too much tea?”
She laughed, took off her necklace and looked up; I saw bright, intelligent purple eyes, “Why not?”
She opened her locket and inside revealed a picture of me.
“I found you. I promised I’d be here to help.”