PREFACE:
DEATH'S DOOR
( trigger warning; death )

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DYING WAS NOTHING LIKE how it was described in the movies. It wasn't quick and easy, nor was it painless. Her life didn't flash before her eyes. There was no light at the end of the tunnel, waiting to welcome her into the afterlife. There was just an endless plain of darkness behind her eyes, an agonising fire seeping to her bones, and an angel's voice pleading for her to keep holding on, to stay with her forever.

Shay Chambers was like a shooting star. One moment, she was there. She was bright, a beaming ray of sunshine that brought love and warmth to everyone she came across. And then the next, she was gone. Nothing more than a black hole up in space, a void that would never be filled again.

"Hold on, my darling." Her angel's voice was back, a beckoning hand looming in the distance, fingers just out of her reach. "Don't you dare leave me."

"I won't," she wanted to scream. "Don't let me go."

But she'd spoken too much by then, and the river of crimson gushing from her throat was beginning to suffocate her, keeping the words she wanted to shout at bay. Her eyes fluttered open one last time, desperate to memorise the faces of those she loved. The cold bodies surrounding her place in the snow wore heartbreak on their faces, and for a moment, her heart aches with sadness for them. Just as quick as it came, it was gone, replaced by fear so strong that it consumed every inch of her. A choked cough came from her mouth as blood began to stain her lips again, testing the patience of everyone within breathing distance. Her hands trembled as they reached out for nothing in particular, her facade crumbling to ruins. Tears streamed down her cheeks, her sobs shaking her aching body.

"I don't want to die," she whimpered, allowing her terror to take over. "Please don't let me die, Alice."

Dying had never scared her before, not after everything she'd witnessed in her life. But it was different when it came to staring death in the eyes, losing everything she'd grown to cherish in one fatal instant. For death never cared about any of those things, it had no issue with ripping her away from everything she knew, planting her in the depths of an eternity of nothingness.

Shay's eyes went glossy as she gasped her final breath of air, the glow of life leaving her body as her sobs went silent. Instead, they were replaced by the heartbroken shriek of a lover who'd lost their soulmate, who'd lost their chance at forever. Death's door slammed shut with a vindictive swoop, and Shay Chambers became nothing more than an empty vessel lying in the dirt.