I can only stare back, vessel tainted, mind blooming.

A few days of honey-coated pills and the homely smell of lavender was the beginning of my surfacing this abyss.  My most vivid moments in nine years are absolutely beautiful and absolutely terrifying.

My body knows not the pain of the existence it itches to be.

My mind knows relief in the darkness, the breath of eternity in oblivion.

Lux runs his rough fingers through my knotted hair, doe eyes searching my face for awareness. I stare back at him, heart thudding slowly in my chest, mind whirling through memories.

"There you are.." He cooes, deep voice sweet. The lamplight casts a shadow on his freshly shaven face.

My heart aches for a world with just the two of us.

I want to smile. I want to cry.

"You know," He continues, "I've waited nine years for the day after tomorrow," He meets my eyes, I see essences of reminisce in the light catching his eyes, "Never thought I was the more patient of the two of us," He continues, his hand shifts up and takes mine, "I would've waited for nine more, but the Serics must've heard my cries, Nia."

His grip on my hand tightens, "I love you." He says it like it pains him.

I wish I could move to touch him.

My eyes roll back, the moment gone.

_ - _ - _

Something thuds, my consciousness startles awake.

There's a kind of numbness down to my bones, but my flesh is prickling to life. I peek from beneath swollen eyelids. The night is heavy, collapsing over our tucked-away cottage, casting my cramped bedroom in darkness. Slow blinks later, my tired eyes begin to adjust.

The curtains dress the moonlight, what little enters filtered through a royal blue. The blurs I'd seen all these years, a complex variety of blues. I feel a shift in my soul as I relax.

Everything is so familiar, the flat plane of my dresser, at my feet the silhouette of mother's dress form nearest my bedroom door, white painted mirror bolted to the door itself - a shadow.

I'm a spiral of thoughts, thoughts spinning 'round to panic.

A reflection of a shadow, standing just above my head. I squeeze my eyes shut quickly and open them again. The shadow's form solidifies, something near human. No, it's nothing. Nothing at all.

A trick of these once half-dead eyes, I tell myself. But I don't dare look away.

Every hair stands on end.

Not real. I stare, eyes as wide as I can muster. My throat is thick, stuck, glued. My gaze shifts to its chest. Solid, flat, is it.. breathing...

No.

I close my eyes, attempt a breath, but it's panicked. I'm exposed, it's going to get me- My eyes fly open.

It hasn't moved.

A trick. I beg my curtains to move, the moonlight to flare, the lamp to spark. I beg darkness to rise in a wave, anything to put the shadow back in its place. My erratic heartbeat floods my ears.

My eyes meet its face. Another kind of familiar...

The abyss stares back at me. Tears roll down my face.

Nia, stop scaring yourself.

It moves, my heart folds in on itself, I can't breathe.

Your eyes are healing, Nia it's a trick. Fresh tears. Arm raised, stretched out to me, toward my head. I cannot take my eyes off the mirror.

"Lux." I cry out, his name a terrible croak of sobbed and whispered syllables. Its clawed hands slowly clench the edges of my headboard.

"Lux." It mimics lowering itself inches from me, voice cloudy, deep, and scratched. My trembling bottom lip is locked between my teeth. My nostrils flare as I struggle to calm my breath.

"Lux." Again. The shadow lifts its head, looking toward the mirror. I shiver, it rakes my face, slowly, gently grazing the slopes of my cheeks. I feel warmth, I feel terror.

Its claws feel like the blunt edges of welded metal, smooth and solid. They press flat against my face and begin to pitch my head sideways. To look up- up at it.

Without a thought, I squeeze my eyes shut.

My face is in its grasp, grip tight. I exhale from my nose, a sob escaping through my closed lips anyway. My neck is lifted from my pillow, the warmth slips behind my head, into my hair.

"Nia."

Open. I can only stare-

My eyes roll back, the moment gone.

_ - _ - _ - _

Question time~

Do you like faceclaims? Would you like me to do faceclaims of characters in The Other Side?

Thank you so much for reading! I look forward to hearing from you all. ~ <3