Jasmine Montgomery walked down the busy street, her head dipped low, a raincoat draped over her pale frame to block out the falling droplets that perfectly reflected her mood. Under the coat, she hugged a cluster of flowers to her chest as if they could be snatched away by unseen hands at any time. Her brightly-coloured hair and the hostility she was radiating attracted some staring from pedestrians in her way. Some were sneers and looks of disgust at her obvious faunushood, which she mostly ignored, and others amused smirks and lecherous grins, thinking to maybe step out and try their luck with her. The murderous glares that seemed like they would send the recipients to the depths of hell discouraged them, luckily. For their sakes rather than hers.
As the streets thinned out and started to turn to grass paths, the amount of people passing her dropped dramatically. Good. The last thing she needed was more attention, especially when she was at her breaking point. On the exterior, she was sullen and hostile, perfectly normal behaviour for a girl who had just lost someone close to her, people reckoned. That was just a mask. On the inside, she was in hysterics. She was snapping between crying and screaming and shaking, sometimes at the same time. She was uncontrollably going through every moment she had with her boyfriend, more as an outsider looking in, and screaming to that naive girl she saw there to treasure those moments and hold them tight to her forever, until her throat was parched and she couldn't even whimper lest the burning dryness consume her head and leave her in such pain that she couldn't even focus on the scenes in front of her anymore. She was close to snapping, and she knew it. Her mind had put up so many defences saying 'don't touch me don't come near me stop it stop it stop it' causing her to act incredibly hostile to push others away so they wouldn't make it worse.
But when she wasn't an emotional wreck, she was silent-oh god the silence was so much worse. She would begin to think and she would begin to hate. She would hate Athena Sienna, that girl who forced him to do what he did what he did, oh she would hate her so much. Jasmine was smiling all the way through the Vytal match between Taupa and Athena, and cheered as he ripped her to shreds. She would hate Pyri Steele, for attacking him as she had. Not much she could do about her for now, she thought. She hated herself, for not being with him to help him. Some days, she even starting hating Vancela for dying, before realising what she was thinking and immediately recoiling from her own mind, forcing herself away from hateful thoughts for a while.
She turned abruptly onto a dirt path. She wouldn't care if her shoes got mucky, honestly it was the probably lowest on the list of things she was concerned with, tied with a lot of other things. Most other spots on that list were filled with her boyfriend, most noticeably the top 50. She walked under a grey metal arch that sported a single word in rusted lettering: 'Graveyard'. The only other people were an elderly couple, probably mourning some relative. She scowled at them, before making her way over to her boyfriend's grave. She unzipped her raincoat and discarded it. She didn't care if she got wet, it's only purpose was to protect the fragile flowers that she now lay on Vancela's grave. She dropped to a kneel in front of the gravestone now adorned with the floral offerings.
"Vancela," she started. "I love you so much. I think of you every single day. I don't know if you can hear me. I really hope you can. But just remember that I'll always love you and I still wish you were by my side."
She took a second to take a shaky breath, before continuing.
"I've been doing well, you would like that. That bitch Athena was killed, in a good way." she would have smiled, but she still was mourning him. "School has been…"
As she spoke to his grave, Vancela Tepes-Blavick looked down at his girlfriend from a realm above the clouds.
"I could hardly believe it at first, but it seems that I am in heaven." he mused, looking to the elderly figure besides him.
The old man nodded. "Your sacrifice was noble enough to earn you a place here. At least, I thought so."
Vancela nodded absentmindedly as he stared down at Jasmine. He felt such longing to be with her, it was unbearable.
"Say, God. How could one bring himself back down the the mortal realm?" he inquired, trying his best not to look suspicious.
The man-God was his title- chuckled, assuming it was part of the boy's curious nature. "A person would have to attack me to try and steal some of my power. Of course, this wouldn't last very long and doing such a thing would have harsh penalties, so nobody tries."
Vancela mused over this. Would it be worth it? But, as he turned back to Jasmine, below the clouds, having finished her speech and crying, he knew he only had one choice.
As Jasmine turned to leave Vancela's grave, she pondered whether she should join him. It wouldn't be that bad, surely. Just a single action and she would be with him again. She cast one single glance back at his grave, her mind made up. If she hadn't turned back, she would've missed him. She swore that she must be hallucinating. Vancela was dead. But there he was, standing on his gravestone, there but not there.
"Jasmine." he croaked, and she knew it was real. She flung herself into her boyfriend's arms and cried.
"Where- how- what-" she started, only to be shushed by him.
"I don't have much time, so let me tell you this Jasmine. I love you, probably more than you love me. I would hate to see anything happen to you, just please stay strong. For me."
"But, but, it's so hard to be without you like this!" Jasmine cried. "Why do you have to go?"
"Just listen to me. I am always with you, whether you know it or not. And I will always love you just the same." he replied sadly, starting to fade away.
"No! Don't leave m-" Jasmine started to shout frantically, before being cut off by Vancela kissing her and pulling her close to him. They stayed like this for a minute, Vancela having to fight against the tug to be brought back to the upper world. But eventually, he was pulled away.
Jasmine watched as her boyfriend fluttered away in the wind and she blinked, trying to discern if it had been an illusion or a hallucination. Either way, her earlier thoughts of suicide were long gone, along with some of her depression. The only thing in her mind were Vancela's parting words. 'I will always love you.'
Jasmine looked up to the sky, in which rays of golden sunlight were starting to penetrate the cloud cover, and smiled.
She would try to hold onto those words.
And Vancela, from a cell in Limbo where he had been taken after literally assaulting God, smiled too.
It had been worth it.