A/N Well, I said I would rewrite it and here I go! Hopefully this goes better than the last version…at least I got the plot worked out all the way this time. That's rather helpful Anyway, enjoy.

Disclaimer: Not Rick guys…sorry.

Daughter of Death

Prologue

ForeverSunshine13

Darkness.

Like a thick blanket of black draped over my eyes. I usually love the darkness, using it to hide everything that feels wrong. But I don't love this darkness. This is different. It's heavy and oppressive, smothering me and making it difficult to breathe.

The sound of someone's deep ragged breathing echoes loudly in my ears. It sounds like the person is trying to breathe through wet sand. My body shakes with every breath and I realize that it's my breathing. I'm the one struggling to bring oxygen into my lungs.

I notice I'm lying on my back. Underneath me is something cold and hard, like stone. I can feel the coldness seeping through my shirt like ice water, chilling me to the bone. I expect myself to shudder, but I don't. I make no move against the cold.

My brain feels frozen, sluggish almost, like someone left it in the freezer a bit too long. My thoughts come to me slowly, as if fighting against something. I search to try and find what it is that's holding my mind back, and that's when I feel it.

Pain.

Pain burning like fire under my ribs, each breath creating even more agony. It is the worst pain I've ever felt and I have no idea how it remained unnoticed for as long as it did. The long I lay here, the more the pain spreads, filling my whole body. My whole being. It feels like my very soul is being sucked from my body.

A breathless, pain filled moan escapes from my lips despite my efforts to keep them clamped. I can barely hear it over the sound of blood pounding in my ears.

"Hadi?" A voice asks, wavering slightly with emotion.

The voice is startlingly familiar. I know this voice, I know it very well, I've heard it a million times. It's not new to me, but I can't put a face, or even a name, to it. I know this person, who are they? The memories connecting me to this boy refuse to surface.

"Hadi please don't do this…," he continues, "Wake up! You've got to wake up! I've already lost one sister-"

He starts to cry softly and through the haze brought on by the pain, I feel tears wetting my hand. It shocks me. Although I have no idea who he is, I know, deep inside, that this boy does not cry. He really does care about me, I think with wonder. I knew it.

I want to jump up and yell "I'm alive!" but my arms and legs refuse to move. They feel weighed down, too heavy for me to move. I am so tired…I just want to sleep…to just give up this fight. If only the pain will leave me alone…then I can relax and let slept claim me.

"Nico calm down. She'll be fine. She has to be," a second voice mutters, breaking through my exhausted mind.

This one I know without a shadow of doubt. My older brother, Griffin.

I try to hold on and open my eyes. Let them know I'm fine, that I'm alive and semi-well. They obviously care about me and I don't want to let them down. I want to be able to get up and walk away with them like nothing happened…but I'm just too tired…too sleepy…too weary of fighting.

The pain is slowly fading away. I can't feel it much anymore. It seems like just a dream, like it was never really here to begin with. Maybe I just imagined the pain, something that hurt that bad couldn't possibly be real. Couldn't possibly be happening to me.

"Rest," a soft voice whispers, "Rest."

The pain is completely gone now, not a speck of it remains. I can also no longer feel the stone beneath me, or hear the voices anymore. I am alone in a quiet comforting darkness. Everything is calm, peaceful, and blessedly dark.

I gladly let go, relaxing into it. I'm giving up the fight, wanting nothing more but to sleep forever, but for some reason I feel like I'm letting someone down. That somewhere, somehow, someone is still counting on me. That my job isn't finished yet. I still have work to do.

The darkness is no longer kind or comforting. It's morphed into a prison, holding me back from what I need to do. I scream and try to escape, to wake up, but it was no use. It has me. I surrendered to the beast, and now its claws are sunk deep inside, holding me here. My life has ended, I gave it up.

I am dead.

A/N Alright! Well, review and let me know what you think!