Something Really Beautiful
AN/ I am trying, for once, to make an interesting fic.
WARNINGS: Mental illness, mentions of suicide and self-mutilation, some gory scenes, mentions of abuse, sort of character death, because, you know, Ryou died.
Beep.
The long sound rang out in the room as the heart monitor flat lined. The doctors ran into the room.
"Come on! Come on!"
The Doctor placed the defibrillator on the boy's chest.
"CLEAR!" He pressed down.
The shock went through the young man's body and his back arched. But he lay down flat again, still not responding.
After two more tries, that was it.
Ryou Bakura was dead of blood loss from a presumable suicide.
Ryou opened his eyes. Wait...he shouldn't be opening his eyes. He was dead, wasn't he? Did this mean Heaven...or Hell were real? How could that be? It couldn't be. No. Heaven did not look like this. Nor did Hell. Was he hallucinating? He was in a giant plain that looked to go on forever, and it was all grey, even the cloudless sky, and filled with flowers. Dying roses, all of them, all of them grey. But the place still pulsed with beauty.
He wasn't wearing his normal clothes. In fact, he was wearing something very strange.
A t-shirt, slacks, and slippers, all the same blinding shade of white made of impossibly soft cotton. But the whole outfit also had intricate bright, blood red stitching winding all through it. And there were two glistening bracelets of a ruby color that seemed to blend into his skin. Wasn't that the place where he had slit his wrists?
He shivered.
"This can't be real..."
"Oh, but it is." A growly voice said behind him.
Ryou spun around, nearly screaming.
Behind him was a person who looked quite like him, only his eyes were red, his features were narrower, and he seemed much eviler. He was dressed in the same outfit as Ryou, only the stitching was silver and on his head he had a shining black tiara like thing. That made him look more powerful, but he still managed to look manly. There were no bracelets, and he shown with a bright black light.
"What are you? Where am I?"
"Where are you? You, idiot, are dead. You are in the Garden of Fate. Pretty, no?"
"Yes. And who are you? Are you Death?"
"Oh no, he's coming on later. I am the Angel of Decision. I decide whether you will be a Wanderer, a Upper Walker, as most who die are, or a Middle Walker."
"Huh?"
"Shut up, I was going to explain that. An Upper Walker is pretty much an Angel, but we call ourselves Walkers. All good people go there. Well, not necessarily good. You can be terribly mean spirited and awful and maybe even been in jail a few times, but you still go. And usually, after some time, they become nicer. If they don't, well, they get sent to be Wanderers. The Middle Land is pretty much Hell. For the abusers, murderers, and rapers, people who committed unforgivable crimes. Eventually, after several thousand or ten thousand or million years, they may get sent to Upper Land. The Upper Land is obviously Heaven. Got it? Stupid people..."
"And what is a Wanderer?"
"What you are going to be. A Wanderer, in your terms, is a Guardian Angel. This is for the people who die like you did. You are meant to keep other, miserable people, usually teens, from doing the same mistakes you did. You are meant to make their lives better in at least one way, maybe two."
"What is the way?"
"Well, this is obvious. It is helping them be happier, and maybe even helping them find Something Really Beautiful."
"What's that?"
"Anything."
"But I can't do this! I can't help them! I can't! And THEM! That means it'll be more then one person, I can't do that! I CAN'T DO THAT!" He was nearly hysterical.
The Angel of Decision sighed. "Sorry kid, that's the way it is. Wanderers most always get into The Upper Lands."
Ryou started to cry, the realization of his death hitting him hard. He was gone!
"Don't you want to see your mother again? Your sister? Your father?"
Ryou looked up.
"I can?"
"Duh. But only if you help these kids."
"How will I find them?" More importantly, how will I help them?
"You'll know. You'll be near them."
"How will I know who they are?" The World is so big...
"Damn it! Enough with the stupid questions! YOU WILL KNOW!" The obviously impatient Angel screamed.
"Bye bye." And he left.
"What! No! Come back! I can't do this!" The distraught boy howled to thin air, panic finally getting the best of him.
And he sobbed, curling into a ball.
His body turned clammy and his insides twisted. But he didn't have insides anymore. He tried to breathe, but it didn't work...He didn't have to anymore.
And now he was totally, completely dead.
He felt himself be hurled, a horrible swirl of colors through time and space. He soon blacked out.
He was so, so scared.
-End Prologue-