Chapter 1
Acceptance
When I opened my eyes I had to squint. The light was too bright for me to see anything clearly. It was like I was floating in a world full of nothing but this giant white light. You know when you wake up because someone turned on the lights and you aren't used to it? That's how I felt. I just continued to blink and squint until I was finally able to open my eyes and see.
What I saw was something I will never forget for as long as I live. I was in a giant void. Nothing around me but white nothingness. I suddenly felt like I should be scared, but I wasn't. I mean, where were my parents? Where was my brother? I screamed, but nothing would come out. Or maybe it did but I just wasn't able to hear it with my own ears.
How did I get here? Why was there nothing here? Where was I? Questions continued to run through my head over and over and over again until I asked myself the question: am I dead? There was no way I could be dead, right? Well, what's the last thing I remembered? I thought back, finding it hard to formulate my thoughts coherently.
I remembered walking home from college classes. I wasn't doing anything out of the ordinary, just listening to my music and ignoring the world. It was past seven o'clock and the sun was going down. I knew that I had to get home and it wasn't safe, but I had a fight with my parents the night before and wasn't looking forward to seeing them. So, I walked slow. I decided to take the long way and cut through the city park on my way. It seemed really quiet and peaceful. That is, until a hand covered my mouth.
I was pulled into a large hard chest of a man. I felt the cold barrel of a gun at my navel and froze. My heart seemed to stop before hammering at my rib cage. I could feel the man shove his face into my hair and take several deep breaths. It was obvious he had been drinking because the smell of alcohol clung to him like a cloud.
The man holding me belched and I gagged at the smell. "You're a very pretty girl, you know that?" The fear I felt turned to terror and confusion at the sound of the voice. It was Jinei, a sophomore in college who liked me. I had known he liked me, but what was he thinking? "I've watched you for so long, but you never liked me back." Yes he had confessed to me many times, but I didn't like him so I said no like a sensible person.
I tried to say something, but everything I said wasn't understandable with his hand covering my mouth. When he felt me starting to struggle again his grip tightened. "No. I've waited too long and I'm not giving up now, Eiko." The hand that was holding the gun fell down to my waist as he dropped the gun to the ground. I just continued to struggle as he dragged me over to the side of the path as his hand fondled me and pulled my clothing. I kicked and screamed at him, but with the hand in the way I wasn't loud enough to draw any attention this late at night. Finally, he took the hand away from my mouth to unbutton my pants.
The scream I let out hurt even my own ears and I thought my throat was going to bleed. With Jinei being drunk, it took him a moment to shut me up and when he did I was face first in the dirt. He had backhanded me.
"Stupid bitch, Shut up!" he told me angrily. In my daze I tried crawling away but that only made Jinei more infuriated with me. He gripped my shoulder and flipped me onto my back before straddling my waist. His large hands circled around my throat and began to squeeze, cutting off my air. I tried to pry his hands away from me but it was no use. He beat my head against the ground as he swore at me and told me how much I needed to suffer for rejecting him.
I remember trying to plead with my eyes to let me go one last time before he shoved my head into the hard ground one more time. The last thing I saw was his crying face as he yelled and screamed at me.
That was it. It all ended after that moment. So I made the conclusion that I was really dead. There was no way around it because it was the only logical explanation.
I didn't know how long I had been in the vast world of white but as soon as I accepted the fact that I was dead something happened. The area in front of me seemed to become distorted. It reminded me of the heat waves coming off of cars on a hot day. The distortion cracked open to behold a circle sliding door. When it opened I saw butterflies. Black butterflies that seemed to whisper to me, "Don't be afraid," "Come with us."
And that's what I did.
AN - So I've recently started having the urge to write something in the world of Bleach. And that is how this baby was born! The title to this might change along the way because I'm not sure if I like it... Who knows, it might grow on me. :P If you think the beginning to this is interesting drop a review! Tell me what you think because I always love to hear it :)
Also, if you know the Bleach characters well, give me your advise as to who Eiko would make a good match for. I'm not saying it will happen, but it might! There are just so many awesome guys in the universe, so I have trouble deciding...
See you next time!
