Hey guys. So here's the first full chapter for Nuns and Fairies. Like always comment follow and/or fave! (it really does help in motivation..)

Have fun reading!

~Panda

I never thought it would be this interesting. Death I mean.

It is a bit lonely here but it is a fun place, if not a bit ironic. After some snooping around I found that, in death, we get dropped into a place modeled after memories.

The ice cream shop you used to love as a kid, or maybe the beach you always visited with your family. It doesn't matter as long as it made an impression on you.

For me, the memories are divided by a chain of round tents - like the ones they'd have in the circus. Each one holding a different memory. Stuff like: The old swing in my gran's backyard or even my first ever bike. Things that seemed like they didn't matter until they did.

until I died.

I don't know how long it has been since I got here. Time is a concept that is easily forgotten in a place like this where nothing ever seems to change. I make one big last swoop through the air before I jump off of my old swing. my feet hitting the distorted grass with a soft thump. My old sneakers drag slightly over the ground as I make my way through the tents. Christmas dinners, birthdays and trips all passing me by as in a blur. I had already seen 'em too many times to still be interested. It is only when I get to the last tent that I look up. A memory of myself driving away from the pool, waving goodbye to my friends.

I had never walked beyond this point because I already knew, down to the last detail what would happen next. I'd be crushed by my car, stuck in the driver's seat simultaneously drowning as well as bleeding out. Not exactly my thought of a good time.

But still, I was getting bored with seeing the same stuff, and even if it is morbid, I was longing to feel something stronger then faint remembrance and nostalgia. So I take a deep breath and take a step forward. Into the dark.

It's beautiful in a horrific kind of way. To see something so tragically helpless you can't help but look and stare at it. The car is hanging mid-air, debris raining down beside it in big, crude chunks.

"You sure as hell took your time gettin' here didn't ya darlin'?"

My shoes squeak, protesting my sudden stop. My face tightens as I look to the stranger leaning up against old mossy railings, years of living on the crappier part of town taking over. "Who are you? You don't belong in here." The stranger tipped his ratty cowboy hat back, revealing a scruffy smug face. "Real polite missy, aren't ya now darlin'?" His eyes light up with a slightly amused look. "Not that it's anytin' to me but you might try be a little bit nicer to the big one later darlin'. She ain't exactly a ray of sunshine that one, so you better behave yourself when ya meet 'er."

I take some steps back to the entrance. My eyes fluttering around for anything useful. "Listen, you seem like a sane enough person and all, but I'm afraid I don't do strangers. So if it's all the same to you I'll be going now." I quickly turn around, my ponytail swooshing behind me with the force I used.

Cowboy lets out a disappointed sigh. Quickly covering it up before he shouts after me with a faked cheer in his tone. "Come now darlin' we were just gettin' to the good parts!" My nose crinkles up in annoyance at the guy's voice. "Leave me alone." A sharp breeze rustles my jacket, I quickly swipe around to see Cowboy standing there. A dark look on his face. "Sorry darlin' but ya don't really have a choice."

I didn't even see the fist flying towards my face.

Soft, long-fingered hands were tenderly fluttering over my skin pressing something cold to the warm pulsing pain in the middle of my face. "Honestly Nick, you didn't have to break her nose!" Cowboys grumbling voice spoke up from somewhere off to my right. "Look Abbs. Girly looked like she was about to bolt and I really can't afford to fuck up one more of my cases, ya hear me?" Cowboys companion stays silent for a few seconds before letting out a long breath. "Next time you just be a little more gently with her okay? And it's your own fault for being so hazy on the details anyways you big klutz."

I slowly crack open one of my eyes, taking in the teen precariously hanging above me. The girl had a friendly face, it made her look like she was a soft person at heart, even with her bold violet hair and heavy smoky eyes. Soft pink lips part to show two neat rows of pearly whites as the girl finally thinks to look down at my own less than stellar looking mug.

"You're awake! Oh gosh, I'm so sorry Nick punched you! I swear we normally don't treat clients like that! He's just -" I interrupt the girl's stream of words. "Clients?.."

The girl's face scrunched up her face until realization crosses her eyes. "Oh, that's right. Nick didn't tell you! Well like you know, you kind of died - " I roll my eyes. "No kidding. Thing hurt like a bitch." The purplette blushes a bit before continuing her story. "Well, most people after they die tend to get a bit... upset... So we throw them into a simulation - like yours! - Until they've calmed down enough for us to process them." Before I even get to ask the apparent ball of energy some questions, she hops off me and pulls me out of the makeshift infirmary and into a big open dome filled with elevators shooting up to the sky. Digital texts running beside them, showing their destinations.

'CATHOLIC EMB-' 'JEZEB-' 'THE TRUE FAITH H-' 'HOME OF THE MU-'

Big bold letters are flashing all around me, employees herding people to their destinations. Violet giggles at my stumped expression. "Welcome to the processing! Here people take the shute to get to their destined bureaus. There they will be assessed to have their souls placed as would be appropriate in relation to their chosen party." I turn my flabbergasted face to my self-appointed tour guide. "This is it?! No sparkly gates or burning fires?!" Violet shrugs her shoulders before meeting my gaze with a slight head tilt. "So, I guess you're catholic then?"

I sweatdrop. 'That's not the point!'

I take a deep breath. "Nah, I was raised in the Protestant church..." A dumb smile slaps itself onto my face. "You know, this is pretty awesome," Violet smirks in my direction. "I know." Her eyes shoot around for a bit before she grabs my wrist and bolts, shouting about showing me around the place.

We ran around for hours, climbing up and down stairs. Sometimes spiraling until we couldn't see straight and sometimes just going up, up, up until there was nothing else but blue sky to greet us.

Violet - or Abigail as her name turned out to be. Showed me every nook and cranny of the place. From the glittering gates of heaven to the Norse legend of Yggdrasill. we ran and we ran until we finally stopped at a big ornamented door. The gates of incarnation. Abby was still giggling as she ran in front of me, gulping in air to scream over her shoulder. "Hurry up! The last one at the door is a rotten egg!" I let out a bright laugh, upping my tempo into a full-blown sprint. I was laughing so hard that I didn't even notice I had passed Abigail until she screamed at me to stop. I was just about to turn around when I hit something hard, the doors. I was panicking just barely holding my balance on the edge of the threshold until I felt gravity fasten its grip on me and I started falling. Then there was nothing but a big black darkness and a panicked scream from Abigail.

.

.

"Iridia-!"

It was... weird. To be falling for such a long time that the panic seems to subside and make way for an uncomfortable calm. You know that eventually you're gonna hit the ground, but for now, everything seems to be at a standstill. the only thing really telling me that I'm actually even falling is the high pitched screeching of the air as it slams against me angrily, ripping my long black hair loose from its so far valiantly fighting tie, protesting gravity's pull on me and demanding, screaming; "that it stops this madness at once!"

I even dozed off for a bit before I noticed shapes forming around me, something that should have been entirely impossible, but still, it was happening and it meant there was a light source somewhere close and if I wouldn't be careful I was gonna be more then good acquaintances with it by the end of my freefall.

It was then that I heard - No, Felt it. The Other. Another heartbeat joining mine in its fall to the unknowns of a new life. It's nice I realized after a while. It's nice to know you're not alone in such an unknown place. I didn't know where I would end up after all. Hell, I could be reborn in a whole other universe! Although that doesn't seem very likely...

I don't know how long I and the Other were already falling, time flowing differently without the sun to measure its effects.

I want it to be over already, the darkness was creeping on me, scraping on my nerves. I gave an experimental kick with my legs, trying to swim to my supposed exit and end my boredom for good.

I went on like that for a while. Arms, legs, arms and then my legs once again until the darkness tightened around me, making it harder and harder for me to breath. I kept going hoping it would be over soon. Finally, the darkness loosened its grip on me and let off so I could get a good (fresh!) lung full of air. I sighed contently, feeling disturbingly safe in the unknown and roughened feminine hands holding me. The Other was also still nearby, their heartbeat soothing mine quickly with its steady beating.

We stayed like that for a while. Me, the hands and the Other. But far too soon the hands started moving, pulling a soft fabric over my skin, intended to keep me warm and content, even without the hands and their person there. I picked up the murmurings of a soft exhausted voice, trying to sooth the crying Other as we were put in a carrier together, the thing crackling precariously under our newborn weight. And then the carrier started swinging. Left to right, right to left and back again. On and on until the swinging stopped and the carrier was put on the cold ground. I had been moving my head around, trying to pick up as much as I could when the hands reached out for me again. "You're lucky I took pity on you, child. With this, my conscience will be cleansed of that pesky guilt." I made a spluttering sound, trying to make a remark when I was put on the cold ground, only the blanket covering me. A knock on a solid sounding door following soon after. The door's opened flooding warmth over my form. I let out a meek little cry, hoping that whoever it was would take pity on me and take me with them indoors since my mother clearly wouldn't be doing anything for me anytime soon.

It was a while before I was left alone again. Turns out, the door my mother had left me at belonged to a priory. The nun's had quickly taken me in, cooing over me for a while before they had put me in a makeshift blanket-crib. One of the sisters tucked me in telling me to go to sleep, singing me a foreign lullaby. The door closed and then I was alone again.

It felt oddly like it had in my tent. The only difference that now I had a new life, some stupid blanket, and a ring, a silent goodbye from an unknown mother, who apparently was counting me lucky for her 'goodness' in leaving me.

And there wrapped in blankets, frustrated, angry and hurt. I cried. For my twin who I would most likely never know. Cried for my past and future. Until finally, exhausted by my own tears, sleep finally claimed me.

'Love planted a rose, and then the world crushed it before it could ever even bloom.'