Lilith remained silent. Like in movies Noah always knew how to be romantic. He continued.
"I know we are young,
I present you with this rose."
Out of his sleeve, Noah pulled a beautiful red rose. Lilith took it.
"Aw. You're so sweet." She kissed him quickly.
"It sure beats what I got you."
She slowly pulled the skateboard from behind her back. She flashed the dragon.
"I drew it myself." She smiled, her smile was stiff but it was a smile nonetheless.
"It's magnificent." Noah took the skateboard. He suddenly felt bad for hardly spending any time on her gift.
He admired her drawing.
Noah hugged Lilith for a few seconds, smelling her pomagranit perfume. He pulled back and noticed her jeans. He laughed.
"You were the one who left them." Lilith pointed out. She then took his hand. They headed off to school, almost matching in an aray of blacks and grays.
''Huff! Huff!" Noah suddenly woke up, breathing heavily, he frowned clearly not happy to have dreamed of the past.
''Damn! Why I'm dreaming of something so shameless. That's the past, that young Noah is no more. I'm adult now.'' Noah declared, hiding his embarrassment. This sentence was as if he was trying to convince himself.
Afterward, he tried to sleep not thinking about the past, at the same time in another dorm, the girl's dormitory, in a certain white haired lady's room.
In Room 02 on the lower floor, Lilith's room.
The bedroom was just tidy enough to show that she cared about the space and just messy enough to show that she was able to let her creativity roam free. It was her goldilocks zone, perfect for how she was.
Currently, she was sleeping soundlessly like a princess in a fairytale waiting for her prince charming to come deliver her.
Suddenly, a frown marred this beautiful lady's face. Once, then twice then thrice, her face kept twitching, she was clearly having a nightmare. Indeed, at the moment she was dreaming, unlike Noah's sweet dreams, Lilith was having a nightmare, a bloody nightmare.
In the forest, there was a young girl, about 6 or 7 years old, sitting in the midst of the trees, but she had no idea where she was or that there were even trees surrounding her. All she knew was that there was thick, white fog that made it nearly impossible for her to see but 6 inches from her face. And the air was so brisk and cold that it hurt for her to breathe. And there was laughter.
A distant laughter that sounded hysterical and yet somewhat melancholy, like whatever it was coming from had been waiting there, laughing, for a very long time. But what was it coming from? The young girl had no idea.
The fog was beginning to rise as the laughter became less and less distant. The little girl began to realize that she was in the forest, but she had no idea how she arrived there.
All she knew was that she woke up in the cold, gasping for breath, and now there was something out there. Something malevolent. Something out to get her.
As the fog was rising, so was the girl. She got up and looked around, trying to make out the direction the laugh was coming from so she could bolt the other way. She spun in circles, growing more and more dizzy with each turn and each little step, scouring for the laugh. But it seemed to be like surround sound. Everywhere she turned, the laugh sounded the same, slowly creeping closer and closer.
She was so afraid of what she was experiencing that she froze. She couldn't move, and her eyes seeled shut. She just wanted it to be over. She wished and prayed that whatever was out there laughing would just lunge out and take her and make it all end quickly. And then the laughing stopped.
Just as quickly as she froze, she broke into a sprint. She had no idea where she was going or where the laugh had gone; she just started running. Past tree after tree, tripping and fumbling over the roots, she raced through the forest, desperately striving for a way out, when the laugh erupted out of the silence, louder than it ever was before.
This caused her to stop so abruptly that momentum carried her several more feet, tossed her into a pile of rocks, and caused her to hit her head with such force that it left a several inch gash on her forehead, bleeding into her eyes and distorting her view. The blood dripped from her head, licking at her lips as it fell past her eyes, causing her to gag, before slipping onto the dirt floor.
The blood loss caused her to feel undeniably uneasy and made her momentarily forget about the fear. She rose from the ground, the laughter still chirping in the background, and took a few steps before falling back to the dirt and becoming catatonicly unconscious.
"Dad, catch!" a young girl, barely 5 years old, yelled behind the sweetest of innocent giggles.
"Good one, baby," a young, cheerful man said in return.
"Now you've got to catch it."
It was a game of catch and toss played between a father and his daughter. One of the fondest and last memories the daughter has of her late dad is from before she even understood death. And now it was looking into her eyes and reaching out for her soul.
And while she knew death was chasing her, she allowed her mind to ruminate on those long, distant thoughts, feeling the warmth she had felt when she was actually there. Letting it take over her body and drown out the fright. She felt so good. ɪꜰ ʏᴏᴜ ᴡᴀɴᴛ ᴛᴏ ʀᴇᴀᴅ ᴍᴏʀᴇ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs, ᴘʟᴇᴀsᴇ ᴠɪsɪᴛ 𝓷𝓸𝓿𝓮𝓵·𝕗𝕚𝕣𝕖·𝙣𝙚𝙩
Is this the joyous 7 minutes we experience before brain death? Is this what we see before we die? Is this what it means to have life flash before your eyes?