Murky Depths

I am going to die.”

I say it as a fact, for I know it to be just that- a fact.

The strange lion-man, who will not tell me His name, gives a laugh as airy as chimes and equally as irritating.

“To die is the martyrs way, my love. And you chose it, did you not?”

I frown.

“Yes… but I suppose I didn’t think that things would become this bad.”

and by this bad, I mean myself, an innocent, hanging upside down on a cross with criminals. Being beaten nearly to death by the egotistical Roman soldiers and utterly humiliated.

And not even because I denied some of their beloved vinegar wine. What’d they calm it again? “My brain is starting to bleed out like the rest of me,” I mutter dryly. And I do actually mutter it dryly, because I’m super parched and once again, hanging, upside down, on a cross in freezing weather with scarcely any clothing. If I was in the right mind-set, I’d be screaming at these soldiers to at least give me something fashionable to wear on my death-day.

The green-eyed lion-man appears from thin air in front of me.

As he’s been doing the past hour- I think? I didn’t have a watch to tell time up here. Besides, this was 30 AD. Watches probably don’t exist in this time frame.

a tear trickles down my cheek.

“please, just let me die already,”

I beg Him.

The lion-man opens his mouth and let’s out a blood- freezing roar as one of the soldiers tries to stab me with his lance. He doesn’t back away, but I feel nothing and look down to see it pass through me. What the?!

”who are you?” I cry.

The green-eyed beast touches His nose to mine.

”I am the great I AM. And you, Emberely Asha, are to be made into my EverQueen.”

His eyes darken into pitiless voids and his voice deepens until it’s honestly quite frightening. Or, rather would be, if I wasn’t so numb from hypothermia.

“But first you must die, my child. It is the only way.”

and will that, I watch him dissipate into the misty air.

I feel my time dawning.

but somehow, I am no longer afraid.

I smile, and close my eyes.

“see you then,” I breathe.

and I think I hear wind chimes carry through the air.

Then I die.

I rise as His EverQueen.

….

I awake gasping, like I’d been stuck under water for so long that I drowned.

The first thing that dawns on me is that I’m dead. Like truly, really dead. I get up from the crystal-like floor, but don’t know how I do, because I’ve no body. I am merely a Spirit. I raise up a mirror to eye-level, that just so happens to be sitting next to me, and gaze at my reflection. I emmediately reel back in shock. For I see someone inexplicably beautiful, someone I had never seen in my life. “That’s me?!” I whisper.

I hear soft footsteps, and whip around.

there stands a man, glowing brightly, but wearing a simple white tunic.

somehow I know that is the green-eyed lion man I saw as my life drained away.

and I find myself bowing to Him.

He pads over to me, and I feel his presence, like the most-calming eassentail-oil bath on earth… or wherever this is.

”Rise, my EverQueen,” he smiles. Because his lips don’t really move. It’s like I hear him speak in my heart.

And I do. And I realize this is Heaven.

”well… where is my Angel, Cal?”

I ask.

God/Jesus laughs. “She is coming. Along with all the saints and souls you saved, and friends who have passed into eternity.”

His eyes crinkle at the corners.

“My love, you aren’t only a saint. You are my EverQueen. The first, and the last that will be.

I break out laughing.

”Huh… guess dead is just another word for born again.”

He laughs and places his hands upon my head.

then I look in the mirror. On it is a simple but elegant Olive Wreath Crown.

it’s over”,I whisper.

Yes, he too whispers. Welcome home, Emberely. Well done.”

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