“How would you describe your life?” Melita’s guide, Larissa the Fickle, had asked her, when she was 12, as they’d sat on the grassy hill a little aways from her house.

Melita had stared out at everyone milling about, battling and struggling for what they wanted. She had cast a glance at the sun that glared down at them, that came and went every single day without change. “It’s pathetic.”

“Then, would you like it to end?”

Melita raised a hand to her cheek, which still stung from the fight with her parents earlier. Was Larissa offering to kill her? But if she was, why would she be so polite about it?

Casting another glance to the small town, Melita felt the irrepressible boredom rising in her at the thought of her life. But when she imagined all of it gone, no longer able to feel the breeze, an empty chasm opened deep within her, and she found fear rising up her throat. “No.”

“Then, it’s not so pathetic, is it?” Larissa had said, and her cerulean eyes had held depths of emotions that Melita wasn’t sure she would ever understand. And yet, somewhere in those eyes, Melita thought she saw Larissa drowning in those depths, barely treading the water.

“It is.” She found herself stating, looking Larissa in the eye and hoping she could somehow reach into the girl and drag her out. “I’m just more scared of death.” Wasn’t she the same?

Larissa’s lips opened in surprise, and Melita took her chance, pressing her own lips softly to the other girl’s. They were both young (or at least, she’d thought so then), but Melita had been willing to try anyway.

Larissa made a quiet gasp when they separated, before she had burst out laughing. It was a raucous and loud, and Melita had been embarrassed about it at first, blushing as she looked away. But Larissa had laid down on the grass, only getting louder, and the sound had been so full of joy that Melita found herself letting a small smile worm its way unto her lips as well.

“Well I don’t feel that way about you, but thank you. That was the most fun I’ve had in ages.” Melita felt like she should have been sad, but the way Larissa had said no and yet treated her the same instead of recoiling… It was refreshing in its own way. Besides, it was hard to feel bad when Larissa was speaking to you. She had a way of looking one in the eye and making one feel that right then, right there, was a special moment to hold close to one’s heart.

Larissa had given her a mischievous grin then, a spark in those eyes as she reached out a hand. “Would you like to come with me to a more pathetic eternity?”

With that smile and those words, Melita had never really had a choice at all.