The blue rapture

The lingering feeling of dread that’s been clinging to Aoi’s shoulders since she awoke
this morning only seemed to get stronger as the day went on. Even now, as she quietly
makes her way back home under the flickering streetlights, she finds it hard to focus on
anything else other than the perpetual pit in her stomach.

Other than that, it’s been normal day. The kind that would usually pass her by without a
thought. What’s the reason for her sudden wariness? She can’t shake the feeling that
something just out of her field of vision is waiting to pounce at her with every corner she
passes

She takes a deep breath. The kind that you deliberately take to calm down.
‘I must be more stressed than usual’ She thought; An attempt to convince herself to
ignore her gut. The scenery made it an easier excuse to believe- Why wouldn’t she be
suddenly hyper-aware? It’s late. She’s alone. It’s dark.

Her steps quicken, keeping up the pace until her apartment building comes into view.
She feels her posture relax ever so slightly as she enters the elevator. Aoi tucks a strand
of her peachy, medium length hair behind her ear as she waits for the elevator doors to
open.

‘We’re okay now’ She assures herself as steps in and presses her floor number. The
elevator starts ascending as smoothly as ever while her rich brown eyes fixate on the
screen on top of the closed doors, and she lets out a breath she didn’t realize she was
holding as the red LEDs of the display show that she’s arrived at her destination

‘Huh, it's not usually that fast’ she says to herself, still staring at the screen

Her eyes widen as the elevator continues going up

She stands frozen in place as the number displayed rises rapidly

Until it surpasses the building’s amount of floors

‘Is this thing busted again?’ she asks, but the thought vanishes as she starts feeling
dragged down by the sheer speed at which she’s being separated from the ground. She
still stands upright; her knees must’ve locked themselves that way. Not knowing what
else to do, Aoi’s eyes go back to the screen- Which now displays a non-existent ‘floor 49’
and the enclosed space begins to grow colder as the number changes to 50
She unclenches the muscles of her neck until her head lulls down. 

She looks down towards her trembling hands, wishing there was someone else trapped here with her. Maybe she’d be able to hold their hand…she’d to do that. But not like this

Brown eyes drift back to the screen. The numbers are changing so quickly she can’t
make them out anymore. Those LEDs melt into an indistinguishable blur

A choir of a thousand voices begins to flood the metal chamber. Their song starts out so
faintly she wonders if she’s hallucinating it, but to her horror, the sound begins to
approach her just as the screen stops displaying anything all together. When it turns
back on, the lights show a cross- The choir grows clearer with its appearance

The air becomes thinner

Harder to breathe

Yet she still stands. The only thing she knows for sure is that her two feet are on the floor
and that’s the one bit of normalcy she gets to keep
Aoi closes her eyes for a few seconds, and when she opens them again the top of the
elevator has disappeared- Much like a dollhouse about to be played with. Having no
interest in meeting eyes with its owner, her eyes stay focused on the floor, taking a few
labored breaths as the choir becomes so loud, she can’t hear anything else. She tried to
cover her ears, but her arms refuse to follow her orders; Instead laying limply to her
sides. She tries to move anything at all, but her body no longer responds to her, too
focused on obeying something greater instead.

By the time she looks up, she notices that the remaining walls are gone as well

It’s all blue. Not a serene at that

Not blue like the sky, or clear water; A strange shade of deep blue that hurts to look at

Like poison

The choir becomes loud enough to make her eardrums ring, and she can’t even think as
a warm, viscous liquid begins to seep out of her ears- Just as she becomes aware of the
red string of blood pouring down her neck, a voice begins to speak from above

“Rejoice, Daughter of Caeruleum, for the glory of the Heavens graces you”

Aoi opens her mouth to speak, but she flinches back as cold hands take her vocal cords
into a tight grasp, increasing in strength each time she thinks of something to say
“Daughter of Caeruleum, speak your name for those above you”

The hands leave, yet her mouth stays closed in awe of what she sees
She looks straight into the golden light above, glowing with such overwhelming
brightness that her eyes begin to dry and nose begins to bleed in the presence of
something so great. She can’t bring herself to care

‘Aoi Sohara’  she says

“Follow the path I’ve laid before you, Aoi” 

Her legs begin to slowly give out, falling into a kneeling position that felt just as natural
as breathing. Her nose begins to bleed with every word the voice speaks

“For someone else you must lead astray”

She feels as her upper body loses its ground
She falls like a discarded doll tossed into the water, sinking deeper into the great blue
void; Her gaze fixed on the light as the speaker’s voice falls upon her confused, bleeding
ears. The string of blood leaves a trace behind her as she falls towards the unknown
waters

 

Where she’s left truly alone

 

By the time Aoi comes back to her senses, she realizes that she is now lying on a solid
surface and the deafening choir has been replaced by the soft crashing of waves
‘…Where am I?’ she thinks, opening her eyes. Her hands move to the side of her head
below her ear to evaluate her previous injury, only to find that the blood has vanished
‘It doesn’t seem to have been anything major. I think it’s fine’ She lets out a sigh of relief
as she realizes that she’s regained control of body; The ‘encounter’ has ended

 

And yet, something is still off

 

She swallows thickly, her throat unbearably dry as she glances around looking for
anything familiar. She sees fully grown palm trees littered across the sand, full of unripe
coconuts and what looks like a large gray figure raised above the water. She doesn’t
recognize this place

Her head feels foggy, as if it had been stuffed with cotton

 

‘Did it bring me here? But…. why? Why an island of all places?’
Aoi recalls that the voice told her to follow a path, but there was none to be seen. She
looks ahead towards the dark waters as they stir carelessly, agitated by something she
can’t see. She stands up after a few minutes, deciding that the waves have advice to
offer, and is once again relieved that her legs are responding to her again

 

Not knowing what else to do, she checks if she’s been transported with her belongings;
Checking her purse for in search of her phone, figuring that if she manages to make a
call, she might be able to make it back to city. She can figure it out from there
Turning on her phone, she dials an emergency number and waits anxiously as the
screen displays ‘…calling’ for a couple of minutes. After a while- and a few other attempts to contact anyone at all- she realizes that the calls refuse to go through

She take a deep breath, not willing to give up just yet, and starts sending out text
messages to her entire contact list- Family member she hasn’t heard of in years, high
school friends that drifted apart after graduation, coworkers she wasn’t friends with- it
didn’t matter if she truly believed that they’d actually respond; She wanted to know that
at least she did everything she could

The texts don’t go through. 

They wouldn’t even leave her phone- Like birds with clipped wings still trying to soar into the sky.

 

She turns off her phone, her own dreadful expression looking back at her expecting to be saved.

Looking up towards the gray clouds as they move lethargically across the sky; Not
wanting to get wet without a place to dry off, Aoi walks towards the densest patch of
trees she can find, feeling nauseous with every step. She sits down on a rock. Waiting
for anything at all, when the crunching of sand interrupts her nervous stupor

 

Her head snaps towards the sound of approaching footsteps, and stares as the figure of
a tall man with strange attire comes into view- The crashing waves come to a still as
Aoi’s brown eyes meet with his own metallic ones. His pupils are pure white, and the
sea breeze makes his long, braided hair sway gently to his side.

 

‘Do I know you?’ She asks

 

‘You do not. I don’t know you personally either’ he pauses

 
‘I am somewhat of a prophet. This moment came to me three months ago. I apologize
for my tardiness’ He says as he bows his head slightly

‘You can…you can see the future’ She repeats

 

He nods, extending his gloved hand towards her

 
‘I am the thirteenth Apostle, Damián Cervus. At your service’

She shakes his hand, an odd looming feeling courses through her spine when their
hands meet. Like a storm has begun to brew

 
‘I’m…I’m Aoi Sohara’ say mumbles, Damián nods in response

 ‘I know’