CHAPTER ONE-1347 AVELINA

October 27th, the year 1347. Europe has never looked so devastatingly depressing. The plague won't stop spreading rapidly, killing innocent people just trying to live their lives. The plague pits grow every day and every night, they're having to burn more and more bodies clogging the air with the rich taste of fumes, which travels down your airways poisoning your body with something you simply can't get rid of. Desperate to eradicate the darkness, the death. It feels like a lifetime ago since everything was what people would describe as normal. I was worried about what my husband would be like, if he'll like me, or if he'll be wealthy like my family. Yet now I sit here, on the cold floor, penny's to my name worthless, I'm just like everyone else, a prisoner to a nasty plague ruining the world.

"Avelina? Avelina!"

"Yes father?"

I feel warm tears brewing in my eyes, threatening to break past the wall I've built up to hold it in. I've always been strong, I mustn't be seen as weak. Yet I feel like holding myself up is so hard on my own now, as if something's pulling me down towards the ground. I see my mother, poor mother, holding my sister's hand. My sister is older than I, seventeen. She's still young, too young to be dying. I myself am 14, but age is just a number now, no one cares if you're 5 or 60. Everybody is in the same situation, praying for life and fighting off death.

"Mother?" I can barely push the words out, my voice croaky and shaky, tears on the verge of pouring out. But then a voice, soft and gentle appears to guide me out of this dark hole of sadness and worry. An angel shielding me from the horror of the world like an older sister would do. My heart breaks for her, she doesn't deserve to be the one on the thin blanket, she's the responsible one, the caring one, she's the one that will live her life like no one else, she had plans and answers, a fiancé, a life. I have no plans, no hope, I'm travelling the world a lost soul in the wrong body. Yet I'm the one still living, I'm the one having to watch her slowly but surely lose herself to the death within her. She can barely smile at me, but she tries, one of the corners of her mouth lifting up. I look up at her memories flashing through my mind of her holding me close at night and telling me it will be alright when father got drunk, when she'd hold my hand as we walked, and how she listened to my complaints about mother and father, how she'd always, always have my back, even if she knew I was in the wrong. How beautiful she was, black hair flowing down past her shoulders, her eyes, a beautiful blue colour like the sky. Skin as fair as snow, lips as red as blood. Rounded face with a pointed chin, long legs, thin body, and a perfectly rounded bottom and breasts. It pains me to look at her now. Because she has never looked so awful, so sick, so close to death. My heart aches for her, her skin now frail, sweat beaded on her forehead, her clothes soaked in the sweat caused by a fever. Exhaustion on her face but she manages a smile, of course it's barely a smile and it looks like it's the hardest thing she's ever had to do. Her lips are dull and weak from all the vomit that came out of them, buboes in the groins of her armpits, painfully cruel. She unfortunately got all the symptoms, of course she did. 

"Avelina." I have to stop looking at her, because I know as soon as I look into her eyes I'll see the dull colour and I'll have to finally accept that I'm going to lose my sister. I'm going to lose her to the monster called death. 

"Please, Avelina, come here…" I look down into my hands trying to picture myself elsewhere anywhere but here.

"Avelina, please." Mother's shaking voice, the first words she's spoken since Primeveire started getting symptoms of the plague, another child of hers. She fell into a silence you couldn't break, her mind a prison. Like her tongue had been ripped out by pain. My eyes wide with shock at her sudden voice finally appearing after weeks startles me, that same soft tone Primeveire has.

"I'm so sorry." Finally my voice works, shaky words, filled with unshed tears, but a voice nethertheless. Biting my lip I walk towards her. 

"Come here to me, my sweet." I can't hold back anymore, I fall into Primeveires arms a great sob escaping my lips, covering my face with shaking hands. My lips trembling with pain and fear, all the emotions I've been hiding finally come to the surface and break free. The sound of wailing and suffering echoing throughout the whole house, but I don't care, I can't lose her. I can't- My throat tightens my breathing short and raspy. I can't hold the heartbreak in anymore. I fall to the floor as grief pours itself out of me. 

"Shhh. It's ok Avelina, it's ok." Primeveire whispers to me, as she plays with my hair, her hands fragile and delicate, her voice sending shivers down my spine, not from fear, from sadness that I'll never be able to hear her voice again soon because she's going to die.

"Listen to me. Avelina. I'm not going anywhere ok? I may not be in your sight anymore, you might not be able to hear me, hold me, talk to me and get a reply but I'll live on. Want to know why?"

Sniffling I manage to force out a reply, warm tears still making their way down my cheeks. My eyes wiped so much that they're red and swollen.

"What?"

"Because I live on in you, Avelina. You are so much like me. You're brave, confident, beautiful, resilient, fun to be around, willing to take chances. You're courageous and you know what you want and when you want it. I may not be here soon, but I'll live on in your heart and though you can't see me I'll be around. I'll watch out for you and I promise you after this life I'll never leave you. Please remember that, you're not alone. I'll always be right by your side, just like I promised when we took an oath to always look out for each other. I love you Avelina, I love you so much and I'm so sorry I have to go, I'm sorry I can't hold on, you must be brave now because your sister is going to need you. You must face this world head on and never look down." She sticks her pinky out, as I link mine with hers for the last time.

"Till death do us part."

She touches my face so much love pouring out of her. I know what's about to happen, I know she's going to leave me.

"I'm so, sorr." 

"Primeveire? Primeveire?! No! Come back to me! Come back!" And just like that, she's gone, a candle once burning with light blown out by a gust of darkness. 

"Please don't go, come back…" Her lifeless face looks at mine.

"Sniff sniff." Please don't go…. I hear mother crying again, father holding her close, his face blank of emotion, holding it in like the strong male should. It doesn't seem fair, why her? Why did this have to happen to us? First my second youngest sister, Ida, was only thirteen. Then my younger brother Nigel, nine years old. Now Premivere. All of them dying because of this stupid plague, until there's only two left, me and my five year old sister, Denise. Whaling into the night I hold Primeveire close like that'll bring her back, I'm so so sorry. Her words flowing through me like a dagger to the heart. Pain consumes me, my heart barely whole as I stare at my father to do something, to bring her back.

"Father.." He opens his mouth to speak but nothing comes out.

"Please, father." 

"Avelina, she's gone." He stares at me as he stands slowly approaching me like I'm a wild animal needing to be tamed.

"She's gone, come here, let go of her."

Sobbing "no," as my reply. I don't want to let her go because when I do I won't be able to hold her again.

"Please Avelina, don't make me force you off of her. Being by her is dangerous. Please, you must know this. If you ever loved her at all, you have to let her go." 

I know he's right, unless we burn the bodies of plague victims the bodies are still contagious. Slowly my hands unwrap from around her and fall to my sides as I lie in a heap on the floor. Mother crawls over to me and scoops me up into her arms, her eyes saying it all, we must stay strong even through this because once we become weak we could get trouble. She holds me close, her warmth from her chest covering me. I snuggle into her as we both cry into the night, lost without Primeveire.