She was staring at me. I could feel her eyes boring into the back of my head. It was getting ridiculous at this point. It had been going on for hours. ‘What kind of person stares at someone for hours?’ I thought.

And her eyes made it all the worse. Her eyes were alarming - a stunning, vibrant blue that was impossible to ignore. They stood out, even though we were all cloaked in blue, surrounded by the sea and the sky, the few beachgoers standing out starkly against the cobalt hue.

And still, the girl with bright eyes stared at me, and only me, when there was so much else to see. The waves, cresting majestically on shore, or the sparkling fish that leapt and played in the sea foam.

So, it was only human nature that eventually, I leapt to my feet and rounded on her.

“What do you want?” I demanded, my tone bordering on anger.

“Hmm?” she asked, and those eyes met mine, and I was momentarily paralyzed. I took a breath, blinked a couple of times.

“I said, what do you want? You’ve been staring at me for half a day!” She pursed her lips, then took a breath, sucking air through her clenched teeth with a disapproving whistle.

“You’re alone here. And so am I,” she said eventually. I frowned.

“I’m not alone,”

“Then who is here with you?” the girl with the blue eyes asked. Now it was my turn to purse my lips.

“I’m not sure,” I said, and as I said it, I realized I wasn’t sure of very much at all. I didn’t know where I was, and what I was doing here, and - hell, I didn’t even know my own name. The girl with the blue eyes nodded, sadly.

“Me neither,” I frowned.

“I’ll call you Blue,” I said. “Because of your eyes,” she smiled.

“Ok, then. I’ll call you Blond. Because of your entirely unremarkable hair,” I couldn’t help but laugh. I looked around the beach again, and found that the sun had dipped lower in the sky. Far lower. The shore was now lined with shadows, the sand dunes behind us painted a golden-pink color in the sunset.

Most of the people had left, but a few remained. A couple held hands, walking down the beach towards us. They were grinning, lost in each other’s eyes.

“Should we move out of the way?” I asked Blue. They were coming directly towards us. She shook her head.

“We don’t need to,” I frowned.

“But surely-” I stopped talking quickly, because they had just walked through me, a sensation that was very similar to stepping into a furnace. Unpleasantly warm, for just a moment.

I gasped, suddenly aware of how cold I was. I must have been shivering very noticeably, because Blue didn’t hesitate to put an arm around my shoulder. She was colder than I was, but her presence made me feel ok with being cold.

“So, we’re dead,” she said. I nodded, strangely calm. I was glad she had said it, and not me. I’d been thinking it all along.

“How long have you been here?” I asked her. She shrugged.

“I’m not sure. Everything was moving in slow motion, for what seemed like forever. And then I met you, and things started to speed up,”

I nodded, satisfied with her answer, and stared at the sea ahead of us. I don’t remember when it had happened, but we were both sitting down now. Blue leaned her head against my shoulder. Even as we sat there, I noticed time speeding up, even faster than before. Exponentially. The stars were moving across the sky, faster and faster, and then night became day, and the sun was just a blur as it rose and set, and everything kept accelerating - night and day and night and day and night and-

Everything stopped.

And suddenly there were thousands of people around us, surrounding us, wading out of the water or sliding down the dunes, smiling and waving and coming to greet us.

The first who reached us was a tall girl, with golden skin and long, dark eyelashes.

“Hi,” she said, her voice bubbling with excitement. “They call me Lash. What do they call you?” the way she introduced herself - not ‘what is your name’, but ‘what do they call you?’

“Um…” I stuttered.

“This is Blond,” Blue explained, shaking Lash’s hand.

“Welcome,” we were interrupted by a man, broad shouldered and muscular, but with a friendly face. He had a tattoo on his shoulder, shown off by the tank top he wore - a rose, complete with red ink and a winding, thorny stem.

“They call me Rose,” he announced. “Who are you?”

“I’m Blond,” I stammered out. Blue was busy talking to someone else, so I made introductions for her. “This is Blue,”

And after the introductions were made, we climbed the dunes together, cresting the hills to look upon a city with colors far more vibrant than anything I could remember seeing.

I smiled, almost sadly, as I surveyed the afterlife.

I smiled because it was beautiful, beyond anything I’d ever imagined.

I was sad because I knew there was something missing, from me and everyone here. I could remember vaguely. There had been someone - a man, tall and handsome, and I had been in love. I had had a life.

“You’ll remember,” I heard Blue’s soft, musical voice before I saw her. I glanced down at her - she was nearly a foot shorter than me. Although there were tears brimming in those lapis eyes, she was smiling too.

“We both will. Together. And someday, they’ll come meet us here. Until then, we can wait for them. Together,”

And so I took her hand, and we walked into our new life. Together.