literature

Reaper

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Literature Text

"I love you." The words escaped my mouth before I could hush them. His lips curled upwards in a cruel but beautiful parody of a smile that sends my whole body quivering with anticipation.

Precision is his tool, and everything he does, he does with calculated, measured intention.

"Again," he said. A command, simple seeming, but it bears more weight than any command he'd given yet, even the one separating me from Life.

I try to push the words off my tongue, but they seem to be stuck now, blocked by the shock of my initial outburst. Sensing my hesitation, he seized hold of my head and grasped it tightly, forcing me to look at him. I tried to break free, startled as I was by the suddenness of his actions, but his strength overcame my frail attempts.

"Be still!" He ordered me firmly. I had no choice but to listen. I could no more defy him here in his own realm than I could in life. "Now," he said coolly in my ear, "You already belong to me. What have you to fear in saying that phrase again?"

No, no, no, no, no! It's too soon to say those words! You can't love him, not yet. Why, you've barely said two words to him and he sweeps you off your feet. Now look at you, confessing to love a man ten times your consequence and daring to think yourself the equal of he whose mental acuity supersedes your own on a level that you can't even understand! You're in love with a notion, nothing more, a notion of who you think him to be. You fool!

This internal conversation was interrupted by the coolness of his fingers on my lips. "You're so quiet compared to when I first spoke with you," he said. He was staring, as if transfixed, at the trail his fingertips were burning into my skin. "Such beauty stands silent before me. Pray tell, my dear, why your lips remain frozen as if etched in stone?"

He was taunting me, but had effectively backed me into a corner. I could not avoid speaking, and now it was only a matter of how I was to distract him. "My frozen lips are nothing compared to your frozen fingers," I pointed out. Even as I spoke, his fingers remained on my face. The longer they rested on my cheek, my chin, the corner of my mouth… the more I knew I'd never be able to shake off the memory of their burning cold imprint.

"There is no remedy for my frozen hands, but I know of a remedy for frozen lips. Under my persuasion, your lips won't remain frozen for long, love." He bent closer and closer yet. Knowing his intent, though, and the deadly consequences of his intended actions, I had no choice but to do what I'd hoped to put off.

"I love you," I repeated. His lips hovered inches from mine and I could feel his icy presence engulfing me, suffocating me. Oh how tempting and easy it was to close the gap between us. But for my own sake, I found it in me to refrain. Surely only disaster would come from such a pairing as he and I.

Much to my dismay, he did not back down. "The truth at last," he whispers in a tone ringing with satisfaction. "I am curious, though… how came you to this realization? It's not every day that a beautiful woman professes to love me. Most beautiful women, in fact, fear and despise me."

I laughed. "And I thought you would have known… I was born in your embrace and have died thus. There's not a feeling more wonderful for one like me, than that feeling which came once I realized I was on the brink of death… beautiful and on the brink of death. You were right… I'm already yours. I always have been. So yes! I confess! I always have loved you, even though the very thought of you terrified me. All the stories I'd been told as a child, stories of you coming in the dead of night to steal loved ones away… but they weren't true, were they? Because you didn't come for me in the dead of night, you came for me at sunrise… and you didn't steal me away, did you?"

He studied my face intently with his cold gaze. "It's no fault of mine that human bodies wear down and break, or that they do so before having reached a proper age. I merely do my job when I come to collect a life. Consider it an act of mercy, what I do. Had you gone on living longer, you'd have been in extreme pain." He pulled back and turned from me to walk into the darkness before us.

"That's all you have to say?" I asked almost indignantly.

He laughed, and the sound was like ice through my veins. "All beings in the human realm, even those like you that aren't quite human, belong to me from the beginning. What makes you any more special than the rest?" He was looking at me again, searching for something in my face it seemed. My face… felt frozen, though. Frozen into a look of extreme sorrow. But I had no way of knowing, for I'd not seen a mirror since before I died and did not expect to see one now. Whatever he saw, though, was not enough to make him stay. He turned to leave.

Able to stand it no longer, I burst out with, "Because I was the first to have willingly professed my love to you… and it was not a ploy to get you to return me to life." He stopped mid-stride and turned slowly. I realized now just how dangerous he looked. Disbelief glittered in his dark eyes. I opened my mouth and, with a shuddering breath, continued. "Just listen to what I have to say. I've been acquainted with you since I've been born. You know this better than I, but my mother died giving birth to me and you've followed me ever since. Or maybe I followed you… but invariably, everywhere I went people died. People that were close to me! So you see… you've been a part of my life ever since I was born. You are no stranger to me! It only seemed natural for me to accept the fate which had been laid before me, and I've no wish for things to be otherwise. The only thing I do wish is that you would dare to return my unyielding affections. I knew you were a cold being. I didn't think you'd be this cold, though."

With that, I sat myself abruptly on the ground and was instantly swallowed up by the fog that enshrouded our surroundings. It was a dense fog, blocking everything from view, except that which was immediately in front of me. It was for this reason that I was slightly startled by his sudden appearance in front of me.

"I sense your hesitation still," he said calmly. "You claim to love me, and yet you hesitate to tell me this. Why?"

"Because I am, despite all I've said, afraid of what will come from it. I'm afraid of… of your intimacy. For some unfathomable reason, the idea of it frightens me," I admitted, ashamed.

"That's because I'm not meant to behave in such a manner," he said with a tone of finality. I was not done yet, though.

"Well, neither are you supposed to be merciful. What happened to the merciless, cruel Death that everyone seems so familiar with?"

He paused to give this thought, and there was a hint of a smile on his lips. "Cunning. But not good enough." He looked right at me. "Rose, I know what you seek, and I can not give it to you. Love is not a concept I am familiar with. I wouldn't know what to do with yours and I certainly wouldn't be able to return it. And that is why I am choosing to return you to Life. She can make better use of you than I can."

I felt as if struck through the heart, for I heard the truth in his words. He was right, and he knew it. There was one last argument I could make, though…

"Then at least make me more yours in every way possible. I know I already belong to you, but I want there to be no mistake about it. I want everyone, Life included, to know that I belong to you and that nothing can change that."

His smile was genuine this time. "You realize, don't you, that this will be your ruin? You won't be able to make friends in the human world anymore."

"I never could anyways. This'll only give me a reason for it."

"Then come to me… I'll place my mark on you to show all, even Life, that you are mine. You'll be my helper in the human realm, my little reaper, and by the time you return to me, we'll be better acquainted and perhaps you'll have taught me a few things of love."

I did as he said and went willingly into his arms, upon which my doom was sealed with a kiss that was cold and left me breathless. I felt the last of my life draining from me and I thought that perhaps he had fooled me and was showing me true death, but just when I thought there was nothing left in me, he pushed me from him forcefully and I fell backwards through darkness and fog. It felt like forever before I landed with a thud.

At the same moment that I hit the ground, I sat up with a gasp that burned my lungs. My whole body felt… chilled, even though I was snuggled warmly in my bed. Wait, I thought. I'm… back home. In my own bed… As if with an electric shock, I flung myself out of bed, almost falling in my haste, and ran to the mirror. That's when I saw it.

There, on my forehead, was the mark of death, and I knew now that I truly was his. I smiled at the shock that Life would receive when she saw me. As one of "her people," my betrayal would come as a huge shock to her…

…and my days would be numbered. Death, it won't be long.
Contest entry for #Doctrinaire.

An excerpt from a story of one girl’s devotion to Death though she’s in the service of Life. Rose’s bitterness towards a cruel mistress, who lies to her and mistreats her, combined with her unusual fate forces her to turn towards Death. He, rumored to be cruel and merciless, turns out to be the opposite.

It’s just a rough sketch of a story, really, that came to me as a result of the prompt More Yours in Every Way

Critiques are welcome.

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EDIT: For those who have asked about Rose's marks, I now have a preview image! (assuming it actually works :P) But yes, the above image is Rose and her marks, though I didn't originally have anything particular in mind. Thank you everyone for your feedback which encouraged me to do the preview image! Btw, the image uses stock from some very talented artists. I have the full view posted in my gallery if you want to see who helped contribute!
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Very nicely done