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entrangled · 7 years

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Death- Short Story

She intrigued death, and death intrigued her. I was death, and it was unfathomable to me why such an utterly perfect specimen, such as herself, would be even merely amused by a screw up like me. I make a living separating human souls from their living counterparts; I am commonly referred to as the grim reaper, but I prefer to be called Thanatos, for that is my name. One does not choose to be given the task of reaping human souls for eternity. It was a burden given to me after I washed up on the island of Hell, by chance, as an infant. And what a horrible chance it was! According to Hades, the god of Hell, I had been banished from an island close to the Galapagos because I was born out of wedlock. This island was the closest land mass to Hell. The tides had happened to be right, and I ended up washing ashore on Hell. I was the first human to ever step foot on on the grey beach, and as the book of Hell told, I was therefore deemed the reaper of souls. That day Hades reaped his last soul, mine, and then he passed on the task to me. The day I met her was no different then any other day of reaping. I had come to reap her parents souls in Clarksville, Virginia; they had both died of a disease created by Hades to control the human population. People were dying left and right from this new disease, and her parents just happened to be 2 of the victims. I reaped their souls from the sterile hospital beds, carefully separating the light, which would go to the light keeper, from their souls, which would go to hell, like all other souls. As I was just about done with the reaping, she saw me. I was just a soul, and souls could not be seen by humans. But she could see me, she was the only one that had ever seen me. She was different. She wore a silver necklace that had "Desdemona" engraved in it in cursive writing. As I studied her, she pushed back a strand of her dark cascading hair and looked at me with wide eyes. Her iris' were a shade of brown that was indistinguishable from her dark pupils. I had just reaped her parents souls, yet she didn't seem upset or distraught, she seemed curious. Curiosity usually killed the cat, but I could tell she had 9 lives; she was strong. She reached out to touch me, I flinched, but that didn't stop her; her hand still continued toward me. Her black nails blended in with my black cloak, as she touched the spot where my heart had once beat. The warmth of her hand resonated through my soul, creating a feeling that I couldn't recollect feeling. I had heard the souls in Hell speak of this feeling before, it was what they called feeling "alive". My soul was reaped at such a young age that I could not remember feeling alive. That was when I realized, Desdemona could be the life I never had. "You are not alive," Desdemona said calmly I couldn't speak. Her words sent a chill down my spine, they were words of accusation. She had wounded me and I no longer felt alive. I turned towards the door to leave, but she stopped me. "That is astounding… I wish I wasn't mortal," Desdemona mused The warm feeling returned, and I smiled. She had accepted me even though I was dead. I wanted to feel alive forever. She reached towards me to shake my hand. "I am Desdemona, but you can call me Des, I'm assuming you don't speak?” "I... I... Yes... I do speak," I stuttered, "I'm Thanatos." "I can tell you don't talk to humans that often do you?" she looked at me, waiting for a response. I nodded slowly, my smile leaving my lips. "Well I have always wanted to get to know an immortal, and you seem like the perfect candidate," she smiled warmly and her eyes crinkled at the edges. "I would like that," I managed to say as calmly as possible. Desdemona stepped closer to me and embraced me in a hug. My entire body tingled as I embraced her carefully, making sure not to crush her fragile figure. "I'll see you around Thanatos." From that day on every time I left Hell to do a reaping I would visit Des. Whether the reaping was in Egypt or France, I would always stop in Clarksville on my way back to hell. Des and I had a special connection; she made me feel alive, and I made her feel Immortal. Our relationship was forbidden; the dead hated the living and in turn the living hated the dead. We would never be accepted, but we vowed to continue our bond in a secretive manner. This worked for quite some time, but all good things must come to an end. Eris was always the one to bring good things to an end, that was her job, she was, after all, the goddess of discord. "You're late again... Honey," Eris sneered. "I have a job to do, I have told you a million times, Eris; people have to die and I have to be there to reap their souls." "You are an inconsiderate, asshole of a husband, you're lucky I put up with your shit." "I am so lucky to have a wife as...as amazing as you," I said rolling my eyes "So where were you?" "Why do you care? You never tell me where you've been." "Because I know you couldn't give a flying fuck where I've been," Eris screamed as she picked up a nail file and started filing her flawless, bright red, nails. "You really want to know where I was? Okay Eris, i'll tell you where I was," I paused and looked her straight in the eyes, "I was on a date." "A date," Eris mumbled to herself, "A fucking date! Are you kidding me... Thanatos! Explain yourself! We are married you can't just go on dates!" "Eris, you have a boyfriend. You've had a boyfriend since we got engaged... neither of us want to be in this relationship, so stop pretending you do." "I can't have my reputation ruined by you dating someone! It makes me look like an idiot!" "This is about your reputation...your reputation... You are the goddess of discord! No one cares about your reputation!" "I do! Who did you go on a date with!? I hope for your fucking sake it wasn't Aphrodite.” Eris screamed as she grabbed me by the shoulders "You know what, Eris? She’s a human. I went on a date with a human. How does that-" "A human! A human! You have got to be kidding me! Don't you dare come near me, you probably have a disease of some sort. You are disgusting." Eris said backing away. "You know what Eris? Back away from me, see what I care. Don't ever come near me again if that's what you want. My life would probably be better if you didn't come near me anyway." I shouted. "You are abusive, you're abusing my emotions! You are lucky I'm not still a damn human, cause if I were I would call the cops," Eris screamed over her tears. "No Eris, you are the abusive one, you are abusing my sanity. And you most definitely cannot call the cops because your "feelings are hurt”,” I said as I air quoted her. "I can do whatever I want," Eris screamed as she ran out of the room, slamming the door behind her. That night I spent my night on the couch, I contemplated marriage and love, death and life, and any other thing that came to mind as I stared blankly at the wall. Hades had arranged my marriage with Eris as a gift for my 100th year of reaping. If the point of a gift was to bring misery to the receiver then he had definitely picked the right gift. Eris and I had been married for 15647 years, we fought, we bickered, and we despised each other. Eris was far to evil for my liking, she was truly a lover of death. Though it may seem odd, I had always been a lover of life. I owned the only living thing in all of Hell, a small fern that sat on my windowsill. Of course this was not allowed, but Hades never left his palace so he had never seen it. I was also a vegetarian and a strong supporter of Human rights. It is probably very confusing to most how I support human rights when I am the one that takes humans right to live away, but that’s not really what I did. Contrary to popular belief you cannot make a deal with the reaper and you are not killed by the reaper, once the reaper arrives the human is already dead. All I do is separate the soul from its light; no matter who you are, your soul goes to hell and your light goes to the light keeper. The light keeper is an individual that lives at the highest point of Hell, way above the clouds. He watches over earth and gives every new soul a light. The light is what enables souls to live, it never dies out and and it is passed on from soul to soul after each death. If people were to look at the bright side of my job, they would see that I was really just giving new souls a chance at life. The reason I hate my job isn’t because of the actual act of reaping, it is because of the life that reaping deprived me of. After that long night on the couch I handed her the divorce documents. “Baby, please don’t do this! We love each other so much!” Eris squaled as she tried to embrace me. “I hate you with a burning passion Eris, just please sign these papers and we will never have to pretend to like each other again.” I said as I pushed Eris away. “I can do things to you that will make you regret having me sign these papers, and you know I am not bluffing.” “I have nothing to lose, try me,” my voice sounded confident but my arms were shaking. I knew what Eris was capable of. She could give someone a dirty look that would kill them, she could make an entire forest burn down for the hell of it. I was scared, and that was the truth. I had covered my tracks with Des as thoroughly as possible, but with Eris one can never be too sure. Eris signed the papers and I told Des the entire story. I stopped visiting Des as often for her own safety, and when I did visit I made sure we were hidden as well as possible. A day went by without word from Eris, then a week, then a month, and then a year. I finally thought that she had given up. So I started seeing Des more often again. Des was now in her 20’s and she had her own apartment that we could easily hang out in without suspicion from human onlookers. She had morphed into a mature looking young woman, but her personality was still as immature as ever, which was what I loved about her. Together we could laugh for hours about nonsense or have deep conversations about the politics of life and death; with Des, there was never a dull moment. The “alive” feeling I had felt when I first met Des only grew stronger, and our bond grew stronger with it. Des insisted that we spend valentines day together at her apartment , and of course I didn’t object. I brought her red roses and a silver ring to match her “Desdemona” necklace. The silver band of the ring had a heart attached to it, diagonally through the heart was a sickle. As she was about to put the ring on I took it from her and got down on one knee. I knew it would be hard for a human and a soul to be married, but I wanted her to be mine forever and always. Des shrieked with happiness as I placed the ring on her finger, and said yes a million times. Then after she cleared up her happy tears, she insisted on reading a poem she had written for me: “ I have tangoed with death countless instances, A dance many claim to have done. I have fell for death time after time, A feeling humans constantly profess. But, I didn’t fall for death like most do, I fell in love with death, like none do.” She smiled at me, and our tears mixed as she caressed me and then kissed me on the forehead. “You are my forever,” she said. And then she froze. I thought maybe it was a dramatic pause, but then I looked down at her chest. Her white dress was soaked in red, and from behind her came Eris holding a silver dagger. “I told you I would make you pay, now didn’t I?” Eris sneered. I sat in a pool of blood, the blood that had once filled the veins of Des, the woman I loved. I looked down at her lifeless body and knew that I would have to reap it. I stood up and started to separate her soul from her light, and then I had a revelation. I continued to reap her soul with a new found purpose. When I was just about done separating her light from her soul I looked at Eris. “Eris, you are by far the most evil creature around, not even hell deserves to have such a despicable soul. Though you may not know it, you have just sealed your fate, not mine.” Eris looked at me, confused. I took the light from Des’ body and pointed it at the heart of Eris, she shrieked in defeat as the light entered her body. She would forever be alive as a human. When a soul that has already died is given a light, it will live forever, a fate that only the most horrible of souls deserve. I returned to Hell with Des, my lovely, dead, bride.

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