Donec Mors Nos Part

Chapter 1: Meet the Reaper

            The rain ran down her soaked, slight form in rivulets. Every once in awhile the girl would shiver, but she made no move to find shelter from the rain. The light from the street lamp flickered like a dying candle. Water from the dark river was rushed down stream by an unseen current. The dark depths below the bridge seemed to promise peace and salvation.

            Maybe if she jumped everything would finally leave her alone. She could finally be in peace. Be able to rest for at least a little while. But did she truly want to give up so easily? To let them know they had won? For them to abuse and traumatize someone else, who wouldn’t need to be put through that if she had just stayed and stuck it out? But she was just so tired of fighting.

            A cold wind blew harshly through the trees. Midnight black hair blew around the girl’s form giving her an eerie appearance. She swayed in the rain to unheard music that seemed to drift along the wind in hauntingly sad tunes. The howling of the wind seemingly approved of her intentions there that night. It pushed her slight form closer towards the railing of the bridge.

            The slightly disturbing feel of frozen hands holding onto her numbed her even more, even though they held her precariously from falling into an endless dark spiraling nothingness that seemed to be waiting for her. Tilting her head in a cat like fashion, she looked at her shoulders to see the boney grip of death holding onto her. Not in the least was she scared or terrified. Oddly enough she welcomed death’s cold touch like a long lost lover.

            Steeling her resolve, she moved methodically to the railing. She hoisted herself up onto the railing, to sit precariously on the slick concrete edge of the railing that overlooked the dark waters below and the silent forest that surrounded it. A small voice in the back of her mind pleaded and begged with her to rethink this through some more. Unconsciously she squashed the thought before it caused her fragile resolve to break. Closing her eyes with a silent sigh, she pushes off from the railing. With her eyes closed she could almost convince herself that she was flying.

            Her body hit the water with a barely audible splash, before it started to sink slowly into the dark depths of the icy water. Amber eyes watched as the surface grew farther and farther away. Bubbles floated past her on her trek down to the river’s depths. The freezing temperature of the water barely even penetrating her mind, but she was certain that would this have been any other circumstance she would never have set foot into the river for fear of hypothermia.

            The body’s natural instinct to survive soon kicked in with such force that she gasped for air. She thrashed beneath the water’s surface, struggling to let go of the life she continued to cling onto. Her lungs filling ever faster with water, as she uselessly gasped for air. Still her body struggled on, ever persistent to continue living.

            Ever so slowly, she stilled as death finally started to set in. No longer would she try in vain to breathe in air, nor to try and reach the surface. She would no longer have to endure the agonizing and endless abuse that she has been forced to endure for so long. Never again would she have to worry if she would live to see another day. To be conflicted over matters so trivial, but had been a large portion of the reasons she had been beaten. She had finally gotten the salvation she had wanted for so long.

            The large cat stalked along the bank of the river. Tails swishing irritably as it paced along the bank. The cat hated to be kept waiting. Impatiently pacing as it waited for the damned shinigami to return from his latest job. Its predatory gaze scanning around the area for anything that might signal the shinigami’s return or that might alleviate its boredom.

            A couple feet away from where the large cat was pacing back and forth, lay a body. The skin already turning blue as death had finally started to take its course. Midnight hair lay in a tangled heap around the girl’s head like a halo, and its eyes wide and unseeing as they stared blankly up at the crescent moon. The corpse couldn’t have been there very long, because it was still soaked from the river. Nor had it died that long ago from the smell and appearance of it.