The Final Stroke of Twelve

Silent Night...

Chapter: 1

The soil that has never been shaped by a footprint, rusting chains mangling up against the untouched steel, groaning swing sets in the absence of the wind, clouds that ner' budge to the harshest sunlight...Yet, her gaze remained unyielding. She stared-petrified to her bones-at the low lit window of Room:395...None took to her yet, The faintest breath of the crisp wind against her neck and her soul shivered...

"Elizabeth..." She, by name, was beckoned by a siren...

She pried her eyes shut and prayed she never had to turn. But a compelling presence broke through her catatonic state. It was almost like plunging a branding hot iron bar through the nape of her neck, only to thrust it all the way out of her rib cage. The pain was so excruciating that it made even the amorous heart bleed.

'Holding up' was not one of the cards. Hence, with her eyes drenched in fear, she forced her quivering toes to turn around. The churning world felt like virtually 'nothing', beneath her bare feet. Every stone, pebble, and dust particle that hit her seems to have faded away into the void, that so mercilessly filled the strickening night air. Her heartbeat raced so fast that it pulsed inside her head, She cannot give in now! she owed an obligation, a debt she has yet to pay. She turned to face the malevolent presence that demanded her unaltered attention.

People say that eyes are the windows to the soul, except he had no eyes. Just a hollow deep chasm. The bare sockets made her fear that if she had to fall into them she might never find herself again...She kept her gaze on the window and stumbled a step back, eyes glistening with tears under the ghastly moonlight....

"...No." She let out a silent wail.

And the silvery droplets that escaped the corner of her eyes heaved and disappeared into thin air as if they defied gravity...

This state of denial ner' took to him. The hooded figure chewed his boney hands away from his moth-eaten robe and twisted his palm. The 'invitation' made her skin cringe. She placed her shivering hands on her belly and cradled it. She could feel a life pulsing within her.

"Please..." was all that she could manage.

The emotions that erupted in the air failed their sole task of penetrating the Dark Glamour and fell to the lifeless ground just like any other butchered leaf as he emerged unburnt by those flaming sensations.

She stared back in dismay! How could he..? How could anyone..?...

Without a second thought, she turned on her heels and decided to sprint across the field. But she couldn't bring her legs to oblige. As she struggled with all she had to get out of the limbo, a steely blue haze erupted from behind, it froze her dead in tracks.

It was so blindingly aggressive that it triggered a bright orb of light to apparate from within her chest. She half expected the piercing pain to come ranging back. But to her astonishment, she sensed dull ease that grew stronger by each thwarting breath. Her vision blurred and spun, agony turned into bliss as it untangled her mortal coils, she felt gravity lose its grip on her.

And just moments before being wholly consumed by the halo, she shook herself to consciousness and gasped as though she's been drowning into depths she dreaded to explore. Only...to look at that window one last time...From where a pair of tiny eyes followed her gaze.

A tenderly coarse turmoil raged and wrecked the night's air with an avalanche of emotions cutting, slashing, and engraving its agony onto every form of life there was....

Yet, the havoc of the blistering image fell short of reflecting itself upon a perfectly chiseled mirror that held the harness in no possible haste. He extended his arm in liberation. The steely blue fog turned into a golden hue...It was as if the Sun has shifted his time frame...

The frenzy incineration coursing through her veins awakened nerve endings she never knew she had. Life animated before her, senses amplified drowning her anguished shrieks enough for her to hear her own first cry...Left her feeling the warmth of her mother's arms around her and her father brimming with tears placing a chaste kiss on her forehead as his trembling hands welcome her into the world. Tasting the air, overwhelming with the joy she brought into their lives. Relishing the moments of being her father's pride and her mother's love. The canopy of stars, long walks in the ember snow tangling hands with her boyfriend reciting Keats under her breath, the dazzling Christmas lights and her first kiss under the gleaming Mistletoe. She could see the ground melting beneath her as she held her breath watching her Man say "I do."... She chuckles the minute her legs flew in the air as her husband twirled her when she had placed his hands on her belly saying... "You better be ready". Savoring the jiffy of her baby's first kick...

It all came back so fast, vivid and intense that it sent jolts of pleasure down her memory lane. She was feeling things she never dreamt she would feel... again. Her heart twitched as she watched her loved ones move past her mortal existence....Her smile only grew wider.

The soothing emptiness imbued her with serenity until she lost all reason to elope. Focus tripped, and in the last heartbeat her eyes were glazed with a white gloomy haze, senses numbed as she was devoured into the blizzard... Drawing her last breath her only regret was the life that was going to ebb with her and the life that was to live without her...

The flawless radiance was effortlessly lifted into the atmosphere and with a luminous flash disappeared into thin air, leaving the silent night to her chores...

Clueless hazel eyes stared out of the window. The seven-year-old boy tussled to recollect his thoughts. He felt drawn to the window even though he didn't know why. There was something down there he just couldn't afford to overlook. Yet, there was nothing, but wakeful trees rumbling in the wind, the forsaken moon who gave birth to shadows that were swallowed by the judgmental darkness, an abandoned playground, and the deserted pavements.

He tore his gaze off of the still scenario when he heard his dad let out a muffled gasp. His reflexes kicked in and he turned to his mum who lay motionless on the hospital bed... His dad sunk to his knees tugging the boy deep into his chest and tried to turn his head away. But the boy placed a resisting hand on his dad's hold and willed himself to step forward.

"..Eddy...no.." his father choked on his own tears.

However, the father's trembling hands relented their grip as he saw the painful certainty in his son's eyes. Eddy forced his toes to move a few paces and he clutched the sides of the bed. The icy steel plunging into his skin was not all that, that stung his senses awake...

He raised his chin and looked at his mother, slowly taking all her angelic features in. Her face was oddly well-composed and calm, bearing neither pain nor uncertainty as before...

"Mum..?" his request was a shout into the void

She appeared so peaceful and content that she even failed to respond to the cry she awaited the most.

"Mr. Poe, it is time" came nursing yet, a definitive voice.

Eddy felt his father shudder behind him as his gaze shifted to the ER machine that has tripped its beats and flatlined...

Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw a tiny pair of jet black wings flutter past the window that overlooked a gloomy fate.

*************

Author: I am trying to portray 'Death' as my main, powerful character. In this chapter, I just wanted to show how cruel he can be. It's not that he doesn't respect human emotions, It's just that he just can't understand it. I'm hoping to show character development in him. It is an effort of portraying the cold nature of 'Death' as he plays a vital role in steering the plot.