Between Life and Death

Memories of a Lifetime Part 3

Fine. Ask me what you want.

"Do you remember how you died?"

What do you take me for? An idiot? I died less than two minutes ago - of course I remember!

"Just answer the question," Death growled, annoyed by the soul's sheer sass.

Okay, okay. I was just walking along, minding my own business, when I felt something within me snap, like the sound of an animal's neck breaking. Next thing I knew, I was dead, trapped in my body.

"No," Death whispered as his eyes went wide. He quickly summoned a few of his Reapers, and ordered them to sweep the area and extract all souls. After giving them their orders, Death watched them leave before teleporting to the source of the deaths, fearing for the worst.

He'd been there so many times, he could make his way around with his eyes closed. His footsteps echoed across the halls, and it wasn't long until he found himself in front of Life's chamber door. His knock reverberated through the hallway, but there was no response from the other side of the door. Despite there being no answer, he knew Life was in her room - he could sense her aura, emotions he couldn't quite place rolling off of it in waves.

"Life?" he called through the door. "I'm coming in." He opened the door and saw Life on her balcony, curled up into a ball. As soon as he stepped in the room, she began screaming, and a burst of dark energy pulsed from her, nothing like the light and happiness of the magic he'd seen her use before. Death swore under his breath as he felt the death of dozens more, children and adults alike.

"Life? Life, get a hold of yourself!" he yelled over her screaming, but she didn't seem to hear. In fact, the closer Death got to her, the louder she screamed. Dark energy was flowing freely from her now, and Death knew he had to stop her before she killed every mortal being on the planet.

The closer he got, the harder it was to take the next step towards her, and Death found himself driving all of his energy into his steps, his own dark energy swirling around hers, but his magic was calm and soothing, like the black of a cool night, with stars and love intertwined to settle her raging magic of nightmares and death. He was only about a meter away, and Life's screams felt like they were ripping into his ears. Knowing that this couldn't go on any longer, Death leapt towards Life and flung his arms around her. The dark energy almost flung him off the edge of the balcony, but Death kept his grip on Life strong, closing his eyes and burying his face into her silken hair.

"Life, calm down. I'm here now," he yelled above the screaming, and her screaming lessened, pausing at his voice.

"Life, look. It's me, Death. You remember me, right?" he said, forcing her to look at him, and her screaming dropped another notch.

He continued to mutter comforting nothings to her until her screaming had halted, and the dark energy had stopped pouring out. He retracted his own magic inside of himself, looking down at Life. She blinked a few times and yelped when she saw Death. "Death? What are you doing here?" she asked, and Death cringed. She doesn't remember anything from her massacre. Should I tell her?

However, before Death could answer, she gasped and whispered, "Why are there so many dead? I can feel it - there's an emptiness that wasn't there before. Like before, there were blooming and thriving flowers in a field, and then they were wiped out, with only a few wilted ones left. What happened?" She narrowed her eyes. "Did you have to do something with it?"

By extension, probably, Death thought, but out loud he said nothing.

"Did you?" she asked, her voice slightly raised, brows furrowing in question.