Between Life and Death

Memories of a Lifetime Part 5

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I walked into the chamber to find him punching the bars of his cage again. It was amusing to watch - he's smart enough to know that the bars won't break, but he was punching them anyway, out of anger or just because it gave him something to do with his time. Just seeing him made my blood boil, but I tucked those emotions away and calmed myself down.

Those would be used for another time.

He looked so pitiful locked up in a tiny cage with only himself for company. He deserved every last bit of it for what he did. The love of his life left him and shred his heart to bits while she was at it. Life made for a beautiful pawn - she was so gullible, so naive, but perfect for getting back at Death, for making him suffer. She believed everything that came out of my mouth. I wondered what she w doing then. Did she regret all she had done, or did she still hate Death? Had she finally figured out what I'd done?

"Good day, Death. Hope your stay has been pleasant. Wouldn't want a guest of mine to be uncomfortable," I said mockingly, and Death stopped punching the bars and growled at me. The nerve of him! I was his captor, the controller of what happens to his sorry life, and he had enough nerve to growl at me!

"Tsk, tsk, Death," I chided. "It's not polite to growl at your captor like that. Especially when I could be so much meaner to you. Be thankful."

Death slowly looked up to meet my eyes, and in them were the fires of revenge. It was hard not to cower away - I had to always keep in mind that standing before me is the strongest being in all this land, in my cage.

Wonderful.

"You think that with this cage here, I am automatically lower than you? Your control over me is much weaker than what meets the eye, Karma," he sneered.

Fear coiled its way down my spine, but it dissipated when I fingered the ring in my pocket. You'd be surprised, I thought to myself, but I kept my thoughts quiet. No need tell him of my plans. No good would come from him knowing. "So, Death how has your day been? Have you been thinking about how you killed Destiny and regretting everything you've done since?" I asked, throwing an extra bite in my tone to aggravate him, poking the bear or taunting a dog with meat. However stupid that may be, it worked.

"How many times must I tell you, it wasn't me who killed her - technically speaking, it was you who killed her. Why do you place all the blame one me?" he roared, and I smirked, having done my job to get him riled up. I said the thing that would anger him most: blaming him for the death of my beloved, a crime he committed many a millennia ago, but still has yet to pay for.

"Well, your name is Death, for starters. If you weren't the one who killed her, who was responsible for her death, then who was?" I said. "It would make sense that you killed Destiny. Am I not right?"

"I'm afraid you don't understand. While I can kill things, and while being the god of death, I never have - never wanted to, especially after that incident. What I do is merely extract the soul and send it to my kingdom to be ruled over," he said through clenched teeth.

"But your name is Death," I said, knowing it would annoy him more. I needed to get him as angry as possible for my plan to work. Though it terrified me to see the Shadow King at his worst, I told myself that my plan was foolproof. It was foolproof.

"It is not right of you to assume what I can and can't do just by my name!" he bellowed, and I swear I could feel the chamber tremble with his anger. Just a little more, I thought to myself, even as I felt the blood drain from my face.

"That's what Life did, right?" I said, knowing that if I talked about Life it would anger him most. "She judged you, assumed you killed her people - the humans, the plants, the animals - and despised you for it, and yet you stayed quiet about it. Was it because you loved her? Because you wanted to protect her from the truth?"

When Death narrowed his eyes, I laughed. "You should've known that she would never return your feelings, never reciprocate what you felt for her. In fact, while she was here, she told me that she was only pretending that she liked you, trying to figure out what kind of person you were, to see what she could do with you. She said that she found it hard to believe that anyone could ever like - or love - a filthy liar like you. Besides, who could ever love or cherish the God of Death?" I grinned, knowing that would drive Death over the edge. It did, the bear aggravated enough where it dared to venture out of it's cave, teeth snarling.

"Don't you dare you filthy BASTARD!" he thundered. Shadows began to swirl around him, curling around his ears and pooling at his feet. Death extended a hand, and the shadows all shot towards the bars of the cage, shattering them. He slowly stepped out, his eyes narrowed and a smirk on his face. "Looks like the cat is out of the bag... or should I say lion? Poor Karma has bit off more than he could chew. You scared?"

I forced a scared expression on my face, just like I had practiced, though it wasn't hard to - I was terrified enough. I widened my eyes, opened my mouth a little, and took a step back. A shiver traveled down my spine. If things didn't play right, I could end up dead - or worse. Death seemed to buy my expression, for he laughed. "How does it feel to be scared, Karma? To finally be the one on the other side?"

I knew he wouldn't let me respond, that he would attack me first, and I was right. In the time it took for me to blink, he was already lunging at me, scythe in one hand and his shadows swirling around the other with his teeth bared. He was just about to hit me when I sidestepped and pulled the ring out of my pocket, letting it graze his arm. As soon as it made contact with him, I whispered, "Inops."

Death's shadows disintegrated, and the scythe in his hand clattered as it hit the floor. He soon joined his scythe on the ground. When I looked down at him, Death weakly moaned and said, "What did you do to me?" glaring up at me in anger and confusion. Giddiness coursed through my veins and one thought pulsed in my mind - it worked.

I held up the ring, which was black with Death's power, his magic coiled inside, and said, "There was a ring I asked Wisdom and Forge to craft for me. A ring, when in contact with someone using their power, that could neutralize anyone - even the almighty and powerful Death. This ring I'm holding in my hand is their final product. Quite the masterpiece, no?"

"You rat," Death spat feebly. "You neutralized me. You took away my magic!"

I nodded. "Yes, Death. You're a bit slow today, repeating everything I say," I said sarcastically as I bent down to grab his arm. "Back to your cage you go. I'm not done with you," I said, fighting the urge to laugh when Death was too weak to struggle. With little effort, I tossed Death to the spot I had marked for the new cage to drop, and once he was in place, the cage dropped around him, trapping him once more.

I watched as he weakly grabbed the bars of the cage and slid to the ground, defeat laced in his posture. All I had to do was wait for the rest of my plan to fall into place - neutralizing Death was just step one.

Hello readers! Missed yesterday's update because I had family over. I took a slightly different approach with this chapter, writing it in the first person, and if you didn't know already, it is told from Karma's point of view! Even though this is a bit of a short one, hope you enjoyed and I'll see you guys next Saturday. Thanks for reading!