I paced the dark corridor and I hoped for the best. I hoped my wife and the child don’t feel the icy sting of Death’s grasp. A dark figure approached, as he passed his cloak of night grazed my arm, a sense of necrosis overcoming me until the cloak was removed.
“Stop,” I yelled. He turned, as if commanded by a force greater than myself.
“ Death,” I asked, “why do you come?”
“I am on a mission for the Evilest One,” Death said and continued walking toward his destination. I feared for the child, a fear greater than any I have ever felt.
“Death, what do you want with her?”
He turned and stopped again, “She is to be a thorn in His side if she doth not shed her mortal coil.”
“Demon, Foul Beast of Perdition, you shall not have her,” I grabbed my cross and thrust it in the reaper’s face to no accord.
“Sir,” he chuckled throwing me against the wall with but a gesture, “You would learn well not to tempt death with such frivolous idols. I am no Demon, far from it, I am merely a pawn of the grand design forced to work for the Omnifarious One.”
“Then why work for Him,” I said trying to regain my strength.
“Fates have decreed it as such, even I have a destined path,” a smirk crossed his virulent skeletal face, he was obviously thinking of the later gifts that would come his way.
“You shan’t touch my daughter you incorrigible cur,” I said charging again.
“Oh yes, you do not know,” Death seemed to get giddy at this thought.
My heart sank and I was frozen, “Tell me what.”
“You have no daughter, the maid in the room awaiting me is His,” he burst out abruptly and with a laugh.
“You’re a liar, she is mine, I know it,” I felt the tears run down my face stinging my eyes and staining my face, “I, will, kill, you. I will kill you with my bare hands.”
“You kill Death,” again that horrible, ghastly smirk appeared, “come now that idea, novel as it may be, is but an exercise in futility. As I stated earlier, as long as she is within the mortal realm she will plague Him.”
“So you’ll kill her, no, even if she isn’t mine, I won’t let you.”
“No I’ll bring the child to her real father, He will make her immortal.”
“You’re telling me that the daughter, whom I raised, is the devil’s child, destined to rule by his side,” my tears were practically blinding me and the taste of salt was burning my tongue.
“Congratulations are in order my friend, you have at last admitted the truth.”
“You won’t take her, you won’t.”
“My friend, I had such high hopes for you, I thought you would be one of the few to make your own destiny,” and at that I lunged for a final time. Death caught me by the throat. My breath lessened; the world began to blink in and out as I lost my grip on this terrestrial plane.
“Why my friend, why do it? Is it just the curse of humanity, is that why you dance with me forever?”
“No,” I attempt to yell but nothing comes out except for a gasp. I see my wife walk down the halls with her daughter in grasping her hand, a look of delight upon her innocent face. Did she know this whole time?
“Traitor,” I try this time but still nothing that even sounds like word escapes my lips.
“Did you explain it to her?” Death asked.
“Yes, she understands her part that she is to play in the world. My, do you know how hard it is to explain the necessity of evil?”
“I feel that it is fate that plays with us. I mean is it her that is destined to stop all natural forces, even me, with but a glance.”
“You know as well as I do, that such talk is beyond me. She is now, and forever, untouchable to you.”
My last vision before I heard that dreadfully, horrible snap was of my wife handing that child to Death. And to think I actually feared for their lives. Ha, I bet they didn’t even share that sentiment, well except for death himself.
