𝓣𝓱𝓮 𝓚𝓲𝓼𝓼 𝓞𝓯 𝓓𝓮𝓪𝓽𝓱 𝓐𝓷𝓭 𝓣𝓱𝓮𝓻𝓮𝓪𝓯𝓽𝓮𝓻

The fateful kiss of Death Himself

He stepped out of his home for possibly the first time in a month. Nobody knew anything about this mysterious man. Norman never really spoke to any of his neighbors, he never trusted them. He looked rough. He had just woken up from an all-night drinking session and had one of the worst hangovers he had in his new apartment, and he was set on leaving this simulation today. How did he know it was a simulation? Visions. He walked out of the building and towards the woods that surrounded that dingy old place. He was meeting someone. He didnt know his name but he knew he had to meet him today. Again, the visions. He didnt truly know if they were visions, or if they were just hallucinations after he took one too many shrooms, but nonetheless he was going to see if this man would be there. It was at least 6:30 PM by now and this river he was headed to was nowhere in sight. He was starting to think he was just a crazy drug addict who believed every one of his hallucinations. He heard some rustling too the side of him. It sounded quite far away but he followed the sound. He was lucky to have good hearing, especially since his eyesight was not the best. All those nights of staring at a computer screen never helped with that any either. He walked in the way of the rustling for at least five minutes. He was getting tired of walking at this point. 'Maybe i should head back to my apartment.. i mean I've already come this far into these woods, it would be a waste to go back now. Maybe i should just sleep out here. Not like anyone besides imani would care, and they don't know im out here.' Norman thought to himself. He started to slow down his walking just before seeing a dock, by the beginning of a river. 'How odd.' Norman walked up to the dock. There wasn't anyone there. He noticed a very old looking gondola, which he took note of. 'This is such a nice river. Im gonna sit here for a little while. Its peaceful out here.' Norman sat at the edge of the dock, staring into the water. It was slightly windy which made for the perfect weather, in Norman's opinion. He heard rustling again, but much closer this time. He turned to where he heard the noise to see a man about his age, with two extra sets of arms and far too many eyes to be human. He kind of startled Norman at first, but he expected him here. This is the exact place he saw this exact man in his visions. He wasn't crazy after all. Not entirely at least.
"Hello." Norman stood, his tone flat and his expression unchanging. He held out his hand for this.. spider-esque man to shake.
"I hath not expected you to come to me so willingly." The spider said, taking in normans hand and giving it a shake. "I am Charon."
Norman rested his hands at his sides once the spider, now known to him as charon, let go of his hand. "You have a lovely name, Charon."
"Thank you. Most say as such." Charon gave norman a slight smile. "You must be wondering what hath brought you here. As far as i am aware, our God has been giving you visions, am i correct?"
"Yes, you are." Norman fiddled with his shirt a bit. He knew why he was here, for the most part. He knew he had to leave. He just.. didn't exactly know how this humanoid-spider was going to get him out of here. Charon. The name sounded very familiar to him. Where he heard it first he did not know. A teaching? A storybook he read as a small child? His dealers, perhaps? He could not know.
"Mister DaLuz, did you hear what i said?"
Norman looked back at charon, feeling kind of bad that he wasn't listening. "No, my apologies. Could you.. ah, could you repeat what you said?" His words came out like last nights alcohol, gritty and not as eloquent as he would have liked.
"I shall. What i had said, was to get out of this simulation, i must kiss you. I have poison, and the only two ways to get you out and bring you to heaven is to either bite one of your major arteries and you die quickly, or i kiss you and you die slower. I would prefer the aforementioned kiss as the gondola ride is quite long and lonely, and i am all but a selfless spider, but the choice is yours, Mister DaLuz." Charons voice came out like the finest of wine to normans ears.
"A kiss?" Norman questioned and he turned a bit red. He had never kissed anyone before. And a man at that? What would his father even think of him after he kissed a man. He considered the kiss for a moment. The river did look quite long, and norman did not have anyone to truly speak to in quite a while due to his multiple addictions.
"Yes, a kiss. That is, if you wish for it."
"..i would like the kiss." Norman looked away from charon once more. "The river is long and having someone to speak to would be nice."
"Wonderful. We should make haste on the kiss, then. God has important business and we must get there quickly." Charon took three steps towards norman and took the taller mans hands into his, and use two of his other hands to cup normans face and angle it down so he could properly kiss him. Norman was still messing with his sleeves, as he didn't know what to do with his hands still. Charon leaned up and kissed him on the mouth directly. Norman kissed him back, honestly kind of enjoying this kiss. Oh, what would his father think of this? He would surely disown Norman for kissing another man. Its wrong, isn't it? It dosent feel wrong. In fact, this kiss was possibly better than he could have ever imagined his first kiss would be. Especially for the situation at hand. He didn't care about all of that nonsense right now. Charon pulled away from the kiss, Norman's lips burned, now coated in the poison that would eventually kill him. Charon stepped into the gondola to make sure it was stable enough for the both of them, then gestured to Norman to get on the rickety old boat. Norman did as he was asked and stepped in and sat down at the far end of it and kind of stared off into space as charon pushed the gondola away from the dock and picked up two large oars from the floor and began to row with them.
"How exactly do you know my name? Or at least my last name?" Norman looked charon in his two largest red eyes on his face.
"You are spoken of frequently in heaven. By God and by the angels. I know your full name but i feel it is more professional to call you just by your last name. Since we do not formally know one-another." Charon payed no attention to normans face, and focused on what was behind norman instead. Empty, slow flowing, river. Norman looked confused at this. God himself was speaking of him often enough to where this man knew his name by heart? But he was only a human. He believed that God never cared for him as much as everyone else, why was he so special all of a sudden?
"God speaks of me..?"
"Indeed. I am currently his assistant, so i hear most of what he speaks about." Charon's tone was calm. It seemed like he almost expected norman to know this stuff already. It was silly, how could he know what was beyond his eyes and ears?
"Ah. I see." Norman sighed softly and turned his attention towards the water. He saw fish swimming alongside the gondola, and the woods seemed to be changing around the both of them. Norman watched as it did so, fascinated by it. Nature always intrigued Norman. Science was his best subject in school. He remembered his school. And his friends. He had two friends his entire time in school but lost one of them to illness in the seventh grade. His eyes teared up at this memory. He missed that friend. He wiped his eyes and turned back to the spider rowing the boat.
"This river is very clear."
"I am aware."
Norman coughed and looked back at the river. He was starting to regret not taking the faster way out. Although Charon's presence was nice, he didn't really talk much. Neither did norman but thats only because he didn't know what exactly to talk about with this new person he met. And the fact he only trusted this man to get him out of this awful world. He wished he had brought some booze along with him. That seemed to be the only thing to make him happy at this stage of his life. He knew this addiction wasnt good but its not exactly easy to lose a bad habit, is it? 'I wish this were over sooner.'
"Um, charon? May i ask, when does the poison start to tale effect?"
"About half an hour after it is ingested."
"Thank you."
"You are welcome, Mister DaLuz."
Norman sighed. He was not having the best of times. He hoped his death would be painless. He's already experienced so much in his life and he was only 19 years old. It honestly upset him how his only childhood experiences were talking to strangers online and making the most cringy Tumblr posts on the site. It wasn't bad but it wasn't the ideal childhood either. His father dragged him along to every church event and had killed and eaten his mother when he was young. That was traumatizing, seeing your mother be devoured at the ripe age of eight years old.
Some time had passed now, about 25 minutes, norman assumed, maybe longer. Norman was sitting in the bottom of the gondola now and charon had stopped rowing for a little while. They were in a part of the river that could move them along easily.
"Why are you sitting on the floor of the gondola, Mister DaLuz?" Charon stared norman in the eyes.
"The seat was beginning to hurt my back." Normans tone was still flat, and he chose not to make eye contact with the spider. He decided to pick at the floor instead.
"Ah. That is understandable."
Norman coughed, quite roughly. He rubbed his neck, where his throat would be. It was now sore? Maybe it was the poison taking effect. Thats what it seemed like. He coughed again, this time spewing blood on the floor of the gondola and onto one of his hands.
"Im sorry- i didn't mean to get the floor messy im sorry." Norman sputtered between two nasty coughs. Charon looked back at norman and moved to sit next to him.
"You have no reason to apologize. It is okay." Charon wrapped one of his arms around norman, to hold him up. Norman coughed more, and with that came more blood out of his mouth. It was getting more and more difficult for him to breathe. He tried taking deep breaths but he couldn't. He coughed even more and brought both of his hands up to his mouth so he didn't make any more of a mess. Even whilst dying he was afraid of being a burden on anyone around him. How sad. Charon kept a strong hold on him and rubbed his back, which helped to get the blood out of his throat and up so he could breathe better. Norman was in an excruciating amount of pain. He never imagined how dying like this could be so painful. Normans eyes teared up once again, and he began to cry. 'How could i let someone i barely know see me crying? This is such a pathetic way to go.' Norman thought to himself. He coughed harder and harder til his hands were flowing with his own blood. His body felt like it was being cut open, like shards of glass were trying to burst out of his lungs, like a million razor blades were trying to murder him. He thought the pain of life was bad but death was even worse, especially such a slow death as this one.
"It-" He coughed. "It hurts."
"I know it hurts, Norman. It shall be over soon. You shall rest soon." Charon's words somewhat comforted norman. His voice was smooth and calm, compared to normans shaky sobbing sputtering that he wished he could change in this instance. Then silence. There was silence. He could still feel himself hack and cough, but he couldn't hear anything. He couldn't hear Charon speak, he couldn't hear himself cough, he couldn't hear the river or the late-night bugs. Nothing. Then he stopped coughing. He felt his body go limp. Then his conciseness was the last thing to go. All that remained in that world, that simulation, was a dead body. A husk, if you will. After a few minutes of nothingness, he began to hear things again. He heard people. Lots of people. All cheering. He heard wheels rolling and stopping and a bag being opened and metal clanging together as someone searched in the bag for something. Then he felt the sharp pain of a scalpel pierce his skin. Then he heard a scream. His scream. He opened his eyes to see a blinding light above him, angled towards his torso. He blinked then looked around. He was chained to what seemed to be an operating table in the middle of a circular auditorium full of.. angels? They were cheering, most of them. He looked to his left and up and saw a boney figure with holes for eyes and the most chilling grin one could ever see, cutting into him and pulling out his organs like it was a child on Christmas with a present from santa. He looked to his right and saw Charon. Charon? What was charon doing here? Weren't they both just going down the river? How long had norman truly been out for? Did he actually die? So many questions and so few answers. All of the angels ooo'd and aaah'd at what norman considered a public humiliation. He assumed what was going on was a vivisection. That would entail that he was still alive. 'Thank the heavens for a brain that still works.' He thought. He yelped again when his intestines were pulled out and placed on a table next to the tall figure. Charon was holding his hand, he now realized. He squeezed Charon's hand. He was in the most excruciating pain he had ever been in. He thought the poison death was bad, but this is one hundred times worse than that. The tall figure pulled out more organs as Charon let go of normans hand and left the auditorium. Off to where? He did not know. The figure had said something in what he assumed was latin or greek just before he left so he assumed it had something to do with that. He screamed when he saw something else be pulled out of him. His heart. His god damn heart. And he was still alive? How was this possible? He saw Charon walk back in with what looked like a giant cooler just before he passed out due to the overwhelming amount of pain he was in.
He awoke in a hospital room with white walls, a white bed, and white floors. Yet still somehow everything seemed so grey. He was still in pain, but far less than when he was being cut open and his insides were being shown to what seemed like the whole world. Someone walked into his room, he couldn't exactly see who it was though. He squinted and saw someone who resembled charon, although they were taller, their hair was longer, they were wearing what looked like an overly fancy poncho, and they had a pleasant smile on their face.
"Ah! You are awake. I am Ankou, it is a pleasure to finally meet you." They walked closer to the bed and bowed to Norman. Thats odd.
"Oh. Um. Hi. Im Norman."
"I assumed so." Ankou opened a cabinet and pulled out some medications. They took one pill out if each of the three bottles and took a small cup and filled it with water then handed the pills and the water to norman. "Take these, they shall help with your pain." Norman did as he was told and took the medication.
"Thank you."
"You are very welcome. Charon shall be in here with your food in about an hour." They bowed again and left the room, shutting the door behind them. Norman laid there and thought for a while before the medicine kicked in and started to do what it was meant to do. Before he knew it he was asleep once more.
An hour later a knock was heard at the door, then it opened. Charon walked in and pushed the cart he had with him off to the side, and he gently shook norman awake.
"Mister DaLuz, you must wake up."
Norman opened his eyes and looked at charon. He squinted and a small smile appeared on his face. It seemed as though the medication may have made him a little bit high.
"Hi."
Charon pushed the small cart he had over to the side of normans bed and lifted a trat off of it and placed it over normans chest.
"I made you some soup, considering you wont be able to eat solid food for another week." Charon moved the soup closer to norman's face. He then sat on a stool close to the bed.
"You don't seem like your in any train of thought to feed yourself, so i shall help you." Charon picked up the spoon and gave Norman some of the soup. Norman kept the soup in his mouth for a minute, then spat it out.
"Norman, you must eat the soup, or you wont heal as fast as you may wish."
"But i dont like soup." Norman pouted as charon scooped up another spoonful of the soup and fed it to norman.
"Its either soup, or a smoothie. So eat."
Norman made an upset face, yet still ate the soup.
Once he was done charon removed the tray and put it back onto the cart. "Do you need anything before i go?"
Norman shook his head no, and charon left the room.

Chapter 1 - End.