The Lives We Weave

Part one - Chapter 1 - Before

She came into existence just a little before I did. Back then the world was very different. Warmer for sure. I don't know how long she was alone for, but when I arrived she was surrounded by tiny things. I wasn't sure what they were but they were everywhere, moving around like something I had never seen before. One in particular was calling to me. I reached out and touched it, and I felt it go Somewhere.

"Wha-what did you do? I just made that!" This new figure exclaimed. Back then we didn't have forms but her presence was still so beautiful.

"I-I don't know, it was its time."

"You can't just take things from me, it's cruel." She cried, looking down as another cell absorbs the dead one.

"I am not cruel, it is just my nature." I whispered, the reality of my being settling in just moment after my existence started.

"Keep your hands off my creations."

"If you know what I am, then you know I can't do that."

"Well I certainly don't have to like it, and I don't have to like you."

I stayed silent for a minute "I understand."

I went on to do my job, and She hers.

Much later, things began to change. Those cells multiplied and eventually became something new. They were all different, strange for sure, but different in such a wonderful and beautiful way. They swam with purpose, they had children, there were even jellyfish (a personal favourite of mine). I was always so excited when I got to reap any of them, any of these creatures which formed from simple single cell organisms. After a while, the creatures began to realise I would take their eggs and their young if they left them available to predators, so they started to lay their eggs on land, far away from my clutches. Life's idea I'm sure, but I wasn't offended; I would get them eventually. And from that those creatures that lived in the depths of water discovered something new, land!

I met Ocean on my first day of my existence. She was here even before Life was, and she was wild to say the least. She could be calm one minute and destructive the next, but wonderful all the same. Every night she would go to the edge of her domain and meet with Land, who I finally got to meet when the creatures ventured onto him. At first I was concerned that I would not get to see Ocean again if the creatures left her, but I needn't have worried, for there was always jellyfish.

On that night, when the creatures ventured onto Land, I ventured with them to witness the change. As I was sitting, I watched Land and Ocean dance with each other. A romantic dance the likes of which I had never seen before. I envied them, they were opposites and yet they danced as lovers. Perhaps it isn't truly inconceivable that opposites can live in harmony? That contempt can turn into love?

Life sat down next to me, watching them also. "I'm sorry for the way I acted when we first met. I didn't understand you. I still don't really, but I know that you aren't bad. You just are."

I smile softly back at her.

She continued, "And, without you, those creatures never would have changed. They would have been stuck as those simple creatures forever, and now look at them! They're on land and everything now!"

"You must be very proud of your creations." I said, turning my attention to an egg hatching.
"I am." she leant her head on my shoulder as she watched Land and Ocean dance, and although I don't have a heart I swear I felt it skip a beat.

From that night Life and I had less of a contentious relationship, and I began to find comfort in my role as Death. I even visited Somewhere, the place where I kept all of her creations. In Somewhere there was no death, but there was also no birth, no creation and no change. The creatures existed without the elements of life, but I guess that's what makes them dead.

I took the time to ensure all of Her creatures were well cared for in my domain, even if She would never know it. I kept each creature in a place they would feel familiar with. I gave the single celled organisms a pool of water to share, oceans for those multicellular ones who swam and land for those that didn't. The only creature that was treated differently were jellyfish, those I kept in an ocean surrounding my rest area.

I was told, a long while after the creatures ventured onto land, that I needed to prepare for many new arrivals. I wasn't sure why, until it happened.

Life was furious. An asteroid had come, and I had received so many of her creations.

"Why have you done this, Death?"

"I didn't set the event in motion, Life, I simply take them when they are ready."

"That's bullshit, you just want all of these beautiful creatures to yourself until eventually there's none left."

"That isn't true."

"Yes it is!"

"If it were true, would I not have taken all of them during the asteroid? Or the cold? Look around you, I know you can't see it but there are many of them still left. Jellyfish in the ocean!"

She snorted "jellyfish are hardly my most complex creation."

"Okay well what about those mammals? The ones that walk on the two legs and use the sticks to kill things?"

She considered this for a moment "they survived?"

"Yes, you'd be surprised how difficult it is for them to meet me."

"Perhaps I should go and help them."

I nodded.

She hesitated for a second.

"Have you ever thought about joining them?" She asked, watching curiously as one of them created a fire.

"Joining them?"

"Well, you know we exist as forces everywhere at once. But what if we decided to take on a corporeal form for a little bit, let our energy do our job while our consciousness resides in a body."
"Body? Which one would you choose? There's so many, and are some of them even capable of holding consciousness?" I thought about jellyfish, they don't even have brains. How could a creature possibly be able to host Her?

"Humans, of course!"
"Oh, so you'd actually go?"

"It wouldn't be forever, nothing is forever." She responded, sighing. I couldn't help but feel guilty.

"We are."

"Are we?" And with that, she disappeared. Despite life continuing, Her absence was noticeable.