Dead Lines

40: Future Meets Past

Unedited.

Chapter Forty

This body of ours was cumbersome. Heavy. Out of sorts. The world swirling around us tight, overwhelming, and saturated in fear. Death. Everything cried out at once, begging for an end. But no end came. Not yet.

We blink up at the ceiling, trying to resituate ourselves. The weapon was still impaled our gut and life drained out of us with each drop of blood.

"What," our voice sounded feminine and deep, "have you done?"

We spoke in old and every tongue. Every language swirled into one. Caelus bent over us, his eyes a sharp green, and brushed at our forehead. Love poured out of his touch but this body shoved at the emotion. We reached up to remove his hand but he caught our wrist instead.

"Slowly," he suggested. "It'll take a few moments to adjust."

"Get the knife out. You're killing this body-"

We glanced down and saw what he had done to us. The Nothing coated the blade, filtering in and out of the wound, drenched in our blood.

"I'm making you immortal," Caelus corrected. "You're tainted with humanity."

He wants us like him. Lifeless. Emotionless. We had to get the blade out. Had to end this madness. But we'd lost too much blood. We were weak, lightheaded, clumsy. We reached over to grab the handle but he caught that hand too, placing it back at our side.

"A few more moments," he bargained. "Then you can remove it."

"Caelus-"

"With your blood," he brushed some more at our hairline, "we shall raze this world and start anew. Just the two of us."

We shook our head with slowness. "No. It's not what I want."

His expression turned hard. "They're destroying it."

"You're destroying it," we said with venom. "Raising monsters that have no business seeing the light of day. Destroying innocent life, life we helped create."

"You helped create," he snapped. "I had nothing to do with these miserable creatures. You gave them a gift and they've squandered it. It's time to set it right."

"It is not your decision to make."

He straightened with shock. "This is the girl talking. Not you."

"You wouldn't know the sound of my voice, husband, if I whispered to you in the dark. You haven't listened in millennia."

With hatred pumping in our veins, speeding up the slow and washing away the weakness, we tore out the weapon and swiped at him. He cried out in surprise and stumbled back, clutching at his arm. Golden blood dripped between his fingers. He looked from it to us with disbelief.

"This is what you want!" he hissed. "You just don't know it yet."

"I wanted to slumber. I wanted to keep your monstrosities locked away. If you think this world is bad, you'll be appalled with what's to come next. This can of worms you've opened will take centuries to clean up."

We wielded the blade with precision, assessed his weaknesses. How quickly would this be over? He would put up a fight. This plan of his had been in play since the beginning. He won't let it fail without a battle.

"I did this for you. It was your voice whispering-"

"Drawing you out so I could get what I wanted." We slid the blade around our hand. "You're the reason we were all banished. These gods didn't trust us because of your abuse of power and with your final death, all will be set to rights."