The Lovely Death of Nicole V.

WHITE OR GREY OR BLACK

It was strange to call the thing above his head a "sky". 

The Blur didn't seem to hold that concept. It didn't look like a sky, it didn't feel like a sky. There was no sun or moon, so there was no day or night. There was no cloud of puff and no cloud of rain, so there was no weather to care at al. There was just that thing above his head. It was too close to be a sky, but too far to be anything else.  So everybody called it a sky, because there was no better name for it and after all, nobody had time to come up with another one.

Death was nearly distracted watching the fuss of people walking about, when the "sky" began to glow. Lights of red, blue and purple shining left to right. Lights of green and yellow and pink, going right to left. They were running, they were wandering, they were lost. Of all things in the Blur, this was by far, the most dazzling one. 

The disordered light show went on for a few minutes. Most dwellers slowed their pace to watch the espectacle a little better. Nobody truly stopped, but they took their time. Death couldn't help but wonder to himself, what each of those minds was thinking. Maybe they were having thoughts of humanity, thoughts of beauty and pain, of romance and lies. Or maybe they weren't thinking at all. 

They could just be watching for the habit. Though there was no nature in the Blur, this felt like a memory of it. The ring of a natural phenomenom, spinning and swirling above them like an impossible hurricane, in a land with no wind. 

It was strong and bold, and after a second of no change, it began to earn it's name. 

The Fall. 

All the vivid lights and all the bright colors suddenly understood their place. They gathered up, like a murder of crows, like the iron and the magnet, like water to more water. They joined themselves, and at a speed no eye could catch, they stormed across the sky that was no sky, and rumbled to the ground. That plain, even, predictable ground of the Blur.

Death never imagined how parenting was supposed to feel. He had only seen it happening when it happened to him, when he first came along and was received by a gentle someone. He remembered when he first came down, so afraid and so weak. Waking up surrounded by strangers in a very strange place was not what he expected. And above all reason he did not expect to be naked while doing it. What a poor thing that is. 

The screaming soon began. All those pretty lights, now uncovered, had turned into legs and feet and arms and teeth. Full dwellers, each of them, even though none had a clue of what that could possibly mean. They had just realized they were all in a new place, surrounded by nothing familiar. So they screamed, because there was the irrational knowledge that when in face of something unknown, screaming is the only appropriate response.

Death wondered if he had patience for teaching it all to someone. He wondered if he had time for it. He wondered if he had time at all.

The white bag in his hands was supposed to hold everything needed for a newcomer. But in most of those bags "everything" was resumed to the clothing and nothing else, which, to say the least, was not sufficient. Yet, it had it's purpose. No Darling would ever like to see a naked body from a strange place poppin' up in the room. So, clothing was, to say the most, necessary.

After a few seconds of shouting, the screaming lot was a little bit calmer now. Very little. Death decided to walk to them. After all, if he was to father someone, it would not be by waiting on his shoes. Each step he took, he paid more and more attention to the faces before him. He expected one of them would make sense and he would know. Just like most in the Blur, he expected it to be just and fair.

But the closer he came, the less he grasped of those tiny bodies and those strange faces. They all seemed to him like nothing at all, they all bared the posture of misbelief, the face of clueless and the eyes of resistence. Neither of them was fit for what was to come. Neither of them would do. 

So Death waited a little bit longer, and as he did, he promised himself he would not allow this child to rip him off the attention he was to give Nicole. Not now, not ever.

Other parents came along. Each of them with a bag, each of them with a pack of clothes. Some of them touched the clothing and simply understood who their new child was. Death discretly tried to do so, but felt no difference at all. It was just clothes, folded in a bunch. No magic whatsoever.

More parents came. They came in packs, groups, teams, herds, and they all left with their own new pet. Sure they were big enough to look like grown adults, but they were pets, unknowing and needing pets. Some of the new parents starred at Death for a few seconds, wondering what he was doing, standing still where he was. Death didn't care. He would not make a fool of himself looking for a child he didn't know, and above all didn't want. He would wait.

Waiting, he could secretly think of Nicole, and secretly try to make the best of her days. Waiting he would try to guess the life of "the other girls" and maybe realize a way to finish the madness of this. Usually, everyone of his thoughts led to the same conclusion: Nicole was weak and vulnerable, the other girls were just beasts in the jungle. All that was happening was a natural thing. 

The girls believed in the right and wrong kind of people, and they had been harshly raised to be the right people. So, it made no sense to them that a foolish weak little thing like Nicole V. could come into their lives being so wrong. So it was the girls's job to do what beasts do. They would cut and bite and rip, until all there was left of Nicole was what they expected her to be. 

The way sees it, Nicole had two choices in this: either become them or overcome them. She tried the first one, as soon as she came into the new school. But Nicole couldn't quite get their jokes and couldn't quite make them laugh. Then one day, with no particular or obvious reason, she became the school's clown. Now she wishes she would get them to stop laughing. Death wishes he could...

–Mister... – a voice said, not so far and not so close. It came from a naked body a few feet away from him – Everyone else is gone.

Death looked around. The naked body was right. There was nothing where there used to be a mass of newcomers and a rush of new parents.  The naked body starred at the bag in Death's hands. Shame and embarassment was glittering in those eyes. Death felt the rising urge of letting it stay there. The Blur had no place for shame, Death had no place for embarassment. Nobody cared that the naked body was naked, except of course, the naked body.

– Did you come for me? – the body looked around – Everybody else left with someone. – there was a shiver over the body, a resolution of fear –They came and they were... did you...

– Yes.– Death answered, relunctantly. But he was to father someone, he was not to deal with foolish behaviors like fear – You're gonna come with me and I'm gonna teach you the happenings of this place. It's easy but it takes time.– The body said nothing. Death felt the weight of the bag in his hands. He could be evil and throw the bag away. But Death didn't like the stung of being evil, so he threw the bag at the body's feet. His feet. The body was a boy, he could sense it now though there was no evidence of it – Hurry up. We don't have a lifetime.

The body dressed as fast he possibly could, and with a new calmness to his eyes, looked at Death as if it was his entire world. Death felt a severe urge of running away, but if he did, there would be punishment and Nicole needed him at her side. Nicole was bigger than anything.

– First things first. – Death said– You don't have a Darling yet, so you don't have a name. Until your Darling calls upon you, I have to call you something. Your clothes are your options. What will it be?

–  My Darling? 

Death smirked. He didn't know he still had smirks in him.

– You can choose White or Grey or Black. For your name. What will it be?

– What? 

– You have to stop asking new questions and answering the only one I've asked you first. What will your name be?

The body stopped for a terribly long moment. It seemed like he would break into tears. Death had never seen anybody crying at Blur, but he recognized the half frown and the nervous lips. Nicole had that look everytime she called for him.

– Grey. – the body said then, with sudden clarity. – I like Grey.