CHAPTER TWO
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"Now wasn't that just exquisite, Katherine?"
"It was! The actors were remarkable!"
Shifting through a large crowd of people pouring from a grand building, a Mortem woman. Just concluding the most exquisite play, being able to relax for just a moment, made her very cheery, in fact, many of them were in the process of retiring from a grand theatre building themselves. All pouring out into the streets like a spilled pitcher of water. Among the crowd was a Mortem woman by the name of Katherine and her long known friend.
"Goodness, it's cold out here... What are you planning to do, Madam? Heading home?"
Katherine nodded. "Yes... I'm working on a good one, now, better get back to it!"
Her friend looked away, smiling, and bobbing her head. She affixed her overcoat and replied frankly. "My... You have been working on that elixir for months now..."
"I'm telling you, I think I'm starting to perfect it!" she replied with a bright smile.
"Oh, I bet!"
Her friend stepped down from the snowy concrete onto the crosswalk and resumed her step. "We'll, see you, Katherine!" The two exchanged waves, and split. The woman stepped from the concrete and proceeded down the path to her residence. Artificial flurries of snow, only the small beginning of the storm that belonged to the moon phases in the sky. Three large and bright spheres that lit the Tier with milky and an indescribably beautiful light. They brought and changed the weather regularly, and this phase called for snow like a perfect recipe. Tiny makeshift flurries fell from the sky like bird feathers rocking to the ground. The soft snowfall drifted down from the sky and down toward her, but when it reached Katherine's head, somehow it fled around and simply fluttered to the ground. The young found herself in deep speculation.
" I wonder what she's working on..." The smile widened. "Probably a sleep potion! That woman hasn't had a moment of sleep for fifteen thousand years!" Katherine turned a sharp corner, and advanced into an alley, a shortcut to her home.
"I wouldn't be surprised if-" Turning down the alley, Miss. Katherine was persistent to complete the shortcut. The single thing that prevented her even footsteps, was a body. The sudden sight was unbelievable and surprising to any pair of eyes. A human body lying flat on the alley concrete and appearing dead, and she rushed to it. The flurries collected on the already chilled face.
"Oh, my..." The young woman was pale, and she did not move, and how rare it was to see such sights on Mortem streets. It felt as if the moons in the sky leered on only those two. The single thing that crossed Katherine's mind was to shake the woman's shoulder. The hope for a response was dire. No movement, but the colors in her lips changed back into a soft peachy color, and her cheeks began to redden.
"M-ma-am...a-are you alright?!"
"H-huh..? Wh-w"
The corpse woman mumbled a bit, and in a slow motion, she dragged her eyes open, only to awaken to Katherine over her, no longer appearing like the dead body she once was. The woman tried to speak and sit up, failing horribly at it. Instantaneously her arm shot out like a revolver bullet, and her hand contracted into a claw like gesture into the air. She was choking. Sudden movement from the body frightened the Mortem undoubtedly for no one did such things. A freakishly unusual noise came from her throat and her cheeks like roses turned into cheeks like that of a violet. Onto her knees the Mortem now sat. The horrifying realization was quick and harsh. The body was gasping for air.
Her next reaction drastically changed the human's life, doing the exact opposite as a human would expect death to do. Saved her life. Cupping the human's mouth and nose with a large hollow hand, Katherine physically pumped oxygen into the human's lungs. Looking for passerbys that could get the Mortem in trouble for doing this, Katherine prayed for a sign of life, and that soon came with gratefulness. Gradually, the human's eyes rolled back into place and Death felt the suction of the humans breaths beneath her palm. An air breather meant trouble. Katherine knew this. A gasp and a cough, abruptly, the young human woman stopped herself and swallowed, regulating, and finally catching her breath after much time. Unusual noises the Mortem had never fathomed of hering in her time blossomed and flooded her ears. The human woman wiped her mouth with her handkerchief and slipped it back into her pocket, quickly and subtly. Excitement partly took the place of fear now. The exchange of looks between the two blatantly revealed confusion and fear and awe in their eyes. The two exchanged various emotions, reactions, feelings. Light blue. Unusual color for eyes. They locked on the Mortem like unfathomable pools. Katherine's sharp unnatural teeth, slightly made her uneasy when the kind lady who saved her smiled. Now, what was the point in having flat dull teeth? You couldn't rip a single thing open with those. The two were contrasting in almost every way and it grew apparent. Not a single vein pumping in Katherine's body, unlike the woman whose heart was rapidly beating in her human chest like the trot of a carriage horse.
