FATE

Deformation

It had been a month since the tragic news. Natural death was it no more, as the soot covered fingers of the shadows of the darkness choked the minuscule human to death. Such dark, tainted soul was the first of which Death had come across.

Nancy's body was found after numerous search parties across the world in Aokigahara, also known as the Suicide Forest or Sea of Trees, a forest on the northwestern flank of Japan's Mount Fuji. Nobody would have thought of looking there, as there are countless numbers of corpses decorating the trees, grounds and branches. It oozed of death, making it the perfect place to hide a body of which wasn't to be found. The angel guard would not have suspected the area, but Alecander ordered them to search every inch of land present on earth.

Nancy had been murdered by a witch so powerful that Death himself felt intimidated by her presence. He wanted to help the kind woman out so much, but his obligations told him otherwise.

Had they performed the autopsy beforehand, they would have noticed the black petroleum-like substance engulfing the pits of her stomach. They would have also found pieces of the stone itself if they were quick enough to realise that the woman was too healthy for her Death to be ruled out as natural.

Nancy was no ample human, that was for sure.
I still had not found out how she had her fate entwined with my angel's, but I was adamant on finding out for the sake of her upmost safety. My angel was so heartbroken, but her presence at The Cove alongside Alecander put her soul at ease. Her Godmother had always told her stories of mighty prince Alecander; he was one to save her, a damsel in distress. Little did she -and I- know, more than one entity would be protective of the tiny, frail woman.

Hilaeria had planned this all out; the pureness itself refused to let a soul similar to hers perish, so she pulled all strings she could to prevent that from happening. Alongside Alecander and Cupid, who resented my decision, she found a way in which I would dare go against my own word, to change destiny itself. A woman so kind played the cruelest of games, leaving me shorn of options. I had been awake for weeks with the sole goal of finding a way to reverse my own decision, which was now etched into the compendium. It's rather ironic, Fate being unable to control his own self. The sweet, nectar like torment of seeing her so alive, yet helpless, is tearing my insides apart.

I had requested that her very needs get satisfied. Out of guilt, I had kept my distance. I could not handle getting attached to the one I have let slip right between the cervixes of my fingers. Her laughter and proximity were barely enough to keep my soul at bay. However, I could not bring myself to be selfish enough as to get her attached to a man who was anything but the one she had imagined in her dreams and fantasies. It was hard enough to look into her mesmerising eyes and not cherish the beauty of the creature walking the halls of the Cove.

One month, five days, six hours and twenty three minutes into the torturous task that is living under the same roof as her, she approached me, a broken look etched on her face.

"Am I not enough?" She whispered, voice barely audible, "Is it because you have bedded many women of which share a beauty and grace that I do not, because I'm a weak being whose targeted by my own family, or because you deem me not worthy of being with you? Please, I beg you pardon, spare me! Tell me why!"

Her voice was rising by the minute, hurt enlacing each and every word coming out of her luscious lips; so distracting that I barely deciphered her words.

"Hell, even your womaniser friend, Chaos, spared me a second glance. You did not; merely impartial of my presence. Doesn't my touch affect you like it does me; an ample brush of the shoulders driving me crazy?"

Her hand, just like the day we met, grazed my cheek. I caved into the touch, inching closer to her. I closed my eyes and held my breath, trying to regain what was left of my composure.

"Please," she whispered, "tell me why."

A single tear rolled down her cheek. With my thumb, I wiped it off. I was not prepared for the waterfall that followed, and was broken by how strongly my actions had affected her. I held her red face in the coarseness of my hands, wiping each solemn drop threatening to fall.

One month, five days, six hours and twenty eight minutes later, I held my angel in an embrace. No words, but silent sobs erupting from two broken souls; two broken hearts of which yearned for one another's. Two unfortunate beings who were struggling to hold on to the smallest glimmer of hope. But, for me, there was no hope. She was too good for me, quite simply. She was perfection embodied into a being. She was my angel, my Erelah.