The Doomsday Book

Chapter 11

My friend was right. Downtown was way worse than the countryside. Buildings were crumbled with bricks and metal scraps scattered throughout like a tornado had hit hard. The smell of rotten eggs added to the disgusting stench of burnt flesh and tar. Bodies laid on the floor. Some were fresh, some bloody, some charred, and others mangled beyond recognition. The acid rain kept the flies away from the bodies, but not the maggots. I noticed not all of the bodies were adults. Children and babies, both next to their family or alone, laid in a similar state as everyone else.

Delta gagged. "The smell," she muttered, face turning pale.

My stomach twisted as I fought the urge to heave out the contents. "It's not their time yet."

"Poor bastards."

"At least they've got a smoking hot bod now," I joked.

Delta arched a brow.

"Too soon?"

"You think!"

I gave a sheepish grin to apologize.

"What are you two doing here alive?!"

We turned to see a woman, almost identical to the Fate of the Future, standing with her arms crossed and a calligraphy pen in hand. Her greyest eyes are just like her sister's, yet she was slightly shorter with broader shoulders. A piece of her hair ended in abrupt shortness, unaffected by the rain as her sister. I suddenly noticed that she was staring right at me with a glaringly cold gaze.

"Don't think I forgot about your little greeting." She swept the short chunk of hair away from her eyes.

"Yeah, sorry about that." My blades slid out in earnest. "But that's all in the past now, isn't it?"

"Oh, dear Reaper, I am the Past!" she seethed.

"Uh oh," Delta muttered.

"What? Why are you so tense?" I asked just as quietly.

"She's the Past, Kiara. We weren't exactly lavished with parties and presents."

"Tell me you didn't just make a damn pun."

"Sorry. Couldn't help myself." The Shadow drew her saber from nowhere. "Future has the Book, so we better get slashing."

"You think your fancy stick's gonna kill me?" Past scoffed. "Haven't you learned your lesson from last time?"

"Didn't... didn't God create you at the same time as the Leviathans and the Great Despairing Creatures?" I asked.

"We exceed God," she replied arrogantly.

Delta was unimpressed. "Okay, in all my life, that is honestly a very cliched thing for a narcissistic son of a bitch to say, next to them announcing that they actually are God."

The Fate growled, slashing the air with her calligraphy pen. Glowing ink stuck itself into the wind and flew at us like a boomerang. I tried cutting it with my scythe, but all it did was get my blade stained by the golden color. It quickly melted into what looked like normal black ink. Glancing sideways, I noticed Delta in the same situation with her saber.

"Show me your deepest regrets, your darkest memories," the Fate said, as if she sat upon a throne of gold and jewels, waiting for a dozen or more servants to carry out her every wish.

My vision grew fuzzy. I started to understand why Delta was so tense around the Fate. Images flashed in my head like a glitched slideshow of the darkest moments in my life, including Fahrr's death.

I gasped, snapping out of whatever I was forced to see. I turned to see Delta covering her eyes with her shaking hands, hardly catching any tears that spilled anyways. She was muttering erratically under her breath in different languages. I caught a couple phrases in Greek and Latin and perhaps Spanish as well (with no understanding of the last one). My hands fisted against the hard asphalt.

"You know, you're one of the only few who've actually managed to snap out of my spell that quickly," the Fate of the Past told me.

My muscles tensed as I pushed myself off my knees. "Yeah, well, I deal with these feelings all the time. Time doesn't heal, but it does a damn good job at making coping slightly more bearable."

Past smirked. "Your friend over there doesn't seem to be faring as well."

Somehow, I was suddenly in front of the Fate, fist colliding with her cheek. I'm pretty sure something was at least fractured from such a direct hit. The Fate was too shocked to dodge or counter, falling onto the floor with a thud.

Delta gasped like I did when she returned, breathing out a slow breath. "Okay, now I'm pissed."