Death of a God

Gods die. And when they truly die they are unmourned and unremembered.

***

I twisted my blade deeper into the abdomen of the being before me. The gut wrenching, splattering noise of black blood flooding my hands reached my ears. The hands grasping my shoulders slipped down, falling lifeless to the side. There was a heavy weight on my chest where the being wearing the face of a man I once knew and loved collapsed.

My knees buckled beneath the combined weight of two grown men and I landed hard on the rocky ground. Sharp gasps punctured the air. Oh. They were mine.

"Why?" a bloody voice rasped into my ear. I let go of the dagger now buried inside him, folding my arms around his back in the mockery of an embrace. I held his weight securely against me, blackness pouring over both of us.

"You", I whispered. There was a ragged intake of breath and his body shuddered.

"I can't die", he forced out.

"Yes, you can." A hand reached out to raise his head, pulling it away from my shoulder. I held it there, securely, and made myself look into those familiar brown eyes, now pitch black. They were blank, expressionless like painted glass. I could not find a hint of anger, of pain or surprise in them. There was not a single emotion in those eyes, one more sign to show how far he had fallen. The sight of them pierced my already mutilated heart.

"Gods are as alive as any being, as alive as you and me", I recited from memory, my eyes blinking back the tears threatening to overcome me. "They are born and they die. And when they truly die they are unmourned and unremembered."

The being that once was my best friend squirmed in my arms. I had to hurry. My hand slipped down from his face, back into the black, bloody mess between us. I grasped at his clothes, his shirt before my fingers closed around that slim, blessed blade.

"And", I gasped, "and the only way for a god to die is to die completely alone. With-" and here my voice faltered, a lump stuck in my throat. "With no one to believe in him."

For one second those black, blank eyes focused on me, taking in my desperate appearance, sweat glistening on my brows, the blood, both red and black, that was stuck to my hair and the tears that were now streaming down on both sides of my face. Dammit. It seemed I couldn't hold those in after all. I let out a shaky laugh.

"But you're still here", he said, uncomprehending.

"Exactly", I whispered, a tiny smile playing around the corner of my mouth. And before I had time to question my determination, I plunged the dagger right into my stomach.