True Nature

A Loss in the Family

We move to an alley that I decide is private for a sensitive talk. She starts. "Dad... why did you leave us for her? Didn't we make you happy? Didn't you love us?" The pain in her voice is too much. "I don't know why your father left. But I'm not him. This boy is not my son. And you are not my daughter." I can see the tears begin to form in her eyes. "What are you talking about?! Of course you're my dad! I think I would know my own father!" I try to bring her back. "I am not your father. This is only the form I took when I got to this city. I had no clue who this form was. But I'm sorry to tell you that if this form is your father then he's dead." She's visibly spinning. Understandably so. What I just said has so many implications it even boggles me. "What do you mean this form? What are you talking about?! What the fuck do you mean!?!?!?"
After she's finished yelling I explain "I am an ancient power. A being of times far before this one. This form is simply a disguise. I do not know where my forms come from. I do not pick them. At least not explicitly. What I do know is that I can not share a form with any creature that still walks this earth. If this is your father's form then he is most definitely dead. That or he is a God." She's visibly spinning. Understandably so. The implications of what I just said are endless. "So what you're telling me is that you, who look just like my father, are in fact not my dad but a being that stole his body to hide so you could... go to little tokyo?! That's bullshit." I can tell where this is going. "Watch." Is all I say before I begin to take my own form again. As ash begins to spill from my skin I grow in height and thin to bone. The girl immediately gasps. I'm impressed that she doesn't instantly run. In my true form I look much like modern depictions of the grim reaper. Taken aback she says "what are you?" I almost don't know how to answer. I search my memory for what I once was and come up blank. Only one word comes to mind. "I am an immortal."