Taint, Time and Tangents✔️

EXTRA 5. The Death God

∞ ONE ∞

I heard crunching sounds behind me, breaking of twigs and rolling of stones. I turned and saw a pair of muddy boots stopping before me.

"So you're here, motherfucker." A cold voice pierced the wind. It was so cold that it could send chills in any one's spine but not on me. First, I didn't have a spine and second, I was so used to it. "I've been looking all over for you and here you are... a fucking flower again."

"I love it," I said with silent words that I know he would still hear. I looked over the dark valley, the shining lights from a city below and the twinkling stars above. Yes, I really enjoyed being a flower in this spot. I didn't get bored even what I did every day is to do some photosynthesis – inhale carbon dioxide here and exhale oxygen there- and provide home for butterflies and bees – well, more like, letting them step on me.

"Is this what, your 10000th life?" He crouched beside me, his red eyes also looking over the valley past the city – probably counting how many lives he would kill tonight.

"I lost count already. But it's either odd or even."

He chuckled, his long straight black hair fluttering slightly against his waist as a biting wind passed over us. "Dumbass."

"Why are you here? You finally want to confess your sins and be a saint?"

"Mr. White Flower, I'd have to eat million pussies and suck dicks before I would ever think to do that." He stood up and walked over a damp rock on the edge of the cliff. "I'm bored."

"That's new."

He shrugged. "I lost him... my best protégé."

I knew who he meant. "Give the guy a break. He's too young."

"But he had killed millions in two fucking years - the best record I've ever seen in my life." His lips retracted, showing off his fangs, as excitement flowed within him. The pair of red horns on his forehead shone even brighter as if blood were pumped into them. He must be remembering those nights of murder.

As I looked back, the Hawksworths were really something. They had executed all the killings without second thoughts. Three might be their head but Ezekiel was the one at the center of the bloodbath. The number of lives he had taken as a Hawskworth were already over a million and after he gave his heart to Nine, he even tripled them. 

And worse, his emotions were slowly being eaten as the relentless fangs of murder latch on his veins.

Maybe that was what pushed Nine to choose the angel's kiss. Even if it was painful for both of them, it might be for the best.

"I'm surprised you agreed to break the contract," I said, recalling how Ezekiel approached him to remove his Sicarian form. He was the only survivor of Hawskworths making him the only living creature who has that demonic form.

"Well, I have to get on his good side. He'll also be a Death God sooner or later," Thany replied and looked over at me. "Tell your dickhead friends Ezekiel will be mine on his afterlife. They are million years away of making him a fucking angel."

If I have a shoulder, I could have shrugged already. I didn't even know what the other Amaranths were thinking. They were always checking up on him and making sure he was safe. I even heard that Seven was studying for potions that could make him an Amaranth. But I couldn't tell them that whatever they do, it was the Highest that would make the final decision if She would give him red wings.

Knowing the number of souls he has brought to oblivion – I guess it was close to impossible.

"Is that why you kept on whispering to him these past years?" I asked.

He laughed loudly, obviously proud of himself.

I could still remember how Ezekiel tried to kill himself twice by drinking Wolfsbane. And in those two times, I saw the idiot Thany on his side urging him on. He might have been the one who told him how to procure Wolfsbane. 

But in the end, he was able to survive. I heard that Six and Eight didn't even sleep for three days just to pray for him.

Thany looked up the sky, raising his bony right hand on the air. "He's almost on my hands that night. But his willpower is so damn strong."

"He doesn't want her to be lonely. She sacrificed a lot for him to live."

He seemed to not hear me. "And the sluts down there were waiting to have a piece of his meat, such a waste."

He looked at his trembling hand – putting on some drama – before he closed them into a fist. He then sighed and relaxed his arms.

"Well, I'm gonna go." He turned to me and produced a large scythe on his right hand. "You want me to kill you now?"

I swayed with the air. It must be weird if someone saw us. A death God preparing to cut a flower. "Not yet. I'm waiting for something."

He nodded and shook his arm – his scythe disappearing in thin air. "Just call me if you wanna end your shitty life as a goddamn flower." He then placed the black hood over his head. "And your goddamn hair's coming off." He swatted a couple of white feathery petals that landed on his shoulder.

"That's my seed. And it will grow back."

He smirked at me, his face full of malice. "The only seed I know is liquid."

He then disappeared in a second.

I looked at the sky, still swaying as midnight air danced with me. My seed slowly being plucked to float with the breeze. 

Not yet.

My gaze then fell on the round table at the middle of the cliff. Shadows of dried petals and used candles were on top of it, waiting.

Not yet. Another year won't probably hurt. I still want to see them together.

Maybe it's not so wrong to keep hoping.

 ∞