Dance with the Devil

Prologue

27/08/2007 

The metal of the car protruded from all angles and the large gash in the girl's side was evident to her from the moment she stirred. Her arms began moving and her face contorted from the pain. As she moved, she could feel the blood drain from her face and exit the wound at her side. Her eyes began to droop as the blood loss started to affect her small body.

"Julia!! Julia!! Wake up baby girl! Don't go to sleep yet! I'm going to fix this, I promise. Just stay awake a little longer." Lucille, the girl's mum shouted, doing her best to break through the haze of her daughter's mind. Knowing exactly who was shouting, the little girl stirred a little more, scared and fearful and on some deep level of consciousness, knowing what was going to happen to her.

"Mummy." She choked out, tears running clean paths through the dirt on her cheeks before evaporating on the hot metal of the car. Her mother's face began to mirror her own as she looked at her daughter's broken and mangled body. Lucille watched as the flames seemed to dance around her, not once burning Julia. Still, the flames would not be her death, that gash on her side though, that had punctured something vital.

"No." she choked out. "What's the point of having power if I can't save the ones I love?"

Lucille closed her eyes and took a deep breath, summoning power she hadn't felt since she arrived in The Barren World. That look of hopelessness transformed into something else. Pure determination. Slowly, she stood and placed her hands on the burning metal of the wreck and immediately the crumpled car began to unfold, and the flames began to die down. Blood dripped from Lucille's nose and as it sizzled on the still hot metal, she knew she was pushing herself too far. Looking similar to what it once did, the car stopped shifting back and Lucille turned her attention to Julia.

The girl's mum shifted her hands and focused on her daughter's side and the wound began to close slowly. Julia's mum stumbled forward, her eyes beginning to see double, the magic backlash affecting her in ways she'd never experienced. She'd summoned the magic too quickly, hadn't prepared properly and let her emotions. The little girl closed her eyes, somehow recognising her inevitable death.

The girl's mum, linked to her daughter since birth, listened as the heart of her most cherished possession slowed and stopped, and with that too-soon stop, a second heart broke. A scream and a roar louder than thought possible ripped through the skies and tore apart the night. The stars shuddered with a mother's loss and the earth shied from the source. Within her, darkness coalesced and when another scream burst from her, so did that darkness.

That darkness searched for the object on its master's mind. It crossed worlds and realms, kingdoms and cities until it found a being, darker and true to its master's wishes. It had no concept of wait or time, only that it must. So it did. It grabbed this mightily dark creature and pulled, and tugged and then pushed.

"Well, well. This is certainly interesting. Certainly not something I thought I'd ever see in my life." A sombre voice uttered from behind her. Despite its words, it was not amused or intrigued. It was a voice that knew of this loss and when Lucille turned, realisation struck her. She'd only heard stories of the previous Death but being what she was, she'd felt that shudder a couple weeks ago. A shudder that implied great change in the World of Demis.

"Save my daughter! Please! Please save her. I know who you are. I know you can do it. Please!!!"

"Death is death I'm afraid. Two will die tonight and I cannot change that." The night was silent. Fire crackled. Metal snapped. Blood spilled.

"Then take me. Take my years and give them to my daughter. She's all I have." Lucille's voice was powerful and strong in the quiet: it wasn't a hard choice to make.

"You understand, you will die if I do this."

"Of course, I understand that. Do it anyway."

"Evermoore, she will only live 10 years. Will you do this knowing that that is all she will have?"

"You know who I am?" Lucille whimpered. The hooded figure merely smiled a smile he knew she couldn't see.

"Everyone in my realm knows who you are. The only mortal to keep a life from my predecessor and myself as long as you have. Quite a feat. From her birth she was intended for death, Evermoore and though the Kings of our realm, we still could not collect. You've become somewhat infamous." Lucille looked up from the body of her dead daughter and into the darkness that shielded his face from view, hopeful. Death shook his head from his own memories and continued, "I'll accept your proposition. Your daughter will live your 10 years and you will die here tonight in her place. You have showed great courage, both tonight and many years ago and for that I promise to look after her in the coming years. Now, you must let go."

With a soft sigh, the young mother's fingers unclenched and the hold she had over herself went with it. Death placed his hands on either side of Lucille's head and from her pulled from her her soul. Lucille screamed. It was an agonising death, one that felt too similar to being skinned alive and when her body fell to the ground at his feet, Death didn't even give it a second glance as now a soul played in either of his palms.

Lucille's soul played in his left hand and Julia's soul played in his right. Death stepped over Lucille's body, knowing that was no longer where she resided, and bent so he was looking up at the young girl's face. He opened his right palm and appearing practiced, blew on the little girl's soul and watched, as the soul entered the little girl's limp body. With the re-entering of her soul, her heart started and her hair starting at the roots turned from a bloody, white waterfall cascading down her shoulder to an inky black that hung like a shadow. Using only his open palm, he checked her eyes, watching as the proof of his touch shadowed itself there.

Slowly, the little girl whose name was not true stirred, moaning groggily from the pain. The wound at her side had closed itself enough to no longer appear fatal and as she looked up at Death he felt as though he'd been shot. For when this little girl promised to death had looked up under his hood, she had pierced him. He lingered, wondering if what he had felt was true but, the soul of her mother tugged at him, telling him to leave in a not so subtle fashion.

He grappled to find words, to comfort her, to dissuade her from any negative notion but the only words that came to mind were that of warning and advice, "Remember, little girl, you have 10 years to live your life. Make the most of it."

The little girl found his eyes again and that feeling struck that maybe, just maybe she could truly see him. More than a little shaken from the feeling, he finally listened to the soul of her mother and stepped back, exiting where he entered.

From afar, the scene looked empty. Later, when paramedics arrived, they would question where they stood. They would not be able to explain how that little girl had survived and they would not be able to explain why her mother, whilst mostly unharmed had died. They would be baffled, and none would forget the frightening scene of a mother smiling after death and a child dark and grim with life.