Death glanced around again, holding her sythe.
"So... why are you here?" Lucas asked a little warily. Sure this odd woman was a 'friend' but..
"Business... I am sorry Lucas, but I must go.. there is reaping to do," Death gave an enigmatic smile. The gothic woman left, with a furl of her dark cloak.
"Wait-" Lucas said. But it was too late... Death was gone.
Death observed the new world, that was a reflection of all human thought and ideas... the tapestry of existence itself. A world where all things existed, personified... Anthropomorphised...
Humans brought Her here. they always did, leading Her by the hand as much as She lead them to other worlds. For so long this place had been static, existing in it's own quantum bubble. Though now, it was alive, living, breathing... so now... they could die.
"Who will be my first," Death wondered. She had taken so many.. but there was always something special about the first.
"hm, an imaginary being," Death mused but certainly not dismissive. All beings deserved the same level of care to Her when the end came. "Esme the Catling... the hour has come, I am here for you." The dark robed Gothic woman took out the engraved symbol of Esme's existence... what appeared to be a .. dungeons and dragons character sheet? Two of three crosses had been made on a line saying 'death saves'. The ink was so dark, it was almost burning the page in Her hand, as the sound of a heartbeat could be heard, slowly poisoned. "Six seconds left." Death observed with eternity in the shadows, the final roll of the die that was about to be made. When that final hour is strike, this sheet of paper that chronicled the creatures life would be gone...
At least that was the plan, until the pesudo magic girl six rolled the six sided die. It formed a strange barrier.
Death gasped. It was.. surprising. A little too surprising. She didn't like surprises, (unless they came from Lucas.) The dark woman had a reputation to maintain, after all. With this in mind, the shadow revealed herself, staring intently at the creature she was to end- protected and warded, by a cube of glowing light, where time had frozen within.
Esme was frozen. The strange Time-Cube enveloped her in a glowing neon energy of a magic-girl. The cat-girl's body, close to the verge of death. She was as still as a statue, unmoving... unblinking.
Cliff, her twin stared at her. It was a strange sight to see. Someone so close to her, who had taught her everything about being this... creature. Not only that, but memories- real memories existed of being her sister, and.. growing up together? How was that even possible? She didn't know, but it was hard to deny any of those memories.
Leslie was tense as he observed the use of magic. "How.. long can you keep that up?" asked the elderly human finally. He didn't know what the principles of magic were, but.. everything must have a charge, a limit.. and holding back time itself, must take a powerful amount.
Byran looked in wonderment at what she had done. The instinct just... kicked in to the little girl. She got lucky. Very lucky. "I- I don't know... Jack? How does the magic work?"
"Damned if I know." Jack said taking out her own die. "It's random... I can't make it do anything intentionally. Magic girl Six has the worst possible weapon."
"Now is really not the time-" Leslie started. But then the dark shadow appeared. A chill in the air, and the most foreboding presence the elderly human had ever seen. They were in the presence of Death Herself.
"... this is against the rules," Death explained. "You can not use your power, to subvert me... forever... Bryan."
The entire group became paralysed. What exactly does one do, when they see a woman in gothic attire, holding a scythe?
" who are you?" Leslie demanded.
".. Death," the woman explained.
"Weren't you male?" Leslie asked lifting an eyebrow.
The woman nodded. "Yes... this time, I'm female. Maybe Gaia will become a male in this age?" she chuckled mirthfully. "my physical form is quite irrelevant to my role... though perhaps it is simply because so many woman have become men, that men are no longer stigmatised? I am after all, made in the image of what a person believes me to be... and this form is quite natural to me."
Cliff, Esme's physical twin, was staring at the being that she loathed... absolutely loathed. Death... Death... the creature that took her father, and was now about to take.. her sister? Her eyes became wild when she saw that character sheet in her hand. Leslie was taken aback by the fury in her eyes.. Jack was so startled she actually fell back... it was only Bryan that was holding her nerve, using the weapons of magic girl Six to keep Death away.
Bryan held out her die. "I'm.. I'm a magic girl! I have to keep you away! I gotta.. protect..."
" not a real Number, child... not a real one." Death said softly shaking her head as she pressed her hand onto the cube encasing Esme. Death now existed inside the time-cube, easily moving as if time was flowing. "Esme.. the Catling. Your time is..." She waited. Death was patient... very patient. She glanced at Cube, waiting for time to flow in. Like a dam that was taking in too much water, soon it would burst...
"I won't let you take her!" Said Cliff. "I made her.. I created her... she's alive because of me. Me!" she gritted her teeth.
" Indeed. As were, all the others..." nodded Death taking out a list from within her robes. A list of so many names.
"What is She talking about Cliff?" said Leslie, keeping a very close eye on this... phantom. Was this really... the Grim Reaper? She placed a protective hand over young Bryan. She didn't want the girl to even 'look' at her...
Death then waved her hand, the shadows enveloped the entire group, blocking out all sight for a brief moment. They were now in a graveyard and It had suddenly become night. The moon was full, and there was a wind. Always the wind blowing. A place of eternal darkness.. and emptiness. Lost hope, and the endings of a great many stories.
"You recognise this place, Cliff?" Whiskered Death to the young cat-girl's ear.
" my graveyard," Cliff said, her pointed ears twitching. She looked at each tombstone. "Talbert.. the Knight.. Alanon, the elf... Medrin, the Healer..." The little cat-girl looked at them all. There was one freshly dug here. "Esme.. the catling," Cliff closed her eyes. She felt herself shaking.
"I don't understand," Leslie said looking at the dark scene. "These... were just fictional characters? Esme was never real?"
Cliff looked to the human angrily. "She was to me! They... all were... " Cliff swallowed. She looked at Death then at her friends. "When.. when my father died, I... I I kind of made a lot of characters. I guess- I was just finding some way to cope with it." She cried quietly looking at all the graves. She had seen each of their lives, made decisions for them in the worlds they existed in. The cat-girl looked at the sheer bewildering number of tombs. There had to be hundreds of them.. so many.. She brought them to life, created their story... and watched as each of them were betrayed by friends, murdered, or sacrificed themselves... but never did any of them achieve what he sought. None of them became heroes...
.. none of them could fight that darkness, she saw in her mind.
Death nodded. "I have always been rather close to Cliff," she said with a saddened look. "I wanted to leave of course... but he- well.. 'she', never let go..."
Cliff looked down on one of the gravestones. "They were part of me... I.. I made them live. I wanted them to live. In my mind, they were alive... so very alive. I saw their lives... it was nicer then living my own."
" and here, they are alive- well... were..." Death noted. "I am summoned... for their end. Esme has no soul, of course. But there is a.. fleeting existence. I must take that which makes her unique... that spark of life you infused... it is now time to let this one go..."
"No!" Cliff repeated. "I'll do anything. Don't do this!"
Leslie decided to shake cliff picking the cat girl up. "Cliff! She's a fictional character! Just someone you made. Stop being so melodramatic! You can make another."
"You don't understand! I didn't want her- I treated her like crap! But she was alive as much as all the others I made. The others I... let down. I need this one to live. Just this one! Please Death... don't take her... I... I can't create another one like her..." He never could. He knew that once Death claimed her...
Death groaned. "Oh, you mortals.. you always seem to place significance on the strangest of things. I can't exactly bend a rule... though I suppose I have to wonder, what did your healer get burred with..."
At this Cliff's eyes lit up. He went to the gravestone of 'Medrin', and started digging at it with her own paws. Leslie looked aghast at the grim scene... until finally, Cliff found a golden ring of some kind. Of course the cat-girl knew exactly what this was...
Death tilted her head a little. "Well, I suppose that's one character that didn't die for nothing... hm? I'll wait... in case it does not work..."
