Seduced by Death - 1

Chapter I

Day to day. Hour to hour. Someone was always dying. There were statistics amongst the humans, something along the lines of: “every thirty seconds, a child dies of malaria,” or “every twelve minutes, someone dies due to drunk driving,” or something similar. But who actually knew for sure what the real statistics were? Only Death.

Harboring many variations of the same basic shape or form, he encompassed the entire world following countless people who were meeting their end, waiting for them to finally do so. Like watching a candle burn out, all he could do was twiddle this thumbs until the fire went out. Then he went to pick up what was left.

This time was no different.

As a black crow flew across the sky, it came to land on the lamppost on the corner of a busy street. It was a busy, bustling day for everyone in the large city. People were moving about, doing there business, trying to cram in so much activity in so few hours of the day. The sound of cars competed with the chatter of people. With so much going on, it was amazing that no one had to meet their doom yet. Yet.

Though one might think in such a large, busy place accidents weren’t all that common -- everyone seemed to be very cautious of the rules of traffic and public etiquette -- this wasn’t exactly true. The bigger the city, the bigger the danger. As he walked, the people around him seemed to avoid his presence. They couldn’t see him, no one could, yet they skirted the path he walked out of instinct.

Hood drawn, hands in his pockets, Thane glanced up at the crow striding back and forth atop the lamppost as it looked down at the street with one yellow eye. As he came to the corner just below the crow, he watched as it turned its glassy eye towards the opposite side of the street. The chime of the crosswalk could be heard in the air as the signal turned green and allowed a stream of people to come forth.

Thane turned his gaze towards the humans as they came toward him and his side of the street. His eyes scanned the crowd until they landed upon a young man toward the back. He fumbled with his belongings, clumsy with his hands. He seemed to be struggling with himself, his mind occupied by everything but the traffic.

Glancing to the right at the street light as it began to change, then the left at the oncoming traffic, Thane looked back at the unfortunate man as he was knocked into by some kids who ran across the street ahead of him. He dropped his things and was forced to pick it up.

What a job this was, to see people die again and again and again. After so many years, after so many deaths, Thane was immune to the mortal sympathies that living creatures had for their own kind when they passed away. He knew nothing of crying over the death of a human or being sad. So as a driver, occupied with the phone in their hands, realized too late the man still in the middle of the road, Thane didn’t so much as flinch when contact was made in violent fashion.

He might have looked like a human, but he certainly wasn’t one. People around him wore expressions of terror, shocked and stricken by what just happened. Thane didn’t understand their reactions. He didn’t understand them in the slightest. As his eyes traveled to the man twisted upon the asphalt in a position that resembled a rag doll carelessly aside tossed by a child, Thane did not weep or ponder the “unfairness” of the man’s death as he approached and knelt by the body.

Pulling out a tube, he held it out to collect the soul just as he always did. This was his job, the only thing he knew or understood how. He collected the death and sent them on their way. He didn’t judge them in the way humans might. He didn’t care for them as if they were his own kind. He just gathered them up and went on his way. This was no different.

Capping the tube, he looked at it in the light, measured how bright or dark it was, then put it away. Taking a look at the contents of his pockets, he found the space crowded. It was time to return home to judge the batch he had collected. Fading away, he popped out of existence just as the crow cawed and took flight.

When he appeared, he stood in a room of stone and rock and moss. He sat upon a chair with a high back, before him two doorways that lead to two completely different places. A creature with large, pitless eyes and a slitted nose stood beside each doorway, reaching only four feet in height. Each creature had bony limbs and long pointed fingers, dressed in dark robes. They stood still, waiting for him act.

Thane took out the collection he had from his pockets and emptied the contents out in a basin by his feet, big enough to be a pool yet the only thing that occupied its depths were souls. The judging of souls was fairly easy for the most part. Souls dominated by either light or dark went to their respective resting places without any room for second guessing. Only those that had large mixes of greys were taken into further consideration and examined closely.

Calling these up one by one, Thane carefully examined the amount of light and dark. Measuring the value of their soul was like looking at numbers. Thane never got caught up in the sentiments of judging a soul. They were souls, not people. They didn’t have faces. They didn’t have names. They either went one way or another. Or they didn’t go anywhere at all.

Thane never pondered beyond these facts. He never judged beyond what was right in front of him, delving into what ifs or whys or hows. He just took the results, slapped on a label, then sent them on their way.

But what if he did? What if he bothered to wonder why humans did what they did? What if he took into account another level of judgement? Thane didn’t believe in the fruit of making his work harder for himself, so he didn’t understand why he would bother. He wasn’t like his cousins who were based on emotions. Anger, love, pain... he never quite got along with them because their thinking was so different.

Lately, though, he wondered what it would be like to actually grasp what it was they spoke of. He simply couldn’t comprehend the meaning of emotions and all these other unnecessaries. It always seemed so simple in his eyes. Perhaps he was wrong? Could he be wrong?

Looking at the last soul in his possession, he turned it over to gauge the vibrancy of its color. Once he decided on how bright it was, he directed it toward the doorway that led to its resting place. This left him in the silence of the room, only the few uncertainties remaining in the pool. He wasn’t sure where to put them and it always bothered him when he couldn’t easily pick a proper destination like the rest. Their souls were just too divided to flip a coin on it.

Leaning back against the chair, Thane stared at the basin at his feet for a long moment. Was there a way to get rid of this uncertainty? Was there a way to make his job easier? Perhaps his fickle cousin Eros would be able to help.

-x-

Eros, symbol of love and all its packaging, resided upon a plane solely dedicated to his work. As each of his cousins and family, they had their own little domain, a place they called their home. In the greater scheme of things, one could almost say their planes were like rooms in a household. It wasn’t unheard of for someone to wander over to another plane and visit the owner within.

Thane could not say he was particularly close to his family, not even his half brother. He did not know how to relate to them, just as he did not know how to relate to humans. But if there was one immortal whom he could seek information from, someone whom he knew was well knowledgeable about the workings of humans, it would be Eros.

Walking upon the lush field of flowers, Thane made his way to the heart. The father he walked, the more grotesque the scene before him became. The pretty field slowly was overcome with weeds, vines, then bushes. Then dead trees with gnarly roots and branches. He had to cross the ugly forest before he reached a pretty fence. He passed it to a white house that reminded him something from the mortal plane. No doubt Eros had fashioned it that way on purpose. Changed it to the manner of his pleasing.

Thane entered without knocking and sought out the presence of Eros within the house. He eventually found himself in a kitchen, fitted with appliances and tools that Thane knew but never really familiarized himself with. Eros stood with his back turned to Thane, his sunshine colored hair pulled up into a ponytail.

“Home is where the heart is. And the heart of the home is the kitchen. And the way to get to a man’s heart is through his stomach. A woman puts a lot of effort into making a meal for her loved ones.” Eros turned, glancing back at him with bright blue eyes. He wore a smirk on his lips, a cigarette nestled between them. “What do I owe this unexpected visit, cousin?”

Eros turned to present him a platter piled with something indescribable. Thane looked at it with indifference, unable to determine if it was good or not, or for what purpose Eros had made such a concoction. “I came for a favor.”

“A favor?” the blond echoed, brows raised. He went to the table and sat down, gesturing for Thane to join him. “This is rare. Tell me more.”

Thane didn’t beat around the bush. “I’m having trouble deciding the fates of some of the souls I have collected. Simply judging them on the weight of their sins is not enough. I need a way to overcome this obstacle but I do not know how else to judge a soul except by their sins. I came to see if you could help since you are very knowledgeable about humans.”

Eros hummed and played with mat upon the table in idle fashion as he thought. “You understand nothing of humans, cousin.” He continued without letting Thane respond even though the answer was clear. “You look at them as things, not individuals. There is more to a human than his sin or innocence. Did Zoi teach you nothing?”

Zoi was the opposite of him. Thane, out of all the immortals, could not get along with Zoi in the slightest. She was life, he was death. There was little they could agree on. Zoi didn’t make the effort to try, and neither did Thane.

“Ah, a stupid question. Nevermind then. That means you need to learn. Simple as that.”

“Learn?”

Eros nodded. He balanced the cigarette between his fingers, gesturing with the lit end as if it were a pointing stick. “Learn. Learn what it means to be a human. Learn about their affections. Learn about the way their minds work. You need to understand them on a completely different level from how you do now and the only way to do that is by learning from them. I can’t tell you how, but I reckon it will require a lot of watching and taking notes like a good little boy.”

Thane stared at Eros. Though his face was blank, he was confused. He didn’t fully understand what he was supposed to do, but if he was willing to trust his cousin, he would follow through with the advice without a second thought. Perhaps he could observe them in some fashion or another. Learn their habits and ways of thinking by watching them with a new purpose as opposed to simply waiting for their life to end.

“...I will think on it.”

Eros waved a hand. “Good luck. Let me know if you need any more advice.”

Thane nodded and stood up, taking his leave of his cousin’s home. He returned to his own to study the remaining souls he had not designated a new home to. He would not be able to find a resting place for them until he was able to understand them better. He would judge them on a whole new level. Leaving them for now, he faded from sight to walk upon the mortal plane once more and start his mission.