Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ A Touch of Death ❯ Chapter 12

WARNINGS AND DISCLAIMERS: These are all fictional characters and any similarities to anyone living or dead is completely incidental. And anyway, I'm not making any money off of this.

 

This is my NanoWriMo piece, which I managed to turn out in half the time allotted. If you don't know what Nano is, check out www.nanowrimo.org for information and a chance at a really good time.

 

Kathryn couldn't even begin to describe just what kind of terror was running through her veins. It was the kind that left a person blubbering mindlessly and clinging with desperation to anything that looked remotely solid. She was sobbing, she knew that much, and everything inside of her was completely frozen solid. She couldn't even move she was so afraid. She'd never even really believed that terror like that could be real.

Though in the last couple of days, she'd certainly had to expand her perceptions, so why not include more terror in her life.

Erec was on the ground now, the phantom thing kneeling over him and howling with glee, his fingers fading into Erec's skin as they merged together. The air was crackling with the kind of energy that made hair stand up on end and teeth clatter together. Kathryn could feel her blood boiling through her veins and that didn't make sense because everything in the room had gotten unbelievably cold.

Lathe was trying to get up, she could see that, but whatever kind of hit he'd taken after the phantom had swung him through the air, the magic now bouncing around the room was making it worse. He looked ready to collapse at any moment, but he was still pushing away from the wall.

The air whipped louder with the magic jerking from the pieces of the devil, his power growing now as more and more of Erec Cinna was slowly over come by a fact of mere numbers. The other piece had more life time, more right to control how things ran in the living world, more right to choose where they went and whether they went together.

“Dammit,” Lathe breathed as something sparked through the air and sent pain crashing through his temples. He shook his head and slumped back to the ground as the cold that had always run through him seemed to get even worse. It was still building, the power in the air, and much more of it would leave him frozen solid.

Rose Marie's hands slid up to cradle his face, her eyes locking with his now as she knelt in the wind roaring through the room. It was odd how calm she looked, how completely disconnected from everything that was happening, but she just stared down at him before she looked over her shoulder once.

“He needs to be cut,” Rose Marie said.

“I know,” Lathe breathed. “I know.”

Her fingers tightened.

“Kathryn is a Cerberus,” Rose Marie said quietly.

Lathe's eyes jerked sharply across the room to the woman staring wide eyed as Erec was slowly absorbed back into himself. Lathe's teeth ground together and he shook his head.

“She can't.”

“If you have a better plan, speak up,” Rose Marie said and nodded before her eyes grew unfocused and blank again.

Lathe hesitated a moment longer and then forced his head to lift enough to let him clearly see her.

“Kathryn!” he yelled.

Her eyes snapped to him for a split second and then jerked closed. She was shivering now, and Lathe wondered just how cold the room was for her.

“The scythe!” he screamed. “Use the scythe!”

Kathryn's eyes opened now with disbelief, but Lathe just stared silently back. Her head turned, the blade dug into the wall nearby and frost beginning to form over it. She stared at it now, the rush of the wind getting louder in her ears as the phantom howled with victory. This was it.

It didn't want to come free from the wall and the first touch was like having her hands flash frozen. After that, there wasn't any sensation in them, just a dull feeling of holding something unbelievably heavy in her hands. The phantom's head lifted now to stare at her, his face twisted into a tangle of shadows and smirks as she slowly advanced on him.

“Swing,” he said. “The Cerberus couldn't even cut enough out of me.”

His voice was a nail in a coffin, but Kathryn was beyond caring.

“This is how it works, isn't it?” she said quietly as she drew the scythe back. “This is how you die.”

“I never die,” he breathed.

The scythe arched through the air, awkward and clumsy in her inexperienced hands, it arc shivering as it lunged through the air. And his hand was shooting out, extending into a shot of dark and chill that was going to cover the world and lower it into flaming oblivion. But this was the moment, this was when there was triumph, this was when…

It slammed into her, shooting into her body as she fumbled with the heavy weapon. It pierced her completely, digging back into the wall with a dull absolute thud. The phantom howled in triumph, its hit perfect and absolutely meaningless.

The scythe still moved, Kathryn's body moving through the thing that pierced her without hesitation. She couldn't even feel it as she passed right through it, and the blade bit down into shadow formed skin.

The scythe wrenched from her hands, now buried deep in the shoulder of the phantom as he jerked back with a scream. Kathryn staggered back, panting loudly now as one hand passed over her body. She was whole and untouched, perfectly safe as the shadow thing clawed at the long scythe stuck in its body. It howled again as the weapon burned its hands and more smoky form broke free from it and boiled across the floor.

A pitiful mewl escaped it suddenly, because now Erec was back on his feet and staring down at it.

“You broke the door,” Erec said quietly. “She doesn't have any form here anymore.”

The phantom hissed at him and tried to back away, but Erec's fingers smoothly caught the scythe and delicately pulled it free. Another weak sound escaped the thing and Erec smiled as he spun the scythe in his fingers.

“I'm afraid you aren't going to have any form any longer either.”

“No,” the thing gurgled.

“Yes,” Erec answered gently. “Back to Hell. And this time, be smart and stay there.”

He raised the scythe and glanced once over his shoulder at Kathryn.

“And you really should close your eyes now.”

And the cold pleasure in his voice was enough to do it.

 

***

 

The monitor continued its slow constant beep as Kathryn stared down at her comatose form. Everything was just how she'd left it, the steady push of the ventilator, the clean abandoned feel of the room. The perfect silence around her.

“It'll be louder once you're back in your own body,” Erec said chipperly. “Don't worry about it.”

Kathryn frowned and shot an annoyed look back at him.

“Are you reading my mind?”

“No,” he said. “You're just very predictable, despite everything. Remember, I've been doing this for a long time.”

“Getting bored with us, yet?” Kathryn asked.

“Not yet,” Erec said with a small secretive smile. “Things always pop up to keep me entertained.”

“Is that what the phantoms were?”

Erec's smile grew even smaller and Kathryn sighed as she turned away.

“You're not going to tell me anything, are you?”

“You think I know everything that happened?” he answered with a shake of his head.

“Yes.”

He chuckled again.

“Maybe, but you've found out everything you're going to.”

Kathryn sighed.

“Take good care of everyone,” she said. “Tell them I said goodbye.”

“Sure,” Erec said. “I'll make arrangements. We'll see you again someday.”

“Forty-six years,” Kathryn murmured.

Erec chuckled and shook his head.

“Everything's different now,” he said. “That too. No one should know when they're going to die, so I've rewritten things a little.”

He clapped her lightly on the back and gave her a quick wink.

“Don't worry, it's not really a deal. Just a favor. But when the time does come, be sure to check in with me. I'll see if I can't find something that you're really suited for.”

Kathryn smiled faintly and turned back to her body.

“So when does it…”

“…happen?”

Her throat was burning, and her entire body felt like something too heavy had been resting on her chest for too long. She coughed sharply and made a face as she turned, a nurse lightly rubbing at her back and murmuring soothing words over her.

“There you go, just take some deep breaths, nice and slow. Are you awake this time? When we pulled the tube you seemed a little disoriented. Do you know your name?”

Kathryn frowned and coughed again, her whole body tensing with it.

“Kathryn,” she rasped and swallowed the cough that wanted to rip from her throat again. “Am I alive?”

The nurse smiled and nodded.

“You're one lucky woman. Someone up there must have been looking out for you.”

Kathryn frowned and slumped back in her bed as the nurse adjusted a few things and made some notes on her chart. It was starting to fade to the back of her mind, a strange dream that now couldn't be real. A coma dream, right? Wasn't that what they called it? Her eyes fuzzily opened to wander around the room and suddenly locked on a single bouquet of flowers resting on the table next to her. They were white lilies, funeral flowers, and a single business card for Elixir Design was resting comfortably against the vase.

“Oh no,” Kathryn sighed.

 

***

 

There are very few really extraordinary lives out there, very few people who live life to the point that it's really worth while. Kathryn could always happily look back on a life that fell into that category. She did it all for more years than most people had ever had the right to live, and when she finally climbed into her car and noticed the big man sitting in the back, all she could manage was a grin and a lead foot.

 

The End.

 

 

 

 

 

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