Embracing Death

She smiled through the pain, said her goodbyes, and turned off the camera. Another day of assignments...another day of staring at the same four walls. It had been like this for months, her phone and laptop the only ties to the outside world. Things as she knew them to be had ceased to exist and being as lonely as she was, depression hit like a tidal wave. She stopped watching the news after a while, the death toll steadily rising was too much for her. She could practically feel all the death that swept through the nation. She glances at the same four walls of her tiny apartment with a bit of resentment. She’s a prisoner in her own home.

Watching her had become a bit of an obsession for him. It was like a favorite pastime for him. He knew that she wasn’t the only one in this predicament, yet she was different. Outside of her strange name he couldn’t tell what that difference was, but the mystery alone was enough to hold his attention. He did not take pleasure in her suffering. He despised the job he tasked with doing, hating himself even more the with every visit to see her. All he could do was watch. Just watch and wait, never once able to help her as he wanted to. She remained untouchable.

He stood there now, watching a now familiar scene unfold. He saw how she neglected the needs of her body. How she stayed up for hours and hours at a time, skipping meals or foregoing food completely. How she seemed to be drowning in sorrow. He’d watched with barely concealed anger as she was constantly met with disdain by those who were supposed to love her. Her mind was on the brink of destruction, her body nearly giving up its fight and will to live. It was when she had reached her lowest that her call to him was strongest. It was when she was ready to give up that he found himself once again being summoned to the same old apartment, close enough to touch her this time. But time after time there was always a hint of fear that entered her eyes that prevented her from meeting him completely. Somehow that dwindling ounce of human preservation was enough to save her each time. He turns to leave, glancing over his shoulder at the frail woman before fading into the shadows.

The moment her knees met her bed, she falls over in an exhausted heap of tangled limbs. Once again, she has found herself suffering due to her own negligence. Running herself into the ground day in and day out, ignoring her stomachs cry for food in leu of getting more work done before the constant deadlines. By some miracle she makes it under the covers before a certain numbness takes over. Sleep comes instantly and she’s dead to the world.

He is violently snatched away from his current assignment this time, landing harshly on the unforgiving wood floor. He stands up to look around noticing that he’s here again, in the same old dimly lit apartment. This time he has been pulled to her room. He does not know why he’s drawn to her like he is, why her call to him is the hardest for him to ignore. All he knows is that it’s the strongest it has ever been, so much so that it has pulled him away from all his other responsibilities. He knows he will have to make up the difference later, but in that moment, he couldn’t bring himself to really care. He doesn’t stop himself from walking closer to where she lies on her bed. The urge to touch her is strong and the fact that he can does not shock him as much as what happens next.

The moment his pale hand meets her arm, he finds himself pulled into an intense vision. A vison of what was, what is and what will be. Just as quickly as the onslaught started it ends and he’s left breathless. He knows who she is, or rather, what she is to him. He knows what it is he must do, and with that revelation he places his hand on her head then closes his eyes.

The sun glares down at a young woman, its rays an unwelcome irritant to her eyes. She awakes feeling well rested for the first time in ages and finds herself outside in a field of tall grass. With a bit of panic, she jumps up to frantically look around. She wonders just how she got here when she spots him. At the sight of him a wave of calm washes over her. Something pulls them together and when they are close enough, they stop to stare. For some reason, his presence is familiar, and she cannot help but feel that she knows him. He smiles and she hesitantly smiles back.

“Hello Lady Morana,” he says. He is formal in his greeting for a reason, reasons she has yet to know.

“Morana. Just Morana is fine,” she says awkwardly. She was never any good when it came to talking to people and despite the man before her feeling like a long-lost friend, she couldn’t help but fall victim to her insecurities.

“As you wish, Morana.” He tells her his name is Alezar and before she can ask, he tells her of their whereabouts.

“Makes sense. A place as beautiful as this can only be real in a dream,” she states. She briefly thinks back to what her life is like and a dark cloud seems to hover over her.

Alezar sees exactly when she starts to slip away, how the memories cause her to withdraw mentally. In a desperate effort to keep her with him he blurts out “You can stay here you know! You don’t have to go back.” And with that he quickly summons forth a little black notebook. He turns away from her at her surprised and hopeful look, knowing that he has set in motion the events that will condemn her to a life much like his own. But it cannot be helped, he reasons with himself. At least we will have each other, he thinks while nervously tapping the book’s cover.

He turns to face her then and lays out the terms for her stay in the dreamlike world. Morana watches as a faint green glow appears in Alezar’s eyes before it fizzles out as he continues his speech. The overwhelming sense of safety he provides prevents her from asking questions. She is too excited with the prospect of a much-needed escape being brought before her. According to Alezar, she could do anything, go wherever her mind could take her, so long as her heart desired. In return, she was asked to stay with him forever.

“All that you need to do is sign here,” Alezar says, and as if he’s trying to prove just how endless the possibilities here are, he makes a show of reaching into one of the pages of the black notebook, pulling out a lengthy document with large text. He points to a dotted line at the very bottom and hands the silently stunned Morana a pen out of thin air. She shakes off her shock and briefly glances over the contents of the contract before signing everything away.

Now that the deal was sealed, Morana’s first course of action was to test out her newfound abilities. Alezar showed her how it was possible to think of a place, fictional or real, and how doing so with enough concentration could bring her there. He stayed to help her with other tasks, such as manifesting cash from thin air. He gave Morana a stack of money equating to $20,000 once and it was the most she had ever held or seen. Instead of thinking of herself, Morana thought of the different charities and families she had wished to give to. When she ran out, she always called down the same amount from before and repeated the process again.

Alezar’s big plan was to help his friend experience everything she could before time was up. He felt bad for what he had done. Seeing her here so happy but seemingly unaware for the clock that was working against her made him nearly confess on the spot several times. When the guilt was too much, he would get up to leave, telling Morana that he had some unfinished business to tend to. Back in the real world he would catch up on his neglected assignments before tiredly returning to her bedside. As always, her body would be lying there in the same position as before, stuck in a coma of sorts. It was only a matter of time now before it finally gave up.

Morana noticed how her friend's moments of spacing out occurred more often over time. The deep sadness he seemed to have was always greatest when he returned from one of his trips. In his eyes she would see that same dim glow from before, the one that hinted at his otherworldliness. One day he returned looking overly panicked and nervous. The minute they made eye contact he was forced to tell her everything, the truth spilling out as if a dam had burst. When he was done, he was met with silence before a small chuckle was heard. He looked up finally and briefly wondered if she had lost her mind.

“I know silly. Don’t tell me that this is what’s been eating at you all this time?”

She admits that she was a bit upset with how he went about things but that she forgave him. Morana knew what Alezar’s choice of wording meant in that contract from so long ago. She figured that he had acted out of fear, fear that she would leave him. Regardless of what he did to interfere, Morana knew that she would have chosen this path either way. She knew that she was dying now, for to stay in a constant dream meant that her body was withering away unattended. She had accepted a long time ago just what it meant to stay with ‘Alezar’ forever. After all, a physical body could do no such thing. Her soul was needed and since her human heart was on the verge of not being able to physically desire anything, time here was nearly up.

“So, it’s on to forever now right Alezar? Or should I say, Azrael?”

He is shocked to hear her call him by his true name. "How did you know?" he asks.

Morana tells him about how the powers used to keep her under are the same ones that bound her to him. On one of his longer trips away she was shown the same vision he had seen prior to their meeting. It was from that point on that she understood the meaning behind her name. Why Azrael had greeted her as Lady Morana from the very beginning.

“I am Lady Death, and we are to be the Grim Reaper together,” she says. She tells him that they have each other and don’t have to be alone anymore. The smile he adorns is contagious.

“Let me finally help you carry this burden,” Morana goes on to say. It is with those words that the world around them starts to collapse. By now the two beings had pulled each other into a firm hug, twin pairs of eyes glowing a bright, chartreuse green. As Morana’s heart played its last song, her name slowly found itself next to Azrael’s in the same little black notebook from before. When all was silent and her body had breathed its last, the two kindred spirits disappeared, the title of Death finally within their embrace. It was only then did Lady Death find out that her good deeds had been just as powerful in the real world too.