The Righteous Perish

Part 9

  "I wasn't late, was I?"

"No. You know Kisook was destined to die."

"Forsooth! She is happier in my realm. She can see. She can sing. She will never feel pain."

"Funny you say that. You always acted like you were pain."

"Do not get your hopes up. Revenge destroyed Pich, and I could not stop it."

"But Pich killed Kisook."

"And...?"

"And you helped Revenge."

"I did not mean to!"

"That's your problem, sis. You never mean to do anything. If you did, you would've kicked his ass a long time ago."

"But he ripped my face off!"

"Not anymore. Sit up."

Death rose, bony fingers fumbling for Fate's hands. She shivered. She reached something delicate and ice-cold. Something that shattered beneath a heartbeat....

"Open your eyes," he ordered.

Death's eyelids flickered open. She froze at the face in the mirror. It was hers-- pale and narrow, with plump lips and bushy eyebrows, but something was different. Her eyes! The glossy, beetle-black orbs were now gray-white and clouded, like a blind woman's. No irises. No pupils. Just two, spotless blurs that would never see shadows behind the bone-bright glow.

"Yee-owch!"

Something kicked her from the inside. Something sharp and red-hot-- thud, thud, thud! Death crumbled to her knees, burying her face in her hands.

"No, sis," Fate exclaimed, "Don't cry!"

Death looked up, eyes gleaming with pain.

"I failed. I am full of scum!"

"Don't say that! Please!"

Death tumbled forward, clutching her stomach. A hard, hot knot of pain pulsed inside, swelling across her entire body. One hundred sharp, blazing knives of pain impaled her limbs into the icy stillness of bone. Her heart pounded till it almost exploded. Her face burnt, yet her skin went numb. She squeezed her eyes shut. Th-This is it! This is my...punishment!

"Sis! Open your eyes!"

She couldn't. Her eyelids felt heavy, as if someone pressed stones into them. Something soft, slimy squirmed between her legs. Someone! She stretched them horizontally, wincing at the stiff soreness. Slowly, a plump baby slid out from between her legs. His rasping scream rattled her ear-drums, twisting her brain into a jagged lump of pain. She felt sticky, boiling liquids seep after the baby. Her arms reached forward, only to be slapped away. She looked up. Fate grabbed the fat, bawling baby-- her baby-- not even an hour old. A gold-toothed sneer bubbled against his candy-apple cheeks.

"Forget it. He's half-mortal. He'll get along better in the mortal realm."

"Ambrose! Darling...!"

Too late. Fate handed the screaming baby to a tall, black-hooded figure. He dissolved into a blue-white wisp of clouds. Death struggled to rise, her body burning....

"AMBROSE!"

She collapsed, her insides twisting into sour nausea. Every breath receded into a sore rasp. Her ice-cold chest thawed out its final toll, and she lie motionless, never again to touch a mortal soul.

Revenge outlasted Death. He wriggled through every vein, pulling the throbbing heart into bones that will never feel light. This was a sorrow that tears could never understand. That hands could never warm. That smiles could never end.