You Make a Fool of Death with your Beauty (One Shot)
A/N: Well, hello little beans, I know we’re now past the Halloween/Day of the Dead celebrations but of course I’m still posting this little piece of writing. Took me long enough but it is here. Inspired of course by my favorite band ever F&TM and one of my favorite books ever, Death with Intermitions by Jose Saramago, I decided to pull something nice, or at least I tried. Enjoy your reading! Lots of love to you my darlings.
Lena Luthor x Grim Reaper!R//Word Count: 3,124
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Always since the beginning of time, always since the beginning of life.
How you came to be was a mystery you had never cared to discover. The fact that you were, that you existed, that you had purpose, was enough.
You were alone, yes, but you needed no one. Or so you thought.
The first time you saw her, you hadn't pay much attention. She was still an infant, young and innocent enough that her eyes could catch a glimpse of the world beyond, and too inexperienced to understand the hardness of the life she was barely starting to live. Too young still to understand what and who you were, to truly understand why you had walked straight into the sea. The same way her mother had done moments before.
When you emerged from the water and, in an strange fashion that would be repeated someday, you had turned to look at green emerald eyes looking right back at you. Confusion, fear, and sadness had pooled in her eyes as she understood only you would come back to the shore.
There had been no pity, no remorse, no anguish in your heart for you had none.
However, and it was also a strange occurrence, part of you hoped you would see those green emerald eyes again in their final day, filled with something else entirely. You would see eyes that had seen the world and its wonders, and marveled at its beauty, carrying beautiful images instead of what they had witnessed in your presence.
You carried the soul of the mother away, disappearing from her sight until it was meant for you to return and see what had become of those green emerald eyes in, what you dare to hope again, would be a long long time.
Little did you know you would see them sooner than later.
Same jeweled eyes brimming with tears as she tried in vain to call for a young man whose life and destiny, you discovered later in the endless annals of the universe, could had been as brilliant as the stars above, were it not for the malice of his peers.
You had reached him in his final agony. When his body, invaded by his own creation, could not take the pressure and the pain.
If you had been able to pass judgement on his case, you would have mused how it did little good for mortals to play with such inventions. But you were no judge and thus could not pass such judgement on him or his life. So you waited patiently for him to take his last breath, taking his soul with ease when he was done, as he did not protest like many others.
You felt a string being pulled at the core of your being, after watching her silently cry as her heart was breaking for a second time. And again you hoped, as you crossed him to the light were all souls go, for those eyes to be filled with warmth.
It didn't take long for you to see them again. This time it was a boy that had brought you back to her.
Named after what many people believed to have been the first man ever created, he had tried to find a solution to his impeding problem.
You.
He had tried to help her. For his sake. For the sake of his dead brother. For the sake of humanity. Playing with an element brought to her from beyond the edge of their world, manipulating and experimenting with it's unknown nature. He had put himself under her scrutiny with the promise of a future, attempting to amend a mistake that wasn't his, trying to pay for a debt he thought was his.
You loomed over him, witnessing what could have been of him as a new ichor ran inside his veins, before his mortal body gave in. For the first time in all your existence, a sigh of disappointment escaped you and it was truly a strange thing to happen.
The boy's protest, that came after he understood the nature of his circumstances, pulled you back to the task at hand.
In a unique voice, only for him to hear and understand, you had spoken, explaining his time on this realm was over. There was no use in fighting the obvious. He stopped his complaints when he asked about his brother. If he could find him beyond the light, only he could discover it, you had said, and feeling braver than he had ever been before, he followed you.
You passed by her side as you walked with him. The light in her teary eyes had not changed and, if anything, they seemed darker. Like a wild forest before the dawn. So, you went, hoping the sun would reach and illuminate them before coming back for her.
Then, you saw her for a third time.
You had no heart, but if you had had one you would have felt nothing still for the man that was about to die.
Egocentric, ambitious, arrogant, ruthless. He was all this and more in his final moments. Not even your shadow, hanging like a promise over him, made him reconsider his last words. Words filled with bile and poison, ready to sting, revealing secrets which were not his own.
He protested, of course, when you pulled his soul out of his body, and you added the word annoying to the list of his faults. He asked many questions, none of them you answered. He had been a proud man in life and so he was even after finding himself in your presence, showing nothing but indignation when you remained silent. Whatever awaited for him on the other side you did not care, and his passing had been tedious unlike any other before.
Only after he crossed the light, you dared to look at her.
You had no heart but if you had had one it would have ached for her.
For her broken trust, for her broken heart. For all the things that would shatter, all what she would break before becoming whole again.
The forest was burning and you could do nothing to put it at ease.
What would you find in her eyes the next time, you wondered, feeling heavy as you marched.
However, the strangest thing came to pass some time after that. Destiny was rewritten, erasing his brother's name from your accounts. He came back from the light, as if nothing had happened, and the world was anew. But your job was the same and, for the first time, you seemed to enjoy the idea of detaching his soul from his body one more time.
She crossed you mind, making you wonder if this new world would bring her a new destiny. One that was more generous and kind for her, who had lost so much already.
You received your answer shortly after.
She was agonizing when you arrived at her side.
You observed, lingering closer to her as you waited, the way she finally came to terms with her end. She knew you were coming and this fact did not frighten her. Her last words were that of comfort and honesty as she opened her heart like she had never done before. She was satisfied and with a smile on her lips before she closed her eyes forever.
When she found herself face to face with you, she didn't tremble like many others before and, unlike her son, she did not argue. She welcomed the light, fearless and poised, ready to find what would come next.
And so, you realized, you had taken another mother from her. Not because you wanted it but because it was your duty. Something that, for another first time, didn't bring you contentment.
You stood behind for a moment longer after her mother had passed, turning to look at her.
Once again, green eyes were brimming with tears.
Unconsciously, you took a step towards her. The shadow of a hand passed along her cheek, trying to wipe out a single tear streaming down her face. But the tear followed its path and your touch, cold on her skin, only made her shiver.
You were of little comfort and it bothered you, prompting from you a sound you didn't even know you could make.
Your little grunt startled her as she believed herself alone. It startled you too when green eyes turned sharply to look at you.
None of you said a word in the long moment that passed between you two. Both too surprised and confused to understand the nature of what was happening.
In her eyes you were still a shadow, faceless and phantasmal, but she still felt a speck of familiarity. An old memory resurfacing from the depths of her memory. An old ache reemerging from the bottom of her heart, which made the latest departure even harder. Her furrowed brows made you realize you had overstayed, long enough for her to actually perceive you.
As if suddenly remembering your responsibilities, you turned around and started to walk into the light. One step before reaching it, you stopped and lingered at its edge, not daring to take a step further.
There was something you wanted to say but you had no means of answering for you had no mouth. It was different when you talked with the dead. Your voice was meant for them and only for them, no need of lips or teeth or breath for them to understand you. At the other side of the veil it was that easy.
What did you wanted to say? You didn't know yet but you hoped you would know it in due time.
And so, the time came.
There's was magic in her blood. Magic so powerful it called for you.
You were pulled suddenly from the light and into a room illuminated by another kind of light, artificial and colder than the one you were used to, where an encrypted circle, with a language long forgotten, kept you confined.
"... and I summon you, Death, to do my biding." She exclaimed at the end of her chant with a strong voice.
"Who summons me?" You said with a hint of amusement that couldn't be noticed through the sound of a thousand voices coming from you. You had to admit it was quite the novelty.
"I'm Lena Luthor, and I shall be your master now." She declared.
"I have no master." You admitted. In all the millennia you had existed, there had been no one to answer to and you didn't think that was something that could be changed.
"I've bound you to this earth. If you wish to be freed, you must grant me my wish." She took a step towards you, a fierce look in her eyes.
Curiosity invaded you and you felt compelled to follow her little game.
"What is it that you desire?"
"I wish for my goddaughter to live." She declared and your surprise turned into concern and confusion.
"And what I'm supposed to do?"
"You won't take her life."
"I shall take her when it's time."
"You can't." She walked closer to the circle, desperation clear in her voice. "Not yet."
You didn't quite understand what was happening, so you reached beyond the veil, looking for answers.
A child was dying, fighting a strange sickness from a strange world. Her mothers couldn't do much and, even when a cure was in the process of being discovered, her diagnosis was not favorable. The little girl was suffering and the time to take her through the light was fast approaching.
"She's dying." You answered, feeling heavy once again.
Lena sighed. "You can't take her."
"I shall when it's time." You repeated.
"Haven't you taken enough already?" You saw her green eyes brimming again with tears as she raised her voice, and you felt a sting inside you.
"You think me responsible for their lives?" You asked.
"Who else then?" She brushed her tears before they could fall. "Tell me and I will summon them instead."
There was another sting, of something you couldn't quite pinpoint.
"You would do it just to save her?"
"I will." The fierceness in her voice never faltered.
"What do you offer me then?" You mused after a moment.
"Offer?" She furrowed her brows. "I have bound you."
"You have summoned my presence and bound it to this circle. Only that. I'm everywhere, all the time. You cannot prevent me from fulfilling my work just like you cannot stop the wind from blowing." You explained. These rituals were almost fun but they rarely worked for those who performed them. However, this time you wanted it to work. "I will take her in due time but if you so wish I can delay my visit. But beware, this gift comes with a price."
"My life." She swallowed, standing her ground like she was ready to fight. "You can have my life."
She looked at you with no hesitation. You could almost imagine the gears in her mind working. She was considered one of the most intelligent people in the world but she wasn't mad enough to think she could deceive you. Only you were foolish enough to change the course of someone else's destiny, all because she had called to you.
"Then I will have it." You looked at her, with something new moving inside you. "Three days."
Her goddaughter didn't die, although she did suffer for a while longer. Her sickness had taken a hold of her, making her agonize in the days to come in which only you could have ended it, but you had promised you wouldn't come. In that last day, the cure had finally been crafted and tested with positive result.
The child lived and it was time to collect what you too had been promised.
"Lena Luthor." You called with your voice echoing in the walls of her apartment.
She had been sitting on the floor, writing over the coffee table of her living room. Waiting as she knew you would come.
"The child lives." You said matter-of-factly.
"Yes." You saw her shiver as she raised her head, trying to find your figure around. "And I guess you have come to collect what is yours."
"I have."
"Then, I'm ready." She raised from the floor, looking around for you to look at.
She had prepared herself for that moment. During the three days that Esme had been ill, she had also tried to prepare everything before she had to depart. She had been signing her last will just before you had called. She didn't want to leave anything unsolved and, if she was going to leave with you that day, she was going to look at you in the eye with no fear.
"I'm ready." She repeated with a sigh, waiting for the inevitable.
"It's not your time." You answered, guessing where this was going.
She frowned. "You gave me three days for it."
"I gave the child three days, yes, in exchange for your life not your death. What use would I have for it if I had to take you with me?"
"You won't kill me."
"No."
"Then why are you here."
"Life." You said. "I wish to understand it."
"Understand life?"
"I've always been around." You said. "Never questioned my role and duty. Not once I've mourned those who parted, not once I've felt for them. Not once made deals with them."
"You made a deal with me." She kept looking for the source of your voice.
"I did." The echo of your voice reverberated in the room with strength. "I've seen you, Lena Luthor. Always been there at each of your goodbyes. I've seen what their loss has done to the light in your eyes, and I've wondered what it means."
"I don't think I can explain it." She mumbled.
"Try."
"It's not so easy." She said with a clearer voice. "Some things, to understand them, you need to experience them, live through them. You need to be...human."
When you didn't answer, she continued.
"We experience life mostly through our senses, our bodies. You would need one, at least, to barely scratch the surface of what it means to be alive."
"Then I shall get myself one." You finally answered.
Of all the things she had expected to happen, having to teach Death about its counterpart was not one of them. She didn't know if it was even possible. Would you change your mind if she failed?
Silence followed your conversation and Lena was left alone with her confusion, but not for long. The doorbell rang then, pulling her out of her thoughts. She walked to her door, a bit hesitant of what she might find behind it but she opened it nevertheless.
The face and the body she come to find standing in front of her was nothing like what she could have ever imagined.
Your eyes, real human eyes, finally looked into those emerald eyes looking right back, and the light in them seemed a bit brighter.
"It's you." She scanned you from head to toe, and it surprised her that the expression in your face was kind and expectant, as if you were already excited to be there.
"It's me." You said with a new voice, echoing with a single tone, and it surprised you how your new eyes perceived her.
It wasn't only the eyes but her brows, her forehead, her nose, her lips, her chin, her cheeks, her hair, and everything else, that made you want look at her and nothing else. You too had a mouth, lips, teeth, lungs to breath, but the words you had wanted to say were still far away from you.
So, you stood there for another moment until she asked the question that would start everything.
"How does it feel?"
"I..." It took a second for you to formulate your answer. "I feel."
For her, that was enough for a start.
"Then let's begin." She said stepping aside to let you in.
When you didn't, she figured out you weren't yet accustomed to such human interactions. So she took a steep closer to you, taking one of your hands and feeling it's warm finger around hers.
Suddenly, your heart, the one you now had, pounded fast and hard. A new voice at the back of your new head appeared, whispering a new truth.
You would see those eyes filled with wonder, you would say the words that you wanted to say. All in due time as you learned what it meant to be alive.
And from that moment on, you didn't have to be alone.
