A/N: Hey there, Xen again! I know, I know. I need to be working on my other two stories...but this idea just hit him like a brick wall and hasn't left me alone since. It's short too, so it won't take long to finish. This is the first part, and there will be one more that I'm already halfway through writing. So...yes, enjoy! Also, I don't own the poem that's used in this. I can't write poetry worth a shit.
Dying. He was dying. There was no denying it; the rattle and shake of his chest was enough of an answer. In the dark of his room, it was the only sound. Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in. Breathe out. Closer to Death. Further from. Closer to. Further from. Each inhale brought him ever nearer, and yet each exhale tried to undo the damage in his weak body. The fight was a weak one. Both boy and body knew how this would end.
When death comes
I'll need not love –
Consumed,
No wreath or dove
Could offer me salvation,
Not when I'm no more.
In the back of the young boy's mind, he knew he should have told someone. Told them of the pains in his chest, of coughing up blood, of the fevers and the night sweats. But Marik also knew he was loved, and love hurt. He did not want his family to worry over him. It would have been just like with Mother. Countless nights praying and crying over her dying form. Yet he knew they would cry anyways, and that bothered him. They would find his still form in the morning, for he would surely not make it that long (Breathe in. Breathe out. You're dying. You're fading.), and they would weep and shout and curse and he would only be able to watch in heavy silence. He did not want that, did not want his family to suffer on his behalf.
When one of the shadows in his room seemed to detach itself from the others, Marik knew Death had come for him. The silent figure neither scared, nor frightened the boy as it moved closer, and the air froze around him. A hood was thrown back, and Death's pale face swam into view. Crimson eyes pierced the darkness.
Funny, Marik thought idly. I always thought red was a warm color.
But no, these eyes were colder than any piece of ice, colder than any winter night with its gales and snowstorms, colder, even, than Hell, Marik figured.
White hair cascaded down one shoulder as Death leaned over slightly. He was so familiar, Marik realized. And yet so foreign. He wanted to run his hands through that soft hair, and curl up in this man's arms to sleep, comfortable warm and safe, and yet he felt repulsed by him, sickened almost. Such a strange feeling to want something so badly and yet be repelled by it, loathe it, hate it even.
"You are going to die," Death said softly, neither sad nor happy, caring nor apathetic.
"I know," Marik answered back, never taking his eyes from that scarlet gaze, those ensnaring orbs that bit at him with their frigidity and beckoned with their iciness.
"Are you afraid?" Death's voice was so quiet, yet seemed to echo around the room, and froze everything with its cool touch.
"No. Just sad." It was the truth. It was a lie.
"And why is that?"
"I don't want my family to miss me."
A weathered stone will bear my name –
Identity of once a being
Living out existence in
A world of risk, and never seeing
Sense of why we're here.
Both were quiet after that, simply taking each other in. Neither knew what to think of the other; a boy who was not scared of Death and Death himself. What an odd pair to be watching each other in the silence of the night, purple eyes meeting red, the dying and the never living, the young and the ancient, the collector and the collected.
Marik's rattling breath had quieted, no longer spreading his disease with each and every exhale, and in his ears he actually heard the strong beating of his heart, not the quiet pitter patter of one about to give out. He wondered if this was Death's effect on him, making his body strong and healthy right before he was forced to leave it forever. It was sadistic, to give somebody a taste of what they had once had, but had faded, and then to rip it away from them forever, but Marik did not mind. He liked the peace of quiet breathing, the strength of his beating heart, the comfort in his no longer aching chest. It would make dying so much easier. Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in. Breathe out. You're dead. You're dying. You're dead. You're dying.
When death comes
I'll need not grace
Below; no grieving face
Will call my resurrection,
Not when I'm at ground –
"Death, do you have a heart?" he asked, and his voice betrayed nothing and told a story.
The spirit started a little, as if he was not used to being asked such questions, but he shook his head no slowly. His hair swayed with the movement, and Marik was sparked with the same insane sensation of wanting to run his fingers through it.
"Would you allow me to live if I promised you mine?"
Death was silent. He stared, not at the boy, but at the boy's moving chest. His own was empty, devoid of anything and everything. One pale hand reached out to be placed above the boy's heart. Baddump. Baddump. He could feel that pulse, that sign of life, the thing he had never had and never realized he wanted until just now.
The boy shivered under his touch. They all did. He was, after all, not human and so his touch was completely foreign to the young skin. Not human, nor creature, nor spirit really was he. He was Death and death was him and that's all he could ever be considered. But with a heart….with a heart what would he be? And the question scared him. Scared Death because he'd never been offered such a thing in his entire existence.
"I will return for it in nine years," he decided.
Marik nodded. "Nine years, and my heart will be yours." Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in. Breathe out. You're alive. You're dying. You're alive. You're dead.
Death gave him one last glance and a final "Keep it safe for me," before disappearing back into the shadows from with which he came.
Death and I so bound.
So...when writing this I was trying out a new style. Could you tell? It was rather difficult for me, but I think I managed to pull it off.
As always, please review! You know you want to. ;)
-Xen