"All things must come to an end eventually…"
A cloaked figure stood in front of what looked like an old, run-down Victorian mansion. Many years ago the place had been beautiful. Everything shined like new, the sun was always at a perfect angle for viewing, and its garden was the envy of everyone within the vicinity. Time had taken its toll however. The dull blue paint, now chipped and cracked to the point where there were very few spots of the original color at all. The garden had long since dried up and died, not even weeds would grow. And there was always a cloud of gray over it, even during the summer while the rest of the sky was blue. The most noticeable change that had occurred over the years was a giant gaping hole near the back of the mansion; it looked as if someone had sent a wrecking ball through the wall. Through the hole, one could see the changes that went on inside. All the rooms were still furnished as the previous owners had left it. The sitting room still held the couch that the son always complained had too many pillows, and the piano that the daughter had begged and begged for but never had a chance to practice on. Through there was the kitchen where the mother practically lived and the father always sat for morning coffee and paper. Everything now, however, was now coated with a thick layer of dust and many things (like many of the piano keys and the table leg) were broken much beyond repair.
The cloaked figure stepped through the enormous hole and into the living area. As she did, more images came to her. The father and mother, no longer the happy pair they had been when the boy was young, constantly fought in front of the children. The constant fighting ensued for about two years before something big happened (she didn't know, whatever it was didn't happen in the house) and everyone was happy again. The cloaked figure smiled under her thick disguise, she liked it when her visions ended happily ever after… but the visions kept coming.
The little girl was running down the stairs, happily laughing while her elder brother ran after her with just as big of smile. They were about half way down when it became horribly apparent to the cloaked figure that something bad was going to happen. Right before her eyes, the young girl missed a step and began to fall. Both the figure and the brother reached out to her, and both missed. Like a small rag-doll, she began to tumble down the stairs. Thankfully there weren't that many stairs and the bottom was carpet. None-the-less, the girl had sustained several long cuts on her left leg and arm. After assuring that she was okay the brother left to get some bandages, thankful that this was all that was wrong with her.
A new vision, this one two weeks later. Something was wrong. The girl was terribly pale, her cuts had not stopped bleeding. The doctor in the other room was talking with the parents and brother. His last sentence. The mother cries into the father's chest, the boy runs away, the father stared in shock and horror. "Leukemia?" He says barely above a whisper, but it still seems to echo through out the now silent house. He opens his mouth like he's about to say something, but then shuts his eyes and uses the hand not holding the mother to stop himself from sobbing out loud. After a minute or two, he finally asks "How long does she have?" The father wasn't stupid. He knew that at the current time there was no cure for leukemia.
"I'd say about two months." The doctor responds. Despite his training, its situations like this that always get to him. Looking down, away from the family, a silent tear runs down his cheek. "I'm so sorry. If there was anything I could do, I would do it. Anything to help her."
The father suddenly turns angry. "You can do something actually. Get out of our house. How dare you… you don't even know her…"
The vision dissolves again. The living room, once so full of laughter and life, was now filled with men and women all in black. In the center of the room laid a small coffin, it probably was only about three feet long, but it was the perfect size for her. Paying their respects by her lifeless body was her loving family; her father, mother, and brother. Tears streaming down his cheeks, the brother leaned down and gave her a last peck on the cheek, while the mother cried and stroked her daughter's small, cold, and pale hands. The father just stood and stared down at the lifeless body of his little girl. "Oh god…" he would whimper every now and then. "Oh god I'm so sorry… I'm so sorry… I love you so much Danielle… oh god…"
The vision stopped abruptly and the cloaked figure found herself where the young girl's coffin had been. Feeling her cheeks, she found they were wet from massive crying. Looking around the old house, she walked towards a wall and gently knelt her hand upon it like she were comforting the house. "You've seen so much…" She stated aloud. She felt herself beginning to slip into another vision, but she stopped it abruptly. "I know already." She whispered. She didn't need her visions to see the fathers swaying body supported by a rope to the crystal chandelier. Its one of the things she just knew, just like she knew she should go to the house for what she was about to do.
Removing her cloak, the figure stood in the circle of moonlight created by the enormous hole she had come through. Once she was in the center, she also removed a chain necklace with a big old fashioned key attached to the bottom. The key itself was impressive and strange. The round handle was about as big as a modern CD. The rod was hollow and about an inch in width and about six inches in length with different jewels down its length. It didn't have the normal ridges near the edge of the rod; instead it had a small rectangle emerald near the handle. Once that was done, she took a long knife from somewhere within the folds of her clothes. Careful so she wouldn't cut her whole wrist off, she slid the knife in deep and continued around her wrist until it looked like she had a bracelet of blood around her wrist. Just as carefully, she repeated the next wrist.
She smiled to herself as she began the next phase of her plan. 'Finally!' She screamed excitedly in her head as she brought out her last instrument. 'I've found a way to cheat fate! All this time I've been wondering how the original prophecy escaped and I think I've finally found it. Destiny can't go on without with out anyone to fulfill it.' More at peace than anyone else would be in this situation; she lifted her instrument of cold hard metal against the side of her neck, pointed up towards her head. She chuckled lightly as she was reminded of her happier days, when she played a different kind on instrument. It still felt the same though. Whether she was holding it against her skin or against her lips, it felt as if her body knew it was to be free and it tingled with excitement.
"I'm so sorry…" her words echoed, just as the fathers had so many years ago. "I know you've seen so much, but I need you to endure just one more." She could feel her own blood running down her arm, just as she had planned. The fastest drop descended faster and faster down her arm until it was a few inches from her elbow… two inches… one…. a centimeter… there. She closed her eyes…
Bang!
It was kind of like getting her ears pierced she decided afterwards. It was excruciatingly painful for the first second, but then the pain slowly drifted away with the exception of the occasional pulse of pain. Opening her eyes, she found she was still standing inside the beat up mansion. But several things had changed. One, her wrists were completely healed. And while she knew that that would happen in a matter of minutes (why she slit her wrists and shot herself) she just knew she was dead. The bloody body lying behind her was just reassurance.
Looking at her self-mutilated body, the girl began to fell a large amount of regret. She, whom had had the easiest and least important job of their fate, had quit first and abandoned her friends. 'I was only a key-bearer.' She thought to herself as she sat down in a puddle of her own blood, not even noticing that her white skirt wasn't getting stained. 'All I had to do was guard the base… and I failed. The prophecy isn't even close to coming true; the child of power born of the unloyal servant probably hasn't even been conceived yet.
She felt like crying, but found that without a living body, she couldn't. This only made her want to cry more. "Regret and tears will do you nothing." A small meek voice interrupted her mental break down. Looking around, she found she was somehow no longer in the house. Instead, she was in… well she wasn't really sure. Where ever she was, the ground was soft like pillows and the landscape stretched out too far to see. It wasn't even a distinct color. Not white, not transparent, just nothing. Looking around again, she saw little Danielle. Her little blue dress that she had worn to her own funeral looked good on her and seemed to increase how innocent she looked. Her curly orange locks looked just as good as when her mother used to style them for Sunday mornings when they went to church. But she was so very pale… whiter than paper and very obviously not alive.
"It comes with not being alive anymore." Danielle stated, as if she could read the older girls thoughts. No more blood equals almost no skin pigment, just look at your skin in a couple of days, you'll see." And then she began to walk off.
Knowing instinctively, as she always did, she began to follow the girl. "Thank you." she whispered towards the small girls retreating figure. "I remember now… why I took it." She stopped abruptly and turned towards the older girl, curiosity shown clear on her four-year-old features. "It wasn't for myself… because I couldn't handle it…" I started, unsure how to say what I was feeling. "It was… for them. To buy all the innocents more time. I thought…" She paused again, again at a loss for words. Danielle just waited there patiently with a patience that goes beyond any normal child's. "I thought that if I took myself out of the equation, that the whole thing would fall apart and we'd have at least another couple centuries before… well, you know."
Danielle nodded her head in understanding. "I'm sorry to tell you, but Fate decided to switch it up a little this time just to see if it worked better. After all, it was this one who stopped her second most powerful minion. She figured it was possible that they would find a way to destroy her most powerful minion before she had a chance to activate it." She sighed, whether it was in annoyance or sadness, I couldn't tell. "You may have thought you were escaping her when you died…" She paused as she disappeared behind a corner the older girl never would have known existed other wise. "…but you just played right into her hands Nichole."
Nichole sighed this time, not at all surprised that Danielle knew her name. "Yeah… I kind of figured that when I woke up here in Fate's land." Stopping, Nichole put a hand on Danielle's shoulder. "Tell Fate I understand now. Nothing can last forever; all things must come to an end eventually." Nichole inhaled deeply, "Earth, my home planet, is on its final years. I hope they enjoy them while they still can…"