To Touch the Forbidden

Disclaimer: I do not own Darksiders or Darksiders ll. I do however own my characters and the plot.

A/N: Note to all readers, in case you haven't noticed and to quote J.R. Tolkien, "Dark have been my dreams of late." For some unexplained reason and surprising to me I have been having a lot of dreams about Death and War mostly in equal parts but you can guess the story worthy ones. It is surprising to me because I haven't played the game in over a month and just today finally sat down and read The Abomination Vault. I actually am quite ill as I type this from some ailment that the doctors have no clue about what is causing it and I suffer from many of the symptoms and possibly the cause in this dream. I had this dream last night and feel compelled to write/share it. Also lots of love to my favorite reviewer DecepticonQueen! I always look forward to your reviews.

I stood perusing the books at this little hole in the wall antique book store as I was looking for a very specific book on dream interpretations and I sighed in irritation for probably the fifth time in as many minutes. I was just about ready to give up and move away as it didn't seem that this little store, no matter how promising, would hold the book I needed.

Something on the lower shelf though caught my attention as I turned to walk further down the tiny cramped isle. Something that shouldn't have been there unless it was a harmless copy but now days the copies tended to mimic the originals in appearance. Curiosity got the better of me as I kneeled onto one knee to grab the book.

Carefully I grasped the heavy tome and pulled it onto my bent knee to examine it more closely. The outer binding looked like dark brown aged and wrinkled leather with a loop on the outer opening edge with a leather strap reaching from the back to slide into the loop on the front effectively holding the book shut.

I slid the loop open and flipped the cover open and my mouth flew open as I read the title. It was a copy of the Necronomicon and I sat there for several long minutes with trembling hands holding the book unsteadily.

Suddenly I felt a cold tingle up my arms and my stomach rolled queasily. I snapped the book shut and all but threw it back on the shelf as I stood and left the store quickly on trembling legs.

The cold November evening air hit me and seemed to soothe my roiling stomach as I headed for my pickup truck. I suppressed a shiver as I quickly threw glances over my shoulder every few seconds as I crossed the almost deserted street to reach my vehicle.

I heaved a sigh of relief as I slid in behind the wheel and clicked the locks shut on the doors. Slowly I pulled the truck away from the curb and headed home, the sick feeling in my stomach and the tingling in my arms subsided as I put miles between me and that little bookstore.

I got home well after dark and as I pulled into the drive way I did a mental tally to make sure all my horses were accounted for as I always did. However instead of hopping from the truck to walk calmly and peacefully to my front door, enjoying the brisk air I shut off the truck and sat starring at the distance. It was not more than 10 yards from my truck to my front door but suddenly it seemed more like 10 miles.

I braced myself and headed for the house at a dead run. I hit the bottom step and pushed off to land on the porch, not once touching the second and third step. I slammed the door behind me and leaned against it, my breath heaving in short bursts. I smiled sheepishly at the two startled cats glaring at me from the back of couch. I approached them and scratched them behind the ears as I passed them.

I grabbed a starter log from the box next to the fireplace and set it at the back of the grate. I used a lighter to light it and then piled three pieces of firewood in on top of it. It didn't take long for the fire to start blazing and the bricks next to the hearth to heat up. With the fire blazing merrily and my two cats now tucked in next to it on the bricks I grabbed my two blankets and pillow from the bedroom and placed them in a pallet in front of the fire.

I yawned as I got sleepy watching the flames dancing and snuggled under the blanket covering me. The thought of getting up again to change into my pajamas occurred to me and I shrugged it off. I was tired and had a hell of a day so I didn't care to get back up. So instead I closed my eyes and drifted off to sleep.

I am still not sure what woke me up but I glanced at the dying fire before sitting up to put more wood on it. Once that was done I lay back down and it hit me again. It felt as though I had swallowed a beehive and the bees were stinging my stomach while my guts growled in protest.

Like a bolt I shot up to my feet and headed for the bathroom. Oh god in heaven above I was sick as a dog but once it passed I still felt just a hair weaker but wasn't in pain anymore so I returned to my pallet to lie down. That was to be short lived though as less than an hour passed and I was once again heading for the bathroom. After about the third time I gave up lying back on the floor and settled for the couch after adding more fuel to the fire.

I slept again restlessly as it seemed to be passing as daylight broke outside the windows. Best I could figure was I had been up back and forth to the bathroom since four in the morning so the worst had to be over.

I was wrong of course as I woke up and headed back to the bathroom, only it wasn't so violent this time around. I stopped to stare at my face in the mirror. My eyes had sunken in and my normally brilliant gray-green eyes no longer sparkled but looked dull and glazed. My skin was deathly pale and my blonde hair hung limply, as illness tends to make hair do, past my shoulders where it stopped at midway down my back. I trudged to the kitchen and poured myself a glass of water and grabbed a small handful of crackers. I thought I was holding them good until the stinging returned to my stomach and what I had eaten came right back up and the fluid went straight through me.

I groaned as I flopped back down on the couch. I knew then that I was seriously in trouble since I was dehydrating fast but couldn't trust myself to drive so I decided to call for help. My cell had gotten left in the kitchen and I rolled over to sit up. I found then that I had dehydrated past the point of functioning and it had slipped up on me. I could no longer stand and I was shivering underneath the blanket. Even the sickness had passed except for the pains since I had so precious little fluid left.

I tried to lick my dry lips only to find that my tongue was equally dry and I had great difficulty swallowing now as my spit had become thick. I groaned and tried once again to get up only to collapse back against the couch. I just didn't have it in me. All I could hope was that I could hang on long enough for someone to check on me. I shivered violently again and tucked further under the blanket. Matters were worse now since I couldn't get up to add wood and keep the fire going.

At some point in time I started drifting in and out of consciousness and could have sworn I heard the door open. I growled softly from where I lay curled on my side on the couch and then let my shoulders droop. I fell completely away from awareness at that point.

I woke up sometime later and noted that my cats both sat above my head on the armrest of the couch watching me closely. I also noted that upon first glance there were fresh logs on the fire. Maybe I was hallucinating and I wasn't actually out that long. I looked out the window and noted that it was full dark outside now and it had only been around lunch when I had took a turn for the worst. That was when I realized that while I still ached and wasn't clear headed I wasn't as sick anymore. I still felt the need to go to the bathroom but fought it as I needed to retain as much fluid as possible.

"You are extremely lucky girl." My head snapped around looking for the voice and when I tried to push up into a sitting position I realized just how weak and dizzy I still was. I didn't recognize that deep voice that sounded so close by. I felt a twinge of fear as I realized I was all but helpless against whoever was here.

However that seemed to be receding to the back of my mind as it started hazing over again. I shivered again and curled further in on myself as I knew I would drift off again. Suddenly an impossibly large hand gripped my jaw firmly but gently and pressed something cool against my lips. "No, little one, you are not slipping away again until you have some water."

I gagged and spit a small amount back up as the water unexpectedly sloshed into my mouth in a greater volume than I had thought. However it didn't take longer for my fluid starved body to drink the entre thing almost without thought of it. My mind was still hazy and my body still not moving to my will when I caught site of the thing hovering above me. I really should have screamed had I the strength or cried had I the tears to spare. I settled instead to stare at him through half lowered lids.

My brain screamed wrong when I let my gaze travel down the exposed torso of pallid flesh and then on to the hands wrapped in questionably clean cloths atop gauntleted hands. The wide belt about his waist was trimmed in what looked like bone and had strips of rotting purple fabric floating down in random spots. His boots were heavily armored and also were lined in bone. With a loud gulp I forced myself to stare into his face.

Okay what should have been his face at any rate and felt the need to scream bubbling in my throat before my body thwarted it as wasted energy so I settled for dully holding his gaze. His face was covered in a thick bone mask with slits for eyes and nostrils but no mouth. I could still see a length of his jaw on either side when it wasn't covered by the shoulder length tendrils of black hair. His eyes held mine then as if he willed my eyes back to his. They were bright glowing orange embers behind the mask and didn't appear to be unkind, merely haunted.

"You humans, always so careless and curious." He said in an amused tone as he sat the glass down on the floor next to the couch. I gave him a halfhearted snarl of blunt teeth which made him chuckle. "Spunky even when facing your death, I find that amusing and so little amuses me these days."

"So you have come to kill me?" I managed to rasp out painfully from a throat gone dry again. He laughed then, a laugh that shook his whole large frame. After several minutes he stopped and sobered as he gazed down at me intently, "No little one, I have come to save you from your own stupid folly. If you can be saved." He clearly must have read the confusion on my face since he shook his head. "Not now, later we will talk but for now you will rest." I resented being told what to do and sent him a half-hearted glare as I felt my eyes drooping closed. Before I could do anything to defy him I was out cold again.

Time seemed like a relative thing and my dreams seemed more real than reality. Dreams of strong arms holding me up long enough to coax fluid down me until I finally woke up enough to know I was awake and alive. I lay there for several long minutes simply breathing and listening to the logs crackling in the fireplace. I swallowed several times and realized that I wasn't as cotton-mouthed as I had been before.

I was beginning to think that everything had been a dream concerning the stranger who had appeared in my home. I carefully sat up and sighed when I realized that I only got the slightest bit dizzy. I flinched as I heard my cat, Gibbs, give an angry hiss from the kitchen and then a muffled curse from a gruff voice. Still not trusting myself to sit up enough to look over the couch or stand I settled for listening to the growling and footsteps getting closer.

Suddenly a very angry tabby cat was dropped on my chest and he turned to growl at someone standing behind the couch as he crouched and lashed his tail side to side in irritation. I placed a hand on his back and he immediately started purring and rubbed his face against mine, making me smile softly. I then turned my attention back to the man starring down at me from behind the couch.

The urge to scream was still there although I didn't voice it; probably because my system was still in shock to an extent. "Don't do it girl." I gave the man a confused look and tilted my head side ways to consider him. "Don't do what exactly?" He sent me a hard look and took so long to reply I almost thought he might not. "Don't scream, it might set that damnable feline off again."

I chuckled softly and regarded the cat sitting on my chest. "I always thought cats were the stewards of the dead." He came to kneel in front of the couch, his face inches from mine. "That is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard. What would you know of it anyway or for that matter that I am one of the dead?"

"Well you cannot possibly be alive with the way you look." He chuckled then as he eased back into a less threatening position. "Oh yes, little one, I am very much alive just not in the sense you humans could understand." I gave a tiny shrug of my shoulders and let it go. I watched the fire burn as the silence became awkward.

"What happened to me?" I finally got the nerve up to ask and waited for an answer. "Well now, let's see where to begin shall we?" I gave him a glare as I turned my head to look at him. He seemed to be pondering that as he extended another glass of water to me and I took my time sipping it as I listened to him intently.

"You stupidly opened a book that usually wouldn't have harmed you but it did because it was actually used by someone to practice necromancy. As for why it affected you I suppose it could be because you practically radiate goodness, you have never touched or practiced anything that has to do with dark practices like necromancy. Therefore it reacted and made you ill, draining you of your life essence and even now faint traces linger in your aura."

He paused and watched me as I digested this. I suppose he expected me to deny it or argue but I simply nodded my head as I waited for him to continue. "So how is it you saved me?" He chuckled again and this time it sent shivers skittering over my skin. "I used my necromantic abilities to purge the majority of it although the rest you will have to do on your own over time but you are no longer in danger of dying."

"How is it you know so much about it?" I had to ask and again he gave that dark chuckle before tapping a knuckle against his mask. "Simple really, who else could have more control over the powers of the dead than Death himself."

I looked in shock at him before I started trembling uncontrollably. I had put up with a lot in silence and without freaking but this was too much. I started shrieking at him then, "You are here to kill me then! Get away from me!" I honestly don't know what all I screamed at him or how long he let me go on before I finally wore myself out and slumped back against the couch. He never moved from his spot and simply starred at me, "Are you done now?"

I gave him an incredulous look before sighing in defeat and nodding. "Good. I am not going to kill you; you are needed in the coming years for certain things and play a rather important role so we couldn't allow you to be lost due to a youthful folly." I laughed softly and rolled my eyes, "Okay, whatever."

He shook his head slowly, "You humans always seeking for things you sense are out there but yet when confronted with the truth you do everything possible to deny it!" He finished in what was probably a yell for him and I met him with one of my own. "I didn't say I didn't believe you moron, only that I doubted I would be important!" I had my nosed pressed to the bone mask just beneath where the nose slits were.

The living room was filled with the sounds of my ragged breathing as I held his glare with one of my own. Suddenly angry growling erupted from my chest and I flicked my gaze down at my cat and then back up to his, moving my face away from his. "That cat is unbalanced." The absurdity of the statement and the timing made me blink owlishly for a moment before laughing loudly until tears came to my eyes and blurred my vision.

"He most likely is." I finally managed after I stopped laughing. Death shook his head at me and I think he grinned behind his mask. "So how will I know when I am needed and for what?" He grew sober again, "You will know when the time comes and as for what I cannot say because it could alter things. I just know I was told not to let you die." I nodded in return before reclining again on the couch and slowly stroking my cat. "Well I think I am going to live now."

"It would seem that you are at that." I gave him a weak smile as I was getting tired again. "So how long will I feel like crap?" He gave me a considering look for a moment before finally answering me. "Hmm, it will be several days."

I groaned and rolled my eyes before yawning. "You should rest." I nodded drowsily at his statement and closed my eyes. I fell asleep and he left sometime after that but even after I woke up later I knew it wasn't a dream. There were also times in the coming years that I could sense someone watching me and I would glance over to find a crow sitting on the fence watching me shovel stalls or throw hay. I just knew somehow that it was him keeping watch and it oddly gave me a comforting peace of mind.