Chapter 2

Some form of feeling returned to me, it wasn't touch, or smell, or sight; it wasn't anything I could classify and give a word to. The realization then came that I was indeed thinking. The next feeling that registered was the complete absence of gravity. 'What the fuck?'I thought. I tried to open my eyes, but it was almost as if they were…not there at all, was I blind?

Sense of time passing was another thing that had vanished, but it quickly gave rise to feelings of frustration. 'Open your eyes, damn it!' In a rush, as if my thoughts were the mere trigger the visual world snapped into existence and I could feel myself behind the darkness of closed eyes. It took a while to actually open them, it was almost as if I was learning how to do things all over again, not unlike I imagined a baby would have to do it.

My eyes regarded a blue sky above me, spotted with the occasional cloud that seemed to flow by slowly, and out of the corner of my eye I saw a looming mountain spearing into the sky. I tried to move next, but again was met with the obstacle of simply not being able to…the instinct of physical movement was gone, and like my eyelids I would seemingly have to find out how to control my own body all over again. It was as I was doing this that I noticed that the world had a distinct…glow or etherealness that had not been there before.

I pondered an explanation for that while getting control back. My only sense of time passing was the clouds moving overhead but it almost seemed as if time…I didn't know how to explain this feeling or instinct…time was now something trivial, something that no longer had any meaning for me. I felt like jumping for joy when I finally managed to move everything above my neck, allowing for a more complete survey of my surroundings.

Only to be totally astounded, I was at the exact place I last remembered being with Klaus when something…an animal had attacked us. I remembered the shots he had fired from his rifle, no doubt trying to kill the attacking animal. Why was I still here? Why wasn't I in hospital? Where was Klaus?

There were no answers to these questions or clues within sight, so I had to get moving, and that required getting control back. With the passage of time marked by the setting and rising of the sun it took me two days to get control of my entire body and normal senses, and yet another to stand. When I had finally regained touch it allowed me to feel a distinctly strange thing, something cold and foreign was seemingly lying on top of my left breast, its segmented nature eventually led me to conclude that it was a chain, and now I could finally get a good look at it…

'What the fuck?'

There seemingly fused in the valley between my breasts were a pentagonal metal buckle and a severed chain hung from it all the way down to my knees. I awkwardly took hold of the chain and studied it. It was chrome plated such that it glinted in the overhead sun, and had that same ethereal feel of the world around me. I was tempted to tug on the thing to see how tightly it was secured to my chest, but thought immediately better of it. Instead carefully feeling the boundary between her skin and the buckle, while it was foreign to my mind, it didn't feel that way to my body, it was integral, necessary.

I sighed and began to walk in a circle, moving my limbs in various ways to get the feel of my body back to an instinctual level, occasionally throwing in a strike with my flat palm or kick when I felt confident enough of my control. I had worked up to trying a jump when I spotted something that made me grind to a stop. On the earth, directly where I had spent the past three days was a large pool of dried blood. For a long while my mind was awhirl struggling with the implications of that. My eyes ranged on the rocky earth around the pool, studying the footprints as best as I was able…I remembered Uncle teaching me that the earth had a memory, a story to tell to the knowledgeable and skilled in the art of reading what was written on it. I was not as good as he was by a long shot, but could discern the basics.

A bloody lion of all things, a female, had attacked both me and my brother. It had stalked us from above the gravel road, up the side of the mountain. It had gone first for my own horse, which had caused me to fall off when it had reared up on its hind legs to free the forward legs to smash the threat. The lion had dodged the attack, but at this point something happened which caused the lion to retreat entirely off down the mountain. My brother's footsteps had rushed towards the pool of blood…here the earth was a mess and I couldn't make out anything except that he had placed his rifle next to the pool of blood.

I could see my brother's footprints now ranging all over the place, eventually disappearing when his horse walked off.

It wasn't difficult to put the pieces together, even though I had no clue what the chain attached to me served or did.

I was most probably dead.

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The shock of that took a while to wear off. I could only sit on a nearby rock, totally oblivious to the fact that the coarseness of it wasn't hurting my bare buttocks or feet as I hugged my legs and stared at that drying pool of what had been my life's blood. When I did get over it, disappointment and anger warred within me. I had been so young, with a whole life to live and now that was gone, stolen by a lion of all things. Lion's were not common at all outside of game farms and nature reserves, not to mention that mountainous terrain was not their favored habitat, flat plains and high grass being their preferred territory. There was also the fact that in no way would my Uncle want a damn lion on his hunting farm. The only hunters here were supposed to be humans.

"It's not fair," I muttered. My eyes ranged up to the sky. "But if I'm dead, why am I still here? Why am I in a body like my own? What's the deal with this chain coming out of my chest?"

There was no answer.

I realized that no further answers would be found here, and hopped off the rock. As my feet touched the ground I realized that my skin was hardly phased by the small sharp pebbles on the road. It was like I was walking on a soft carpet. I bent my leg awkwardly and looked at the soles of my feet…normal, nothing odd there.

Putting that in the back of my mind I began my journey back to the farmhouse compound. I walked at an easy clip and the sun advanced by three hours before it came in sight. It was during this that I also noticed that the light from the sun wasn't really reaching me, the slight burning warmth that usually accompanied the sensation was gone, it was as if I was walking in perpetual night, yet the light was still there.

I saw the first signs of life since my awakening. There were a group of four women lounging on the grass and they were helping each other to smear sun screen on their backs. I stood not a meter from them, and they did not stir or see me, one woman looking straight through me.

"You can't hear me, can you?"

The women didn't respond, and only continued with their idle conversation on the latest happenings in their favorite soap opera. I walked up to them and waved my hand right in front of their faces; they didn't so much as twitch.

"Okay, if I'm a ghost, then…" I swung a flat palm at one of their faces and my hand vanished and went through the woman's head. "Figured that, but then how am I 'standing' on the ground?" I dug my heel into what should've been yielding soft grass and hard earth, but gained none of the sensation that would usually go with that. I remained listening to the women's blather for another five minutes before stalking off, intending to find my Uncle.

The main house was distinctly silent and closed. Not deterred at all I walked easily straight through the door. "Well, that part of being a ghost matches up." I moved down the hallway and straight to my Uncle's study.

He was seated behind the desk in the leather office chair staring blearily at the phone. His eyes were bloodshot red, no doubt from crying and the bags under his eyes proved that he hadn't been getting much sleep. I felt my own eyes start to water in response to the sadness of seeing him in such a state.

"I'm so sorry I'm doing this to you, Uncle."

The phone abruptly rang and he practically ripped it out of its cradle, "de Villiers." He listened intently to the speaker on the other end, and she saw his large hand form into a fist and the poor phone was probably suffering badly from the pressure. "You're sure?" The answer caused him to close his eyes. "Thank you, Lieutenant. I appreciate your efforts. Good bye." He placed the phone back in its cradle. His fist abruptly smashed into table. "Fockers!" His voice was strangled and flowing with anger, even hate. His teeth gritted and he clearly struggled to keep himself in check. He then began taking deep in and out breaths, while I watched in shock.

When he reached a state of relative calm, he stood up and walked out heading down the hall and knocked on one of the guest bedrooms. "Klaus."

There was no answer.

"Klaus."

"Go away, Uncle."

I frowned at the misery and despair I sensed in that voice. It was almost a tangible weight on the room beyond the door.

"You need to hear this, and I won't talk through a door at you." His forbidding tone left no room for argument and promised dire consequences should Klaus disobey. I hated it when Uncle talked like this. There were plodding footsteps that resonated on the wooden floor and the click of a lock on the door. Uncle Hendrik opened it immediately. I gasped at the sight of my brother, he looked like he hadn't cleaned up for days, his hair was askew, his eyes were even more bloodshot than their Uncle's, and his face was very pale.

"What is it?"

"The police just phoned," Uncle sighed deeply, rubbing his face wearily. "You're not responsible for your sister's death."

"What? Impossible! I shot her…"

"What?" I gasped in shock.

"No! Let me finish, idiot!" snapped Uncle Hendrik. "She was killed falling off the horse when it reared back. Trauma to the back of her neck caused it to break instantly, it was a bad fall. You scared the lion off with your shots, which saved your own life and only inadvertently hit your sister's body."

Klaus blinked as he took that in, and tears started to fall. I swore I could feel the despair in the room be entirely replaced with only a gnawing sadness. "Oh…is it…bad to feel relief now?"

"No, it's very natural, Klaus. Especially considering the legal consequences if you had indeed accidentally killed you sister."

Klaus nodded ruffling his own hair in a gesture of weariness, "Any word on how a lion got onto your farm?"

"No," Uncle Hendrik shook his head. "The workers are still combing the perimeter fence to look for any possible entry point and so far the hunts I've led with the volunteers haven't found the lion itself. We're more likely to first find the remains of the antelope it will soon be using for its first meal on the farm."

"Can…can I go on the next hunt for it?"

Uncle Hendrik raised a bushy eyebrow. "Yes. You are, however, not going looking like such a mess. Grab a shower and get back to me when you're human again."

"Yes, Uncle."

It was only as I watched my Uncle leave that I realized that his emotional reaction after the phone call of the police didn't match up with the version of events that he had told Klaus. He had clearly cursed 'someone' or a group of someones after the call. She doubted it was the police; they had after all done their job, apparently doing an autopsy of her body, since my death had presumably resulted from a gunshot. Now that that was no longer the case, it was clearly an accident, right?

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It was later that same afternoon that a very familiar car pulled into the compound. I had taken to haunting my uncle and there were some occasions where I saw him shiver or narrow his eyes vaguely in my direction before shaking it off and continuing with his duties and accepting the condolences of the various guests who saw him. He was near the stables when the car came to a stop and two people emerged from either side.

"Mom, Dad," I sighed, wishing I could hug them. My parents were understandably not looking good. My mother looked like she could barely keep her willowy tall figure upright, and despite her vibrant blonde hair being properly done up, her usual spry energy was all but gone making it seem dull. My father, visibly at least, hardly looked phased at all that his only daughter had just died. He could've just stepped out of the boardroom at the mining company, and was dressed in an elegant fancy suit, tie and all. The only clue that I had that he was in pain, was that weird other sense I had gained since dying…his heart was near shattered and his…aura…no his own spirit was dull.

Uncle Hendrik waved listlessly, "How did it go?"

Dad coughed clearing his throat. "Funeral's arranged for when the police release her body. Has there been any word on a date I have to give the funeral home?"

"Four days, got word this morning from them."

"And what about Klaus?" I felt my heart strain at how frail my mother's voice sounded.

"You can relax, little sis," Uncle walked up to her and put a supportive hand on her shoulder. "The police aren't pressing any charges. The autopsy showed she died from the fall off the horse, the gunshot from Klaus was afterward." He had to abruptly catch her as her legs gave out from under her as she started to cry from sheer relief. Her dad rushed forward to embrace her as well. "Let's get her in the house."

I followed them anxiously as I worried about my mother's condition. They put her in the living room and whilst Uncle brewed some sweet tea for her. The two brothers-in-law left only after they were assured she was fine.

"I'm okay, I just want to have a nap for a moment," her eyes were already closed.

"All right, honey. Just call the instant you need anything," my father stroked mom's cheek affectionately. She said yes vaguely and fell into slumber almost immediately. As much as I wanted to remain with mom, I was still as curious as a cat about why my Uncle had reacted so badly. Hopefully he and dad would talk about it.

I found them both in the study, seated on opposite sides of the desk and nursing glasses filled with brandy. For a long while they just sat there and were in what my mom always called 'screen saver mode'. It was apparently only something men could do, zone out and think of nothing at all or be so absorbed in a task that the world didn't exist around them, guess that was why those guards in front of Buckingham Palace that imitated statues were all men.

"Jan," my Uncle eventually said.

"Hmmm?"

"I believe Mel's death was…not really premeditated but…"

My dad's eyes narrowed and speared my Uncle with a penetrating look. "What do you mean?"

"I'm sure that soon I'll get a report from my workers, that they found a gap in the perimeter fence, and that this was where the lion's footprints first began."

"So? A lion happened to find a busted portion of your fence then…"

"No, no," Uncle shook his head. "The possibility of a wild African lion female in this part of the country is remote to the extreme. There are no game farms nearby that have them and I keep the perimeter fence in good repair, I have to, the animals on this farm are my livelihood, can't have them getting out."

My dad caught on quickly. "You're suggesting the lion was purposefully put within the farm?"

"Yes, it was in the Roland Warding section and you know how much that class of antelope are worth."

I could see a vein start to throb in my father temple and the world turned red with rage, yet his voice was still perfectly collected. "Someone put a lion on your farm to attack the antelope, to drive you out of business?"

"A single lion will at most kill two antelope before we hunt it down, that's inconsequential to the antelope population I have. No, this is an attack on the farm's reputation. After all, who wants to hunt where the possibility exists that you might be the hunted instead?" Uncle looked out the window. "They probably just intended for the lion to gobble a few antelope, then they would let word leak out, but now that Mel is…gone…"

I gaped at them…I was killed because someone just wanted to ruin my Uncle's farm!

"Do you have any idea who 'they' are?"

I could only wince at the spike of righteous anger and rage coming from dad.

"I can't say exactly, any of the farms in this area would benefit from a larger slice of the pie."

"Anyone with a grudge?"

Uncle Hendrik rubbed his face wearily. "I pretty much pissed off all of my neighbors when I made this place 'clothing optional'."

"But do any of them have access and permits to get their hands on a lion?"

"A lion is one of the Big Five; they're protected by law, to own one 'legally' on a game farm is a nightmare of red tape and money. Any such lion is also well documented; everything all the way down to its DNA pattern is recorded."

"The lion would be easily linked back to its owner then or in this case the culprit," my father nodded in understanding. "It would be a smoking gun that leads back to him."

"Therefore whoever did this probably poached the animal, I'll make some enquiries to see if there are any missing with the government and some of my contacts in the National Parks."

"That's probably a dead end though, unless we're talking about someone stupid," my father was somewhat calmed down and looked pensively into space. "We can only hope that evidence can be found at the perimeter fence."

I left the room almost not believing what I had heard and returned to my mother in the living room. I idly tried to sit down next to her on the couch, only to fall through ass first until I hit the strange soft solid floor that existed everywhere. I looked down and my body from shoulders up was sticking out of the couch. "This sucks; I'm a ghost so why can't I float up anywhere?"

I stood up and had to settle with simply standing and watching my sleeping mother. "Oh, how I wish I could just talk to you one last time, mom. If only to say goodbye and that I love you."

"It's just goodbye for fifty years or so, Ms Harrold."

I gasped at the friendly voice coming from my left. The owner of that voice stood in the doorway, a pleasant smile on his lantern jawed face and his sapphire blue eyes twinkled knowingly from underneath a mop of messy brown hair. He was dressed in an all black suit, complemented with a black tie, shirt and shiny leather shoes. Finally, in his right hand, was an elegant shiny black cane, which he was idly fiddling with.

I turned to face him warily. "So you can see me, huh? Who are you?"

"My current identity is Ken Fitzgerald. I'm here to see you to your next destination: Soul Society."

"Uh," I blinked in uncertainty. "That's heaven, right?"

"That's the current term for it in the material realm, yes."

I laughed a bit to cover my relief at hearing that. "So you're an Angel of Death or something?"

"Yes, indeed, Ms Harrold, though the proper term is Death god."

I tapped the pentagonal steel buckle and chain hanging from my chest. "So what's the deal with this new fashion accessory, Mr Death god?"

"That was your Chain of Fate, it was cut when you died," he explained. "And please, just call me Ken."

I saw and sensed that 'Ken' was feeling rather bemused, so satisfied that he wasn't really a threat to me I turned to look at my sleeping mother. "Would she be able to see you?"

"No. Communicating with the living is only allowed under very special circumstances and controlled conditions."

"Mysteries of life and all that," I nodded in understanding, though it didn't stop me from feeling sadness anew that I really wouldn't be able to say goodbye. "I don't suppose we could wait until my funeral?"

Ken laughed, "You want to attend your own funeral? Don't be ridiculous, Ms Harrold. Funerals are for the living, it's their way of saying goodbye and assuaging their own hearts of your absence, my dear. There is also danger the longer we delay your journey to Soul Society."

"What danger?"

The Death god sighed and a distinctly put-upon expression crossed his face, I imagined he'd had this conversation countless times before. "There are two dangers you face now, firstly your Chain of Fate will start to erode the longer you stay in the material world, as it happens you will become more regretful, angry at the lack of contact, isolated, the more negative emotions you feel the faster the chain erodes, and when it's gone you will lose your human heart and become a fallen soul or as it's commonly called, a Hollow."

"I take it they're bad?" I fingered my Chain of Fate absently and realized that it was indeed shorter by a link.

"They're like a bestial rabid animal with ever changing forms and a rainbow of abilities all catered to one thing, to help them fill the hole where their heart used to be. The way they try to do that is by devouring either other Hollows or their preferred meal…souls in your current state."

I gulped nervously at that and looked around. "You wouldn't happen to know if any are nearby?"

"None at present, you are lucky that you died in a sparsely populated area, Hollows are attracted to areas like cities, where a lot of death occurs and they have an easier time of gobbling up a soul. There are only so many Death gods and we can't protect everyone." He suddenly grinned at me. "I'm actually on a light-duty rotation by being assigned to this province."

"Damn, Gauteng must be a spiritual hot house," I concluded. It was the smallest central province of South Africa, but the most densely populated, and the amount of death due to accident, crime and other causes, it didn't bear thinking about.

"It's one of the world's Hollow hot spots," Ken nodded. "Generally, all cities with five million plus populations are spiritual battlegrounds."

"There's still war after this?"

"Not in the way it's defined on Earth, your soul can't die its energy after all. But it can be forcefully changed by another soul or absorbed by a Hollow. You could 'die' in Soul Society, but you'd just be reborn in the material world with a completely new and unique personality having no memory of your past life."

"Oh, so it's a death of personality," I considered that for a moment. It seemed that the Eastern religions had it right in terms of reincarnation at least. "What about God? Doesn't He object to people 'fighting' in Soul Society?"

"Oh, He objects," Ken nodded with wide eyes. "You don't leave behind free will once you get to Soul Society. However, with free will comes choice and people will choose wrongly. Also, don't you think it would be frighteningly boring if there was constant 'peace' in Soul Society, considering that there you would be immortal to time. There has to be a balance."

"Ying yang, yang ying," I nodded in understanding. "Will I get to meet Him?"

Ken winced. "How can you truly meet that which cannot be defined, is infinite and everlasting? Even the ultra elite Royal Guard only meet God's avatar and the Royal Family…the souls descended from the God's brief time on Earth… however, you'll feel Him or Her all the time in Soul Society." He pulled out a cellphone of all things, flipped it open and consulted it briefly. "We better hurry this up and send you on, I've got another appointment."

"Can I just have a last goodbye?" I pleaded.

"Ten minutes, I'll meet you outside the house."

Ken turned around and disappeared down the hallway, his cane idly tapping on the floor. I turned back to mom and fixed the sight of her peaceful sleeping form in my memory. "Till we meet again."

I found my brother in his room after having just come from his shower. He was standing with a towel wrapped around his waist and considering different outfits.

"I better not see you for another eighty years, little bro," I declared in a mock stern voice. "Although considering scientific progress I might have to tag on another few decades maybe even a century on top of that. I hope you have a good life, I'm sorry that I won't get to live it with you, but I have to get off this train now." My eyes were blurry with tears which I had to wipe away. "Love ya."

"Oh well," Klaus murmured and chucked the clothes on his bed, dropped his towel and walked straight out of room. I laughed at the sight of him finally overcoming that hurdle of fear. I visited both my dad and Uncle for the last time, again fixing them in my memory. "Don't be in a rush to join me, Dad…Uncle." I vainly tried to hug my dad through the chair he was sitting in, but it was the thought that counted at least.

I emerged from the house to see Ken looking at me expectantly. "All done?" I nodded. "Good, come stand in front of me."

I complied nervously. "How does this work?"

"It's called the Soul Burial," he explained, and abruptly his cane morphed into an ornate Saber within a brown scabbard. "This is my Soul Slayer, one of the main weapons of a Death god. It's as simple as touching your forehead with its pommel. Once that's done you will disappear from this plane, the next time you awake, you will be in Soul Society."

I now felt distinctly like there were butterflies in my stomach. "Go ahead, and…thank you."

He withdrew the gleaming blade that resonated powerfully within me and in an eyeblink he had the pommel pressed against my forehead. "You're welcome, Ms Harrold. Perhaps I will see you in the future."

The world was becoming blurry around me, filled a bright blue glow and a feeling of peace and sheer bliss all in one wrapped around me like a thick blanket. My awareness was swallowed up in it and I fell unconscious in it.

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Death god Ken Fitzgerald stared at the empty space which Ms Harrold had occupied with some astonishment, and watched as the Hell Butterfly fluttered away to guide her soul between the dimensions. The ancient Futhark sigils that had briefly appeared on her forehead were rather intriguing in their content; it definitely merited a visit to the Spirit Library…