The days.
The months.
The seasons.
The years.
They rain and snow and howl and sigh on the outside.
The cavern shivers on its own.
The statue inside.
Untouched.
Not even the penumbra of the sun and moon kiss their way in.
And dust sleeps thicker and thicker.
On her arms.
Her wrists.
Her spider strands of hair.
Glazed eyes.
Gaping mouth.
Helpless hands.
Reaching…
Reaching…..
Reaching…….
And somewhere.
Like the liquid laugh of dry ice.
A cold.
Cold.
Cold mist swarms invisibly at her feet.
She doesn't feel the chains at first. They are as much a part of her as her frozen skin. But now…… Now…… For the first time, they pull on her. They pull. And they pull. And it isn't until the chains are taut that… "Nnngh……" Her head breaks through the layer of stone. Frozen dust fly off from her pale blonde hair. She bends her skull forward. She pants. She panes. She pants. Eyes clenched shut. Vapor coldly dancing forth. Skin hairs shattering. Sighing into thin air. She pants once more. And…… YANK!! CL-CLINK!! "NNGH!!" She slumps forward and peels out of the statue. Naked. Pale all over. TH-THRUMP!! She falls on her knees before the plaque. Icicles crackle beneath her. She plants two blue hands into the stone floor beneath her. She heaves. Crystalline hair waves to the center of the globe. Her teeth chatter. Her skin erupts in course bumps all over. Her nipples grow rock hard. Hairs come to life on her neck and shrink into oblivion. She shivers. She shakes. She gasps. More mist. Blue mist. Everywhere. Ice. Ice… Ice…… Her head rises. Vapors and hair waving. Blue eyes turning bluer. Wavering. Frost gathering around the lids. With a quivering lip she gazes around. The walls of the cavern are covered in blue crystal. A soft down of white powder fills the corners. Ice shards drip down from the ceiling. The girl hugs herself. Bony fingers gnarled around bonier shoulders. Her lungs shudder. More and more mist. She struggles to stand up. Her muscles shudder from top to bottom. She collapses painfully on her chest. "Nnngh!!" The icy floor kisses her entire form…then digs daggers of frost
in. She winces. She feels something rusty and dangling around her left ear. Blinking, she raises a shaking hand. Cl-Clink!! Chains. Her blue eyes narrow. She fingers the links. She shakes. Vapor…… "Ch-Ch-Chains………" Her eyes narrow. Frosted-white-and-blue-eyebrows. And…… Cl-Clink. Cl-CLINK!! Her eyes explode. YANK!! "AUGH!!"
She's dragged across the icy floor.
Metal shards rip through her skin and softly exit the other
side. There is pain. But no blood. No open wound. Just…… Pain. Cold. She shudders. YANK!! "NNGH!!" She is pulled up the rocky incline of the cabin. Dragged through the soft powder. Up craggy steps. Ripping through her. More pain. No blood. She shudders and grits crystalline teeth. The chains pull. The chains pull. Colder. Colder… Colder…… She ascends into blue light. A surface world.
Mountains. Valleys. Streets. Baysides. Dilapidated buildings. Cover in snow. Flakes fall down continuously. Lonely silence across the starless sky. Endless black as far as the eyes can see. No sky. No sun. No moon.
Endless snow. Endless cold. Cold. THWUMP!! She falls into the snow. Sprawled across the white powder. Wincing. Shivering. The chains stop. She half-dangles from them. Her limbs shake and shiver. She sits up. Teeth practically cracking. Frost trailing down her shoulders. Blue spreading through her limbs and extremities. Snow clinging to her legs. Her waist. Her nether regions. Her fingers. She hugs herself. She hiccups. A gasp. A sob. A sob… A sob…… Silence.
……… Two crunching sounds. Two blue feet. Pale skin and dead black hairs curling…… The girl looks up. The Spectre stares down at her. The Spectre is an old man. Pale and naked. Draped from his shoulders to his hips to his knees with throngs
and throngs of chains. Black, rusted chains. His hair is a white eternity like that of the snow. A frost-covered mustache dawns his upper lip. His left eye is pale and lifeless. His right eye is missing altogether. A blue gash of darkness. Peaking through the dangling chains and falling white
flakes. There is no emotion in his face. No defining lines. Just… Blue cold. The Spectre stands perfectly still. She shivers. He shuffles forward once. The chains clink and clank along his person. A puff of vapor leaves his lips:
"Tara Markov?" Her eyes twitch. Frost on the lashes. Quivering lips. "I……" Her voice lingers like the crystalline vapors in the air. The Spectre blinks once. The chains hang still. "I have come to kill you," he says. The girl blinks.
And somehow, she ignores the cold for once. As her arms part from crossing her breasts and she embraces: "How long did it take me to get here?" He shakes his head. "There is no time. There is no here." Her blue eyes thin. She looks past him at the white landscape.
The shattered buildings. The empty sky. "I recognize……" "What is it that you see?" "Jump City……I think……" "I have always wondered what you would see." She blinks. "For the longest time, I could not see anything at all." A beat. She lowers her lids. "Then again……if there is no time………" Silence. She shudders. "Is……Is this Hell?" "Hell is a word," the Spectre quickly returns. She takes a deep breath. Chains rattle. She reopens her eyes. He stands beside her. Gazing at what she is gazing at. Seeing the same thing. And yet. Something else entirely. "I hardly even remember what Jump City looks like," the Spectre
says.
She exhales. Blue vapor. It clouds the white horizon.
"I am sitting at home," he says. "There's a fire before me. I
cannot touch it for the life of me. My wife is playing the piano across the
parlor. My two sons are playing with their train set that I got them last
Christmas. And my daughter……my daughter isn't there. I suppose she doesn't
deserve to be there yet." "I cannot touch them. I keep trying. But I cannot touch
them." The girl looks at him. His left eye seems paler. "I must finish it all. I must do what I came here to do. What I
was summoned to do." "You must kill me." He nodded. Silence……… She breathes. "I……I cannot touch the City myself……" A beat. She runs a hand through frozen hair. "I cannot touch anything……" Her throat swallows nothing. She shudders and looks painfully at him. "Please……do your job……" He stares at her. His missing eyes seems to shimmer. "I can't……" A frozen breath escapes her. He sighs: "You have a job to do yourself, Tara. I cannot finish
my job until you finish yours. The circle must be full and complete."
She exhales: "But……But what is m-my job?" "The same as mine, Tara. You are a Reaper." She blinks. He gestures with a frozen-blue arm. "Once……when we could
feel……when we could see…………we both made oaths. We dabbled in the Cold in the
land of the Warm. When we were yet alive, we promised to do any and all things
possible to seek the end of other lives around us. It does not matter if we were
successful in our murderous endeavors or not. The fact is, we committed
ourselves to destruction. We pursued perfect oblivion of other souls. We pursued
their oblivion……without resolving ourselves among them. The pact was never
broken. Destruction lives beyond words." The girl curls her knuckles in the snow. Her palms sting from the cold. Lips are already turning blue across her face. "Do you know whom your job entails, Tara?"
"The Titans……," she murmurs. The Spectre nods. "You are the Reaper of the Titans. I am the
Reaper of you. Do your job. Then I shall do my job. Our purposes will be
fulfilled. We will finally be able to sleep."
"Sleep……," the girl closes her eyes and sighs. "Sleep. I so do want to……sleep."
A beat. She shudders. Crystal tears leak forth from her eyes. "But……B-But……" She chokes. She looks up at the Spectre, glistening all over. "I-I do not want to kill the Titans. I do not want to k-kill my
friends." "Tara……dear child………………you already have." She gasps. And somewhere in the frozen sensation entering her dry
mouth. She understands. Her eyes narrow in a melancholy melting. Her limbs fall limp. Cl-Cl-Clink!!
The Spectre peels a string of rusted chains from his person. They dangle coldly before her. "Here……take these……" He tosses them at her. She holds two arms out. The links drape over her wrists. She shivers from the touch. Touch…… "Wh-What……?" she breathes.
"Take them to the Titans. Each and every Titan." She looks up. Eyes liquidy. "Wh-Where will I know to go?" "Fate will take you to where the links culminate," the Specture
points. The world behind him turns blacker. The snow becomes more frozen.
"They are connected to every soul that there ever was or ever
will be." "I……I don't believe it." "You do not have to. You must merely do your job." "I understand……" "Good, Tara. Go forth. Go forth……to sleep……" "To sleep…" She stands up. She hugs the chains to her naked chest. She steps forward, dragging the chains attached to her. Wincing, dragging, shuffling. The Spectre watches her, turns, and disappears. The girl marches forward. On the blackening horizon, she spots a huge Tower. The shape of a 'T'. The leftover laugh of something warm. Gone.
"…………" Vapors trail her. And disappear like her hair.