Chapter Three
A Chase With Death
*****Five Months Previously*****
I'm running blindly through the overgrowth of the vast cornfields. They never looked this big from my bedroom window. My legs are whipped by corn with every stride. My breathing is shallow and every breath I take is more painful than the last. I can't do this much longer…
Don't look back! I scream to myself for the fiftieth time. If I look at the scene behind me, that image will be forever etched on every wall of my brain.
The image of my home and everything I've ever known being turned into ash.
It's so surreal, running in the pitch black of night. Everything is completely silent – I'm now too far away to hear the roaring flames devouring my home. It's eerie…and almost peaceful. If it weren't for the fact that I was running from Death, that is.
SCRAWLLED ON A NOTE FROM DEATH HIMSELF
Here is a small fact: Skye Riverson, you are going to die.
Death is gliding behind me with ease, tormenting me – mocking me. He's sneering as I stifle cries of agony, trying to keep myself together. Just keep going dammit, I scream at myself internally. Death is licking my tears, murmuring temptations into my ear:
Ooh, just imagine it…Imagine how much easier it would be if you gave yourself to me. It won't hurt…I'll be nice…Very nice. I'll caress you with the same hand I used to caress your parents. Oh my, you'd like that wouldn't you? I can feel it; you want to be with them. Join me, Skye Riverson. Join them.
I admit that his words are enticing me. I would so very much like to welcome death with a warm embrace. I want Death to catch me. I want Death to smother me in his long, black cloak. I want Death to kiss me with his rotting teeth, and caress my cheek with his emaciated fingers.
But you can't always get what you want.
Because my mother's last command is ringing through my head: stay alive.
NO! l scream at Death in my mind, and he shrinks back a little. But then he sneers,
Oh, a feisty one aren't you?
You took them! YOU TOOK THEM! Death laughs at these words,
Oh, you naïve little child. What could I do? Their time was up…And so is yours.
No it's not. You're lying. But even in my whispered thoughts, I am lacking conviction.
You know very well that I am not lying, Skye Riverson. You want to join me just as much as I want to join you.
I can't. Mother told me. She told me to stay alive.
Alive? Alive? He emits a sharp bark of sardonic laughter. What life would you have, Skye Riverson? You have no family. No home. Not even a penny. You are better off dead.
"SHUT UP!" I scream.
I stop dead in my tracks.
My heart is thudding in my throat. I didn't mean to actually scream. My eyes are wide as I stare around me. Please, please say no one heard me.
I slowly take in my surroundings, holding my breath. I look back, even though I had promised myself I wouldn't…
My home is nothing but a little, fiery dot in the distance. It's almost therapeutic, watching the fire dance around it. It looks like a tiny little firefly amongst the vast black eternity of night surrounding it.
I wait for what feels like hours, standing there and waiting for something to catch me.
But there is no one here but myself.
I feel the tears begin to roll silently down my cheeks. Even Death is silent.
"I must keep going" I whisper hoarsely.
So I do. I swallow my sadness and I walk through the countryside, stumbling over roots and tearing my skin on branches lurking in the shadows. But I don't even care. I have nothing. Absolutely nothing.
Even the sky is mourning. It's beginning to cry big, heavy drops of rain. But I don't cry with it. Crying doesn't solve anything.
.
I'm not thinking of my parents as I walk. Not of their bodies, extinct of life…nothing but empty shells.
No.
Instead, I am pondering over science. The science of cause and effect, to be exact.
There is always a cause to something, a 'reason' as such. I've constantly needed that reason, it's been important to me. It compensates me for what I don't understand about life. If I know the reason behind the enigmas in our existence, then I can come to understand this thing called life. I may come to appreciate it, even.
But the longer I live and the longer I look, the less sense it makes to me. For every action there's an equal reaction, yet the laws that govern this cosmos seldom have anything to do with what we know of human experience. We are chaos: unrulable. So most of us turn to "God" or…something else.
But we will all die. And there will always be a reason. Whether we believe in a deity or not, that will not change. That's a scientific fact…But it's not the truth.
"Can I help you?" I jump, snapping out of my reverie. There is something looming over me. I'm trapped in its shadow. I look up, startled to find someone looking down at me.
"Wh…Who are you?" I stutter. I shrink back, wanting to run but my legs are numb.
"My name is Takaka. I am the butler of the Phantomhive Manor…may I help you?" he repeats, looking at me with concern.
THE BUTLER NAMED TANAKA
He is an old man, clad in traditional butler's attire. He wears a monocle, and his silver-grey hair has been slicked back, away from his tired looking eyes. His equally silver eyebrows are furrowed with concern as he gazes at the soaking wet girl by his feet.
"Miss?"
"H-how did I get here?" I ask, my voice wavering.
"I believe I was about to ask you the very same question."
"I…" I am lost as to what to say. I had not realised where my feet were taking me.
"Let me take you inside, and we shall converse further once you are well fed. You poor child…" He reaches down to take my hand, but I scramble backwards.
"N…no. P-please don't t-touch me…" I look up at him in fear. What if he has something to do with my parents?
"I'm very sorry" He bows "I only intend to help you. Would you not like to come indoors, out of the rain?" He smiles kindly.
Then something hits me. I have nothing. I have nowhere else to go. This is my only chance…I give in.
"Please help me." I whisper.
"Very well" He bows politely and I accept his hand. He helps me up -
I gasp, sharply sucking in a deep breath. "My foot…" I begin to sink back to the wet, puddled ground. The land seems to be regurgitating water, sick of trying to absorb it all.
The butler takes hold of my arm, and gently places it round his shoulder. He supports me so that I may limp forwards towards a house.
If you can call it a house, that is. I gulp as I look up, taking it in for the first time.
It's big. Very big. It's not even a house, really - it's more of a mansion. It's far larger than my own home, which would also be classed as a mansion. But it was nothing compared to this. Back when it wasn't being eaten by fire, that is…
.
After an agonising amount of limping and cursing and worried looks from the butler, I find myself in a small kitchen. The man has given me a warm towel ("gosh, look at the state of you!"), and is now heating up some sort of broth. He is staring at me with apprehension.
"I'm sorry" I say quietly.
"What for, my child?" He asks, genuinely surprised.
"For causing you trouble." He chuckles,
"I can assure you, you have caused no trouble"
"Thank you." I reply weakly.
"So, what has brought you here?"
I'm caught off guard, and end up spilling out the truth under his wise, knowing gaze. I blurt it out.
"I-I... My family…My parents are dead. Th-they killed them. So I…I had to run away." I say, my voice breaking a little. I had not planned to tell the butler, but his question was asked too soon for me to come up with an appropriate alibi.
"Do you know who killed them?" He asked, covering up his shock with a calm expression, taking control of the situation.
"No." I say, helplessly.
"Absolutely no idea?" he presses.
"No. But I know they'll come and get me too" I whisper.
He lays the bowl of soup down in front of me, giving a pitying look.
"As a guest, you are in the best possible care here" he said, placing his hand over his heart and bowing. He looks at me with an unreadable expression however, which seems to contradict his words somehow... "Eat" he says.
So I do. He watches me intently with each spoonful. But my hand is feeling heavier and heavier…my head, too…it's so heavy.
"I'm so…tired…" I say, gazing wearily at the man beside me. He's giving me an apologetic look, as a dark mist begins to cloud my vision…I'm falling…
I am being engulfed by the choking haze. But it's such a lovely, warm haze…sleep it's telling me. Sleep, Skye Riverson, sleep…
Sleep….Sleep…Sleep…
My eyes are heavy.
Sleep…Sleep…
Why are they so heavy?
Sleep…
"I'm sorry I had to do this" comes the butler's voice.
Everything has gone black.
TANAKA? Oh dear :') Skye's story of five moths previously will continue next chapter.
Hope you liked it, do feel free to give feedback as always - did you like the Death hallucination or was it a waste of time? I sure had fun writing it anyways ahaha, see you soon! ^_^
~Ched~