Chapter 1: Make Me Real
Part 7
Jack
Morta and I can sometimes get along. She certainly isn't close enough to what you would call a friend, but occasionally, when she's not busy, we talk about how things have been going for us. Morta is what humans tend to call "Death". She was derived from plenty of religions, but she preferred the Roman belief, and stuck with the name "Morta". In the human form, she would be about in her mid-twenties, with long, raven black hair, and eyes a mysterious shade of dark grey. She had looks that could kill, looks that have killed. We were sitting on an unoccupied bench in Italy, watching tourists pass.
"Morta.." I began.
"Yes?" she asked, coming out of her trance of watching children running into a crowd of pigeons on the ground.
"You once told me that when you were sending a man off to the Underworld, the two of you had an attraction.." I tried to think of more to say, but I could not.
"Yes." she breathed, examining her fingernails in an attempt to cover up her oncoming sadness.
"Well.. You never told me the whole story. I was wondering if you wouldn't mind telling me more about it." I said, striving to sound casual.
"What all did you want to know about, Jack?" she asked, looking over at me.
"As much as possible."
She sighed.
"Alright.." she started, guiding her words out carefully, "Well, when I cut his life's thread, and he became a spirit, I told him what had happened, and he accepted it. I told him I was supposed to take him to the Underworld. When we were on our journey, gliding through spacial time, we began to bond. I started to acquire.. feelings.. that I had never felt. He mirrored these feelings I had, and revealed them to me. At first, I was taken aback. Although I had similar feelings, I was unsure as to what extent. We were in my realm at this time, and I was about to take him to his destination, when he kissed me."
Morta blushed scarlet and smiled, looking away.
"Then what happened?" I asked, smiling back.
"I kissed him back, and pushed him into the Alcyonian. I was too embarrassed to see him after that, so I figured he'd find the Underworld himself." she said sadly.
"But you still think about him?" I asked.
Anyone who tries to get Morta to open up is clearly treading water, but it just might work in my favor considering that every time I walk on water it turns to ice anyway.
"Mmm.. Sometimes." she laughed. She stared into space, thinking of a faint memory, and then her look became serious, "I have to go, Jack."
"Are you sure?" I asked, "I haven't upset you or anything, have I?"
"No.. No. I have an.. appointment." she said, waving her notorious scissors softly into the air.
"Oh. That kind of appointment." I laughed, "Then I shouldn't waste any more of your time."
I stood up, and extended my hand to help her rise. She kindly took it, and stood as well. She pocketed her shears, the shears in which she uses to aid humans into escaping life, and waved her hand.
"I will see you, sometime." she smiled, drifting away into a crowd.
Morta steps with grace, even though you can barely see her when she walks. She prowls in her own spatial field, preferring to not only be invisible to humans, but to other personifications as well. It's quite hard to contact her when I need to whenever she does that.
I've been through so many winters, but I can still remember all of them. Memory is different with personifications. We're almost programmed, able to come up with data from centuries ago in just a matter of minutes. The only trouble is that we don't know our futures. We don't know if there is a future. Every second, every hour, every year; There is always a possibility that humanity could stop believing in us. It's happened to some. Very few, but that's still always something to worry about. We don't sleep or eat, we have no need to. Despite that, though, I can dream.. And lately I have been dreaming a lot more often than usual. These dreams I am talking about are similar to what you would call a daydream. Occasionally, while painting frost onto a window, I picture myself inside that room. I try to think about what it would have been like to be human. Humans are so afraid of dying, and yet they don't realize they have the greatest gift of all. Life. A chance to live. I, an immortal being, would give up everything just to live one day as a human. To be able to experience real dreams, and to feel empty in my stomach. To be able to wade in the ocean, feeling the tide come in. To shiver when I feel cold. To feel warmth, for once.
To be with her.
I want to know what it is like to be loved. I want to know in those special moments that I can love just as much. I want Azura to see me, like I can see her. I want her to fall in love with me. I want us to be together forever, even if that meant in death, for my part, anyway. I have been thinking these thoughts since I had spoken with Morta. I didn't want to lose anything like Morta did. Morta had a chance to feel love, but she pushed it away. I don't think I'll ever get that chance, so dreaming is all I have. It's all I can come close to a life.
I figured I'd let nature take its course.. And eventually, it did.
