Alex stood in Clear's garage after asking her why she was at Tod's house, and he was beginning to think he'd never get a straight answer from the girl "You know what this is?" She questions, pointing to a weird-looking metal thing.
"This is a... This is Springy Head Guy" Alex guesses as a circle the sculpture having no idea what it was supposed to be or why Clear was asking him what he thought it could be.
"It's you" Clear answers seriously as Alex remaining dry and stoned faced he tenses feeling uncomfortable. "Not a likeness. It's how you make me feel, Alex" Clear continues as she holds the spring of the metal sculpture.
"I'm sorry" was all the blond boy could say, the sculpture was a mess, to say the least, it was the epitome of poorly communicated teen angst, welded to the center of the spring was a head shaped piece of metal with holes torn into it.
"No. Like you, the sculpture doesn't even know... what or why it is. It's reluctant to take form... and yet creating an absolute...but incomprehensible attraction" Uncertain yet intrigued, Alex listens carefully as Clear turns to him.
"In four years of high school, we haven't said one word to each other. At that moment, on the plane, I felt what you felt," She admits as Alex stares at her in shock "I didn't even know where those emotions came from... until you started freaking out".
Alex sighs, embarrassed, but Clear continues, "I didn't see what you saw, but I felt it. You can still feel it, can't you? Something from that day is still with you" The blond is increasingly uncomfortable with the subject, but eased by Clear's apparent, somewhat, understanding.
He nods with his hands firmly planted in his pockets "I felt like something was trying to warn me, to help me but then..." Alex glances into Clear's eyes as she motions for him to continue, "now I feel like something is wrong, something bad is coming."
"I know, I can still feel you," Clear explains, stepping closer to Alex. "That's why I was there last night," She finally acknowledges as Alex moves away in distress.
"I've never dealt with death before. This could all be in our head," he states, picking up one of Clear's trinkets and staring at it. "It just feels like it's all around us," He revealed quietly as if he himself thought it sounded crazy.
"It?" Clear questioned as she repeated the word making Alex turn back to her quickly and lowering his voice. "What if Tod was just the first of us"
The idea sends a shot of apprehension through Clear "Is that something that you're 'feeling?'" she emphasized the word feeling knowing Alex would get what she was asking, but the boy just breathed, walking past her.
"I don't know. I wish I could see him one last time. Maybe I would know," The boy said with a huff sounding hopeless. "Then let's go see him" Alex watches Clear in surprise, but he follows after her all the same.
Thana slowly saunters up behind the dark-skinned mortician as he and the two kids see over Tod's body.
She had already had a long morning with yet another person falling out of line with the design, and she was beginning to wonder if she was being tested.
"In death, there are no accidents... no coincidences, no mishaps... and no escapes" Thana smirked at the man's words, he was right, there was no escaping death "What you have to realize is we're all just a mouse... a cat has by the tail".
The two teenagers look at each other before turning back to Bludworth "Every single move we make... from the mundane to the monumental... the red light that we stop at or run... the people we have sex with or won't with us... airplanes that we ride or walk out of... it's all part of death's sadistic design... leading to the grave".
"Design," Alex whispers, glancing at his friends' body. "Does that mean if... you figure out the design, you can cheat death?" Thana glared at his words as she observed him.
Did he really think he could change his fate twice?.
"Alex, you've already done that... by walking off the plane," Bludworth purred as he motioned down to Tod's lifeless form "Your friend's departure... shows that death has a new design for all of you".
The redhead grinned manically when Clear's eyes went round with fear.
"Now you have to figure out... how and when it's coming back at you. Play your hunch...if you think you can get away with it," Bludworth hinted to the teenagers as Thana tilted her head in annoyance and clicked her tongue.
"But remember the risk of cheating the plan of disrespecting the design could incite a fury to terrorize even the Grim Reaper" Alex's eyes are locked on Bludworth's chilling smile.
He starts to pull on a foot-long needle from Tod's spinal column, the two kids gulp as they watch the man begin to pull another metal tube.
"And you don't even want to fuck with that Mack Daddy" The mortician warned as he yanks the tube out causing some yellowish-green fluid to seep on to the table, Clear gasped in disgust as she stepped back.
Thana would have been entertain by this, but she had more pressing matters, and even seeing Clear River's distressed face wasn't going to pull her out of the pissed off mood she was in.
Bludworth laughed to himself as Alex clapped his hands together, seemingly having enough "OK, then. Well... I'm sorry we broke in, and..." he motioned the door as he and Clear begin to back away.
"No harm, no foul" The mortician shrugged as Clear opened to door and all but ran out the room.
"I'll see you soon," The man says, ominously pointing a finger at Alex, who stares back in a terrifying wonder before closing the door behind him.
Clapping her hands slowly, Thana makes herself visible and sits on the counter, picking up one of the metal tools by her side "That was beautiful" The redhead comments as the man watches her carefully but not surprised to see her.
"Thana, nice to see you" He greets politely, but Thana doesn't smile; she just watches as the man gets back to work, not bothered by her presence in the slightest something that doesn't bother her as much as it used to.
"I was beginning to wonder why all these people were suddenly changing their fates or just happened to stumble from the design" Thana begins as she jumps from the counter toying with objects as she moves around the room.
"So imagine my surprise when I come here and see you talking to the soon to be dead" Thana suddenly slams her hand down on a metal tray in a fury "You are the ferryman, not a storyteller" she growls through her teeth "I made you Charon for a reason, you take the souls and deliver them".
Bludworth tensed but didn't look outwardly worried.
"You can not help them, it is their fate, it is the design and nothing will change that" Thana whispers getting closer to the man "no accidents... no coincidences... and no escapes".
Alex sighed as he sat in front of his computer, looking up death omens, but so far, nothing was helping him. Nobody had ever fought death before, so all he was getting were generic things like folklore and superstitions.
"You won't find what you are looking for unless you actually know what you're looking for" A deep voice grumbled from behind the boy, making him jump up in fright, there was a man stood in the middle of his room, and Alex had no idea how he'd gotten there.
"please don't worry, I'm not here to hurt you," the man promised raising one hand in surrender, but Alex still stayed far away from him, not believing the man who suddenly appeared from nowhere and scared the life out of him.
"I'm Castiel" The man took a step closer to Alex who tried to move further away but was stopped by his drawers "I'm the one who saved you from certain death" Castiel asserted as the wind picked up in Alex's room and the news report from the crash flew into the boy's chest.
"It was you," Alex gasped, looking down at the report "you gave me that vision," the blond deduced as he glanced towards the superior looking man "what are you? What's after us?" Alex gave question after question, but Castiel remained silent.
Lifting up his hand, Castiel pointed to Alex's computer as it began to blink rapidly and move like someone was using it "This is what you need to know, this is who you're dealing with" Alex gave a quick look to Castiel before sitting at his desk.
"Thana?" He read as Castiel stepped closer to look over the boy's shoulder. "Thana in mythology is the personification of death. Thana is the daughter of Lucifer, also known as the devil, and the sister of..."
Alex immediately glanced up at the stoic man with a gulp before continuing, "Castiel, the angel of life."
Swinging back to the computer, Alex skim-read the other information about Thana before huffing, "This can't be real, we're being hunted by Death, who's a girl named Thana?".
Turning back to look at the 'Angel,' Alex froze when he saw nobody behind him; it was like the man had never been there at all, or so he thought until he turned to the window and saw the same wide-eyed owl watching him as before.