Death’s New Pet: Love after Life

Miserably, I peer at the unconscious woman in the open casket. She’s pale with rosy cheeks, a slender face, and thin, blue lips. Her tight blonde curls remain in place, shaping around her beautiful face, ignoring the rules of gravity. She’s a thin creature, and if her eyes were open, they’d be blood-red like mine. Her scarlet pupils would bleed down onto her pale face, creating a stream of red.

Other immortals find it disturbing, but there was something attractive about the pain she brought herself and others.

Next to her, my brother is also unconscious. He wears his best war armour and clutches at the sword in the casket next to him. Even in a temporary death, Rage looks fucking furious with his permanently stained frown lines.

Killing my brother and wife brings me no joy, and if anything, I feel… sad? Is that the right word? I’m now locked in that fucking Hellish Realm completely alone. All because the dirty little cunts couldn’t keep their fingers off one another. They were a liability to our united front and if I didn’t put them into a temporary death, I fear I might have wiped them out permanently.

My whole Being feels angry, shaking in a tense manner, and the nausea in my stomach creeps up to my throat. Emotionally, I’m utterly drained, and I don’t even have the energy to be mad. I’m disappointed, if anything. In her, in him, in myself.

How did I not figure out my wife was sleeping with my brother? How did I not realise they were plotting her escape from Hell?

Hence, the disgusting fucking mortal saying was born: To cheat Death.

“You did the right thing, Son,” my father offers stiffly. His hand reaches out and touches my shoulder in an act of comfort. The Hellish family is constantly surrounded by things dying, and the agony is unbearable. A curse bestowed upon us for all of eternity. However, when it’s one of our own, it’s more agonising. To make matters worse, with two Original Beings down, we are more open to attack from revolting beasts.

“How long for?” Misery wipes her clammy hands down her black, mourning dress. It’s the only thing she’s said since arriving at their funeral. She was always fond of my wife, feeding off her sadness, and even though she would not admit it, she would miss the company.

The lump in my throat doubles. “Four millennia.”

“It’ll go by quickly,” Longing lies. She tries to touch me, but I shake her off.

“She never wanted to be in my realm. She admired Rage for roaming Earth and wanted to join him. I should have seen it coming.”

“You were busy sorting and—”

“Together, in the space of a day, they murdered thousands of humans,” I growl. “And I’m the one paying for their fucking actions.”

The Devil slowly pushes the casket over my brother’s body before doing the same to Pain. He wastes no more time mourning their deaths.

He releases a shaky breath before turning back to me with a pained look. “We all are.”

“Death, are you listening?” Misery punches me in the arm, snapping me back into the present. “What are we going to do about Rage?”

“Nothing,” The Devil snaps. “He’s served his punishment. He’s allowed to be free again.”

This answer displeases Misery. “And what about Pain? Where is she?”

“She’s still in her sleep, I checked before coming here.” Longing sighs before rocking back in her seat. She claws at her dress in an attempt to settle her nerves, but her skittish gaze reveals her true feelings.

I remain silent. There is nothing I can say that will please anyone. Now that I’ve had a couple of millennia to think about it, I want both those cunts permanently dead. Time doesn’t heal, it makes the anger grow.

“Fuck! We can’t have him running around, can we? Now he’s awake, he will stir up the anger within the masses just like he did before. He’s learnt nothing!” Misery cries out. “He will ruin my trials!”

“What do you propose?” Longing chews at her lower lip.

“Let him fuck up,” I hear my grave voice finally speak. “Because we all know he eventually will and then I will punish him again.”

“What if he does something worse this time?”

“He will.” I sigh. “You can’t control the bastard and you can’t have him near these trials, you saw what he did to you guys and what he did to her trial.”

‘Yeah, she attacked her attackers.’ The beast desires more trouble. ‘She let the anger consume her and released the beast inside of her longing to kill. Make her do it again. I want her to kill for us and then we can fuck her in their blood.’

I swallow down the desire bubbling under the surface. It’s quickly replaced with fury. My fist slams into the skull-shaped table and it shatters into a million pieces, shrieking in pain as it does so.

“These fucking trials,” I growl furiously. “If it hadn’t been for them, I wouldn’t be distracted, and I could have extended his death—”

“You’d risk the punishment?” My father glowers, slowly rising from his seat. He readies himself for the obvious argument pending.

“There is nothing you can do to me that you haven’t already done.”

“Is that a challenge?” his eyes switch to their monstrous black colour in an attempt to threaten me, but it only excites me. The pixels burn in my fingers, screaming to be let out.

Round two.

“Death!” My mother’s harsh hiss echoes across the room. “Stop it, stop being so reckless! You don’t know what God will do if you start breaking the rules and—”

“Do you really think the almighty cunt will remove the only Being strong enough to control this realm? The only Being tormented enough to enjoy this punishment for the rest of eternity? There is nothing he, or you, or any cunt here can do to control me!”

“He could take what you love,” Misery suddenly snaps. My head rears in her direction furiously.

“Love?” The word falls from my lips in the most disgusted spit. “I don’t love anything. I am not capable of that feeling.”

Her whole body seizes up and her eyes grow sad. It’s only then I realise she’s not on about me. She’s on about her ex-girlfriend, Delphi, being snatched from her. The misery in the room increases until I feel it bubbling in my heart, choking up my lungs.

“Everybody is capable of love, Death,” my mother whispers. She casts a look at my father whose skin is far greyer than when he first ruled the underworld. His black veins shine through the papery skin. They exchange a look which makes me feel sick.

“You are fallen angels. You feel love, Eve.” I spit, using my mother’s maiden name. “The God of Death cannot love anything because everything fucking dies. I never had such a luxury of being human or even remotely good in my beginning.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that. You never know about your curse; we learn new things every day and—”

“Just shut the fuck up!” I suddenly explode as the beast roars inside of me.

‘There is no such thing as love. Only hate, only suffering, only torture. The only love I want is when they completely submit themselves to me, body and soul, ready for me to play with.’

“Are we done here?” The black mist seeps from my body. “I have souls to sort and punish. You deal with Rage because if I do it, everybody in Hell will suffer. Got it?”

Before I get a reply, I find myself flashing out of the boardroom, so I don’t take my anger out on the family. But what surprises me is the fact I’m not in my torture room.

Instead, strangely enough, I’m now standing in front of my little mortal, fucking furious and desperate to take my anger out on her trembling body.