The Uncertainty of Death

  I mean, how often does someone, even someone like Mitei meet God? For a moment she stood in this odd and tiny stretch of beach and wondered if she’d heard Mitei right. She couldn’t have said “God.” Maybe she was one of those weird fan type people that insisted on calling artists and athletes “God.”

  At some point every single thing on this earth would end up dying and Mitei would get to meet them then, but – Jules bit her lip and started to move toward the hidden door to her rooms – but Mitei seemed to know the difference between deity and not before. That first night, after they’d eaten and when Jules finally gotten to ask a few, ok a million, questions; Mitei had said she knew nothing of any deity at all. Stating the simple logic that since these beings were immortal by nature and she only met the dying…

  Jules sighed, washed her face and hands in the sink then grabbed a rag and wiped the last of the clinging sand from her feet as well. Not that it mattered, the sand was everywhere in here already.

  There wasn’t anything to be done for these questions but to go and poke Mitei awake. Still she hesitated; the poor girl was probably exhausted this “new” body of hers seemed to take a lot out of her. On the other hand, Mitei passed out so fast there was a real worry that she might not have cleared her schedule for this little nap first. As far as Jules knew there wasn’t any way for her to check that, since only Mitei had the original List.

  Nothing for it then, “Mitei –“ She walked into the bedroom to find Mitei sitting up in the middle of the bed List already in hand.

  Mitei didn’t show any signs that she’d heard her, grasping the list tightly in both hands and seeming to pull more length out of it. The whole thing seemed to glow this odd, dark color and Mitei seemed lost in what she was doing. From her position by the door Jules couldn’t quite make out what was happening on the other side of the list, but from where she stood she could see the parchment seemingly indented by an invisible third hand, writing. Writing so fast it was hard to mark each new line on the paper before that hand was done and moving on to the next one.

  Finally, when the list was stretched as far as her arms seemed able to grasp it Mitei stopped pulling. Except now, now there was a growing pool of darkness around and under the other woman. This darkness seemed so deep for a moment Jules worried that Mitei would fall right through the bed. Instead the list started to shrink in her hands again. She could see little glowing squiggles falling away from the list and into the pit, being whisked away into it like something pulled down a drain. In a moment the list that Mitei had stretched to such lengths was just a tiny scrap of paper she grasped one handed again.

  The hole that wasn’t a hole closed up with similar speed and Jules found herself gapping at Mitei as the other woman slumped back on the bed.

  “Have I frightened you?”

  “No,” she said picking her jaw up off the floor and smiling at the exhausted woman. “You did surprise me though. What did you just do?”

  “I cleared my schedule.”

  Oh, well that made sense and took one topic off her list for discussion. But, “does that mean you’re planning on sleeping some more? I wanted to talk to you…”

  Mitei smiled, the motion was slow, tired, but the twinkle in her eyes was bright and lively. “I am not going to sleep again for quite a while. I have some things to do.”

  “Oh. What things? Are you going back to Leo’s?”

  “Eventually, yes, but first I was thinking I would talk to you. And get a cell phone.”

  “Good,” Jules said sitting on the edge of the bed gingerly in case there were any last traces of that hole waiting to ambush her. “I wanted to ask you about what you said before.”

  “What I said?” Mitei was distractingly running fingers through her milk white hair. So Jules got up and grabbed a comb, getting behind the woman and starting from the ends. The strands barely needed the combing to detangle, falling smoothly between the tines without catching at all. “Will you braid it for me? I cannot seem to get the hang of these things yet.”

  “No, a braid doesn’t suit your outfit today but I will style it for you a bit.”

  Mitei didn’t reply, just grew still beneath her fingers as she combed through it. Disturbing how still she could be, it was like combing the hair of a life sized doll, or a corpse.

  “You said you were running in the woods,” she said focusing on the tasks at hand. “From God.”

  “From a god,” Mitei said moving slightly as if the subject made her uncomfortable. “Yes.”

  “Do I really have to ask all the questions?”

  “It would be wise if you want them answered. I am,” she paused, “ill equipped to guess what is on your mind.”

  Jules sighed, pulling strands of hair back from Mitei’s face and tying them back with hair ties. “You know, it’s hard to have a girlfriend to girlfriend chat with you when you talk like that right?”

  “Like what?”

  “No one’s ever mentioned that you speak strangely. Not exactly like it’s an ancient language or anything but it’s odd.”

  “Oh, they have mentioned it before. I think it has something to do with my language problem.”

  “’So many languages, so little time,’ I think Megan said.”

  “That sums most of me up nicely really.”

  Jules hugged her, taking them both by surprise. It was hard to remember sometimes in the midst of all else that Mitei might be old but she never had any time to gain the knowledge that supposedly went with that kind of age.

  She disentangled herself from the other woman and went to the dresser, picking up a hand mirror. “Alright then, since time is of the essence,” she gave Mitei the mirror. “Let’s talk about this god then.”

  All of that worry and it turned out to be some kind of weirdo in the woods. Maybe a weirdo with abilities similar to some of Mitei’s, but a weirdo nonetheless; Jules flopped down on the bed, lying across Mitei’s legs.

  “He couldn’t have been a god then,” she said.

  “Why not? I do not know all of the nuances that surround religion but he was definitely not human.”

  “Well, I don’t know all the nuances either,” she said. “But if this guy was a god, especially the god of the hunt. Wouldn’t he have found you again already?”

  “Is that the way it works?”

  “Like I said I don’t know,” she shrugged. “But the way the smaller gods seemed to work was that they were the end all and be all of whatever field they were in.”

  She looked over at Mitei expecting a happy expression, but the other woman just drew her legs in tight to her chest, resting her head on them in thought.

  “Somehow, I do not think that these gods really work that way.”

  ***

  When Leo walked back into his condo, after a brief journey to pick up his mail, that evening he was unsurprised to find Mitei sitting on the couch when he returned. He didn’t pause to chat, heading right into the kitchen to dispose of the junk and put the bills away for later perusal.

  “Don’t get up,” he said over his shoulder. “I’ll be right back out in a minute.” Taking her silence as assent he continued with the task at hand, sorting his mail before returning to check on his surprise guest.

  When he entered the room Mitei started to rise and he pushed her down again with an absent finger. “Uh uh, no disappearing for you.” He studied her face, it was unreadable as ever but she gave him full eye contact and what he saw in their hazel depths drew him down on the couch beside her.

  “Ok, tell me what’s wrong.”

  She fumbled a moment with her robe, fingers searching the folds with more and more urgency as if she’d lost something small, before pulling out a metallic object. Leo stared at it a moment and then he smiled – this was something he could probably help the great and mighty Death with.

  “I got a cell phone.”

  “I see,” he said. “So why didn’t you use it before showing up on my couch?”

  Mitei bl
inked slowly, “I was not sure I was coming here until I was here. Besides I do not know your number or fully how to use this, I had only the time to pick it up before I found myself here.”

  Leo sighed, suddenly tired. There was no way he wanted to get into an argument with Mitei over proper etiquette right now. It was late and getting later every moment. Maybe if he helped with her phone she would flitter out again and he could get some rest. But – “come on upstairs with me. I’ve decided to go back to class tomorrow and I need to get ready for bed. I’ll help you with the phone first though.”

  Mitei said nothing, only rising to her feet in reply and Leo decided to let her walk under her own power rather than carry her up the stairs. It was a short walk but by the time he got her upstairs and poised on the edge of the bed he was jittery with nerves. The way she worked, she could have disappeared behind him on the stairs at any moment and each step he had taken forward had been a reminder of how much he most certainly did not want her to disappear tonight, no matter what he said to the contrary. Now he watched as she removed her shoes and slid back further onto the bed, completely removing her feet from the floor, and relaxed visibly.

  She fumbled with the phone for a moment, there was a bright flash that seemed to catch both of them off guard and then Mitei made a frustrated growl low in her throat and pulled her arm back to throw the phone as far from herself as she could. Leo stepped in quickly to keep her from damaging the fragile, and no doubt expensive, piece of equipment.

  “Calm down, you just took a picture with it that’s all.”

  He sat down beside her and began to explore the phones options. Luckily the controls seemed to be in English, though he recalled Mitei saying she was going to get it from the secretaries at her Tokyo office. It only took a seeming moment to enter his number into the contacts list and take a few photos to use as a screensaver for the tiny view panel. He was showing her how to switch the different photos out, so that later when she had a free moment or took a really good pic, she would be able to switch it out without needing to make another trip out to see him – when he noticed her eyes.

  Though they focused on the tiny screen between them and seemed to take in everything he said, even when he had to explain the tech speak in more and more simplistic terms so that she could understand them, her eyes remained glazed and distant. If he didn’t know better he’d say they were rimmed with worry. That just couldn’t be a proper assessment, since Mitei’s ageless face never showed such thoroughly human signs of distress.

  Finally they put the phone aside and he shrugged the thought off as he prepared for bed. After he’d brushed his teeth and stripped down to a more comfortable level of attire for sleeping though, he found Mitei still sitting on the bed hands crossed on her lap and showing not even the faintest interest in trying to walk out of his bedroom and onto this “Path” of hers.

  He stood in the bathroom doorway considering her eyes a moment before he realized he was standing before her wearing nothing but his boxers. The blood rushed to his cheeks as he hurriedly turned out the bathroom light and crossed to the bed, slipping under the covers as nonchalantly as he could. This close it was impossible to misinterpret the expression in those eyes. Something was troubling her, something a good deal more important than programming her new cell phone.

  He reached for her almost without thinking, drawing her into a comforting hug. “Alright, tell me what’s really upsetting you.”

  Leo wasn’t sure what he was expecting, what could be bad enough to upset Death herself? However Mitei’s next few words seemed to be at just about the right level to inspire panic in an immortal being.

  “I met a god the other day.”

  “A god or The God?”

  “A god,” she said quietly and slipped out of his arms. “He said his name is Aedan, he said he is the god of the hunt.”

  He – almost - laughed as he listened to her story unfold. Some weirdo had caught up to her in the woods and managed to freak her out to no end before the path had whisked her out of his reach. Though he had to admit, the part where Aedan had cut himself to prove his unnatural healing abilities did turn his previous humor a bit sour, the whole episode still sounded too farcical to be real.

  “I thought you said that you didn’t think there was a God.”

  “I did not know. I have never met one before.”

  “Have you ever met someone that could heal like that before?”

  Mitei froze a moment, thinking, “not that I know of. The world as I know it has gone crazy lately Leo.”

  He snorted, leaned back and placed his arms behind his head no longer interested in offering comfort. The whole thing seems a bit laughable. Certainly nothing to lose precious sleep over, not when he had a classroom full of rowdy teenagers to look forward to first thing in the morning, Leo closed his eyes and started to drift off.

  “Will you come back with me Leo?”

  The question caught his attention and pulled him back from the edges of sleep with a snap that was almost painful. “I’ve already told you, I’m going back to class tomorrow.”

  “Please, Jules thinks that if we could all put our heads together we might solve this puzzle and set things right.”

  “No,” he found himself snapping at her but didn’t feel able to control himself. She just seemed to push his buttons sometimes, without even trying.

  “Please Leo.”

  He sighed and shifted in bed, opening his eyes so he could give her a withering stare as he replied, but meeting her eyes was a mistake. One look at those hazel depths and he felt his temperament calming, looking into those eyes now he wondered for the second time if they were really as human as they seemed. With one fluid gesture he flung the covers back on the bed and got out.

  Stomping over to Mitei’s side he hoisted her up and carried her back around to the turned down section, depositing her back onto the mattress he stalked back over to the other side and slid back under the covers, pulling them up around them both. Mitei gave him confused eyes, even as he grabbed a hold of her again and drew her down till she lay comfortably in his arms.

  She seemed a bit cold against his mostly bare skin at first, but she warmed quickly at his touch and he found himself relaxing even more, despite no longer being able to look her directly in the eyes. It was a long time since Leo had last had anyone to hold onto when he closed his eyes; he’d almost forgotten how soothing sharing space with another person like this could be.

  “Is this alright?” He asked as he started to drift towards sleep again. “Am I making you uncomfortable?”

  “No,” she said her own voice showing signs of fatigue, “this is nice. Is it alright if I rest like this?”

  “It’s the least I can do,” he said “I’m not going to go back with you Mitei.”

  “I know Leo, but I think – I think this is what scared is.”

  He hugged her tighter, almost regretting refusing to go to her office and take those generous checks she had offered him. But there was no way he could see through to being a real friend to her while he was being paid to make that effort. Mitei relaxed in his arms quickly though, in what seemed like moments he felt her breathing even out as she relaxed into exhausted slumber. He yawned and found sleep soon after.

  ***

  Aedan had her scent. It was all over his hands and thick on the path she’d broken through the woods trying to flee from him. More over he’d seen her Path, seen how it had whisked her away seemingly without her will, possibly even against it. With all this information it stood to reason that he should have been able to hunt her down easily. Haunt her every step like some vengeful poltergeist.

  Despite his godly prowess as a hunter he remained completely unable to locate this, Mitei, again.

  Her Path was hers alone, he found himself forced to try and follow its trail between and within the waking world. Popping in and out of so many locations so fast it was a wonder so far that no mortals had been drawn into the shadows in his passing, though
to be honest with himself, he had to admit he had not been paying enough attention to notice if they had indeed been. And if they had without his notice, if they were lucky they would die a quick and messy death there.

  Every now and again he had some sign that he most certainly was on the right trail. While he might pop onto a field one moment that showed no fresh spoor for him to follow to his query every now and again he would pop into a building full of tiny rooms and he could feel her thick within the very walls as if embedded in the structure of the buildings themselves. However he did not linger.

  Despite feeling her all around him within these buildings the spoor was still jumbled and stale, as if she’d been there previously but not for long. As god of the hunt, Aedan was schooled in patience and perseverance. However this, Mitei, was both trying his nerves by the minute and piquing his interest in disturbing ways.

  There were no dogs, no mounts, and no hunting party; however he could feel his blood warming as he tracked her down step by step. Though his bow was slung over his back he had long ago unsheathed an arrow from his quiver and he fingered it absently as he hunted. His nostrils flared and he found himself crouching to sniff at a slightly fresher spot of her scent now and again. In searching for Mitei he had hoped to find a death worthy of a god, but the longer the search drew out the more he felt closer to a beast than a deity.

  ***

  In a way Aedan relished this feeling, the descent from the supposedly higher functions that made him seem human and the wallowing in the thrill the moment. The moment? No it was the thrill of the scent, of immersing himself thoroughly in his purpose; with each step he grew closer to his quarry and the desire to hurry along her tracks in the hopes of catching up to her nearly made him move to a run. As he stepped through another doorway betwixt and between and into a building honey combed with rooms and full of the busy scurrying of human worker drones.

  Her scent was thick here, layered over and around the upper levels of this building that formed an elaborate labyrinth. Subtly mingling with the scent of countless others, completely over laying the steps of a woman here, walking beside a male there, faint and stale around a rabbit hole there. Yes, Death’s scent was heavy in this place but it wasn’t a fresh scent, in most cases the scent was faint and old nearly undetectable to even his talented nose. In other places the scent was sharp and crisp, new enough to set his mouth to watering and he found himself quickening his pace but this too, petered out in a few meters and was gone.