The Uncertainty of Death

  ***

  Later, when the dust had a chance to settle and the others asked him about what had happened in his classroom that day Leo would have trouble relating what he saw for several reasons. First and foremost would be the fact that almost as soon as she saw him, Mitei threw a scalding hot bundle of nearly naked woman at him, knocking him square off his feet and onto his ass. And the second reason would be simply because it was too hard to conceptualize.

  Mitei had appeared out of nowhere in the middle of the room, with a naked and steaming woman in the grip of her right hand, burn blisters popped and bled on her luminescent skin, easy to see a mile away and she'd seemed dazed, confused. That was until Leo had called out to her, then a moment later she was flinging her burden at him and stepping between Leo and the naked threat of the hunting god in the doorway.

  No that's not right, this was the god of the hunt and he was finally upon his quarry. When he'd finally come to the door of the classroom, crashing into it with the slow powerful heaves of some great beast and the determination of only something mad, Leo had finally realized the true error of his calculations. This was no man who would reason, once it had him pinned, that waiting would bring it's true quarry fast enough. No this was a hunting beast and it's quarry was just, beyond it's reach. Oh this beast was going to destroy anything between it and it's prey, buildings, walls and children if it had to, and Leo had brought it right to the classroom. Right to his defenseless students. Worst of all, once it had killed him, sating its one minded desire for conquest, Mitei would come, she would have to. She'd be completely blindsided by the beast in blood lust. High on the hunt fulfilled, experienced, skilled and brutal - a god walking - how the hell was Mitei supposed to survive against that?

  But here she was now, not only saving him from dying to summon her but standing between the hunter and it's prey. Leo didn't have time to fear for her or doubt her, certainly not enough time to struggle out from underneath the searing heat of the bundle she'd tossed upon him before Mitei - changed.

  Suddenly what stood before him wasn't the slim, slender and fragile woman he'd seen standing over his death bed. What stood before him was Death, immense and terrifying, all encapsulated in the form that he knew best yet filling the all of the classroom so tightly he could feel the press of it on every ounce of his flesh. Then Mitei seemed to bristle, from a tail she did not have up to her head and out of her mouth, hands flung open wide - she ROARED.

  After that the world opened up beside him, and he fell up.

  ***

  Aedan, stood before her and Mitei could somehow tell, scent, taste that the hunt was upon him and his target was not herself. Nothing would be able to keep him from charging into that classroom in a minute and rending Leo limb from limb - nothing, except a far greater threat and challenge.

  At no point in her long, long lifetime had Mitei ever considered using her innate abilities either defensively or offensively. At no point had she ever felt the need to. Nothing could harm her, even now, diminished and warped as this form seemed to be, Mitei still recovered from all that was thrown at her. Pain was simply a new nuisance that was short lived. Suddenly, now, with Leo in danger, a man who so adamantly proclaimed his friendship and so constantly confused and angered her, a man whose fragile life had been saved by some fluke of her nature once but who might so easily be lost at any time.

  Suddenly Mitei had something to protect.

  The rest was a blur; Mitei would not be able to consciously recall what she had done in the following moments. Only that she reached for the deepest most fundamental parts of herself, the parts that were so natural that she never thought of them consciously, reached deeper into her core of being than she had ever reached before and grasped the heart of herself - then turned it out.

  Turning it outwards like a cloak, Mitei flung Leo away, anywhere, everywhere, keep him safe and at the same time she flung death forward and out. The room filled with Death. Flooding to the rafters, the plants went first snuffing out of life so fast that they did not have time to wilt, spontaneously combusting into little puffs of ash. The teenagers, the children, crowded up against the far wall started to go next. They were not as fortunate to go quickly as the plants, they choked and sputtered, falling to the floor and clawing at throats and eyes, a few went into convulsions.

  Mitei felt them and despaired, I did not mean to, so sorry! It was too late to call Death back, though Mitei tried, oh how she tried. Reaching back into herself and throwing figurative switches, trying to shut enough of her system down to allow her reason to regain control of her inner self, her powers unknowable mass.

  It was not working, or if it was, it was not fast enough! And while she was distracted, her entire consciousness turned inward, Aedan struck. Rising to the challenge that stood before him, conscious enough to save the blameless children from his opponent, he wrenched Mitei into the space of the doorway and away betwixt and between.

  ***

  The first thing that made any sense when he came to, months, hours or days later was the sound of screaming. The trip to wherever they were had distorted everything so at first Leo was not at all sure that he was hearing what he thought he was. Nothing that anguished and pain filled could come from the mouth of the living. Listening to it and waiting for enough of his other senses to return to pinpoint that sound and silence it, the next thing Leo was aware of was the cool trickle of water as it fell from his lids and splashed onto his cheek. Alone with the screamer in something that wasn't altogether dark nor fixable in his mind as here or there, tears leaked in silent companionship down his cheeks.

  Finally realizing that this blurry light was the most he'd be getting out of his vision, guessing and rightly so that wherever they were was not something that his mind could properly translate from the input his eyes gave it, Leo began to cast about from side to side, looking for the screamer. Wiping the tears from his face but not daring to stand in this pointless light, his eyes finally lit on the smoking form of the woman that Mitei had thrown at him, hours, months, weeks before.

  Focusing on her seemed to help with his disorientation and Leo chanced standing up. Yes, that definitely felt alright, even if she was kneeling head upturned, screaming, at a slightly skewed angle to his own position. Still his sense of equilibrium returned and though he didn't quite feel comfortable calling the position his head was in 'up' that didn't matter at all as much as getting to the screamer.

  The fact that there was still heat and steam rising from her naked flesh must have meant that they hadn't been there all that long, Leo seriously doubted that a person could smoke for more than a few moments after whatever trauma she'd been put through. Unless the simple act of coming here had restarted her steaming, Leo glanced at his own hand, nope no signs of smoking. Good to know.

  Moving towards her proved more difficult than it should have been. No matter how many steps he took the screamer didn't seem to get any closer. After a few Leo tried breaking into a run, not an easy fete what with the lack of a solid floor or a sense of balance but the effort was in vain. She just screamed and screamed, what seemed like a few simple feet away from him.

  Leo just couldn't take that sound anymore, it seemed like ages since he'd heard nothing but the sound of the woman's cries and they were working on him, filling him with panic, dread and - maybe a little anguish? Yes, anguish and despair.

  Leo shook his head trying to clear it. There was no help for it but to reach the screamer and put a stop to her constant wailing, he simply had to reach her - and suddenly she was within reach. His flailing hand caught on her shoulder and she shuddered uncontrollably, choking on the scream she'd screamed endlessly and, Leo suddenly realized, without breath for what could have been an eternity.

  Shuddering away from his touch, the screamer quieted now, the lack of noise was nearly suffocating but Leo endured it. Concentrating on getting the woman's attention, he moved in front of her, gently waiving his hand in front of her face. She wasn't a pretty sight. Ey
es wide open and the pupils nearly turned all the way back, whites glaring out at him and her mouth still stretched grotesquely open. Bad, but getting better, even as Leo stared the screamer reached up and touched her face, numbly at first as if she wasn't sure what her fingers would find, then faster and faster; fingering cheeks, lips, tongue, stopping to clasp both hands together and wiggling each of her fingers experimentally.

  "I can't see," the screamer said, a note of rising panic in her voice. "Mitei, why can't I see?"

  "Calm down," he said, gently grasping her hands and settling them into her lap. "Close your eyes for a moment."

  When she did, Leo reached up and gently rubbed the lids, hoping that the motion would reset the pupils and not do any further damage. "Try them now."

  She opened her eyes, blinked them experimentally and a tension he hadn't realized she was still carrying, left her body in a whoosh. She nearly crumpled to the ground but Leo reached out to steady her, unsure of where she'd stop falling; still slightly unsteady on his own feet.

  Amazingly she didn't struggle going limp in his arms and allowing him to help her settle into a more comfortable position. "Now I have a question for you. Several actually. Who are you, how do you know Mitei and what the hell happened that left you naked and screaming?"

  She shuddered in his arms and belatedly Leo realized she was probably cold and uncomfortable being pressed naked against a strange man; he let her go, raising his hands in an empty, non-threatening gesture.

  "Your shirt."

  "Huh?"

  "Give me your shirt. Please."

  "Oh, yeah," Leo stripped out of his button down dress shirt. He wasn't a big man but once he handed it over and she'd slipped it on fumbling with the buttons but glaring at him when he moved into help, the shirt came to her mid-thigh, more than respectable according to the teenaged girls at his high school at least.

  "That's better. Yes, much better," she mumbled as she buttoned herself up. "My name is Jules, from your eyes I can tell that you're that asshole Leo, and I'm Mitei's friend." He started to object at the 'asshole' reference but she didn't give him room to protest. "As for what happened to me, I think I was just blown up."

  Then she, Jules, dissolved into tears. Curling up on herself with Leo's shirt half buttoned around her, sobbing with a kind of quiet dignity that spoke to relief as much as it did to the horror of what she'd been through. Not knowing what to do, Leo just waited and watched her cry, certain at the very least that it was a less soul breaking sound than her earlier screams had been.

  After a while she dried her eyes on the sleeve and looked up at him again, "I guess, Mitei must have saved me."

  "She healed you too?" So either Jules was the other of the two or Mitei's already uncertain condition was actually getting worse. He wondered how much of this seeming chaos interjecting itself into her nature had to do with the spectacle he'd seen in the classroom and shuddered.

  Jules nodded, "this was the second time. So much worse than the first time. So horrible..."

  When she trailed off Leo found himself letting her, what she'd been through was indeed unimaginably horrid but he couldn't help feeling more than a little unsettled. If Mitei had healed this woman not once but twice as she had healed him, though he had to admit that Jules’ injuries were probably a good bit worse than his own both times, then perhaps her condition was worsening? Leo shuddered again as the hair stood up on the back of his neck, what happened if Death was no longer able to end lives?

  Wasn't that what he'd really wanted? Then why wasn't he happy about it?

  "How did you know my name?" He asked, trying to distract himself from the deep seated unease that he was unable to rationalize.

  She snorted, concentrating on doing up buttons as she replied, "Mitei's told me all about you. Asked my advice. She's so scared and confused and you have not been helping her at all."

  "And exactly what kind of help was this poor slip of a mortal supposed to give to the all mighty and powerful Death?" Arguing with Jules would be at the least, a good distraction because when he was done being snide and sarcastic, Leo had the feeling that he’d have to come to grips with where they were, or were not. Not a comforting prospect when he couldn’t even start by firmly identifying up, down and the floor.

  "Oh don't act so oblivious." Jules snapped back. "She's all but begged you to come to the office with her and take up the position of secretary, told you all about her current predicament. How can you honestly sit there and call her 'all powerful' when she's lost complete and utter control of everything she's learned to accept as her very nature?"

  This onslaught of good sense from a woman who, by her own admission should have died more than once before delivering this particular message, somehow didn't manage to make him feel at all better. He shook his head and threw his hands up in exasperation, "all of this is moot, at least for the time being. Right now I think focusing on the here and now will do us a great deal more good."

  ***

  "I think I broke something."

  That was the only thing he'd gotten out of her before Mitei had collapsed in his arms. Aedan hadn't wasted time shaking her or trying to get a response, simply lifting her dead weight and hoisting her over his shoulder. Here was as good as there betwixt and between so he saw no need to camp where they'd landed on the shore of a twilight lit lake so huge he couldn't see the other shore. Gentle waves lapped at his heels as he turned and surveyed the cold and empty evergreen wood in front of him. Striding towards it and disappearing just at the tree line to reappear on the dusky trail strewn with the dead leaves of autumn and bordered by the sleeping trees of winter.

  It was the matter of a few minutes for him to find one of the groves where he would normally meet up with his goddess. Empty now of her presence as well as the retinue that would have set up the camp and seen to her myriad comforts. Still there was a large space of even ground, no leaves had fallen here and the ground was soft but not muddy. A comfortable natural carpet fit for a goddess, let alone the Death that he laid upon it.

  When he'd settled her, Aedan turned back to the woods looking for dry wood for a fire. These places were especially attuned to the needs of the gods who called them home and playpen so he could have found the requisite branches within a few feet of the clearing or within a few days walk, the forest would adjust to his unconscious desire. Right now Aedan wanted to gather himself, a part of him was angry and full of the frustrations of a hunt gone wrong. This part wanted to either return to the trail of the male he'd had pinned or return to the clearing and take care of the now unconscious and helpless threat that had distracted him from the kill.

  Now instead of the hunt, he focused on what Mitei had said before passing into unconsciousness, "I think I broke something." What something? The Mitei he'd seen in that classroom had been all he could remember that a god of death should be, capable of felling an unwary god and more. If he charged her again, brought that out of her again, Aedan was almost certain to get his wished for death.

  That was, if she was still capable of using her abilities and hadn't broken herself in her attempt to protect the mortal male. Even if she had not broken that particular ability, Aedan realized that alone with no one to protect and nothing she cared about nearby, he was unlikely to provoke a similar response. Instead Mitei would simply tell him she was incapable of "killing," and allow him to rend her form down to a bloody hamburger to get her to try otherwise.

  No at the very least, he'd need that male again.

  Of course that would all be moot if she'd thrown him where Aedan thought she'd thrown them, onto whatever personal pathways she used that had made his ability to track her such a impossible endeavor. Having already experienced the full frustrations of attempting to track her on that pathway, Aedan was loathe to try again just to get a bargaining chip and there wasn't any guarantee that if he found the mortal, that Mitei wouldn't do it all again except this time taking herself safely out of reach along with her companion.
r />   He shook his head, Aedan wasn't much of a planner beyond the basic strategies of the hunt, ambush, flush, chase and track; and trying to out think his opponent was getting him nowhere. First thing first then, find out what she's broken and deal with that. Whether it was her ability to grant death to the dying or her ability to walk her special path, fixing what was broken would probably be to his advantage, allowing him to gain her trust so that he might make his request again and if being polite failed to earn him results then he'd use her mortal companions against her. Aedan hefted a double armful of wood and headed back to the clearing.

  ***

  Mitei was not entirely sure where she was but she knew she had to get out of here. The last thing she could remember was Aedan's face looming half mad over her, before that there was the confusion of the dying, children, somehow she was killing and they were all children; and the desire to protect. When Mitei opened her eyes onto this quiet winter wood and the impossibly bright starry night above her was confused but certain, she had to get away.

  Getting up did not prove at all difficult, she was wobbly and a level of tired that put everything she had felt before, even the earthquake, to shame. Still there was no thought of sleep in her mind. There was some horrible jittery energy coursing through her limbs and once in motion she soon realized that only more motion would calm that jittery feeling. Mitei took a step forward, then another and another, each step faster than the one before it, the Path showed no signs of whisking her away from this familiarly unfamiliar location, by the time her foot came down on the edge of the clearing Mitei was doing something she had never done before.

  She ran.

  Mitei had never run before but once she started it seemed natural. Somehow she found footing in the dimly lit woods; somehow she did not stumble over roots or get caught on thickets or brambles. A stray branch caught at a lock of hair a moment and then was behind her. Without watching where her feet fell and without knowing where she was going, Mitei ran; the only thought in her mind to put as much distance between her and that clearing as possible.