Reap

1

Her heart pounded lightly in her ears as she watched the fire crackle in front of her, sending sparks of flames into the air alongside the wispy smoke. He watched her, smirking slightly, looking at her face, her eyes, her hair. The colour of passionate flames, much like the one in front of them both, but only stronger, brighter, more dangerous.

Her eyes danced around, looking at the fire, until meeting in line with his. She was so sure that her ears went completely red as if steam emitted off her body.

“Why are your eyes so lifeless, and mine filled with the hazel life of the trees of the woods outside?” She suddenly blurted, showing no shame.

“Because I am like death, and you are life,” he replied, not looking away. “I’m the horrible truth I fail to hide, and you’re that beautiful lie that would not live for long.”

“But I’m only eighteen,” she laughed. He could only smile at her, watching her giggle as he thought of that terrible truth soon to come. Death would reap her of her soul.

“Oh, but my love,” he said in a flirtatious manner. “Though eighteen, your youth is middle aged, coming to a point of adulthood. Now only you can make choices, so vulnerable you are, my little fairy.” He twirled a finger of her ginger locks as his soft breaths tickled her neck.

“But you’re Death, right?” She said to him. “You wouldn’t dare kill me, after all, you’re my friend.”

Her words stung, but not because she only considered him as a friend, but because he knew the horrible truth. As much as he didn’t want to, it was as though he was cursed with the legacy of their fate. She would die, and he would kill for her. He was madly in love with her, his obsession exceeding far beyond the boundary of mere ‘love’.

“My dear fairy,” he said. “Death comes when it needs, takes when it must, because he loves humans all. He just doesn’t want them to suffer for the rest of their life.”

“So death kills life?”

“Yes, for at the end of the day, it is death, the truth, that will win.”