Renata
It was the worst timing, she admitted to herself as she mentally took a walk down memory lane. Her life was so different then. She hadn't been out of college long, having said goodbye to 'Nope Corner' not long after. Instead of wiping the grimey residue off her body each night and counting the stacks of cash, she swapped that night life for dreaded early mornings and the soul-sucking office tasks her passive-aggressive boss sent her each morning.
Whether it was shaking ass or tapping against the keyboard, sending out a thousand and one emails, she didn't have much to complain about. While in foster care, she saw the unsightly sides of life. Sure, she had Rocio, but two little girls pitted against unrelenting, corrupted systems could only protect themselves against so much. They slipped through the cracks. Experienced all kinds of abuse. Some they remembered, others they didn't.
Renata felt slighted by life in many ways, though had the will to appreciate what was right in front of her. Had she not applied to 'Nope Corner', she would have never bonded with the blue-buzzcut hottie everyone called Diamond. Her best friend in the entire world. The person that became her other half.
And over the course of their friendship, things did get messy. Very messy. Yes, Renata was still deeply hurt by the actions of her best friend, but in this hurt, regret never bloomed. Despite the breach in trust, Renata loved Diamond with all of her heart.
Renata fought for her.
She fought for her sister Rocio. This woman stepped up when she was still just a child. She looked after Renata despite the grief she experienced from also losing her mother. During their childhoods and young adulthoods, Renata could not have asked for a better partner.
Tahoma, her current contender for best boyfriend everâas soon as they actually went on a date anyway. She was pretty sure he was pissed beyond recognition at her in this moment, but she alos trusted that he would embrace her fiercely after-the-fact, if she could just make it past the finishline.
She owed this final fight to herself. She'd been her own worst enemy this last year, pulling the trigger with the gun aimed at her head more times than she cared to share. She'd hurt herself over and over again, unable to accept an endless life filled with the momentarily torturous mental illness she experienced from her trauma. Echoes of pain she struggled with even to this day.
All of it began with him.
She thought back to that infamous night when she first set eyes on Keone. His red eyes were cold and calculating, devoid of all humanity. The blade pierced her middle one, two, three times. Each time, she was ripped open, thrown into the world of blue, the stillness and freeze which polluted her bones and flesh until she didn't know where she stopped and death began.
Overnight, she'd turned into an immortal anomaly.
Another punchline.
And just like that, empathy for Angel slammed into her like a freight train.
When she awoke to her reality, she came to the embrace of her dearest friend. Diamond had helped wash the blood away, held her tightly until she almost believed nothing could ever hurt her again.
She tried to imagine Angel waking up utterly alone, stuck in a human body and bound to a fate he didn't want. No Diamond. No Rocio. No Tahoma. Hell, even no Keone.
And an unbearable part of humanity was the insatiable thirst for company, a need not even the grim reaper could resist. It was enough to drive a man crazy.
How it must have driven him crazy. It led to the creation of the undying, his unwilling companions.
All of it would end with him.
The ground beneath her trembled. She snapped back to attention and studied Angel. His once shiny brown skin darkened with snaking shadows. They curled the edges of him on the verge of engulting him. His once calm black eyes were now blazing crimson, pulsing with desolation.
How long had he existed, hiding away from his own reality? How long had it taken for him to believe his own delusions? That he was on this earth to keep the undying in check instead of the other way around?
Clearly, it all came crashing down once Renata's unexplained immortality came into the picture.
Everything about this impossible situation gained more and more clarity.
Unfortunately, the time for thinking was over. Angel's impatience gave way to world-bending action.
He lifted his palms, facing upward, only to flip them in the next instant and shove them toward her.
Every chemical in her body meant to keep her blood zipping and her senses on alert got to work. While she was practically hyperventilating, she possessed enough sense to jump to the side right as the ground erupted. It would have torn through her had she not moved.
She rolled into a crouching position and settled the dirt back into the ground. Angel watched and the scowl marring his face made her shiver. "You dare manipulate my land? I've spent thousands of years creating each blade of grass, every inch of bark. You have no idea."
They began to circle one another. She cracked her knuckles and swung her head from side to side to loosen up her neck. "It listens to me anyway."
"You don't want to do this," he tried to reason, making it seem like he wanted to do her a favor, but she knew better. His attempt to lure her into a false sense of security returned her to her original resolve, empathy or no empathy.
"You're right for once!" she snapped. "I'd rather be at home, eating ice cream and watching a steamy romance movie, but no, you had to act like a scared little baby and cause the fucking apacolypseâ"
Angel shouted and charged her.
The shadows grew with each step until he was completely covered. It made him double in size. He swung a darkened fist. She tried to sense the shadows and their direction. But doing that while trying to fight him off proved beyond her capabilities.
The shadows extended and slammed right into her cheek. Before she could go flying, it was like the fist sunk into her cheek. She cried out as he began pulling from within her, taking the cold and the darkness, taking the death.
Renata wedged a foot against his chest and sprung off of him, severing contact to her relief.
She slammed into the ground and cradled her face as the pain sliced through her. She cried out, trying her best not to black out altogether from the onslaught of agongy.
The death in her bones screamed, confused yet determined to stay in its host. The idea of Angel taking it all back frightened her more than she thought it would and not just because of the consequences the world would experience if she lost to him.
As she sat up, she slapped her hands against the ground, sending ripples. He attempted to calm the waves, but to his confusion and her satisfaction, they only grew in force, cracking apart only upon contact with him.
While seemingly painful, he only fell to one knee in response.
When he looked up and across the way at her, she thought she'd never seen a more furious, feral creature.
She expected him to attack her directly again, but this time around, she fell back as shadows jumped up around her, forming a shield around her. The spikes lengthed and thickened, like bars to a cell. They curled toward one another, soon blocking out of the blueness of the world, blocking out everything.
"It'll be over soon," his insidious voice whispered in her ear, reminding her of when he'd cornered her and the rest of her company in Balam's bunker. "Just stop fighting. It doesn't have to be this way."
While scared out of her mind, she knew she couldn't run forever. She probably shouldn't have fled the first time, or any of the other times, really, but either way, the fighting and the running led to this moment.
She entertained the idea, scared of what was to come if she became the grim reaper. To sink into the final sleep and have no other worries. To embrace that blue, move onto a life beyond this one.
As much as she'd earned rest, this just wasn't quite what she had in mind.
Not yet, anyway.
She did not fear Angel's shadows, as they sang to her. As much as they threatened her, they also called to her, begging to take up the space.
She sighed. No going back now. "Thank you," she addressed him, throwing him off with her suddenly calm demeanor.
His voice thickened with suspicion. "What are you playing at?"
"I thought we'd be fighting all day," she admitted. "But considering you've opened yourself up to me, I'm taking that as a sign that you want to get right to it." She didn't give him the chance to interpret. With both hands, she delved her hands into the blackness and began soaking in his power.
He gasped, attempting to retreat. "No!" He yanked back, failing to break her grip. "Stop, now! You don't know what you do!"
Renata grunted as he practically forced her to her feet. She leaned back and continued to absorb the darkness at it slowly but surely embraced her. It was like having a cold sip of water in the midst of a devastating dry spell. She didn't realize how incomplete she was until this very moment, when she openly stole from Angel.
This empty feeling is what haunted her from her first breath post first death.
She didn't understand why she was so haunted, so incomplete unlike ever before in her life.
It was because Keone awakened her fate, sending her down a path that would either lead to complete domination over her supposed predecessor or her complete annihilation. There was no compromise. Either she did this, completed this transition, or she would go mad, just as Angel did.
The intensity of the power doubled as Angel was pulled forward a step against his will. The startled expression on his face left them both confounded.
A sweat gathered all over her body as it was pushed to its limits and then some. Every muscle strained. Every bone was pushed to the brink of shattering. Her mind threatened to expand and explode as more and more and more shadows invaded her, latching onto her and making themselves right at home.
"No!" Angel screamed as he scrambled to keep his power, but she refused to give him even an inch of leeway. The ground beneath them grumbled and cracked. Explosions went off around them, showing the grim reaper's state as it scrambled away.
Diamond. Rocio. Tahoma. Keone.
Nirvi. Balam. Awe.
Ma. TÃa Isa.
Everyone.
Tears streamed down her face as she took on more, even when she thought she would burst into nothing. Even as the world around them crumbled.
Angel continued to weaken, clawing at himself as he began to wither away while she only strengthened and grew farther. "I will give you the rest you deserve," she repeated the false words once spoken to her, but this time, nothing truer was ever said.
He shook his head back and forth in impenetrable denial. "I am Death. I cannot end. I am Death..." he wheezed, losing more and more of his physical essence.
"Not anymore," she corrected, finally seeing as the end of this absorption neared. "I relieve you of your duty." Her vision swirled with shadows, but fear soon left her body, replaced by ancient power, replaced by innate acceptance of a role she feared, though couldn't recall anymore why.
This was the most natural process in the world.
And as the last bit left Angel, she almost thought she saw relief in his sunken eyes before he dissipated into small specs which drifted off against the ground, settling into it as though it was always there.
"Renata!" Tahoma's heavenly voice called as he raced toward her.
She gave one last mournful scream as she exploded from the inside out. The transition was finalized, bringing her to her knees.
Her next gasp was her first one.
So was the following blink of her eyes.
The next heartbeat.
The new rush of blood.
As the newly-reigning Death.