Grim Reaper

 

Eerie silence hugged the shoreline. No footsteps lined its white sands, nor gulls picked at the washed-up debris from the water. The moonlight flickered on the water, pulling and pushing the waves that soundlessly caressed the white sand. Wind moved softly, stirring the air. Sand drifted within yet there was no whisper with its dance. Instead, preternatural silence held.

I walked along the beach, mind pushing against the silence. My steps made not a sound though I made no effort to walk quietly. The cave awaited, carved into a cliff miles high. No vegetation clung to the cliff nor washed up from the water. I had seen places where life faltered, and failed to thrive. Here it simply didn’t exist.

My eyes wandered over the cave as my steps faltered. I had been in dozens of caves and yet had never been to one where so much was at risk. A quiet unknown hugged the edge of the opening, inviting uncertainty, yet it held confidence in the outcome of such a journey. A grim portent of doom to follow, hidden behind the mundane surface of the stone.

Candles sat in the entrance, each of varying height and lit so that the golden light danced in the entrance. The air smelled of snuffed wicks, a thousand candles blown out at once. I paused to look at the dancing lights, tilting my head when it was obvious candles had been piled on top of candles, the base set atop a pile of melted wax from candles before.

Brows furrowed as I stepped inside, moving along a narrow path crowded in by the candles that began to grow more numerous and plentiful. They covered every surface, rising in layers, all sitting upon old wax from candles now forgotten. A strong smell of burning wax lingered in the cave as I began to move deeper, its darkness forever illuminated by the hundreds of flickering lights within.

The deeper I walked the more impossible it became. The path was not made for humans to traverse, nor any living thing. I shifted, moving carefully as the candles began to crowd over the single path. My feet avoided the candles, moving silently. The flickering lights made no noise as I passed, leaving me breathing in the silence that haunted the cave.

I passed through a strange opening to a winding tunnel that moved steadily downward. The candles lessened as I moved through the opening, the air becoming thick with smoke leaking off of each of thee wicks. I coughed soundlessly, raising a hand to my mouth to help protect myself from the swirling fog. 

A large, massive cavern opened before me, stretching long and low below an outcropping of stone I stood upon where the tunnel opened. I gasped, looking out over thousands of candles. They were so bright it was nearly blinding, filling the cavern in every free space that could be found. My eyes squinted, taking in the breadth of magic that lived in the space before I stepped back and pressed my back against the wall.

There was no path to the pool of candles below, nor a way through them. I saw the opening to another cavern in the far wall, a way to lower levels, Hints of light reflected out of the faraway tunnel, promising more of the brilliance below. My lips pursed as I inched forward, eyes trying to find a way to move through the cavern.

I whispered to myself but heard nothing. A soft panic touched my mind as I considered if I was now mute or if this place, despite the depth, was cursed. A shaky breath escaped my lips and came out soundless in the cavern. I shifted, slipping down from the ledge to land, feet resting on small spaces where extinguished candles sat.

Every step was slow and careful, the wicks flickering as I passed by. I hopped from spot to spot, touching the empty cavern floor and the few extinguished candles I could see. Long moments passed as I focused, balancing yet holding true as I moved from place to place, finally coming close to the tunnel. With a final jump, I landed within, slipping on the stone to slam against the stone.

A soundless groan came from my throat as I steadied myself against the wall. Light reflected from below, flickering before a great shadow passed, casting me in darkness. My breath stilled as I watched below, listening for a clue only to remember there was no sound that lived here.

My feet moved forward, stepping around the few candles that lined the downward spiraling tunnel. The shadow once again hid the light, sinking the tunnel into darkness. I stepped down, moving towards the opening and crouching down to stay out of sight.

Another massive cavern opened below, just as the last, with countless candles illuminating the dark. A figure moved silently about, long black cloak floating about them in the shadows. His garb never caught fire, even as he moved around the candles, checking each one. Sometimes his head would tilt, as though considering.

A great scythe rested in his hand. With an unnatural grace, he would strike with it, an exact movement that snuffed out an individual flame with one fatal sweep. The air in the tunnels disappeared, before returning in a burst. I shivered at the sudden gravity and stepped out of the tunnel to the small space available to my feet.

The reaper turned, hood dark and void of any face I could see. His head tilted, as though considering if I was to be snuffed out as well. I waited, a look of curiosity and wonder in my own eyes as I risked another step forward. 

“Are you lost?” he asked, gravelly voice penetrating the silent world around us.

Sound came rushing in from all around. A thousand candle flames flickering, the dripping of moisture somewhere in the cave, the soft whisper of wind, and my breathing, all touched my ears at once. I looked around, stunned at the noise generated from the flames, but more so from the quiet whispering of memories that came from each.

Voices, conversations, prayers, tears, and laughter echoed from each candle. Every life witnessed in its candle. I touched my chest, suddenly aware of the intensity of the sound. 

“I am sorry,” he said softly. “I keep it quiet here so I do not listen to every moment.”

I turned, looking at the reaper before closing the distance between us, mind adjusting to the noise I had not expected. “I’m not lost.”

“I cannot undo what has been done. Death is not reversible.”

“I’m not here for you to save someone I love.”

His head tilted again. “Nor can I spare you. Though…” he paused and moved a skeletal hand to touch my cheek. “I can find no candle here that belongs to you that can be extinguished.”

I paused, a strange longing for the eternal quiet touching my heart. “I don’t need you to spare me either.”

“Then do you wish for death?”

My head shook.

For a moment the reaper looked at me, mind swirling with possibilities though I could not see his face or his expression, only the looming darkness that lurked within the hood. He looked down at the hand on his scythe. 

“Then what is it you want?” he finally asked.

“You. If you’re willing.”

The reaper turned his head to the side, looking back at the candles that glimmered in the cavern. “I don’t understand. You cannot possess death.”

“You cannot possess anyone, not really. I’m here to know you. To see what you need. Your job is unending and your life solitary. That sounds… isolating.”

I could feel his stare more than see it. A tense moment passed between us before he turned away suddenly, the scythe moving through the air and extinguishing a single candle. Smoke drifted lazily from the wick towards the ceiling of the cavern. “It is my purpose.”

My hand moved out, an offering. “Our purposes may be rewarding, but they are always better celebrated with company. Tarry with me, even if only briefly.”

His hand closed around mine, bony and thin, phalanges caressing the back of my hand. I blinked and we were elsewhere, a smaller empty chamber, a strange light coming in from a hole in the ceiling where the moon shone through. Not a single candle was here, nor anything else.

“Home?” I asked, listening to the waves crash outside that were silent before. 

“Just a place without them,” he replied, watching me looking to where the moon shone. “You were overwhelmed by the voices below. I thought you’d wish to be somewhere quiet.”

My eyes looked to his shadowed face. “You’re very considerate. Does it bother you? How much people fear you?”

The reaper shrugged and turned, moving to sit on a rocky outcropping. Behind him, a few cold wax puddles sat, remains of candles that once were lit. “Rarely. Although I would be lying if I said never. Their mortality makes them eager to live. I do my best… to comfort them through this transition.”

I walked to him and sat beside him, nodding to the wax. “Family?”

“Ah,” he mused. “You’ve heard the stories.”

My fingers moved to gently touch his hand, stroking the bones softly as he watched. “Thank you,” he said softly. “It has been an eternity since someone has touched me with kindness and not fear… or hatred.”

I smiled and moved my hands to the hood of his cloak. “May I?”

The skeletal hands rose to touch my own. “I am not a person. Beneath this isn’t… human. I am Death, personified. My name is different to every human. As is my appearance. But you are not of a people and have no ties, so I cannot say what you will see. It may be nothing at all.”

My head shook. “I will see you, I hope.”

His hands moved with mine, pulling the cloak’s hood off to rest on his shoulders. There was no face beneath and yet many faces, features changing and morphing rapidly between different visages. I watched as there was nothing but bones, yet sometimes the face of an aged woman, other times that of a god, and still sometimes an animal I couldn’t place.

“Well, do you see me?” he smiled, almost coyly.

“I think I do.” I touched his cheek, caressing skin that changed beneath my touch. It faded away to a skeletal jaw and exposed teeth, then reformed with skin and then with scales. I smiled at the shifting enigma beside me. 

His eyes slid closed and he leaned into my hand. I smiled again. “There you are.”

The eyes opened and he looked up to me. “I am not threatening or harming anyone, guardian. Why here? Why now?”

“You mean why you?”

The reaper nodded.

“Because I wanted you to know that I see the work you do, how much you care, how you give yourself to this life… and forget yourself in it. I go to those who need me, not those threatening people.”

He looked at me in quiet regard. “Your purpose.”

I nodded. 

His lips met mine in soft curiosity, tender and gentle. My lips touched his, then teeth and bone, and back to flesh. A tongue tasted mine and then vanished yete was still present. I shifted, climbing atop his lap and deepening our kiss.

Soft sounds of delight escaped him as I straddled him, mouth teasing a trail down his jawline, over the bone of his mandible and to his neck, sometimes kissing skin and other times just dry bones. He rocked beneath me, hands sliding up my back to press me against him.

I moved my hands down to my dress, hiking it up to my hips as we kissed. I pulled back, looking at his face, all bone and empty eye sockets as he shivered. “You don’t have to do this, guardian.”

“Do you want to?” I paused, leaning back to look at him. “This is only if you want it,” I murmured.

The reaper looked at me, a hint of fear and hesitation. “I could kill you, the wrong movement, or gesture. A moment of carelessness.”

“Remember my lack of candle?” I asked.

He laughed. “I am death, guardian. With a thought, I could give you a candle and snuff it out without meaning to.”

“You won’t, but if you do, that’s fine.”

“You aren’t afraid?”

“Not at all,” I replied. “But, more importantly, do you want this?”

He looked at me again, then grabbed my hips and shifted, laying back on the stone so my knees rested on the ground. Skeletal hands pulled his robe up and off, body naked beneath me, all bones and joints exposed. 

“Show me what the humans feel that I can never,” he finally whispered to me. “Please.”

I leaned over him, kissing his mouth again, tongue playing against the teeth and down over the jaw. He gasped and moaned at every touch, bony fingers digging into my hips as I kissed down his chest, sucking on the ribs as I moved further down. 

My tongue explored the curvature of his hips, fingers caressing ribs and sternum, playing over the manubrium and xiphoid process. I lapped at the pubic symphysis and let my mouth wander up to the spines of his pelvis, circling each with my tongue as the skeleton moaned and bucked beneath me, fingers grabbing my hair and entangling them in his bones.

He gasped without breathing, pulling on the tendrils of my hair as I sucked on the head of one femur, fingers stroking along the length of the other as my mouth explored ever lower. Teeth gently nipped at one patella and then another before teasing the gap between the tibia and fibula. The reaper shuddered as I licked the tiny phalanges of his feet and then shifted to work my way back up.

There was an audible shudder as my mouth returned to his pelvis, playing over the sensitive periosteum with a dancing tongue. He cried out, bucking up against me, bone pressing against my mouth. I moved forward, licking a trail up his sternum to return to his mouth where his teeth opened to greet me.

Our kiss was teeth and tongue, wild and hungry as I straddled him, grinding against his bones with my body. His hands explored, bones caressing and pinching lightly, touching what he had never touched before. I pulled one hand to my face and sucked on a phalange as he moaned and writhed.

The reaper pulled me back to his mouth and moaned into our kiss as my hands continued to caress and stroke him, finding new ways to drive him ever onward. A great cry escaped his lips as he writhed and bucked, twitching beneath me as my hands moved faster and faster.

His hands caught mine, holding me still as he lay, bones shivering and clattering together faintly. Finally, he sighed and relaxed, lying beneath me with a sense of contentment. “Thank-”

“Was that what you wanted?”

His head nodded then shook. “It was nothing like I thought and was everything all at the same time.”

I shifted to let him sit beside me. Fingers interlaced with mine. I looked into the empty eyes and gave a small smile. “You can always find me if you want company. I can’t imagine how lonely you are.”

The reaper shifted and brushed my knuckles against his teeth where lips would be. “And I, you. I have seen your life, you are just as alone.”

We watched each other, a quiet understanding passing between us. The sound of waves grew louder and I turned, looking behind me to the cave entrance. A few candles flickered, the stories echoing in the entrance. 

My hand felt suddenly empty as I looked back to where he had been. A small smile tugged on my lips as I turned, walking out of the cave. A hundred thousand voices echoed up from the cave before abruptly sound ended and I sighed in silence, alone once more.