DEATH
20 years ago
I rolled the black ring between my fingers, feeling the faint hum of its pulse; quiet, restrained power. Below, the city sprawled like a restless organism: headlights bleeding into one another, buildings gleaming against the night. From this height, it almost looked alive… and dying at the same time.
For a fleeting moment, it was peaceful.
Then I felt it - a subtle shift in the air behind me. Presence. Familiar. Uninvited.
Without turning, I slipped the ring from my finger. Shadows coiled around it like smoke, reshaping until the dormant metal became a black halo in my palm, sharp-edged and faintly luminous - a weapon disguised as divinity.
"Easy there," came a voice, warm and teasing. "You know youre so paranoid for someone who is death himself."
I turned.
Ren stood a few paces away, wind tousling his hair, his smile as casual as if he hadn't just breached my domain. Even in the dim light, he radiated something defiant, an effortless charm that didn't belong in a world like mine.
"Ren," I said, voice low. "You're not supposed to be here."
"Yet here I am." He spread his arms slightly, mock-innocent. "Don't look so disappointed, Reaper. It might just break my heart."
"As if you have one."
"Oh, come on. I'm literally an angel ,..what am I without a heart?"
"An obedient one," I said dryly. "Angels aren't supposed to feel. Equating that with a heart is… ironic."
He smirked, taking another slow step closer, his boots tapping lightly against the ledge. "Well, right now I'm feeling like you don't want my company."
I exhaled through my nose. "What possibly gave that away?"
"Your charming hospitality," he said, grin widening. "But hey, you look good today. Especially with that coat on. Tell me,.. is this a new promotion i didn'tknow about? Grim Reaper, now in tailored black?"
"What do you want, Ren? You're testing my patience."
"I like testing things." His grin deepened, boyish but dangerous. "Boundaries. Rules. Gods."
"I see," I murmured, tilting my head. The halo spun lazily beside me like a moon. "You forgot Death."
He laughed softly. "Oh, I'd never forget you. You're practically in all my dreams… and nightmares."
"Flattery won't save you."
"Wasn't trying to be saved." He looked out over the city then, wind catching the edge of his sleeve. "I just like seeing you try not to care."
Silence stretched; heavy, unspoken. The city lights below flickered, reflected in the obsidian curve of my halo.
"Tell me something," he said at last. "When you watch them from up here; all those lives burning out one by one. do you ever wonder what it's like to be one of them?"
"No."
"Liar."
I turned my gaze on him; sharp, cold, final. "Mortality is a weakness. I have no desire to entertain it."
Ren smiled, soft and knowing. "No desire, sure. But curiosity?"
He always had a way of twisting words, pressing exactly where silence hurt most.
"You know," he said after a moment, leaning on the railing, "if you weren't so busy pretending to be untouchable, you might actually enjoy existing."
"Existence isn't enjoyment," I replied. "It's endurance."
"Then you're doing it wrong."
He looked back at me, eyes glinting,.. not entirely light.
"Careful, Ren," I warned. "You're speaking as if you've forgotten who you're talking to."
He smile,all teeth this time. "Oh, I haven't forgotten. I just don't scare easy."
"Then perhaps I should remind you."
The halo lifted, circling once around my hand; black light pulsing in rhythm with my words.
Ren didn't flinch. His voice dropped to a quiet, almost intimate murmur.
"you always say that but you never actually do anything "
The words hung between us, sharp as static.
"You think I can't?"
He smiled, that dangerous, easy smile. "No. I know you won't."
Then, softer,... almost a whisper, like a secret he knew I'd deny:
"Well, technically… I am your only friend, if you think about it right. It'd be a shame to kill the only person who bothers talking to you"
I sighed, tired of his antics, and turned my gaze back to the street below, the world still pulsing, oblivious.
"Don't you have a human to look after?"
"Pretty sure a ten-minute break won't hurt," he said easily, stepping beside me. But as his eyes traced the glow of the city, something in him shifted. His smile faltered,..subtle, but enough.
I noticed. I always do.
"What's wrong?"
He laughed, but it was thin, brittle around the edges. His fingers drummed absently on the railing before he spoke.
"The boy I'm guarding now… he's seven." His voice dropped, almost swallowed by the wind. "Seven years old. Cancer. He's going to die soon,.. I can feel it. And meanwhile, somewhere out there, there's some serial killer in his fifties still breathing free air. What did that kid ever do to deserve that? I just-" he broke off, exhaling shakily, "-I just don't get it."
"There are some things we aren't meant to understand,even as angels" I said quietly. "Death can be a curse as much as a blessing. It keeps balance,..nothing more. It's a dark world out here. Leaving it early on can be the best option."
He turned toward me, eyes bright with something angry and painfully human.
"It's a dark world because the wrong people keep living," he said. "Because shitty people breathe while the good ones fade out like they never mattered."
The halo in my hand beamed, its dark glow pulsing low and steady, almost like a heartbeat.
"Justice isn't mine to give," I murmured.
"Yeah," he muttered bitterly, "that's the problem."
He turned away then, ready to leave.
"Are you leaving?" I asked.
He stopped. Took a moment. Then turned back with that same smile he'd walked in with, careless, charming, infuriating. Like he hadn't been one second away from breaking.
"Careful there," he teased lightly, "I might think you actually like me."
Before I could reply, he was gone-
vanished into the night, leaving only the soft hum of the halo still spinning on my hand.