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I opened my eyes to a light so bright, I don’t seem to have experienced it before.
I had to close them again, since I couldn’t get used to it very quickly. It was warm… How nice.
“You’re awake!” I heard a female voice.
I feel like I’ve laid there for a while, without reacting at all. I should have been on high alert, since I found myself in a place that was foreign to me, but I felt awfully relaxed.
In fact, I think I might not have been this relaxed in ages.
Maybe it was just the warm light that made me so relaxed.
I slightly opened one of my eyes to peek at the person talking to me.
I closed it again, inhaled deeply and finally managed to open both my eyes.
A short, young girl, barely old enough to be out of her teens, looked at me. With her short, light brown hair, she almost looked like the perfect cliché of a dreamy French girl, the way they have been depicted on movie posters of the 1950s’. The only thing that threw that picture off a little bit, were her bright shining emerald eyes. She smiled a soft smile, while pressing a clipboard to her chest. “Hello,” she said.
I looked around for a while, only to realize that I was lying in a pile of pillows, inside an, otherwise empty, white room.
“Must be a little shock to you, right?” the girl suddenly asked as if she knew that I seemed to not quite understand what was even going on.
“Where am I?” She smirked as if she had waited for me to ask that question.
“In the afterlife!”
Once again, I looked around, this time a little more nervously.
What was she saying?
Was she crazy?
Afterlife?! What afterlife?!
Why was I here?!
Just a minute ago, I was in that barn near the beach and I…
What was I trying to do there…?
Why was I in that barn…?
“All of this must be very confusing to you. Don’t worry! It’s normal for your situation. It’s the shock of dying. That’s just how humans cope with it."
Death…
The barn…
Her glowing emerald eyes…
All of that seemed to be connected, but it felt so random that it almost couldn’t be.
How was it connected…?
I looked at the girl again. She smiled and looked at her clipboard. “Let’s see, your name is… Robin Ramirez…?” She chuckled a little.
“So, that’s your name..."
She looked up at me again.
“Do you remember that name?”
I nodded. “It’s been a while since I’ve been called by it, though,” I replied, even though I didn’t quite understand what I meant. I startled a little at my seemingly natural reply.
It seemed like my subconscious was adjusting itself quicker to the whole situation than the rest of me, since I seemed to know things about myself, even though I really didn’t know anything about me.
“Yes, you were referred to as Reah,” the girl stated, which made me look at her. She smiled and added: “The greatest thief alive! Or well… now dead.”
I gulped as I felt like I started remembering.
Reah was my nickname, when I was a child. Later I used it as a pseudonym, when I started travelling the dimensions in order to get my hands on all these little trinkets that the human legends were about. I feel like I was pretty successful, being an inter-dimensional thief, even though I was just a mere human.
“I mean that’s why you’re here."
I glanced at her as her gentle smile became an eerie one. “Yeah, I know."
Did I know?
Her emerald eyes were piercing me.
What was this?!
She looked at the clipboard and then at something, which was standing next to me.
I peeked at it, too. At first glance, it looked like a small clock.
However, it didn’t seem to be a normal clock, but rather a black hourglass-like thing that was slowly running out of sand…
Though… it wasn’t sand, either. It was like a dark gooey mass that seemed to change consistencies from gooey, to grainy and back.
I watched the black stuff run through the narrow gap. It was almost soothing to watch, until the last few grains were slowly running through.
Even now, I don’t quite know how to explain what I felt when I watched it, but it was as if something dear and important to me was pulled away from me and I realized too late.
I felt calm and yet I felt uneasy.
The last grain fell to the bottom, making me wince.
I looked at the girl. She smiled at me, her eyes once again piercing me.
“It should be about time for them to come back to you."
I gulped, not quite understanding what she meant, until I felt a sudden sensation.
It was as if water was pouring down on me with incredible force.
My memories resurfaced so quickly that it became impossible to even think about why or how this girl seemed so familiar to me.
For a while, both, me and the girl, remained silent as memories upon memories came back to me.
Unfortunately, her face was in neither of them.
I knew her!
I knew I did, but why wasn’t she in any of the memories yet?
Why didn’t the memories from right before my death come back to me, like everything else, either?
The time I, just for fun, stole Horus’ left eye back from Seth, to find Re before me shortly afterwards, asking me to give it back to them, came back to me.
The time I stole Mjölnir, after Thrym had stolen it from Thor beforehand, came back to me.
All that came back to me, but it felt so trivial to me, even though this was my life flashing before me right now.
Where was my death?
The sensation stopped abruptly.
I think I started shaking and breathing irregularly, but everything still felt very numb, so I’m not quite sure about that.
I leaned forward… or rather I fell forward, which made the girl grab me and hold me tight, so that I wouldn’t collapse.
She seemed crazy strong for the fact that she was so small. After all, I am… or well… was a rather tall guy and she could effortlessly support me.
She laid her hand onto mine, which calmed me down a little bit.
“Reah, relax. I’m here. It’s fine. Relax,” she whispered.
She was so warm.
I laid my hand on her back and pulled her a little closer. I don’t even know why I did that, but it was nice to have her close.
“If you calm down, Reah, your last memory will come back to you. You’ll just have to calm down. It’s fine."
Somehow, her voice was beautiful. It felt familiar, even though I had never heard it before.
I slowly calmed down before, while still embracing her.
After some time she chuckled and distanced herself from me. She smiled and seemed to wipe a tear away from her eye.
I tilted my head.
Why would she be crying? Did I do anything wrong?
I jolted a little, as a short scene flashed before me. I gulped.
That was it… the last scene of my life…?
The repose I had felt before, fainted again, but I started feeling kind of delighted this time.
Slowly I started laughing.
I’m a fool to have done all these reckless things.
Challenging the gods and the giants and all these other supernatural beings as a mere human was crazy.
It’s no wonder! I was going to die sooner or later.
“Yeah… that’s why I’m here," I repeated after her. “The greatest thief to ever live has gone a little too far, huh?”
The girl looked at me slightly confused, as if she wasn’t expecting me to suddenly start laughing.
Then she started giggling as well, no trace of the tears from before left anymore.
“You really do take this lightly, don’t you?”
“Well, it’s just a miracle I have held out this long. I’m surprised Seth didn’t kill me back when I stole the eye he had so sneakily gotten himself.x
Shehe girl smiled. “That’s because only Death has the authority over life and death."
I tilted my head.
That explained a lot.
I guess, I really went too far when trying to steal from Death himself then.
“Well, that’s why I’m here,” I stated once again.
The girl snickered.
“Bingo!”
Then she looked to the ground. As I looked at her, I started sensing this sad aura that she had just shortly emitted before again. “I liked you, Reah, you know…? I really did, but I can’t afford to keep you alive, considering what you were trying to do, do you understand?” she said in almost a sad voice.
I raised an eyebrow and looked at her confused.
What couldn’t she afford?
Why did she like me? She didn’t even appear in any of my memories…
I know I said I knew her, but if that was the case, then there was no way I actually did… right?
Come to think of it, I hadn’t even asked her name.
“What do you mean? What did I do to you?"
She sighed and put her clipboard away. “I guess you wouldn’t understand if I were to appear in front of you like this, even if you saw all your life flash by again,” she said more to herself than to me.
Slowly, black smoke started forming around her, which got thicker and thicker, until it covered her whole body.
The smoke covering the girl’s small stature started changing forms to taller and bulkier statures. Then back to smaller ones.
It slowly stopped changing, when it reached a rather tall stature. Steadily, it lifted itself to reveal a tall young man with fairly long black hair that he had bound to a loose ponytail. The only thing that remained of his previous form, were the sharp emerald eyes.
I gasped as I saw him, making him smirk. “You seem to remember,” he said.
Of course I remembered now, but with the form he had taken on before there was no way I’d be able to recognize him.
Now, it all made sense, too. The reason why she felt so familiar was because she was familiar.
“Well, you can’t blame me. You know that we humans only see what is right in front of our very eyes, Death-buddy."
Death smirked. “I guess so. I just thought the other form might be a lot more pleasant to you. Most people take a girl better than anything else,” he said.
I chuckled. “How very considerate of you, Death."
Death laughed as well.
“Do you understand that I couldn’t afford to keep you alive, Reah?” he asked once again. I nodded still slightly amused.
“I feel like a legendary wizard. I tried my greatest trick yet and it just didn’t work and I had to pay with my life. I understand."
Death seemed calmer now. He looked at the ceiling as he seemed to remember something. “Throughout the years, tons of people came to me asking me to kill you. Don’t you once think that Seth wouldn’t have wanted you dead. Same with everybody else you screwed over and stole from, but, you know, I liked you and well… others like Re and Horus would always try to defend you from your accusers, so I didn’t see a use in killing you, before your time,” he explained.
Then he looked at me. “But this is different. To think you’d actually try to steal my heart is unacceptable. You should know that I can’t afford to fall in love with a human. I wouldn’t be able to do my job properly anymore. If I were to grow too attached to one human, I don’t think I’d be able to put you down when your time has come. I can’t grant you, or anybody for that matter, immortality."
I looked to the ground.
“Yes, I know." Death sighed soundly. “Good!”
I sighed and looked at him properly for the first time.
“You’re making it sound like I planned on doing that, though! That’s the only thing I never planned on!” Death looked at me rather shocked, but didn’t reply. I smirked a little. “I guess you are the one who stole from me first,” I joked.
He chuckled.
“You’re about the first human to fall in love with Death. Usually people hate me, because it’s so certain that I’ll come for them. You’re an odd fellah, Reah."
I smiled. “Well, they don’t know you the way I do,” I said.
He sighed, but smiled softly.
“I’ll have to see you off, Reah,” he stated, a hint of sadness in his voice. I winced a little.
“What is going to happen to me?” Death smiled. “Don’t worry, it’s not going to hurt. You’re also not going to turn to ashes. They’ll be nice to you in the Afterlife,” he tried to reassure me.
“I won’t be able to see you again, will I?” I questioned, even though I felt like I already knew the answer to that question.
Death smiled a sad smile.
“You might see me occasionally."
I remained silent, but nodded.
“I’m sorry, Robin."
I shook my head. “Don’t apologize. I told you I understand."
I startled a little as I realized that he had just called me by my actual name. I sunk my head.
Well, of course he never had before; I had never told him my name.
Perhaps I was just scared to fall even deeper for him, if I had.
“You’re crying, though,” I heard him say, which made me touch my cheek.
I wiped the tears a little. “C’mon man, of course I would be crying, if you’re calling me by my actual name. I love you after all."
Death sighed and leaned in a little.
He pulled my face closer and kissed me. I jerked a little.
Death wiped my tears with his thumb, before loosening the kiss.
“I love you, too, Robin.”