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Prologue
It was the screams that kept Kyungsoo awake night after night, wrists held above his head in a dark cell that reeked of Death. Inevitable—all of it inevitable. The sun setting and the hopeless pleas outside of barred windows. Kyungsoo could see none of it but could hear each execution like it was his own. Metal and flames. Burnt flesh and blood.
They’d called him a witch. And all he’d done was save a child.
“What a goddamn waste,” Kyungsoo heard along with the scraping sound of his cell opening. He didn’t lift his head but saw a bowl of unidentifiable mush kicked in front of him. The voice belonged to a guard. It was a familiar sound of disgust that retreated as quickly as it came. “Why we bother to feed him, I don’t know. He’s as good as dead anyway.”
“Shut your mouth if you know what’s good for you,” another voice snapped. Their conversation faded down the prison room, disappearing behind a closing door. “If the witch hears, who knows what kind of curse he’ll give you...”
A curse. Kyungsoo wished he had the energy to hold that kind of resentment. Even if he did, he didn’t have that kind of power. He’d been gifted by Life, after all. No matter what kind of witch they believed him to be, Life never granted powers that harmed.
How long had he lived for? A millennium? Two? It seemed no matter how long humanity survived, it was inevitable for humans to lose themselves. The first time, it was a flood that had swept them away. The second, a fire that cleansed the world of its impurities. Kyungsoo wondered what it would be this time. Air? Earth? Would the ending be cruel, or would Death be forgiving of the souls of sinners who didn’t know their fates?
For not the first time since his incarceration, Kyungsoo wondered how the guardian before him had made the decision to let humanity go. A human with the purest soul, given by Life the task of living for an eternity that they themselves determined. The guardian of that era would live and decide, ultimately, when the world had lost its humanity. When it was time to start again.
“You are the purest soul,” Yixing had said to him, and it seemed Kyungsoo didn’t have a choice before Life granted him his gift. “We have been waiting for you.”
And centuries passed. Kyungsoo saw his family grow old and die, travelled the world to escape familiar eyes and made friends who came and left just the same. Once, even, he’d fallen in love, but every human met the inevitable and it was that time that he first called him: Death.
Baekhyun was different from Yixing. Lacking that warmth and altruism, almost like an amused viewer of a movie with no real consequence, though of course Death was as real as Life. Kyungsoo had collapsed at the bedside of his lover and Baekhyun had put his hand on the side of his cheek, wiping his tears with his thumb and no regard for the person he had taken away. “Such pretty tears,” Baekhyun had said. “And still, such a pure soul.”
“Please,” Kyungsoo begged. “Please don’t take him away. Please let him live.”
Baekhyun shook his head. Unfortunate. “You know that what’s done is done. No one can escape their end. Except, maybe, you.”
“I’ll never choose you,” Kyungsoo bit out. Because if he died, the world died with him. And even if he was alone—even if he had to be alone for all of eternity—humanity deserved to live.
Baekhyun didn’t answer him. He seemed to be looking deep inside of him, eyes burning into his own. “So pure, even after all these years. Life was right. You were the right choice.” Still, Death smiled. He released his chin. “I’m not worried. I know you’ll call for me eventually. Everyone always does.”
It had to be true. Those times before, the flood and the fire. Kyungsoo wanted to know what it was like for the others. Had they held on for as long as they could, too? Had they tried again and again to believe, until they were pushed into a corner with nowhere left to go? Or had their souls darkened easily, their faith in humanity disappearing after only centuries, succumbing to the inevitable without remorse...
They’ll kill you.
They can’t.
They can. And they will die too.
A witch. The one time Kyungsoo wasn’t being careful. He’d seen a boy freezing to death and used his gift to heal him, that was all. Maybe he shouldn’t have. Maybe he should have just let him die. They all die in the end, don’t they? No matter what he does. They die and kill each other and it isn’t worth it, none of it is, they’ll kill him over and over even if they can’t because he’d believed too much in a humanity that ultimately amounted to an inevitable.
Kyungsoo was chained in his cell. It was his fifth night, the night before his execution. And it was then that he finally felt it, the first spark of resentment that spelt humanity’s doom.
“To think you’d call for me now,” said a voice ahead of him. He kept his eyes to the floor. “All these years and you never called me.”
Kyungsoo said nothing. His jaw was tight.
“You poor thing. Your soul must be exhausted.”
He wished he wouldn’t speak. If Death were quiet, maybe it would be easier to surrender the world to him.
“Where is all that love for humanity that you were so obsessed with?” Baekhyun asked. Delicate fingers lifted his chin, and Kyungsoo stared into the eyes of the person he had once called his enemy. Death. Yet those black eyes held the most life that Kyungsoo had seen in centuries. “Why did you call me? Tell me.”
This was wrong. He couldn’t do it after all. He turned his head; Baekhyun let go of his chin.
“You’re like this, but you’re still thinking of them. These chains...” Baekhyun touched them as if to destroy them, but all he did was run his hand down. “They’ll treat you like this, and you’ll still think of them. Humanity doesn’t deserve you, sweetheart.”
“I’m not your sweetheart,” Kyungsoo bit back finally. But his voice wavered.
“But I’m yours,” Baekhyun whispered sweetly. “You need me, don’t you?” He leaned in close, kissed his lips. And Kyungsoo didn’t fight it, only felt the fleeting brush of warmth he hadn’t known Death could have. “You want me... don’t you?”
He did. He wanted Death more than anything else. The exhaustion was a weight on his chest; even breathing was too hard now.
“I’m tired,” Kyungsoo sobbed finally, going limp against the chains. They were all that held him up now. “I’m so tired.”
Baekhyun stroked the side of his face. “Shh... I know.”
“They’ll kill each other even if you don’t do anything. They’ll kill me even if they can’t.”
It ached. The gentleness of Death’s touch. The fact that Death seemed to be the only thing that could comfort him now. How he felt he could collapse into Death’s arms, that Baekhyun would catch him and he would finally, finally be at peace.
He wanted to believe in this world that had wronged him. But he was so tired. All he wanted was to sleep.
“That boy you saved. He’s here too, did you know?” For once, Baekhyun’s voice held a hint of pity. “I’ll have to take him away soon.”
“What? Jongin? He’s here?” Kyungsoo pulled against the chains for a moment but stopped with a grimace. Baekhyun shook his head.
“Because he survived, they think he’s a witch. Surviving on the witch’s curse.”
No. They would kill him. That child was innocent, and they would kill him. “Can’t you spare him? If no one else, just him? Not even for forever. Just this one time. Please, I—I’ll do anything.”
The remaining hope he had, it was all in that child. But Death wasn’t as kind. “You know my answer already.” Still, an unfamiliar remorse laced his words. “Even if I did delay it, he would only suffer. Living when you should have died can only be torture.”
Then that’s it. They’ll kill Jongin without a second thought, and Kyungsoo...
“Tell me,” Baekhyun repeated softly, kneeling in front of him. “Tell me what you want me to do.”
As if there was another job for Death other than to take. But maybe that was just another form of saving.
Kyungsoo hung his head. A single tear drew down his cheek. “... everything,” he whispered. “End everything.”
“For you,” Death replied, and Kyungsoo wasn’t sure if he was imagining the slight sadness in his tone.
“Take Jongin painlessly,” Kyungsoo begged. The relief he felt when Baekhyun agreed made him want to sob as he closed his eyes and felt alone once more, listening to the cacophonous moaning of the destruction of the world.
Epilogue
And Death wondered at the soul that had once been human, so pure and beautiful that it could only be left to stain at the hands of humanity. Life was cruel in the most deceiving of ways. To give such an existence a boundless torture; and yet, he still revered Life and abhorred Baekhyun like the plague. Baekhyun had told him he would treat him better. But as they always did he chose Yixing instead, and like that his fate was cruelly set, tied to destruction and despair.
“You didn’t need to see the end of the world,” said Baekhyun with pity as he held him. He’d taken him outside a final time to see the ice that had brought humanity to ruin. Perhaps the most beautiful ending yet. Fitting for a soul as pure as this and the only gift Death could spare, save for his final one. “You should have chosen me first.”
Kyungsoo looked out at the emptiness with a dead gaze. It was a familiar exhaustion that Baekhyun had known he would see from him eventually, but he wished it for anyone other than him. Somehow, Kyungsoo managed a smile. It didn’t quite reach his eyes. “No. Even if I were given another chance, I would choose Life again.”
“Of course you would. Would there ever be a time when you would choose me?”
“Now,” Kyungsoo breathed. He closed his eyes, and Baekhyun knew he was ready to go.
So Death gave his final gift.
...
They say that Death is the loneliest of them all.
Maybe it’s the truth. Life is always loved by pretty new things. He’s never bored or lonely. But Death finds pleasure in destruction, finds solace in taking. Those moments, he isn’t alone. There are souls he can meet, if only for a moment, glimpses of Life’s fortune in taking that role. Baekhyun envies Yixing and his freedom. His taking is worshipped and he meets his creations so easily. Sometimes Baekhyun wishes he were the same.
“You were fond of that one, weren’t you?” Yixing asks, watching Baekhyun gently place the body on the cold, dead ground. “I’ve never seen you like this before.”
“Maybe,” Baekhyun answers. He isn’t sure. It’s a vague feeling to see the empty shell of the person he watched for so long. He watched waiting for when he would beg for his time, but now he wonders if he watched for another reason as well. It was beautiful. Even in those final moments his soul was painfully bright. Kyungsoo’s wish to end the world might have been, then, one made out of hope rather than despair.
“I’ll be starting the world again,” Yixing says, breaking the silence. “And I’ve chosen the next guardian.”
“I know. You told me to spare him.” Baekhyun finally turns, regarding the boy beside Yixing with a hint of exhaustion. “Won’t you choose me? Your ending will be like this. Kyungsoo lasted a long time, but most of them don’t.”
Jongin stares up at him with wide eyes, clinging to Yixing’s side. Yixing laughs a little. “You’re scaring him.”
“Fine,” Baekhyun says. “Make your world and let him live in it. But I’ll be here to take him away.”
Kyungsoo will be happy, then. That Jongin will live. Or maybe he’ll hate the idea of Jongin being cursed by Life the way he was. Either way, Baekhyun will be sure to fulfill his promise to Kyungsoo when the time comes. A painless end for the next guardian. And, as always, a final gift of peace.