Work Text:
Agatha looked around herself in shock at the sight of the dead coven laying all around her. Her heart raced, and her breath heaved as she slowly started to register what had just happened. She had just kil– She couldn’t even bring herself to think the word yet. Yet, through her dismay, a small rebellious voice in the back of her mind remembered all the horrible things her coven had said to her. They deserved it , the voice whispered to her. Her own mother had seen her as just another burden for the coven to bear, a wretched addendum. Despite all of that, what she had done was wrong. Was it? she thought. Was it so terrible? Another voice sounding suspiciously like her mother added a contribution, Yes, of course it is, you stupid girl. You are evil to your very core.
The internal argument continued for a long time, going back and forth in circles. At some point, Agatha sunk to the ground, holding her arms around her knees. She stared off into the dark blur of the night through tear-clouded eyes. She didn’t know when she’d started crying. She didn’t feel real. Nothing felt real anymore. She could feel the power surging through her, but that wasn’t real either. Surely, it couldn’t be.
Through the fog of her confused mind she saw a figure in the distance, dressed in green. They might have faded in with everything else around them if it weren’t for the gold embroidery of the clothing that shone in the light of the figure’s green torch. Green flame? Is that not strange? She had the vague sense of a thought that this was probably some aristocrat… but how had an aristocrat possibly ended up here of all places? Agatha would surely be sentenced to death anew if some lady found her here, the only one alive at this obviously pagan scene.
She’d play dead until the woman went away. That seemed like a sound plan. Quickly, she fell to the ground, letting her hair fall over her face so it wasn’t obvious she didn’t look like the rest of the bodies. She tried as best she could to slow her erratic breathing. Maybe she might will herself to death if she tried hard enough to pretend.
“No, no, no,” a voice said chidingly. Agatha felt the figure crouch over her, and a long, thin finger edged with a sharp nail brushed over her chin. “There will be none of that. You are alive, Agatha Harkness, and you are meant to stay that way.”
Agatha’s eyes flew open at her name, and she found herself staring into dark eyes looking back at her – watching her with such intensity that she had the immediate urge to look away. Those dark eyes were set in a truly beautiful face, beautiful unlike Agatha had ever seen before. With inky black hair falling past her shoulders in slight waves framing a round, tan face, the woman looked like she should be in a grand castle somewhere. She certainly shouldn’t be in the woods hovering over the likes of Agatha.
“There you go,” the woman murmured. She brushed a few strands of Agatha’s hair behind her ear. “Now, why are you still here? And why are you wishing for Death? Not something I would recommend doing in the future, by the way, especially when she’s already in the neighborhood.”
Agatha watched the woman with wide-eyed confusion until she realized she was still laying on the ground and slowly sat up so that they could have a conversation without this woman just hovering over her. “I… do not understand,” Agatha said. “How do you know me? Who are you?”
“I’m Rio,” the woman said, like it was a simple fact, one Agatha should already know. “I’ve been keeping an eye on you.” This too was said like it was perfect common sense.
Agatha just stared at her, completely lost for words. Her mother might have something to say about her lack of manners, but, well… her mother was dead.
The woman in front of her laughed, seemingly mostly to herself. “You’re not nearly as frightened of me as everyone else is. I like that about you.”
“Why should I be frightened?” she asked. And then, almost on impulse she added, “You are beautiful.”
“So it’s the new look, then. Interesting,” Rio murmured. Agatha wasn’t sure she was meant to hear. Honestly, she didn’t even know if this woman was still interested in talking to her at all with all the internal dialogue that seemed to be going on in front of her. “Well then, darling, I should probably introduce myself properly.” The stranger stood and extended her hand out to Agatha to help her do the same.
Agatha took the offered hand, preparing to help herself up, but that proved to be unnecessary because Rio did the lifting on her own with apparent ease.
“Rio is a new moniker I’ve been trying out, but most know me as Lady Death. Pleased to make your acquaintance, Agatha Harkness of the Salemites.” Rio took a small curtsey, before standing upright again, looking off into the distance, theatrically mid-thought. “Are you still of the Salemites if they’re all dead?” She laughed and looked at Agatha again.
Agatha watched, her thoughts reeling. “You are saying that…”
“I am Death. Yes, that is exactly what I’m saying.”
All the self-discipline in the world wouldn’t have stopped Agatha from staring with her mouth agape at the woman, the being, standing before her. “And you are here because…?” Agatha trailed off. She still couldn’t bring herself to say it.
“Because you’ve summoned me. Thank you for the bodies, by the way. You have such a delicious gift.” Rio spoke with a gaze that was practically ravenous, all for Agatha. No, Agatha corrected herself, for the bodies that Agatha had provided her. She had to stop herself from shivering. This was all so horribly bizarre. She had begun the night thinking she would be the dead one. Now here she was, very much alive, and having a theoretically real conversation with Death herself. However, one thing that Rio had said stuck in her mind like a thorn.
“I have no gift. I have an evil within me,” Agatha protested.
Rio’s eyes went wide and soft. She took a small step closer to Agatha. “What makes you think that?”
“It is not what I think. It is what I know. My mother has told me time and time again that I am a horrible thing, but I know I can be good. I know it is something inside of me, but it is not who I am.” She didn’t know why she had taken to pleading with someone who didn’t know her at all, but it’s not like she could defend herself to her mother any longer. She might have said the same to anyone who would listen to her with how desperate she was to be understood – to have any one person believe she wasn’t such a monster.
“Agatha,” Rio said tenderly. Traitorous tears were coming forth in Agatha’s eyes. She didn’t think anyone had ever looked at her with so much care. Forgetting all about who this woman truly was, she simply allowed Rio to take her hands in her own and stared into those beautiful brown eyes like they could take away all of her pain with a single glance. “You are not horrible. You are a beautiful, bright soul. You deserve to believe that you are good, not just that you can be. She’s not here anymore. Don’t let her haunt you.” Rio squeezed her hands tightly and looked at her intently, imploring her to believe her words.
Agatha couldn’t quite believe what she was hearing. “You do not know me. How can you make such claims?”
Rio smiled gently but playfully. “I’m a cosmic entity, sweetheart. You think I don’t know what’s happening inside that soul of yours? There is nothing inherently bad about you. Of that, I’m completely certain.”
“But what I have done…” Agatha looked around at the hollow bodies in the clearing beyond Rio.
“ That was not your fault. Your mother should have taught you, and she should have never tried to kill you. She brought this fate upon herself.” Rio looked off into the distance suddenly and turned an apologetic gaze to Agatha. “I wish I could stay, but Death stops for no one.” She paused. “Almost no one,” she said softly. Rio lifted a hand and wiped a tear from Agatha’s cheek. “Goodbye, beautiful.”
As she started to turn, words came out of Agatha’s mouth before she could stop them. “Wait!” she shouted, surprising even herself with how loud she was. “How can I see you again?”
Rio smirked and shrugged, nodding to the body of Evanora Harkness lying in the grass. “You know how to get my attention.”
And with that, she was gone. Agatha could have sworn she vanished in a literal blink of an eye, but her smile lingered in Agatha’s mind. She found herself thinking all kinds of thoughts of how maybe Death wasn’t so bad. Maybe she might have to find a way to be around her more often…