42 Escaping Death

Death was emotional? Although he tried not to show it, and the song that comes to mind now, at this very moment is... "I get so emotional baby everytime I see you" by Whitney Houston.

"Why the heck am I thinking this at a time like this?"

Honestly, I was doing it to lighten my thoughts since Azrael seemed beyond gloomy even with that handsome smile of his. What am I saying? I'm a confused mess. His eyes gave him away and I was surprised that he hadn't hid his emotions already with that cold stare he often showed the world.

It was clear as day to me now that Death's cold stare and lack of emotion was his cover. It was an image he had to maintain and portray to the world because if people knew the real him, the guy that jokes and frolics around like a little girl, no one would take him seriously even with the fact that he can make your entire existence disappear by the snap of a finger.

This was the first time I had seen him express sadness and it felt as though I finally got to see another side to him. Behind all that stern, devious and stupid looks, and let's not forget his constant need to smirk, that Azrael often gave me this one showed weakness but in it I saw strength.

He wasn't afraid to let me see him at his most vulnerable even though he did his best to hold himself together. I really felt bad for Azrael but I knew he didn't want my pity and what he really wanted was love.

I found it ironic that people would see death as something that was cruel or something that was heartless, when clearly that was just what people imagined him to be.

Death wasn't as many described him in books but as usual being that people never met him, they'd judge him before even knowing him. That was probably one of the reasons why Azrael didn't go around telling people he was the "Angel of Death." That and also the fact that many would think that either they or him had a screw loose.

"Honestly, sometimes I think that I too am missing a few screws for believing all this but hey, here we are."

I've been with Azrael enough to see that. Not that I'm missing a few screws. I mean, I've been with him enough to see that he isn't what people make him out to be and he wasn't what I thought he was either.

He, as cold as everybody made Death out to be, all he wanted was love. To be loved and he missed Eden dearly I could tell but even as the memories of us flashed before my eyes, even so, it didn't do anything. There was nothing. My mind was empty and blank. (No surprise there)

I'm not Eden.

I can't be her and I'll probably never be.

That's the thing... I only remember what happened now. If I was with Azrael, that was my passed life and he can try all he wants it won't change things but all this was so confusing.

Am I Eden? I thought to myself.

...

...

...

...

And my mind was blank with nothing...

That is

until I heard

a voice...

¿?

"Yes and no." The voice replied to my thought. It was the same voice I had heard before. "You are a piece of me." I heard before the voice disappeared. A piece of what now?

The voice didn't seem to come back after that and the little sarcastic voice that always used to comment on my own thoughts and actions seemed to be quiet which was odd, even for me.

What the frick?

The voice from the necklace was telling me I was a piece of something? More like a piece of sh*t. Said the sarcastic voice in my head. Wow and here I thought my conscience disappeared on me. Looks like I was wrong. Now, I actually wish it did disappear on me.

Yeah, I'm back baby. Said that annoying voice I'm so used to hearing. My god damn inner thoughts.

Awe, did you miss me? The sarcastic voice continued irritating the French fries out of me.

Honestly? No... I thought.

*Looks at audience*

"Why do I even listen to my conscience?"

Um? Because I'm always right. And of course it was my conscience that replied with that statement.

Statement? Says my conscience.

Yes "Statement" not fact.

Okay, you are right "sometimes" I'm not always right but 99,99% of the time, I am right. My conscience replies.

You mean I'm right. I thought as I mindlessly lost track of time caught in my argument with none other than myself.

No, I'm right.

We're the same person. I said internally to my conscience. It seemed to be having a hard time accepting the fact that we were the same person.

"I'm having an internal conflict with myself, okay?"

So if you right then I'm right. I said mentally.

Whatever you say captain. Said my conscience sarcastically.

....

...

..

"Alice." I heard Azrael's voice as I shook my head.

"Yes?" I asked.

"Nothing..." He said to me, looking away from me and towards the memory that seemed to have changed again.

I watched the memory as I saw the boy and the girl talking to one another.

"When are you coming back." The girl said. It was Eden who said that. Me? We didn't look alike though.

"Wait," Azrael said and then they kissed? a spark shot turning the scene an ambient pinkish colour.

I furrowed my eyebrows. Is this part of it? I thought as the whole room changed, the ambient light glowing a dim pink colour as the fireflies I had seen that were originally a greenish yellow twinkle of light, like a mini galaxy, turned the colour of pink with a mix of purple as a blue light shot from above exposing a huge blue dome.

So this was the dome, the place that rebuilds itself, I was trapped in? The place that Death could rearrange and make whatever he desired and how he brought or created a replica of Paris that well, I've never been to Paris but he could have fooled me.

My heart beat violently in my chest suddenly. What was happening? The memories I was watching that seemed slow before began to flash. The images no longer slow like watching a movie but now instead, were flashes. Flashes of memories. Memories I didn't remember. This couldn't be mine. The memories flashed so fast I saw so much.

Everything flashed so fast. It was like I saw the past, present and future all at once. Like a corrupted file, like a PC on overdrive. It was like some kind of malfunction. Everything flashed before my eyes. It was as if my life flashed before my eyes but some memories weren't mine and some memories looked well, from the glimpses I saw, like they still had to happen.

"Alice." I heard Azrael's voice. "Your eyes." He said.

I looked down at my hands to see that they were encompassed by the ambient pink light I had seen in the memory before it began to flash in white flashes and glimpses of images. The memories flashed so rapidly that I couldn't make out what they were exactly. It was like images flashing at the speed of light.

"What is going on?!" I shouted in a panic as I held my hands out and looked at them glowing in the pink ambient light that surrounded them.

The energy or whatever it was seemed to be encompassing me. It was like some chemical reaction, like my body was reacting to something and just like that the whole room was devoured by a collision of different lights.

Different energies and entities colliding into one another, a massive atomic expulsion that caused a pulse like wave to go through the entire atmosphere. It was like a nuclear bomb. A nuclear bomb that, instead of exploding and making a giant mushroom, made everything go white.

Every memory I had seen had flashed so fast I swear that if I was human my eyes would have been fried out of their sockets, burnt out, completely obliterated.

The fact that I was still alive proved everything that I had been told. It was clear now that I wasn't human, I was beyond that, meaning there was a chance that I was Eden but I still refused to believe this.

I liked how things were in my life before and knowing this would change everything. Even though everything has changed already. Some things we're better off not knowing and this was one of them.

All I wanted was a normal life even though I knew that would be impossible for me but still as it was and is, I refused to accept my fate. I am the person I am now. I'm not going to change who I am because of my past life that I as it is already can't remember or maybe that's because I can't come to terms with it. I refused to remember in a way I suppose.

The past was in the past and it was that way for a reason. I'm not Eden and I would never be her even though the memories that were projected from my mind were hers. I just can't go back. I can't be something I wasn't because seeing a memory and actually remembering it are two different things.

Just because you see a photo of yourself in the past doesn't mean you'll remember everything that happened in that photo. Just like that, all the images I was seeing was just that, images but could I remember everything that I saw? I couldn't. Not even a bit.

Faded like the sands of time these memories were just images to me. Nothing more, nothing less and if Azrael knew this it would probably hurt him since I was his Eden, long lost friend and companion but that's exactly what I was... I wasn't his Eden but I was lost.

"You," I heard Azrael's voice before he paused, "It's the awakening." That was all I heard before his voice faded away just like the rest of the blue dome that surrounded us. The dome, it was being eaten away by a glowing green light. The light reminded me so much of Felix's eyes when I was stuck in the janitor's closet with him and the flames that surrounded us in the woods were that colour too. Did that mean Felix was here?

How did he find me?

Why am I even worried about this when pink light is surrounding me?

What the heck is this?

I began to float up into the air as my hair floated around me on it's own almost as though I was underwater but of course I wasn't underwater so this was beyond strange for me, everything happening was. I felt an aching pain in my chest, once again but the pain began to subside as if I had become used to it.

It didn't feel the same as before when this had happened, it slowly disappeared and I could feel a flow of energy flowing through my veins. Something that felt so different, I felt alive, I felt a weird sense of peace, I felt in sync with everything and then reality hit me when the surge faded.

Realising I was in the air, pretty high up, even though I wasn't afraid of heights I was high enough to change my mind about the fact that I wasn't afraid of heights and because of this it made me lose my sense of control over this new found power? I guess? and I ended up crashing to the ground or at least that's what I assumed.

I assumed I'd be crashing to the ground from how fast I was falling but to my surprise and utter shock, my assumption that I was going to die an early death was blown out of the water when I landed on my feet. Yes, I landed on my feet. What am I a cat now too? Ha... cats always land on their feet, right? Or at least that's how the saying goes. I think?

Shouldn't this be one of Felix's powers?

What a generalisation though, not all cats land on their feet. I mean, I'm pretty sure like people, you get clumsy cats that just can't stick a landing, at least that's what I think.

Seriously, says the sarcastic voice of reason in my head pausing for a bit, now? You just fell from hovering in the air and this is where your mind is? I mean, I'm you and you're me, for god's sake how are we in the same body? Better yet, how are we the same person?

I was so caught up in my own, silly thoughts though, that I didn't realise I was standing right next to Felix? How the heck did he get here? He grabbed my hand before I could process anything.

"We have to get out of here." I heard his voice as he pulled me. We were both running now as he dragged me along. We ran and ran until we passed through a field. The same field I was brought to on the first night. The field with the beautiful night sky that was so mesmerising it trapped me in its beauty. No correction, Azrael trapped me.

That reminds me... where is Azrael?

*New prov unlocked*

🔓

~ｆｅｌｉｘ'ｓ pｏｖ~

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The fact that I could run was beyond me. I had almost no energy left. Not after using almost all of my power just to destroy that dome and that was the least of our worries.

Howlers were going to be the next thing we would have to watch out for. I'm just glad I got Alice out of there while I had the chance but pretty soon she's going to have to run on her own so she better keep up otherwise I did this all for nothing.

If Alice wasn't half Witch the howlers wouldn't be a problem but being part Witch makes her part human and howlers, shadows of death had a thing for souls. Which means Alice was most likely on their menu and we had to outrun them. We had to outrun deaths creatures or it would be too late for her.

"Keep up." I said sternly as I pulled her.

"I..." She took a breath. "Felix I can't keep up. I can't run any faster." She said weakly.

She wasn't prepared for this I knew she wasn't but I was supposed to help her and I'm running low on energy. You'd think I was stronger than this. Cara warned me about this. I should have just waited for her to just do that incantation to remove that damn dome, even if it took a day to remove it. She'd warned me that the dome would absorb my strength and indeed it did.

I could only last a full 24 hours she said but I think it drained more than we expected and I was already feeling drained. Drained to the point that I couldn't feel my legs anymore and everything was going numb. My energy levels were down and my vision was slowly seizing too.

"Felix." Alice said from behind me. I could feel my palm sweating as I held onto her hand like my life depended on it when it was the other way around... she depended on me. "You have to stop." She said.

"We can't." I said looking back at her as my legs continued on, picking up pace like they had a mind of their own. I could feel that I was losing myself. It was like I used the last of my energy on my words before I hit the ground.

And that's when the last thing I wanted to happen happened.

"Meow."

God damn it...

*End of prov*

....

...

..

"Meow."

Felix turned into a cat before my very eyes.

What the heck do I do now?

The last thing Felix told me was to keep running so I better do that. I picked Felix up, holding him like a baby. His probably going to hate me for doing this but oh well.

I hope you not a motion sickness cat. I thought as I began to run with the cat.

You better not claw at my face. I thought. Luckily to my astonishment and slight amazement, he rested soundly in my arms. Even in his cat? whatever form this was he was tired.

I ran and ran as far as my legs could carry me but little did I know I wasn't alone. Little did I know there was a reason why Felix told me to run.

Run!.. I heard the voice from the necklace murmured as I felt the breeze cut at my skin whilst I continued to run.

RUN!..

RUN!!..

Don't let them catch you...

By them you mean who? I thought but little did I know I had no time to think.

The voice went silent for awhile before the necklace shot up in my face, hovering just between my eyes and almost touching my nose. It's light glowing as it had before as it began pulling me again, hovering in the direction of some type of woods? but this particular woods seemed to be covered with a dense fog, a mist that seemed quite odd that one would probably get goosebumps, the forest seemed so scary now as I began to see died trees come into view and tomb stones.

I was hesitant to enter this particular looking scene. Mainly because it looked creepy as hell. My gut feeling was saying... DO NOT ENTER as if a sign was placed in front of the woods warning me to stay out but was there a sign? NO. There was no sign and the only sign was the one I pictured in my head.

The gut feeling I felt was warning me not to enter the place the necklace was so determined to get to for some unknown reason. A reason that was surely beyond my understanding. It was telling me to run from something but why on earth would it take me to a place that looks scarier than what I'm supposedly running from?

Then again what am I running from? I didn't know. I haven't seen it yet and all Felix told me was to run but he didn't say why I had to run before he turned into a cat. Now it was up to me and honestly, I didn't know what to do.

I, however being curious wanted to know why the necklace wanted me to go into this? This graveyard? I'm pretty sure that's what it was. If not how do you explain the tomb stones? A Halloween party? Now? I don't think so.

"How could I let my curiosity get the better of me? Curiosity killed the cat. Oh my, I'm next. Where's the invisible sign that says YOU'RE NEXT."

I feel so daft...

I probably wouldn't know when to run if it hit me in the face... the killer that is.

No, I shouldn't be making jokes at a time like this.

Damn it, I almost forgot I'm still holding Felix. I really wish he wasn't a cat right now so that he could tell me if I was going in the right direction. Was this the right way? Was I supposed to be going this way.

I held Felix firmly as I continued to run. It was ironic that I was cradling the person, who was summoned to protect me, like a baby. He was my Guardian and yet, I was carrying him in his cat form. If I wasn't in danger, or at least I think I am, I would have found this hilarious.

The necklace continuing to hover in its luminescent blue light as it pulled me into the midst of the woods surrounded by bare trees which made me stumble on some sort of log and I fell behind a bush, landing flat on my rear end. (Author you could just let me say butt you know?)

"Ow..." I lifted myself up as I looked at the spot I had fallen where the log was. I slowly peeked out from behind the log as I heard a rustle in the bushes behind the massive tomb stone that was shaped like a cross.

Yep, this was definitely a graveyard but that didn't surprise me. What surprised me was that even though I fell, dashed and dived, Felix still hadn't clawed me even though he looked like he was about to wet himself. His huge eyes so wide I could see the black of his cat eyes. His pupils were huge and I found this mildly cute for some reason. He was the literal definition of a scaredy cat, you know since he is a cat.

You better not pee on me buddy... I thought.

If Felix was a normal cat I would have been clawed for sure, probably in the face, or peed on but he wasn't a normal cat and hopefully that doesn't happen unless I spoke too soon and he can't control his bladder but for my sake hopefully that's not the case.

"Alice..." I heard a whispered that sounded like the necklace once again. "Alice, run!" The voice chimed.

The dried leafy bush that was rustling before, rustled again as I took a peek from behind the log, pretending as if it were a shield. Why the heck am I still waiting for whatever it is to come out? The necklace told me to run. I'm supposed to be running from this.

Curiosity had once again got the better of me and before I knew it, I heard Felix hiss as he fell out of my arms landing on his paws. I was being pulled towards the bush by something. Something that I couldn't see. It was only once I was dragged all the way to the bush that I could see the creature. The thing that I was supposed to be running from.

It's cloak covered most of it. It was beyond anything I had seen in my life, even with all the crazy things I had experienced. I shuddered at the thought of whatever this creatures motives were and it was clear that this being or entity or whatever in gods name this thing was, was meant to instill fear into its victims.

Was I a victim of this, this thing? I was supposed to run, to be afraid and yet, as I lay there in the dirt with this creature, at the mercy of this cloaked being, I was not. The creature had bones for fingers, sharp bones for that matter.

Its skeleton like sharp fingers reached out towards me as its head or what I thought was its head, covered by the cloak concealing whatever horrors awaited me, moved closer towards me almost as if it were looking down. Looking down at me. I waited and waited for what was to come. I waited for my fate.

I didn't know what it was going to do when I felt it's sharp fingers reach out and touch my hair. This was odd. Seeing something like this you'd swear it would use those sharp scissors like fingers to rip your very heart out of your chest but instead it moved my hair away gently until the necklace I had around my neck could be seen.

I saw the necklace still around my neck as I looked down. So this thing was after the necklace? I felt my head yank forward the cloaked figure grasped onto the necklace with its one bone like hand.

"Ouch!" I yelled not thinking straight since I didn't expect to be yanked up by this creature.

The creature then looked at me for awhile with its head still facing downward before it disappeared.

I don't understand?

"Meow." I heard as I looked behind me to see Felix standing close to the bush I was with his tail in the air. He seemed calm. He gave a meow and didn't hiss so he was calm I assume?

Thinking back...

The cloaked being didn't attack me but it was pretty rough in the way it yanked me up in order to see the necklace. From what I observed it seemed interested in the necklace but disappeared as soon as Felix appeared.

Was the cloaked figure afraid of cats?

I got up from the ground and dusted myself off. I was going to pick up Felix when I heard the grass rustle behind me only to hear the words...

Did you really think I'd let you take her?

To be continued...