Dance of Death (1)

"What?" Trinity stares at the scythe in her hand with total confusion. I don't understand?" She spins it around slowly, surprised to find that it feels much lighter than she'd have expected. "What is going on?" She looks around. "Shiori?" She calls for her sister, realizing she has disappeared. Or rather, she seemed to become the scythe she now holds. "Shiori? Hey?"

"Sis…?" Trinity is startled to hear Shiori's voice again, this time with full acoustics.

"Shi! I hear you, but…I can't see you," she says as she looks around again. "Where are you?"

"Trinity…danger is approaching." She gets a foreboding warning instead of an answer.

"Huh? What do you mean? There's no one here but us. We're in the middle of the woods. We-."

With a rumble and intense cracking sound, the sky above suddenly shatters, and ephemeral glass falls around Trinity and the previously grey and cloudy sky becomes a deep scarlet, like blood.

"Found you, Death Queen!" A loud and boisterous voice echoes from the distance and moments later, a man with curved horns, a spiked collar and sharp claws jumps down from a rooftop. "You thought you could hide forever, but I knew you'd come up for air eventually. Fight me!"

He charges at her instantly, leaving her no room to register the situation in full. She narrowly blocks his slash with the handle of her scythe and jumps back to avoid his follow up swipe. He immediately goes on the attack again, this time running at her quickly and attempting to tackle her. However, she ducks down and turns towards the side, avoiding his pounce just in time.

"Who are you?! Why are you trying to attack me? I did nothing to you, so what's the deal?"

"Don't play dumb with me! You know why I'm here. Stop avoiding me like a coward!" He pulls out a knife, tired of playing games. "You hide away for 100 years without any notice or reason, let this circle go to absolute hell, leave us to fend for ourselves and suddenly now you show your face? Fuck that bullshit! If you don't want to rule this domain, then we don't need ya! My lady will run it better than you ever could, you selfish bitch!" He charges her, knife pointed forward.

"I'm sorry, but I don't know what you're talking about? This circle? Domain? 100 years? Please tell me what you mean so I'll understand!? I haven't even lived for 100 years! I'm barely 18!"

"I know I look stupid, but I'm not an actual idiot. You look exactly the same as you did then, so don't try to play it off like you're someone else. You can try to deceive me, but you'll never deceive my lady!" He gets right up on her and begins swiping, slashing, and stabbing his knife in a frenzy, determined to get her. "Usually you'd have immunity, but you lost it after all this time."

Trinity still doesn't understand what this man is saying, but she also understands that he's out to kill her for real, so she has to defend herself seriously. She blocks again with the handle of her scythe, then swipes it towards him with the blade end, forcing him to jump back to avoid it.

"Ha, ha! So, you're finally getting serious now. You decided you want to keep your throne after all, huh? I don't like you playing me for a fool, but I'll humor you." He lowers his knife but remains on guard. "The Death Queen can rule for eternity if she chooses and it's an ancestral reign, meaning if she dies, relinquishes the throne, or otherwise abandons it, it'll get passed on to her oldest living heir. It's not really a customary thing either, but an absolute. It's the law put in place by the powers that be. However, if she disappears from the public eye without having an heir, it becomes free real estate after 100 years. At that point, whoever finds her has a chance to kill her and claim the throne for themselves. Well, not anyone. It's gotta be a lady I'm afraid."

Trinity hasn't heard a thing about any of this before, but her curiosity is piqued. "So, only women can rule on the Death throne? Isn't that kind of…sexist? I mean, I don't like men at all, but wouldn't be that discriminatory to say they can't have the same rights as women? As long as they stay away from me, that's their business. What kind of powers are ruling this place?"

"Eh, you're actually talking kind of sensibly for a change. Who are you? Now I have doubts."

"I've been telling you, I'm not who you believe I am. My name is Trinity, and I've only lived here for over 17 years. I can't possibly be who you're looking for. You've made a mistake."

He leans against a destitute building, deep in thought. "Hmm…that's odd, but I believe you." He puts the knife back in his back pocket and starts walking towards her. He sees her back away from him, trembling slightly. "Relax, I ain't gonna hurt ya. I'm done trying to kill you, for now."

"Be that as it may…I need you to stay away from me. It's not personal, but I can't handle men."

"I ain't done nothing to you though? You said you weren't discriminatory. Feels like you are."

"I said as long as men stay away from me, I don't care what they do. That's an important piece."

"Well, whatever. I don't think that's fair, but you ain't my lady, so I suppose it's fine." He leans against the building again. "So, what happened to the previous Queen? Where is she? If she's dead, law states that the woman who killed her will become the new Queen. If a man killed her, then he has to declare a woman to take her place, or the supreme one will elect a new one instead as she would in all other situations. You don't look like you've killed anyone, so what's up?"

She pauses briefly, thinking back to what she did, but it's clear he has no clue about it. "I wish I knew to be honest. I feel like I've just woken up from a deep sleep myself and now I'm in a world I don't know. Where are we? You're talking about a Death Queen, so…is this Hell?"

He looks at her like she's got five heads. "Are you serious?" He shakes his head. "Ok, now I know you're not the previous Death Queen. I'm starting to wonder if you're even a Hellion at this point. You seem like you don't know anything about this place or where you came from."

"I thought I knew, but clearly I don't know anything. I lived with my father and sister for half of my life and before that we lived with my mother. Though, I have a really hard time remembering specific moments with her. I know she was with us, and I have faint memories, but they're fragmented, like they were constructed in an imperfect state. Wait…that isn't what I meant…."

"Look, I don't know what your deal is girlie, but I ain't trying to take on no one else's problems. I just need to know what happened to the Death Queen and where she's gone. She's gotta be somewhere, since if the Supreme didn't announce a new Queen, she's still alive or has an heir."

Trinity thinks about his words and harder about her past. However, the more she thinks, the more confused she feels. The man watches her closely for a while, analyzing her behavior noticing her increasing level of distress. He also looks more closely at her body and recalls his own memory of the Queen. He was still a young Hellion when he first saw her, and he remembers one thing distinctly above all else: her chest size. Looking at Trinity and revisiting the fact that she looks nearly identical to the Death Queen, just with a way flatter chest, his gears start to turn. "Lilian."

Trinity's head snaps up and her mood is boosted. "Wait…you know my mom's name? How-?"

Before she can finish he whips out his knife again and angrily yells, "Die, Death Queen Spawn!"

Trinity finds herself needing to defend once again, narrowly raising her scythe in time to block his slash. "Oh, come on!" She's frustrated and confused, but it's clear. She must fight to survive.