Death's Detour

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In the short span of these past few minutes, a startling realization had once again dawned on me. It seems I'd gotten careless after emerging in this world as a supposedly ‘new’ being, but in reality, nothing had changed. To my own detriment, I was still viewing the people around me as being nothing more than mere mortals, the exact same way I had viewed them back when I was still walking around as a skeletal frame. They were nothing more than amusing puzzle pieces to me, and that century old mindset had withstood the test of time and was now following me across worldly boundaries.

Still, that was a mistake, because of my own carelessness, Vreena was dying. It wouldn’t have been that big of a deal had I not been graced by her presence so often but, at some point, she had become a normal part of this new life I’d somehow wound up with. Only now did I realize that I’d been taking that for granted, and she was now paying the price for it with her short, mortal life.

Yet in her own mind, she was still berating herself at the thought of leaving me behind like that, when in reality, this situation was all my fault. She was forced into the role of both a guardian and protector for the sake of me and Emma all because I was careless and weak.

This place wasn’t like Eden, I was no longer someone looking down on them from above, from the moment Liam Rocco was born I was simply just another mortal meant to reside on these lands just like any other.

I was somewhat gifted, but that still didn’t change anything, in fact, it only served to drive home a crucial point even further.

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I couldn’t ‘save’ anyone. Not Luelle, not Vreena, not even the countless lives I’ve watched dwindle away over the passing centuries. The very notion of me even having these conflicting thoughts in the first place was starting to seem ludicrous, there was no cure for death and there certainly wasn't any escaping it either. I should know that better than anyone.....

And yet, something about the thought of watching the lives of the people closest to me being toyed with and simply waste away in front of my very eyes just didn’t sit right with me. It wasn’t something I was especially prone to before, but that sinking feeling was becoming all the more pronounced ever since I'd incarnated into this body.

Were these feelings even my own to begin with?

I couldn't tell, but it didn’t matter, I was stuck with them either way. This incorporeal sensation was probably just some sort of delayed reminder, a mechanism put in place to once again force feed me the harsh truth I'd almost forgotten about.

The truth about this ‘power’.

With the power I wielded, whether it was magic or not, the most I could do was just wave my arms around and bathe in the blood splatter. That was the sole purpose behind my existence, the entire reason I was even created in the first place, up until I sensed Vreena’s life force depleting just now, not once had the thought of ‘saving’ anybody ever cross my mind.

Perhaps I was just a fool, a listless phantom bequeathed by the gods, now searching for a place among the mortals. Whatever the case was, I refuse to just let things end like this. The mortals were right, old habits really do die hard.

The only things these hands of mine were ever good for were killing and reaping, but right now, those two things were all I needed.