A lone figure navigated through the crowded street. It went unnoticed by the daily traffic even though it was always near. No mortal paid heed to its light brown robes like freshly tilled soil, how its face remained hidden beneath its hood, or even the short-bladed farmer’s scythe it always carried. 

However, it was not beyond the attention of other forces. All angels and demons once knew each other but the nature of the fallen had changed when wickedness grew within them. What followed was like a stranger to it, yet its former kin recognized it. 

Many names had been given to it. Thanatos was among the few that did not immediately inspire terror and dread, not in the current populus.

For Thanatos to be there meant death was not far. The demon slivered behind it, expecting to witness another tragedy to unfold. It was not in the angel’s right and power to castaway the demon as it pleased, if it was the world would be rid of all such spirits. Still, the agent did not dare to abide its lost kindred as a companion and continued at its deliberate pace, neither hastening its arrival or daring to be late.

All the world’s evils would continue to exist whether there were demons or not. Humans had free will, to place the responsibility of their actions on the otherworldly would be unfair to humanity.

It bore witness to every plague, every murder, every suicide, every accident, and peaceful departure that ever was and hoped to be there for all that had yet to be until it was relieved of its mantle. It chose its role, at the same time it was created for that very purpose. At times, it appeared that all of creation forgot why Thanatos performed its task so unerringly.

"They fear you more than any demon. Is it any wonder? You only come when there is calamity and what you offer is nothing. You come when they are most in need yet you can do nothing to save them.”

Thanatos turned its head to those words. its unseen gaze could be felt, void of hatred, if anything pity was what its hood concealed. The familiar compassion only enraged the demon.

There were many words the angel wished to share with its former friends. it had an eternity of regrets that there was little it could have done to stop their downfall and hope that there might still be a way that even they could be saved. Yet it voiced none of its concerns or else risk being distracted from its ceaseless task. 

There was a small figure in an alley. A small child clothed in rags sat against the wall and hugged herself. Her limbs were weak from starvation and she seemed little more than a skeleton.

A company of angels surrounded the site but they departed at the sight of it. They had been whispering in the ears of passersby, directing their eyes to see. However, they had no authority over the heart. Hearts that chose to remain closed were no more softened by their words and the embers of courage no more stoked.

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People passed her by but Thanatos stopped and stood over her. 

"You want to help her, do you not?" mocked the demon.  "But you can do nothing. You are simply an agent of His will. You can act only according to it. You, who ushers death itself is powerless against suffering. He willed for this to happen."

Even Thanatos’s own righteous kin were capable of indifference towards the suffering of mortals. Many would rejoice at the world’s downfall and Thanatos, having witnessed all the good and evil born within it would join them in their song. It would be its responsibility to bear witness in the end, it would fail both its position and its charges if it abstained.

"This was never His will," said Thanatos. its wings suddenly unfurled as they manifested and countless scenes danced across its feathers. "I met her mother shortly after she gave birth. She wanted the best for her daughter but the world chose to reject her. I am here to take this child home. Now, begone from her."

The demon was pushed away by the light emanating from its wings.

Across its feathers danced the landscape of life itself, a vibrant pattern of everchanging scenery.

Her life could be seen escaping with her breath. The course of years played out before it in the span of heartbeats even as they flashed before her eyes. It took its scythe and culled the unnecessary and left the key moments unharmed. Those remaining scenes became like a gleaming drop of dew and stained its wings with their color.

Thanatos kneeled and offered its hand towards her. "Come with me," it coaxed gently.

For the first time she could see it. Its words reached her like a promise. It did not need to say anything else, she knew who it was and where it was to take her but she had no fear.

She reached out her hand towards its and as her fingers grazed its own, she exhaled her last breath.

Her body slumped to the ground. The people that did not notice her as she lived paid her no better heed now that she was gone. To them, she never existed but Thanatos knew she was once there and the one that sent it had always watched her.

Red tears like wine clouded its eyes and shined over its hidden features. The dead could not cry so it cried for them. The souls it protected had no reason or right to shed tears. It cried for her who never knew love till this moment, it cried for her mother whose hopes were never met. 

"That was never meant to happen," Thanatos told itself. Her death was too early, all the other lives she could have impacted were robbed of knowing her but it was the selfish choices of others that led to this fate and it could not change that, not when she had given up as well. It would come to them eventually as well. The most it could offer was the same gift it granted everyone, someone to be with them in their final moment.

It needed to be gentle because both life and death were certainly not. Still, it felt anger towards the situation. 

It was in such moments it was most tempted to abandon its station, knowing that nothing would change if it departed. The jaws of death would continue feasting whether it chose to be present or not. its role solely benefited the dying and for their sake it would never stray. There could have been another designated in its place but this was what it wanted.

It had witnessed the memories of every soul. It perhaps knew of life more than any other of its kin, yet the future remained a mystery to it even as its purpose drove it forward. It awaited its final harvest with both dread and anticipation, knowing only that the end will one day come but not that day.