You as well as I know, the story of how the world began, with God and Darkness before all else. Or, maybe you don't. The story is after all over edited, and for that you can... Thank? Blame? Metatron who took down the story as it was once told to him. The part most forget is that where there is life there must always be Death. That's is where my story starts. Not with once upon a time like a fairytale, but with a request...
However, I'm a little ahead of myself. After all, my story can only be told if I tell you theirs first.
So let me set the stage for you. It was 1975 and there was some kind of rally going on at Westmore College. What is was no one remembers now. But this rally, unlike others was meant to end in a bloodbath of Death and destruction, that would spark into something much bigger. Dad never would tell me what. What he would tell me though was how this day would change him forever.
Walking the old sidewalks, taking in all of the lives that would soon be lost in one act of violence, but enjoying the somewhat calm of the fall leaves that crushed under foot, he looked up. This was the moment he said he was lost. He, for the first time in all of his long existence, craved something other then souls. That thing being my mother. He once told me that she shone so brightly that one would think that she was spun from the same thread as Earth's sun. And maybe she was.
My mother was a strong women, with flaming red hair, and green eyes that always sparked with so much life. Sara Marie James. She was the youngest child of three, though she never got along much with the rest of her family. They were always rather uppity. They had more money then they could ever spend and they always tried to make my mother more proper. My mother, however, was always a free spirit. Do what makes you happy, not what others expect. That was my mother.
But before she was my mother she was a twenty-one year old college student, getting a degree in mythology. Much to her family's cringe. She once wrote that it was the myths that gave us the biggest understanding of the world. And she was probably right. Afterall, in the end she became a bit of a myth herself, as the women who fell in love with Death.
That day at a collage, in 1975, for the first and last time Death stopped the mass ending of life. Taking hold of the arm of the would be gunman and ending his life instead. But that defiance of fate would not go unpaid for.
But that is later in the story. For now what you need to know is that the same night and many others to follow, Death followed Sara back to her dorm watching over her. With the hopes of keeping her safe. He was right to do so as well because fate was still trying to right itself. One night, maybe a year after he first saw her, he was not the only one to follow her home. Though most would be concerned with the idea of Death following anyone, he didn't have any intent to hurt her. Only wanting to bask in the light of her soul for a short time. He did, however, save her in a more public fashion that night. Knocking the man out with his cane after he had backed her into a corner.
That night had started a relationship that would have the two married by the spring of 1979.
And they were happy for a long time, but my mother had always wanted a family of her own. Something my father Death could not give her. He was, after all, Death and as such was unable to create life. It broke my mother's heart and what broke her heart, broke his. That is what lead him to a coffee shop one December day in 1984.
Inside of the warm shop was a man with curling brown hair singing softly on a stage in the corner, as if he had not a care in the world. The man was playing his guitar with his eyes closed lost in the sound he was creating. That is why he missed Death's thin form moving to sit in a booth at the very back. Waiting with a kind of impatience that was unusual for the pale rider.
When the song was over and the man opened his eyes he looked more than a bit startled at who was sitting among the mortals in the room. Thanking his audience he quickly made his way to the far booth joining Death.
"Death this is... Well it's much more than a surprise, I haven't seen you since the last great flood." The man looked both confused and fearful, after all a visit from Death was rarely a good thing.
"God..." He began only to be interrupted by the other man.
"It's uh, Chuck. I don't much like the G- word."
Death raised an eyebrow at Chuck looking rather unimpressed with the man who was the father of creation. He, however, did not comment on it.
"Chuck, I'm sure you know that I have found myself a wife among your mortal creations."
"Well, yes. And I'm very happy for you, Sara was one of the brightest souls I ever created. I don't, however, see what that has to do with you paying me a visit...?"
"My Sara wants nothing more then to be a mother, and a child is not something that I can give her. I have come to ask for your help in this." Death stated as if it was the most simple thing in the world.
A sad kind of look over took Chuck's face as he shook his head.
"Death..." He started.
"Don't tell me you can't do it. I know that you can. I have never asked anything of you and never would again."
"It's not that I can't, it's just maybe I shouldn't. I mean even I don't know what a child that is both death and mortal would be..." Sighing heavily, Chuck put his head in his hands.
"If I do this, I have two requests to make of you, and your not going to like them."
Chuck gave Death a meaningful look. Death leaned over the table some, looking no less indifferent unless you knew him as well as Chuck did. If you did, you would have seen the excitement and fear in his eyes. Heaven knows that Chuck didn't want to hurt the man but he could not let him keep on the way he was if he was to do this for him.
"The first is that this child will someday be the mate to one of my sons. No, I will not tell you who just that it will be one of the Archangels."
Death though it didn't make him happy, could live with his child being mated to one of Chuck's sons. It's not like he could stop him from doing as he liked anyway. Though to know that his child would find love someday like he did was a comfort to him. So he nodded his consent and waited to find out what else was up Chuck's sleeve that he seemed to believe Death would dislike so.
"You will also have to let Sara die. Not just yet of course and I hope it takes a very long time before she passes to the next world. But you have changed her fate and pushed back the date of her death more than once now and if you continue there will be repercussions."
With every word after die Death had grown angier and by the end he was like a pot that had boiled over and would burn everything in its path. He could not lose his Sara she was the only light he had ever found in his very long life, living among the dead. The more he thought of losing her the more his power flared and with a burst of it all those around them fell over dead. Jumping at feeling the man's power that pushed against his own Chuck looked around with wide eyes snapping his fingers and bringing back all those around them.
"Get a hold of yourself!" Hissed Chuck sharply.
"You can not command me! Even you do not have that kind of power! I am Death and if I do not wish for someone to die they will not!" It was the very first time Chuck had ever heard Death raise his voice, and even he for all his power felt a glimmer of fear.
"Death, Sara will die someday as all of my creations will. Even my Angels will someday be taken by you or your reapers. You and I can not stop that. I would never ask for her life, but she will die someday and when she does you must let her go. If you do not, you will be the reason for the darkening of her sunlit soul."
Chuck had never raised his own voice, mostly because he understood Death's pain. For it hurt him everytime one of his creations passed into death. Even he could not save everyone and this was one of those times he would be of very little help. Sara, though a bright soul, one of his favourite in fact, was never meant to live a long life. She was meant to die that day at Westmore Collage in 1975. And again that night when she was corned on her way back to her dorm in 1976, and all the other times over the years Death had saved her. Even ones that he himself knew nothing of.
Death slumped down somewhat, looking as if any life that have ever been in the man was now gone. He knew he had little he could say to that, and really he should have expected this. The day she would die drew closer with everyday and every breath no matter what he did.
"I suppose there is little I can do to fight you on this is there?" Sighing he agreed to Chuck's terms with a heavy heart.
With that Death returned home to his wife and Chuck, or God if you must, returned to his sabbatical with the hope that he would not have to see Death again for a long time.
In August, on the 15, a baby girl was born named Persephone Gwyneth James and in that moment, as innocent green eyes met wise ones, my life started.