original... stuff
A blurb from my original story to be named 8'D
Characters: Dr. Marie (muh-ree) + family, Death, Prince Otto
Story Reference: Godfather Death
Pairings: N/A
Summary: “My father... he loves me so much that he murders anyone who gets close to me.”
The shack creeks violently as a winter wind howls through it. The candle is the only thing lighting the small dark room and Marie struggles to keep it from going out. His brother wastes away on the bed next to him, eyes dull and lips dry, his body now too weak to even speak. Every time he coughs, Marie tries to still his racing heart by looking intensely into the flame he held in his hands. He wants to wrap it in his thin tattered shirt, cover it with a sheet, anything to keep it from going out. But he knows that tonight the wind is much too cold and strong, the wax much too short.
An hour later his brother had stopped coughing. Marie cannot even count his heartbeats now and stares past the flame. The silence is unbearable. He thinks he might go crazy but he cannot bring himself to cry as he did for his other siblings. A violent wind tears through the house again, but this time is it laced with ice. Marie watches motionlessly as the candle flickers almost playfully and in the shadows he sees it, a figure clad in rusty chains and torn robes and sheets the color of dirty bandages. He thinks that the black coming from the top his head might be hair. His only visible eye lights up with a strange gleam as he looks towards the corpse on the bed, like he is smiling.
“Will you take me too?” Marie whispers, more to himself than to what he believes is only an illusion.
His heart stops when the figure suspends his hand he was reaching towards his brother in midair. The only eye looks at the him. “You can see me, boy?” he says, almost laughing. “The very few who have seen me were at their end... always begging for more time humans are but you... you want me to take you? While you are still alive and breathing? Amusing... most amusing...”
“My father died a long time ago... my sisters died and now you are going to take away my brother too. There’s no one left to take care of me. I’m going to die soon... I haven’t had anything to eat in a couple of days and it’s cold...”
“Contrary to popular belief I do not enjoy killing people, I am merely an avid collector. It is pointless to ask me for such favors, boy. But look here... you have a nice bright flame. Why, if it touches this house it burn in an instant. It’ll save you the trouble of having to bury your brother and possibly some kind soul from having to bury yours.”
Marie stares at the candle. Everything Death said made sense in his head and he was tired, so tired that being engulfed in fire might not even stir him once he closed his eyes.
He did not know why, then, he was shaking.
“Drop it, my boy.”
The flame dances as if trying to entrance him.
“You still want to live in this world? The world that has forsaken your family? The one that will watch as you slowly die of hunger?”
“I...”
“Drop it!”
Marie closes his eyes and grips the candle so hard he thought it was going to break. But his hand wouldn’t let go.
“I--I can’t!”
Death laughs loudly. “You want to die but you can’t bring yourself to commit suicide? Ha ha ha tell me, is it hope or fear that keeps you?”
Marie starts to cry, more violently than he had for any of his siblings. “I don’t know... I don’t know... I just don’t want be alone...”
“Tell you what boy, I’ll let you come with me after all.”
Marie rubs his eyes, “What?”
“You’ll be able to see your family everyday. They’ll be spirits of course but that’s more than you could ask for. The only thing is...” Death leans towards him, his eye brighter than ever. “It’ll cost you your soul. You’ll be mine for all eternity.”
Eternity was a long time. It was forever. Marie couldn’t quite fathom the concept. He could only think of his family and how he would do anything to see them again.
“...Will I really get to see my family?”
“Yes.”
“Whenever I want?”
“Whenever you wish.”
It was too good to be true, but Marie decided that anything was better than staying in the pitch black house waiting and longing for things that he knew he wanted but couldn’t think of.
“Okay. I’ll be your servant.”
Death reaches out a hand and lifts Marie’s chin. “I don’t need any more servants. I rather like you... from now on you shall be my son.”
Marie stares quietly at him, surprised.
Come now, where is your gratitude?”
“T-Thank you...Father.”
“That’s a good boy.”
Death blows out the candle almost delicately. Suddenly Marie feels something go straight through his chest and for an instant he experiences a sensation he can only believe is death, heavy and restricting on his heart, a feeling like soft chains. And yet, it felt comfortable in a way, like falling asleep after taking a heavy dosage of drugs. But it was cold, not warm at all.
As he blacks out in his new father’s arms, he can only think about how icy his body feels against his.
___
Marie was now a doctor, an arbitrary title bestowed upon him by his father for amusement. He had been granted healing and restoration powers far beyond that of his other fairytale companions and engulfed with a strange love and the cold existence that came with it. He spent many long hours talking with his family, a collection of souls housed in his room in pretty jars that appeared to him in wispy white apparitions.
“Marie, aren’t you ever sad? You’re always in here by yourself. I always cried when I had to sleep by myself.”
“I have you and Frederike and Michael here, I’m not sad.”
“You’re a liar. You look like you’re going to cry every time I see you.”
“...”
___
“Marie don’t apologize. You were so young back then you couldn’t have known...”
“I would have done the same thing even now...” Marie mutters.
“We... it’s my fault for leaving you. It’s my fault... Don’t blame yourself. We love being here with you.”
Even for all eternity? I don’t know if I could ever let you go even if I had the chance.
“I’m sorry, Michael...”
I’m such a coward.
___
Marie was pleasantly surprised to find that others could reach out to him with words. When he tried to reach out, all he touched was the left over fragments of what his father cruelly destroyed. Frederike held him every time it happened.
“Marie, don’t cry. It’s not your fault.”
I wish Death hated me. Then I could love someone other than him.
___
After 15 years, it was a man by the name of Otto who dared to summon him once more. Marie warned him to never to do it again.
“Why not?”
“My father... he loves me so much that he murders anyone who gets close to me.”
“...You’re kidding right?”
“Do I look like I’m joking?”
Otto laughs and leans back in his chair, apparently humoured. He takes a sip from his wine glass sitting next to his computer. “My god you’re even more rigid than Snow.”
“Princess Snow White? I see. You are his prince.”
“That’s what he calls me anyway.”
“Then I advise you all the more to never summon me again. I would hope that you have the sense to put your responsibilities first. ”
“Who knows? I might need you one day if something big happens so don’t get too comfortable down there.”
“Prince Otto, this is not a light mat---”
“Sorry but--- well as Snow always says I’m a little messed up in the head,” Otto claims, tapping his skull, “I have this unhealthy obsession with death and corpses, the line between being dead and being alive, things like that. I was interested in you because I’ve heard of your restoration powers but now say that your father will be all over me if I become friends with you? That just settles it for me.”
“Prince Otto.”
Otto swirls his drink in his glass. “I hope you like apple juice, that’s the only thing I can afford to serve guests.”
Marie is silent for a moment. “... I cannot tell if you are a kind person or just completely out of your mind.”
“You’re a pretty nice guy yourself, doctor.”
“... I wonder.”
“You hate nice people?”
“No,” he says after a while. “I do not hate kindness... however I am suspicious of it. But since you clearly have ulterior motives I can rest easy.”
Otto shakes his head, a stupid grin on his face. “I have a feeling we’re going to become the best of friends, you and I.”
“We’ll see about that,” Marie says almost about to smile. But his face darkens again when he remembers an aspect of his father he feared the most. “I must warn you... my father likes it when humans struggle. It amuses him.”
“I struggle everyday of my life, he’ll be laughing until his sides are sore.”
Marie gives him almost a sad look and Otto chuckles, “I’m just kidding, Doctor. I’ll look after myself, I promise. I’m not planning on dying anytime soon but... even if the worst happens I’m not letting anyone touch my dead carcass, even if he is death himself. I have plans, you see.”
Marie thinks Otto is much like his father, slightly awkward and scary masked with hidden passions and a peculiar laugh as if he were constantly amused with the world. He hopes that this time around things will be different, that he wasn’t making a mistake, but he cannot bring himself to say it. “... Take care of yourself, Prince Otto.”
Otto smiles and waves goodbye as he watches as his new friend vanish in a cloud of smoke.