Copyright 2012 Katherine Rochholz
Waterloo, IA
Publisher’s Note
All rights reserved as permitted
under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976. No
portion of this book may be reproduced by any means, mechanical, electronic, or
otherwise, without first obtaining the permission of the copyright holder.
This is a work of fiction. Any similarity to persons living or dead
(unless explicitly noted) is merely coincidental.
Alexis
and William
I sit and watch
them. All of them. My charges.
I watch their lives then I take them.
I take their souls, I cut their life force. I get their name, I send it to the reaper,
and then I cut their life force. They
die. They go to judgment. Unless they are a reaper. Then they go to limbo if they hadn’t found
their soul mate. I have always followed
my instructions. I have never once
waivered in my duties, until his name came up.
This is my story. My tale of how
I fell from glory, how I gave up my soul, to save his. Join me if you dare.
I am
a fate. The beings life force is in my
strings. All my strings interlace
somehow. Someone touches one life, which
touches another, and so forth. I was
made to do this. The fates, we control
all life and death of the mortal or potentially mortal beings. As non-mortals such as angels and other
beings can give up their mortality for mortality at anytime, even a reaper who
is forced to be immortal can give up their life, even if they haven’t found
their soul mate. They can still
die. All beings can still die. It is rare but it happens. My job was to cut their life force. After that it is the reapers job to take them
to judgment. I give each life challenges
that have been assigned to them, I do not choose their paths; I just make sure
they happen. By placing very specific
knots in their strings of life, I will do this for eternity, until the last
being on earth dies. Then we shall have
our paradise. Our promise of paradise, we
shall once again enter heaven and be welcomed.
Each of us use to be angels of life, we fought against death in
mortals. Since we lost, our punishment
is to bring about that death. And I do
my job, as I knew the joys of heaven, and I knew what awaited me there once we
had served our sentence.
I was
sitting there making sure that I intertwined the strings of life, which would
be tangled together for eternity when handed a black thread. I never received a black thread before, I had
received others, and an example would be a dark blood red is for a sociopathic
killer. They are wrapped tightly around
their victims. I know my humans’ fates
long before they do. I looked down at the black thread and I knew it was a
reaper. All reapers had a thread. But they were rarely cut. In fact most of the senior fates took the
strings of the reapers, as they are intertwined with so many threads at the
end. This one came with a bright gold
bottom, I had never seen that. When
looking closely it was two threads combined into one. Meaning that this person found their soul
mate. One line was a little longer then
the other, but not by much. I had never
seen gold before, and that gold cleared up his black. Most reapers had the
potential to be joined to a mortal, but o see it come with the gold thread
intertwined already it was strange. The
gold being long and full of a million knots.
Not that length matters, a very long string could mean a million
challenges in a short life span.
I never really thought
much about it, I saw him as he grew up, as he came to term with his fate as a
reaper, as he did his duty for four thousand years. As I watched him, I fell for him. No matter what life threw at him, or should I
say I threw at him, he still kept his goodness.
He never was going to be tempted; he waited patiently for his soul
mate. I knew there was one for him; the
gold string was proof of that. So I
watched and let myself feel for him, even though I was supposed to be
neutral. Even though I knew the
punishment for falling one of my beings.
One day was sitting
there waiting for my list of names and their time of death, when another fate
was escorted to the main office. We
never went in there. Only to be demoted,
or destroyed. I felt fear because I knew
one of the reasons that we were destroyed was refusing to kill a being, falling
for that being. I talked to the fate
next to me. “What happened?”
“Drew fell for one of
the beings she watched.”
“What will happen?”
“Don’t know, if she
didn’t cut his thread her soul is forfeit, she will be destroyed, darkness of
limbo forever. Or hell. Whichever the council decides. I hope she only gets limbo.” Tyler stated and grabbed his file of the
desk.
My file was quite large
as I was in charge of a reaper thread, this file would be my work for the next
fifty years. I sighed and returned to my
station. Carefully pulling off the top
paper and I started to make the knots of the beings’ challenges in their life
strings. I was biding my time to
paradise. And I wasn’t having such a bad
time watching my beings, especially William.
He was just as patient, for his chance at a normal life, as I was to go
back to heaven. There was very few ways
I could be allowed back in the, simplest was I did my punishment. The other was to become mortal and follow a
mortal life, and die a mortal death, then be judged upon that death. There was a chance then that I would end up
having to go through purgatory before entering heaven. And that could be a long time depending on
how I was judged.
I passed the years
watching him, falling for him more with each passing year. I wished him all the best, I wished for his
soul mate to enter his life. I wondered
what it would be like to be mortal. I
was half tempted to ask for a mortal life.
But you would be dropped in the middle of nowhere with only an
identity. No place to live, no steady
work, nothing but the clothes on your back and a brand new identification
card. Then all of a sudden your life
string would be full of knots and bumps and fringes. I was tempted only because of him.
I was getting to the
end of my file, I sighed. I knew it
would just mean another wait in line and a new file. I cut a string of a child and I could feel
the same sadness her family was feeling.
I always could. I was an angel
who once gave life. Now I take it. Some angels couldn’t bear becoming the fates,
they choose mortal lives, or to be in limbo until the end of days. I don’t blame them. Sometimes I wonder if I made the right choice
to stay here. To take the lives I once
wrote down. All lives are written in the
book, from the first to the last. They
are born, and they live. Then the
Morning Star had to tempt Eve with that bloody fig. Now because of that not only are the humans
and other beings of our creation forced to die, but the angels of life are
forced to be the bringers of death. I
sigh and return to my work.
I pick up the last
paper, and I gasp. It was William’s
name. They wanted me to cut his life
string. But he hadn’t found his soul
mate yet. No I would not allow it. I didn’t cut the string. I go up and went to the main office. I knocked.
I knew by doing this I was going to be destroyed. I would cease to have ever existed. The lives that I would have touched now would
be set to take a different road.
“Come in Alexis.” The voice on the other end stated calmly.
I walk in; I take the
paper and ripe it in two. “I will not do
it. He deserves his chance at finding
his soul mate. He is good. He does not deserve limbo! Destroy me I do not care. Allow him to live, to find his soul
mate. Please.”
“Very passionate words
from very promising fate, one that would have become head fate in time to
come. But you would give all that up for
a reaper to find his soul mate? Why?”
“Love. I fell in love with him.”
“Very interesting...
very interesting indeed.” The head fate
stood up, and walked around to me, placing both hands on my shoulders. “There is no going back. Are you sure you are willing to give up
everything for this reaper to find his soul mate?”
“Yes. His thread showed that he would. Why is it to be cut?”
“We do not question
why, but his thread did show another soul attached to his. Gold I believe was the thread?”
“Yes, stunning gold.”
“A fate’s thread.” Was the last words I heard then I was
standing in the middle of a road, in the middle of nowhere.
I looked around and
there was nothing but corn fields. I
sighed. I don’t know what the head
fate’s last words meant, but I knew I had been made mortal. I pulled my ID out of my pocket. Alexis
Burton. So my name was now Alexis
Burton. Well I had to make the best of
it. It was better than limbo or
hell. I turned to start walking down the
road when a car came out of now where.
There was another being in the road, he was not moving. The car was coming upon him quickly.
I didn’t think. Back when I was a fate there would have been
nothing I could do, but now I was mortal.
I could change this man’s fate. I
ran to where he was, I don’t even know how I made it time. But I pushed him out of the way just as the
car would have hit him. It hit me
instead. I lay on the ground, I didn’t feel hurt. I didn’t feel different, then I had in just
moments ago, but I knew the car had it me.
I opened my eyes and there staring back at me was William. “What were you doing?” I asked before I could think.
“I live here, this is
my farm land. I was trying to catch the
man who running down the animals.
Instead he ran down you, but I got his plate number. Let me help you up.” He stated, as he grabbed my hand to help me
up.
“Thank you.” Then the head fate’s words came back to
me. ‘A fate’s thread.’ I didn’t put them together but a fate was his
soul mate. I was his soul mate. I knew looking into his eyes, he knew it as
well. I all of a sudden was really happy
for that reaper gift of knowing when they found their soul mate. I had known fates had threads but we had
never seen them, because the only one who could cut them as highest being in
creation. She held onto them.
“I can’t believe
it. There is nothing wrong with
you. Nothing at all.”
“Well you are not a
doctor. Maybe is should get checked
out.” I knew that mortal bodies could
not have taken that hit, but I felt alright.
“No I can tell, you are
alright. Probably because you are a
reaper’s soul mate.” He said, and it shocked me he would be so open and so blunt
about being a reaper.
“A reaper?” I tried to play it off like I didn’t know
what he was talking about but I was too late, he had caught my pause.
“You are not a
mortal.” He said as we reached his front
door.
“I am now.”
He opened the door and
led me to a couch, where I sat down. He
walked out of the room and came back with a pitcher of tea and a couple of
glasses. He handed a glass to me and
filled it, filled one for himself and sat down.
“What were you?”
“A fate.”
“A real fate? Why are
you now mortal?”
I sipped the tea for a
moment before answering. But I told him
it all. Everything. Form the moment I received his string to the
moment I pushed him out of the way of the car.
“They wanted me to cut your string.
You would have died at that moment the car hit you. But I refused to cut your string. I thought they were going to destroy me. Instead they sent me to you. I asked them to give
you your soul mate. To destroy me
instead of cutting your life force.”
“So they sent me my
soul mate. They allowed me to
live.” He smiled. After four thousand and some odd years he was
going to be able to live a normal life.
“I hope you like Iowa honey because this place is the closest to heaven
I have found on Earth. Allow me to
introduce myself. I am William Burton.”
I laughed. “My name is Alexis, the surname they gave me
on my ID is Burton.” I said laughing.
“Well they didn’t spear
any time.” He said and hugged me close
to him. “I can’t believe I have you
finally in my life.”
“I have watched you for
four thousand and some odd years, wondering who would be your soul mate, what
being mortal was like. Now I know that
answer, and I get to be mortal with you.
And maybe again see heaven someday.
Until then you can show me the joys of being a mortal in Iowa.” I said with a smile, as he bent to kiss me
for the first time, and that started our new and wonderful life.
I opened my eyes and
found at the window of the house the head fate smiling back at us. He winked and disappeared. And at that moment I knew no matter the knots
in our string, we would weather them together, forever.
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