This death felt different. I knew I was dead, my heartbeat was gone and my senses were as well. My other deaths I at least had my senses in place, but here all I had were my thoughts. A timeless frame for me to explore my inner demons to my heart's content. One of those inner demons was the man that just killed me for the seventh time. And, as far as I know, the only one that was not a fairy or witch to do so.
An endless sea of nothingness, even my thoughts became distorted like the artwork by Munch, The Scream.
Everything felt as if it was melting, the images from my childhood a colorful wax tart flowing into my first death and actual 'real' meeting with the demon, gradually flowing into the flames of my father's anger…Until it finally melded all together with the image of my boned hand reaching out to the timeless demons' face and the joy I felt in my dying breath.
The colorful portrayal of my life's story took ages, decades, centuries to finally coalesce and become one solid murky gray color. The beauty of the colors were gone, the happiness and sadness were gone. Everything that made me who I was, gone. Depleted along with the images of my life. I could finally feel the emptiness of my existence, how meaningless my struggles were, how my life lacked anything that made a person whole.
I lived without knowing true friendship, family, nor love.
All the wrongs I had been working on also lacked any meaning here.
I was a floating soul without any anchor-he removed my last barrier to a happy future. My one last lie to myself was shattered when he helped pour the fluid, the thick delicious liquid down my throat. I had felt wronged before, even betrayed. I was human after all, when I am wronged, I felt it. But this was different. This was an absolute death of anything I could have called of my humanity.
Instead of the shell of a person I existed as, I was shattered. All of my defenses are gone.
I forced myself to cut off all thoughts. I became what I had always been, nothing.
***
"Sir, we must get you to safety. We couldn't save Adira sir. We must leave quickly." The pounding of his head increased. The immortal looked over at the human, Mary, her face looked ashen, but not shocked.
"What did you do? What did you do!" Aldrech yelled into her face, spittle flying from his lips. Before he could control his actions he had his wife's neck in his hands, squeezing the life from her frail body. Before she was able to defend herself, before she could utter a word, Aldrech watched as her soul vanished from her body. Only then did he remove his hands.
"Find out everything." He told his guards, then moved out of the house. Like panicked flies, his guards and aids were trying to usher him to his safe room, but instead of listening to their cries and pleas, he moved through the house until he reached the front door.
His front yard was in flames, the scent of oil and gas thick with the black smoke. In the distance he could hear the sirens, the humans were coming to investigate the fire. It was his fault, he didn't know who important this offspring was.
Aldrech walked through the debris, trying to find some of her body parts. If he could gather all of her parts back together, she should be able to revive. It might take a few years, but she should be able to come back.
The ground was littered with blood and car parts, but he could not find any part of his daughter. Not even a strand of hair.
He picked up the steering wheel, the metal was distorted, barely identifiable. He could feel ash, human ashes on the metal piece.
"Find out what kind of bomb they used." Aldrech looked over at his head guard, the man who had been with him for fifteen years, a solid witch that now would be shrouded in doubts. No one had ever entered his home before. That could only mean that Mary had help, she used his men to kill the one person that could not only stop the war between the fairy and demon races, but stop all future wars as well.
He turned back to his house, the loss of this person…he did not feel sadness at their death. He refused to acknowledge any feelings towards this daughter that he personally killed at ten years old. With the years he closed off his remorse and guilt. He did not have any right to feel anything for this daughter that he abandoned and discarded as if she was trash.
He pushed in the door and headed to his office. Once inside he set a barrier around it, denying any and all contact from outsiders. He needed to think. He needed absolute quiet so that his entire focus could be on this issue. Alrech once again shut off his emotions and sat at his desk.
The only trace of Adira was the ash and blood on the ground. The blood probably belonged to a gardener or other worker as it didn't have her scent or aura in it.
Which meant that her body was completely gone, nothing to reattach. The previous deaths all had her body parts, even when she was dismembered and spread throughout the battel, he was still able to find each piece and put them together. That was the only death of her's that still gave him nightmares. Roving and digging though all those corpses to find every last piece of her body, he did that alone, a form of righteous punishment that he deserved to suffer for. The last time he granted himself permission to feel the emotions he denied as a father.
Now, the one place she should have been safe was her final resting place. Aldrech stood from his chair, the injustice of it overwhelmed him as his anger magnified.
Who would contact Mary and get her to betray him? There were too many questions and the time to discover the witches who were attacking him was over. He failed.
He failed.
***
Xavier looked at the ashes beneath his feet. "Interesting" he thought aloud.
He then swept each precious ash into a crystal urn where he could watch the ashes swirl occasionally. The urn also had a barrier spell, making the ashes dormant until he was ready for the little demonic witch to awaken.
Since the time was not yet ready for her, he needed to keep her dormant.
"She really is a cute kid" he spoke to the room once more, a pastime he began when she first came to him. The little soul he first saw shocked him. The powers emanating from her almost made him stagger. Her innocence was like a balm to his tortured soul. Thousands of years, thousands of battles and hunting for more power was a force that drove him to exist for thousands of years. Then two hundred and seventeen years ago a sweet dumpling fell into his lap, a soul seeking acceptance. So, he played with the little soul, entertained her until she disappeared before his very eyes.
He quickly turned back to his origins once she was gone. Not expecting to ever see the soul again, who had clearly gone to the wrong realm upon her death. It happened occasionally, souls that should go to the heavens would make a wrong turn and come here. But within six weeks, the soul was once again in his home. She was stronger, the staggering power he felt before was child's play to the powers radiating off of her the second time.
Xavier found himself once again enthralled with the little girl's soul, who looked at him with so much devotion, or at least that is how it felt. . Again he played with the soul, and kept her entertained. Even though he couldn't understand her words, her laughter would spread throughout his home. The darkness would lighten up, sometimes little sparks of light would penetrate the deep abyss of the demon realm, causing a bit of an uproar outside of his home. Her laughter had immense power here. When she disappeared the second time, instead of turning from her existence, he began to look for the reasons why she was coming to hell.
He prepared for her next visit by making his home a bit cleaner. He installed lights so that his home had more than candles. He took more interest in the human realm and began to copy some of their artifacts, including all the gadgets for a human home. The outside remained the same, but inside he had electricity, running water, even a television where he could watch the entertainment on Earth.
He waited. Weeks passed, then years before the little soul once again came to him. This time the soul did drop him to one knee before he could steady his body. She was magnificent. He could see the shape of a little girl this time, not just a bright orb with radiating lights spreading from it. The soul was beautiful, but the little girl was more so. When the orb first appeared he had an image of a cute dumpling, with the child looking more human, he again thought of a chubby dumpling.
This time he could understand some of her words as she spoke of a battle and the witches ganging up on her.
"How could they send a child to battle" floated around my head as she spoke her fears and thoughts. She didn't laugh this time, instead she seemed pensive and withdrawn. Xavier could feel a more solid entity before him, so while she talked he played with her blond hair, putting in braids or curls. It would only last for a bit before her soul returned to its original form. But each time, he was drawn to touch the child, pamper her as a father would.
When she left the third time the demon felt a small pang. The first emotion he had felt in hundreds, maybe thousands of years.
He studied humans and witches, not for battle knowledge, but for their everyday needs and lives. He also sought out prophecies and foretellings. Decades passed without the child coming again. Yet, Xavier continued to learn about the witches, as the humans were easy to learn about. The witches were more interesting, their powers both a blessing and a curse. Even the witches were unaware that each time they used their powers, they corrupted their human souls. The fairy part of their souls would soon devour their other half, causing them to die.
Eventually Xavier found what he was looking for. It came at the heels of her fourth visit. He had strengthened his body as much as he could, so when she arrived he felt only a ripple. Though outside of his home he could feel the demons falling to their knees, some flat on their faces. She was even more powerful than before, yet somehow still a child.
The man in him wanted to see her grown up. He knew that she aged, she was verbose and talked about everything with him. Her fifth visit was the shortest visit, she was only shot in the head with silver, so her rebirth was quick. Still, the demon noticed that her soul was becoming more solid, then the prophecy landed in his grasp.
A phoenix, born from a human, fairy, and demon would bring eternal peace.
Xavier understood the word peace, understood the concept. But demons and fairies had fought since the beginning of time.
This little girl would be the question, answer, and everything in between. A being that had both in equal measure good and bad, water and fire, earth and heaven.