Storm’s Eye
Playing with Death
Two furred persons, one gray and one white, casts a glance at the
misty area. All they see is blue. A frosty blue fog. Faint sounds of a song
penetrates the air, so does the sound of scraping metal. Not knowing else to
do, they go towards the source. They exit the fog, the sounds are clearer; a
woman singing.
Approaching an iron gate, they see the woman. Batwings and skimpy
clothes, sharpening a scythe's blade, singing strange songs about death, or
something... Her sharp eyes catches sight of them. Her smile reveals a devilish
set of fangs, as she walks seductively towards them. She throws the scythe upon
her shoulder, her breasts... “Does she have a license for those?” Snowen
whispers to Falcon. The two can't help but drool. The succubus presses her
enormous chest up against the iron bars.
“Here to face... Death?” She grins at them. Both of them tries to
swallow as much spit as they can before they answer intellectually; “Uh-huh...”
The bars bend and twist. “Follow me...” she says and turns around.
“I'd follow that tail anywhere,” Falcon nudges Snowen. The succubus looks at
Falcon with a grin and starts walking. “Who needs fur when you got skin like
that?” Snowen chuckles. Her long black hair sways gently between her reddish-black
wings. “Bob!” she suddenly yells “Clients!”
A tiny shadow, one cast from a pebble, grows into a huge robe. A
huge robe, complete with bones, stands before them. The succubus hands it the
scythe.
“What kept you, Bob?”
A deep British voice tries to whisper; “Don't call me Bob in front
of clients!”
He sighs. “Those new ones are quite a handful! I tell you, they
are animals! How the nine hells...” “HEY!” The succubus is offended. “...can
anyone look at baby-images of their furry exes for that long!?”
The skeleton looks up from the succubus and at Falcon and Snowen.
“NOT YOU TWO AGAIN!” Falcon and Snowen looks puzzled at each other. “My
apologies, as you might have guessed, I am Death,” Death points one of his
long, bony fingers towards the succubus. “This is my assistant, Malice,” Malice
sits down on a rock in the otherwise flat terrain. “This is a wild stab in the
dark, but... You want me to release your loved ones souls, am I correct?”
Falcon barely opens his mouth and death says; “Thought so... All I
want to say is: What kept you?! I'd love to just give them to you,” “But...”
Malice adds “...the rules are simple. Beat the boss in any game you challenge
him, and you win the souls. Have you two got angel-pendants?”
She walks up to them. They both answer “No...” and “Don't think
so...”
Malice sticks her hands down their shirts and extracts... “What do
you call these, then?” Falcon and Snowen grabs hold of the tiny golden frames
attached to their necks. The two pendants looks like the eye of their
respective angel. “Angel-pendants, perhaps?” Malice suggests. “Seems we must
deal with them...” Death shrugs.
His bony fingers clasps around the wooden shaft of the scythe.
Falcon and Snowen are a bit disillusioned by this. Malice seemed
disappointed in finding the pendants on them. “Heeeeyy... Look at their
foreheads!” She points out. The foreheads of the furred had a golden glow
radiating from a strange symbol. Death's arms drop. “Damn, their angels must
know all my tricks! How can this be?!”
Malice converses a second with Death in some diabolic tongue.
“Right...” Death sighs “Name a game you wish to measure up in...”
Falcon gives it a quick thought “Che...” “NOT chess!” the shady skeleton bursts
out, “...ckers...?” “Sincerely...?” “Uhm... nooo...”
Falcon feels quite small and stupid. Especially because he is
facing a skeletal figure which is twice his size, and probably omnipotent.
“Syklone?” the small gray one suggests, but the skull sways from side to side.
“Malice...” the jawbone swings “would you please entertain the
white one, he isn't suitable for my challenge and I feel this will take a
while,”
“Aye-aye cap'n,” Malice salutes Death and escorts Snowen away.
“So what'cha wanna do, white delight?” She smiles at Snowen. “I
dunno... What are my options?” A grin stretches from ear to ear on her and she
makes an adorable pose “You have ME at your full disposal...”
He crosses his arms and shakes his head “You're not exactly my
kind of...” “C'mon! It'll be fun!” she bursts out “Besides... Who can resist
this body, hmmm?” she says as she caresses herself. “Seems like I can,” Snowen
throws back at her. “Well you're dull...” Malice says disappointed. “Let me see
the girls,” He says. “Don't be silly, I know you want me,” She pushes up
against Snowen. “What say we dump those silly disillusions and these...”
She suddenly pauses. “Alright, go see the girls...” she sighs and
hands him a bracelet. “You must wear this to enter the well of souls, just go
down this road 'till you see a building, OK?” “Uhm, yeah... but...”
Malice vanishes before Snowen got to asking: “Where's the road?”
The blue mist clears up a bit and reveals a pale road beneath his
feet.
“You paged me?” Malice asks Death. “We will be in need of a
referee, so maybe I'll find a use for your selfish arse as an impartial witness,”
“You'll need to keep an eye on fatso,” Falcon says a bit steamed “he cheats
more in games than I bleed!”
“Look!” Death snaps back “How the hell
were I to know what a standard card deck was?!” “There aren't 7 aces in them!
And there is no fucking ace of skulls!” “So what if I had 5 aces?! I still
won!” “Yeah! When hell freezes over!” “Hey, hey, hey...” Malice barges into the
quarrel “I love a meaningless dispute just as much as the other demon, but DO
NOT pull my home into it!” “Alright... Let's just pick a game, play it, and
laugh triumphantly over this mortal,” Death says. “Anything but card games,”
Falcon says “Who knows how many decks he's got in his dress?”
“How about...” Malice says.
Another place, Snowen finds a door. Of
course he opens it, as it is at the end of the road. A sort of lobby lies
behind, with stone walls and different ornaments on walls and ceiling. A
cheerful clerk, pale with fangs and dressed in a purple uniform, sits by a
screen made of bones.
Snowen is pretty much in awe of the size
and decor of the room. “It would be so cool if a horde of opposing forces were
to swarm this room...” he thinks, and admires the advantages he would have in
such scenarios.
“Good death to you.” the clerk says as
Snowen comes closer “May I help you?” Snowen lets his eyes wander the room.
“Well, technically, I’m not dead yet…” “Oh, I see… Then may I offer you a
cyanide capsule?” “I’m not here to die,” “Are you the exterminator, then?” “I
kill critters like you, yeah, but…” “Are you the…” “LOOK!” Snowen’s irritated
“I’m not a handyman, a dead guy or a delivery-guy! I’m a grand-scale terminator
looking to see some dead friends! Understood?!”
The clerk pulls back. “So you’re not
the…” “NO!”
“Right then, the door to your left,”
“Thank you,” Snowen’s relieved. He steps
through the door. It’s a small dark room, with a screen hanging in the air. The
screen proves to be some sort of catalogue, containing names and birth/death
date, even a little portrait of the person. There was a search function, Snowen
tried it and found that there were incredibly many who shared names.
“That was your last chance, Bob!” Malice
yells at Death. Death’s skull boils with rage, while Falcon laughs
hysterically. “That’s the 10th ball you wrecked! I’ll have too give
you the red card,” “That’s the 10th game I’m disqualified from, but
I’ve not given you a bloody red card!” Death kicks a deflated football off his
toes.
Snowen had found what he had searched
for, at last. A button labeled “summon” appeared as a submenu. He presses it. “Please
wait. ETA: 1 min”
Snowen crosses his arms and patiently
waits. The text changes “Please wait. ETA: 10 min.” The minutes suddenly ticks
upwards, stopping at 1… hour…
“This must be the one place Sky-Corp
hasn’t infested! Typical!” Snowen thinks and sits down.
“Guess what, Death,” Malice says “You
just got your 13th red card…” Death’s bony fingers squeezes his
scythe. The poor shaft bursts into splinters, the blade penetrates the ground
beneath. Death just turns and walks away. Death raises his hand and opens a
blue rift under Falcon. Falcon is sucked in. He finds himself in a blue room,
together with Snowen, Fuchsann and Wekka again. Fuchsann hugs him the instant
she realizes it’s him. Falcon gives Fuchsann his shirt when he sees she has
nothing but a blue piece of cloth around her waist. Wekka seems cold to Snowen,
as if she didn’t really care too much. Snowen tries to get closer to her. “Back
off, Stargazer!” She snaps at him. The small blue chamber they stand in
shatter. All they can see is white. All they feel is, well, nothing. But they
do know; They are together again, like it or not…