Chapter 1: Thanatos’ Second Decision (Prologue)

Walking on a black stoned pathway, the tall man dragged the souls with bloody and soaked in mud appearances of two recently deceased adults. The road he took may have seemed long for those weak-minded, but he knew better; it was predestined for all those who suffered death, yet a peaceful one. On his back he had a sack with another soul still captured in a cruel-looking body which moved from time to time but so slightly that nobody couldn’t even believe it was not because of involuntary reflexes. The mist was protruding and melting into the terrible sight of mouldy and damp walls, indulging into a creepy silence. This was the road to the underworld.

And the reason was a simple yet a sad one: three people, two adults and one child, were returning home in a carriage that slided because of a small rock exactly at the moment it passed on a cliff and crushed into the big trees from bellow, ending the lives of all these three innocent souls along with it. It was his purpose to retrieve the deads from the mortal world into the underworld whenever the death they suffered was not a violent one. And so, this was the case for these three unfortunates; they died at once without pain or anguish.

The sight of the river approached and the atmosphere became more eerie but it was not unknown to him. Soon, through the mist, he spot another man, waiting at the entrance. With an imposing figure and wings both in the upper and lower body, he stood motionless until the closeness between them was far gone. Then he spoke:

“Reaching into the darkened abyss again, my brother.”

“As always. A death can truly be a peaceful one as well as a violent one.” said the tall man looking into the eyes of the one who stood in front of him.

“Then let me offer a soft slumber to those who faced it today.”

He approached the two bodies and fluttered his wings in their direction with the hope for a forevermore tranquillity in the afterlife of the two poor souls. Then he turned to face his brother and stood still, looking intently at the sack he was carrying on his back.

“This one needs your offering as well.” he said, lowering the sack to reveal the third’s person body.

Coming to look closer at the alleged corpse of a young human girl, he could saw small streaks of light running through her body, flickering weakly. And so, the second man spoke in a calm yet majestic manner:

“This pitiable little girl is alive. Retrieve her to the livings, brother.”

The tall man blinked quietly and shook his head.

“I am not going to do this. I have already took a decision. Her body can’t held her soul much longer, and sooner or later her time will come.” he said, frowning slightly.

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“Thanatos.” said the second man looking back at his brother with a threatening yet still face, “She doesn’t belong here. Her days are not yet gone and the chance for her to live is there. This should be taken into consideration.”

Thanatos lowered his gaze to the girl’s body and pondered quietly and carefully, intensely analyzing the condition in which she truly was.

“Her appearance already has changed, Hypnos. It is unnatural for humans to survive after this road. And more so, she will never live a normal life again because of it.”

Looking at the girl’s face he saw how the brown shade of her eyes was changing into a red one like they were becoming a garnet stone. Hypnos took a step closer and took the girl’s hand into his own. Although she was unconscious, probably from the pain and unnatural atmosphere surrounding her human body, there was, undoubtedly, the sign of life flowing through it, that he could clearly feel.

“And yet she survived. What other proof do you need to take the right decision regarding her future?”

Thanatos looked again at the girl and sighed heavely, moving his head aside. The main rule he always needed to follow was simple: do not take someone to the underworld if they were still alive. It was a mistake he commited yet a mistake to bring her back now. He was sure that her future will be, without a doubt, a cruel one, without even knowing her predestined fate. But the time and place still favoured him; the girl could be brought back into the human world because he had not yet passed the river. He bent down to look again at the child and made a decision.

“I will bring her back to the world of humans. But I will always watch her from afar. It is my mistake that has been made and so I must admit it. She is already ment to suffer more than it was already predestined.”

He took the girl into his embrace and rose above the stoned pathway, delivering her back to the living world exactly before other people could see the entire scenery of a desastrous accident of one couple and their child. But before he retrieve the soul to its body, another sign of destiny appeared before his eyes. A butterfly with white wings who flew among the trees nearby. And so, he could not leave her without a gift. He engraved a red butterfly on her right thigh which soon looked like a sign from birth for a man’s sight to not be able to sense the truth. The simple yet astonishing shape signified only one thing: for her, death will be painless, whenever it may come.

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