Death Find Us All (Brandon and Madeline)

[Brandon LeCreaux - Council]

He had grown used to this lifestyle after many years. He felt the vibration run through him as the name appeared upon the  scroll. His hand slipped into the inner pocket of his jacket and unrolled it. ‘Tyler Leon, Age 35, Estimated time of death 1:13pm, Time Square.’ Brandon gave a snort from his nose and looked up to the time. Twenty more minutes? It was strange to get such short notice on a death. He rolled the scroll back up and began to walk to Time Square. He wasn’t far from it, The reasons to be in New York lately were high. Death was busy in the city.

His eyes scanned the crowd around, landing on the male that made his sixth sense tingle like crazy. Hot Dog vender. “Damn shame.” He muttered as he moved closer to the man. He stood and line noticed the name on the badge was Tyler and sighed internally louder to himself. As the line moved he was in front of the man and gave an easy smile. “Tyler? Tyler Leon? Man it's been years. It's Brandon from middle school. Don’t you remember me?” He said casually as if he was meeting an old friend when he had never met this man in his life.

“Ah, Sorry Man, I don't remember you.” The hot dog vender said “Did you want a dog?” He seemed annoyed. Which made Brandon want to reap his soul and get out of there. 

“Well man, no, no dog.  It’s been good to see you.” He reached out and patted his arm pulling his soul out as he stepped out of line and crossed the street. He looked at his watch and when 1:13pm hit he looked up to see a piece of glass that was being lifted into place slip from its hold and the glass landed upon Tyler shattering. The panic that ran through the crowd made him sigh as he turned to look at the soul of the man beside him. 

“What happened?” Tyler soul asked.

“Well you died, mate.” Brandon replied as he turned back to watch the panic on others' faces. “I pulled your soul so you didn’t feel pain.” He said softer as he turned to start leading Tyler soul away from the area. When the buzz from his pocket came again. “Another one?” He questioned reaching to pull out his scroll. “Follow me.” He said to Tyler Soul as he started walking looking around for the next person that appeared on his list.

[Madeline Ezperanza-Colette]

She wished she could say she was startled awake but alas, here she lay awake. Alone. She blinked her dry eyes and peeled her gaze away from the blank ceiling as she sat up in bed. Disassociating was getting easier and it did not matter if she were in a room full of people or all by herself in a bed she did not know in a city she had not seen since the 1920s. "New York?" Madeline blinked as the haze of her eyes cleared while peering out the nearest window. "Why am I here?" Madeline forwarded her brow as she recalled aloud; to herself, she was here to get lost in the concrete jungle and never be found again but in reality and what would actually happen is she would sell her father's painting like the good and obedient daughter and personal assistant she was. And she knew it. 

I sighed as I rose from the bed unable to recall the last time I got a decent night's rest but it was too late to lament over the loss now. I put some pep in my step as I hustled to get ready for today's clientele. Most come to me to buy their pieces but there was one very high end client who barely ever lifted a finger let alone travelled to pick up his art piece. No, of course, I had to go to him... So he would have to wait because I was not about to change my whole day for him. Manhattan was consistently crazy with all its sounds and lights, cars that never stop and people that never sleep. It was a nice place to visit from time to time in this era but I could never be at peace here. It was too loud and that would soon make me anxious.

She huffed and froze near the fire flower in a jar and suddenly it was like the whole world stopped. She took a deep breath and stared at the poor thing trapped in its glass jail which made her frown harshly. "Our adventure starts soon my friend." She said softly towards the jar as her palm rested on the glass's side. She hated how confined her powerful and beautiful flower was, and how with her, ultimately, it was dying trying to keep her alive and worst of all it was not doing what it was made to do. The plan in her heart played in her mind as she gazed upon her trapped friend but the passionate moment was cut briefly when a knock came on her door and thus her work day would begin. 

Nothing was the same and the Manhattan I once knew was all gone. Buried in the ashes of war and history along with everyone I knew. My workday was at last done and I had decided not to let this lovely day go to waste but I could not seem to escape the dark memories of my past in this place. Except that certainly did not stop me from exploring and becoming acquainted with the new New York City. I turned a corner at the end of one of the long avenue blocks and froze. That voice. It made my breath hitch and my eyes immediately burned with tears. PULL YOURSELF TOGETHER! I had not even seen him. He died. Just like everyone else. Except that voice! I knew it better than my own and better than my father's and no matter how I blinked or shook my head my tears would not fade. Instead, they sat there at the waterline as I stood here frozen afraid to look towards the man who spoke because I was too afraid to see that it was not him but I was more afraid about the possibility of it being him. 

 For just one second Madeline's courage showed and caused her to look Brandon's way and upon seeing him even from behind she knew it was him. He was walking away but she had seen that view in particular more times than she ever wished to so she knew it was without a doubt it was him. In this day and age, it was nearly impossible to make Madeline cry with all the pain and torture she had been through. Tearing up was one thing but those tears never fell and she could always blink them away but at this very moment, she found herself wiping her cheeks with the back of her hand. Quickly she rounded the corner she had just turned and hid even though he walked in the opposite direction when a whirlwind of emotions attacked her all at once that broke the peaceful and gentle mask she wore like armour. She collected herself but could not stop her tears and forced herself around the corner, she told herself she was going to punch him right in the jaw but in reality and what actually happened is she caught up to him without saying a word and gently touched his shoulder so he would turn and look at her. She was just a child when he died so she knew she looked different but he... He looked exactly like the last time she saw him. So as he spun and his eyes met hers, which still overflowed with tears, she recoiled. She recoiled like he had offended and hurt her because deep down she wished it was not Brandon. That would have been an easier pill to swallow because she would just continue to live her life mourning him, but no. Here he was, alive by whatever means without EVER letting Madeline know. 

[Brandon LeCreaux - Council]

✧ Death Find Us All ✧

Brandon was counting the souls he had reaped, comparing them to the list in his hand as he walked to get out of there. Hoping this meant he would be getting a long well deserved break. Though was there a break from death? No. Even if he wasn’t the only Reaper in the world it seemed that death was only ever growing. Guess it made sense since the population of humans and others seem to spike every year. At this point he was utterly surprised that the Eternals hadn’t chosen to remove all beings and start over.

Yet knowing a few eternals he knew they never would do such things. Knowing that Hades alluded that all their human myths and lore were in fact somewhat true most of the Eternals themselves weren’t anywhere to be located. He had overheard Hades in a fit of rage one day on the River Styx over his stress about it. Yet he was just a Reaper who had no right to ask about it or if he could help. How could he help, he was dead after all. “To the gate, so you guys don’t have to be stuck here any longer. Come along.” He said as he began to walk.

As he was looking around for the door that would lead them to the River he felt a gentle touch on his shoulder. Confusion crossed his face but soon a scent crossed his nose and he knew who it was in that very moment. He had only ever watched her from afar, so turning to face her he felt the shame in his soul then. Watching her recoil in tears was far too much for him to bear. What to say? He never thought this day would come after all he had been so careful to never be caught like this. Why was she in New York?

“Wild Flower, Please don’t cry.” Was all he could manage out before he reached out towards her but paused his hand from touching her. “I can’t explain this but I have a job to do right now.” He sighed and then looked around quickly. “If you wish to talk, meet me at that cafe in an hour. If you are not there. I would understand that also.” The toll of the bell alerting him to where the gate was opening up. “Forgive me for leaving you here in tears. You…”

“What's that sound?” Tyler asked, looking behind them as a gate was forming.

“Our ride.” Brandon said to Tyler before giving a last glance towards the gate as it came into his view where no one else would see it. “Come on you guys.” he counted the souls again and moved through the gate leading them to the River Styx with their coins. Once his list was clear he passed back into the mortal realm.

Landing just outside the cafe he looked around to see if she was there or not.

[Madeline Ezperanza-Colette]

A jarring cold crawled up her spine as he spoke like an existential dread that spread into her lungs and froze them. She stopped breathing and took a defensive step back before her muscles turned rigid and then just like that he was gone. So just like that, she was all alone again and that realization snapped her out of her pained trance only for all her emotions to shoot her in the heart. She clutched her chest and clenched her eyes as her breath staggered to a struggling pant. The once empty street was quickly flooded with people as rush hour hit and she was hit with the wave of people, none of which were concerned for her. With her hands over her chest, she pushed through the crowd trying to get home as she held herself together by a very thin string and nothing in her life had ever been harder. 

I slammed the door to my apartment behind me just in time to crumble to the floor and break down. For the first time in my life, I let out a desperate scream and wailed until I ripped my fragile vocal cords. I could not breathe or protect myself from the attack of my own emotions. Pain, guilt, confusion, rage... Rage. I shivered on the floor and curled up afraid of myself because the last time I felt this way was when I lost him, and what I did afterwards under The Matron's influence and my own blinding emotions, was a secret no one knew about. I needed to calm down and tried to breathe but it just made me cough as a result of damaging my throat. The taste of iron filled my mouth and as my coughing continued I could see it was blood as it filled the palm of my hand. Shit...  

Madeline forced herself up off the floor after managing to collect herself enough. She rinsed her mouth out and tried to drink warm tea to help her throat but could not manage to finish the cup. For a while, she sat at the edge of her bed zoned out and kept her flower away because it would just heal her if she got close, and while the pain in her throat was terrible she would feel worse stealing the flower's powers just to be healed. It's not like she was not used to being unable to speak anyway having been born deaf and therefore by default limiting her speaking, and if she paced and pushed herself she could speak softly.  Eventually, she laid down deciding she would not go; telling herself it was better to just forget him as he had seemed to forget her for all these years, except sleep would not come. 

The pain in my throat numbed the pain in my heart but both made me feel like a piece of absolute garbage and the more I just laid here staring out into an empty void the more prone to hatred and darkness I became. That was enough to scare me right up out of bed but all I did was stand in one spot for who knows how long. It was past the time Brandon said to meet him so he was likely gone by now... no I knew he was there waiting.  Like he just knew I would show up and that very thought made my blood boil and the anger in me burned my chest. I distracted myself with how brightly my flower glowed in its miserable jar as if begging to let it heal me but I remained at a distance because I could not bear the sight of losing another petal due to me. I sucked my teeth and rubbed my eyes and the bridge of my nose with my fingers. He was right, I was going to show up. 

Madeline took her time cleaning herself up and then walking there. The natural tightening of her jaw highlighted and tightened the features on her face in a striking manner. Brandon would not be meeting the sweet little sister he once knew, in fact, he would not be meeting the Madeline the rest of the world knew. The only people to see this side of her, the side of her affinity she avoided despite being locked from her abilities, were all dead. Her aura, that all new gods had, rained over her like a dark storm cloud and affected the people she merely just passed by as she approached adversely. Madeline sat down slowly once she reached where Brandon was sitting but refused to look at him. In truth, she was only here because she knew being alone right now was not a good idea. 

[Brandon LeCreaux - Council]

✧ Death Find Us All ✧

Brandon would give it all night, he was sure if she was going to come it would be a fight within herself. He felt the pressures of the world weighing on his shoulders, was this the best plan truly? Dimitri seemed so sure that they would never run into each other, and yet there was no text from Dimitri informing him of Madeline's location in New York. Did she go out on her own and traveled here without informing her father? He was lost in his thoughts standing in line for a long moment that it took the person behind him shoving past him to pull him back in that moment. “I’m sorry.” he mumbled as he focused long enough to order a coffee for himself and a tea for Madeline if she decided to show.

He moved towards a table tucked in the corner to keep an eye on the door every time it dinged. He would look up to be disappointed that it wasn’t her. He finished his coffee within the first hour paying for another so he didn’t have to leave, he saw the looks from the others in the room. The looks of pity as if he was a man who was stood up for a coffee date. That was the vision he rather them believe in, not that his friends just learned that he was alive when he had been dead close to a hundred years now. When the second hour rolled around he stopped looking at the door, wondering if she was really that angry with him. “Of course she is.” Brandon muttered to himself as he pulled out the notebook he had on him and started drawing on it.


When the shadow of a person started heading his way he turned his gaze to look up at her. Noting she wasn’t looking at him. He let the pain in his chest spread, he placed down his pen he was drawing with. His finger traced along the inked bird, before looking at her again. “I order you a tea though it's cold by now.” He muttered out as his finger traced the pattern of the feathers. “I am sure you have questions, I am not even sure where to start or what you know.” He said as he felt the silence slicing through him like daggers. “I’m not alive.” was all he could manage to get out.

[Madeline Ezperanza-Colette]

There was a silence between them that never used to exist and for Madeline that was painful. Even when he spoke it was like the words bubbling out of his mouth were just floating into the air to fill the space but somehow there was still...silence... Softly she shook her head at the offer of tea to acknowledge she had heard him but she did not take it or want it. She could not drink it with her throat in the state it was in any way and as she thought of her throbbing throat she swallowed, or tried. Still, she never glanced his way and it was not to hide that she had been sobbing from him it was not even because she did not want to look at him. What she did not want was to look into his eyes and see the look of guilt and pity starting back at her. Oh, how she secretly despised that look; that look that everyone at some point in their relationship with her gave her. A look everyone was so willing to give after the fact when to start all that was needed was the truth, or respect, or trust, or love etc.

The silence of starting over. It was heavy and often unwanted, filling the space with a thickness that no matter how much one of the two involved in the act spoke, their words barely cut through. I was suffocated by this silence and drowning in the thoughts storming in my head. The side of my face burned from his gaze; I could see that guilt from the corner of my eyes and feel how my jaw tightened. Surely my father knew which meant that he was purposely keeping me in the dark. If this was just one secret of many what other skeletons were hiding in his closet? Was finding out that my mother was alive and has been since the day she... We...died next? I shot out a sharp breath from my nose to dispel such a harmful thought away. My father was tortured by her death and without even realizing it with his ever slipping grip some of that torture catapulted into me. If she was alive, which I pray to every Eternal I could name she was not, he did not know. 

Coldness washed over her and she shook her head to shake away the tears forming in the brink of her eyes, which this time she managed to do as she blinked them away. She took a calming breath which loosed the tension in her muscles but revealed how her shoulders sank in defeat. It had been quite a long time since she felt this cold but she knew the familiar feeling too well. Finally, a few of his words made it through this thick bubble of silence that encased them and they were the worst of everything he said but suddenly she was looking at him. Glowering his way as she locked onto his eyes with an unwavering glare. That defeat that was just weighing her down was now replaced by rage "Alive or not you are here right here and now and for Hera knows how long." she hissed but still gave him the decency of being quiet, no one around needed to hear them and involve themselves. "You say you are not alive like you are still trying to save me from some dark truth about death when the truth is darkness and death were the first friends I ever made." she continues sharply but her voice is shot and it is clear she struggled to say even that. 

[Brandon LeCreaux - Council]

✧ Death Find Us All ✧

Brandon frowned deeply as his eyes stared at Madeline, yet Madeline wouldn’t look at him. This was what he wanted to avoid fully, he understood why Dimitri wanted him to basically disappear from Madeline’s life. So she wouldn’t always have to wonder when he wasn’t coming home. After all he was fully dead, his heart didn’t beat, he could reproduce children, he didn’t have to breathe, eat or drink. He was stuck in limbo until the day his quota was filled for Hades. He was angry with himself for keeping his death from her or well so his rebirth more than his death, was it a death? Or just prolonged death? All of this hurt and pain from this moment though, he would rather die over and over again then hurt her. He knew he lied to her but he did it out of the best intentions.

His fingers found comfort in cradling the mug; it was something to keep him grounded in that moment. He wasn’t sure what to expect from her, if he was honest she had grown past the girl he used to play around with. She was so much more, more happiness, more sorrow, just more everything. He waited with patients for her to lash out at him, or for her to walk away. His brain was calculating what direction things were going to go in. His imagination was over active, it was how he kept himself sane or maybe insane while he lived out this extended life. Yet when she turned on him with the unwavering glare, the rage, it was more than he was prepared for. Swallowing hard he waited for the lashes to come, her words would cut him deeper than any whip used against his flesh.

“I am not alive though.” He said again. “I don’t breathe, I have no heart beat, I am a glorified corpus bound to the realm known as the underworld to lead souls to death across the river Styx.” He felt the fire run through his body, a spark of pain for daring to speak the truth to an unknown Eternal at that. “I don’t know how long I am in service to this position. The day will come when I reap my last soul they will take my place and I will be no more. There is no darker truth than we wanted you to mourn once, not daily worrying about if that day is my last day.” He gave a deep frown. “Was it right keeping this from you no. Yet I can’t change the past either.” He said not giving a guilty look, or a look of pity. Rather his eyes held a look that said he understood her emotions, that he felt the same way in a twist of fate. "Hurting you was never in my heart, yet I know I have hurt you the deepest in this moment."

[Madeline Ezperanza-Colette]

Every thump of her heart was like a tick of a time bomb that steadily grew louder the quieter she remained. Her anger simmered like a stew deep in her belly and warmed her chest in rage, but that is where she kept it because she alone knew what dangers could be brought about due to her uncontrolled rage. Just thinking about it now made her scowl to herself in disgust because she never wanted to be that person or that far gone ever again. Closing her eyes, she collected herself, and the features of her face loosened for just a second until he spoke and confirmed what she feared most. This time her eyes met his filled with an unholy fire burning within her gaze. She made no sound and the only movement made was that of her facial features becoming all the more striking as they tightened once again. "Then it is Hades and my father who will curse this day and the day you died." her sharp voice sounds very unlike her and is filled with unknown darkness as her head turns from him and she stares off into some gloaming void in deep calculative thought. 

I did not mean my words, at least not about, Hades, but after everything my father had done to me, this was the last straw. We, our relationship would never be the same, I would and could never forgive him... But was that because I could not forgive myself for how I handled the news of Brandon's death? We, in clarity of mind I realized, we were both wrong the only difference is that while he believe the was protecting me he ended up hurting me and leaving me even more unprotected than he could imagine. So, no I could not forgive him, but it was not because I could not forgive myself, I could make out that distinction when I thought of it in depth. Now the question was, could I forgive Brandon? My fist clenched, and once again I closed my eyes telling myself that for now while I was angry I could not. I let out a defeated sigh at how my anger won over in moments like this fully aware of it being natural but still hating the feeling all the same. All the while there was a small light fighting in my heart and I knew it well enough to recognize it as hope yelling at me and telling me to take advantage of the time we had together before his quota was met and I would lose him again... Again... That last word swirled through my mind and painfully slammed right into my heart. All these sudden what ifs and dark futures of a final goodbye scared me because I was not even ready to say goodbye the first time. This was a lot to take in and though I had been through a lot in life even I had my limits.

She had a long moment of silence before she dropped her head and wiped away her stray tears before anyone could see them. Again being mindful of not wanting to make a scene for Brandon's sake as people would automatically him since he was a guy and the woman with him was crying. Yet again she was pained with how mindful she was of everyone else and yet everyone else just took it and ran... Ran right over her and trampled her underfoot. Madeline was sure that many people in her position would be too busy piloting revenge against their father and maybe even Hades if they were crazy enough, to even consider forgiveness or want to rebuild what she had with her brother, but she was tired. More tired than she had ever been and it was not a physical type either, it was a soul and spirit deep kind and she had no energy left to keep losing people at the rate and ways in which she did. So she clung to the people she had left as a safety net even when they stabbed her right in the heart as her father had. At least she still had him in the end and she just guessed that was better than having no one, especially since she was only allowed to survive her birth to save her father's sanity. Suddenly she felt like all the hurtful things her father did was just punishment for being the one that lived rather than her mother. Of course like any child she did not want to think about it or even think that way so instead, she shook her head and took a deep breath. "Do y-" she stopped to clear her voice as it cracked her tone of voice now returned to its natural rasp. "Do you know what one of the most difficult things about losing someone is?"

[Brandon LeCreaux - Council]

✧ Death Find Us All ✧

Brandon's shoulders were tense, if he wasn’t already dead this may be the straw that would break his heart ending him. Disappointing and or hurting Maddie was the one thing he never wanted to do. He would throw himself into a pit and take all the lashings he had through his life at once to avoid making her feel this way. Watching her facial features start to loosen he felt the tension in her shoulders slightly loosen. But that was a false sense of comfort as her eyes met his and he felt the fire in his head. He winced but didn’t turn his face from her. “They are not the reason I died, just the reason I still walk the earthen plane.” He tried to calm her, never hearing or seeing this side of her, frankly scared him but not for himself, for those around them.

Forgiveness seemed like it would be off the table but then again he had no idea how long he would be walking the earthen plane. He watched her fist clench if she hit him he couldn’t blame her. He stayed quiet as he watched her go throughout the stages of grief in front of his eyes. He had hoped Maddie would live her life to the fullest and have a happy life and yet it seemed like she was struggling. He wanted to check in on her now that he could, he wanted to know her life story. Since he couldn’t be around and watch it unfold as her friend. He let his eyes take in her features, taking in the differences from the last time they were around each other. He noticed the tears but kept his hands there on his knees not wanting to cross any lines when it came to her need of personal space at that moment.

“The answer to that varies from person to person.” Brandon answered honestly, as a man who escorted the dead the answer changed. “For me the most difficult thing was not being able to stay by the side of the person I cared about the most. Not being able to be the shoulder she could cry on. Not being able to just be there for her.” He said as his gaze watched the top of her head. “What was the most difficult thing for you? I want to know.” He expressed his care moving one hand to touch the top of her gently before pulling back not wanting to anger her more than she already was.

[Madeline Ezperanza-Colette]

No one knows the depth of grief and how it will affect one's soul or how their sorrow can be weaponized against them. Madeline was told Brandon had drowned and maybe that news was too grave for her young mind to handle at the time but still her father and even the Matron told her, for very different reasons. She would notice him missing, he was the only one between him and their father that spent time with her. Taught her how to defend herself, went on adventures through the bayou and nearby woods with her, and actually asked her about how she was doing. From the shadows, the Matron would come and threaten to hurt him and take him so she could have more time with Maddie; scared of her words having seen what the Matron could do she stopped asking Brandon to stay, she encouraged him to return to their father when Dimitri would send him to check on her and eventually, she had to stop asking him to go on adventures with her all together just to keep him off the Matron's radar. Yet he still died in the end, as everyone she loves does and each time they did her heart died a bit more. 

They were staring, everyone in the cafe, I could feel their eyes on us. Crawling up my skin as they wondered if I was okay or why I would let him hurt me so clearly. Their assumptive chatter filled the air around us and made the atmosphere heavy revealing that everyone that was subtly listening in and now waiting for my answer. "I need... Air." I rise and scowl as my laboured words strangle out of my tight throat. I do not like the lack of privacy; maybe at first not being alone seemed a good idea but the more people made our business their own the less inclined I wanted to talk. "Walk with me?" I glance over my shoulder having already spun around to leave but this conversation was far from over. Though once outside I still do not answer him, I just breathe and walk obviously. I did not feel far enough from everyone's gaze or maybe it was that I did not feel far enough from Brandon's. 

Madeline was so quiet as she walked with Brandon that her footfalls seemed to make no noise and while she had always been as quiet as a mouse this was far different. They ended up at a pier near where the cruise ships leave New York and she peered out at the water. The faint waves sickened her as she recalled the fragrant lies of Brandon's death. "The conversation ending..." she sniffled and wiped away a rogue tear before she forced her tears from continuing to fall altogether. "Knowing that the inside jokes you once shared will never be funny again without the person you shared them with, and the person you have been having the most amazing conversation with suddenly stops..." She stops talking then and looks around the pier, watching the people and their dogs trot by while listening to their idle chatter. "...and when it stops, and the laughter fades, you realize you are all alone forced to remember that person longer than you had them." she finally looked at him as a mix of emotions played on her face. "They told me you drowned... And given everything I just learned I know now that is a lie. "

[Brandon LeCreaux - Council]

✧ Death Find Us All ✧

Brandon felt like a deflated balloon and if it wouldn’t freak out everyone in the cafe he would have made himself look like one if only to get a laugh out of her. He hated the pain that rolled off her in waves, he hated how uncomfortable she looked sitting across from him in the cafe filled with nosey people. The world was a far different place then it once had been, nosey people used to keep it a secret, now people pulled out their phones and recorded strangers. “Of course.” Brandon said as she said she needed air. It probably was an understatement. “Yeah.” he said, picking up his mug to take the last sip out of it before standing up to follow her out of the cafe to the streets. Every corner held some form of death for him.

He followed behind her quietly as his hands tucked into his pockets, felt like he was going to be scolded like a child. He remembered the times she with withdrew from his attention which led the wind to steal him away for some solace. There were so many questions he could ask but at the end would it matter? She didn’t have to explain herself to him, after all he was a ghost roaming the world till his sentence was served. The time never ended, till it did. With no clear expiration date, how could he have friends or demand answers from a past life he was sure didn’t matter to his current state of being.When they were on the pier he remembered the people's souls he had yanked out before the drowned. He frowned; he knew it wasn’t his cause of death but had she brought him here to get a reaction out of him?

He moved to lean against the edge of the Pier staring out at the ships that left the harbor, listening to her. He sighed softly, turning around to look towards the sky for a long moment, the real enemy to his story. “Trust me, I understand. I was thrown into a whole world I can’t explain easily.” He looked towards Madeline not dying to reach out to touch her because he wasn’t fully sure how she would react after Madeline who was in front of him now was a Maddie he didn’t really know. “I died in the graveyard over your mothers headstone. Lightning struck me down.” there was no point in hiding it from her anymore. “I started my life as a reaper after that. Returning to talk with your father a short time after and since we didn’t know how long I would be a reaper for. He felt it best you not have to spend your life worrying when I would be taken from you again.” He understood Dimitri's actions, even though he knew he would miss her also. He understood.

[Madeline Ezperanza-Colette]

It's hard to hear with all the blood rushing to your head and your heart racing in your ears, she did not mean to bring him to the water. Madeline was just trying to get away from everyone in that cafe and then the prying eyes of those they passed and before she knew it she had to stop because of the pier. A heavy feeling sank into her belly making her feel sick with guilt but the more he spoke the more that feeling rotted. Suddenly she felt as though all the air in her lungs had been stolen, like a straight punch to the gut. She did not yet know her mother was not in her grave either, a fact she would not find out until she came face to face with the living undead woman herself. Then he kept talking and soon her feelings very quickly changed and the feeling in her gut burnt up with her anger. 

"So you listen to the man that neglected me my entire unnatural life?!" I shook my head as I glared at Brandon in disbelief.  "You were there more than he was and let us be honest, neither of you were hardly ever there!" I jabbed my finger into his chest before I stepped back and looked around to try and calm down. "You taught me more than my father ever did and yet I was still left to raise myself." I look down at my hands remembering the burns from the stove and oven from trying to learn to cook, or the calluses scattered across my fingers from learning to fix up all the terrible places I was left alone to live in, and then of course the blood... Quickly I take a sharp breath to come away from my thoughts and shove my hands in my jacket pockets. "I have always made my own decisions and faced every consequence alone because he was never around to protect and guide me like a father should." My words were soft because my throat was sore and tired. I was tired.

Another step back and another glance away until it became increasingly more difficult to look at him, then after another breath, her demeanour changed entirely.  The tears brimming in her eyes vanished as she rolled her shoulders back and pushed her long dark locks out of her face. There was a lot she wanted to say visible by the way her lips twitched in anger and disgust as she held it all back. "Hiding the truth about death from an Eternal of death?" her head titled as a bone chilling look glazed her eyes over. "I fought death more times than I can count... I know death better than you or that sperm donor of mine. But of course, everyone forgets that part ever since I failed my Olympic Trials." She clicked her tongue and sneered spinning on her heels to walk away. "I think I need more time." She stopped and glanced over her shoulder at him. "My flight back home is not until a few days so I am sure we will see each other again soon. Maybe I will be better and ready then." 

[Brandon LeCreaux - Council]

✧ Death Find Us All ✧

Brandon had a knack for going on when it wasn’t needed, he never learned the tactful news of being aloof. He wore his heart and soul on his sleeves. So when she reacted in anger it took every ounce of him not to recluse inside of himself and go invisible. He looked at her finger and winced slightly as he wasn’t used to being touched any more. “I am not one that can judge a man. I saw a man who worked to try and give you a life. You just noticed he wasn’t there. I didn’t have a father or mother nor family.” He said in a somber state. “Til' your family let me in. While he wasn't around. I was. I was there and tried my best. Yet my life came with another challenge because of the wind in my veins.” He said as he rubbed the back of his neck.

“I feel you wish for me to apologize for your father, or maybe you really are just angry at him and are taking it out on me because I am here. My lie… Well, it wasn’t a lie in most senses. As I died, I am dead, still, I have no heart beat and can not produce another life form. I may have been a coward because I did agree that it would be best to stay dead to you. So you didn’t have to worry about me disappearing daily while you had more important things to focus on.” When she changed, all he could do was blink. It was unlike anything head had ever seen. The meant she had past her trials then? He opened his mouth to ask how she had failed? Yet she was up and leaving. As he had done so often in the life of those he had once loved.

“Well okay? Bye.” He managed to get out confused where he stood. Yes if she ever figured out he was still alive he expected anger but not to the way she had come at him. Maybe he expected some joy but there was none, that caused an each in chest one he thought he would never have again. Sorrow for hurting the one person he cared about the most in the world. The one he failed to protect. “Well.” He said to himself as his scroll started to go off with his next job and he disappeared from where he stood to make his way across the city. Lost in the pain of the predicament he had placed himself.

He felt that thought scratching inside the back of his mind that wished he had been dead dead, not a reaper.