the keepers of our dead (Genesis/Game of Thrones)
Then the Lord said to Cain, "Where is your brother Abel?"
"I don't know," he replied. "Am I my brother's keeper?"
The first murderer awakens in a desert.
He raises a hand. The Mark is still there, but it has gone from blood red to pitch black. Next, it is his head that he raises.
“Why?” he screams to the Heavens.
The ground rumbles like it did when he watered it with his brother’s blood. The sky stays clear, the sun burns the sand upon which he rests.
“Your god has not forgiven you,” murmurs a voice, “I stole you, brother of Abel, before your descendant could commit against you the sin that started it all.” The voice laughs. “Letting your great-grandson murder you for the sake of poetic symmetry is petty. He has already cursed you, after all. What was it again? Ah, yes. Everything you try to grow will rot, but you will not. You cannot die of old age, Cursed Cain, and those who seek to hurt you will suffer sevenfold for every damage they deal you. Fascinating curse, that. Your god is inventive. What would your great-grandson have suffered then? What is one mortal wound sevenfold?”
Cain stiffens.
“Who are you?”
“I have Many Faces. They call me the Stranger. One of the Old Ones Who Whisper in the Trees. He Who Dwells Beneath the Waves. The Great Other.”
It murmurs the last name with relish.
“Death,” whispers Cain, hopeful. “You’ve finally come for me.”
The voice cackles.
“No, I stole your death, remember? Of course, it is of my purview to give it back. But I do not wish to. You have a job to do, cursed man. Do what you do best, in this very desert, and build me a city fit for the sinners of this world. Not the killers like you; it will hold the escaped slaves of this land. They will build me a temple and worship the aspect of me that scares all men. When you are done, I’ll come back and grant you a wish.”
Cain closes his eyes. His torment never ends, it seems.
“And if I want to die, you will let me?”
He would prefer Hell to eternity on Earth.
“I will,” confirms the entity.
Cain sighs shakily.
And the city-builder gets to work.