three words
Rio took a deep breath before she walked into the cottage with a camellia.
“Agatha?”
“Hey.” Agatha smiled, sitting up against the headboard as Rio came up to the door. “You’re back already?”
“Yeah.” Rio sat down next to her. “You okay?”
“Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?”
“Oh, I don’t know, maybe because I pulled huge shards of glass out of you and you almost died? A few hours ago?”
“Okay, valid point. But I told you, I’ll be fine.”
Rio put the camellia behind Agatha’s ear. “I’ll believe that when I see it.”
Agatha winced as she put her head on Rio’s lap. “Thanks for taking care of me.”
“Of course.”
“And for sticking around.”
Rio kissed Agatha on the forehead. “Always.”
Agatha could feel Rio watching her every move.
“Nothing’s gonna happen if you look away for a second, you know.”
“But it did.” Rio twirled a lock of Agatha’s hair. “I wasn’t looking for just a few seconds and–”
“And it wasn’t your fault.” Agatha sat up and squeezed Rio’s hand. “If it weren’t for you, I probably would’ve bled out.”
Rio sighed. “You wouldn’t have even been there if–”
“No. This isn’t on you. You saved me. I’m safe here.” Agatha smiled. “End of story.”
Rio put her head on Agatha’s shoulder. “I just want you to be okay.”
Agatha stroked Rio’s hair. “I know. I know.”
Rio closed her eyes, and they stayed like that for a bit.
“Did you eat anything?”
Agatha shrugged. “I didn’t feel like it.”
“You lost a lot of blood last night. There is no ‘I didn’t feel like it’. I specifically told you to eat.”
“You told me not to move.”
“You can move things with your mind.”
“I’ll eat later.”
“At least eat this for now.” Rio grew some spinach and handed it to Agatha.
“I’m not really a spinach person.”
“Too bad, you should’ve eaten before.”
Agatha sighed and sat up before she took a bite. “Thanks.”
Rio watched her for a few seconds, then continued to play with Agatha’s hair. “What happens to the witches who attacked you now?”
Agatha shrugged. “They continue trying to find me, I guess.”
“Why does everyone want to kill you so bad anyway?”
Agatha’s spine stiffened. “It, uh… it’s a long story.”
“I have time.”
“But–”
“You already told me about your mom.” Rio took her hands. “Why not this?”
Agatha opened her mouth to argue, then sighed, leaning back on the headboard. “Remember the girl I was… friends with?”
Rio nodded.
“She was pretty and respected and likable and everyone liked her and… I liked her, too, even though I wasn’t really supposed to. We would meet up in secret, but one time– I don’t know how I didn’t hear my mom coming home.” Agatha’s nails dug themselves deeper into her palm. “When she saw us together, Liz –the girl– pretended that I was forcing myself onto her and she hit me and I– I couldn’t control it.” Agatha buried her head in her hands, then leaned back on the headboard. “After that, people wanted revenge on me for not only killing but “harassing” their star pupil. When the trial backfired, they started hunting me.” Agatha’s eyes widened when she saw Rio looking at her. She chuckled mirthlessly. “Now you know.”
Rio sat there, trying to process. “How did word get out?”
“Remember the other witches with my mom?”
Rio nodded again.
“I didn’t kill their kids, hell, I refused to, so now they have their own little coven hellbent on killing me. They call themselves the Salem Seven or something lame and uninspired like that. Adding”
Rio took a few seconds to wrap her head around it. “So basically everyone’s trying to kill you.”
“More or less.”
Rio nodded. “You’re never leaving this cottage alone again.”
“Rio—“
“I’m serious.” Rio stood up. “I’m not collecting you.”
Agatha forced a smile and took her hands, helping her sit down. “You won’t have to.”
“I will eventually. I just don’t want ‘eventually’ to be tomorrow, or the next day, or the next day, or the next–”
“You think you can get rid of me that easily?” Agatha scoffed. “I’m the dirt under your nails. I am in your life for a while.”
“I don’t even have a life. I’m not really alive.”
“And what do you think being alive means?”
Rio shrugged. “Having a beating heart?”
“It’s feeling. Feeling sorrow, and sadness, and joy, and grief, and anger… That’s what makes us human.”
Rio paused. “Are you saying… I’m alive?”
Agatha shrugged. “In a way.”
“But I’m not. I’m Death.”
“You’re Death, yeah, but you’re also Rio.” Agatha squeezed her hand. “People are complex.”
“Huh.” Rio considered that.
Agatha hesitated. “Can I— can I ask you for a favor?”
“Anything.”
“When we met, you said this wasn’t your true form.”
Rio’s eyes widened as she realized what Agatha was going to ask, a ringing in her ears.
“I was just thinking—“
“No.”
“But—“
“Absolutely not.”
“Why not?”
“I— I’m finally happy.” Rio’s voice quavered. “With you. I–If you see who I really am—“
“Do you really think I just like you because of your looks?” Agatha scoffed. “Don’t get me wrong, this look is hot, but—“
“Agatha, my true form is— it’s unsettling, to say the least.”
“Maybe to others. You’re the one who said I’m different.”
Rio opened her mouth, then closed it and sat up, trying to prepare herself. She closed her eyes and let the flesh melt away, revealing her face.
Agatha looked at her, Rio’s dark gray eyes whispering of absence, and her jagged grin seemingly mocking the fleeting nature of flesh and time. Rio looked away, but Agatha put her fingers under her chin, turning her head back until she met Agatha’s ocean-blue eyes. Rio waited for Agatha to say something, anything to confirm that she truly hated her now, but she never did. Instead, Agatha did something Rio never would’ve predicted in a million years: she kissed her.
Their lips met like winter brushing against summer, fragile frost clashing with the promise of warmth. It was almost like kissing the edge of twilight, the sun surrendering to the night. Rio’s lips were cold as stone smoothed by centuries of rain, but when they met Agatha’s, life trembled like a flicker of flame in the endless dark. Rio’s cold, skeletal hands grabbed Agatha’s warm wrists. The kiss was a momentary eclipse, Death dancing with life. It was not a passion but a pause, a meeting of breathless worlds. Rio’s lips carried the weight of all eternity, clashing with Agatha’s fragile lifeline.
For a moment, Death felt alive.
“You don’t… hate me?” Rio asked when they pulled apart.
“I could never hate you. I… I love you.”
Rio could almost feel a tear streaming down her cheek as her frozen grin turned into a warm smile. “I love you, too.”
Agatha looked into Rio’s eyes, then pulled her into a warm hug. Rio tightened her grip on Agatha.
A low chittering sound reached Rio’s ears.
“Agatha?”
“Yeah?”
“What’s that noise?”
Agatha pulled away, listening before her eyes widened with fear. “The traps. Get down!”
“What?”
Agatha pulled Rio down just as the burning heat of the bullet made its way to them.