Fear
She was floating. She was perfectly still. She was everywhere and nowhere at the same time. She felt like her heart was racing and stopped at the same time. Does she have a heart at all? Does she have a brain? Can she think? She must think. She must…
In the whole of everything and nothing, floating and being still at the same time, she tried to think. She tried to remember. Remember something. Anything. Anything at all. One little thing.
Who was she? Who is she? Is she a she? What does she like? Does she have a name?
She tried to think. While she was floating in everything. While she was perfectly still in emptiness. Corrupted by nothing. Obsessed with everything.
Did she actually was? Does she still is?
And in all of that - everything and nothing dancing between her atoms, playing and teasing, she felt a headache. Dizziness. That meant that she still exists. But how, where and in what form?
And in all of that - truly confusing something, something even she couldn’t comprehend, she felt her head thinking. She felt every ounce of blood rushing through her veins into her brain. She felt every cell filled. She was strangely aware of every single bone in her body. She tried to move her arm and heard friction in a joint. It was almost too much to bear.
Her heart sat tight in her chest. It was the only place in her body that didn’t hurt. She wondered why. Everything else was on fire. Every thought sent a new wave of headache. Every move painfully cracked her bones. Every breath was burning her lungs. But her heart was just in her chest. Just there. It beat in a settled rhythm, bringing her a slight relief.
She closed her eyes. She wasn’t sure if they were actually opened or not till she tried to move her eyelids and it worked. Now, she saw darkness. Darkness, that she could control. So, she shut her eyes even tighter and despite her running headache, she tried to remember.
The next thing she saw were a pair of beautiful blue eyes. If she had a soul, then they stared directly into it. Suddenly all went silent. There were no more sounds of blood rushing through her. No more pain in her bones. No more headache. She was at peace. She still didn’t dare to open her eyes, afraid that those beautiful blue eyes would just vanish.
And then she remembered. It was Agatha’s eyes. Her Agatha.
She opened her eyes. She remembered now. She knew now. She understood.
And then Rio fell.
Blood rushed through her veins again. Goosebumps appeared on her skin. Dizziness came back. It wasn’t painful, but the feeling was all consuming. She was falling and falling aware of the adrenaline rush that came all the way through her body again and again and again.
She didn’t want to fall. She didn’t want to hit the ground. Didn’t want to get hurt. She was afraid to get hurt. She was afraid of pain. She was afraid to die.
Rio has lived since the beginning of time. She was there to watch the first living being to die and she was ready to meet the last one ever. She lived through her life with awareness that she would be there long after everybody will be gone. She will collect the souls of Gods.
Lady Death can’t be afraid to die. It's simply against her nature.
And that’s when Rio realized that she was mortal.