The Creator is back, my beautiful cupcakes! ;)

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I remembered her.

I followed the woman with the spiraling golden blonde hair as she slogged down the black hallway with hunched, trembling shoulders. She cupped a flickering candle in her hands and wore black silken robes that faintly touched the floor. The wind outside pushed and howled against the walls like high-pitched screams, challenging the harsh sobs that wrenched from her throat.

Suddenly she tripped over her robes and crumbled to her knees, grasping the candle before it fell.

She began to collect herself but paused, listening to the night as if she'd felt something in the air. If it called to her, I did could not hear it.

She whipped her gaze over shoulder at me–through me. Death's mother. This was Death's mother. The light from the candle caught the flickers of surprise in her green tear stained eyes. There was a smudge of dried blood on her cheek. Around her neck, she wore the pendant identical to mine.

"Alexandru?" Her voice was soft at first and leaked with disbelief. Then it rose as the flame in her hands enlarged. " ALEXANDRU!" His mother ran right through me, back from the way in which she came. Her candle dropped as her robes flew back like waves of obsidian ink. She vanished into the night.

I ran down the passageway she went down. My feet knew the way. There was no going back now. I opened a door narrow enough for my frame and slid in. It was blistering hot and cramped with minimal furniture. Along the walls were black and grey candles at different lifespans, flickering wildly and dispersed in patterns around the room. It reeked of herbs, smoke, and blood. My eyes would have watered from the stench in the air, had my senses not been disc

At the corner of the room was Death's mother. She had an odd look engraved deeply into her features. She turned towards the wall and began to chant in a language I didn't understand, drawing symbols on the wall with blood.

In the heart of the room, and the midst of the candles and the herbs, was a man as pale as a corpse, strapped to a low bed. He was statuesque and herculean, with longer gold hair that was matted and soaked with sweat. His face was turned away from me, and the contrast between this man and the one I currently knew was significant. Still, I knew it was Death by the jagged scar of his right eye. This was Alexandru. The only part of him that moved was his chest, which moved up and down in an unnatural, rapid rhythm. There was pattern of stitches, which held raw, bloody skin together, right over his heart.

His mother's chanting got louder, shriller, urgent. Flames rose to life to my right, drawing my attention to a certain pattern of candles. An animal lay at the center of it. It was black, furry, and stiff. Lifeless. A cat.

Death–Alexandru–suddenly thrashed on the bed. His eyes were still closed but the muscles in his torso, neck, arms and legs were constricting and his head whipped side to side as if he were trapped in a nightmare. He let out a noise that was too throaty and velvety to be a man's and as he did so, veins swelled outward form his heart, pumping black liquid throughout his entire body. The blackness snaked along his flat stomach, down his legs. It twisted up his neck, his jaw. It spread over his face like branches and began to leak from his nose and mouth.

One by one, the candles began to go out.

Alexandru bolted upwards from the bed, muscles stretching, tearing the restraints. His eyes flew open and his pupils were round and human. But then they began to pulsate, enlarging over the frame of his mismatched irises. He trashed his head like a rabid animal, expelling bloody teeth from his mouth. Red plunged bone sprouted from his gums, sharp as harshening planes of his face. He opened his jaws and let out a noise a man could not make. The sound came in fragments, each cry intensifying like a crescendo, a yowl of thick agony mingled with the roar of an animal.

My eyes flew open.

There was a knock on my door. I lifted my head off the bed and sported a headache so bad that I winced.

My heart was from the dream... Memory? Imagines of blood and the transformation I'd witnessed burned in front of my eyes. It had left me with so many questions that I hoped Death would answer.

"Nrrrffghh!"

Startled, I whipped my head to my right and sure enough, mini Cruentas was next to me on the bed with glowing red eyes. He's protecting you, I thought. Cruentas let out a snort and a wet nose touched my arm. There was another knock on the door and those red yes rose a few feet as the mini horse stood up on the bed. His weight on the mattress vanished and I heard a rhythmic thump of hooves on the floor by the door.

Another knock.

I rolled off of the bed with a groan. My limbs felt a thousand pounds. My mouth was dry, too. What the hell was going on with me? Was I hung over? I focused and shuffled forward. Somehow, I knew whoever was at the door wasn't Death. Still, my heart was still a fast, steady drum in my ears.

"Who the hell is it?" I growled in a nasty voice. I frowned at my own unpleasantness, cleared my throat, and repeated the question more politely.

"Leo," a deep voice replied. "Can I come in?"

I flicked on the light and cursed the world as I squeezed my eyes shut. "Yeah, hold on... Let me just... get the padlock."

He unlocked the door before I could, letting in more light from the hallway. I pressed my palms into my eyes and shrank back. What the...?

"Are you okay?" Leo asked. " I woke you up from a nap, didn't I?"

"Yeah, but I'm good. All good. Awake." When I removed my hands from my eyes, they were fine. The headache was gone, too. I shoved the strange occurrence aside and looked over at Leo. His amber eyes were light and mischievous, and he wore a black button down with black slacks and shoes.

"So what are you doing here?" I asked and Leo's expression dipped. Once again, my words had come out so much harsher than I'd intended. And for a moment.... when I reflected on it, I actually sounded a lot like...Death?

"Sorry," I said and shook myself. "In a weird mood."

He smiled. "It's cool, don't worry about it." Leo stuffed his hands in his slacks and rocked on his heels once. "Listen, I know I got you in trouble earlier. I just wanted to say that I'm sorry for that." A smile twitched on his lips. "And I wanted to wish you a happy birthday."

"Oh." Heat flushed to my face. "Thanks."

He crossed his arms, momentarily drawing my attention to his biceps, smirked down at me "Spending it locked up in your room must be a real joy, huh?"

Sadness sunk in my chest. "It's actually not the worst birthday I've ever had," I tried to joke.

"He has no compassion left in him," Leo said and for a fraction of a second, I thought I was actually going to defend Death. "You tend to forget how to treat people after birthday one-thousand four hundred and sixty eight. That's no excuse for ruining someone's birthday. You deserve better, Faith."

I let out a slow breath. "You're right."

"Well it's about to be the best birthday you ever had." He pushed off the archway and hooked a finger at me. "You're coming with me, Missy."

I smiled. "And where are we going?"

He wiggled his eyebrows. "It's a surprise."

"I do love surprises." I let out a nervous laugh and stepped out into the hallway after him. "Lead the–" My breath caught in my throat.

"Surprise," Death said.

He stood ahead of us, leaning against the wall. I thought of my dream and gaped at him. He'd come back after he'd fed, as he'd promised. His skin was now tanner instead of its earlier pale and the sharp planes of his face looked restored and less skeletal. He's swapped his leather jacket and sweatshirt for a black long-sleeved shirt that left little to the imagination. He was built like a powerhouse at his shoulders and arms, becoming narrower at the torso, like a swimmer.

"My lord," Leo began and bowed his head. "I had no idea you were.... Had I known–"

"If you're going to insult me, Leo, get it right. I haven't forgotten how to treat people." He glanced at me. "I just don't care."

Ouch.

"I sincerely apologize for my comment, " Leo said and kept his head bowed. "That was completely out of line."

"Where were you taking her?" Death asked. I imagined he'd known all along that Leo had disguised me and put the scent potion on my earlier that day.

"The den," Leo admitted. "I arranged a small gathering for her birthday there."

"I see." Death didn't say anything for a stretch of time, as he frequently did. "Well what are you waiting for? Simon Cowell to approve?"

Leo frowned. "You're okay with this, my lord?"

"If she is," Death remarkably said.

"I am," I replied.

Death and I stared at each other. There something about the way he looked at me then.

Death pushed off the wall and stalked past us towards the opposite end of the hallway. No vanishing. No dramatic exits. He was not okay with this. But I was. I was definitely okay with this because it was my birthday, and I wanted to celebrate without being controlled for once. And he was respecting that.

Death wasn't Prince Charming, or a man who wanted four children and a beautiful house with a picket white fence and a golden retriever named Rover. But he had boundaries. I knew that he didn't deserve me and maybe he felt that way too. But I couldn't deny the spell that he had me under from the beginning. I had an attraction to him that was embedded so deep it was terrifying and it was only intensifying the more I was with him. And the more I was with him; the more I was exposed to a world that I didn't feel prepared for. I feared losing myself somewhere along the journey, and he wouldn't meet me halfway if I needed to be saved.

I had to stop caring. I had to be just like Death and lose myself to the darkness. Shut off my humanity entirely and be whatever it is I was. Was it possible? Could I turn off the switch and sink into a deep abyss? No. Something forced me to hold on, to keep moving on. But what if that force faded?

I would do that as long as I could. I would hold on to my seat in the movie theater and watch my own horror film until the screen went black. Nobody would even know I was there.

I followed Leo.

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PoOp Is AbOuT tO hIt tHe FaN

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