Timeless Snow ✓

Ch. 67 - Memory

"Keep me, and release him."

That's what Kasey remembered first. The first words uttered in her deal with death. "There is no second life for me if he's not in it." Kasey proclaimed as she gave up her 'afterlife' to give him exactly that. Kasey managed to rope in the clause that his twin flame goes with him in her place. Kasey did her best to sneak in a hidden clause by offering up herself. "If I can do the workload of two reapers, plus some within three years you will let me move on too."

"My only counter is that, should you fail... You will remain my reaper indefinitely." 

That was the end of her forever. No amount of suffering could make her regret her choice. It was the guilt of letting him down should she not fulfill her end of the bargain with Death. Kasey could recall her promise to Nathaniel. 

"Take care of him, Jimin. Do you understand me?" Pulling back, tears ran more fluidly down her face than the falling rain. "Never leave him."

"I promise." He nodded, making it a vow without a second thought. "Join us soon though, okay?"

"As soon as I can." Kasey nodded vigorously, rain splashing off her cheeks. "I promise." She cried.

"I'll always be with you!" Kasey said as she waved the two men she cared for most in the world away.

It was far too ambitious of Kasey to assume she could do the workload of two reapers in the span of one year, let alone three. She was a gifted soul, picking up on her abilities as a guardian of the dead, but nothing could prepare her for the work loud that death faced. She knew by the end of the first year, she would never amount to the numbers required for her to gain her freedom from death. By the end of the second year, she was enacting her plan to cheat death and keep her promise to Samuel and Nathaniel. Life called to her like a siren in the sea and she needed that rush of adrenaline that came with truly being alive. What weighed heaviest on her heart though was the love she had found in her death. A soul connection she never expected and now craved more deeply than her desire to even breathe. She could get both of these things back, all she had to do was cheat death. 

"You know... the deal you made with me is more or less impossible, don't you?" Death reminded her. 

Kasey did this for him, for them.

"You might have been the one lost, baby. But, I'm the one that was saved." Samuel spoke aloud, even though there was no one there to hear him. His boxy smile donned his lips as he tilted his head up to the sky, letting the rain splatter against his face, racing down his cheeks just like the tears streaming from his eyes. He took a step back as he brought his eyes back to the forest.

The last moment she saw him, she could remember it so clearly. "I will forever love you, Kasey." He whispered to the horizon. One more step back. He could feel the warmth at his back, his vision starting to go white as he was swallowed in a blinding light. From the corner of his eyes, the sight before him began to be eaten away. It was frightening and sad, but he envisioned that warmth as her and it brought him some peace.

As the light grew and what he saw began to shrink, where only a picture-framed sized vision of what was left, he saw her. He saw her smile, her beaming eyes, her warm presence, and her comforting frame standing there. Her hand raised to her lips as she pressed them against her skin. She kissed her fingers and lowered them, blowing him one final kiss. He didn't see the tears she had shed, he saw her as he wanted to remember her. The last thing he ever wanted to see, was the woman he loved most.

She couldn't give up on the slim possibility of seeing him again. Her spirit simply wouldn't allow it. She made of her mind that second year she was a reaper, that she'd return to the world of the living and find Sam and Nate again. If only she realized... she already had. 

All of these memories raced through her mind before the dust finally settled on her last memory.

Author Note: This chapter is short and comprised mostly of memories I wanted to refresh the reader on but not exactly tied to a chapter or scene. <3