Losing Hope | {BOOK 4}

34| A Date with Death

After making a nacho plate similar to the one Donnie had served me before Rowena tried to kill me, I used spray paint to make a symbol on a table of the abandoned bar I'd found and set up the spell supplies. After pouring the ingredients into a bowl, I used a knife to cut my palm, reciting the spell as the blood dripped into the bowl.

"Te nunc invoco, mortem. Te in mea potestate defixi. Nunc et in aeternum."

As the rumbling that had begun in the middle of the spell stopped, I wrapped a blue bandana around my cut hand.

"Don't tell me that's queso."

I turned around to see Death standing in the middle of the bar.

"Yeah, yes," I nodded, carrying the nacho plate over to him. "Queso and, uh, taquitos, tamales. Homemade by yours truly. All with the bad fat."

Death sniffed the food experimentally.

"Consider it an offering," I told him.

"For?" he asked.

"I want you to kill me."

He took a taquito from the tray, staring at me as I held the plate of food.

"What I find truly fascinating, Trutina... mmm. That's good... is that you and I both know that I've been burned by you and those Winchesters before, yet you still call."

He walked away from me, and I followed, setting the food down on the bar.

"Yeah, I know, but not this time, okay? No games, no second thoughts. I know you know what this is," I held out my forearm, and he looked down at the Mark. "I know you know what it can do. I've tried to fight it. I've tried to beat it on my own. And I-I can't. I got no moves left- except you."

"Well, I never thought I'd see the day," Death sat down. "My goodness. Eleanor Winchester has tipped over her king. But I won't kill you, Trutina."

"You're Death," I pointed out.

"Even if I wanted to kill you, you are my other half," he said. "My balance. And that Mark on your arm is the First Curse. Nothing can kill you."

"Okay, well, forget killing me. Can you get rid of it?"

"I could," he nodded.

"But..."

"Creatio ex nihilo- God created the earth out of nothing- or so your Sunday school teacher would have you believe."

"What, so Genesis is a lie, eh? Shocker."

"Before there was light, before there was God and archangels, there was nothing," Death stood back up. "There was the Darkness, a horribly destructive, amoral force that was beaten back by God and his archangels in a terrible war. God locked the Darkness away where it could do no harm, and he created the Mark that would serve as both lock and key, which he entrusted to his most valued Lieutenant, Lucifer. But the Mark began to assert its own will, revealed itself as a curse, and began to corrupt. Lucifer became jealous of man. God banished Lucifer to Hell. Lucifer passed the Mark to Cain, who passed the Mark to you, the proverbial finger in the dike."

As he spoke, he moved closer to me, finishing inches away from my face.

"Well, that is just fan-friggin'-tastic, isn't it?" I bit out.

"So I could remove the Mark, but only if you will share it with another... to ensure that the lock remains unbroken and the Darkness remains banned."

"I'm not doing that," I shook my head, "not to anyone."

"What if I told you I could relocate you somewhere far away, not even on this earth, where you would still be alive, but no longer a danger to yourself or to others?" Death walked away from me.

As he sat down at the bar, eating the plate of food, I pulled out my phone to make a call.

"Ellie," Sam answered.

"I gave it a shot, Sammy," I told him.

"Listen to me- whatever you're doing, whatever you've done, please-"

"I even worked a case," I chuckled. "I gave everything I had to beat this thing down."

"I saw. I saw Rudy."

"Well, then, you saw what I did."

"No, that wasn't you," he insisted.

"Sure as hell felt like me. Brother, I'm done."

"No. No, you're not, Ellie."

"Grab a pen. It's time to say goodbye."

⁘

Sam walked into the bar, stopping short when he saw Death standing behind me.

"Hey," he greeted me.

"Sam," I smiled half-heartedly.

"What is this?"

"We need to talk."

Sam moved toward me with his hand out.

"Whatever you're thinking of doing, don't. There is another way. You don't have to go with him. You don't need to die!"

"Funny you say that," I shrugged. "Truth is, when I left, I thought the only way out was my death. Well, I was wrong, Sam. It's yours."

Sam stared at me, confused, and I told him what Death had told me.

"What? He's gonna... gonna send you to outer space?"

"No, well, he didn't say outer space."

"This is madness, Ellie!"

"Far from it, I'm afraid," Death piped up.

"No one's asking you," Sam snapped at him.

"Hear him out!"

"Our conundrum is simple, Sam. Your sister cannot be killed, and the Mark cannot be destroyed, not without unleashing a far greater evil than any of us have ever known."

"What evil?"

"The Darkness," I told him.

"What the hell is that?" Sam asked.

"Well, what does it sound like?" I shot back. "Does it sound like a good thing?"

"Even if I remove Eleanor from the playing field," Death continued, "we're still left with you, loyal, dogged Sam, who I suspect will never rest until he sets his sister free-"

He walked over, standing between me and Sam, and I backed off.

"-will never rest until his sister is free from the Mark, which simply cannot happen, lest the Darkness be set free. Then there was the time you stood me up."

Sam walked away from Death, coming over to me.

"You traded my life," he said gently.

"I'm willing to live with this thing forever, as long as I know that I will never hurt another living thing."

"What about Dean?" he asked. "Or Maddie? Or Zep? This isn't you. This doesn't make any sense."

"No, this makes perfect sense!" I raised my voice. "I can't hurt anyone anymore, Sam!"

"It's for the greater good," Death added. "Once you consider that, this makes all the sense in the world."