Heart of Ashes

Seeing the Bigger Picture

Freya stared at her feet as the water washed over them. She looked up to watch it retreat from the shore. It was warm and clear. Everything was peaceful and calm. She was surrounded by beauty, the wind brushed her skin and that, combined with the sound of the waves, created a feeling of serenity that she couldn't compare to anything. For the first few weeks.

Lonliness had set in. She hadn't spoken or seen anyone since Caine. He hadn't visited her since then either. Sometimes she heard his voice. When he thought of her. It was distant and she had to strain to hear it. For a while it offered her comfort but even that had stopped. She wondered what he was thinking about. She wondered if he'd found someone else.

She sighed, bending over to dip her fingers in the water. She was getting bored of doing the same things every day and, to top it all off, she could feel something pulling at her. It felt like something was trying to take her away from her beach but she couldn't leave. She had tried to leave, she'd taken a walk up both sides of the beach until she encountered a barrier that prevented her from walking any further.

She couldn't understand why Caine was keeping her alone. He had been the one to create the place after all. Perhaps he hadn't foreseen that she'd end up there. She so badly wanted to be alive again. She wanted to see people again, she wanted to not be alone. It was torture and she could  feel it tugging at her sanity.

She thought she heard the sound of sand shifting as if someone were approaching. She dismissed it as a trick, rendered by her stir-crazy mind. The sound got louder and was accompanied by the sound of breathing, someone was approaching.

She looked up and she saw a figure in black coming towards her. It was a man. His head was down and his long hair obscured his face. He looked up, recognition hit like a wrecking ball and she was filled with a weird combination of excitement and fear.

"Vlad!" she exclaimed.

He seemed to have not realised it was her because his eyes lit up and surprise etched itself into his face, "Freya?" it came, first, as a question then his voice filled with joy, "Freya!"

He picked up his pace and jogged to her. His lips were parted and his breathing - his breathing - was heavy, as if he'd just taken part in some strenuous activity. She'd almost forgotten that almost everything functioned, in the limbo, as they did in life.

"You look tired," was all she could manage to say.

He nodded, "I just climbed down a mountain."

She frowned, "A mountain?"

"A mountain. My father and I found Caine during a ride up one and we brought him back with us."

"How does he do it?" she asked, "How does Caine make these places? How does he put us here?"

Vlad shrugged, "I don't know. He does what he wants, I suppose."

"What does that mean?"

"Caine is Death," Vlad said, "so I suppose he does what he wants with inhuman souls. We don't get judged immediately, so we're his responsibility until we are."

Freya felt her jaw go slack and for a moment she couldn't say anything. She blinked to stop her racing mind and managed to stutter, "W... what?"

"Caine is Death," Vlad repeated, "you know, the rider of the pale horse. The first Horseman of the Apocalypse. Some people refer to him as the Grim Reaper."

"Do you mean to tell me that Caine is the Horseman of Death?"

Vlad shook his head, "I don't mean to tell you anything. I am telling you that Caine is Death."

"I... I don't understand," Freya felt like her mind was short circuting.

Vlad gripped both her shoulders and looked into her eyes, "Caine. Is. Death," he said slowly, "so this little limbo-purgatory thing we're in right now is really a place in his mind, sort of. And the fact that we're standing together right now means that he's got something planned."

"Planned? Planned how?"

"I don't know!" Vlad's sudden outburst made her jump, "I don't know. He just does things sometimes and everything gets mixed up. Either he's finally cracked or he's regained the control he once had. Both scenarios are equally dangerous."

"How would his regaining control be a bad thing?" Freya asked.

Vlad shook his head, "You're looking at him through the lenses of a lover. You need to see the bigger picture. I really am sorry to say this about my best friend but, Caine is the worst kind of evil you'll meet..." he hesitated for a moment, "next to the Devil. If he loses it, lives will be lost. If he regains control, more lives will be lost."