Death

Well On My Way To Becoming A Supervillain

I stared at her.  Attack, attack, attack.  How?  I closed my eyes and tried to remember the weird shadow-world with the condescending reflection girl.  The shadows were mine, as was the darkness.  Fiery Eyes had no command over it.  I was more powerful than a reaper!

Careful, your pride is about to burn you.  Hubris is what killed Odysseus, remember!  Well, nearly killed him anyway.

I opened my eyes, and the world was bright.  Far too bright.  I didn't like it.  We were underground, in the Land of the Dead.  I would have to make it darker. 

Instead of merely telling the shadows what to do, I spread my arms out and let them flow inside me.  I let them know what they were supposed to do, and they did it.  They rolled over the floor and spread like dark fog, covering our feet and rising.  I bent down and reached into the fog, and it knew what I wanted.

I felt a handle and pulled.  When I stood, I was holding an entirely black sword that was tinged a little purple.  The blade was thin, like a rapier (not a fencing sword) but it looked deadly.  Fiery Eyes nodded in approval.  "A weapon," she said.  "Now attack."

But I wasn't ready to attack just yet.  The Underworld wasn't covered in shadows. I sighed.  I had so much work to do.  And, now that I thought about it, Earth was also too bright.  After I was finished with what the reapers wanted me to do, I would return to my home and cover the world with soothing, warm, comforting darkness.

The shadows were beginning to spread out over the lava pit, over Tartarus.  Fiery Eyes looked worried.  "Stop," she said.  It was too late for that.  Fiery Eyes ran at me, but the shadows liquified at her feet, slowing her down.  I breathed in slowly, and the shadows coalesced at my back, creating smoky wings for me.

"I will cover the worlds in darkness," I said, and flapped my wings.

Fiery Eyes reached into the air and grabbed something.  Then, she pulled down, just as I had pulled up, and out came an enormous black scythe, shining with the power of oblivion.  It was smooth and deadly and sharp, but I wasn't scared.  Fiery Eyes couldn't beat me.  She had said it herself: I was more powerful than any reaper.

"You summoned those shadows," Fiery Eyes said, her voice heavy with understanding.  I didn't like it.  What was there for her to understand?  I hated the light.  So, logically, I would remove it.  "I apologize for this, Mort," she said, looking straight at me.  Fear appeared somewhere in my heart as her cold eyes froze me in midair.

Fiery Eyes jumped, sailing through the air as if she had wings.  I turned to fly away, high enough so that she couldn't catch me, but then I felt a cold blade touch my stomach.  It ripped through me, not like you would expect a blade to do, but through my soul, exposing my desires for what they were.  Not my own.  I had been succumbing to the wants of the shadows, letting them control me.  And now, I was so cold inside...

I fell from the sky, my smoky wings vanishing from my back and returning from whence they came.

Well, what did you think was going to happen?  I'm surprised you didn't realize that you were being controlled.  What an idiot.  I mean, I'm an idiot.  Yep.  Cuz I am Mortician.