O Death ⇉ Paul Lahote

one

Rain pounded on Heidi's bedroom window, making it almost impossible to see the street below her or even the house from across the street. Heidi usually spent her time like that, observing the world around her through her bedroom window while she listened to one of her parent's gospel CD's on her portable CD player. Not that there was really anything interesting going on in her hometown of Pepin, a small town in Wisconsin whose only leading light was writer Laura Ingalls Wilder.

Even as a child, Heidi was a loner but that was mostly due to her parents being so deeply religious, it tended to drive people away. And it was hard to have friendships with people when you have to keep lying to them about why Heidi had to wear gloves at all times – doesn't matter if there was a heatwave or a hurricane, she always had to wear them. This was due to a secret that only her family knew about; Heidi had an ability to kill with a single touch of her hand on someone and to protect everyone from her power, Heidi's parents forced her to wear gloves.

But even that didn't stop death from happening, because on a warm sunny day several days beforehand; Heidi and her older sister Mia went to the beach for the day. Due to the warm weather, Heidi removed her gloves and placed them in a small bucket of water to cool them down before she would place her gloves back on after they had dried. But before they had a chance to dry, Mia asked her sister to come in the water with her but Heidi reminded her that her hands had not dried and therefore she couldn't wear her gloves to stop anyone from getting hurt. Mia sighed but reluctantly went into the water without her sister, deciding to not let her little sister ruin her fun. She came back a few minutes later with a bucket of water and poured it over her sister's head, causing Heidi to playfully hit her sister's leg with her hand, completely forgetting that she didn't have her gloves on.

Mia collapsed and died almost immediately, causing Heidi to stare at her shaking hands before she grabbed her gloves and sprint home – screaming to her parents about how she accidently killed her older sister. Her parents were never the same after that, at least towards Heidi. They became cold and distant, barely speaking to her sometimes and when they did speak – they didn't say much, perhaps one or two words at a time and that would be it. But nothing prepared her for what would come next.

A small knock on Heidi's bedroom door caused the brunette to remove her headphones and pause her music. "Come in," she announced, placing her CD player on the seat beside her as the door opened to reveal her father. Heidi and her father always had a close relationship; they would tell each other everything and keep them a secret but after what happened to Mia, their relationship became strained.

The pair didn't speak for a while as Heidi's father sat on her bed, his daughter closely following after him. After an almost painful silence, he finally spoke up. "Your mother wants you out of the house."

"Is that what you want?" Heidi whispered as tears stung her eyes but she never let them fall.

"No, sweetheart, of course not. The only time I wanted you to leave this house was when you wanted to go to college."

Things between them fell silent as Heidi forced back her tears. "Tell mom I'll be out first thing tomorrow, I just want one more night here; or at least until the rain stops."

Heidi's father nodded his head once before pressing a gentle kiss to his daughter's forehead, leaving her alone with her thoughts of knowing that her own mother was practically disowning her over something Heidi couldn't even control.

Later that night, Heidi didn't cry while she was quietly packing up her belongings, knowing that it might wake her parents up. She didn't pack many clothes – only another pair of t-shirts and jeans and clothes that would keep her warm from the rain. She instead packed around $300 from her money bank she kept under her bed, several photographs of friends and family and her portable CD player with a small CD holder that contained most of her parent's gospel music but also had other kinds of music Heidi had bought in secret.

She gave a silent goodbye to her parents and her sister before she silently walked out of the house, leaving her keys inside and walked into the unknown. But by the time Heidi's father came up to give her a treat of breakfast in bed for the last time, the bed was cold and empty and Heidi was long gone.

The first place Heidi went was the library since she knew it would be open; having a small town's library run by an insomniac does have its perks, the library would be open until midnight and would open at six in the morning.

As soon as Heidi arrived, she walked straight towards the culture section – looking for books on folklore and curses from various cultures, somehow hoping that she would be able to find out the curse she had been living with since the day she was born.

She picked up at least seven books and placed them down on an empty desk with a computer on it and began researching. She looked in every culture, in every corner of the world to find someone or something that related to what she had.

~#~

Heidi hadn't realized she'd fallen asleep until she felt someone's pencil poke her side repeatedly, causing her to groan and sit upright in her chair. The rain had stopped and it seemed to be morning, although how Heidi was allowed to stay in the library all night seemed to be a mystery to her.

"I'm not here to kick you out, if you're thinking that. It's just your computer timed out and since you look like you're studying, I'll sign you back in if you'd like – or y'know, you can just sleep for the rest of the time," a bored sounding teenager told her, looking like she'd just been to a funeral and had all happiness and drive sucked out of her in the process. Her black glasses covered most of her face and what wasn't covered by her glasses, was covered by her dark red hair that Heidi was almost certain she had dyed due to its rather unnatural colouring to it.

Heidi stretched her limbs out before answering, giving herself time to properly wake up. "If it's not too much trouble, thank you. What time is it, if you don't mind me asking?"

The girl smiled in Heidi's direction before logging into the computer on the desk and looking at her watch. "It's eight-thirty; it looks like Margret left everything unlocked last night and didn't check before she went to bed, just a usual night." The girl was talking to herself by now, Heidi fully knowing that whatever she was saying didn't apply to her.

After the computer was logged in again, Heidi looked towards the books she had taken and found them completely useless, all but one; a book about Quileute legends. Inside, was the legend of the Sabnuhn; a demon connected to Death itself and once it finds a soul to inhabit, it takes over them to become a human manifestation of Death and death will always come to any and all who came into contact with them.

Moving onto the computer, she typed in where she would be able to find the Quileute tribe in order to ask for their help for getting rid of her curse. Washington State came up within seconds, causing Heidi to gulp as she realized how far away it was from home – it would take her almost a month if she was walking and since she had no form of transport of her own; it looked like she would have to walk.

Writing down the address and the information she had seen, Heidi mentally prepared herself for the long trip she had ahead of her. She packed up her things and logged out of the computer before placing all the books back into their correct places.

She gave a slight smile towards the teenager on the way out of the library, stepping into the sunlight and began her long walk to Washington State, never once looking back at the town she used to call home.

Note

Paul will be in the next chapter, I promise! I just wanted to give a little backstory to Heidi before we go straight into the love story between her and Paul. Wolf by First Aid Kit is their song – you should all listen to it because it sums them up perfectly.