• tab Ahh, love. That sweet, warm, tingling sensation of chemicals and neurons Man calls affection. It’s all worthless to me. It amazes me that Man, even beast, has been able to express this in such a manner, that others with pick it up, even subconsciously. Man calls it flirting. I call it red. Yes, as Death, I do not see time and space, or even emotions for that matter as a force or object. I see it in colors. Time is different for me. The days and months, all pass by in a blur for me, melting together in a collage of colors and music. Emotions are colors too, and for this love, I see red. But it’s usually a dull, pulsing glow. And as Death, I rarely take the time to see these colors, let alone see the people who are emitting these colors. But She was different. So was He. I looked into their past, and saw into their future, but I am no prophet. Time cannot be simply looked into, because the instant you look, it changes before your eyes, changing form until you reach that point in time.
    tab The point is, this was not simply a love, or an emotion. This was a feeling so raw and boiling that it couldn’t possibly be considered love to Man. It was sheer passion and rage and tears and blood and red.
    tab Oh, how red it was.

    tab She looked at the dying man that lay on her lap. The sun was shining, and small smiling clouds seemed to tease the sky to swallow them up. It was all a lie, a big mocking lie that laughed in Aurora’s face and spit on Xavier’s shoes. How could a world so bright and happy be so cruel? It was so ugly to look at. The mask people wore, the paint on buildings, all of it wasn’t real. This was real. Blood, tears, sweat, that’s what made her and him different. They felt it, they breathed it, and they lived it.
    tab Death approaches slowly, gently walking across the meadow of clovers. He stops suddenly, reaching down to touch an ant, sending it of into the Eternity. He continued his pace, stopping to see the Woman. Salty water streamed down her face from her eyes, and liquid red was smeared across her rags. She clutched the man, screaming into the sky with anger. Simple murmurs in Death’s ears.
    tab Death grabbed hold of the Man. This was never a problem with Men. They were always so happy to depart their dying world, embracing death with open arms. He wasn’t like normal Men. The Man held onto life with shaking fingers, stubbornly refusing to accept death.
    tab Letting go, Death looked into his past, seeing nothing but gloom and rain. This wasn’t the Man’s world, or at least, it wasn’t what most Men saw in the world. This, this boy was seeing the land for what it was. Nothing. Then a light so bright it blinded Death himself appeared in the boy’s life. The girl.
    tab She too saw it. Death peeked into Her life. So dark! What were these humans? They were nothing like the others. How beautiful their world was! The dark, the rain, the gloom, so beautiful. The truth was out! Men knew! How could Death simply pull the children who knew so much into the Eternity, having the world rid of its only Seers?
    tab Death was blind. The old messenger had seen so much death and dull colors, that he couldn’t see what was right in front of him.
    tab Red.
    tab Death could feel the glow so hot and intense from the two. This wasn’t the simple love of Man, but the growing passion and rage of two… simple children. Was this what Death failed to see? That children so small and young could create lust and power so great they could see past the fog of humanity? Was this what Man calls star-crossed lovers? Two humans doomed from the start not to be together, only to be joined in what they call Heaven? Death would have none of it. These two children were the Ones. Death wasn’t going to steal them away.
    tab The Xavier’s eyes fluttered, and he gasped for air. Aurora let out a quick breathe, and hugged him fiercely. The two lovers didn’t speak, or even breathe for that matter. Each was afraid the breath would carry the other away from them.
    tab Aurora struggled to admit it. She didn’t like Xavier, much less love him, but she could hide that she had feelings for him. This boy had simply walked into her life and stepped all over it. He had showed her what Earth really was. And then he was hurt.
    tab The blood had stopped running from the wound. Xavier didn’t know whom to thank. Aurora. She had come, and by the look in her eyes, she was terrified and mystified by him. There was something else. She was holding back.
    tab ”Xavier, I-“
    tab On impulse, Xavier gently pressed his lips to hers, slowly holding each lip between his one at a time. Aurora’s eyes flew open, but fell closed. She accepted, knowing he was as scared as she was. His hand when to her neck, and for what seem like forever, they kissed.
    tab And for the first time, Death watched not the colors of time, but the people in it.