𝔇𝔢𝔞𝔱𝔥'𝔰 𝔈𝔪𝔟𝔯𝔞𝔠𝔢【☠】𝐵𝓊𝓃𝓃𝓎 𝓍 𝒟𝑒𝑔𝓊

[Bunny]

​

A fist slammed against the door and even with the pressure of her back against the solid wood and the lock in place her body bounced. Biting back a sob she pressed herself more firmly against the door wondering if it would continue standing. Joshua was pissed, not that was anything new. Josh was always mad. At her, at work, life... Yet it was her that took the abuse from his anger. He was never at fault and when she tried to talk to him he turned his words on her. Leah knew there was a word for it and even knowing that it was a toxic trait, she couldn't stop it from hurting or manipulating her. Could you still be a victim if you knew it was happening? The first hit the door again with a muffled curse. Maybe if he left, clamed down, he'd forgive her or apologize. He was good at that, seeming contrite after seeing the bruises marring her skin or the way she flinched when he approached. Many people would tell her to leave, hell people had told her to leave. It wasn't that simple.. He wasn't the kind to simply forgive and forget. A common occurrence was him to threaten the lives of her family and friends. Naturally her own was included, but he'd make her suffer first. It made the idea of trying to run... terrifying.

The front door slammed and though it came from some distance she still jumped. He might have left, he might not have. Rather than check she moved further into the bathroom. Her eyes moved away from the mirror, not quite yet ready to look at herself in the glass. Adrenaline still thrummed through her and yet she could feel the aches that plagued her. Aches that would become screaming pain soon enough. She had a bruised rib, if not broken. There were bruises already forming on her pale skin, in the shape of large hands. Hissing softly she moved to shut the lid of the toilet, sitting on it. A whimper slipped from her and she let her lashes fall closed. Breathing slowly she let her head rest against the shower door. This hurt too, even though she'd cut her hair short, Joshua found a way to get purchase in her soft golden locks. It was the least of her injuries. The blood on her lip had tried and itched faintly. Was.. was this to be her life?

It wasn't the first time Leah had wondered if that was to be her fate... Yet each beating made her already weary soul flicker. There was an answer to everything. The threats, the pain. She wouldn't have said she was a coward, but Leah couldn't help but be scared of what was to com or so she had thought. Yet with each beating, it drained on that fear, steeled her will. She could kill herself. She'd take herself off the board and then Joshua would have no reason to harm her friends or family. While she didn't understand why he beat her, hurt her... She understood the need to own her. He was all about the best of the best. She'd once been beautiful. Maybe she was still, but she had long since stopped believing it. Whatever though had drawn him to her, he had determined she was his. Forever. She didn't know what had happened in his past to give him this need, this drive to own everything his heart desired. She'd once tried to figure it out, but it had been a fruitless endeavor. Her breathing hurt, the adrenaline fading. Sharp razor-like stabbing with each inhale as the bone pushed forward. The house around her was quiet. Had Joshua still been there he'd have not left the door alone this long. His temper and pride wouldn't allow her to stay hidden from him. Slowly her lashes opened and she stared up at the white ceiling. Spots danced in her vision and she wondered if she had a concussion vaguely as her vision wavered. Likely. Her eyes moved the double vanity and she inhaled slowly, letting the pain wash over her.

There was always one way out.

Maybe the next life would be better and if there was nothing after this life...

Well at least she wouldn't be in pain anymore.

꒷꒦꒷꒦꒷꒦꒷꒦꒷꒦꒷​

It had taken her a little while to write the letters to her family, apologizing. While her faith had long since left her, she knew theirs was still strong. She only hoped her words would help ease their pain in the wake of losing her. A letter to her friends as well, explaining why she'd never been able to escape Joshua.. Her fear for them and her asking for their forgiveness. These were not left in the open but tucked away where she knew they would find them, not him. Lifting the bottle of whiskey she took a deep sip, the amber liquid stinging down her throat and warming her belly. It had been three years of this hell... Leah thought blurrily. She'd been Seventeen when she'd met Joshua and at nineteen... she had lost the will to continue. Bottle in hand she walked into the backyard, bare feet padding across the wet grass. It was slippery underfoot, but the coolness was welcome. Taking another long sip of the whiskey she let the bottle fall to the grass with a soft thud before collapsing beside it. The pain was still there and her body did scream in agony, but she ignored it, breathing quickly as she waited for it to pass. Soon it would be over. From the pocket of her shorts she pulled out a small orange box cutter, the blade safely locked behind the little lock.

Shifting she laid down, eyes closing for a moment. The coolness of the night air and the wet grass against her hot skin was almost a balm. Toying with the plastic handle of the blade, Leah watched the clouds race across the darkened sky. She'd always found the sight a touch unsettling and beautiful all at once. Letting the night calm her, Leah exhaled and pulled on the little tab holding the blade safe. Pushing it upward she lift her hands into the air above her. She knew from movies there was a 'correct' way or maybe the Craft was full of bullshit. She didn't know and it wasn't like she'd had the guts to look it up. This decision was already big enough. Pressing the steal into her pale skin she watched a bead of blood form, the ruby drop almost lovely against her skin. Increasing the pressure she made to pull the blade down her discolored skin.

Soon.. she would be free.

 

[Degusaurusrex]

"Thanny!"

"Stop calling me that! Also, what do you three want?"

"Did you piss off the Fates again?"

"When have I ever—One time! One time, okay? Why would you think I pissed them off?"

"Because I don't think she's supposed to die yet, at least not like that. Are you going to do something?"

"Right, because a blue skinned god with pointed ears showing up going 'don't die' is going to go over well."

This was not where Thanatos had expected to be on a random December night, gazing into the human realm at a half beaten, tiny excuse for a human. What was the mortal fascination with beating children until they could no longer stand?

No, that wasn't a child.

The realization startled him and he scoffed, shaking his head in disgust and examining the murky image Eris had provided him. This was what they had interrupted him and teased him with that ridiculous nickname for? A battered, bleeding, shell of a mortal woman hiding in her bathroom from the man pounding on the door. Again with their insistence on beating each other all for the sake of what? Their ego? Their pride? Some pathetic attempt at showing dominance by controlling everything their significant other did? He would never understand why Zeus was so fascinated with this race, let alone spent so much time bedding them and incurring Hera's wrath while he spawned a legion of demi-gods throughout history.

This was pointless. Arguing with the Keres while Eris smirked in the background and toyed with her window into humanity was pointless. Not only that, but he was starting to wonder if one of his many siblings was tormenting this human simply to steal one of his predetermined souls. It might have had more of an effect if there had been a torrential downpour of snow for the mortal to be half frozen in, but no, he was watching the scene as if it were a normal summer or fall evening, the moon reflecting off the wet grass and illuminating the woman's battered face.

He wasn't entirely entertaining the notion that the Fates were tormenting a human as petty revenge on him, but he wasn't ruling out the possibility that another deity may have interfered just to amuse themselves. They were a fickle bunch, and save for when either Nyx or Erebus threatened to rain down eternal darkness on them as punishment, they were relatively unkept and unrestrained with one another.

"She seeks the peace of death in a way that lacks the pain he caused her." His interest in the mortal woman was waning, at war with his irritation with his sibling's insistence that he intervene because she was on one of his lists. Could he forsake his duty, risk that it was meant to be, only to look deeper and find that he had let a soul pass before its due time? Hades would never allow him to live it down if that became public knowledge, and with a resigned sigh Thanatos prepared himself to venture to Earth.

"You need to wear human clothes."

"Does my clothing matter when I look as I do?" He gave Eris an exasperated scowl as she shrugged, but the mischievous goddess had already done her magic and transformed his clothing into a mortal's. Why did their denim feel so revolting on his legs? "You and I will speak of this later, sister." Thanatos' scowl deepened as he glowered at her, stepping forward and extending an arm now clad in some sort of sweater into the murky window.

"Safe travels, brother." She winked at him before he felt her foot connect with his backside, sending him tumbling through with a curse as he realized she had never intended to send him to their realm gently. What had he expected from the goddess of chaos and discord?

The smell of liquor and blood hit his nose immediately upon arrival, his landing soft and steady thanks to millennia of instinct and practice traipsing through the realms. Had he arrived too late, was all of the taunting and his less than elegant travel for naught? The god rose to his feet with a frown, seeking out the battered woman as he moved through the grass until he was mere inches from her.

"It's not your time, child." His hand wrapped around the blade she'd begun to press into her frail skin, holding it firmly and prying it away from the intoxicated woman's fingers to prevent her from damaging herself more. There was enough blood on her skin as it was, leading him to believe that if he'd dallied just a moment longer she would have already been on her way to be ferried to the underworld.

"This is not the night your story ends." The blade was set to the side as he gazed down at the woman, overtaken by curiosity for a moment as he tried to figure out just how the hell she was still alive. She was so... Delicate.

 

[Bunny]

The sound of a god landing on the grass beside her was too soft to hear and it wasn't until his hand, warm and full of life wrapped around the handle of the blade, that she knew he was there, his voice only seconds before. Leah startled and it was lucky, or perhaps not, that he held the blade so firmly. It was yanked from her hand like a parent taking something sharp from a child and she stared up at him, bemused. Was it a trick of the light that made his pale skin, almost flawless in the dim light a pale blue? It was lovely, her spirit addled mind thought. It took her a long moment to put his words together, his sudden appearance slowing her thoughts further.

She didn't fight him though as he stole the blade from her cold fingers and as he set it down she continued to gaze up at him. There wasn't fear as she openly stared at him, his features were masculine and delicate all at once. What truly gave her a small thrill, were the slightly pointed ears poking out from between his long silver locks. Dazed, she reached up with the tips of her fingers and traced the edge of his ear. That touch was feather light, the softness of her fingers pulling away after a moment. Had she been sober, this might have been different. Fear perhaps and she'd never have entered his personal space willingly. That was something she'd long ago learned to avoid.

"Isn't it?" Her voice was small and curious. "Who are you to decide?" The words might have seemed hostile, but her voice was full of curiosity. "I.. don't want to hurt anymore." This was confided in a smaller tone yet and she closed her eyes, feeling her heart rise into her throat, her breathing seeming hard for a moment. "I might never have the courage again and I am tired of being his punching bag..." This seemed like a dream and that is why she spoke so freely. Maybe she was already dying and this was to ease her into the next life. "Please." She requested aid from a god without knowing him to be one. She wanted to be free.

Slowly pushing herself to sit she bit back a whimper. Laying on the grass had helped a bit with the aid of the whiskey. Moving sent her body screaming back into agony and she closed her eyes tightly. Sitting though, once her lashes lifted she could see the clear blue of his eyes. His coloring was much like her own, monochrome in a way that was highly pleasing. "You're beautiful." The sting of whiskey was on her breath, sweet and heady as she shifted again, wincing. The pain was chasing the pleasant haze away from her mind and she frowned softly. Slowly it was dawning on her that he might not be a figment of her dying or spirit fueled mind.. but a real, living, breathing blue.. man.

 

[Degusaurusrex]

What was this fascination mortals had with touching him? Did the other gods of death incur this same strangeness whenever they traveled to the realm? Then again, most of his traveling was to move the soul, not stop the soul from leaving the body, so the entire situation was a disaster from the start. Damn his siblings. Thanatos made no move to stop her or push her away seeing as her hand dropped just moments later, but he did fix her with a curious look before she finally began to speak.

"Who am I?" An eyebrow raised momentarily as he debated just how much to tell her. This was a mortal he was trying to push away from death, which meant there was a chance she might retain her memories of this drunken nonsense when morning came and she suffered through the hangover and recovery of everything that had been done to her. If the mortal man didn't return and finish what he had started, which judging from the numerous bruises both old and new on her small body, was a higher likelihood than he had originally anticipated. Interesting.

"You are mortal, and your kind is destined to suffer throughout their lives." It was the cold reality of the human race, but the part of him that was bound to moving souls from peaceful death felt a sliver of pity for her as she begged him to allow her to pass. "But it is not your time to be ferried across yet." Charon would pitch a fit if Thanatos gave him another soul too early, even if the thought was tempting just to ease the broken mortal's pain.

"Pardon?" Thanatos frowned as she sat up, so captivated by her pained movements that for a moment, he didn't understand what she'd said to him. When the compliment finally caught up and clicked in his head the frown deepened, and he cocked his head before scratching behind one ear and sighing. Mortals really could be so pitiful, but he could not forsake his duty for one broken girl.

"And you are intoxicated." The look in those eyes was both beautiful and disastrous all at once, and the god found himself analyzing the mortal far more than he should have in any given situation. "Run, little mortal. Escape the pain and start a life somewhere new, somewhere you will not be hurt anymore." Crouched beside a half-drunk, half in shock human was not how he would have chosen to start his night.

 

[Bunny]

She couldn't have said what it was like for other mortals, but had he asked her she would have explained that his ears had been of great fascination to her. They reminded her of the movies, of fantasy realms that couldn't exist and yet his delicately pointed ears had begged for her touch. They hadn't disappointed. In her inebriated state, she hadn't considered how rude it would have been to touch anyone, let alone a death god's ears. He hadn't seemed offended and her hand hadn't lingered on him for long. Her hand had fallen back to the dew kissed grass. Her eyes however had lingered on his ears, the gently arched shell intriguing her. Once Leah had been able to draw her gaze from them and focus it blearily one his face she'd been able to question him.

"Yes, who are you?" The question was repeated and she swayed slightly even though she was sitting. A frown worked between her brows and she tilted her head to the side. "I think I have more than fulfilled my allotted amount of suffering." There was no venom in her voice, just a quiet sadness. "I doubt my suffering brings anyone but Joshua pleasure... No god cares for my fate." Little did she know of whom she spoke to, though his care, if one could call it that, was more for the order of things than her. She looked away from him, lashes lowered as she stared at the blurry grass. Tears welled in her eyes and she tried to blink them away. Her emotions on a volatile string, yo-yoing back and forth. It was through that haze of tears that she took his face in once more, whispering that he was beautiful.

"I didn't have the courage otherwise.." The words whispered as if this was a secret. She blinked at him, the tears that had lingered in her gaze trailing down her cheeks as she gave a shake of her head. "You say that as if it were so easy." Laying back upon the grass she looked past him towards the stars, ethereal watchers of mortal lives. "Running would see friends.. family hurt. And he'd come after me. I belong to him. In his eyes.." She closed her eyes for a moment and inhaled the cool night air. That wonderful dizzy buzz that had filled her with liquid courage was fading and falling away from her mind like cobwebs. "So without running, this was my only escape.." Her eyes opened and she regarded him. "But it isn't my time." The idea struck her as almost funny. Almost.

Was her fate to be beaten to death and left in an unmarked grave? That wasn't what she'd have wanted for herself. Shifting she stirred in the grass and slowly pushed herself to sit and then stand. Swaying slightly she gazed down at him. He was beautiful... The breeze swirled around them, weaving between their bodies as she looked down at him. He was almost as tall as she was kneeling and she watched as his silvery white hair danced along the air. Biting her lower lip she lifted her wrist, looking at the dried blood. It wasn't amiss against the patchwork of bruises along her skin. "Have you ever known pain that you'd consider leaping, not knowing what was on the other side? The desperation to escape to end your barely begun life?" Her eyes shifted to him. "I am nineteen..." She smiled softly "You speak of suffering, my kind, as if you are apart. Yet when I choose a path, you delay me and tell me it isn't to be. Yet you give me no outlet I have yet to think of and dismiss. I am to suffer. To die at his hands? To find my body in an unmarked grave?"

She fell silent, gazing down at the stranger... for he was indeed strange. He was indeed blue, she was coming to realize. Beautiful in a way she'd never seen. Her fingers curled slightly at her side, as if remembering the edge of his ear. "Who are you?" She didn't ask what, almost afraid of the answer. A dream perhaps? A cruel dream. "Please.." She breathed. "Please help me if you will not let me go."

 

[Degusaurusrex]

Mortals never truly understood death until it came to them.

"Life is rarely easy." Thanatos was well aware of that, but he instructed her to run all the same. Whether or not the path she walked was easy was irrelevant to him in the grand scheme of things, but it seemed she was rather determined to bring the journey to an abrupt end; which then threw his duties out of alignment and caused his sisters to harass him. Pesky mortals.

Shit, she was standing now, albeit rather unsteadily to the point he moved to steady her before retracting his hand with a sigh. Drunk humans were always so messy, either a whirlwind of energy or a species so fragile he was afraid to be within a foot of them for fear his presence would ultimately break them. His eyes followed hers to the blood on her wrist from her attempted self-harm, and an eyebrow rose as he met her gaze and realized just how small this mortal was. Even with him crouching where she had previously been sprawled and then sitting, the size difference between them was evident and almost astounding for a moment.

"I know what is on the other side, child." Not quite a child, but a child to him, made of soft but bruised skin and brittle bones that would snap under the wrath of any given god. "Your path does not leave you in an unmarked grave, hidden from the world beaten and bloody. It does not leave you nameless, faceless." Something about the way that she begged so softly tugged at him, a sensation he was unfamiliar with spreading through his chest before he slowly rose to his feet and grasped her chin gently in one hand.

"I am Thanatos, god of death, and I will grant you peace when the time has come. But first, little mortal, you must run, you must fight."

 

[Bunny]

The way he spoke to her rankled and even if he had helped steady her, it was annoying to be talked to the way he was. Like she was some child and then he said the words and she bared her teeth at him in a silent, feral hiss. "I am not a child." Her voice wasn't petulant, it bordered on annoyed anger. Leah didn't know who he was, but his apparent exasperation and perhaps dislike for her wasn't welcome here. No one knew what was on the other side, why had she expected this blue skinned man.. blue skin? Shaking her head she closed her eyes and inhaled slowly through her nose. Tears filled her eyes as they opened, his words a balm and salt in the wound all at once. How would he know? Yet it gave her hope, a hope she'd thought long since lost. He rose and that size difference he'd noticed while still sitting struck her as she tilted her head back to look up at him. Goodness, he was tall, wasn't he? His hand grasped her chin and he spoke to her.

"I am Thanatos, god of death, and I will grant you peace when the time has come. But first, little mortal, you must run, you must fight."

She blinked up at him, wide eyed. Her lips parted some as she tried to work through what he said. Blue. God. Death. Child. She closed her eyes and sighed softly before opening them again to gaze up at him. "Well, I suppose you would be the one to know.." That raised another interesting question. "Does that mean you were fated to stop me?" Her brows drew together. Why? That seemed silly, but if she wasn't meant to die, and yet she'd tried... that meant... her head hurt. That's what this meant. On one hand, something told her she should be freaking out. Another said this was just some drunken dream. Gods? But she could still feel his hand on her chin and she was still gazing up at him..

"Promise?"

The question lingered between them for a long moment. "Do you promise I don't end up like that?" He was asking her to run, to fight and that more than anything scared her. He was a god though, his word meant something. Maybe it didn't, but it would be enough to get her moving. She turned her head slightly, nuzzling his palm, like an affectionate kitten. She was unused to being touched where it didn't hurt. She was still drunk, the pain was still dull, but it wouldn't be forever...

 

[Degusaurusrex]

Yes, that would explain why he would be the one to know. Thanatos ignored her question about fate momentarily, snorting softly and finally shaking his head.

"Fate is not my domain, I am not one of the Moirai." That was as much as he offered her in response to that particular question, considering it seemed the mortal was having trouble processing what was going to become with. Alcohol and an encounter with a god in the same night would throw anyone off their game and this woman was already clearly on the verge of insanity. Not that he could blame her, when there were such wounds on her that she had tried to take her life to escape the man who had created them.

His sisters might have been keen to slaughter him simply for the sake of murder but he would not. Despite his lack of inclination to violence Thanatos held a neutral attitude toward a large portion of humanity, and this man would likely be no different. It wasn't that he didn't feel pity for the poor wretch in front of him, but he had no inclination to help her by taking the soul of the man responsible for her pain. There was a delicate balance to the way of life and he was already risking unsettling it if he didn't play out this scenario correctly.

"You do not end up like that." It was strange watching her turn into his hand and nuzzle him like an affectionate infant animal. Humans, he knew, were affectionate, but having the affection bestowed on him like this was a foreign concept and he merely watched her for a moment before he rubbed his thumb over her cheek and sighed.

"Go now. Pack your things, unless you truly intend to run unprepared. Be quick about it, little one."

 

[Bunny]

Moirai.. For a moment Leah wracked her memory for tales of them. Even in her inebriated state, she could put two to two together. Moirai were the Fates. Fingers toyed with one another, as she watched him, her eyes slowly sobering, though it would still take some time for the amount of booze she'd drunk to fade from her system. A hand rose to rub absently at a handprint that was darkening on her wrist. It hurt, the pain helping her to focus for the moment. No stranger to such pain as it had become an unwilling state of being for her.

The question, the almost demand of the god to tell her she didn't end up as she feared was bold, but really, what did she have to lose? The gentle feeling of his thumb along her cheek was soothing, something she needed desperately in this moment. Leaning into the touch, like a starving woman. Where her life was nothing but pain and fear, some sign of affection... care... Leah's lashes fell for a moment and she exhaled shakily. "Thank you, Thanatos.." Was it for the kindness of the touch or the promise she'd not end up in an unmarked grave? Likely both.

"Go now. Pack your things, unless you truly intend to run unprepared. Be quick about it, little one."

She turned slowly from him, before nodding. "Okay." Bare feet crossed the slick lawn, the bottle and blade left in the grass. Inside, the warmth of the house bit into her skin almost uncomfortably. She couldn't take much, but she could bring the things she couldn't bear to leave behind. A duffle bag was pulled from a shelf and she laid it on the bed before turning to the room at large. She wanted nothing from her life with Joshua.. A stuffed animal that she'd had since birth was placed into the bag as well as some more practical clothes. jeans, tee-shirts.. Some base toiletries. She moved quickly.. Knowing there wasn't much time. She left the jewelry, the money. She wanted nothing from him. She did however take her own pitiful stash. A few hundred dollars.

The bag was barely half full, but she couldn't, wouldn't take anything else. In the bathroom, she tried her best to clean herself up. Wash the blood off, to hide.. the bruises blossoming on her face. Once she was satisfied she discarded her dress and dawned a pair of soft black leggings.. a light white sweater and a pair of shoes. After a moment, she added a hat over her hair. Turning she moved to find him.. hoping he'd not have already left her. She wasn't quite ready to be alone...