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“Ame?”
Gura is shaking. Her forearms are stained red with fresh blood. Her left fist is so tightly wound that the color fades from already pale palms. Her right fist can't have that release. What she's holding in it, it's far too valuable.
She forces herself to look at it again. Not the watch, the body.
Amelia.
“Ame…” She forces.
Watson already dialed in the time. All Gura had to do was hit a button and this would all be over. This would fix everything. This crude watch could make miracles. She hoped.
Her thumb hovered above the button. When she presses it, she'll throw everything back to as it was. She doesn't know that her memories won't be coming back with her. The only one who would remember anything that happened on this run would be the woman at her feet.
She pressed the button. She raised the dead.
It's a strange thing, recalling your own death. It happens mid conversation.
“Ame?” Gura asks from her seat across the table.
Amelia is wide eyed as she looks over the room from her seat in the corner of the diner. The warm orange light of a setting sun washes over everything in here. The warmth is the only comfort she gets as her stomach twitches. She's feeling the ghosts of a fatal wound that isn't scheduled until the sun goes down.
“Dude, are you okay?”
“I'm… yeah, no. No, I'm okay?” She looks herself over.
“Are you?” Gura leans forward, her hands cupping a glass pitcher of water. She's set her own cup to the side.
Amelia frees her watch from her coat pocket. It catches the light dusk, almost blinds Amelia. It's not enough to hide the blood stains covering the thing.
She nods and says, “Yup. Fit as a fiddle” before taking an uncomfortably long swig of her hot chocolate.
Gura looks around the room and sinks back into her seat. “Are all humans like this? Or did I just end up with the weirdo?” Her nose wrinkles as she settles. She tastes iron in the air. “Is that- you're bleeding.”
“No I'm not. Not now anyway.” Ame suppresses a laugh. The irony of Gura, a woman with blue hues on her skin, razor sharp teeth, and a shark tail calling Amelia a weirdo is something else.
“Speak plain, human!” Gura slams her fists too hard against the table as she stands. The waiter behind the counter stares from the corner of his eye. Amelia mouths an apology to him before motioning Gura to sit.
“Sorry, but I've already figured out what we're looking at.” Amelia says as she sits the bloodied pocket watch on the table.
“You used your time magic?”
“Yup.”
“And you learned?”
“It's not a Shinigami.”
“Oh.” Gura sounds disappointed, “So what is it?”
“A demon. A demon that's eaten the soul of a Shinigami.”
“Meaning?”
“It's very powerful, attacks anything on sight, and is essentially immortal.”
“I see.” Gura takes the pitcher to her lips and chugs. She seems uncomfortable with the whole process, but there's a notable give to her shoulders as she drains the pitcher. “We're done then? Case closed? You just tell your employer what you found and we go home?”
Amelia flashes a sly smile.
“Watson, I don't think you know what immortal means. You cannot hope to kill this thing.”
“Probably not, but that's beside the point. I might know my enemy now, but I'm still missing the answer to the puzzle. I need to know why it's playing pretend.”
“You're risking our lives on your sense of pride.”
Amelia grins and stuffs her watch into her coat pocket. “I'm not asking you to come, stupid.” She stands up and slides a few dollars underneath her half finished mug before heading for the exit.
Gura yells over her shoulder, “You arrogant- I'm not coming to bail you out! You can get yourself killed a thousand times. See if I care, stinky!” The front door chimes were already ringing before Gura finished her rant, a fact that only made her thrash in her seat more. She huffed before jumping up, tail cracking against the tiled floor as she stomped out the diner.
Amelia couldn't keep a straight face when she heard Gura storming towards her. Amelia bit her lip and tried to focus on the task at hand as she popped open the trunk of her car. She was already fixing her revolver to her hip when Gura stopped beside her.
“You're a fool.”
“Found you didn't I? Proof of the ancient city of Atlantis.”
“I'm starting to think you only managed that by dying over and over again.”
Amelia shrugged as her fingers hesitated over the shotgun tucked in the bottom of the trunk.
“That thing can barely bruise me. You think it'll make a difference?”
“That's what I'm debating. Didn't take it last time.”
Gura pressed the shotgun back into place, “If your life ever depends on this thing then you may as well use that time to grab your watch instead.” Gura’s furrowed stare was hard to break away from. “Leave any fighting to me. You humans are too squishy anyways.” She said as she pressed a finger above Amelia's naval.
“Roger that.” She said before pulling the trunk shut.
“Who is Roger?”
“Death spirits, or maybe Gods depending on who you ask. They're said to guide souls to the afterlife.” Amelia said as she led Gura through the quiet woods. She had already done the hard work of tracking down the demon in the last attempt, so all she had to focus on was making good time. She brought flashlights of course, but any fight in the dark would be a severe disadvantage.
“Ridiculous. I've never heard of any spirits like that before. Back home, when someone passes, we bring them out to- how would you call it? A park?”
“Like where children play?”
“Is it that odd?”
“Maybe not? I mean, people hang out in graveyards all the time, but it's a little morbid.”
Gura pouted, “There's nothing morbid about it. We bring our people out there so that they can return to the sea floor. Scavengers break them down until they're nothing but bone, and then anemones and other creatures make themselves home. There's different stages and steps in the process.” Gura's eyes fell to the dirt beneath her feet. “When someone dies in Atlantis, no matter how good or bad they were, they never stop being a part of the world.”
Amelia could see a small cloud forming over Guras's head from behind her shoulder. She tried to think of something to lighten the mood, but the only thing that was coming to mind was the fact that she was a walking dead woman. “Well, up here we just burn the bastards down to ashes, stuff em in jars, and let them sit in the back of a closet for a few decades before we trash em.”
“What???”
“Yeah, when I was a kid I helped clean out vacant apartments for money. Found like two full urns and my boss just said-” Amelia whistled as she mimed tossing her hat into the woods.
“You're fucking with me.”
“Nope!” Amelia chirped as she turned to face Gura. “Dead serious. Didn't even have names on them.”
“And you were just okay with throwing them away?! Those were people! They had families!”
“I was just a kid!”
“How old?”
“Uh-”
“How old?!”
“...”
“Seventeen?”
“Amelia Watson!” Gura punched her shoulder, but couldn't hide her own laughter. “What is your problem?!”
“I was just doing what I was told!”
“You threw people away!”
“I'm not the one who was hoarding unmarked urns!”
“...” Gura's tail brushed against Amelia’s hip. “Do you think…”
“That I threw away two murder victims? Very often. It's on my list of loose ends to tie up.”
“You've just been sitting on that for years?”
Amelia shrugged and handed Gura a flashlight, “When you can time travel, nothing's ever too long ago to revisit.”
Gura rolled her eyes at the sight of the flashlight. “I don't need that thing.” She said before bounding down the path ahead. “You bozos need a trinket for everything.”
The detective was quick to follow after her, shining a light just before she lost sight of Gura in the dark. She chuckled when she soon realized that Gura had no idea where she was going and quickly went off in the wrong direction. “Bet you'll wish you had a trinket for that.” she mumbled.
Last time, the demon got the jump on her. From the start, Amelia had been struggling just to stay alive long enough to process everything. This time, the roles are reversed. The demon is haunting a small lake house. His silhouette is framed by the full moon as he sits perched on the edge of the rooftop.
“So, care to tell me your genius plan?” Gura asks just on the threshold of the clearing.
“Oh well I was just gonna see how far you got with punching it.” There was a click as Amelia pulled the hammer of her revolver back. “We can’t beat it in a straight fight, he’ll just regenerate no matter how badly we put him down. The shinigami’s soul is the real ticket. We have to open him up long enough for it to break free. Then we can kill him once and for all.”
“That was a lot of words to say, just hit it real hard, stupid.”
“No, there’s actually a big difference between the- hey!” Amelia huffed as Gura went on ahead without her. The moment Gura’s foot hit the ground, the air shifted by the lake house.
From atop the roof, cold air seeped through gnarled gritted teeth. The faux reaper was all yellowed bone, held together by tar black sinew that pulsed with necromantic energy. Its dark tendons weren’t uniform, in fact they ran down its back, hanging uselessly in the air in a way that brought to mind the cloaked reapers of folklore. The wooden roof cracked beneath the reaper's weight as it bent down before launching itself through the air. The earth shook as it landed a few yards ahead of its Atlantean challenger. Up close, Gura could see that the monster was a massive 7ft tall. Its muscles seemed to grow and expand at will. They separated at its traps, giving way for curved calcified blades to push through flesh. Bones cracked and black ink coated the grass beneath its feet. The end result was four scythe-like blades, connected by pulsing tendrils, dangling in the air in search of a target. Its most ethereal feature was the white glow that peeked out through its rips.
“There’s no way…” Gura took a wide stance as she scowled at the abomination. “That a creature like you could look after the dead.”
The monster howled with a voice that sounded like a dozen humans all crying for help at once. They were the lost souls that had passed on and were lured in by this interloper. Although its face was all bone, Gura couldn’t help but imagine a ghoulish smile on its face.
Gura made the first move.
She made herself small as two blades cut the air above her. The third strike, predictably, went low and Gura was already sailing above the attack before the blade buried itself into the dirt. She had already cleared the distance before the fourth scythe could come into play. Gura soared into a heel strike right into the jaw, a kick that carried so much force to crack bone and send a mist of calcium into the air. Before she even hit the ground, Gura twisted into another kick with her leading right, a devastating hit right to the chest. The reaper was banished into the lake house as it crashed through its walls.
Gura put her hands on her hips and grinned, “Man, even your spirits are weak. I’d be embarrassed if this thing even got to taste my soul.”
Amelia opened her mouth to tell her to stay focused, but her voice was drowned out by the massive reaper flying through the air. The reaper's right arm expanded before striking at Gura. She only barely stepped back in time to avoid the first punch, but now there was a scythe coming down overhead and another fist coming her way. Her sloppy footwork left her with the choice, take the hit or take the cut. Her palms came together to catch the blade inches from her face. She took the hit and went tumbling into a tree.
With little air in her lungs, all Gura could do was get back on her feet before the reaper swung again, and again. She blocked the hits she had to, rolled with the ones she could, always keeping in mind the blades that craved her flesh. Every attack just pushed her further into the hard bark of the tree behind her. She raised her arms to defend another strike, but found an open palm pinning her to the tree. “Shit!” There was no room to work with, she was trapped and at the mercy of the four blades that twisted, turned, and launched at her exposed vitals.
Time always seemed to drag at the worst moments of Gura’s life. It dragged when she lost one of her tail fins, it dragged when she lost her mother, it dragged when she lost her home. She could remember each and every struggle with frightening accuracy, and yet the good never lasted. Every smile and laugh got away from her too quickly. How long had she even known Amelia? How quickly could she lose all of that?
Time stopped. Just before those rigged knives could cut into Gura, everything went still. Everything except for Amelia.
The detective wasted no time as her watch counted down one minute. She took her revolver and pulled the trigger. The burst of energy was enough to free the bullet from the barrel before the time dilation stopped it just a breath away from the reaper’s skull. She moved just slightly off angle before pulling the trigger again. Before the clock struck one, every bullet in her revolver was suspended in the air. She hit her mark with time to spare.
The reaper's face was shredded with lead as everything returned to motion. It howled and released Gura to paw at its shattered skull. Gura was noticeably disoriented by Amelia’s sudden appearance, but the detective didn’t give her time to catch up. Amelia swooped Gura off her feet in time to avoid the reaper's blind retaliation. The shockwave was enough to knock Amelia off her feet, but even then she shifted to take the fall for Gura. There in the dirt, the pair breathed hot air down each other's neck while the reaper pummeled a tree into sawdust.
“You okay?” Amelia forced a smile on her dirt stained face.
“How did it go last time? Better? Worse?”
Amelia just shrugged as the reaper was finally satisfied that the tree was well and truly dead.
The detective and the Atlantean rose to face the false reaper once again. Red sparks crackled around the regenerating bone, buffing out the divides Gura had left with her kick. That's when the tell came. Only after its skull was done regenerating, did the split ribs begin to heal as well. The reaper had to prioritize where its efforts went. Amelia freed the empty shells from her revolver, “Go for the scythes.”
“Hmm? Like rip 'em out? That’s a lot easier said than done.”
“I know. That’s why I’m gonna make an opening for you.”
“You’re what???”
The revolver chamber spun while Amelia stole a glance at the watch on her wrist. With a small correction to her pocket watch, she flicked her wrist and snapped the chamber back into place. “I’m counting on you.” She presses hard on her watch’s trigger, careful to keep an even pressure.
Before Gura could stop her, Amelia was racing towards the reaper. She reintroduced herself with a bullet that disappeared into the reaper's shoulder. It got the reaction she was hoping for. One blade swept through the air and in an instant, Amelia had to decide whether to go high or low.
She went high. She chose wrong. The reaper splits her in half. Her body goes limp. She lets go of the watch. The deadman’s trigger goes off.
She went low this time. The sudden stop almost split her shins right there, but she held herself together as the attack whiffed overhead. Gura used the opportunity to rip her claws through the loose flesh of the tendril, severing it in two clean swipes. The reaper was just about to turn its attention to Gura when another bullet bounced off its dome. Another blade hooked into Amelia’s sides so fast she almost got sick when she let go of her watch and was sent back to the start.
She goes low. Gura takes a limb. She shuffles back and the blade catches nothing. Amelia grinds her heel into the tendril and fires off two rounds where the flesh is scarce. A squelch of black blood sputtering onto the dirt marks the second scythe left buried in the ground. Amelia thinks she’s doing well until Gura leaps ahead of her screaming, “Ame!” and is impaled by another blade that she doesn’t see coming. Ame doesn’t have time to consider before the last scythe cuts her to pieces.
She goes low, she means to anyway. Instead, all she can think about is Gura’s body suspended in the air. The reaper cuts Amelia in half again.
She goes low. Gura takes a limb. Ame shuffles back. She takes a limb. She’s lightning on her feet, twisting to avoid a killing blow and- Its Gura, throwing herself in harm's way again, letting the reaper cut through her again. Gura has already decided to die here. It doesn’t matter how much Amelia optimizes the encounter. Gura is always there when she doesn’t want her to be. Amelia lets go of the trigger and starts from the top again.
Gura reaches out to stop Amelia from rushing off but instead she falls into the detective's arms. “Hey.” Amelia says as she looks down at Gura’s large blue eyes. “We’re gonna be okay. I promise.” Ame laughs, her cheeks are rosy and Gura is so warm in her arms. This squishy, arrogant, fallible human is reassuring her. Gura shoves Amelia off, “Don’t get yourself killed, stupid…”
Amelia goes low. Gura takes a limb. Amelia shuffles back. She takes a limb. In a dance of blades, Amelia narrowly avoids being cut to shreds by two scythes. Gura forces herself to focus on the opportunity Ame provides, but as Gura cuts through two more tendrils, she can’t help but admire Amelia. The way Ame gets it right the first time, every time, it makes her heart flutter. Amelia readjusts her watch and lets go of the trigger, committing to the present.
The reaper falls to a knee and howls in agony, the screams of tormented men and women echoing in the dead air while the reaper begins to regenerate. Amelia doesn’t waste any time. She grabs a loose blade off the floor and charges at the reaper’s exposed ribs. Amelia’s bones rattle as the blade bounces off the reaper. She nearly falls flat on her back, but the slick surface of Gura’s tail catches her. With Gura’s inhuman strength at her back, Amelia lunges forward and punches a hole through the monster's sternum. Gura pushes deeper, Amelia pulls up. A burst of necromantic energy sends the blade flying upward, cutting through the sternum, the collarbone, the jaw, the sky with white light. An explosive shockwave sends Gura and Amelia flying on their backs.
Amelia lands on Gura this time and finds herself in steady hands. “Did that do it?” Gura asks.
Amelia fumbles with her words as she watches the reaper paw uselessly at its chest, trying desperately to hold onto its power as it billows out into the field. The reaper hunches and buries itself into the ground, shelling up to hide its chest as it regenerates from the blow.
“Shit.” Ame jumps to her feet and pulls Gura up behind her. “We need to lay on it more! Slow it down!”
Gura takes the chance to run off ahead and begins sinking her fists into the monster's flesh. Black tendons snap and scatter with every blow. The reaper makes no effort to regenerate in response. Gura’s in a test to see just how quickly she can punch this thing into pieces and Amelia can do nothing. Gura’s throwing out haymakers so hard they shake the ground beneath her. And she can hear it, in the cover of its body, the reaper's bones are splitting and molding back together. Gura’s only a quarter way through its shoulder when the snapping stops.
“Gura!” Amelia calls out to her before the reaper digs its knuckles into her stomach. Amelia is sent careening into the grass that feels more like concrete when her head bounces off of it. Head spinning, blood trickling down her forehead, Amelia can barely make out the blur of Gura running a hand down her face. “I’m gonna pick you up okay? We’re gonna get out of here!”
“N-not yet…” Amelia tries to sound firm, but it comes out as begging.
“You really are an idiot!” Gura yells as the earth splits ahead of them. The reaper is back on his feet. Its shoulder and skull come back together in increments, the bulk of the damage on its ribs already healed. The reaper stares ahead with cold killing intent.
The reaper’s sternum fully regenerates, blocking off the last of the fleeing white mist inside. It takes a step forward. Gura balls her fist. Amelia reaches for her watch. A crack forms on the monster’s ribs. An ethereal white hand punches out of the reaper’s sternum from the inside. It struggles to stay on its feet when another hand emerges and begins to press against the edges. Bones split apart as the hands stretch out into arms and push against the surface. A dozen voices scream in unison before, in one fluid motion, a woman pulls herself free from the monster’s chest.
Her body is pure white. Her flesh is indistinguishable from the curtain of hair that dances in the wind. Her eyes open slowly, first staring at the sky before finally resting on Amelia and Gura. The spirit's eyes are yellow and piercing, like they can see beyond flesh and blood. Her head cocks at the sight of Amelia and, like letting go of a great weight, she shakes off the flesh of the false reaper. The monster collapses into a heap as the shinigami floats gracefully onto the grass below.
Amelia doesn’t realize that she’s got Gura’s hand in a death grip as the Shinigami strides toward them. The death god is massive, standing at an impossible 12ft, maybe more. Gura can’t even make an effort to stop the approach, she’s too enamored by the spirit in front of her. All Gura does is squeeze Ame’s hand back.
The Shinigami bends down, her face stopping so close to Gura she’d be able to feel the spirit's breath. Except, the Shinigami doesn’t breathe. Her flowing hair is the only animating force she has when she isn’t moving. She blinks once at Gura before turning back to face Amelia. Slowly, carefully, the shinigami reaches out towards the detective’s chest.
Something pulls at Amelia. As the Shinigami reaches out for her, she feels the innate urge to follow her. There’s a warmth in the way the Shinigami beckons, like Amelia belongs by her side and in her arms. It’s almost like she knows. It’s almost like the Shinigami can sense the many deaths of Amelia Watson, taste it on her shaky breath. Maybe it is time to go? Maybe it’s okay to go. Maybe-
A firm hand pulls Amelia away. Gura puts herself between the two and bares her teeth in a silent act of defiance. You don’t get to take this one.
The Shinigami chuckles. Her voice is breathy and oozing with care. She pulls away and stands straight once more. In a moment, she turns her back on the living, and heads for the dozen lost souls that had been led astray from the false reaper. The Shinigami gently brushes the shimmering spirits, soothing their screams with sweet nothings and warm hugs. She looks back at the detective and smiles before her form blends into the surrounding mist before disappearing completely into the night.
Amelia and Gura don’t let go of each other. Even on the long walk back to the car, they silently kept close, hands interlocked like they were the only thing keeping each other here. Gura’s sharp nails gently drag along Amelia’s soft skin.
“It went better this time.” Amelia finally admitted.
“How come?” Gura said, her voice muffled in the sleeve of Ame’s coat.
“Well… This time, I had you…”
Gura nuzzled into her shoulder, “You’re fucking stupid.”
“Yeah.” Ame said, “Yeah.”