"What is your name, Death? Are you Hades? Or are you Satan? Or another one?" she inquires.

He shakes his head. "My name is Thanatos."

She thinks back to her countless hours spent in history class.

"You're a minor god of death, right? I think you were in that one play we read."

"You're completely unfazed, talking to the being who ruined the world?"

She almost giggles because of the ridiculous notion. Thanatos was barely seen in Greek myth. He was mentioned a lot, sure, but he was hardly the star of the show. "What could you have done that ruined the world?"

And suddenly, the god rises. And he's tall. In fact, he's so tall that he casts a shadow nearly as tall as Poppy is. And his wings outstretch, and he cranes his neck as his eyes cast a black color into Poppy's very soul. His shadow seems lighter than his eyes. Poppy shudders when she thinks of a bright shadow, as if the dark was not scary enough already.

There's no difference between gods and monsters. Light and darkness are the same when the world ends.

"Would you like to hear how I destroyed the world?"

"Yes."

"Well, okay.

"Then at the end of my tale, promise me one thing."

"What?"

"t h a t y o u ' l l p u t a b u l l e t i n m y h e a d"