NP: Forgiven by Skillet

Vincent's jaws tensed alternately. "Let. Her. Go!"

With a simple tilt of her head, she sent Vincent crashing against the rows of tables and chairs.

Slowly, he untangled himself from the pile of broken furniture and got to his feet. He approached Adrianna, one heavy step after the other, staring intently, noting every detail of her.

"W-who are you?" he rasped.

She smiled. "Adrianna."

"What? D'you think I've crap for brains?!" he growled, his skin beginning to smoke again. "Drag her name in this again and I'd sure as hell rip your heart out!"

She lifted her eyebrows and looked down at herself. "If we have one. But we don't. This form we occupy isn't even human. Very handy. Sturdy too. This way, we can go wherever we want without easily getting spotted."

Vincent was more than distraught. She was messing with his head and she had him right where she wanted.

Laughing quietly, she nodded. "It's a Swarth, like your outstandingly faithful familiar was telling you." She clicked her tongue at the roof of her mouth. "But you didn't believe her. You wanted to believe that you're precious Adrianna came back... for you."

She loosened the grip on my neck and threw me a pitiful look as I caught my breath.

"What do you think, poor little girl?" she cooed. "Let's hear it."

"Go die in a hole!" I choked out.

"We already did," she scoffed "For millennia, actually. We've been waiting to"—she quoted with her fingers—"die. But we didn't... Because Death? Instead of doing his job of 'saving us from the fires of hell and leading all souls to heaven' was just so busy fooling around making babies. So, he dumped us in a stinking pit and let us rot in there for uh... forever." She rolled her eyes. "But let's not talk about us. Let's talk about you, Aramis Rayne. Puppy Love goes back to town and just like that, Mister Antsy Pants here's already kicking you out of the big picture. How does that make you feel?"

"Shut it!" Vincent yelled, his whole body trembling with anger.

His eyes were beginning to turn red. If he lost control again, I didn't think any form of talk would bring him back.

"V-vincent!" I shook my head as much as Adrianna's hold would allow me. "D-don't!"

Feigning surprise, Adrianna let laughter roll out of her throat. "Aww... Look at you, Aramis. Still pining for this pathetic excuse of a master. After he dumped you for a dead girl too. We would slow clap for you, but as you can see, our hands are full."

Through the mist in my eyes, I saw Pilgrim's head droop.

"Adrianna," Vincent called, his voice fragile. "Please. I don't want to hurt you."

"Still hopeful, are we?" she warbled, shaking her head. "Sorry, but Adrianna has left the building."

Adrianna's face began to morph, twitching every which way. Something seemed to be moving from under the skin of her cheek, stretching it to impossible lengths until it formed what looked to me as another face without eyes or a mouth. Then it stretched again. And this time, a hand formed. It grabbed the face and pulled it back inwards.

As if that wasn't grotesque enough, more faces formed and protruded from under her skin, clawing at each other as if wanting to get out.

"Stay inside," she ordered and her skin sprung back into place.

"What... What're you?" Vincent murmured in shock.

"We think you know. You've seen our real form before," she answered sweetly. A growl scraped out of her throat—dozens of different voices all talking as one—and with this voice, she said, "We are Legion, for we are many."

"Then," he murmured, looking at our reflections on the black marble floor. "I'd just have to kill each and every one of you."

When I blinked, Vincent was already gone. I saw him behind Adrianna, just before he punched the girl on the face with his Cataclyst.

She lurched backwards and fell down the steps of the dais.

The floor met my face in a fraction of a second. I rolled on my back and caught my breath. As I got up, I saw Pilgrim. He was thrown to a corner, unconscious but still breathing.

Adrianna was quick to recover. With just a flick of her hand, she lifted Vincent off the floor before he could land another hit. He thrashed and managed to rake his claws from Adrianna's shoulder down to her chest.

Shrieking, she clasped her chest and lost grip on Vincent. Instead of blood, black cinders leaked out of the cuts. The cinders then floated in the air, coming together, taking the shape of wraiths missing some body parts. One without arms. Another with half of its skull chopped off. And many other aberrations as if they have been in a Laundromat then stitched together by a two year-old.

There were already four of them and more were forming, which was bad news since neither of us could summon our scythe. Or Cataclyst, in my case.

"Aramis!" Vincent shouted, grabbing one of the creatures before hurling it across the room. "See any Glitch?"

Almost automatically, my eyes were already scanning the room. Luckily, one was just passing by the window.

"On it!"

I did a mad dash and reached over the windowsill before it could slip away. But once I touched it, it scorched my fingers. I withdrew.

"Vincent!" I called out, still staring at the burns I got. "I... I can't touch it!"

In frustration, he grabbed another wraith by the neck and slammed at against the wall. "Show me! Use the link."

"But you'll—"

"I don't care!" He tossed the creature back to its comrades. "Show me!"

I tapped into his consciousness and let him see through my eyes.

Got it.

He darted towards the window and haphazardly peeled off the edges of the Glitch. Black veins slowly appeared around his eyes, weaving their way outward. By the way he clenched his teeth I could tell he was in pain. He kept on it though until the hole was large enough and his eyes were bleeding.

I cut off the link.

He glared at me. "What the—"

"You're done!" I said through my teeth.

"You're both done for," Adrianna said, her once kind eyes ablaze.

One movement of her eyes and my feet left the floor. Next thing I knew was the blinding pain from the back of my head as it bounced on the wall. The room whirred around me, bile rising up my throat. Something wet and sticky trickled down my nape and speckled the floor with crimson.

Vincent started for Adrianna, but he too was airborne with just a wave of her hand.

"Our offer still stands, Vincent," said she benevolently, letting out a moan as the tears on her chest began to close. "Let us take away all your worries. No more pain. No more fear. No more Death." She inclined her head towards Pilgrim, setting Vincent down carefully. "All we need is your consent."

Vincent was lost in deep thought.

"Y-you're actually considering it?!" I yelled angrily at him, but he pretended not to hear. "Vincent!"

Panic welled inside me. I tried to move but couldn't.

"There's no point in all of this anymore," Adrianna said, giving him an all-knowing look. "Deep inside, that's what you've been thinking every single day, isn't it? You had been doing this same thing over and over for hundreds of years. Nothing good ever came out of it but death and suffering and more death. It's a cycle and believe us; it's never going to end. Unless... you say so."

"Why're you putting this on me, huh?" Vincent swallowed hard, his voice breaking. "I'm fed up with all of this... If you want to kill Death, just do it! Why do I get to decide?!"

Adrianna looked at him with earnest eyes as if the answer was self-explanatory.

"WHY ME?!!"

"Because it has to be you." She went to him, caught his face with her hand, a sad sort of smile on her face. "It always has been."

His silvery-gray eyes were red around the edges as he gazed at me. I couldn't even begin to comprehend the torment he was in.

"How many times?" The words scraped out of his throat.

He looped an arm over Adrianna's nape and pulled her gently to him. He kissed her hair and with his other arm, thrust the Helcium shard deep into her stomach.

Adrianna's eyes were wide as she gaped at the piece of glass stuck in her chest. This time, nothing came out, but the part touched by Helcium was slowly withering. She reeled back with a questioning look.

Vincent closed his eyes and the tear he had been holding back finally fell. "How many times do I have to be the one to kill you?"

Then, she dropped to the floor. And so did I.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hisashiburi! So I've gone AWOL for a while, sorting life and work and family and stuff. But I'm back now! Thanks y'all who sent me pictures of their newly acquired paperback version of Reapers Thirteen Brothers! I'm working on book 2 now, (hopefully they'll accept my submission) tweaking a few things here and there so as to make up for the lack of romance in the first. To everyone who messaged me, I cannot put in words how touched and grateful I am for your words of encouragement especially in hard times such as these. So there! I'll stop blabbering now.

PS. Listen to the song above. I think it fits this one. xoxo