Page 50 of Morena
A tall figure in the plague doctor’s mask, its long beak cracked and stained. He extended a hand. Though my body was paralyzed, my soul reached out. Our fingers touched, and he pulled me through.
I landed naked in the mud. The world was nothing but night. Crows swarmed in circles above, their cries were like knives in my skull.
Behind me, through the shattered mirror, Paco still dragged my body across the floor, leaving a red trail behind.
But Death turned my head, his black-gloved hand gripping my jaw, forcing me to look into the hollow eyeholes of his mask.
“Tell me, little corpse,” he said, his voice low. “What are you willing to give me for eternal life?”
I stared into his eyes. The hollow pits of the mask seemed to open into infinity. My lips trembled. No words came.
He tilted his head. “Then I will choose for you.”
“Yes,” I whispered, barely a breath.
“Bring me souls,” he said. “Rotten ones. Haunt them. Break them. Torture them. Tear their spirits apart and drag them to me.” His eyes locked on mine. “Do as you please, but bring them.”
“Yes.” My voice cracked, but I nodded. “But… please… one thing.” My knees buckled, and I fell into the mud,shivering. “Take my memories. All of them. I don’t want to bemeanymore.”
He crouched in front of me, the weight of him blotting out even the crows. “Very well.”
Slowly, he lifted the mask away.
Beneath it, he did not have a skull or a void. He had human eyes, piercing blue, drowning. I fell into them, my breath stolen, my soul unraveling.
And as I sank, I felt myself dying and being born again.
1. Handsome
2. I don't care.
3. Morena, please.
4. what?
5. Pretty
6. Liar
7. What happened?
8.Death, please, if you exist, take me. End this. Take me with you. I don’t want this pain.
I.
MATTEO
Maybewearenotsupposed to remember things from the afterlife, but maybe somehow we were given second chances. Maybe Morena leaving me to die gave me the opportunity for something better. Maybe all this time, I was only meant to show you that not everything is as it seems. Life has a beginning, yes, and maybe death has an ending too, but what if they collide twice?
What if death is sent to take souls, but it can also birth something that brings the ending for us all?
You see war, you see hunger, you see every living thing turning on each other, but why? What was the cause? If you strip a man of his will and give him power, he will use that power to control you. Control consumes, and when it does, it becomes an endless thirst for more and more until one day everything turns to nothing. This is humanity. We were given something to create, but we turned it into something that can be used against us. Sowhen someone tells you that you are your worst enemy, believe it. Nothing stops you from being a better person. You wake up every day with that choice. At the end of the day, will you regret it or will you stand by it?
And who am I to tell you all that?
Just a man, a dying man, who lost sight and found it all over again.
But am I? Or am I something more?
