A meeting between Death and Eternal Life

So that was a soul.

All around them, ghostly shapes seemed to fade into existence, and Jane stared mesmerized at the bright little bird that landed in front of them. "Amazing..." she muttered. "So I guess this is what a person is, when you strip away everything else." She'd expected little orbs of light, but honestly, they could've been anything. There was something surreal about looking at it... "Are these what ghosts are then?" Jane gained a sheepish little smile. "If ghosts are even real... I'm still not too sure about the rules yet."

A small smile appeared on Destiny's face. "I guess you could consider them ghosts.. Though souls are usually passive. If they cause any damage or anything.. or normal people can see them then they got to close to the real world. They kind of live in a world of their own.. but it mirrors our world. They can't see any of us.. well they can see me but you? Not really. Also they are kind of drawn to my power for some reason which is why there are so many of them." The necromancer explained. The white haired girl closed her eyes and let the souls fade back into not being able to be seen by Jane. At the moment she wished she didn't have to see them herself, but she had to deal with it.

She stared at the spot where the soul had been long after it faded back into nothing. It was imprinted in her brain like an afterimage, something beautiful and strange that a normal person was never meant to see. So there was a spirit world, or something like that, a plane of existence that mirrored their own. Or maybe it was the same plane, and they were just on other sides of an inter-dimensional mirror. They'd never be able to see each other, but they were there, walking the same steps and filling the skies.

Was that heaven? Limbo? Purgatory? Some other religion she'd never even heard of? When everyone else was gone, would that be where they went? Whatever it was, Destiny seemed to have one foot in both worlds, a link to two parallel planes that should never connect, a chink in the mirror.

"Do you know what death's like?" she asked after a couple moments of silence. "I mean, you look like you deal with that kind of thing every day, but I dunno if you've ever experienced it firsthand." Jane cracked a small smile. "For me, it's always been nothing. Literally. People always describe it as 'everything going dark', but that's not really right. When you die, you can't even register that you're gone. There isn't any blackness, or color, or thoughts, or anything. It's not like sleeping, it's more like... like you never existed. Like your were never even born. When you come back, it doesn't even feel like any time's passed at all. One moment you're alive, and then you're just alive again. Death is just your brain shutting down for good. The rest is oblivion."

Her gaze drifted into the sky, grinning. "After the first couple of times, I wondered if I just couldn't remember the stuff in-between. Like, maybe I got sent to hell, but they kicked me right back out and I just forgot about it. Now I'm starting to think that even if places like those exist, I won't ever be able to go." Jane glanced to Destiny with an apologetic expression. "Sorry for rambling... I just think you'd have a unique perspective."

Destiny shook her head. "No I haven't died. But I know that souls have the option to move on. Human souls I have talked to have talked about it. In your case I believe the reason you didn't see anything was because your soul never left your body." Destiny said. She didn't quite know what kind of after life there was, and nor would she know until she died. Which may have been never, cause she could live forever if she wanted to.

She laughed a little under her breath. "So I guess we're back where we started... Could you remove my soul? Permanently?"

Remove her soul? Yeah she could manipulate souls, but she never thought of taking a soul from a living being.. "I could try.. but as long as you have life-force it would most likely be very dangerous since Life-force ties a soul to a body.. I would have to try when you are dead.. but I wouldn't be to happy about doing it.." Destiny said to Jane.. That topic didn't exactly make Destiny happy. She was already having some issues with her power before hand, but this topic just seemed to be making it worse.

"Dangerous for me or you?" she asked with a small smile. The other girl was surprisingly calm in considering Jane's request. Did she understand the ramifications of what she was asking, or did that kind of thing just not phase her anymore? "I'm not too worried about myself. If you want, you can use my body as hand-puppet or whatever afterwards. I don't think I'll be needing it much."

"It would be dangerous for me.. My power is about death, and all the dead stuff. Never really tried to mess with a living being before besides tacking Life-force.. And I haven't killed anyone before.." Destiny didn't really want to do this.. "Are you asking me to do this soon? Or is this something you would like me to do later on in the years?" Destiny asked making sure of somethings first.. She may have not been able to do this at all..

"Ah, that's alright. Killing's easy." Human bodies were squishy meat wrapped around bone. Poke someone in the right place and they'd keel over and die in a few minutes. Life was fragile, and she was an expert in shattering it at this point. "You mentioned a scythe, right? Just put it through my neck. I've never lost my head before. Not literally, anyways. Maybe that'll just kill me on its own. I wouldn't be surprised if there's a loophole."

Jane leaned her head back. "Any time's convenient for me, I think."

"Well you say that after you killed yourself a couple times. I have seen death as far as I can remember, but I never actually killed any one besides a few trees, and plants and stuff. It would be a difficult thing for me to do.. " Not to mention she was keeping a couple souls from moving on to whatever after life there was.. Why did they have to be drawn to her power? She was keeping Juan here as well.. How many souls had she actually trapped?

"I can handle it myself if you'd want." In a way, it was still assisted suicide, but at least that way Destiny wouldn't have to do all the dirty work. Murder was messy, and she got the sneaking suspicion that the higher-ups at Beata wouldn't be so understanding if they caught the necromancer slicing her head off anyways. "I just want my soul gone. Or destroyed. Whatever's easier. I don't have too much of a preference."

"Oh.." Destiny said. Red eyes shifted away from her friend, and decided to focus on something else. It made it seem like she was focusing on the mirror world where all the souls were, but she shoved any souls away. She didn't want to see them right now.

Jane stood up, stretching her arms. "Do we have a deal, then?" she asked. "You make sure I stay dead the next time I dive off a roof, and you... well, you'll have whatever you want. I've got a lot of stuff left behind in my dorm. You can keep it. Just consider it a favor to me." She flashed Destiny that same old smile. "Settled?"

Destiny looked back up at her friend, the light slightly gone in her red eyes but it wasn't really noticeable. "Yeah.. Sure.." Destiny said keeping her words short. This was just helping a friend right? Not actually killing someone... yeah it was just helping someone, and she didn't have to do it right now.

Her smile widened. "Okay. Thanks, really." It looked like her company wasn't really welcomed anymore. The subject was kind of a downer, so she couldn't blame her. "I'll see ya around. Take care of yourself."

With that, Jane Grey waltzed back down the hill, whistling something sweet and cheerful.