A Reaper knew the treacherous eddies of Death like the back of her hand, but today, they seemed colder, more cunning than usual. Daisy told herself it was just exhaustion, the fact that she had been here already, yanking souls through from life, handfuls at a time. A quick glance told her most of her former attackers had moved on, dragged away by the water, or perhaps just a grief all their own.
She felt Aislinn before she saw her, as was the case with all such venerable souls. Still, she was nearly upon the werewolf before she could convince herself of what had really happened.
Daisy approached carefully. Dead she may be, but she was also her employer's sister, and Daisy was not keen to get fired now. Not if Veti really was okay. She didn't think Aislinn would try to hurt her, but Daisy had been wrong many, many times before.
"You're Bossman's sister," she said abruptly, drawing a cone of silence around the ancient wolf. She was too far gone for Daisy to bring her back, but she would not have to succumb to Death's pull yet. Not if Daisy could help it. "I...mean Aislinn," she corrected after a moment.
"I thought...my frien--er...Veti. I thought she was...but...it's you. Um. Sorry."
The old wolf looked up to Daisy. She regarded the reaper with the same innocent curiosity that had been her hallmark in life, and her spirit form nodded sagely.
“It is not so tragic a thing,” Aislinn said, “Death I mean. Though I only just met its embrace, there is something freeing about it…” she paused to cant her head, as if listening to something far off, “…especially now knowing that your friend, and my packmate,” Aislinn added with a wolfen smile, “will see another moonrise.”
Aislinn’s wispy form shrugged, and her great werewolf body shook like a dog just coming from the rain. She regarded the pink-haired reaper as she finished.
“So, tell me, what now? Where do you take me? I have always enjoyed adventures, and I suppose truly that this shall be my last.”
She smiled again, waiting with hopeful eyes for what would come.
Daisy stared at the wolf for far longer than what was polite, especially considering her age and importance and all that. But it was far preferable -- at least in terms of reputability -- to the other thing she'd been about to do: smile.
She wanted to say something along the lines of, "For being related to Boss Man Wolf, you're not so bad." She decided against it. For all she knew, they might be that last kind words Aislinn ever heard, and even if Daisy didn't care much for politeness, she liked Veti, and she knew what the old wolf meant to her.
"I wish I could say," Daisy offered instead. "I dunno. They don't tell us that part. Guess it's supposed to be a surprise for us, too." She shrugged and started walking with no real apparent direction, though the young Reaper knew precisely where she was headed. Or as much as she could, anyway.
Aislinn regarded the reaper, disappointment evident upon her face.
“I see,” she said. “I suppose that the cosmos reserves that knowledge for those that have earned the right to make the journey. Fitting, I suppose.”
Something about the phrase "earned the right to make the journey" felt jarring, almost hurtful, but Daisy said nothing. All living beings, she had learned, had an obsession, for better or worse, with Death. Best not to spoil things at the last. There was an awkward silence for a moment, then Daisy continued on a whim.
"I brought another werewolf here once," she said idly, finding Aislinn's nature made her remarkably easy to talk to, even for Daisy. Even after she'd thought Veti was...but she wasn't. So it didn't matter.
"A year ago. He was Veti's friend, too. But he stabbed her, so he...y'know, he had to go." Daisy made a face. "Veti gets stabbed a lot. Or twice since I've known her. But that's, like, two more times than I've ever been stabbed."
She glanced at the wolf and might have blushed if she'd been human. Instead, she chewed her lip and pointed up ahead where a veil of fog and mist seemed to have risen from nowhere, a waterfall that seemed to fall upward and disappear into a haze of sepia-gray.
"That's your last stop," she said. "I can only take you as far as that. But I can make it easy...well, easier for you. Warmer, at least." She pasued awkwardly, trying to figure out how to word the next part.
The werewolf turned to look at the strange cascade of reddish-brown fog. Even for a creature that had seen several century’s worth of strange and otherworldly things, the fog was unsettling in a way Aislinn could not explain. She felt equal parts excitement and regret as she looked to it, feeling ultimately that this truly was the final step, the last moment in time that she could possess any connection with her time among the realm of the living.
"I...um...know...I mean...Veti," Daisy offered, staring at her feet. "And...and maybe Atticus. Boss Man Vampire...and...uh...your brother...I can...I mean, if you wanted...to...y'know, say something...I could...I could tell them for you. If you want."
When the reaper offered Aislinn the last gift she could give, the werewolf turned to her with ghostly tears welling in the corners of her eyes.
“I would…I would very much appreciate that.” Aislinn choked.
"Right, so -- " Daisy started awkwardly, half turning back toward the gate, then Aislinn. And then she stopped. Aislinn was crying. And Daisy was undone. She had had this conversation more times than she could count. And yet this one unnerved her for some reason. Perhaps it was only the knowledge that for once, she would be returning to the other side to pass on these futile condolences. And not just to anyone. To Veti. Again.
For a time Aislinn merely silently cried, her spirit-mind reeling with just what to say to the few that she loved enough to grant her final words. Her eyes fell to look at her fingers, spectral and pale in this strange realm of limbo. She clenched them and brushed the tips of them together, and a sob shook her as she felt nothing. Her mood, so genial and optimistic just a moment ago was dashed by the sinking reality of what lie ahead, and what she had been forced to leave behind.
Daisy waited while the werewolf settled herself, her own senses extending in every direction as she did, keenly aware that it would not do to tell Reginald Hoyle his sister's soul had been hijacked. And when at last she spoke, Daisy poured herself into memorizing every word, every instant of punctuation, the gentle cadences of the werewolf's backwards eulogy, her parting words to those she left behind.
“Tell Reginald,” she said, her voice a breathy whisper. “Tell Reginald that all his life he has done right by me. More than the bond of our blood ever required. Tell him I love him.”
Aislinn looked back into the reaper’s eyes. “For Victoria, tell her that though I barely knew her, that in my heart of hearts she was my sister. My packmate. My blood. In all my life I only ever had Reginald,” she smiled then, tears of joy now running across the soft fur of her face, “and she granted me that chance to belong to another of my own. Tell her that she gave me the greatest gift I have ever received.”
With tears still running from her eyes, Aislinn grew silent. Her gaze steeled to one of quiet resignation, and she lifted a hand to the reaper.
“I thank you, for all of your kindness. I am ready. Lead on.”
Daisy nodded once and took her hand and the two started toward the wall of mist.
"You shouldn't thank me," she said quietly.
Aislinn frowned at little, slightly taken aback by the reaper's words as she took her hand. She said nothing in response however, as the inquiry seemed as unnecessary as it was futile. This was truly the end, and whatever came beyond this period of brief purgatory would be soon at hand.
She allowed the reaper to lead her forward, and Aislinn watched with wide eyes as the ghostly wall soon dominated the whole of her vision. Tendrils of mist touched her flesh, and she thought that it surely must be cold, but again no sensation came to pucker her skin. A shiver coursed over her body nonetheless, and Aislinn gave the reaper's hand and hard squeeze.
Now the mist enveloped the whole of her. Her eyes knew only the sepia swirl that had become her world, and with a thought that came like a hazy memory, Aislinn looked down to see that the reaper no longer gripped her hand. With a strange and warming calm she turned about in place, realizing with the same detachment as the previous thought that this sense must be the final gift of the reaper. She smiled then, relishing this last piece of kindness she would ever know like the fading face of Mother Moon as the Sun came to obscure her silvery light.
She looked upward into the mist, and with the smile etched upon her woflen face, Aislinn Hoyle stepped forward into arms of oblivion, and she knew no more.
--
The trip back was quick, uneventful. It had to be. Artie was pissed and Daisy was tired, and saying goodbye -- had she ever even said it? Those actual words? -- to Aislinn had been...Daisy was ready for sunlight again, even if she couldn't feel it's warmth.
By the time she reached what was left of the London quarters, it was only Boss Man and his sister. Or what was left of her. She could still feel a seething rage rolling off Artie, but he had reduced himself out of respect, a small black vulpine thing waiting patiently for its keeper at the edge of the shade gate. Daisy silenced his advances with a look before carefully, quietly, as reverently as she could, approaching the grieving wolf.
"I...Mr...um..." Daisy stopped herself and took what would have amounted to a deep breath if she were alive. There was a time, she knew, to be petty and childish and uncertain, and Daisy was not the last of these on her best days. The wolf deserved a fitting goodbye, free of sarcasm and teenaged nuances.
"I...found your sister. I went after her. I thought...it doesn't matter. But you should know she went safely. She's happy. Or...she's content. And she wanted me to tell you...she said...you always did right by her. More than she thought she deserved. She said she loves you."
She left it there a moment, a cheaper paraphrase of words she could never in a hundred years hope to duplicate. And she started to leave the wolf to himself, to follow the others and give him the time she knew he wanted alone.
But she stopped herself again, this time, quieter, careful. As young and innocent, perhaps, as Daisy had ever been.
"Mr. Hoyle?" she started, not quite making eye contact. "I...I've been doing this a long time. Or I think I have, it's hard to know sometimes, and...uh. Never mind. I just mean...I've seen a lot of people go through those gates. Humans and werewolves and vampires. That thing...what they say in the movies, about people showing who they really are in their last moments...it's truer than most mortal creatures know. And Aislinn..." Daisy shrugged, awkward, helpless.
"I just thought you might want to know she saw you. I won't say I'm sorry for you loss. That makes it sound like someone stole your bike, instead of...instead of her. So, I'll just say that. She saw you."
And then she stepped backwards through the gate and was gone.