Alfonso's Story

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Life stared at the flower in her hand. She twirled it, idly.

She sat in an old tree, bag full of supplies resting on her shoulder, her head leaned against the tree bark. She inhaled, slowly. The forest smelled of pine cones. The sun fell below the horizon, leaving the sky a lovely purple. It was slowly fading into dark blue--the last of light would soon fade, at least until day came again. In that moment, Life could feel a slight chill coming on--there was still a bit of cold left from winter, but the warmth of spring was slowly taking hold.

Frowning, she looked back down at the flower. It was a bright yellow. Petals sprang from its brown, fuzzy center, reminding her of the sun. She brushed one hand against the ends of the flower--if one looked closely, they could see the tips beginning to turn brown. The most beautiful of things die the quickest.

Wind blew. Her hair swooshed to the side, strands sticking to her face. Sighing, she let go of the stem, letting the flower float away. There was no reason to keep it around just to watch it die, she supposed.

Night was coming. It was going to get colder. She unzipped her tan bag and wrapped a warm, black blanket around herself. She'd had many warm things left over from winter, but she'd sold most of them, considering spring was now here. The only warm things she had left now were her blanket, a pair of mittens, and an itchy scarf.

I've been reduced to so little, she thought, idly. I was the sun that everything revolved around, and now I'm just another creature struggling to survive. Is this what I'm always going to be?

She huffed, fists balling slightly. A long time ago, she'd lost count. She'd lost count of how many days, months, years, and centuries she'd spent as a human--another component in the food chain. Admittedly, even in that moment, she wondered why she bothered pining over something long gone. Had she not resigned herself to her fate long ago?

'No use in crying over spilled milk,' as the humans liked to say.

There was nothing she could do, and that was the truth of it. Sitting in the tree, Life knew this, and a small part of her wanted to be angry, but the rest was too exhausted. The world was cruel--perhaps it was her fault for making it that way.

Her eyes closed. Minutes passed. The forest stirred around her, and she listened. Birds whistled, leaves would shudder when the wind blew, and every now and then a squirrel would squeak. She loved the sound of life, because it made her proud. She created birds, trees, leaves, and squirrels. Everything owed its existence to her, and nothing ever forgot that.

At some point, in the midst of the quiet hum of nature, Life heard footsteps.

Her eyes flicked open and she looked around, quickly. She hadn't been expecting company.

Alfonso's slim hand stretched down to scratch his canine companion between the ears. The wolf beside him, long black fur flapping in the breeze, let out a low growl and arched her head into his touch.

Shoe had done a wonderful thing in leading Alfonso here. The dying rays of the sun left just enough light for him to make out the figure in the tree, and from Shoe's anxious behavior, Alfonso had a feeling he knew what kind of figure it was--a spirit.

The grass crunched beneath his boots. Alfonso wished for a way to minimize the sound his footsteps made, but that wasn't his main concern: his main concern was somehow figuring out just who it was he was about to confront. Beside him, Shoe howled softly, arching her head towards the quickly lowering sun and dark eyes already seeking out the twinkling stars. Her ears twitched, and a paw was lifted to indicate the human's general direction. Shoe nudged the back of Alfonso's knee with her snout to try and get him to move faster.

"Patience, my dear, patience," Alfonso murmured, tugging at the tip of Shoe's ear. She wrenched her head away from him, growling. "You're so on-edge today, aren't you? Do you need a nap?"

Annoyed, Shoe trotted ahead and paused at the tree, circling it, her snout tilted in the air as she sniffed the human curiously. She scratched at the tree trunk, gazing in expectancy at Alfonso.

Parading around earth with nothing to do but collect souls got so boring sometimes. Alfonso much preferred spending time with the souls he already had. But his partner, his beloved little girl Shoe, only behaved in such an erratic manner when something particularly exciting was happening. Alfonso could only guess what kind of delectable creature she'd stumbled upon.

He made his way to the foot of the tree and glanced up at the girl in its branches, waving. He would work his magic after setting up a conversation; there was no need to suddenly blurt out, "Hi, so what entity of death are you? My wolf-spirit sidekick can smell your funky soul."

"A lovely evening, isn't it, dearie?"

Life stared down at Alfonso, unbelieving.

"A lovely evening, isn't it, dearie?"

She hesitated, heart hammering in her chest. There was so much to say. There was so much she was afraid of saying. This was the child of Death and Xenos, the people who'd sealed her away--was it wise to mention it? Then again, he probably already knew, considering this was even happening.

Was this happening? She felt suffocated all of the sudden.

To say the least, this had hit her out of the blue. She'd spent centuries searching, and one day, as she was sulking in a tree, one of them just walked up to her? Was this some kind of cruel joke?

Life swung her legs over the side of the tree branch. She clenched her fists to hide their trembling. She couldn't describe what she felt. Fear, excitement, hope, or some kind of sick amalgamation of all three. She wasn't sure what she wanted to feel, either. Her mind was swimming, her chest contracting.

Calm yourself, Life hissed internally. You're not a child.

She did realize the irony of that, considering she was in a child's body, but decided not to think about it too much.

After a long, quiet breath, she addressed Alfonso. "You could say that."

Life bit her lip. She was far too nervous for her own good.

"You are alone," he said. "Is this intentional, sweetie? Or do you wish for some company in that tree of yours?"

She thought. "When you're alone, you have all the time in the world to think."

The wind blew again, and she brushed her tousled hair out of her eyes. She watched the wolf at Alfonso's side. As far as she could tell, it was no normal wolf. It knew her identity at the very least--nuzzling ants, burying pine cones; no ordinary wolf would do that out of nowhere.

Life's eyes narrowed slightly. Now that she thought about it, it was the wolf that lead Alfonso here. As far as Life could tell, that was. Was the wolf simply a tracker, or did the wolf know and did Alfonso not? Perhaps both? Her heart was still beating out of her chest. She was afraid to make any assumptions.

For all she knew, this was a dream. She'd had this kind of dream before--running into another entity, getting her hopes up, and just as they began to interact, she'd wake up.

Part of her was waiting to be disappointed. She clenched her fists even more tightly. No point in stalling with small talk, she supposed. "Who are you, who are you with, and what do you want?"

The first question was meant to throw him off, more than anything.

"You don't like to mess around, I see. I must admit it's a charming feature," Alfonso murmured. Life didn't like the way he grinned. She couldn't quite tell why, but it unnerved her.

He bowed. "My name is Alfonso, I am with the entity known as Shoe--" he patted the wolf's head, "--though if you ask which side I'm with, I am with the entity of Death. And what I would love is for you to answer your own questions, sweet girl. You already knew who I was, didn't you? Now it is your turn to enlighten me. Shoe already knows you aren't a true human soul, and I get the same sense from you, darling."

The excitement stirring inside of her quickly melted into dread.

So he was with Death. It was a good thing she didn't shout her identity right off the bat, otherwise this already would've taken a very bad turn. She looked between Shoe and Alfonso--if this was a dream, it was probably more along the lines of a nightmare.

"Where's your sister?" Life pressed, avoiding his questions.

Bennie would be on Life's side, wouldn't she? Did Life even have anyone on her side? Her dread grew. She wasn't alone. She couldn't be alone--someone cared if the world died, didn't they?

Life grew antsy. She didn't know what Alfonso wanted. There was no point in seeking her out if she was already helpless. Something in the back of her head was screaming at her to run, but she was admittedly curious--on Death's side or not, this was the first entity she'd ran into in eons. She wasn't going to just run away.

She was safe in her tree, wasn't she?

Most certainly not, she thought.

Life scolded herself. She was supposed to be playing this coolly, and she'd already slipped up. If she was smart, she would've pried the fact that he had a sister out of him, and then asked about her. Her nerves were getting to her, and it was only getting worse--she was talking herself into more and more of a panic as the seconds passed.

Shoe scratched at Life's tree, whimpering. Frowning, Life pulled her legs back up onto the branch, and gave Shoe a look that said: I'm not coming down.

Not so surprisingly, animals were one of Life's soft spots--there was no way she could hate, or even dislike, one of her own creations. So naturally, Life felt somewhat attached to Shoe already, despite that she was really just an entity inside a wolf's body. It had crossed her mind that Shoe didn't like Life very much earlier on, but those fuzzy ears and beautiful eyes were too comforting for Life to care.

Her mind suddenly skipped back to what Alfonso had said. Bennie was searching. Life's first instinct was to ask what Bennie was searching for, but something told her she needed to be more careful. Clearly, asking questions willy nilly was not the right way to approach this.

"Hmm." She closed her eyes, briefly, trying to calm herself down. "What are you doing? Other than talking to me, I mean."

"What are you..." Life trailed off, the urge to run growing stronger. "What are you talking about? It's not like you have any special hold over souls aside from being an entity, right?"

Something about the look in his eyes was disturbing. Life wrapped her fingers around the branch she sat on, tensing up. She wasn't safe on her tree. It wouldn't take much to make her or the tree fall to the ground. She needed out, but she couldn't outrun Alfonso, and certainly not Shoe.

She glanced up, briefly. The tree she sat upon was tall. If she was desperate, she could climb up until she couldn't anymore, but all that would do was corner her.

Her brow furrowed. He'd mentioned someone named Ludovica. Upon not being able recognize the name, Life could only assume they'd had more children after she'd been sealed. It wasn't surprising, but it did worry her--she could run into an entity and not even realize it until it was too late.

Life's grip on the tree grew tighter. As always, she felt helpless.

"Indeed." Alfonso stood, reaching up a hand to touch the girl's ankle. "Not until they reach my realm, that is. Then I have all the control over them I want. Exhilarating, isn't it?"

Beside him, Shoe growled, arching her back. She glared at Life, her fangs bared.

Something similar to hunger was present in Alfonso's gaze--but upon close inspection, perhaps it was more like lust. Whether it was lust for blood or lust for Life was unclear. His hand continued to reach for Life--what he planned on doing if he caught her was unclear, but it was certain whatever it was would be very unpleasant.

A twig snapped to his left.



The same old souls, the same old entities, the same old activities. Bennie could only take so much before she needed a change of pace.

Her supply of souls was dwindling day by day. The earth was losing one human after another, each one being snatched up by one of her greedy family members before Bennie even had a chance to show up. It was why she'd taken to surveying earth personally, and taking advantage of her time to look for where Life had gotten sealed. Sure, having relations with Life hadn't been the most satisfactory experience of her life (Bennie awarded that honor to a sultry hooker she'd picked up after an STD claimed her life; "Gilly", she claimed her name was), but without Life, there was no...well, life. No more sultry hookers, no more cute little souls, no more anything.

Bennie couldn't stand it.

So naturally, when she realized her brother had cornered a poor young soul--a cute, female soul, at that--she absolutely had to step in.

The breeze tossed Bennie's wavy, red hair into her face. She held it away from her eyes with a hand, nails painted red, and focused her sight on where she'd tracked her brother to. Even in the twinkling light of dusk, his white hair seemed to glow.

Bennie's red heel snapped a twig.

"Step away from the little cutie, Alfie. One less soul in your creepy collection won't end the world, but one more might."

"I'm not telling you my name," Life hissed, continuing to climb. She paused halfway up another branch, however. "...Wait, you did it with your mother and your daughter?"

Come to think of it, he had a daughter?

Life shuddered, then continued to climb. She felt bad for the girl.

As she was reaching up for another branch, one thin but sharp twig cut across her arm. She bit her lip. It stung, but she would be fine. Again, she continued to go further up the tree. As far as she was concerned, higher meant safer.

Until something else terrible happened, of course.

"Why are you here?" She snapped at Bennie, suddenly. "Get out! Go away! What's the point in bothering me, anyway?"

"Ohoho, so the cat's out of the bag, is it?" Life replied, sneering. She tightened her grip on the branch above her, pulling herself up. "Whatever. I don't care. I don't care anymore, so there's no reason to bother me. You hear that? I've given up! Everything can rot away and die--I won't stop you!"

Another branch scraped her arm. She scowled, climbing onto the next branch. She was about to reach for the next, but she stopped, eyes narrowing. "No. No, you know what?"

She clenched her fists, turning and glaring at the two. "I do care. I'll always care, and I'll always keep trying to find a way to come back and spite you all. I'm never going to stop, and you're never going to stop me. I will always and forever be disgusted by your indifference to human souls, the pain they go through, and the beauty of their existence."

Life paused again, but the things that she'd been feeling over all of the years she'd spent sealed suddenly burst out of her. "How--how could you even be so cruel? So uncaring? How could you sit and watch as everything died? Do you enjoy watching daughters watch their mothers bleed out, or their brothers slowly die of disease? Do you enjoy watching children forget how to smile? Are you sadists?"

"I'm not coming down just so I can be mauled by a wolf," Life replied, frowning. "How do I know you're not lying, anyway? For all I know, this is a trap. And even if it isn't, how many entities are there now? How many are on Death's side? How would you 'keep me safe'?"

She opened her mouth to continue, but stopped halfway through her first word.

There was no point in talking.

The chances they were actually listening to her were low. Life needn't waste her breath. So she sat down on her current tree branch, placed one hand on the bark for support, and used the other to pull her supply bag into her lap. (She'd had it slung across her shoulder as she was climbing.)

"I'm never coming down," Life declared, taking a loaf of bread out of her bag and beginning to nibble at it.

Ludovica trotted through the forest, the grass crunching under her feet.

She marveled at the sound. Grass was itchy, dirty, smelled weird, and was a sickly shade of green. Aside from the occasional patch of dry dirt, it was everywhere. She was doing everyone a favor by stepping on it and the ants that scavenged for food, pathetically.

The girl took a deep breath. Fresh air was toxic. She hated it.

In fact, she hated forests. The only reason she was there was because she wanted to see her daughter, Shoe. It'd been too long until she hugged the wolf, and Ludovica always worried--Alfonso was dangerous. Ludovica hated him with all of her heart. To this day, she still wondered why Shoe stuck around him, but she wasn't going to make her daughter leave if she wanted to stay.

"...shoved it down your throat instead."

Ludovica raised an eyebrow. It seemed as though someone had gotten here before her, though she couldn't imagine why.

"Nine?" A young girl's voice prompted. Ludovica shuddered, figuring it could only belong to her father's next target. "You're even hornier than I remember. But it's nice to know there are at least a few of you on my side--unless you're lying, of course, which I'm sure you are."

"Lying about what?" Ludovica asked innocently, stepping into the small clearing. She brushed a delicate hand through her light pink hair, then waved to Shoe, her face a mask of content. "Oh, and hello."

Ludovica laughed lightly, kneeling down and running her fingers through Shoe's fur. She scratched the places she knew she loved, feeling the warmth of Shoe's fur on her hands. In this disgusting, worthless, dying sh*thole called a world, Ludovica found the only things worth anything were her children. They were her light, her sun, her everything. She didn't want to live if she had to live without them.

Her father, not so much. Even to this day, it made her sick to act sweet in front of him, but she was true to who she pretended to be. No one in her family knew of her true demeanor, and she was going to keep it that way. "A little bit. I came out to see you and Shoe, really. It's a pleasure to see you here though, Aunt Bennie."

"There are many reasons to lie," the girl in the tree said to Bennie. She ran her eyes over Ludovica, looking somewhat curious, but mostly skeptical. "So this is Ludo--... ah, what was it? I can't remember."

Ludovica glanced at the girl. "Ludovica. It's nice to meet you."

"I'm sure," the girl replied, somewhat dryly. She took a bite of the bread in her hands.

Well, you're a pleasant little sh*t, aren't you? Ludovica thought, internally frowning. She did sense a lot of squirrels around, so if she really wanted to, she could sic an army of them on the girl and be done with her right off the bat.

But if she did that, her father and Bennie would ask why, and that would be tiring, so she decided she'd hold back. At least, until the opportunity came. Nothing was better than watching a human scream as wild animals tore into their flesh, after all.

This is Life?

Ludovica moved to see Life, careful to keep her expression blank. She looked the girl over, up and down. With plain black hair and a disgustingly normal face, she was hiding up in her tree, like any scared animal would.

"Life," Ludovica muttered, the name suddenly sounding weird on her lips. Something was lacking. There used to be power in that word, but looking at the real Life for the first time, it had faded. "Life."

Ludovica continued to run her hand through Shoe's fur. In complete honesty, she wasn't sure what she was supposed to be feeling--pity? Indifference? Disgust? Maybe there was nothing to feel, but everyone talked so much about Life and Death. Ludovica briefly remembered when she'd first met Death--she felt suffocated. The air around her felt dead, the woman's eyes pierced Ludovica's skin. Her very presence commanded so much fear and respect.

Naturally, Ludovica had always held Life to the same standard, expecting the same powerful feeling. But looking at her then, in that moment, there was nothing more than a little girl trapped in a tree.




It wasn't silly that Life was slowly starting to trust Bennie, was it? She glanced between Bennie and Ludovica, frowning.

Trust was a strong word.

But the more time went on, the more Life believed her. Bennie had named all of the entities--supposedly--and specifically pointed out the ones on Life's side. Making up specifics on the fly was difficult, and that Bennie mentioned Ludovica, who was here now, proved she wasn't just making names up.

Life bit her lip, nervously. She could still be lying, though. This could've easily been a setup. They could have planned this, they could be conspiring, secretly. They just wanted a way to lure her out, to gain her trust.

But why?

She paused. There was no point in going to all the trouble of gaining her trust if they could just shake her out of the tree. One of them could've broken the branch she sat on, started throwing pebbles, anything.

And there was something about the way Bennie stood now that comforted Life. For a moment, she believed she wasn't alone. She was hopeful. She wanted to believe she could save everything she'd worked so hard to create and nurture.

Life held her breath. Hope was invigorating. It was what separated life from death--Life from Death--and she'd almost forgotten what it felt like. Desperately wanting to cling to it, she addressed Bennie. "Alright, you said you'd keep me safe. How am I going to get out of this tree safely? Or this forest, for that matter?"

"I..." Life's mind raced, bouncing between the sudden and familiar attraction she felt to Bennie, what kind of bread crumbs she could leave, and the danger of leaving her tree. "Yeah, alright, I can do that."

Without missing a beat, she dug into her supply bag and took out a map of a small town and the area surrounding it. The town wasn't far off from the woods, and figured leaving a map for Bennie was the only way she could leave "bread crumbs" without cluing everyone else in on her location, as well.

The new entity with the long, pink hair and eerily calm red eyes--Ludovica, if Life remembered correctly--seemed somewhat torn between focusing on Bennie or Life, clearly already starting to be affected by the pheromones. Life herself was starting to be affected as well, but willed herself to focus on running.

She quickly lowered herself down the tree, jumping from branch to branch, ignoring any scratches or bruises she got along the way. Once on solid ground, she tossed the map to Bennie and ran without looking back.

Part of her felt like it was pointless to run, because there was nowhere to run to, and another part of her didn't want to run at all--but Life attributed that to the pheromones doing their magic.

Ignoring those feelings inside of her, she continued to run as fast as she could. There was a lot of doubt and despair building up inside of her, but there was also hope. And more than anything, Life knew she needed to cling to that hope, because that's what would keep her going. In that moment, she let the hope inside of her fester, and she felt brave again.

Life--life--could still flourish. Nothing else had to die. The world had potential, had room to grow and prosper, and that was one of the things Life loved about it so much.

Though Death--death--existed, life could still be never-ending.

Ludovica closed her eyes, shuddering internally. "With all due respect, Aunt Bennie, I'm actually strictly neutral when it comes to the whole.... Life v Death situation, so if you could..."

She trailed off, an unwelcome part of her not wanting to finish the sentence.

Thinking about it, Ludovica had never had a taste for women--or anyone, for that matter. She hated everyone and everything aside from her children, and the only reason she sought out their would-be fathers was simply because she wanted more children. Really, everyone else was completely and utterly disgusting.

Maybe that was why she hated this feeling so much--she knew it wasn't hers, and she knew the real her hated it, but she couldn't help but...

Ludovica's cheeks turned rosy. She bit the inside of her cheek. "Y-you really are a vixen, aren't you?"

A part of Ludovica almost cried out "wait" when Bennie left her side and sat beneath the tree.

"You act like you give people a choice," Ludovica started, somewhere between aroused and angry. Slowly, she treked over to Bennie, and took a seat next to her, running a hand through her own hair. "But really, you're manipulating them with your powers. You act like you're better than him, but on what grounds--your difference in taste and attack?"

Ludovica sighed, whimsically. "Even now..."

"Even now, you're doing it, and I almost hate you for it." She glanced over at Bennie, her eyes radiating lust.




His mother?

Life grew tense. Against all odds, it was another one, and she wasn't safe in a tree this time.

She stepped away from the newcomer, breathing still heavy. She looked him over, briefly, then glanced over her shoulder out of paranoia. At least he didn't know who she was--yet. Or what if he did?

Better yet, what if he was on her side?

Her heart raced. She doubted it. There was no way he'd end up here, out of the blue, and also happen to be on her side. That'd just be too coincidental, and not to mention, lucky.

Then again, her luck seemed to be all over the place. First she ran into a pedophile and his entity-smelling wolf, then his perverted sister who actually ended up helping her, and... well, Life wasn't so sure how to feel about Ludovica yet, but her first instinct was "don't trust anyone."

Speaking of trust and entities, however, there was the matter of this new gentleman now. "Who are you, a-and what do you want?"

She prepared herself for the worst.

Ludovica shuddered, suddenly.

Ludovica breathed out, blinking, then quickly stood. She felt a chill from the quick-coming night, and the urge to curl up, alone, in an old blanket overcame her.

It was the want to be alone that made her realize Bennie stopped. Suddenly, her anger welled up inside of her. More than anything, she hated feeling helpless--it was the same feeling she had around her father, and it was what she avoided more than anything else. No, on top of that, it was what she hated more than anything else, and feeling it then had sent her for a spin.

She was a second away from losing control, but she caught herself before anyone could see what she was really like.

In a flash, she was her fake, loving, peace-wanting self.

"W-wait," Ludovica called out to her father and aunt, "can't we settle this in a different way? Does it always have to end in aggression? I don't want to see my family fight."

I hope you both burn.




"In... in Life's name?" Life asked, unbelieving.

She thought back to her supposed allies. Bennie listed three people--Kayin, their child, herself, and who else? Part of her swore it was Malin--this entity's name, supposedly--but she was sure that was just her mind playing tricks on her. She just wanted it to be Malin, so she was remembering it as Malin, right?

Right?

She huffed. What would happen if she was wrong, and she trusted this person, and it backfired terribly?

But what if he really was on her side, and this was perhaps the best thing that could've happened?

Blinking, Life decided to let go of her skepticism. It was all or nothing, and she was desperate enough to believe him. What reason was there for him to lie anyway?

"I'll be blunt too. I'm Life, I'm exhausted, and there may well be a wolf after me--I can't really tell."

---

Kayin...sighed miserably, hanging his head. "I don't even know why I hope. It's clear you are not sincere, mother. Those words are like a dagger to my heart!"

"At least I'll always remember your name, Kayin," Life offered warmly, as she headed over to the door. She reached into her bag and pulled out a compass, glancing down at it briefly. "Come on, let's go. The longer we wait around here, the higher the chance we have of getting caught. We are in Quagmire, correct? The temple should be south of here..."

Kayin smiled gratefully at Life, following her to the door. "Yes, that's true. I love you, other mother! You're so much better than my other mother!"

Life chuckled to herself. "Likewise."

---

Niven stiffened, for once some genuine fear in his dark green eyes. He swallowed, pace slowing slightly.

"That's just like you, you know?" Niven mumbled as he walked, kicking a nearby stone. That slight headache from before turned from a slight annoyance to a throbbing pain in his head. He fought off a shudder, actively thinking about his next words in an attempt to keep his mind focused. "To hide behind Mom. It's pathetic. Maybe for once, you should fight your own battles."

Either way, I still have to listen to him right now, Niven lamented, sickness pooling in his stomach. How unbearable...