One-Shot

Eros and Thanatos the Gods of Life and Death. These two beings are the most valuable and important beings in all of creation! NOT!!!! There really isn’t anything great about them, especially when there is an anomaly such as me! The people of the two Gods look at me and run!!! I’ve been called many things, Schrodinger’s Monster is what stuck! I’m both alive and dead. I can’t remember when I was born, and can’t remember when I died. Hell, if I even was born or if I even ever died! I just know that I’m the ONLY UNDEAD roaming in this world! People are always saying how much they want to kill themselves, or how much they want to live, and how it’ll make them feel complete. Meanwhile I’m stuck in the middle! I don’t give a damn, and they’re all slaves to their beliefs.

Things changed when I met this young woman. She was average height, and her skin was this wheaty almost semi-sweet chocolate brown color. Her eyes were a Jade and her hair a dark brown-ish black color. It was long, frizzy, and full of curls. Her frame was as big as mine as when we bumped shoulders the both of us had winced. “Sorry about that!” She said to me in her off putting deep voice.

“Don’t worry about it.” I said as I rolled my shoulder causing it to regenerate and snap back into place.

“You look really familiar. Have we met before?”

“Sorry, can’t say we have.”

“Ah, well, that’s okay. You’ve just got one of those good faces, ya know?”

“I guess,” I replied before going to leave,

“What’s your name?” She asked,

“Why?” I replied with a cocked brow,

“Why not? I thought I’d get to know you!”

“Why?”

“Because isn’t that what life is about?” She remarked, “From the moment we live until the moment we die, it doesn’t matter what we do, as long as we live our lives to the fullest. So I want to live mine by getting to know as many people as possible.”

“Oh…uh-“

“I’ll start,” she replied, “I’m Lia.” As she held out her hand to me she said, “Lia Johnson. My dad is Black and my mother is half-Samoan and half-Hawaiian.”

“Oh, uh,” I replied as I lifted my hand to hers, “Yakuto. Yamazaki Yakuto.”

“Ah, so your name is Yamazaki.”

“My family name, yes. If you’d even call them that.”

“What do you mean?”

“Yakuto is the only name I remember. The only one I’ve ever had. But a long time ago, this woman took me in and fed me once. When asked by a family member, who the hell I was, she said that I’m part of the family.”

“Awww, that’s so nice. You were adopted then.”

“If you’d call it that,”

“I see,” she replied before beginning to think, “Say, have you ever been to the Retro Club?”

“Hmm? Retro Club?” 

“Yeah, it’s my favorite place to visit! Come on, I’ll buy you a drink!” The moment she took my hand I couldn’t really say no. Mostly because she had a death grip on me and I didn’t want to scare her by detaching my hand. When we reached the underground club, we sat at the bar. I couldn’t take my eyes off of her. Yeah, she was hot. But she was…different from everyone else. Usually people want to shove their suicidal beliefs and pro-life feelings down my throat. “So tell me about yourself.” She said leaning on her hand.

“What do you want to know?” 

“Anything really,” she replied, “I mean, unless you want me to make something up.”

“Nah, you don’t have to.” I said as the bartender came by and gave us our drinks and a small packet with two multicolored capsules in them. I picked up the packet to inspect it, “What the hell….?”

“They’re good for your health, but bad for your education.”

“What?” I asked turning to her,

She snorted before bursting out laughing, “The look on your face!” I gave a dull growl before, “They’re not drugs, they’re actually more like those Boba Poppers.” She opened her packet and put the capsules in her mouth before she took a swig of her drink. When she swallowed she let out a sigh of relief as she seemed to melt onto the bar, “They’re pill shaped so they’re easier to swallow. They really help neutralize the bad taste of the alcohol and instead release this massive burst of yummy natural flavors. The result is something really nice and relaxing! Like it’s solving all your problems.”

“Sounds like a drug….” I murmured looking at the small packet. No way that something natural could give you that effect. But…eh, OH WELLS! I pop the capsules in my mouth before taking a swig of the drink. The capsules then burst as I swallowed. At first I felt nothing, but then I felt SOMETHING! I saw…SOMETHING! I saw myself, knelt on my knees with my arms strung out beside me with my fists closed. Wrapped around my waist was barbed wire, the same barbed wire that was holding my arms up. My mind snapped out of it the moment I saw two giant Ouroboros in the air. One gold and white and the other silver and black.

“Gah!!!” I grunted as my head hit the floor,

“You okay?” Lia asked as she got off her seat and knelt beside me.

“I’m fine,” I replied as I quickly pulled my hand away from her. “What the hell was that?!”

“Hey, it wasn’t dru-“

“Don’t lie to me,” I growled as I got to my feet, “I should go.”

“And go where?” She asked as she touched my folded my arms.

“I don’t know, anywhere but here. I’ll probably just go ho-“

“But you don’t have a home.” She interrupted. Bitch? She took a deep breath before saying, “Look, don’t take this the wrong way, but I’ve been seeing you around a lot lately. You always seemed so….off, so different. Almost kinda like you didn’t know where you belonged. I know how you felt and-“

“What do you know about what I’m feeling?!”

“Because I-“ She caught herself before grabbing my wrist and dragging me outside. She took me around the building into an alleyway. She leaned in and whispered in my ear, “I am the daughter of a Man of Eros and a Woman of Thanatos.” She then backed away before scoffing, “I’m an impossibility!” She then shook her head, “Like you, I don’t know where I belong! I want to live, but at the same time I want to die.”

“That’s where we’re different.” I replied, “You’re very much alive, and I’m not. I don’t know when I was born, or if I was ever born. I also know that I died at some point, or maybe I’ve just always been dead. I don’t exactly want to die, but I’m tired of living.”

“Yeah, but…don’t you want to just experience life?! See where it takes you? See who you meet, where you go, who and what you love? It’s why I followed you around for so long, I just-“ She took a deep breath before she then gently nudged her fist against my chest, “I wanted to get to know you, because I wanted to ask you out. Am I alive? Yeah. Am I gonna die? Yeah. However, it’s those little in-betweens that’ll make my life and death much more satisfying.”

I sat there and paused to process what she just told me. Over the next 100 days the two of us spent lots of time together. We mostly did things she wanted to, which went from tame and calm, to reckless and dangerous. When it got dangerous I’d often be torn apart and then regenerate again, and she really seemed to accept it. She thought it “wicked cool”. On the night of the 100th day we laid in bed together after making love. I rolled to face her to see a smile stuck on her face. “Yakuto,”

“What’s up?”

“I love you.” She opened her eyes and continued, “You’ve made this life of mine so much better, in so many ways. You made me forget about wanting to focus on dying, or how much I want to live or create life. All I’ve ever been able to do with you is live in the here and now, and not be so obsessed about rushing everything. I truly got to experience what it means to be human.”

As I took everything in, I couldn’t get that image out of my head. Where I was tied up between the Ouroboros. However, everything changed. Lia came in and gave me the strength to stand up and break free. Making myself independent of the Gods. I had truly forgotten about them, and was able to experience all things life had to offer. As such, I replied with, “I love ya too.”