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LOG 1

Samara kept drinking her tea. She didn’t really need sustenance, it was rather a force of habit. A tragic accident was about to occur. A building would fall and for a few moments there would trapped and enclosed breathing, then there would be the fresh and lingering allure of death. She could smell it already, the scent of impending doom. As she sipped her tea quietly, the building fell. Red shoes stuck out underneath…She walked across the street rather invisible and she helped the trapped soul up. He was coughing rather hoarsely.

“Am I going to be okay?” He started brushing himself off as he looked down.
She sighed, “I’m afraid you’re dead. You just died.”
He took a gulp as he looked at his still body, the lifeless shoes sticking out. “So I’m gone….? That’s it. Just like a candle snuffed out?”
“Pretty much.” She shrugged.
“What happens now?”
“Well you go on.”
“On? Where?” He looked at her questioning.
“I’m afraid I don’t know. That’s entirely up to your life. Sometimes it’s nothing and sometimes everything.”
“I see.”
She grabbed his arm firmly ready to step forward. She heard some coughing and sensed death. “Oh…it’s another. He wasn’t on my list.” She rummaged in her pockets and there was a no new name, but she smelt the fresh scent of death. She called out tentatively, “Gaspar?”
There was a hacking cough as he brushed himself off and stood. “I do believe I was supposed to die that time. Good thing it’s not possible.” He smiled as he pushed a broken rib back into his skin. The skin melted and bubbled a bit for a few minutes until it looked weeks old. “That was a bit…traumatizing.”
Samara stood there with the other man. “I’m not sure I understand.”
“Well you see. I made a deal with the devil, with Houdini. My immortality for magic and reading of souls.”
She shrugged. “But do I collect you or not? I’m not entirely sure.” Her brow furrowed, “I’ve never been in this situation before.”
“Well I’m sure it’s quite a unique one.”
“I’m terribly afraid so.” She consulted her list and Gaspar’s name was there, and it was faintly struck through. She reached out with her essence for his soul and sensed nothing. “It seems there’s nothing to collect. Not really…you seem….empty.”
“So I have no soul?” He touched himself as if he would be able to feel it. “That’s rather I odd, I believe.”
“Well everyone but you has a soul apparently.”
The pony beside her coughed impatiently. “I thought we were going.”
She nodded. “Well….Gaspar. May luck stay with you, until we meet again. She consulted her list, his name had moved down about five but it was there clearly. “I think I’ll be seeing you again very soon.” She opened a portal and grabbed the ponies arm firmly. “Let’s go.” She walked into Oblivion.

This time she was in Baghdad. She enjoyed the hustle and bustle of the main street. In a few more hours, she’d meet him again in Cairo, but of course she wouldn’t say yet. He hadn’t decided to go there exactly yet.
Gaspar had become a rather troubling problem. She was now meeting him at least once a day. Today she’d already met him twice. She was feeling pretty down. Samara had never failed her job before, but today was being rather difficult. Feeling wasn’t one of her particular strong points, but today she was remembering a lot of things. The past was very real today, she could smell the streets of Cairo and knowing she’d be there tonight….it both frightened and terrified her. Today it would become real again.
The whole situation was rather depressing. Death would keep coming for him, and she would know him more and more…and he…he would keep not dying until he possibly did. But could he ever? Was it really possible for him to die? Could one soul just go on and on and never die? Never be collected? Eternal nothing….was it really possible to be in that blackest of night, that in-between world forever?
How did if feel to go on forever? Did it feel very much like she did? Would her life continue on busily forever like this? No sleep…no rest, just the soft comfort of tea and the bustle of the cities and the burning heat of the deserts? Or would there be different locations? More exciting locales, deaths and people? Would there be change or would life, if you called it such, simply go on like this forever? Was there a time limit for her soul? A clause? A change?
She sighed as she sipped her ice cold tea. It was uncharacteristically cool this evening as the sun was falling and the sky glowed crimson. Her eyes felt a bit burning as her tears stung her eyes a bit. She was thinking of the man who had once been Jasper. Oh how she had loved that pony…how she had so willingly traded her very soul for his only to die days later in his arms…To see him marry and have children within a year. To see him grow old and die….it had been so tragic when she had came to collect the man she loved. And oh, oh how she had loved him! Her very heart had stopped when she saw his face. And when she had come in the dark of night to take him, he’d been quiet and waiting.

“I knew you’d come.” He drank the last dregs of his coffee. “I’ve been waiting. I could feel you approaching. Somehow,” He blinked slowly, “Somehow I always knew it would be you. That we would meet again in the next life.”
She sat down and reached for his hand as he sat there breathing heavily. “This isn’t quite the end yet. It’s not quite time. I came to warn you.”
“But my dear,” he patted her sympathetically. “I know. I’ve known for days.”
She swiped at her eyes. “I thought a warning would be nice, though I knew…I knew you’d suspect.”

He sighed deeply, his breathing was a bit distressed. “How long do I have?”
She gripped his hands tightly, “Maybe about five hours….It’s time to say goodbye.”
“My dear, I’ve said my goodbyes before they slept. They of course don’t know, but I did. I think Maria suspected.”
“She would.”
“She’s very tired.”
“It won’t be long before she joins you.”
“I thought it might not be.”
She leaned forward as the tears fell softly, “God, how I loved you! How I would have, how I did give everything for you and only to lose you…but I would do it all again for those minutes.”
“I’ll always remember those last days. Knowing you were going and how I couldn’t stop you….and I had to watch and love and listen to you die. It was too much to bear. But I loved again…I found my sweet Maria.”
She placed her hoof softly on his cheek, “And I only ever loved you.” She closed her eyes. “I’m not busy, would you like me stay with you?”
He nodded slowly. “There’s so much I’d like to ask.”
“There’s so little to tell.”
She watched him as he blinked slowly and coughed deeply. Leaning forward her lips touched his softly, almost without feeling but with a passion quivering on her lips. “Oh how I loved you…”

LOG 5

“Do you believe in fate?” Samara was coming her long, long hair.
“In a way.” Gaspar sat down gently on the bed. He had been stabbed a few hours before and he was feeling a bit sore and tired but very much alive.
Samara gave her customary frown. “Well you either do or don’t.”
“Then yes.”
“Yes?”
“Well it brought me to you didn’t it.” He kissed the back of her wrist gently as her body tingled all over. His lips traveled over to the soft spot at the nape of her neck. “You’re beautiful. And in what other life would death find me and love me.”
“Im not death.”
“Close enough.”
“More like the Grim Reaper.”
“Collector of all souls but mine.”
“You might die one day soon. What would I do?” Her eyes looked up at him tragically. “I can’t bear to lose my love again, to lose you…” She wiped away a tear. “I’m not usually so weepy.”
He nodded. “It’s been a rough time for you. To understand what you’re not meant to.”
“Is there a time limit?”
“Pardon?” He raise his eyebrow.
“Is there a point you can ever really die?”
“No, never. Eternity is ours.”
“I wonder if it’ll go on or just keep…going. Will you always be dying?”
“I don’t know.” He leaned forward his lips only a space from hers. “I’m going to kiss you now.” His lips reached forward hungrily and he kissed her softly and gently. Passion overtook him and his lips moved over her as his hooves moved down her body and he was on top her. And they spent hours of ecstasy, and they loved and loved again and again…and again. The night carried on and they never tired and something deep within them connected.
They laid there in the afterglow after they’re final go. They were exhausted. She laid there naked with the sheet wrapped around her. “You were wonderful.”
“How’d it feel for you?”
“Blissful, I felt real again. It’s the first time in a thousand years.”
“Has it been that long?”
“A thousand and fifty seven years, 3 days, four hours and 5 minutes.”
“That’s pretty exact.”
“You always remember the last time.”
“Does this compare?”
“It’s better. I love you more than I loved him. I didn’t think that was possible.”
“Love goes on after death.”
“But I thought it would be the same love. He’s faded. Just a memory.”
“And I’m real?”
“Very much so.”
“Do you sleep?”
“No.”
“Can we snuggle while I do?”
“I’d love to.” She nestled down to him and she closed her eyes not needing to breathe though her lungs felt a bit oppressed. “I love you.”
“As do I.” It wasn’t long before she drifted off and DEATH stood waiting across the room. Wrapping the sheet around her, she walked to him and bowed her head. “My Master…”

LOG 7

Gaspar woke up to Samara looking down on him smiling. Her face was lined and tired. “You didn’t rest?” He leaned forward to kiss her neck gently.
“I had a business meeting.”
“How’d that go?” He stretched lazily beneath the sheets, enjoying the left over warmth.
“It was…interesting to say the least.” She frowned slightly.
“What’s wrong? Something is wrong.”
“You’re going to be made an offer. Until then….I’m permanently reassigned to you.”
Gaspar laughed hoarsely. “There’s no way I’m taking any offer. I’m sitting rather pretty, you know.”
She shrugged nonchantly, “I was told it would be hard if not impossible to refuse.”
Gaspar frowned. “I wonder what that could be about….”
Samara shrugged. She had stopped trying to understand this…this. It was too difficult. Life was too hard, to understand death was even harder. She sighed loudly, “Death is more difficult than life.”
“How’s that?”
“Well life has meaning, and death has….” She shrugged boldly.
“Well I think death has meaning to.”
“Do you really?”
“Well…I think there can be a purpose for dying. I would trade my soul for very few things.”
“Does it hurt?”
Gaspar frowned. “To not have a soul?” He shrugged a little, “I rarely remember. Sometimes I feel….a bit empty and desolate like there is something missing, but the mood soon passes.”
Samara closed her eyes. She had suspected something like that. “I had wondered.” She placed her hoof gently on his chest where his heart was oddly vacant and silent. “It’s so interesting to make love to a dead man.”
“I imagine.”
“There’s no racing heart, but there’s pulsing blood. Sometimes a faint pulsing throb. It was…unique, but wonderful.”
“The science of it is unique to be sure. But it all works in the end….somehow.” He laughed rather vaguely.
“Do you think this was meant to be? That we were meant to love in…death? In this afterlife?” Thoughts of Jasper filled her mind.
“I think that we would have found each other whenever we lived. I think we were destined.”
“But by that means you should die.”
“I might.”
“Promise me you will trade your soul for nothing. Promise me?” Her eyes pleaded.
“I can’t promise that, but I assure you it won’t be lightly. What if they offered me a whole new life or my soul back?”
“Would you miss it or need it that much?”
“No, but it’s a nice asset to have.”
“It does you no good. You can only die with it.”
“But I’m tired.”
Her eyes flashed darkly at him. “Don’t be tired. You have forever. You have me….We can love for aeons.”
Pulling her closely, he kissed her. “It wouldn’t be lightly.”

LOG 9

Gaspar was afraid, more afraid than he had ever been in his life. Funny, the way he thought of it as “life” when he was truly dead. His mind thought of the irony of it for a few minutes, before drifting back at the difficulty before him.

Samara walked into the room and his eyes drifted over her. She looked like she’d been crying and her eyes would not meet his. He got up to walk to her, to speak with her but DEATH was impatient.

Through the portal DEATH came, offering them not a moment of alone time. Gaspar tried to will her eyes to look at him, but she would not.

DEATH spoke. “Your answer.”

Gaspar glared at him. “I need to talk with her.”

DEATH laughed, “Your answer. She cannot speak, she is under my power.”

Gaspar looked to Samara, the soft tears streaking down her lovely face. “I’ve made my decision.” He shut his eyes as he gave the verdict. “I choose to live….forever.”

DEATH frowned. “And that be your final answer?”

“Yes.”

“You’ve lost more than you know.” DEATH then faded into darkness.

Samara’s eyes came up sharply to Gaspar’s, but she could not speak. Darkness swirled around her and overtook her slowly.

“NO!” Gaspar’s cry was more beast than anything, “No!” As she faded, he tried to touch her…but she was beyond his reach.