Spirit Wars by Mon D Rea Read Free Book Online Page A

much automatic so I just sit back and watch them at work.
In a few rare cases, I can stop them to grant an extension like what I did with
the woman’s father or if I ever wanted to pick a random soul up in person.
 But most of the time even if I want to, I just think, To hell with it .
To me, a person alive a little longer isn’t any different from one who’s
already stiff. So once your appointment comes up on the Interweave, that’s all
there is to it. There’s nothing that can change that except my… Presidential
Pardon, if you wish to call it that.
    “But it’s all a matter of perspective, naturally. To the Crows,
I’m the unnecessary bureaucrat of Necro City and they’re always this –” he
makes the equivalent gesture with his thumb and index finger – “close to
booting me out.
    “Especially now that I have a flaw growing inside me. This… love ,”
he hisses. “This human emotion that’s been nesting inside my chest, little by
little overrunning the space where there was once nothing but dust and swirls
of abysmal matter. I was a fool not to notice that the more I hid it, the more
it blazed and consumed me. Now here I am burning feverishly with it. I cannot
allow this. Not with the Crows watching me at every turn, smelling something
different in me, peering at my thoughts and guessing my weakness.”
    I can sense it in Death's voice, the truth of it all. The Angel of Death sounds hunted, like a graying alpha lion now
feeling the weight of leading its pride.
    “And
so, I have sought the counsel of every seer, warlock and witch in all the
territories of Necro City. Privately of course. They were all baffled by this
malady except one. An ancient creature like Death itself. She whose many eyes
pierce the intricate network of Wyrm-tunnels, from the pettiness of human lives
to the grand sweep of the universes. She whose nature it is to spin and to
plot: the Fate Weaver, the Spin Doctor Spinstra.
    “She
instructed me that, because it is a human condition it should be treated
following the ways of humans. And so I have labored to understand a little of
your world – the world of my inferior and prey, can you imagine? Like a monk I
pored over tome after tomes in huge mausoleums of paper (after I gave up on the
World Wide Web) till I came upon the most promising solution to my troubles.”
    An
unmistakably human sigh.
    “Instead
of keeping this feeling secret, I must confess it to no less than the source.
Only then shall I be released and cured of this insanity.”
    At
first, nothing makes sense. Then it comes to me with the flung weight of a
bullet train. 
    “What are you saying? You want to... propose to her?”
    “Yes. This you will help me do,” he speaks matter-of-factly.
“Since the only way to conquer love is to yield to it, I shall allow myself to
be swallowed by it whole. Isn’t that what your philosophers say? I have to face
my fear of rejection and walk through the fire. If I come back unscathed, then
I will be twice as strong as I was. And nothing can touch me. I used to bask in the scent of human fear. As corny as it is now, in order
for Death to continue existing, Death must also be loved. And theoretically, a
lover who makes a human fall shall have a claim on both her heart and soul.
Yes, there’s this tiny clause in the Book of Life and Death that speaks of
this.”
    I can't believe it. Here I am surrounded by the crackling fires of
hell thousands of kilometers below surface and this demon-lord who holds the
key to my cell, all he can talk about is his sick, preposterous love! 
    “I have a better idea...” I look at him from the top of my eyes
and through a malicious smirk scrunching my face. “ How about I just sit
back and watch those fucked-up bird monsters of yours
tear you to fucking pieces?!!”
    I spit the words out in boiling anger. I myself am taken
aback by this outburst. It’s like I’m so full of rage I could just strangle
someone to the last shuddering breath. I