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Thanos seemed to change over the next several days. He withdrew, avoiding contact with me whenever he could. It caused an uneasy feeling in my gut, one I couldn't ignore. It was always present, gnawing at my insides and making me feel ill. I couldn't help but think that something bad was going to happen, especially with us separated like this. The void seemed to be growing and it made me feel quite alone. I went about my job as best as I could, all the while trying to push everything else aside while I did the duties required of my position.
One day I found myself finishing early and I knew what would happen if I went back to the facility. It would be filled with awkward silence and occasional side long glances when the other person wasn't looking. I didn't know how much longer I could take it so I did the only thing I could to avoid that scenario again. I went to the mall, just to get away from everything and to try and relax.
The mall was bustling with activity, filled with people, so many that it took me several minutes to actually adjust to it. It made me realize that I spent so much time either on my own or just with Thanos or the person I was to Reap. The feeling of being around so many others was so overwhelming that I simply walked around, taking in everything around me. As I walked, I found that my thoughts consumed me, much as they always did. Especially these past few days, those thoughts revolved around Thanos and whatever was going on with our work relationship. Why couldn't he just tell me what was going on? It wasn't like he had to hide any of this from me. After everything I had gone through, didn't I deserve to know the truth? I wanted actual answers as to why he was pulling away as much as he was. If he had feelings for me then there was no reason to run away from that.
I knew I wasn't going to run from it any longer. Somehow I would find a way to confront him and to tell him that all of this was utterly ridiculous. And somehow I was going to get through to him. I had no idea how exactly to do that just yet but it was going to happen. What I felt...what we felt, there was no use denying it. I knew I didn't exactly know a lot about how these things were supposed to work but I was going to trust my instincts and go with it. That sounded like the best idea and as soon as I calmed myself down I would seek Thanos out and tell him it was time for us to talk, to clear the air, and figure out what we were going to do next.
I stopped at the center of the mall, staring at the large fountain that took up the entire atrium area. There were children around it throwing in pennies as they made wishes and more than a few couples sat at the benches surrounding the fountain as they had make-out sessions that would make most parents yell at them about public displays and yet no one seemed to be saying anything. It was such a peaceful normal sight. It reminded me of the days when things were a lot less complicated, when I actually had my tight-knit group of friends to spend time with.
That was what I missed most about being a Resurrector; I wanted to be around my friends again, to know that I wasn't completely alone. With Thanos acting so strangely I really did have far too much time by myself and it was enough to drive me to the brink of insanity. It’s funny that I used to run off from my friends and take on extra work because dealing with all of their emotional drama and such sometimes seemed exhausting, but now that all I literally had was work, I longed for the times spent goofing off with all of them. When I finished at the mall I would go back to the facility and track Thanos down. He was the only person I had left in my life, and I was going to find a way to make the relationship work.
We needed to talk or we were both going to lose ourselves to the loneliness. Well, perhaps Thanos wouldn't lose himself; it was obvious he had been alone for a considerable amount of time, especially considering how short a time the other Angels of Death seemed to stay around because of their contracts. I didn't want to leave him, not for many years, if ever. As much as I missed my friends I had come to realize that program the Leaders and the Resurrectors had, their belief system just wasn't completely accurate. Both sides of the story didn't exist. It was simply everyone needed to survive.
Here, working as the Angel of Death, I was able to see that some deaths were actually necessary, that they forced us to grow as people. Sometimes death was difficult to bear but it had to happen. Without death the population would grow to a size that the world would not be able to sustain and it would cause the resources to diminish and then disappear completely. It was a fulfilling job to be able to help far more people than I had previously. Death changed people and the effect of death caused a ripple through the relationships and lives of those around the deceased. We learned about ourselves by dealing with issues, both good and bad; they shaped our characters and I could see that now.
Smiling slightly, I turned to look around the mall, taking in all the sights of all the people spending time together and enjoying themselves. But after turning around to look behind me I saw something I hadn't expected at all. There were Resurrectors here, quite a few of them. I assumed most of them were in the higher levels of training because I didn’t recognize any of them. It made me glad to see that they were replenishing their numbers, even if their reason for being wasn't completely correct. Someday perhaps we would be able to get them to see the truth and they would change their ways. Of course it wasn't the presence of the Resurrectors-in-training that caused my eyes to widen. No, it was who else was there with them.
The Leaders…all five of them.
I had a feeling that they were after something, especially due to the gleam in their eyes. Of course it only took a few seconds to figure out what that was. Every single pair of eyes was focused on me. Most had their feelings hidden behind a mask of what appeared to be boredom, except for Samuel who looked pissed off and Josiah, who I could not tell if he looked pleased or concerned. Odd. I turned around to walk away from them just to find that they had already anticipated that and blocked off my exits with those in training. I whipped back around to face the Leaders. "What do you want?" I asked, looking at each of them in turn. My gaze ended on Samuel.
"You," he said.
I tried to disappear in that all too familiar gray mist but to no avail. Somehow they had discovered how to keep me from traveling. They moved faster than I had thought possible for them and even though the Angel of Death could stop a Resurrector in his or her tracks to get to a charge, I could not stop them now. They overtook me and the last thing I felt was something hard crushing into the back of my head before everything around me drowned in darkness.
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Project Death: Resurrection Page 24