From the prompt: "Never too late to try again -- to save your soul..."
"The Awakening: Tobias"
“What will it do to me?” Tobias asked, following Death into the basement.
“It won’t hurt you,” Death assured him. “But it will make you more powerful.”
Tobias brushed dark hair out of his eyes and eyed the metal door warily. “More powerful how?”
“I explained this, remember?” Death rested one hand on the doorknob. “In a past life you were immortal, hence your power now.”
Tobias quirked a brow. “Past life insinuates death, immortality insinuates a...resistance to death.”
Death issued a sigh of longsuffering. “Immortals are beings who cannot die of natural causes, such as old age and sickness. We’re murdered, but even that is difficult.”
“So I was murdered.”
Death grimaced. “Not necessarily. It could’ve been an accident.”
Tobias sighed this time. He’d suspended his disbelief a long time ago. “So why am I not immortal now? I was immortal then.”
Death visibly resisted the urge to hit something. “Your soul is the same, but it was reborn into a human body. When I Awaken you, your body will be elevated.”
The doubtful expression on Tobias’s face didn’t waver.
“Think of it as amnesia. You don’t remember your past life and are incomplete. I’ll be Awakening your memories and your self, so you’ll still be you, but more so. Understand?”
“No, but let’s do this. I have to be immortal to finish my training, right? Let’s do this.”
Death opened the door and led Tobias into the circular stone chamber.
“Stand in the middle, shirt off,” Death instructed.
Tobias obeyed, shrugging off the t-shirt, self-conscious of the scrawny form he tried not to look at in the mirrors. He shivered, stepping into the center. Death reached out, holding his butterfly knife.
Tobias flinched back. “Hey.”
“Just one cut, shallow. It won’t hurt you.” Death brushed the dark strands out of Tobias’s face and drew the tip of his blade gently down the boy’s forehead, red blood beading in its wake. Tobias shut his eyes and swallowed hard.
“Here we go,” Death murmured, the blade snicking back into its case. He stepped back. “Hashteher, I call you.”
Tobias shivered again as a cool wind circled his ankles, slipping up his body like cold silk. Goosebumps prickled along his arms.
“Azdeha, Tiamat, come rouse your son,” Death continued.
Breath hitched in Tobias’s chest as an icy, inhuman hand closed over his throat, caressing.
“King of Serpents, Lord of the Basilisk, your heir claims his throne.”
“Yessss,” a soft voice hissed, stirring the air beside Tobias’s ear.
He clamped his eyes shut, plunging his own world into darkness.
Pain flared across his forehead, and he lifted one hand, pressing it to the warm stickiness. Ow!
“Zhuzzhivillu, Andrev,” a voice whispered.
Andrev? Andrev who? Tobias wondered, but an explosion of agony in his head cut off the train of thought. He tried to cry out but couldn’t, and lifted both hands to his head, clutching it desperately.
His mouth formed a silent ‘O’ as the pressure on his skull increased. It felt as if a hammer was trying to beat itself out of his head, or was it his mind? He was swallowed in darkness, pain hacking at his skull, those voices going round and round and round and round chanting that name...
Warm stickiness streamed down his face, and he screamed.
“Tobias! Tobias!” Death sounded a little frantic.
Tobias opened his eyes, swiped away the blood as the pain suddenly vanished. He accepted the towel from death and wiped clean his face.
“Do you remember anything?” Death asked.
Tobias shook his head. “No. I heard this name ‘Andrev’, but no.” He handed the towel back. “What the hell happened? You said it wouldn’t hurt!”
But he dismissed his complaint when he suddenly realized his new body. Oh. Oooohhh. He felt stronger, like he could lift a car and throw it over a skyscraper. He had utter control over his body – no more klutziness for him. He admired his new physique in the mirror, then saw his new face...and the five horns.
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© Agent Duo 2004