A Change of Hands | Teen Ink

A Change of Hands MAG

By Anonymous

     “Name, mistress?”

“Maria Sanolvi Arino,” muttered Death.

“And do you know your charge?”

She turned to face the tall boy dressed in warrior’s clothes. How young they set out to conquer the world! Had it always been this way?

“I can guess well enough,” she said.

“Murder, first degree. Witchcraft. Heresy.” He leaned toward her. “There’s something else, something not quite right about you, Ms. Arino. The people fear you. They want you dead. Do you understand?”

“The people want me dead,” she repeated.

“I don't know what to do. You have demonstrated certain ...” he was loathe to say powers “... abilities that go beyond what might be considered natural. You walk through a garden and it grows twice as lush as the one next door. You touch a girl and free her from her nightmares. You refuse to visit a house and the son comes down with a fever. How can you do these things?” He peered into her eyes as if hoping to glimpse the answer hiding there.

“The truth is a powerful thing,” she said, and the interrogator paled visibly.

“Let me make your situation a bit clearer, mistress. Technically, you have done nothing wrong. Stop these strange acts and I may be able to let you go. But continue and I will have no choice but to hang you.”

“And?” prompted Death.

“And others are beginning to follow in your footsteps. The Petrici girl, for one. Katharine. A fortnight ago her mother found her in the yard holding a pigeon with a snapped neck. After a second it flew away. Thought her eyes were deceiving her. But we know better, you and I, don’t we?”

“Yes.” This was an interesting development. She knew that the position of Death was served in terms of a thousand years in an attempt to keep the messenger of foul tidings from going mad. Or madder. By that measure, her time was almost up. She had stopped caring about her job, stopped feeling like a human should. Death fed on the soul, unrolling compassion and regret until there was nothing left inside. Soon the limbo between the two worlds would consume her entirely and another would have to take her place. She sighed. “Only too well, my fellow.”

“You’ll cease, then?” He was barely more than a child, really. She could sense it in his lack of guilt. And there was no hatred burning in his eyes. She knew he’d keep his word if he could.

“I can’t.”

“Well, then.” He spread his hands wide, but the gesture seemed too large on him, like an overcoat borrowed from an older man. “Will you repent your sins, at least?”

“No, I cannot do that either.”

“Come now, even a child repents on Sunday morn. Surely you can do at least this and free both our consciences?” He was pleading with her now. She felt nauseated and turned to look at her lap. Yes, Maria’s time as Death was almost certainly up.

“You misunderstand me. I cannot sin. To sin is to have a choice, to be human, and I have neither alternatives nor humanity. What is in my nature, I cannot change. My role is as necessary as any other, and for my burden I am not obliged to apologize.” The woman was torn to the point of breaking. This could not go on much longer without some dire consequence.

“Then I will be sorry for you. May God grant you peace in Heaven.” His face closed suddenly, and she knew that they were done. It was time to look in the mirror once again, perhaps for the last time.

The woman, or the thing like a woman, walked through a corridor between the bodies that pressed together like a wall of jeering flesh. The sky was tinted red, not only in her mind as it had been many times before, but truly darkened, finally corrupted beyond repair. She was unable to make out the words the crowd was shouting, if indeed individual words existed among that hysteria, but she could feel the intensity of their hatred on her skin like pulsing heat. The death wish remained the same through the ages. It was time to move on, and their voices pushed her forward into the abyss.

If only they knew the futility of their fervor. What good was a threat of death thrown in the very face of the beast? Death had come into the world even as life itself was stirring. They were one. What good was it to defeat death, only to see your own face staring back from the corpse’s stricken pose?

I am death, thought the woman, and she envied those who met her gaze and fell away shivering. Knowledge, she reflected, was not the true gift given to Eve but freedom. The ability to face one’s fears and fail but to go willfully and with purpose.

I am not free. For the first time in a millennium, she longed to be human again. Her time was nearly up in this guise, anyhow. What happened after that was a matter of much disagreement, yet she knew that it would not be the thing she coveted. That choice had come and gone long ago.

From her place on the hangman’s scaffold she could see the blue-eyed Katharine. Her face was pure, unmarked by sorrow. Had Maria ever been so untainted? She could not remember. But she knew unquestionably that this girl’s features would be molded by fate into her reflection. This was the inescapable calling card of Death, and there would be time for regret in the centuries to come.

The noose slipped over her head and rested on her chest. The woman had been through this a hundred times, so she felt no fear, but rather tense excitement. This was the last time. She knew it to be so.

“Have you any last words?” asked the hangman.

The woman turned toward the child in the crowd, so much like herself yet with an eternity between them. What did it mean to be Death? What good was control over others if you could not control your own destiny? Why stay for a thousand years if you could never truly live? Something passed out of her then, and she felt it: relief.

“Go well, Katharine,” she said, a tear rolling down her cheek, and Maria died.

Down in the crowd the girl called Katharine found herself weeping without knowing why. Oblivious, but not for long. Innocent, but such things cannot last forever. Not even death is eternal.



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This article has 14 comments.


i love this !

This is so realistic!

on May. 20 2017 at 1:48 pm
Daniel_May27 SILVER, Buffalo, New York
5 articles 0 photos 10 comments

Favorite Quote:
There is little success where there is little laughter.

Very well written

grendel BRONZE said...
on Oct. 30 2013 at 11:56 am
grendel BRONZE, Las Vegas, Nevada
1 article 0 photos 7 comments

Favorite Quote:
"A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies," said Jojen "The man who never reads lives only one.”

I look forward to more of your work, good job!

Terry_A BRONZE said...
on Oct. 30 2013 at 11:56 am
Terry_A BRONZE, Las Vegas, Nevada
4 articles 0 photos 6 comments

Favorite Quote:
"who you choose to be around you, let's you know who you are."

I really loved this piece. Very descriptive and good use of dialouge. Keep writing!

on Mar. 2 2013 at 10:25 am
CurlyGirl17 SILVER, Corydon, Indiana
6 articles 0 photos 95 comments
That was very intriguing. You did a good job with your time period dialogue. I also liked how you didn't info dump all of the hidden details on the reader and let them figure things out themselves. Good job! :)

on Jan. 15 2013 at 8:40 pm
thebeautifulhidden BRONZE, Medford, Oregon
2 articles 0 photos 3 comments

Favorite Quote:
\"If practice makes perfect, but nobody is perfect, then why practice?\" -CHAY

Wow.....this is absolutely amazing. I loved the way you pieced together the words. I could basically hear Maria thinking. I would say I'm speachless, but this is worth so much more than that!

on Dec. 18 2011 at 1:32 am
DarkMountain BRONZE, Portland, Oregon
4 articles 0 photos 39 comments

Favorite Quote:
My eyes feel so heavy when the stars are calling me
- Join with us eternally -
I'm falling in deep trance and my powers are weakening
I'm falling in a world between dreams and reality
... I'm sailing away to undiscovered seas...
Oh time...

This... this is the most amazing thing I have read in a while. I was literally hanging onto each word. Please write more! I can easily imagine this sequence in a much longer novel. While I know (from experience) it's unrealistic to ask for a full novel to be built out of a short segment like this, I will proceed to ask anyway.

Write a book please!!


on Oct. 30 2011 at 11:48 am
Randomreality13 SILVER, Havre De Grace, Maryland
5 articles 0 photos 6 comments

Favorite Quote:
"If it doesnt kill you it makes you stronger"
"I am me and no one will change me"

It was REALLY good i liked it alot. Its a sorta story i could read over and over. Its like a mix of 2 differnt worlds coming together without a hitch or any1 even noticing, sept death and (sorta) the other gal

on Sep. 12 2011 at 11:53 pm
MidnightNow1127 GOLD, Brentwood, California
12 articles 0 photos 46 comments

Favorite Quote:
"Christus nos liberavit!"

Wait...what??? This was... beautiful. Stunning. A little confuzing... but amazing nonetheless.

on Jul. 16 2011 at 7:09 pm
Tongue_Blep PLATINUM, ????, Ohio
40 articles 1 photo 769 comments
It was really great! good job and keep writing! :D (Sorry for advertizing) I just wrote two stories called the beast and nightstalker. If any of u could check them out, that would be appreciated. And please post comments saying if u liked it or not or if i should change anything. Thanks! :)(:

on Feb. 17 2011 at 9:34 pm
GALOBster BRONZE, Vashon, Washington
1 article 0 photos 2 comments

Favorite Quote:
"I thought Christmas was about Jesus giving birth?"

This is great. I love the idea of even death's body not lasting forever but death itself lasting forever. I don't think I've read anything quite like it. I always find stories about people with immortality, or near immortality, who sort of wish they weren't particularly interesting.

on Feb. 21 2010 at 7:52 am
goddess_of_the_moon_123 SILVER, Beaverdam, Virginia
5 articles 0 photos 70 comments

Favorite Quote:
'To unpath'd waters, undream'd shores' ~ William Shakespeare, A Winter's Tale

This was amazing!!! Perfect balance of description and dialog, and extremely powerful; this is definitely going on my favorites list!

citty232374 said...
on Dec. 5 2008 at 1:53 am
I love this story. It is so amazingly descriptive and the action is amazing. It is riveting and it kept me on the edge of my chair (bed actually) and I couldnt stop reading until the end!