*Choosing*
Forenote: Not really a full crossover, but anyone who has read Terry Pratchett will know where this version of Death came from.
Word Count: 500
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So this was what it was to die.
He felt light, almost weightless; arising from the bed took barely more effort than a thought. The sight of Horatio’s bowed head as he sat, still unmoving, cost a pang, but Horatio would get over it soon enough.
So what next? It appeared that there was something, and nothing to be done but face it. He looked around … and up.
“Oh.” He was vaguely surprised by the very conventionality of it. He’d never really thought that Death was a tall, black-robed skeleton.
Archie’s mouth quirked. “You look just like your pictures.”
THANK YOU. I AIM TO PLEASE.
That wasn’t exactly a response he had expected either. He tried for something more practical. “So what now?”
NOW YOU CHOOSE.
Choose what? An afterlife? He hoped you could opt for pure oblivion, he really didn’t want an eternity, however Elysian, spent with the memory of just how bitter his short life had proved. Hell might almost be preferable, at least he could hope for the chance to settle a few old scores with Jack Simpson.
Something tugged at him.
“Ouch.” He looked down. A glowing blue thread ran from his body towards… he couldn’t see where it ended. The infirmary had faded from around them. The thread tugged again. He looked back at Death.
“Are you supposed to do something about that?”
IF THAT IS YOUR CHOICE. ONCE THE THREAD IS CUT THERE IS NO WAY BACK.
Archie puzzled that out. “You mean I’m not dead?”
YOU ARE ON THE THRESHOLD. THEY ARE TRYING TO DRAW YOU BACK.
For what? Were the tribunal so determined on their hanging?
“It’s only postponing things a few days. Isn’t it?” He hated the note of hope.
YOU WISH ME TO GUIDE YOU? THAT WOULD BE AGAINST THE RULES.
Archie sighed. So there were rules here too. There would be.
Another tug, fainter this time.
THE THREAD WILL SNAP SOON. CHOOSE NOW, OR NOT AT ALL.
He didn’t want to hang. He didn’t want Horatio to have to watch him hang. Anyway what was the point of a few more days of pain?
But he didn’t want to enter Eternity this way either.
“Can you tell me nothing?” he said desperately.
THE CHOICE IS NOT GIVEN TO MANY. SUCH THINGS ARE SELDOM WITHOUT REASON.
Not much help, or was it?
A reason.
Perhaps he could have a last shot at making Horatio see things as they really were. Save him from becoming an officer like Admiral Hood or the tribunal captains. If he could do that, then his life might have been worth something after all.
Ahead of him light glowed. He could not tell what kind, but it was there.
The thread led backwards, very faint now.
Archie looked upwards, straight at Death’s skull. There was a blue pinprick of light deep in each of the sockets, he noted.
“Au revoir” He could have sworn one of the pinpricks winked.
He stepped backwards into the dark.