Grace

"Where's Charon?"

"Guess." Replied Anubis, without looking up from his paperwork. His corner office was magnificently appointed, but the grandeur was marred by his ill mood and the piles of paperwork that had overflowed from his inbox, across his desk and even on to the two comfortable chairs across from him. His fountain pen ran out and he tossed it aside, pulling a cheap Bic disposable from the canopic jar on his desk and sighing at the injustice of it all.

"Don't tell me the Baron got him to-"

"Go on one of his 'adventures' again? Indeed." Anubis growled. "And now my office is short two staff, and everything's backed up. Again." He snorted, and tossed the cheap pen down on the table angrily. The canid-headed Egyptian god leaned back, and pushed his glasses up onto his forehead so he could rub his eyes.

"I'm terribly sorry to add to your workload, but..."

"Death?" Anubis let his glasses drop back as his eyes went wide. "I didn't realize! I'm so sorry!" He lept up from his chair, and made his way around the desk to the door where the black bulk of Death stood. The two shook hands heartily. Anubis smiled widely, exposing his razor sharp teeth. Death politely returned the gesture. Anubis invited him in with a gesture. "What brings you to my humble office?"

"Well, I came to see Charon but he wasn't in his cubicle, so I thought you might know-"

"Yes of course, of course! So sorry about him. I'll talk to him. To both of them. I might move Samedi to another cubicle." Anubis made his way back to his desk, and slumped into his chair. He indicated to Death to take a seat across from him, but Death shook his head and instead fidgeted uncomfortably.

"Normally I'd relish the chance to spend a little more time on a case, but..." Death squinted out the window at the setting sun. "Perhaps I can implore you to do me a personal favour?" and he stepped slightly to the side to reveal Mrs. O'leary. She squinted through her thick glasses at the scene laid out before her.

"My goodness!" She exclaimed under her breath upon seeing Anubis. She crossed herself quickly.

"Not to worry, he's an..." Death swallowed. "Old friend." Mrs. O'leary looked up at Death sceptically.

"Mrs.... hmmm... don't tell me..... O'leary?" Anubis asked, exploratorially.

"Yes, that's me..." she replied, slightly concerned that the dog headed man knew her name. But, Death had been honest this far, so she tried to trust in him.

"I knew it! Please, please, come have a seat." Anubis got up and cleaned the papers off of one of the chairs hurriedly. "So sorry for the delays, ma'am. I assure you, things usually run so much smoother here." He held the chair out for her patiently.

Mrs. O'leary carefully made her way over, and with one last glance to Death for reassurance, she sat. Anubis smiled in his most comforting manner to her. It was not tremendously comforting.

"Good luck, Grace." Death waved to the old woman as he made his way back out of the office.

"Thank you, Mr. Death." she waved back.

Death chuckled. "Please, please... just Death. No need to be so formal."

"Such a gentleman." she smiled, and watched him disappear down the hall, leaving her alone with the ancient god Anubis.

"He really is." Anubis agreed, shuffling some papers and moving them out of the way on his desk. He also retrieved his fountain pen from the floor, and went about refilling it. "Your papers are much too important for a cheap pen, Mrs. O'leary." He winked.

She blushed a little. Her eyes fell across the various items on his desk. Plenty of disorganized papers, most of which read "Phase 2" in some script or another. A few jars filled with office supplies (And perhaps a heart? Mrs. O'leary wanted to be shocked but found she had been simply too surprised this afternoon and decided she would be shocked about it later, when she could really appreciate the shock), a red stapler, a mug with something written in heiroglyphs and a big #1 on it, and a photograph in a nice golden frame. "May I?" She asked, indicating the picture.

Anubis was retrieving the forms for Mrs. O'leary's afterlife, but looked up at her comment. "Of course." he nodded.

She picked the image up. The frame was surprisingly light. It depicted a young girl, no more than eight, dressed in a soccer uniform. She was holding a trophy. Mrs. O'leary couldn't make out what it said.

"My daughter, Kebechet." Anubis announced, with pride in his voice. "She was the team's top scorer that year."

"What a darling." She replied honestly. She placed the photo back on the desk, and found herself quite relaxed now. "When was that?"

Anubis had begun filling out the basic information on the form. He looked up to the ceiling, and started counting on his fingers. "I think... about... four thousand years ago? Maybe four and a half. She was seven when the picture was taken."

And just like that Mrs. O'leary was a little uncomfortable again.

"Now, we shouldn't be here too long Mrs. O'leary, but I do have a few questions I need to ask you so we can get you set up with your afterlife. Is that okay?"

She nodded politely.

"Wonderful. Now..." Anubis paused, staring at the side of Mrs. O'leary's head. "Oh my."

"What? Is something wrong?" she put a hand up to her head instinctively, searching for the problem.

"Not at all, not at all. You just have a piece of straw stuck in your hair." Anubis tried to indicate on his own head where it was for her. It took her a few tries to pluck it out. She held it in front of her and giggled quietly, remembering.

"Oh heavens, I must have looked ridiculous."

"Not at all, I hardly noticed." Anubis shook his head.

Mrs. O'leary twirled the straw between her fingers, transfixed by the memories it held. She placed it gently on her lap. "I saw a Unicorn today." She announced, in that moment deciding that of all the things that had happened to her today, that was the the most important to her.

"Did he bring you in through the stables?" Anubis asked, shocked.

"He did. It was very sweet." Grace smiled to the god across from her. Anubis shook his head and rolled his eyes.

"I hope he didn't show you his horse."

The Pegasus Also Cheats

The mist slowly faded, an in its place was a stable.

It was a very nice stable. Well kept, and clearly very expensive. Top of the line tackle rested on the walls, all immaculately positioned and cared for. The floor was well swept. Everything was freshly painted. An expensive looking digital clock was inset into the wood above the swinging double doors at the far end.

Maurice took the scene in with some confusion. He looked behind himself, and his gaze was met with a large barn door on well-oiled hinges. He squinted at it grumpily. He had just walked through that door.

Or rather, he walked through the space that the door now occupies. Only it hadn't when he'd walked through it.

This troubled Maurice.

A more troubling thought wedged itself in Maurice. He looked up at the black bulk of his travelling companion.

"Please tell me the afterlife is not a stable." he begged.

Death chuckled quietly. "No, Maurice. Not this afterlife, leastaways." he shrugged and began slowly walking down the stable towards the double door.

Maurice breathed a sigh of relief. Maurice had been a mechanic, and never a lover of horses. He moved to keep up with Death.

"That is the spot where I leave you, I'm afraid." Death nodded slightly towards the doors. Maurice tried to check the clock above them, but it refused to be read. He frowned.

"On some farm?" Maurice raised an eyebrow.

"Probably not."

The two fell silent, and Maurice found himself looking into the pens as they passed by. The first held the most stunning example of a Horse he had ever seen. A capital H Horse. Even Maurice had to stop and admire how perfect a Horse it was.

But not for long. He shook his head, and hurried to catch up to Death who was moving with a bored sense of purpose towards the end of the hall.

As he passed by further pens Maurice quickly forgot the Horse from the first. The second contained a group of strange goats, and the one after that had a sleeping Pegasus. Maurice furrowed his brow, but did not stop. The Unicorn did give him pause, and he cleared his throat to attract the attention of Death.

"Hmm? Oh, him. Yes, very beautiful." Death turned to see what had caught his charges attention. "Cheats at poker." He nodded at the pen. The unicorn snorted angrily at Death, who shrugged, uncaring, in return.

"You played poker with a horse?"

"A Unicorn. And don't let him hear you call him that."

The lights of one of the final pens began to flicker. Maurice thought it was odd that the afterlife had a poor power network, but then remembered this wasn't the afterlife. It was something... else.

"She heard my voice and now she's excited." Death smiled, striding towards the flickering stable. He pulled a shiny apple out of his cloak as the lights extinguished completely.

Curious, Maurice tilted his head and followed. He moved to the far wall, trying to get a better view inside the dark pen. Death put his hand on the half-wall, and held up the apple as a treat. The light didn't simply end at the edge of the stable, it was consumed by it. Shadows formed a horrible veil there. Looking into it hurt his eyes, like they were being consumed by the darkness as they tried to pierce it.

"Oho, you're hungry today hmm? Are they not feeding you enough?" Death pulled his hand back out of the shadows, and it held a perfectly cored apple. He tossed it to the floor, and produced a second. "Don't worry, I'm here for you old friend."

There was a snort from the enclosure, accompanied by a flash of flame. Maurice stepped closer, to investigate. He regretted it.

When he approached, it was as though the veil lifted, and he could see into the darkness clearly. What was inside was, and was not, a horse. A dark steed composed of fire and ichor, a thousand legs tangled in an infinity below and a burning mane that screamed in his head. Its dripping eyes bored into his mind and flayed his soul before him, dragging his existence behind it at a thousand miles an hour as they stood motionless in the shining darkness. He crumbled to his knees and fell away from the shining, grasping coat that tugged at his gut.

Only when he had crawled, rolled, and struggled back out of the realm of darkness that the Thing in the pen made was he able to scream. He hurt, in the way that only a lifetime of pain can hurt. His blood was needles of acid. His brain was pressing against his skull ready to pop. His gut writhed with barbed serpents. But none of this did he notice. He was too busy trying to hold together the shredded remains of his soul. He stared at his shaking hands and watched his essence drip through his fingers, horrified.

Death smirked, and bent down next to the shaking Maurice. He placed a skeletal hand on the man's shaking shoulder, and the shaking stopped. Maurice breathed in sharply, and found himself sitting on the floor.

He cocked his head. He was looking up at Death, crouched before him. He looked down the stable hall.

The last thing he remembered was talking about a Unicorn. Had he fallen?

"You should be honoured." Death intoned warmly. "She likes you." He jerked his head over his shoulder to the black enclosure.