maintain the pain.

Running slightly behind schedule, Jaclyn hurried into the crowded compartment of the monorail, gloved fingers wrapping around the metal pole to keep herself steady as she shot a worried glance toward the rectangular window overlooking a city renown for its vibrant nightlife. She’d promised her neighbor, Diane, that she’d be home in fifteen minutes - but she doubted she’d make it in time. Pressing her forehead against the pole, she closed her eyes, a sigh of resignation leaving her. But then her eyes popped open when she heard the unmistakable sound of someone sneezing nearby. “Illness will always find a way to spread,” she muttered to herself, her voice just loud enough for the person closest to her to hear it. “If you ask me, germs are little, evil monsters in disguise.” 

She should have called a taxi - or walked home. But, exhaustion weighing pretty heavily on her, after a split second decision to take the monorail to her designated stop, she had no choice but to see the ride all the way through. Hopefully this time, she’d make it home before death - that cold, merciless presence, one which had a tendency to destroy all who stumbled into its path - decided to drop in, unannounced, for a visit. “Illnesses, car accidents, old age, home invasions, robberies,” she ticked off each item with a sad shake of her head, charcoal gray eyes fixated, unseeingly, on the window. “All monstrous in their own right.” And deadly ... but for vastly different reasons. “But I suppose illnesses can be counted as one of the more dangerous, prolific instigators of death.” If only because they were difficult, if not impossible, to see coming.

Mortals. Weak. Pathetic. Almost saddening, as they live their pitiful, short life rushing from one meaningless event to another. Holding their humanity oh so high. Wanting to live what short amount of time they had the fullest. Often, he’d catch himself watching them in silence. Even now, after centuries. They intrigued him. What drove them. The way their hearts beat, their souls screamed. He was the face they’d see last as death claimed the burning fire within them. Heavy boots, barely audible in the crowd of people roaming the streets of L.A., left the smallest of stones crunching beneath his weight. Amber eyes scanning the busy mess of mortals and immortals alike. Beings that, for centuries, people worshiped. Feared. Some, never truly believed in until their worst nightmares came true one day. Creatures feeding on their flesh, claiming their souls, deciding their fate with powers unfathomable to human nature. The back of his neck crackled as Ben rested a large, cool hand on his nape for the cervical vertebra to find their place once more. Long night. Rough couple of days. Although he was trying his best to stay long, out of the chaos that erupted within their kinds - inevitably - it was still affecting his life. The one he had reluctantly accepted to lead, within mortals, stripped of his authority and power. The meaning that his life once had. Instead of bearing the souls of parted to guide them to their final destination, he was finding them instead. Private investigation. Working in the shadows by himself. At least that was something he was fairly familiar with. 

Las Vegas, the city in which one was encouraged to partake of one sin or another. Fondly labeled Sin City by its inhabitants, the streets and businesses were liveliest at night, throngs of people overtaking the streets and sidewalks as they strode to and from various, popular tourist haunts, paying little heed to those who simply wished to make it home in one piece - before the crushing weight of despair could bear down on her tensed shoulders, determined to have its way. Death was like that, impatient and selfish, caring only about the end result and not the consequences that generally followed ... in the form of devastated families. But she couldn’t put the entirety of the blame at its feet, for the very presence of death, both important and necessary, helped to maintain balance in a world that was forever on the verge of spiraling into chaos.