text: [Themes: fantasy]
  
  Wilson covered his eyes, the voice telling him to look seemed to be inside his head. But then, without another word, the cloak began to fall, as if whomever or whatever was previously occupying it had disappeared. It fell slowly and elegantly to the ground, softly flowing back and forth as it floated down.
  
  "Is it...is it over?" Mariah questioned.
  
  "Who knows?"
  
  "Well...should we start heading towards the castle again?"
  
  "I suppose."
  
  The pair walked towards the castle undisturbed, save the constant need to step over dead bodies. They walked one block, two blocks, three blocks, four, until they were finally a block away from the castle. Just one block away, straight ahead, was a colossal castle towering above them. The castle was so close, Wilson could almost taste it!
  
  There was only one problem: in front of the castle was a war zone. Mariah and Wilson recognized the sounds of people in pain and clutched by bloodlust, coming from the castle. Wilson began breathing hard, but Mariah stayed calm, as usual. She turned to Wilson, "we'll be fine, come on. If we survived this long, how can we die now?"
  
  Looking on, they saw people, hundreds of people, fighting seemingly at random. It seemed their numbers had been greatly reduced because the entire battlefield was covered in a layer of one to two bodies, which the fighters had to stand on in order to fight.
  
  Wilson turned around and threw up, surprised that this was the first time all day. But then, he looked up. Above the war zone flew hideous female-looking creatures with black wings, often diving down on the bodies of the recently dead and eating bits of them. They egged the fighters on, begging them to give each other the most violent deaths they could.
  
  Perhaps it would've been okay had Wilson and Mariah just been passing by, but the war zone took place directly in front of the castle doors. Mariah turned to Wilson, "what do we do?"
  
  > find a different way into the castle
  Wilson turned to Mariah, "so you're trusting me to make decisions now, huh?"
  
  Mariah rolled her eyes, "this is about survival, remember?"
  
  "Alright, from what little I know about castles, they usually have more than one entrance. Let's try to find the back door and hopefully it won't be guarded by a war."
  
  "Surprisingly good idea, Willy."
  
  Wilson shuddered at his childhood nickname as he began to walk away from the castle, deciding to go the long way around. The siblings walked around the block undisturbed. They reached the back of the castle after walking at a brisk pace for a small window of time.
  
  Mariah exclaimed, "look, there's a door!"
  
  Sure enough, there was a large double doored entrance squarely in the back of the castle.
  
  Wilson felt a shiver crawl up his spine as he thought about how close they were. He figured the most likely scenario was both Mariah and him getting immediately struck down dead as soon as they opened that door. He had no idea who or what was beyond that door: a monster, a human, a god, he figured that was the most likely. Then the worst thought of all hit him, what if nobody was beyond that door? What if this whole castle was just a fake to distract them from the real home base of whatever was leading this godly apocalypse? "Oh well," he thought, "it's not like I expected to survive this anyway."
  
  Wilson looked over at Mariah and Mariah looked over at Wilson. She saw the fear in his eyes and he noted the look of absolute terror coming from every pore on her body.
  
  She gave a slight shake of her head, as if to rid herself of fear, "no use standing here any longer, let's get in there and kick some ass."
  
  "Y-yeah..."
  
  Mariah grabbed Wilson's hand and they began walking towards the castle together, one foot in front of the other. They breathed slowly, in and out, as they inched forwards. Finally, after their long and perilous journey, they each reached out a hand towards one of the door handles when suddenly, everything went black.
  
  They blinked a few times and before they knew it, Mariah and Wilson were standing ten feet away from each other. In between them stood a winged, black haired child.
  
  The child smiled sweetly, "hello, Mariah," he nodded at her, "Wilson," he turned towards him.
  
  Mariah stuttered, "wh-who the hell are y-you?!"
  
  "I'm Thanatos, the god of death."
  
  Both siblings gasped in horror as they realized they were so near the embodiment of death itself. "This must be the boss of the other gods we met," Wilson thought to himself.
  
  Wilson started, "what exactly...do you want from us?"
  
  "I'm just following orders. Well, we're done with introductions, no? Shall we begin?" he paused, as if allowing them to protest, "we're going to play a game and the rules are simple, so don't worry about it being too complex for a mortal mind to understand."
  
  Mariah rolled her eyes at his arrogance.
  
  Thanatos continued, "in front of you are two buttons. One should be labeled 'kill Mariah' and the other should be labeled 'kill Wilson.' Can everyone see those?"
  
  Wilson looked down at the stand that appeared in front of him. Sure enough, there were two large blue buttons with very clear white writing.
  
  "I'll take your silence as a yes, I suppose. Welcome to 'Spend the Day With Me Game!' Okay so the rules are: I'll tell you guys to press a button. If you both choose 'kill Mariah,' then Mariah will die and Wilson will be allowed to live and enter the castle. If you both choose, 'kill Wilson,' then Wilson will die and Mariah will be allowed to live and enter the castle. If you both pick each other, then you both die. Finally, if you both pick yourself to die, then you both live for exactly one hour, whereupon I will have you vote on who to kill again. Does this all make sense?"
  
  Mariah spoke up, "so what if we refuse to press a button?"
  
  Thanatos was obviously taken aback, "y-you can't do that! I can still kill both of you whenever I want. Ugh, who knew I had to spell things out for you people? I swear mortals are getting dumber and dumber. Okay, are you both ready? Please press a button whenever you're ready. Go ahead and take a day, but if you don't press a button within the next five minutes, I will kill you."
  
  Mariah rolled her eyes, "childish much?"
  
  Wilson looked down at his buttons. He had a feeling Mariah wouldn't betray him, but was he so sure of his own loyalty?
  
  > kill Mariah
  With a heavy heart full of despair, Wilson pressed the button labeled 'kill Mariah.' The next instant, Mariah was on the ground. Wilson ran to her and put a hand on each of her cheeks, "Mariah, I don't know if you can hear me, but I'm so sorry. I'm so, so, so sorry."
  
  He checked her pulse, but no remnants of life were left inside her body, she was gone. When Wilson looked up, Thanatos was gone and the door to the castle was once again in front of him. He opened the door, ready to face the challenge Mariah wasn't able to.
  
  He entered the castle and was immediately greeted by grief beyond anything he had ever felt. Suddenly, the reality struck him that he killer her. Wilson killed his own sister. He fell to his knees, his stomach fell his feet and he struggled for breath. "I'm a murderer, a murderer, a murderer," he muttered to himself.
  
  An old graying man with watery eyes walked slowly into the great hall Wilson was crouched in. "Wilson," said the man, "I've been waiting for you."
  
  > Epilogue
  Wilson thought of Mariah as he spat out what she would've said, "wh-who the hell are you?!"
  
  The graying man crouched down beside Wilson, giving him a whiff of sweet smelling perfume. The man spoke in a voice that reminded Wilson of someone who just stopped crying, "who am I? I'm the most universal yet most personal feeling of all. I show up when a loved one dies or when you learn you're terminally ill. I'm there when you lose something or someone you value. I am grief. I am Penthos."
  
  "What? I thought...I thought Thanatos was...."
  
  "You thought that dumbass Thanatos was in charge of this apocalypse? That's because you don't know how to see anything other than what you expect to see. You figured there's a lot of death so in your shit-filled mind, obviously the god of death had everything to do with it. Please, death is is a tool that I use for my ultimate goal."
  
  Wilson was disgusted, "ultimate goal? What could that be? Taking over the world? Killing everyone?"
  
  Penthos was taken aback, "killing everyone?! Why would I ever do such a fuckin thing?! Killing everyone wouldn't cause grief. Death isn't inherently sad; you humans are the ones who created grief, created me. If everyone was dead, there'd be nobody left to mourn. Nobody would give a shit!"
  
  Wilson was so confused and scared, all he could do was let out a sob.
  
  Penthos continued, "oh come on, Willy-"
  
  Wilson's eyes shot up fiercely, "don't call me that!"
  
  The daemon of grief laughed, "oh, I do apologize. That was what your sister called you, wasn't it? Your sister that you fuckin killed."
  
  Wilson took a sharp intake of breath, remembering pressing the button labeled 'kill Mariah' over and over.
  
  Penthos continued, "you know, even I started out a human. Most believe I was the son of Nyx but the truth is, I was just taken under her wing after I became a immortal. See, I was born in a small village and after I watched a fire kill everyone I loved, my grief was so great that Zeus eventually just turned me into a daemon. Sometimes I like to slice open my arm and see if I still resemble a human being. If I'm bleeding, I'm still maybe kinda a person, I dunno. I mean, what even is morality when you think about it, like, bullshit. There's nothing inherently wrong with killing somebody. I mean, I would've killed her if I were you. I'd kill Mariah. I'd fuckin strangle her to fuckin death. Yeah, I mean it'd be fuckin hilarious. Her eyes would pop out of her head. I'd just be laughing the whole fuckin time. That kinda- oh god that makes hungry. Hungry for the guilt and tears I'd feel if I were you."
  
  "You're insane!" Wilson was sobbing, "you're crazy! How can you think human life is so worthless!"
  
  "Idiot! It's because I think human life is so worthwhile that I end it. Life means so fuckin much to people. That's why they flip their shit when someone dies. Well, none of that matters any more."
  
  "What? You're not making sense!" Wilson's eyes burned as he screamed at Penthos, wanting him to shut up more than he ever wanted anything in the world.
  
  "What could possibly not fucking make sense? How I got a group of forgotten and forlorn gods and goddesses together to spread grief amongst humanity? Why you, a whiny bitch, is still alive when you've met four gods, and most of the city's inhabitants are dead? Or perhaps you're wondering what happened to your dear friend Laszlo?"
  
  Wilson's head shot up, "what have you done with Laszlo."
  
  "Fear not, dear Willy," Wilson seethed as Penthos used his childhood nickname, "I shall explain all in due time. Perhaps I'm acting like any maniacal pissy villain, but I'm really not evil. I just like to see grief and suffering, what could be wrong in that? I promised a strew of gods, goddesses, spirits, and daemons that they could do whatever they wanted if only they helped me. All of us had long been forgotten by bitchy humans and bastard gods alike due to us not being popular or 'good.' So we decided to host a little revolt wherein we could finally win back what previously belonged to us: discord, depression, anxiety, doom, violence, death, and grief. I heard about you and Mariah from Eris earlier today and well, I told the rest of my followers to go easy on you if they saw you. Those goddamn Ker never listen, though. I'm glad you never ran into them." Penthos sighed, "I suppose Zeus will be here soon to end all this."
  
  Wilson spat at him, "yeah and you'll finally lose, just like I lost Mariah."
  
  "No, you fucking killed her. Besides, I've already won. Tell me, how do you feel right now?"
  
  Wilson felt like death. His hands wouldn't stop shaking, his eyes burned despite a lack of tears, his breathing was deep and ragged. Through his guilt, he spoke, "I suppose I feel-"
  
  "You feel like your life is over, don't you? You're miserable and are like a little bitch! You feel true and absolute grief," he laughed, "I could be shot down, dragged down to hell, and tortured for eternity right now and I'd still remain the winner. And don't you fucking forget that."
  
  Wilson clapped his hands over his ears, "just shut up! Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!"
  
  Just then, a blast of lightning came from the ceiling and struck Penthos, "YAAAAAHHHHOOOOOOOWWWWW" he screamed.
  
  Wilson hit the floor flat, closing his eyes and covering his ears. He heard the muffled sounds of a small fight, deafening thunder, then silence. Utter and complete silence. Wilson opened one eye, then opened the other. Little by little, he sat up, seeing an empty foyer. Then, across then room, he saw it. On the other side of the great hall was a familiar looking body sprawled across the ground. He heaved his body to his feet and walked drudgingly over to the body.
  
  Laszlo laid out in he starfish position, arms and legs stretched out. Wilson let out a small scream as he noticed the dagger sticking out from his stomach. He knelt down and checked Laszlo's pulse. His hand was clenched and cold as ice. Dead, and for a while, too. Then Wilson saw a piece of paper laying next to Laszlo's corpse. Unfamiliar messy handwriting wrote five simple words: "I told you I won."
  
  Wilson fell to his knees. He was alone, completely and utterly alone. Sure, he had tried to save the world and sure the apocalypse was undoubtedly over, but for Wilson, the end of his world started when the apocalypse ended.