The Date

"They say first impressions are so important!" Colleen wailed. "What if I look stupid? "What if he laughs at me?"

"Relax," said her sister Leah, who was two and a half years older than fourteen-year-old Colleen. "I know this guy. He won't laugh at you."

"Know him? How could you know him?" Colleen demanded. "You never even leave the house!"

"I have my ways," Leah said nonchalantly, tossing her long black hair out over her shoulder as she applied a fresh coat of black nail enamel to her long nails. Leah never wore any other colour, except for silver jewelry, and that was just one of her quirks that drove Colleen crazy.

"Leah, you're psycho," Colleen said, disgusted.

"Psychic," the older girl corrected absently. She finished painting her nails and replaced the cap on the bottle, then set it on the palm of her hand, fixing it with a look of concentration. It rose into the air, wobbled slightly until Leah glared at it, and sailed out of Colleen's room to Leah's.

Colleen shuddered. "Why do you do that? It gives me the creeps."

"Everything I do gives me the creeps." She shrugged. "It's more convenient than getting up. And you should be used to it by now. It's just telekinesis."

"Like I said, you're psycho." Colleen sat on her bed beside her sister. "I should never have agreed to this blind date thing with whatever-his-name-is."

"Thanatos."

"Yeah, him. And what kind of a name is that?"

"It's Greek."

"It's creepy. What kind of parent would name a helpless little kid Thanatos?"

"A Greek one, obviously. Relax. His name isn't that important."

"Fine." She folded her arms and pouted. "I think it's a stupid name."

Leah rolled her vivid green eyes. "Good grief. Grow up." She stood up and opened Colleen's closet. "Let's see. What are you going to wear?"

"I don't care."

"You do so. You said you wanted to make a good impression, didn't you? So stop sulking. You may be nervous, but you don't have to act like a baby about it." She started flipping through Colleen's closet. "Go shower. I'll find something for you to wear."

Colleen obeyed, grumbling about the unfairness of being bossed around all the time.

When she returned to her room, clad in a towel, a set of clothes was draped over the back of a chair. She held it up: a white, sleeveless, floor-length dress that she had worn to Leah's high school graduation, and white slippers.

"Hurry up and get dressed. He'll be here in less than an hour."

Colleen jumped. "Don't scare me like that, Leah!"

"Don't be so uptight, Colleen. Just get dressed. I won't watch." She turned away and stared at the wall, muttering something to herself. Colleen watched her for a moment, then shrugged and began changing.

Leah was adopted. Colleen had taken comfort in that fact ever since she had known what it meant. No accident of genetics was going to make her children crazy like Leah. At six-foot-six the older girl was even taller than their father, and she was slender without being bony like Colleen. She always wore jewelry, too. Wherever she walked she jingled with earrings and bracelets and pendants, all with weird things like skulls and obscure mystic symbols on them, and all made of silver.

"All right, I'm done," Colleen said.

Leah turned and gave her an appraising look. "All right," she said after a moment, "but we really have to do something about that hair."

"What's wrong with it?" Colleen demanded. "I like my hair just fine."

"Oh, there's nothing wrong with it. But it's a special occasion. Bring your brush over here."

Colleen had grown up in her adoptive sister's shadow. By age three, Leah had taught herself to read and could move small objects -- and sometimes large ones -- without touching them. At four she could read people's thoughts and emotions. When she was five, she had spent two days in kindergarten, two weeks in grade one, then had refused to go to school altogether, claiming that it insulted her intelligence. Several tantrums and almost as many psychologists later, she had enrolled in a "special" school that let her advance "at her own pace." She had yawned through five years of that, then had entered high school. After the mandatory three years, she had graduated at age thirteen, the top of her class. Colleen was bright, but she had never been able to approach her sister's achievements.

"There, I'm done. Take a look at yourself."

Colleen shook herself out of her thoughts and studied herself in the mirror on her dressing table. Her bright red, curly hair cascaded over her shoulders, held back from her face with a white ribbon. She grimaced. It'd be nice if you noticed that I'm not a six-year-old any more, she thought irritably. "Why all the white?" she demanded. "Do you expect me to marry the guy already?"

"White symbolizes purity. Thanatos likes purity." Then, almost as an afterthought, "You are pure, aren't you? I mean, you haven't, you know--"

"Good grief," Colleen interrupted. "Of course not. I'm not stupid, with all the diseases going around and everything."

"Oh, good." She sounded relieved, and fingered one of her necklaces.

The doorbell rang.

Leah jumped up, for once showing excitement. "He's here!" she exclaimed, running out of the room and down the stairs. Colleen followed, not far behind.

Leah opened the door, an an extremely tall young man - even taller than Leah - stepped inside. He wore an entirely black suit that matched his hair and made his pale skin seem even paler, and his eyes were as green as Leah's.

"Greetings, cousin," he said to Leah. His voice was a light, musical tenor.

"You're cousins?" Colleen said. "I guess there is a family resemblance, but I thought you didn't know any of your birth relatives!"

"There's a lot you don't know about me," Leah said. "And we're only distant cousins, anyway."

The stranger shifted his green gaze to Colleen. "This is the girl?" he asked.

"Yes," Leah replied. "Her name is Colleen Ramsey."

"Well, pleased to meet you then, Colleen," the stranger said, extending his hand. "My name is Thanatos."

"Yes, I know," said Colleen, shaking his hand and noting that it was awfully cold. "Leah told me."

Thanatos nodded. "Very well. Shall we go?"

"Yes," Leah answered. "It's almost time."

"Hey, wait a minute!" Colleen said. "You mean you're coming along too? What's with that?"

"Of course I'm coming along," Leah said. "Don't you think your parents would be put out if you went on a blind date without a chaperone? Now come on. We don't want to be late."

"What's going on?" Colleen demanded as she followed the two dark figures out the door to a small black car. "Where are we going, anyway?"

"You'll find out when we get there," Leah said, and opened the car door, motioning for Colleen to get in and take the middle front seat. No, just the middle seat, Colleen corrected herself. There was no back seat. Weird.

Colleen supposed that she had fallen asleep, for she didn't remember anything of the trip when they finally arrived and got out of the car. Wherever they were now, it certainly wasn't anywhere in Canada. They were at the top of a grassy hill, where there was a circle of stones with a stone altar in the centre. "Where are we?" she asked her sister.

"Shhh!" said Leah.

Startled, Colleen was silent. This had to be the weirdest date she had ever been on. She listened. She seemed to hear the soft beat of a drum, coming from very far away. Then Leah started singing started singing to that distant beat in a language that Colleen had never heard before. Thanatos took Leah's hand and the two of them walked to the altar, both singing in that strange language.

The drum beat grew louder. Gradually Colleen started to hear more voices, coming from all around her. They chanted in an alien, guttural tongue, accompanying Leah and Thanatos. The edges of the circle, outside the stones, began to grow bright with what looked like torchlight.

After what seemed like an eternity of drums and voices, the chanting stopped. Leah and Thanatos went on alone for a moment. The drums and chorus responded like thunder after lightning. Back and forth, question and answer, it went on for another age.

Then Leah and Thanatos went on alone again. Their song became compelling, so compelling that Colleen couldn't resist it. She took a step towards the altar, than another and another. The chanting and the drums resumed, but Colleen was deaf to everything but that compelling song. Eventually she reached the altar and, withouth knowing why, lay down on it.

Instantly she could understand what they were saying. "Have all the conditions been met?" the chorus roared.

"They have," replied Leah and Thanatos.

"Is the sacrifice pure?" thundered the chorus.

"The sacrifice is pure," replied Leah and Thanatos.

"Then let us proceed!"

"Yes, let us proceed."

Colleen looked at Thanatos and saw that the handsome young man was gone, and in his place was a skeleton in a black cloak, wielding a scythe. "I, Thanatos, god of death, do declare this sacrifice the blood offering that will set my cousin free from her exile on earth!"

"Let it be so!" roared the chorus.

Colleen didn't even have the time to scream before her head was severed neatly from her shoulders.

The mob cheered.