Life's like an Hour Glass on the Table

Plink. There goes another one. Another snow white skull, the 6,104,585th, dropped from the moments left and through the narrow glass; one more year has gone by. The timer that she sees everywhere has declared another year of her life has gone as easily as the wind blowing out a candle.

It was so haunting and so disconcerting. Every second she saw the sand of her life tick away. On the anniversary of her birth, each year she sits alone in the dark, musky library of her palace, watching one more skull join the pile of the fallen. Glazed, milky ice stained eye can only stare on, helpless to stop it. She was a demon, she should have accepted long ago that she would die easier then most, but this was different. She only had--

“Lord Katsu…Ma'am?” Katsu blinked and turned her attention to the shy voice that called her, “Are you…okay?”

“Yes, I’m fine, Mina. I just caught up in my thoughts again.” Katsu smiled reassuringly at the frail looking human ‘slave’ in the entry way. The young girls brown tresses gently framed her pale face. The worry dissipated from her crystalline, green eyes at the smile that graced her lord’s lips. Mina nodded and backed out of the room, careful not to turn her back until she absolutely had to.

Katsu stood and glanced around the room one time before exiting the room herself. She had to contact Shizame and find out what the news was on the enemy fleet. Katsu would need time to prepare for war, especially war with high-ranked, completely savage demon soldiers.

The demon lord had just entered the communications office the door across the room flew open.

“Milord! The fleet, they’re here! They’re two miles off the coast, near the western border of your territory!” A hawk demon informed frantically from the doorway. Katsu’s widened and she quickly turned to make her way out of the room. Along the way, she was barking orders at the lesser demons that she passed. Her territory was one of the smallest in the area and quite venerable after the Tami Massacre that occurred only a month ago.

Before Katsu was able to leave, she had to speak with her sister, Kurenai. Katsu glanced quickly around the entrance hall in search of her sister. She found her strapping her weapons to her body, near the door.

“Kurenai,” Kurenai turned at her sister’s voice, who suddenly appeared behind her.

“What is it sister?” Katsu said nothing as she reached behind herself and pulled out a silver sheathed dagger. Kurenai stared down at the blade in her precious sister’s hand and reached around to pull out a gold sheathed dagger. The two looked blankly at each other for a moment before exchanging blades.

“Don’t hesitate if I loose control,” Katsu stated.

“I won’t if you won’t,” Kurenai replied. The two shared one final look before Katsu continued on her way, leaving behind her sister to get ready for battle.

Her demon followers fled from the palace to do there duties; to either go to the front line or hide and protect the humans in the nearby villages on Katsu’s territory. As Katsu rushed to the coast, she was informed by one of her captains at the front gates that there was an army coming from the north, on the other coast, this effectively distracting the Hyakuhei, the strongest group of demon lords in the realm, from coming to help her.

Frustrated, Katsu bolted and reached the coast in a matter of minutes. With her enraged, demonic blood boiling, Katsu directed the army gathered at the coast to attack immediately. The moment the order was given, the demons attacked. Katsu glanced at the ground and saw the hour glass smirking up at her with its terrible truth. She snorted and followed the others, prepared to slaughter every enemy.

Ripping and slicing the thick flesh of another enemy, killing them, Katsu turned to the next. With lightning speed, Katsu tore threw the seemingly endless see of gray skinned bat demons. After ripping the head clean off of another bat, a giant, menacing snake demon was before her, sword grasp in hand and poised to strike. The demon lord’s claws extended and cut deep gashes across the hideous beast’s chest. This, however, only caused the creature to staggered back. Seeing the vampiric mark on his collar bone made Katsu realize the only way to kill the half breed.

The Lord’s clawed hand was thrusted forward and sheathed itself deep into the huge creature’s chest. With a sharp tug, the half demon-half vampire’s heart was ripped from its chest, still beating. One last, pain filled scream exited the tall monster’s blood saturated lips before it feel to its knees. Katsu shoved the corpse to the side and leapt on a woman nearby, tearing a gash in her tanned neck.

Animal instincts took over when the feeling of one of her own fear reached her. Swiftly moving to the direction of her ally and Katsu grabbed the bat demon that loomed over the young warrior by the neck, not hesitating to snap it.

“Are you okay?” Katsu asked telepathically, her voice would be unable to hear amidst the screams of dieing soldiers.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Thank you, Milord,” The girl replied, in the same manner. Her Lord nodded and the girl was gone, off to keep fighting.

Katsu turned to the army that still approached. There where still thousands—millions left and there was no end in sight. A feeling of dread washed over her for a moment before Katsu railed and charged into the enemies again.

The Lord continued the task of killing all the freakish monsters that threatened the land behind her. Then, suddenly, a large white flash came up from the ground and knocked Katsu on her back. Before she could recover from the surprise or see what the blast did to her, gray bat demons where lunging at her to kill. Katsu rolled away before one’s fist could drive her into the ground. The feline demon jumped up and drove a long dagger deep into the back of the monster that attacked. She quickly used its crouching corpse, before it hit the ground as a fulcrum to roll herself into the crowd of monsters. Daggers extended from her steel sole boot and dug deep into the faces of two bats, slicing there heads open. The sadist glint danced in her eyes as she jammed her already drawn dagger into the stomach of another. Katsu used its body as leverage to spin kick several demons surrounding her, decapitating them with the blade in her shoes.

Blood spewed from their bodies, landing in Katsu’s parted mouth. The thick, crimson liquid tasted so sweet on the demon’s tongue. The blood sparked the blood lust deep inside her causing her power to surge and more of her demonic essence to be released. The lord’s eyes glazed with the haze of lust. All the demons around her…all she could here was their pulse and the smell of their delicious blood. As her breathing turned to pants, Katsu dashed forward and tore the throat out of a bat demon, a content smile gracing her lips as the blood slid through her fingers. Using her still soiled hand, Katsu reached to her side and pulled her second dagger from its sheath.

Slashing, cutting and stabbing, Katsu destroyed all the monsters before her, but she was still careful to leave her own soldiers unharmed. The more blood that splashed onto her body and the more crimson liquid that stained her hands, the more she wanted more. Katsu was usually a controlled fighter; emotionless, cold and mechanical when she fought, making the kills quick and deadly. The demon Lord rarely lost control of her lust as well, but she was just so frustrated that she couldn’t stop it. These genetically enhanced freaks getting the best of her, not to mention the other demon lords, was infuriating! Now, that she started to massacre this army, she wouldn’t stop. Her self-taught instincts telling her to never stop until her blood lust is satisfied and the true monster inside is calmed.

After cutting apart a dozen of the bat demons, more of the half breeds arrived, surrounding Katsu. The women smirked devilishly and pounced on one of monsters that towered over her, pulling its heart from its body. After dogging several attack from two more, Katsu murdered them as well. She jumped up and round house kicked on, sending it flying and onto a spear nearby, piercing its heart directly. Landing on a pile of dead demons briefly, Katsu jumped at the last freak and kicked it in its chest so hard its heart was sent flying out of its chest cavity.

Suddenly, a scream from the other side of the battlefield rang out. In millisecond, Katsu was at the source of the scream, lunging at the half breed freak that attacked her soldier. In her rage, Katsu did not take notice to who was injured until the beast was a dead, bleeding corpse.

Shock and horror was written on her blood covered face when Katsu looked down at her injured ally. Short black tresses that framed a perfect face with dark blue pools, hazed over with lust and the pain of death, these features only could belong to…

“Kurenai…,” Katsu whispered in absolute horror as she fell to her knees beside her bleeding, younger sister, “Sweetie, talk to me. Say something, please.” Kurenai groaned and turned her eyes on Katsu. When the black haired girl tried to speak, nothing came out but blood. The large gash, so big you could see the ground under her, was bleeding too fast for her demonic immunity system to heal it. Kurenai only could grunt and give her sister a sad smile.

“Is…that damn hour glass…gone yet…sister?” Kurenai asked telepathically as she reached out to tenderly touch her big sister’s face. Katsu could only cup her sister’s hand for a few second before it fell to the ground. When in did, Katsu threw up blood on the ground beside her sister’s corpse. She felt it; it really was true. The lord was never sure if the thing about siblings feeling the pain of the other’s death so bad, it becomes a physical pain was actually true.

Katsu balled her hands into fists and began to shake with rage and hatred. Her amber eyes irises thinned into lines and she essence poured from her body. As she closed her eyes, Katsu saw images of her sister before this battle, happy and smiling, then saw her impaled body. The demon lord’s fang teeth grew with her claws as thick, jagged red lines appeared on her cheeks. Katsu turned and changed the enemies behind her, control over her demon completely lost.

Ripping at gray flesh, tearing heads off and pulling the hearts from the slashed apart demons, like a savage monster. Katsu didn’t hesitate to claw, bite and strangle all the enemies that came into her sight; she was blinded by the pain of she sister’s death. The blood of the freaks soaked into the fabric of her clothes, dying them red and the liquid soon began to stain her own skin red.

In a matter of minutes, Lord Katsu had every last enemy dead. The battle was won, but her now free demon craved for more blood and carnage. Katsu was about to lung at her own soldiers, when all of a sudden; a blade flew out and entered her heart. As Katsu fell to her knees, she saw the reminiscence of stored telekinetic energy. Kurenai must of positioned the blade as she was dieing. The demon lord’s demon energy decreased and she finally returned to her controlled form. Katsu, exhausted from exerting so much energy, fell to her side and pulled the blade out of her chest.

This dagger was the only piece of steel that could stop the beast inside of her without killing her completely. As Katsu layed there, resting and half unconscious she though of the hour glass for the first time in hours…

“Is…that damn hour glass…gone yet…sister?”

Wait, Kurenai didn’t know about the hour glass, Katsu never told her, so how in God’s name did she know. This made no scenes. The glass said that Katsu was going to die today, but she’s still alive and her sister is…

“That hour glass never applied to me! It was counting the days till my baby sister’s death, not mine! A-and she knew and never told me…,” Katsu realized in utter shock. “The flash from earlier must have marked that her death was soon!”

All her life, Katsu has been watching the time go by, but the time she was watching wasn’t hers at all. After all that has happened, it would have been better if it was her life and not Kurenai’s. Letting go of your family hurts more then letting go of your own life.

Tired and falling into another depression, Katsu closed her eyes to rest as others finally came rushing to help her. Right, now the world hurt too much to look at because she truly understands that life’s like an hour glass on a table.

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Ja, it sucks. I'm sorry.