The days felt longer.
Every time she took a soul near that forest, she'd stop by, again and again, to stare at the field. To see Kiara.
Kiara was doing something different every time, sometimes she was playing with the girl, sometimes she was just sitting by her, and sometimes she would be out somewhere else.
The girl looked different over time. Every time Calliope saw her, she'd be taller, and her hair would be longer, up to a certain point.
But then the day arrived.
The portal took her to the same forest, but this was a special case. The death mark was laid upon the girl, and she wasn't a wandering soul, she was still alive.
Kiara didn't notice her presence, since she had been playing with the girl, but after watching them for a long time, at some point, the girl got lost when they were chasing each other between the forest, and Kiara was looking for her.
Calliope, on the other hand, had already found the girl. She was hanging from her foot on a high tree she had climbed. Calliope knew she'd have to finish her off, maybe the apparent cause of her death would turn out as a heart attack, or a concussion, but in the end, Calliope would be the one who killed her.
She was about to approach her, and the environment was already turning grey, when suddenly she heard Kiara's panicked screams in the distance, Calling out to her in fear, running through the forest to find her.
There wasn't much time.
Still full of doubt, Calliope pulled out her scythe as a reflex.
-"It's... It's still my job..."
She said under her breath.
Kiara's screams didn't stop, and the girl kept trying to get up from her position. Her foot didn't look like it would come off if she wasn't helped by someone else.
Just when Calliope was ready to take her words back and end the girl's life, she was startled by Kiara's scream.
-"CALLIIII~!"
She turned around.
"Please! You said you'd do it!"
Her mind went blank. She no longer knew what to do. It's not like Kiara had the right to choose who lived and who died, and when Calli said she'd do something, she didn't mean it. But now she just couldn't bring herself to kill the girl, and she hated it.
Before she could pull herself together, Kiara arrived and immediately helped the girl down from the tree.
Calliope had let the opportunity slip, she had never done something like that before, she had never skipped on her job. The death mark was gone, she didn't know what to do next.
Because she was nearby, she heard how Kiara and the girl talked about how glad they were to find each other and how scared they both were.
Kiara told the girl to go ahead and get home, that she'd catch up to her later.
-"...(I better head out now)"
-"Mori-chan"
-"Eek!"
She screeched with surprise. Kiara heard her.
-"I knew you were here!"
She said as she turned to Calliope, now clearly visible.
"Was it supposed to be today? Was she supposed to die today?"
Calliope tried to come up with any type of excuse, but she couldn't think of anything. It'd be worse if Kiara learned that she visited constantly for no reason other than stalking her. Her head was already clouded enough, so she finally answered after a brief silence.
-"... Yes"
Kiara didn't say anything and instead, she just smiled at her.
Calli was disgusted. Seeing her smile so happily and smugly at the same time, it's not like she wanted to actually help her, or so she told herself.
-"Tha-"
Her expression turned blank when she heard a loud thud behind her. Both of them looked where the sound had come from, and Kiara's life drained from her eyes, she didn't want to believe what she was seeing.
Kiara rushed to the girl's stiff body. She desperately tried to get the dead tree off of her, but she couldn't, and Calliope didn't help her, because she could already see the girl's soul. While Kiara kept pledging, Calliope helped the girl reach the afterlife with a gentle slice.
After the girl was gone, all that was left was Kiara's sobs and cries.
Calliope stared at her. She couldn't help but feel bad for her. That was the issue with making an "Immortal" friend. Calliope realized that, in reality, she never finished anyone off because they wouldn't die, whenever she had to kill someone herself it was because their death would be awfully painful otherwise. She didn't save the girl, she made her death worse, and now her soul would rest with the memory of such pain.
She slowly approached Kiara
-"H-hey, Kia-"
Kiara turned around almost instantly.
-"Why do you have your scythe out?!"
She pointed out with a cracked voice.
Calliope saw her burning face filled with coursing tears.
-"Well-"
-"You did this, didn't you?"
She didn't know what to say.
"YOU DID THIS!"
Kiara yelled as she got up and drew closer to her.
"I won't forgive you..."
-"Kiara, I'm sorry, it's..."
She saw as Kiara's body slowly caught on fire from different edges. From her feet, her hands, and mainly her hair, now flailing in the air, lifting ember particles.
-"... Not again, not this time"
The flames spread through her arms and legs until her whole body was nothing but a silhouette of burning fire.
All Calli could do is stare. Kiara wasn't moving anymore, and the longer she burned, the higher the flames went.
"I HATE YOU!"
When suddenly, the fire spread far behind her, waving its shape into a pair of giant wings.
Calliope was distracted by this, and by the time she noticed Kiara was swiftly running towards her, it was too late.
For the first time in a long time, Calliope felt pain. The pain the claws of a Phoenix caused her by burying their sharp edges into her shallow body and dragging her through the ground. Her eyes saw less as the dirt went deeper and the flames became brighter. Finally, she was released and thrown several meters forward.
-"Guh..."
She slowly got up and saw the unimaginable.
Up to then she couldn't think of Kiara as a phoenix, she was just a giant shape-shifting bird to her, but in that moment, when she saw her, engulfed in flames and standing tall like the giant she was, with her humongous wings spread widely, painting the atmosphere orange from heat and with her claws sharper than any eagle's, she knew it. That was mighty. That was majestic. That was a phoenix.
The phoenix let out a loud and awfully painful screech that echoed through the entire forest that was now on fire, reaching even the darkest corners.
Right after she finished, her body started tearing into small shiny particles, like fireflies. Starting from her wings and claws, ending on her head. Kiara was gone, she had vanished into ashes. And it was strange, Calliope wasn't told Kiara would die that day, her body just disintegrated. Was that the way a phoenix would die if Calliope didn't take it into her own hands?
~~~~~~~~~~
Her wounds regenerated quickly since her body was almost like that of a soul, only a bit more physical. By the time she reached her home her pain and cramps were gone, but not the memory of them.
"(I better dump that thing,)"
She thought, thinking about the feather.
"(It'll just remind me... I never wanted to help her anyway)"
With her head down she reached for the doorknob and let out a long sigh, she gently open the door.
"Now, Where had I... HUH?!"
-"eh?!"
They stared at each other deeply.
"Uhhh... Why do you have one of my feathers?"
-"WHY ARE YOU IN MY HOUSE?!"