They all knew her name. Unlike her sisters, they cowered away from her, hiding behind doors, wishing her to pass on. Sometimes even her sisters did so. The others, they helped these useless, mindless people. She curled her lip. These people whom yearned for her absence, pleaded with her for mercy, scorned and spurned her. With a small, self-deprecating smile, she continued on her way. Why should they not? After all, she was the angel of death.

As an angel, she had battled the demons. She had pushed them away, beaten them down. Now she was the angel of death. She remembered, once upon a time, before she had been spurned, that she had helped these useless, mindless people too. She had comforted them, listened to them, catered to their every need. The demons had disfigured her, and she had been pushed away, but she would never let herself fall to the demons. Thus the odd little angel had changed, become deadly and dark-minded.

The angel walked by, withering all that was in her path. Her eyes were glassy, clouded over. Beneath them, the demons waged a battle for the angel's soul. She was desolate, empty and alone. There was little left for the demons to win. She was broken, but she could not tell them that. She could not tell anyone that. She could not be fixed, could not be healed.

Her feathers her black and withered, her skin dull and paler than it had ever been before. The dying angel looked about her and brought death to those she had once known. They would all perish, tortuously leeched of all life. The angel walked out to her garden, standing by the pond, as clouded over as her eyes. She felt nothing, not happiness, not sadness, not joy, not anger. Even here, the fish avoided her. She stood in the shade and looked out over the pond.

It was beautiful as nothing else was. A sudden yearning clutched her slow heart. The dying angel craved after it, though it had been so long since she had felt anything. Now she felt, desiring with all of her being for one accepting word. The angel closed her glassy eyes, knocked down the barriers between her and the demons. She spread her arms wide and waited for her fate.

A/N: Yet another unplanned addition to the collection