00:00The first time I saw the monster, I was bleeding out in an alley with a knife in my chest,
00:05and she was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen.
00:09He calls me a monster. He's not wrong. I devour the dying. But him, I couldn't.
00:16I was 23. Wrong place, wrong time, wrong guy's girlfriend. The blade went in clean.
00:23I fell, and as the darkness came, she appeared.
00:26A creature of shadow and hunger. That's what I am. I feed on last breaths, final heartbeats.
00:34It's nature, survival. But when I reached for his soul, something stopped me.
00:39She was made of darkness and starlight, with hollow eyes that should have terrified me.
00:45But all I felt was pulled, like gravity, like coming home.
00:49His eyes, God. His eyes. Even dying. They looked at me like I was something precious. Not a monster. Not death. Just her.
00:59Take it, I whispered. Whatever you need. Just stay a little longer.
01:04I should have consumed him. Instead, I healed him. Used my own essence to seal his wound.
01:12It nearly destroyed me. But I couldn't watch him die.
01:17I woke up in that alley, alone. No wound, no blood. Just a memory that felt like a fever dream, and a loneliness so deep it ached.
01:27I told myself I'd never see him again. That it was weakness. Mercy. A mistake.
01:34Six months later, my car went off a bridge. The water was black and freezing. My lungs screamed. And then, her.
01:43He was drowning. And when I appeared, he smiled, like seeing me was worth dying for.
01:51You came back, I said. Water in my mouth. Hope in my chest.
01:55You're dying again, I said. But we both knew the truth. I'd been watching him, haunting his shadow, starving myself, because no other soul tasted right anymore.
02:09She saved me again. Pulled me from the water. Breathed air into my lungs. Air that tasted like midlight and eternity.
02:17Stop almost dying, I begged him. You don't understand what this costs me.
02:24Tell me, I said. Tell me what you are. Who you are.
02:30So I told him. About the curse. How I was human once. A girl who made a deal with death itself to save her dying sister.
02:41I became his collector. Immortal. Alone. Hungry.
02:47How long? I asked.
02:50Three hundred years.
02:52And in three hundred years? Have you ever saved anyone else?
02:57No.
02:58I started to understand. She appeared when I was dying, because I was supposed to die. She was defying her nature. Her purpose. For me.
03:09Every time I saved him, I grew weaker. Death was angry. Demanded payment. But I couldn't stop.
03:17The third time, I didn't wait for an accident. I stood on a rooftop and called her name into the void.
03:25I felt him falling, and I screamed. Materialized mid-air and caught him. We crashed onto a fire escape, tangled together.
03:35Why are you doing this? She sobbed. Her form flickering. Fading.
03:41He was killing me. Each rescue drained my essence. Soon, there'd be nothing left.
03:49Because I love you, I said. And if the only way I can hold you is by dying, then I'll die a thousand times.
03:57You beautiful, stupid human.
04:01Teach me. There has to be a way. If you were human once, maybe, maybe I can become like you.
04:09There was one way. A ritual. A choice. He could become a collector, too. Immortal. Cursed. Bound to death.
04:18But he'd lose his humanity. His warmth. Everything that made him him.
04:23I don't care. A hundred human years without you, or eternity by your side. That's not even a choice.
04:31You'll regret it. You'll watch everyone you love die. You'll become cold. Empty.
04:36I'm already empty without you.
04:39So, I gave him the choice death gave me. A silver dagger. His own blood. Words in a language older than civilization.
04:49I didn't hesitate. The blade went in. Not to kill, but to transform. And the pain. God, the pain was everything and nothing.
05:02When he opened his eyes, they were like mine. Infinite. Hollow. Beautiful.
05:09I can feel them, I whispered. All the dying. All the souls.
05:16Welcome to forever, I said, taking his hand. The first time I'd truly touched him while we both existed in the same plane.
05:26We collect together now. Two monsters in the darkness. And sometimes, when we guide a soul across, they ask us.
05:36Are you angels?
05:38We smile. We don't answer. Because we're not angels.
05:42We're just two people who loved each other enough to become monsters.
05:48And in the spaces between death and life, we're more alive than we ever were.
05:54The monster only appeared when I was about to die. Now, we appear together forever.
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