The sensation was the same, a dull ache that started from the back of her head before the throbbing intensified. As the pain came, so did the memories of the time before. Of the voice in her head who didn't understand why she was here anymore than Elena understood what was going on. She remembered the voice telling her that this wasn't her earth. That this was a place she was new to. Before she'd been asked if the being could come back, could share her body and she'd agreed. And now was the time that the thing was back. Was it a thing she felt like that was relatively rude. "I'm sorry," She spoke quietly, she was in her bedroom, in the Air BnB that she and Ana were sharing. She didn't know this could happen outside of Boston, part of her wanted to talk to Miss Sophie now, go to the woman and have the bones read again.

"What bones?"

"A woman, a witch I guess? Practitioner? I don't know what she prefers to be called to be honest. I've known her most of my life. Things have gotten extremely strange, and I went to see her. She knew something was different. She just couldn't tell me what." Elena felt almost calm talking to herself, because really she wasn't talking to herself. She was talking to..."What is your name?" she asked having realized she'd never asked.

"What sort of strange things?"

Elena was met with silence at her question, but didn't push just yet. She felt like the strange things were important to the other person. A woman? It felt like a woman, she wanted to call it her so she figured the being, spirit, whatever was a girl.

"You can go with girl. Generally I'm a girl shape."

That answer threw her a bit, but she tried to go forward with what the being, girl, had asked her. "Umm. I...well I guess the main weird one was I brought a dead bird back to life." She expected, she wasn't sure. Maybe laughter, maybe fear, she wasn't sure. What she wasn't expecting was the reaction she got.

"You have my gift of life?"

She felt, shocked almost? Elena wasn't sure. "What is your gift of life? What does that mean?"

"I give life. I put the soul into the body of the baby as it's born. I put souls into people to reincarnate them. I can bring things back from death if they aren't meant to die yet. Or if I just don't want them to. You brought something or someone back didn't you?"

"A bird. I didn't want it to die. It was alone and had frozen in the night." She felt like she was being laughed at with that one. "It's not funny." She said with a pout, a frown. Evident as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"I'm not laughing to mock. It's endearing. Most humans would attempt to bring back anyone in their life they've lost. But you bring back a bird. You aren't like so many before you. Though, I do wonder."

"What? What do you wonder?"

"There is always a balance. With my gift of life, I also have the gift of death. Do you hold that as well little human?"

Part of Elena wanted to be offended at the little human comment, but she wasn't. She felt like the person she was talking to was old, old enough that a little human was more of a term of endearment than a put down. "What does your gift of death do exactly?" She wasn't sure, but she thought she might, in fact have that gift.

"The opposite of my gift of life. I free the spirit from the body, I give them to their afterlife. Sometimes I take them there, sometimes I let the God they believe in take them. It depends on the situation."

"The man in the morgue," she mumbled. It made sense. Miss Sophie said she was touched by death. She had a gift for it now. She'd always had an affinity with it, but now she had a gift. "Who are you? Why are you in me?"

"I think I'm in you because of your connection to the dead. I think your willingness to feel the deceased opened you up to me being shuffled into you. And I think you know exactly who I am."

The only name that came to Elena's mind was "Death," she muttered outloud. But if that was the case, "How old are you?"

"I don't know. I've been around as long as existance of life. I bring life as much as I bring death. I don't know what age I would be. I've always been and I'll always be until the universe dies."

"That sounds lonely." Elena didn't like the idea of eternity. Eternity meant everyone died and you were left. That sounded horrible.

"I'm not alone though. I have siblings. Together we create all things. Dream rules the Dreaming, Despair, Desire, Destruction, Delirium, we are the Endless. And while Dream is not the Dream he once was, and for that I will mourn eternally, I still have my siblings. We are and always shall be, we exist before and after humanity. We bring human constructs. We influence."

Elena didn't know what to say to that. It felt so daunting. To be something that was always and would always be. She hated the idea of knowing she probably had another 80 years to deal with everything life threw at her, but to know there was something out there that was not only older than she could comprehend but would be here long after she was dust, it almost made her sad. She loved the life she had, but life was special because it was short. Because you died eventually. "Can I bring anything back?"

"Yes. But becareful what you bring back. There is always a balance. Until you can tell what should and should not die, if you bring back a life that should be dead, you'll end up having to take that life back."

"Wait, you can touch something and take life from it?"

"I can, but I don't. Life is special, precious. I do not take the life of someone who is not meant to die. When it's their time, I take them. I can help them along if I must, but it has to be their time Elena."