Melody and Macabre

Author notes

A Light to Guide Them, Page 9

Xiam

on Jan. 7, 2009

Seriously.

That's actually one of my favorite lines I've written for him. Pretty much sums up the entire aspect of Death as an entity, and a phenomenon. For what we don't know is not meant to be known. Unless you're a scientist.

I actually worried I wouldn't be able to add this whole "Death Reading" bit, and had in fact described it later on as a passing daydream, when the concept of the List first appeared in the series. I finally managed to squeeze it into this Scene, as it was a relatively new Scene to have written, and there were some dead spaces, and… well, there we go.

I actually determined how such a book could work - or even exist. See, naturally it simply flips through names on its own, on whatever page you open to. Whoever's dying at that moment appears on the page. Death, however, can flip through the names at will, going back centuries, or even millennia, to check up on birth dates or death dates. This is what he does with his free time.

The Book is a black tome, with black pages, and written in black ink. Only the clairvoyant can read it, and it would take even greater psychic ability to read it as Death does, or edit its pages. Though, as I've stated before, it's merely a leger, a datebook, a list of notes. Which brings the question - could editing actually save a person's life?

I'd say no, because it's not a freakin' Death Note.