“Please.”
“No.”
“Pretty please?”
“No.”
I tried to channel all my sixth-grade theater classes to plead with my face before letting out a “pretty, pretty, pretty, please.”
“You’re not as cute as you think you are,” Death said stone-faced. It would’ve bothered me were it not for the fact that I actually was pretty cute and he was just a bitter old man.
“I need it.”
“Or what? You’re gonna die?” he said mockingly.
“Or I will keep annoying you until you come with me to get some pizza.”
As soon as we had reached the apartment Death had announced he had another soul to harvest, which left me alone again. So I decided to sit in bed and read a book, except I had fallen asleep not too long after and only woke up when Death came back.
Which meant I had missed dinner and was in dire need of some sustenance.
But he just claimed he was too tired and dropped himself on the couch with his head angled back over the backrest, where he still sat now.
“I’ll just ignore you.”
“You can certainly try.”
At first, he just threw his card at me with some vague instructions as to where the pizza place was. But I was afraid I’d get lost or some nightmare demon would come for me like in my dream so I was trying to persuade him to come with me.
“Just order it. ”
“What?”
“Are you deaf now too? I said just order it.”
I looked at him blankly with he returned with a tired glare. I did feel a little bad when I looked at him because he did look absolutely exhausted. But a girl’s gotta eat and I’m his responsibility now.
“You have a phone?”
He didn’t bother with any reply and just pointed at something in the corner of the room, making me burst out laughing.
“1995 called, they want their phone back,” I said while wheezing.
The phone was one I hadn’t seen in a very long time. It was a black one which connected to a landline. I remember when we had one of those when I was a kid until my parents switched over to mobile phones.
“Keep laughing and I’ll disconnect it,” he said while throwing me a sideways glare.
I did stop laughing pretty fast after that.
“There is some kind of a disturbance in the air here,” he explained. “It makes it impossible to transfer any kind of information wirelessly. Phone signals, Wi-fi signals, radio transmissions, or even Bluetooth. It just doesn’t work here. So everything has to be connected by landlines.”
I briefly peeked out the window to look at the dark and starless night sky. I wondered how this place came to be, who created it? And how? I knew better than to ask Death this, he’d accepted the unknown a long time ago.
“Okay, do you have their number?”
“It’s in there,” he said while pointing at the drawer under it. “Order me a veggie pizza as well.”
I glared back at him. All this trouble when he wanted a pizza as well? I was sure he did stuff like this on purpose.
Upon opening the drawer I found it to be a collection of flyers and folders of different fast food places. I rummaged through it all before I found a leaflet from a pizza place. I quickly made the call before walking back to the couch where Death now sat with his eyes closed.
“So,” I started while sitting down next to him, “how was your day?”
I know I wasn’t exactly a smooth talker but I really didn’t need him falling asleep right now. I didn’t have any money to pay the pizza guy and I knew Death would be a pain to wake up.
When it took him a few seconds to reply I feared I was already too late. “Awful,” he softly said. He didn’t elaborate, and I debated on whether or not I should ask him more. But hey, maybe he just needed someone to talk to?
“What happened?”
He shifted his weight sideways and finally lifted his head from the couch to look me in the eyes.
“I had to pick up a child.”
A child? What could a child have done that was so bad that Death himself has to escort him to Hell?
After looking at his face for a few more moments I decided not to ask anything else. I didn’t want to know and I think he didn’t really want to talk about it. So we just sat in silence until the doorbell rang.
Death hoisted himself up from the couch to get our pizzas while I went into the kitchen to grab some soda to go with it.
“So what’s the plan now, chief?” I asked with my mouth full, referring to the situation at hand. My mom would always scowl and tell me to only speak when my mouth’s empty. And then she’d tell me to sit up straighter. But Death didn’t care about the food in my mouth or my posture.
He just let out the longest sigh ever before answering, “I don’t know. I’m hoping Felicity and Carlos find anything good.”
I forgot they were also doing stuff. What stuff? I didn’t know. But the fact that Death didn’t even know what to do right now was slightly concerning. But I wouldn’t let that affect my mood. Right now, it was pizza time.
The hot stream running down my back forced my muscles to finally relax. I hadn’t even noticed how tense they’d become until this moment. The water was so hot it became hard to breathe but I didn’t care, the hotter the better.
I’d been in the shower contemplating my life, or lack thereof, for a good thirty minutes now and I was glad Death’s water didn’t run cold. Back home, we only had about fifteen minutes’ worth of hot water until it ran out so now that I had no time limit I was going to make the most of it.
The bathroom was larger than one would expect from an apartment like Death’s. The white tiles with dark accents even gave it a somewhat luxurious feeling to it. I was originally going to take a bath but I knew I couldn’t get my lazy ass out of it ever again.
When I first heard the bathroom door I thought I had imagined it. But when I peeked over the stall door I saw the knob twist and before I could threaten him the door had swung open.
Death casually walked in and I was lucky my nakedness wasn’t visible through the steam on the glass door.
“Death,” I shrieked. “Get out.”
He gave me an unimpressed look before his hands went towards his zipper, making me look away immediately.
“You’ve been in here for an hour, I have to take a piss.”
“And you couldn’t just ask me to hurry up because?”
“Because I can just walk in?” he replied in the same tone I’d used, making me even more irritated.
I heard him pull up his zipper again before moving towards what I thought was the door.
Until the shower door swung open and I stood face to face with a grinning Death.
“Besides,” he continued, his voice lower than usual. “There’s nothing I haven’t seen before.”
I thought back on the first day I’d been here and how I’d woken up in a flimsy thin nightgown. I’d asked him who dressed me and he disappeared. Well, if I had any doubts they were gone by now.
“You’re a pig,” I spat out.
But he just laughed, and I swear he did it just to make me mad. When he stepped forward I instinctively stepped backward before remembering I could at least cover some parts of my body with my arms.
“I know you don’t mean that, Lilly,” he purred, making the low rumble travel through my body before settling in my core. I felt the familiar liquid drip down in response and I was glad I was in the shower right now.
“I do.”
My voice came out slightly trembling and I silently cursed myself for it. Death broke eye contact just so he could drag his eyes down my body before slowly coming up to meet mine again. I should probably tell him to get out, I knew he would. But I didn’t want him to.
“You know you talk in your sleep, right?” he asked me while stepping forward again. Only this time there was no room for me to move back anymore. He was now a few inches away from me and I caught myself silently hoping he’d take the last step.
“No, I don’t,” I denied. I totally did.
“Oh Death, kiss me Death. You’re so handsome Death,” he cooed in his best impression of me. With his low voice and tall frame, it sounded a little funny but I wasn’t going to let him have the satisfaction of knowing this.
“I’d never say that and I also don’t sound like that.”
“So now you’re denying you want to kiss me?”
“No, I’m just telling you I never said that,” I replied before realizing what I’d actually said.
His grin now turned downright devilish and I knew that promised nothing good. My suspicions were only confirmed when he took the last step forward, effectively pressing his large frame against my body.
Since the shower was still running he was now fully under the stream as well, making his pitch-black hair cling to his forehead. I’d never met someone as beautiful as him, and I knew no one I’d ever meet would come even close.
He lifted up his arms and pressed them against the wall on either side of my head. He had to slightly bend down to do so but leveled his face with mine in the process.
I didn’t know what to do, so I just stood there. Stupidly.
“So what you’re saying now is you do want to kiss me?” he said while looking at my lips, who were starting to feel suspiciously dry.
I took my time to inspect his face from up close, from his burning golden eyes to his straight nose down to his beautifully plump lips.
It was a snap decision I made, but that decision would change so much more than I could ever have foreseen.
I moved forward to press my lips to his, catching him in a burning and passionate kiss to which he immediately responded.
My arms went up and around his neck while I pressed him ever further into me. I could feel his wet clothes rub against me before a certain hardness pressing against my belly became the feeling I focused on most.
When I felt his tongue run along my lips I didn’t hesitate before granting him entrance. He slowly explored every inch of my mouth and the taste of his tongue was enough to make all sense fly out the window.
One of his hands which were on the wall went down to gently squeeze my hip and I let out a low moan, causing him to snicker. But two could play that game and I arched my back, pressing my belly against his erection in the process. He let out a low hiss before quickly continuing his sweet assault on my mouth while using the hand on my hip to move me away from the problem area.
The feelings his actions evoked were strange, foreign even. I’d never felt this way just from a kiss and it made me anxious to know what it’d feel like to have him inside of me.
But I couldn’t move that fast, I haven’t even known him for a week. With the rate we were going now I knew I had to stop it before I couldn’t find the strength to do so anymore. I let myself enjoy him for a few moments more before breaking off the kiss.
It took me a few moments to regain my senses and by the clouded look in his eyes, I knew he wasn’t quite there yet himself.
“Now get out,” I breathed out, causing that same evil grin to return to his face.
Slowly, he stepped back before running his eyes down my body one last time. But before I could even say anything he’d turned around and left the bathroom. But not before taking the only towel in this room with him.
