“Death,” I yelled through the crack in the door. “Give it back.”
Since he’d been soaking wet from our little moment in the shower I thought he only took the towel to use it and replace it afterwards. Except he didn’t return and now I had nothing to dry myself off with.
“There are fresh ones in the closet,” he yelled back. By the way he said it I could tell he was grinning like the asshole he was and I knew the closet he was referring to was in his bedroom, making me walk past him naked.
The water from my body dripped down to the floor but the mess was nothing compared to the one Death left behind when he decided to step under the shower fully clothed.
" No, bring me one,” I replied.
“Maybe if you said please I’d do it.”
" Please?”
“No.”
I groaned in frustration and weighed my options. I really didn’t want to put on my pajamas while I was still wet because I loathed the feeling of fabric clinging to my skin. Like when you did the dishes and your sleeves got wet. Just awful.
“Come on,” I whined.
I heard him shuffle around for a bit before he spoke up again, his voice now on the other side of the door. “Here,” he said, instantly making me suspicious of his intentions. I opened the door a little wider while angling my body in a way he wouldn’t see it. But he wasn’t holding out the towel.
“It’ll cost you though.”
I sighed. And there it was. This guy just couldn’t act normal for five seconds.
“And what would that be?”
“A kiss.”
I debated arguing with him and cussing him out for being so childish but I also knew that if I just gave him what I wanted I could go to sleep sooner.
“Alright, move closer then,” I said while gesturing for him to get closer. I could see him grin at me in anticipation of the kiss to come.
Too bad I had a plan of my own. I quickly gave him a peck on the check while ripping the towel from his hands and slamming the door shut.
“You’re diabolical, Lilly,” I heard him complain from behind the door. I couldn’t even muster the smallest bit of sympathy for this clown and dried myself off.
I’d woken up the next day to find Death gone and a note on the table reading ‘had some work, be back soon’, so I decided to go for a nice stroll around a park I’d noticed earlier.
It felt good to be able to stretch my legs and do what I wanted for a bit. I just wish the place had been a bit sunnier, I thought while glancing at the drab grey sky above me. But beggars can’t be choosers and at least it wasn’t able to rain around here.
When I finally entered the park the first thing that I noticed was the lack of sounds. The trees didn’t rustle and there were no birds flying around. No dogs could be heard barking and the delighted squeals of playing children were oddly absent.
The pristine grass fields remained perfectly green and no people could be seen walking around. Every now and then, I’d pass a person on a bench. Almost all of them stared straight ahead, probably lost in the memories of their loved ones. I doubt they even noticed me passing by.
After walking around for a few minutes I spotted an empty bench by a pond. Even the water was oddly still. There were no ripples and no imperfections. It was perfectly smooth.
I debated throwing a rock in it, just to have it move. Just to have something that was normal going on. But to disturb the peace of this park with my noises felt illegal, so I left it alone.
My mind went to the kiss Death and I had shared the night before. I didn’t regret it but it did make me think about what I wanted. About what I could have.
I knew we were looking for answers but I didn’t really know what would happen after. I already asked him to send me back, and he agreed. But then I’d forget him.
I didn’t want to forget him.
But I also didn’t want to forsake my friends and family just so I could be with him. It would be too selfish. They already had to go through such heartbreak and I knew my family would never get over the loss.
No, I had to get back to them.
But what about Death? What did he want?
My musings were interrupted by a moving figure in the corner of my eyes. I looked up to see a man approach me. His dark brown hair was slicked back but curled at the nape of his neck and his tall frame seemed a bit awkward.
“May I sit here?” he asked. I nodded and looked away, already having stared at him for long enough.
But something didn’t sit well with me. It might’ve been the way his irises seemed to be pitch black, like his soul was so deeply rotten it had turned his eyes black as the night sky. Or maybe it was the way his lanky body moved around. Like a snake ready to attack.
I felt bad about thinking these thoughts. He was just some guy and I didn’t even know him. Besides, he asked me politely if he could sit down. He was probably nice.
For a while we just sat in silence, both staring at the unmoving body of water in front of us. Suddenly the hairs on my arms stood up as if I had suddenly developed some kind of spider-sense that had started to tingle.
I looked around to see what might’ve caused it until my eyes made contact with the stranger’s and the feeling got amplified even more.
“Strange, isn’t it?” he asked with his thin lips in a tight smile.
I didn’t understand the question so I angled my head before replying, “what is?”
Slowly but deliberately he raised his arm before gesturing at our surroundings. ” Everything about this place.”
“Oh,” I replied. “Yeah, it’s weird.”
Maybe he was new like me and didn’t know what was going on yet. I remembered how confused I was when I got here and I couldn’t imagine how it would be without having someone to rely on. someone like Death.
“Don’t you wish you could escape?” he asked me.
Again, a weird thing to ask but if he was new it was perfectly understandable that that was where his mind brought him.
“I would like to see my family again,” I said with a polite smile. “I feel like there’s so much to tell them still but I might never get the chance to.”
“But what if you could?” he asked me almost immediately.
The hairs on my body started acting up again and I didn’t trust it. Didn’t trust him. The questions were too odd, too specific. But I also didn’t want to be rude and just walk away. Maybe he really did need my help.
“What do you mean?”
“What if I had the power to let you go back, would you do it?”
I stopped myself from saying yes immediately. First off, the situation just felt wrong. Like I’d gotten a popup telling me I won a free iPhone but I first had to enter my credit card number.
Secondly, I didn’t want to leave without saying goodbye to Death.
“That depends on what you’re offering,” I replied.
“I’m offering you a way out. A way to leave this place,” he said while turning his whole body towards me. “I can make it happen. But I need your help. I will set you free,” he said while reaching out his hand.
If he was anything like Death it meant taking his head would teleport us to some unknown place. So I didn’t.
“Why would you do that?” I asked skeptically. I could see that he was annoyed by the fact I hadn’t taken his hand yet but I needed to know more.
“Because you don’t belong here, Lilly. I will give you what you want, just come with me,” he urged. The tone in his voice became more desperate by the second and I suddenly realized he knew who I was.
“Wait. How do you--”
I couldn’t finish my sentence because he suddenly lunged at me in an attempt to grab my arm. Before he could touch me I’d flung myself off the bench, landing ungracefully on the ground. I looked back to see him stand up and come for me so I did the same and ran.
I could hear his footsteps echo right behind me and I just prayed I wouldn’t fall on my face. I might not have been the fastest person around, but at least I was fast enough to stay out of his reach.
It didn’t take long before the burning in my lungs became unbearable but I forced myself to keep going. The sheer panic running through my veins was enough to fuel my escape as I ran towards the exit of the park. I didn’t know what my plans were for when I reached it but thankfully it didn’t get that far. Death had appeared a short distance ahead of me, flooding my senses with relief.
The man following me suddenly skidded to a halt. I didn’t look back. I kept running until I’d reached Death, who wasn’t even looking at me.
When I finally caught up with him I looked back to see the man in the strangest position I’d ever seen anyone in. It was like he froze over while running. His back leg hung unnaturally in the air and no normal person would be able to hold a pose like that.
Slowly, but deliberately, Death walked forward.
“Ira,” he said. His voice held none of the humor it usually had and instead it had gained a deadly cold edge. “I thought I smelled a rat.”
Ira. The guy who did this to me. First he kills me and then he tries to kidnap me? What was he playing at?
But Ira didn’t answer him. I didn’t know if he even could. Whatever hold Death had on him kept him neatly in place but I could see his body shake from a distance.
I didn’t know if it was from fear or from anger.
Death suddenly lurched forward with unnatural speed and punched Ira with so much force I could feel the air around us tremble. Black shadows gathered around him while he slowly made his way to the place Ira had crashed into a bunch of trees before he crouched down.
Ira hadn’t gotten up yet when Death reached him, allowing him to grab him by his short hair and pull him to eye level. “What the fuck did you do?”
to my surprise, Ira just laughed. But it was cold and dare I say evil. Whatever he was planning to do with me, I wouldn’t like it.
“You don’t know what you have,” he spat out. “But I do.”
“Then tell me, you little cunt. Or I’ll pull those shiny white teeth of yours out one by one.”
By the way he said it there was no doubt in my mind he’d do it. If I were Ira I’d stop laughing pretty fast because Death’s patience was running out fast.
“I’ll tell you,” he grinned, “when I’ve taken it.”
In a split second, a blinding flash appeared, forcing me to look away. When I was able to look up again I had to blink away the white spots that had appeared in my vision before I realized Ira was gone.
