Death's Temporary Home For Lost Souls

Chapter Seventeen: So This is Death

A burst of anger heats my veins. He really wants to act regretful, to put all of this on me, when he's the one that's been lying this entire time? As much as I want to slam the door in his face and ride off into the night, I also deserve an explanation. I don't think I could ever truly live the rest of my life without understanding what I'd just witnessed.

So I keep my chin raised and meet his gaze straight-on, still trembling as I carefully say, "It's up for discussion."

He nods softly, acknowledging my unspoken demand, and groans as he hoists Lisa higher in his arms. "Don't worry about it, love. Let's get you to bed. Cara and I will talk."

"Okay," Lisa says, rubbing her eyes and yawning as they round the corner to Lisa's room. Being that it's right next to mine, I don't have to wait much longer until I hear her door click shut and Death is once again standing in my doorway.

"Don't come any closer," I say with as much venom as I can muster. His jaw tightens but he remains in the same spot, somber and leaning against the jamb.

"I'm sorry," he says, staring at the floor.

"For what?"

"Scaring you."

"What about lying to me?" I spit. Death's gaze finally snaps up to mine, and I have a hard time reading the emotion there. His voice is quiet as a whisper when he says, "I never lied to you."

I scoff and kick my duffle bag across the floor. "Bullshit."

"I didn't. I told you that you weren't perceiving me in my natural form." His voice remains as calm as the surface of a frozen lake and it pisses me off, so much so that I stand from the edge of the bed and take two strides towards him. I wish he were solid, so I could push him, make him feel something.

So I could make him understand how much he hurt me.

"How can you be so stoic about this? About what you did to Gary? He's never hurt anyone in his life, and you just...You don't give a shit." He flinches a little, but I stand my ground. I think of that clearing, that heavy wind, the harrowing silence afterwards. Cold fear replaces my anger. "What did you do to him?"

"Cara." His voice remains devastatingly soft. "Gary passed away today. From natural causes. It was his time."

No.

The word spills out of my mouth and I gasp, my hand flying up to my throat as tears start to tighten it. Just this morning, in his store, he had been so alive. So excited for the future, so eager to see his grandkids...The room spins before me. It's not fair. It doesn't make sense. None of it. How can a person be there one moment and not the next? My entire body shudders as all of the same thoughts that followed my mother's death come flooding back, leaving numbness in their wake.

"I was doing my job." Death watches me unflinchingly, his jaw set, as if he's had to practice this speech a million times. His eyes go dim, devoid of the joy that at some point I'd foolishly started expecting to see. "When it's time for a spirit to move on, I have no choice but to assume my true form and to see it through. If I fail, if they refuse to leave this world..."

He doesn't have to finish his sentence, because I know exactly what happens to them. They end up here, in Death's home, forever chasing the things that kept them clinging to life. But I think of Louis's Death Day party, of the lazy afternoons spent gathering around the fire, of the residents' teasing and laughter during meals...

"Living here in this house as a lost soul...Surely that's the better alternative than what happened to Gary. To dying." I shake my head, remembering the gleaming point of the scythe, and Death's gaze softens the slightest bit.