Death's Temporary Home For Lost Souls

Chapter Twenty Six: A Matter of Life and Death

The bell sounds duller than normal when I leave.

***

Death's house yawns before me like a crypt when I walk inside. As before, there's no sign of Death. But standing in the center of the entrance hall, as if waiting for my arrival, is the Auditor. Not the Auditor; Love, I correct myself. Her hands are folded primly at her center, ever patient. Is she really all-knowing? All-powerful? Maybe she's going to vaporize me on the spot. Maybe–

    "There will be no vaporizing in this house," she says calmly. Her voice reminds me of a great sea: calm on the surface, but fathomless in its depths. "Come."

    She leads me towards the back porch, and I have no strength left for arguing, or to be surprised that she'd heard my thoughts. The November breeze chills my skin, but I show no weakness in front of her as she takes a seat on an iron lawn chair. Her mouth puckers.

    "You're cold."

    "I'm fine."

    "You're lying."

    "Fine. I'm cold. But apparently you knew that anyway."

    We regard each other, two players seated on opposite sides of a chess board. And I have no idea how to play the game.

    "You know who I am," Love says. "You know why I'm here." Her gaze glows with embers of power that seem to spread along her dark skin like sunken roots, but I don't cower. A few weeks ago, I would have. Maybe even yesterday, before the festival. But now, nothing could frighten me more than the tumult in my own heart.

    "I know who you are, yes. But I still don't understand why you're here."

    "I think you do," she says wryly, and I frown. "The answer is inside of you. Ooh, and a secret, too. Something you haven't told a single soul..."

    My pulse spikes but I hold my ground. "I'm not interested in speaking in riddles."

    "Be careful how you address me, mortal." The embers in Love's eyes grow into twin flames. "You are nothing more than a speck in the universe, an unlikely single-cell organism floating in the fathomless fabric of time and space."

    "Then why are you afraid of me?" I ask, sitting up straighter. "Why are you intent on keeping Death away from me?"

    "Who ever said I was afraid of you?" Love spits. Then she leans back and drapes her arms over the chair's armrests as if I hadn't goaded her into raising her voice. "Death, just like all of the other Immortals in Neverton, is my servant. My employee, if you will. He was created to fulfill a single purpose, and that is all."

    "But he is fulfilling his purpose," I retort, my eyes drifting towards the flowery path leading back to the clearing in the heart of the forest. That must be where he is now, taking the horrible, beastly form of the Reaper that he despises so much. "I haven't been keeping him from it. I've been helping!"

    "Perhaps, but you have also infected him with unnatural ideas and desires." Love's lip curls. "By meddling in his business – which should have been his burden to carry alone – you are causing Death to desire humanity and, in turn, to fall in love with you."

    I nearly choke on my next breath. "He loves me?"

"Well, not quite." Love rubs her temples as if she's discussing a business deal with an annoying client instead of a matter of life and death. "It's taking every ounce of his self-control not to succumb to it, but he's nearly there. And if Death falls in love, it will cause irreparable damage to the balance of things. Death must be intimidating, distant; fair, but resolute. Love would alter him forever. He would cease to do his job, and I would be forced to eliminate him."

"You can't do that!" I cry, surging to my feet. "He's not showing weakness by helping his residents; he's showing mercy! He's making it easier for them to move on!"

"I have no choice in the matter. 'An Immortal cannot fall in love with a human.' It's the oldest rule in the book, the book that I wrote when I created the universe."

"How can you hate love so much? It's literally your name."

"That's the problem with you mortals," Love says, rising from her chair, and for the first time she looks sad. "You think that love is easy. I must think of the bigger picture. I must make the hard decisions."

She dips her head, and I have a feeling it's the closest thing to a goodbye that I'll get before she sweeps back into the house, leaving me alone to contemplate the horrible truth. I stay out here until the sun sets and all I can do is shiver.