Finding Life | ✓

Chapter Nine

I laugh lightly. "You can choose that, too. I'm sure the dress will be
beautiful."

Arachne shakes her head, a sign that meant this wasn't how the conversation is supposed to go. I have no interest in looking good for this wedding.

"You have to choose something," she says, "This is your wedding, not your funeral. You get to choose what you want to wear."

"Fine," I say and roll my eyes, "I'll choose the shape of the dress and you can choose the rest. What are the choices?"

Arachne's face lights up with joy, "There are so many styles! There's empire waist, mermaid, sheath, ball gown, a-line, trumpet, tea length, mini, princess-"

"Tea length," I say, "I like that one."

I mostly chose that one because I have no clue what it is.

"Oh, sure," Arachne says, "A white tea length dress. It will look so dazzling on you!"

I say, "Thank you."

Arachne smiles, and picks up all her things. Lilith and Ana walk out with her, leaving me alone with Florence.

"So," I say, "Are we going to court?"

Florence nods, making her ponytail bob. Florence wears a plain red shirt and light blue jeans-while I wear a black dress, in which the top half is covered in diamonds. Why can't I dress so casually too?

"We're going to take horses there!" Florence says, "Do you know how to ride?"

"No," I say quietly.

"I'll show you how. You'll get the hang of it," Florence says.

I nod my head and we both leave for the stables, the ones that I just found out existed. Florence tells me that Death adores horses and riding them. His favorite horse is Majesty, a white thoroughbred female.

•••••••••••••••

"This is court," Florence says, while pointing to a large, white building.

We walk to the building, while being pushed and pushing others. All the souls seemed to have gathered up here before they go inside the building. It takes us ten minutes to get inside the building, where it's still crowded.

There are three lines and as far as I can see, each line goes up to a different lady. Florence pushes through the crowd to get both of us to the beginning of the lines.

Florence speaks after we get there, "These three ladies are Death's evauluators. Each soul, when they are called up, stands on one of the small stage while they're being evaluated. Then, after the evaluator gets a result, they tell the soul and the soul goes to wherever it is they're supposed to go."

Florence points at the lady in the first booth on the left and calls her Edith, the next one in the middle is named Scarlett and lastly, Florence says the lady in the booth at the far right is named Dianne.

"Who do you want to meet first?" Florence asks.

A voice calls up someone named Eric Crimson to Edith's booth and I'm curious to see this person.

"Edith," I say, smiling.

We quickly walk up to Edith, this time without anyone in our way. Edith, I see, is a middle aged lady, with dark, wavy hair and olive toned skin. She looks up from her papers and I notice she has glasses framing her brown eyes. Her eyes trail from the man, Eric, to me.

"Are you Lily?" Edith asks.

I nod. "That's me."

"Ah," Edith sighs, "I was expecting you. Would you like to help me judge this man's life?"