~~Young~~

Chapter Nineteen

   “Well because of you,” she stated it as if it should be obvious, “they’re all for your family being taken down but not you.”

   No, no one would think it a shame for her family to fall. It would probably be more of a relief for those stuck under their blackmail attempts or suckered in under false pretenses.

   “An email went around,” Chelsea continued as Sera began to change. And no she didn’t care if it was in front of a room full of people because they had all already seen her naked, “that you were being stripped of your rank and no one was to assist you if you went to them for help. But to my mom and dad, you’re like their second kid Sera, they knew it wasn’t you who gave up Lacy. So they called me figuring I’d probably be the last to find out because of our friendship, which after hearing all that,” she held her hands up, Death still gripping her forearm so she could fully be a part of the conversation, “just continued me on my emotional breakdown since they called me not five minutes after you hung up with me telling me you had been shot,” she shook her head, “which you will be explaining to me,” she added as an aside. “They told me I had to get to you before the Angels did, before they got to me.”

   With a sharp tug Sera laced up her sneakers and looked back to Chels, “so that’s why you came out here?”

   “Sera, hunny, of course I came out here for you. What part of I would do anything to save you, even from yourself, don’t you understand?”

   “Ohhh,” Death nodded appreciatively, “I thought I was just misreading that self-destructive steak in her.”

   “You know about that?” Chels turned to her.

    “Yeah when she died and I had to go chasing her soul down-” Death began lightly, but Chelsea certainly wasn’t taking it that way.

   “You died?!” She shouted, Sera now having her full attention once again, “de…I…please explain!”

   Death’s mouth clamped shut with an audible click and she shot Sera an apologetic look.

   “Um,” Sera frowned and began fiddling with her fingers, she knew this was going to come eventually, but she also knew how unbelievable this was all going to sound. She still thought of it that way and she had lived through it, “well see I had been shot-”

   “I know about that, I saw the video on the news,” Chels grumbled, “I wouldn’t have believed it otherwise considering how off you sounded on the phone.”

   Right, her face had been plastered all over western Canada thanks to the news programs, she had forgotten about that.

   “Well, it…it hit me in the back, went clean through my left lung…”

   “And it was a fatal wound,” Death picked it up when Sera fumbled for her words, “no mortal medicine would have saved her.”

   Sera nodded to Death and then turned back to Chelsea, “But Gage, well, you saw he’s…well he’s not mortal and he…fixed me I guess. I’m still not sure how but he made it as if the wound had never been there.”

   “But it wasn’t enough was it,” Chels shook her head and looked back to Death, “that’s why you had to go get her, because it wasn’t just her body that died.”

   “Sort of,” Death’s face scrunched up, “mortal bodies are the only part that dies. Your soul can’t…sort of. I mean there’s always extenuating circumstances, nothing is forever after all, but that’s not what happened in Sera’s case. She had just jumped ship and was wandering about so I just had to grab her and bring her back before anyone else had seen her. Because Olympus fucking knows none of us should have obliged Gage when he asked for help. But he looked so sad and never in the thousands of years I’ve known him have I ever seen him that way and I couldn’t stand it so I…” she rambled and then turned her pleading expression on Sera, “please stop me.”