Tricking Death

Chapter 16 - Staying the Night

"Put me down!" I was flailing my arms and legs around in what was proven to be a pointless attempt to actually get Death to follow my instructions. I could feel a few solid blows land, but he didn't even flinch. 

"You can stop any time now," he said quietly. "Otherwise, I might be forced to do something to make you stop." 

I could sense that whatever patience he usually had for me and my antics was just about gone, and let myself go limp. Remembering what normally happened when said patience ran out was enough of a deterrent for now. 

"Good girl." 

My heartbeat was thudding in my ears, making it hard to hear anything else or concentrate on anything else but him. It was especially hard to ignore his hand on my back with how cold his skin was.

I had no idea what he was planning to do, and it was scaring me just as much as the fact that I couldn't remember the past few hours of my life. The giant black space in my memory revealed absolutely nothing, no matter how hard I tried to fight past it. I decided to spend my effort on trying to keep my head up so I could see where we were going, but it was next to impossible to do for long without my neck giving out.

"Where are you taking me?" The words caught in my throat as I tried to get them out, and I was worried that I might have to repeat myself. 

"Somewhere we can talk without being interrupted." It was clear that he wasn't planning to elaborate any further on that statement, so I chose not to push it. He kept walking for a few more minutes until I felt his hands grab onto my waist and my feet hit the pavement. My legs had started to fall asleep, so I instinctively gripped his jacket  to try and avoid crashing headfirst into his chest. 

"You can walk now. But let me make myself very clear, Emily," he spun me around once my legs had recovered and then latched onto my wrist with his customary iron grip. "If you try to get away from me right now, or disobey anything that I tell you to do, you will regret it." 

I nodded, trying to match my pace to his so that he wouldn't be dragging me along. Now that I wasn't slung over his back, I tried looking around to figure out just where we had ended up but nothing looked familiar. I wondered if he had done that on purpose, taking me somewhere completely unfamiliar so that I wouldn't be able to get away from him. I had to grudgingly admit that it was a good idea. 

"C'mon," he suddenly tugged hard on my wrist and forced me to follow him towards the entrance of a seedy old motel. The place was an absolute dump, and it was the last place I wanted to be, especially if someone I happened to know saw me. 

"What the hell are we doing here?" I hissed. "I hope you're not really-" 

"Shut up and wait out here while I go get a room. If you so much as move a single muscle, you won't be moving again for a very long time." His threat was swift, as was the way he cut me off in the middle of my complaint. Even though all I wanted to do was run away screaming until someone decided to help me, I stayed where I was with my arms crossed, waiting for him to come back. 

"Let's go." Death swept past me without even stopping to make sure that I was going to follow him. I found his confidence annoying, but I knew that there was nothing I could do about it. 

I followed him to a room just like every other one in the motel, wary of what I was going to have to deal with once I reached the other side of the door. He unlocked the door and let it swing open before staring me down until I walked in ahead of him. It forced me to expose my back to him, and I knew that it wasn't going to end well as soon as I brushed past him. I was proven right as soon as I heard the door click shut behind me and felt his arms wrap around my waist. The contact raised goosebumps on my skin.