Blink {Featured}

Chapter Eleven

John awoke in a dark unfamiliar place. What the hell was going on? He frowned, swivelled his head this way and that trying to find something, anything, but darkness met his haggard gaze at every point. Was this the afterlife? Had he died? John licked his lips, pushed himself up with one hand, and trailed it along what he thought must be a black wall, cause he sure as fuck couldn't see anything but black.

Five steps, and he came to what felt like a corner. Along the next wall he trailed his hand slowly, taking furtive steps into the unknown. For all he knew, the next step could be into a pit of demons, soul-eaters, or on a serpent creature's tail. All manner of horrors flitted through his mind and before long he was shuffling instead of stepping. Better safe than sorry.

Greyness bloomed from the wall opposite him, and he froze, relieved and terrified. The black room lit up the slightest bit, as if someone had just blown out a candle, and the last embers of coal still gave off the faintest light. Death appeared through the wall and plopped on the floor just beyond the grey half-light. He got to his feet, dusted himself off, and pointed at John, trembling with rage.

'You shouldn't be here! You cannot be! Why are you still alive?'

The darkness seemed suddenly more welcoming, and John leaned his back against the wall, one hand still plastered to it. 'I--' God, he didn't know what to say. Wait, had Death just said 'alive'? He frowned.

'This isn't in the Book. Nothing happens outside the Book.' Death paced to and fro, from the shadows into the half-light and back, and John followed his movements with a swivelling head.

'It just can't be. Once you die, you die. You don't come back, you don't enter the shade, you die.'

John swallowed. 'D- Did you say alive? Am I alive?'

Death looked up and straight at John. Fuck, had he pissed it--him--off? Death sighed, swiped a hand over his face. What did that mean, was he in the shit, or more in the shit than dying or whatever this was?

'Yes, John Finnie born 22-07-1987, I said alive. You are alive.'

Suddenly Death stormed to him with a pointed finger, and John clung to the wall as if it could protect him. 'How did you do it? How how how!' Death's shout rang in his ears, and John's breathing quickened. The smell of Death's musty breath clung to the inside of his nostrils, but it wasn't altogether unpleasant. It smelled like flowers--funeral flowers--and dusty old closets.

'I--, what do you mean? I don't even fucking know how I got here!' It was John's turn to shout. This fucker'd been messing in his life and now he was stuck in this godforsaken hole of darkness. And then he had the audacity to shout at him.

Musk wafted into his nostrils and mouth, and Death heaved, fuming and glaring into John's eyes from only centimetres away. 'You! You, you...It was you, but not you.' For a moment it seemed Death was calming down, but then his frown deepened and he clenched his teeth together. 'No,' he growled, 'you did it, it was you and not you. Now tell me, how!' The last word came out like a loud thundering growl and put a tremor in John's hand.

'I'm sorry man,' he said, 'I really don't know what you're talking about.' Fuck he sounded scared. Well, he was scared, but it was worse sounding scared to top it off. John couldn't decide whether he cared anymore anyway. What did it matter if he sounded scared? There was no one here to laugh at him. 'Please, where am I, what's going on?'

'Listen John, you better not be messing with me.'

John noted smugly that Death had dropped the 'born on blah blah blah' title. Maybe he was getting through to it--him.

'You know who I am, what I can do.' Death looked desperate, leaning against the wall and jabbing his finger so close it was almost up John's nose.

Slow and steady, John raised both his hands in the air. 'Mate, I'm not messing with you. I really don't know.' He looked around at the black walls and that one splodge of grey. 'I don't even know where we are, or how the hell I got here.' For the first time since he'd woken in the dark pit, John's heartbeat calmed, and he looked around like a man who'd just woken up. 'Can you tell me where we are? What happened?'