Death's Apprentice

6

"Thanks for being specific," I said, rolling my eyes.

"It's not like I'm exaggerating." Death looked at his drink. "I wish I was."

"You are exaggerating though. It's not like you need to solve world hunger or anything. You just have to kill people," Gabriel said, before taking a sip from his juice box.

"For every person I reap, three more are born."

"Then kill more people." Michael said.

"You know that's not how this works. I have a list of people meant to die. If I start killing people off of that list it will just make things worse."

"Make what worse?" I asked. The hiss of carbonation cut through the air. I took a drink from my root beer.

"You know, just the impending apocalypse." Death shrugged.

I couldn't find words to respond, though I almost choked on the root beer. "What?"

"Yeah, you know Judgement Day? The Book of Revelation? The destruction of the world? That thing."

"I thought there were seals or something?" I looked around the table.

"The first was broken around two thousand years ago. I'm surprised Death has held the balance this long," God said.

"Okay, what balance are you guys talking about?"

"It's nothing you need to worry about right now. You have plenty of time to learn everything you need to. For now, relax a bit. You won't get much time later. Especially if you keep talking with Gabriel, because I'm not going to help babysit that platypus."

"Why do you not like Perry?" Gabriel asked. Death ignored him and started talking in that language again.

I didn't know what to do. I sat there, feeling awkward until the conversation turned heated.

Death and God were on their feet and leaning over the table, both of them glaring.

"You need to tell her. You pulled her into this," growled God, his eyes beginning to glow.

"She's my apprentice, I'll tell her what I think she should know."

"Here's a suggestion." I crushed my empty can. "How about you tell me what I need to know?"

"This doesn't-"

"You're stuck with me, so I'm going to find out eventually. You might as well tell me now."

It was risky of me to press the topic, especially when surrounded by beings infinitely more powerful than me. Death sighed and I thought I was going to be destroyed.

"The mortal realm is in the center." He held out a hand and the others mimicked him. Before my eyes, an image of Earth shimmered into existence. "Heaven and Hell are where you'd expect them to be. Off to the side is my place and then on the opposite side is, well, Life's. Our realms are supposed to be level, but they're not. Very not level."

"And?"

"They're supposed to be level. As in things go bad when they're not. The worse the balance gets, the more...extreme measures I have to take to try to catch up. Hurricanes, fires, things like that. It's a lot of extra work."

"But wouldn't that kill people off of that list?"

"As long as I don't break their chain or kill them directly, they can survive. They might be in a coma, but they're still technically alive."

I didn't have an argument and the expression on Death's face told me he knew that.

"If that's cleared up, I've got a question." Luci said.

"What is it?"

"Do you have any chocolate?"

Death sighed and stood. "No. Come on, kid. We need to get going."

He walked towards the door and I scrambled after him. He opened it and led me through. The moment we passed through, his scythe was in his hand. The moment after that, we were back in his domain.

"That is so weird," I said.

"What? The bar full of divine and demonic creatures?"

"I was talking about the way we got here, but yeah, the bar was pretty weird."

Death laughed and opened his front door. "Kid, if that's the weirdest thing you've seen you obviously haven't been paying attention. I mean, you're the King of all Creation but you can't find a decent interior decorator?"

We walked inside and Death placed his scythe in his umbrella stand. He stretched and looked at me.

"Come on, I'll give you that tour I promised you earlier," he said. He led me upstairs and into a small sitting room.

"This is the, uh, lounge, I guess. My study is down there." He gestured to a hallway. "That's the one place in the house you're absolutely not allowed in."

"Got it. What's the other door?"

"Your room." He opened the door and I walked in.

It looked childish, with its wall stickers, posters, and colorful furniture. A cloak hung on a hook and a scythe rested against a wall.

"We can change this later. Come on, I need to show you the rest of the house."

The rest of the house consisted of his room, a bathroom, a large living room and a sunroom. I wasn't sure why there was a sunroom because as far as I could tell the sky was constantly covered in sickly yellow-green clouds.

"What kind of TV shows do you get here?" I asked.

"A lot of shows from the sixties, though I think you can find some more recent things if you look. Here." He tossed me the remote. "Try to keep yourself entertained for a bit."

"Where are you going?"

"To deliver holiday gift baskets. What do you think I'm doing?"

"Don't you want me to come with you?"

"Maybe tomorrow. I'm not exactly the best entity to be around after hanging out with the others, especially when I'm told to be there halfway through my work. Stay out of trouble and don't delete any of my shows."

Death walked out of the living room, leaving me to lounge on the couch. I sighed and got up. I didn't feel like watching TV or doing anything else while waiting for him. I went upstairs, looked towards his study door and shook my head. I entered my room.

I sat on the bed and looked around. I couldn't recognize some of the things on the posters or any of the books on the bookshelf tucked into the corner.

The best option my brain could come up with was taking a nap. I laid down and hoped that I would wake up and everything was a dream.

I wasn't that lucky.

Chapter: 1,079

Book: 8,403

Okay so wattpad isn't showing Odoyan Chronicles in my books so that's fun

So I'm going to go try to figure that out

See yah