Death's Apprentice

21

 If I had learned one thing in my short afterlife, it was that people who had glowing purple eyes were bad news. I was generalizing, but when everyone with purple eyes so far had tried to kill me, I felt safe with this assumption. Sure, I didn't if a kid would be able to choke me. I doubted she could wrap her hands around my throat, but stranger things happened. Outrunning the weird creature living in the girl happened to be one of those things. Well, that and the fact the candle stuck to its head disappeared with it.

"Can I help you?" Marie's mom asked. She stood up, her hair moving in a gust of wind; her hand flew to her hat. She pinned it to her head, keeping it in place and from becoming a tumbleweed.

"Uh, yeah," I said; my words flowed off of my lips, heavy like syrup, they twisted into a perfect imitation of her language. "I'm part of a performance group, I'm the statue for them, but we got separated, and-" A loud, sharp giggle cut off the rest of my sentence. I looked at Marie.

Her face held a toothy grin. On her sister, it would've been something you'd expect to see in her school picture. A smile too wide and strained to be natural. On Marie, it looked like the type of expression a shark would wear as it tore at you. She rocked on her feet: heel to toe, toe to heel, heel to toe.

"It's not nice to lie," she said. Her eyes pierced mine. "The nice lady says it's not good manners."

I swallowed, suddenly finding my throat dry and scratchy. Falling back a step, I glanced around. No one else was there, no other living thing stood in the street, even the birds had fallen silent. My eyes trained back on Marie as a cloud passed in front of the sun. Hers lost some of their glow, and my hand loosened around my scythe. The moment that happened, Marie's eyes flared. She lunged at me. With her teeth bared and her hair flowing in a gust, she looked like a feral child. Her hands clawed at the air, and I held her at bay with one hand on her forehead. Sweat slicked her skin.

"So do you want to control your kid? Or am I supposed to hold her like this until she needs her nap?"

"I'm so sorry, I don't know what's gotten into her. Marie, stop that!" Marie's mom rushed down the stairs. She slipped her hands under Marie's arms and lifted. A loud grunt left her, as she managed to get Marie's feet off of the ground. "She wasn't this heavy this morning." That comment, along with suddenly finding herself in the air, did nothing to stop the flailing, screeching, and kicking kid. The question lingering in the back of my mind popped up again: was this Marie or that creature?

"Why did I agree to this?" I mumbled, continuing to watch Marie struggle against her mom. Purple light drew trails after her eyes, mapping out exactly which way she had whipped her head. Make her eyes blue, throw in sparks and a high risk of getting burned or losing a limb, and she'd be perfect for Fourth of July parties. I had no idea how to deal with an immortal by myself; I didn't know if I could kill one or not.

"Ines, go inside," the mom said. Ines, the other daughter, nodded. She ran up the steps, with both her mom and I watching her. In that moment of distraction, Marie slammed an elbow back. She broke free and rushed at me. The light from her eyes expanded to encase her entire body in purple. I didn't like that glow; it didn't seem safe. Now, I'm not saying it was safe to fight in the middle of the street because it wasn't, but I'm dead. It wasn't like getting hit by a car would kill me again. Marie rushed me, the eerie smile still on her lips. I dodged to the side, sticking my foot out to trip her. Her body hit the ground, and she rolled for a small distance. It didn't take her more than a second to scramble to her feet. Blood ran down her arm, stemming from her scrapped elbow. She watched it trail towards her hand. It reached her wrist and stopped. It moved in reverse, crawling up her skin and into the wound, which sealed as though it had never existed.