The Kiss of Death

JULIA'S POV

Nick-no, he's Death- Death's hand was cold to the touch. Then again, his whole body was probably cold like that. I know his lips are, remembering back to when he kissed me. Right before-

I pulled away from him. "Home?"

Death smiled. "Yes. My home. Which will soon become yours, if you so choose."

"If we so choose?" Samantha asked. "You mean, you're actually giving us a choice?"

"Yes." Death smiled. "But if you choose to not go with me, well, I can quite literally make your life hell."

I shivered and looked over at Samantha. "Sorry, Sam, but I'm not taking that chance."

Samantha shook her head. "Me neither, as much as I hate saying so."

Death grinned. "Great. Hold on!"

A black cloud surrounded him, then it slowly moved around Sam and I, covering us. I coughed, but soon got used to it.

When the cloud cleared, we were in a kind of forest. It was very dark, with shades of black and grey covering everything. "Welcome to my home!" Death said.

"You live in the middle of a forest." Sam said. "Well, I guess I can get used to living in trees."

"Maybe I should rethink the whole going to your house thing." I muttered.

"No," Death said and moved aside a curtain of vines, "this is the Dark Forest. It just surrounds my home." He pulled us through the curtain, and what I saw made me gasp. "I live here."

In front of us was a large, white house, surrounded by a lush green carpet of grass. The house was very tall, several stories high, and had pillars standing on the porch.

"Wow," Samantha said quietly. "I wasn't expecting this."

"Yeah," I looked at her. "Somehow, the phrase Deaths home brings images of a haunted house to mind."

Death's cheeks turned a pale pink. "I wanted you two to be, um, happy here." He walked up the porch steps. "Let me show you around."

Sam raised her eyebrows then leaned over to me and whispered, "was he blushing just then?"

"I have no idea," I answered her.

"Well, we'd better get going," Samantha said with a small smile, "pray he doesn't stock all his closets with those black robes."

"No, those wouldn't look good on either of us," I said, and smiled. We ran up the steps and walked through the doors.

And what we saw made our jaws drop to the floor.

 

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SAMANTHA'S POV

My smile faltered, and the jokes about clothes faded as I walked up the porch. Julia and I went inside, and I froze.

The room was huge, and very lavishly decorated. The walls were a cream color, and the carpet was blood red. Paintings covered the walls, both huge and small, bringing even more luxury to the whole thing. But it was when I looked up that my eyes grew wide- not out of fear, but maybe wonder.

The ceiling was black, black as night. What was lighting up the room was tiny lights, embedded in the ceiling, like tiny stars, glowing bright.

"What do you think?" Death asked quietly.

"I think it's wrong that you kidnapped us," I snapped back to reality, and saw that it was Julia that had answered.

Death sighed. "Yes, yes, I know, but like I said, you two are special."

"How?" I asked. "Why?"

Death sighed. "Wouldn't you rather see your rooms first? I thought you might want to."

"No," I answered quickly. "Answer my questions, or I'll, I'll, I'll go away, back to that forest. And I'd run, far away, and escape you."

Death sat in a chair against the wall, next to a painting of a young woman. "Samantha, you wouldn't make it a hundred yards from the curtain. Cerebus would kill you."

"Then answer us," Julia said, "or we'll be dead."

"Fine." Death pointed to the painting, and it moved. The colors swirled around, and suddenly we could see not the young woman, but a small village.

"A very long time ago, I was sent to collect two young souls- twin girls, named Elizabeth and Helen. They were, goodness, maybe five, and had drowned in a nearby marsh. They were frightened very much by my presence- black robe, and scythe, and whatnot, so for the first time in my existence I put down my hood to show them that there was nothing to fear." He shook his head. "Bad mistake on my part."

"Why?" I asked.

"Because Helen, the younger of the twins, thought I looked like her friend Ben. She ran to me, and hugged me. She refused to move on, and her sister Elizabeth vowed to stay with her. So they stayed here, in this house, with me."

"What's the problem then," Julia said. "Where are they?"

"I an getting to that. Well, even though they were spirits, they grew to be sixteen, which is coincidentally the age I am forever stuck at. Elizabeth, she kept away from me, but Helen, she, she was always with me. She came with me sometimes, collecting people and helping them. But then there was trouble. Helen fell in love with me, and Death can never love." He sighed heavily. "Elizabeth heard of this, and begged her sister that they should move on. But Helen would not. So one day, when Helen came along with me to collect spirits at a hospital, Elizabeth snuck along too. She pulled Helen to the ward where the babies were kept, and they fought over leaving. Then something happened, but they both fell- they fell into two of the youngest babies. I saw it, I was searching for Helen, and I couldn't reach her in time."

"Did you love her?" I asked quietly.

"NO!" Death said suddenly. "I can never love anyone!"

"So what happened?" Julia said gently.

Death smiled a small smile. "The incident happened fifteen years ago. In my spare time I have searched for the children, and I believe I have found them."

"Because you're special..." I muttered.

"Yes," Death leaned forward, excited. "I believe you two are Elizabeth and Helen. I just need to figure out who us who."

 

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