Grim Heart

Chapter One - Destiny with Death

"I don't want to be Death!"

Hugo threw his cup at the hooded figure leaning over his bed. Glass shattered. Milk splattered. He was strong, for a child. One of his only good traits. For someone with such perfect parents, he was a nuisance.

Death folded their arms as the cold liquid dripped from their skull. They had specifically chosen Hugo's parents based on their apparent good natures. Their intelligence. Beauty. And this was the result. An emotional, angry, petulant child who did not think twice about wasting milk.

"You don't have a choice, young man. This is what you were born to do. This is your destiny."

"Go find someone else." Hugo stood on his bed but still couldn't meet Death's height. The looming skeleton seemed to fill the whole room. Their cloak billowed like smoke creating a suffocating presence. Hugo had to get out of there! He jumped off the bed and fumbled with the door but his hands were too sweaty and he couldn't grip the bronze knob.

"There's no need to be scared," said Death.

Hugo took in a deep breath. "I'm not scared of you." He wiped his hands on his Batman pyjama bottoms and stood his ground. "You're not real. You're just a monster in my head."

"Not everything is what it seems." Death sat on the end of the bed and shrunk until they resembled Father Christmas. "I would've appeared to you like this but then you'd get the wrong idea."

"I wouldn't mind being Santa."

"We already have someone lined up for that job I'm afraid," said Death. "You, on the other hand, were specifically created to be my successor." They transformed back into a cloaked skeleton. This time, Hugo did not recoil.

"I wouldn't be any good."

"How do you know? Do you even know what I am asking you to do?"

"You want me to kill people. I can't even squash Bernard."

"Bernard?"

"The spider that's been living in the corner." Hugo pointed to the darkest corner of his bedroom. If Death had muscles in his face, he would have smiled.

"I'm not asking you to kill anyone. I'm asking you to be a friend. Doesn't that sound nice?"

Hugo shook his head vigorously. "I don't want to do that either. I want you to leave me alone. If you don't, I'll scream this whole house down. Mum and Dad will catch you and send you to prison!" He wondered why they hadn't heard the commotion already but Death answered that question for him.

"Scream all you like. I've made this room soundproof. Long as I'm here, they won't hear a thing. Besides, I'm already in a prison. This job is...." Death stopped. If they were ever to convince Hugo to take his role, they could not let on how terrible it would become after so many thousands of years. They would withdraw this time. With a sigh, they nodded and left the terrified boy, alone in the dark.

Frantically breathing, Hugo pulled the covers over his head and tried to blot out the nightmare. But it was no use. He was wide awake. Alive. He wanted nothing to do with the monsters that dealt with death. Still, there was nothing he could do to stop Death from visiting. For years, Hugo tried to convince himself that it was all just a figment of his imagination and that he would grow out of it...but he never did.

***

The day was almost as dark as the night. Hugo didn't want to go to school. What was the point? To learn? The teacher in English class was sick so they had been spending their time with a substitute teacher who was making them watch modern retellings of Shakespeare plays that he had already read at home. Next on the schedule was P.E where they were doing cross-country. Hugo knew he would take a shortcut and spend most of the class hanging out and smoking with the Year Elevens. At lunch, he would hide in the library. In the afternoon, I.C.T would be spent playing games on the computer when the teacher wasn't paying attention. History would consist of staring out the window whilst the teachers lecture went in one ear and out the other and as soon as the bell rung, he would be on his bike, rushing home for a relaxing evening of doing nothing in his bedroom.