The Netherworlds: Curse of Fate (Book 1)

The Basement (part 2)

Thanatos turned the key in the lock and opened the basement door. The wooden steps creaked as he descended. The open door lit his way, but the basement itself was still as dark as pitch. Death reached with pale boney fingers to pull the thin chain just above his head.

The incandescent bulb came flickering to life with an electric tinking, and in the light he saw the boy sitting against the stone wall with his knees to his chest. He was dusty and stained red with blood where he had been scratched by teeth and claws, but the two monsters responsible for his wounds lay unmoving at odd angles on the floor.

"You killed the baubas," Thanatos noted.

He placed his hands in his pockets and gazed down at the boy who was evidently not a boy.

"Baubas? You mean the monsters you put down here to kill me?"

"Not to kill you," Death said. "To inspire you."

The boy glared up at him.

"So, you are as I said." Death took a step closer. "Even you must recognize by now that you have magick."

The boy looked away.

Death took another step and crouched down next to Damien. "I need your magick for reasons I cannot explain. We can do this the hard way or the easy way."

Damien felt annoyed with this cliché threat, as if he had heard it a thousand and one times.

But then, Death creased his brow and said, "But, the hard way will take too long."

Damien blinked, and when he opened his eyes, he found himself back on the stainless steel lab table.

Panic hit him instantly. He pulled at his trapped wrists and tried in vain to access his magick.

"What's the hard way?" Damien tried to calm himself.

"To persuade you. To teach you. To reawaken your memories and guide you. All while keeping you safe from gods who would either lock you away or rip you apart like hungry vultures if they knew of your existence."

"So, what's the easy way?"

Thanatos laid his icy fingers again on the boy's temples. "Unlocking your magick and ripping it out along with your soul. Such a procedure would kill anyone else, but you have no Death date. You cannot die, so you'll most likely go mad."

Damien gritted his teeth and tried to stir up the fire from within. "We're all mad here," he quipped.

Death let out one sardonic chuckle, "Yes. We are."

Damien heard a memory whisper from within. Okay, here we go.

Death's fingers pierced into his mind like scalpels, and Damien did not scream.