Between Chaos and Death

Chapter 4

I stared at Living. She smiled warmly back at me. Infection coughed, as if to remind us that she was still there.

This made absolutely zero sense.

“Have you made your decision?”

“I…” I should go to Mythos. It was safest.

“What do you do in Mythos?”

“You don’t do anything.”

“Oh. What about the Abyss?” That Mythos thing was a huge letdown.

“You feel pain every second, and they work you even harder than to death, as you mortals like to say.”

“What about the Above?”

“You can do whatever you want. It’s your own fantasy, but real.”

“Aren’t you guy-Angels afraid of, I don’t know, murderers living their fantasy?”

“Murderers don’t go to the Above. Anyone that has it in mind is given a warning, and sent to Mythos. If they disobey again, they go to the Abyss.”

“Um…”

“Can you hurry up and choose? This is so boring. That Jesse girl accepted the risky task instead of being sent to Mythos right away.” Infection said loudly.

Her words angered me. The better choice was with Mythos, but I really wanted to go to  the Above. I asked one last question.

“Why do you give so much time to solve Chaos’s problems?” Chaos was such a weird name.

“She is bullied. She wants to commit suicide. She has potential though, and if Death gets to her before we do, we have a Reaper Chaos, the hardest to kill.”

“When you say Death gets to her, do you mean, like, dying, or the Reaper?”

“Both."

“And why would the Reaper Chaos be hardest to kill? Wouldn’t it be Death?”

“Death cannot be killed, or he would be being tortured in the Abyss right now.”

“Who’s third hardest?”

“Reaper Mayhem.”

“That’s a funny name.”

Living looked me straight in the eye. “Never underestimate a Reaper. If he showed himself to a pure mortal, they would die at his presence.”

“Hey! I’m girl!” Infection whined.

“You kill, too. By spreading viruses and bacteria.” Living pointed out. I snorted. Nobody looked at me, thank god (or thank Living?).

Infection made a face.

Living turned back to me. "Have you made your decsion?"

I stared into Living’s hazel eyes. “I accept.”

Jace’s POV

I woke up for the second time in a lumpy bed that was definitely not mine. There were bandages all around me. I sat up.

What was I doing here?

Then everything came rushing back. The car crash, Lexi’s death. And me. The seventeen year old guy who killed two girls.

Lexi’s death.

Those two words didn’t mix. Lexi and death weren’t related before yesterday. I saw a small TV through the little window on my door. I couldn’t hear it, but there were captions.