The Imortals

Chapter 3: I ask Death questions

When Love pulled up to my father's gate, he started blasting Italian rock music. I know what you're thinking, Italian rock music? What a nerd! And you're right, he is a nerd, but that wasn't the reason he was playing it. You see, love and I are best friends, so we are really protective of each other, but we usually don't talk to each other in school because he's in his senior year and I'm only a junior, so our schedules are mixed up. Okay, I'm getting off topic. Where was I? Oh, yeah, Italian rock music. Since we don't see each other in school we decided to make a code if one of us were in trouble, so we chose Italian rock music. I thought it was cool until he shared the code with my dad, AKA, his boss. I swear Love will do anything just to get a raise.
I continued to glare at him until he turned the music off. He turned around and gave me the saddest puppy eyes in the world.
"I could've just walked in!" I sighed, unlocking the door of his super expensive Ferrari. Yeah, you heard me right, Ferrari. And he doesn't own any regular old Ferrari, oh no, it has to be cherry red.
Love pushed his lower lip out to make a pout. "No. I can't let you do that!"
"Why not?" I growled, losing my patience.
"Because I wanna hear the story too!" He said, mimicking a child waiting for a bedtime story.
The door of the house flung open. A dark cloud of smoke zoomed down the sidewalk, stopped at the passenger side door, and formed into the shape of a man. When the form focused, I was face-to-face with my dad. You would probably expect for Death to look like a demon, or at least be a skeleton in a dark cloak. Sorry to disappoint you, but Death had sandy brown hair, brown eyes, and didn't look a day over thirty, being probably the most vain, but good looking, immortal on the planet.
He opened the car door and grabbed my face. " Are you okay? You look pale. Are you hurt? You look hurt!" He turned to Love. "You let my baby get hurt? Of all the things you've done this past millennia, this is by far the worst!" His face started to turn red, which was a rarity, since he had little to no blood in his body. He was getting so fired up he was beginning to steam, so I reached up and put my hand over his mouth.
"Dad, it's okay, I'm fine! Love actually saved me. You see, Bryce tried to suck my soul out of my body, you know, just everyday boyfriend stuff, so Love got rid of him with...with..." I turned to Love "what did you use to get rid of him?"
"The power of love!" He said proudly. I raised an eyebrow and stared at him. He sighed and raised his hands in the air, then let them fall again."Okay,fine. I used a death arrow."
"YOU USED A WHAT?!" My dad and I both said in unison.
Death arrows were the the worst thing you could use on someone. It turned your body to dust and pinned your soul in place for centuries. To make matters worse you can't remove the arrow. Even if you got someone to try to remove it for you, the arrow would break, causing immense pain as your soul dissolved little by little.
Love threw his hands up defensively "Sir, it wasn't even a human soul! It was a vaporizer!" My dad cursed under his breath.
"Everyone get inside, now."

*~*

I had never seen my dad's house before. It looked like a mix of Dracula's mansion and Hard Rock Café, it was cool but creepy at the same time, Unlike my mom's house, which is full of flowers and 'inspirational' quotes that no one likes.
Death gestured for us to take a seat. "I suppose you want information on these hybrids that you call Vaporizers." He sighed, sitting back in his red recliner.
Love lied on the couch, putting his feet on my lap. "Yes, that would be most helpful, sir."
Dad took a deep breath,"I have been dreading telling you this, but my companion, Disease, has betrayed me." He looked like he was about to burst into tears. I wasn't really sure how to comfort him, so I walked up and gave him an awkward hug. "I know, it's terribly sad. You see, I gave him great power, he was already able to make people sick, but I gave him the power to take their lives. It seemed so logical at the time, but that was long ago, he has changed since then." He took a deep, shaky breath. "Around four months ago, Disease started stealing souls from me and selling them to the couples who were forbidden to have any kids. That's how these..... Vaporisers came to be."
I did the math really quickly, calculating how long Bryce and I had been together. "That makes no sense, four months? Bryce was almost seventeen when Cupid over here damned his soul to an eternity in high school." Love sat up, clearly offended that I called him Cupid. I just gave him an apologetic look, he nodded, forgave me immediately and sat back in his original position.
My Dad sat on the edge of his seat. "Vaporizers are human-undead hybrids. The soul inside is on its second life, so when the couple has the baby , they give birth to newborn, but by the time they take it home, it is at the age of the soul. Now, the reason why these hybrids are so dangerous is because they have been handled by Disease, and he has the power to turn the soul ill as well as the body. even if they were good people in their first life, Disease turns them evil right away."
I was completely confused. "So how do we stop them?" I asked.
My dad rested his chin on his hand, thinking about it. "Well, you'd have to capture Disease."
I nodded. "Okay. I'll start now."
My dad jumped out of his chair and looked me in the eyes. "No, not okay! You are my baby, and I'm not letting you go out there on your own to capture a dangerous, not to mention powerful, being!"
"Alone."
"What?"
"You said alone."
"Charlotte..."
"What if I bring Love with me?" I asked. "He could help me, watch my back, all that jazz."
Love sat up and nodded his head. "Please sir? I haven't been on an adventure ever since the Trojan war!"
Dad looked between love and I for what seemed like an eternity. "Fine, but only if you take weapons."
Love pulled his fist back towards his torso, and whispered yeeeeesss. He stood up and began to run up the stairs.

*~*

When I finally got to the weapons room, I wasn't sure what to choose. All of the weapons were either black or gold and red. Love pulled up a red bow with gold hearts on it, and two dozen arrows. Around two thirds of them appeared to be regular arrows, around a quarter death, and the rest had arrowheads shaped like hearts, which I could only assume we're love arrows. Then, he grabbed a quiver, threw it up in the air, and it turned into a hover board. He grabbed it, turned it back into a quiver, and slung it over his shoulder.
I looked around, hoping to find a weapon that awesome. Sadly, Love had his custom made, so I had no such luck. I looked around the room again. There were swords, but I've never wielded one before. There were bows and arrows, but My archery skills were terrible. I grabbed a gold and red spear out of curiosity. It felt natural in my hands, so I aimed it at a target and threw it. It hit the target, but I didn't get a bullseye. I took it anyway and decided I could practice later, but I grabbed a black dagger just in case. I shoved a few things into a red backpack. Some granola bars, two sleeping bags, and a two person tent.
We ran down to the driveway, and Love hopped into the car. "Where to, Charlie?" I usually hated nicknames, but it was okay when Love did it.
"Where would Disease be?"
"To the hospital!" He exclaimed.