Terminal (Terminal trilogy #1)

9: Again

Again I woke.

It was better than being hungover. I breathed, I waited, and I closed my eyes. And I came back to Hell.

I had to find Blake. We hadn't bonded, we weren't friends, but I had the suspicion that he was good, and I needed to find him to be certain. I took the elevator down from where I had woken after my death- where I always woke when I died. I arrived in Pride, at the bright blue hall where security had caught us, and found it desolate. I went into an empty conference room, and dialed up Kell.

It made sense, that he might know where Blake was. Either that or I was lying to myself, just desiring to hear his lovely voice. My mind was always a bit wonky post-mortem.

"Hey," I said meekly, when he answered his phone.

"Hi honey," Kell said. He sounded distant and distracted, and he only got to using pet names when he was upset about something. "I must admit I'm a little bit spooked to be getting this call from the afterlife. Please explain why the fuck I just had to ID your bloody corpse a few hours ago."

"I'm immortal," I said weakly.

"Ah. Right. Mannie, babe, I really hate that I have no other option than to believe you on that. Just nod and accept that Mannie, good ol' grumpy Mannie, is actually a fucking elder god."

"Universal constant," I said.

"Right."

"I can't age."

"Okay." Kell sounded utterly worn out. "Any other revelations you care to bestow upon me?"

"I'm looking for Blake."

"Who?"

"The human I took- I guess you never met him. Um. Have you seen Sydney?" At least she knew what Blake looked like.

"She's in Wrath doing another secret meeting with the rest of Phillip's crew." Kell took a loud sip of his drink.

"Weren't they planning on killing you or something?"

"I guess I'll find out."

"Alright. Bye."

"Mannie- before you hang up, just please come and see me as soon as possible. I'm in the office now, but I'll be having a meeting in Gluttony an hour from now. I would like to clear up whatever... whatever the fuck happened to you. You're immortal."

"I'm immortal."

"Goodbye."

I was immortal, and had been for years, as that tended to go. It was a major inconvenience in my life, to be honest, but it'd been a part of it for so long that most of the surprises involved no longer mattered to me.

Death still tended to throw me off. Usually, once I died, I had to get the hell out of wherever my corpse was being buried. Hopefully Kell hadn't told too many other people about my miraculous ability. And with any luck, that bastard in the dark room- that motherfucker, Alexander Scott- wouldn't send another hound after me.

I took the second elevator line straight to Wrath, arriving in the bay where all the main elevators were. From there I walked a determined pace towards Phillip's office, not at all confident, but at least with a goal.

I arrived at the end of the hall. I slowly opened the huge doors with great curiosity and ducked my head back outside immediately. Sydney was in there alright, as well as a few others I hadn't taken enough time to recognize.

"Mannie, kiddo, was that you?" I heard Sydney say with her usual cackle. It sounded a bit forced though. Like it was a relief for her to laugh.

She opened the other door and pulled me inside.