Death's Desire

Chapter 2.

 Authors Note:The Youtube video on the side is a song that helped me write the chapter, it sets the mood quite well in my opinion. Hope you give it a listen sometime!

  "When you were at the accident you kept pretending to hug someone, it was freaking all of us on the scene out." Joe said, trying to lighten the conversation. His tone was easy to read. He didn't want to stop the conversation, but thought the heaviness of it was getting a little rough.

I'm twenty years old now, and Joe was the firefighter on set that said my 'childhood was ruined'. He took me into his home though as a emotionally drained kid. I hated the world and spent the first week or two only leaving the guest bedroom to pee and shower every couple of days. Still Joe accepted me, and now here we are leaning on opposite sides of the kitchen counter drinking tea and talking on my parent's death anniversary.

I've learned to stop getting so upset on this day every year, When I was sixteen I was getting ready to go out and get high with the 'tough group' in the community.

But on the way to the car I realized that throwing my life away wouldn't bring them back. Nothing would.

  Smirking to myself while Joe wasn't looking, I thought about Marco. It seems that we have become friendly over the years; we're actually together now. It's a strange process, the thing that we call our 'relationship'.

I don't see him nearly at all, but when we do its odd. Not like normal couples; but you wouldn't really expect normal from a crazy twenty year old and Death himself right?

"Carter?" Joe said, knocking me out of my thoughts.

"Yeah?"

 "You seem distant, are you doing alright today?" He asked me cautiously.

I nodded my head and smiled reassuringly at him. Honestly I wasn't bothered at all.

I glanced at the digital clock on the stove and saw that I was surely going to be late for work.

Jogging over to the sink, I rinsed my mug out with water and gave Joe a kiss on the cheek.

"I'll come back by later this week, I promise!" I yelled on my way out the door, pulling my scarf around my neck and shutting the door behind me.

......

I hop out of the car and run quickly to my post, hoping that no one noticed my absence during the time I wasn't here. Not that anyone would really notice, I worked in a cemetery after all.

It's not like the dead would get up and call my boss.

All I really do is help out during ceremonies that happen throughout the day, refill tissue boxes, take away dead plants, try to help people find the tombstones that they're searching for; nothing remarkable.

Most young adults wouldn't want to work in a cemetery right? I'm not like most. The sole reason I really have this job is that sometimes Marco has to attend the ceremonies extremely rarely though. Most of the time I have to be close to death or someone who is dying to see him. He has to check over the corpses if their spirits are fighting him to move on to the other world. Sometimes he comes because he cares for the welfare of the families; like when its a young teen from a car crash, or an elderly woman who has a husband that isn't mobile enough to live on his own anymore.

    With hope in my heart and a skip to my step I made my way to the first ceremony on the schedule, which included me going to the main area of the cemetery to pick up the flowers needed to put by the casket.cc

After getting and loading the fresh flowers I took them to the grounds where the first burial would take place.

My boss was standing by the newly set up chairs checking things off his to-do list when I pulled up in the golf cart with the flowers.

"Where at boss?" I asked him, nearly tripping over a folding chair while walking towards him.

"Um... anywhere," he murmured waving his hand away from the board carelessly.

I sighed and set them on either side of the wooded podium in the front of the patio area.  Then walking up the aisle I saw a group of men carrying the casket of the diseased , and behind them none other than Marco. He casually strolled his wall behind them, his translucent looking skin glistening in the sun. Of course none of the others could see him, he got to choose who was blind at the sight of him, and who wasn't. I grinned widely, but tried to hurry and cover my face when my boss looked up from his clipboard with a questioning look in his eye.

I nodded my head lightly to the golf cart and Marco caught on, running up and sitting shot gun in the cart. I jogged up and sat behind the wheel and turned the key before rushing away from the set up of the ceremony and with Marco.

"Don't you ever wonder why I choose you to see me?" He asks me.

We were sitting down on a bench by the small green pond in the back of the cemetery, this was where all of the oldest tomb stones were.

"Not really," I shrugged

"Well,' he began 'it's probably because back then you were some scared little kid that needed a friend, and I thought I could be that friend."

"Oh shut up Marco, you know I don't like all that corny relationship stuff." I snickered shoving him lightly.

He smiled and stood up, sweeping his hair to the side.

"I should get going, I have to attend that funeral. The kid wants to see its Mom before it moves on, but I know once it sees her it won't want to leave."

I sighed standing up sluggishly, I really didn't want him to go. I slowly walked over to him and he opened his arms wide for a hug, which I graciously accepted.

"I haven't seen you in almost two weeks Marco, we need to figure out something." I said, by words being muffled by the fabric of his shirt.

The last time I saw him I had seen someone go into cardiac arrest in the middle of the supermarket, and of course Marco was there incase the ambulance didn't get there in time.

"I know," he whispered.

When I looked back away from the shirt I saw that his translucent skin was disappearing now. After a couple seconds he was completely gone, and I was alone in the back of the cemetery.

I got back in the golf cart and drove to my station to continue my work.

He didn't even say goodbye this time.

Ending note: Sorry guys, my writing just feels... off today. Also thank you for #120 in horror and #129 in paranormal! Its a great start :)