Death Dancer

Chapter Fifteen

I wrapped my housewarming present as carefully as I could, smiling as I looked up at its sister now hanging on my wall. My angel had arrived a few days ago, it was a week late, but I didn't care. It was here now, to keep on my wall forever to remind me about my first few Jumps. I had only just managed to hang it up. DIY was not my strongest skill, but I had a thousand lifetimes to perfect it. I looked down at the now wrapped painting. I had returned to the coffee shop that morning, to see a new series of paintings hanging on their wall, all by Nathaniel, and more than pleased to see a scattering of little red dots underneath to show they had been sold.

The new paintings had been different to the last. Though they still had Nathaniel's moody charcoal medium, they were all scenes of life, hope and light. One of them caught my eye for Death. It was a large abstract painting, that I was sure to different people would look like a different thing. To me it looked like a dark passage leading around an unseen corner light snaking around lighting up the path. With an invitation to a housewarming party inviting me and a plus one, a housewarming present seemed like the perfect opportunity to get it for him.

The symbolism was clear. A dark past leading towards a new beginning. Light at the end of the tunnel. Hope around the corner.

Liv was excited to attend her first dinner party and I was excited to hang out with my friends like a normal person would. I had not been feeling so normal lately. Swept up in a dark fairy-tale I was glad that things were starting to feel more settled.

Death had extended the invitation to the other Death Dancers in the city, everyone had replied though Death had agreed on taking shifts. Even though he was doing better, it didn't mean that everyone else in the city was. There would always be someone who needed help and didn't know how to ask for it.

Liv sent me a text letting me know she was nearly there. It had taken a little convincing for her to go by herself, her anxiety was still playing games with her mind, but I knew that her destination would be safe and full of loving and accepting people. That and my gift had taken a little more time to wrap than I thought it would.

I called for a taxi, not having been to his new place yet, I didn't know what to think of in my mind to be able to jump. Not that I wold have done anyway. I had decided that from now on, the only jumping I would do would be when someone called out to me. Otherwise I would walk, ride a bike, take the subway or a taxi. I lost out on the experience of the world around me when I jumped, and that was not something which I wanted to become a normal experience.

The ride was peaceful, as I stared up at the tall buildings and bright lights. The hum of the taxi radio lulling me further into my seat. Leaning my head against the window I watched the people, I imagined their lives, their family and their loves and hates, dreams and wishes.

A lump formed in my throat as I watched a little girl, arms open wide as her mum and dad swung her between them, her eyes lighting up, cheeks stretched out in a laugh that would melt the heart of any parent.

I had been that little girl once.

It had nearly been a month since I had died. Mum and Dad had stopped using Facebook when I checked last night. Their accounts were gone. Photographs erased. I had saved them on my laptop, just in case, but it still stung. They were moving on with their lives without me. I was glad though, in a way, that they were. I knew they were surrounded by love and people who would always look out for them. It would have done them no good to sit and wallow, to waste the rest of their lives living in the past. I had thought about sending them a card for Christmas, anonymous of course, with tickets to a cruise around the Antarctic they had been dreaming of since I could remember. I couldn't be there with them, but I could at least help them make new happy memories.