Sudden Departure

Chapter Twelve

I stepped gingerly onto the white marble. My bare feet echoed across the empty room in noisy waves. The white, polished marble glowed iridescently in the dark. The floors were cold against my skin and the whole room seemed to be filled with the cold rot of death.

I trudged towards the center of the never ending room and rubbed my arms to force warmth back in.

"Stop!" A surly voice billowed. The voice echoed through the empty room and bounced off of the wall in noisy, graceless currents. The room shuttered and dust trickled from the ceiling and landed in my hair like snow.

I stopped where I stood and pushed my shoulders back. I held my chin up and let my arms dangle loosely at my sides.

Slowly, these ghost clouds swirled into the room. They were all bright, pure white and murmured in airy voices. They stopped gliding around the room and streamed to form a circle around me. Weak lights leaked from their cloudy skin as they began twisting around me in a circle. Their airy tales brushed my skin. I cringed, they were icy.

They swirled faster and faster until a frozen wind was howling passed me and ripping fiery hairs from my neat bun. Suddenly, the ghostly wisps stopped. The largest and brightest one glided towards me and rested in front of my face. I half-smiled enough that the nervousness seeped through my lips.

The ghost-cloud sailed over my body. My skin was left tingling when the icy tongues grazed my skin. It wafted back to its group and settled back into the circle.

I slouched with relief.

After a moment of tense silence the clouds lunged at me and wrapped around my body. They threw themselves at me and seeped through my pours. They forced themselves down through my throat, into my nose, and into my ears. I sputtered and coughed. I could feel them moving around inside of my and chilling my bones.

I pulled at my chest and wrapped my arms around myself. I could feel the clouds moving around in my body. They were so cold. I couldn't feel my face or hands and feet. My air pumped out of me in frozen sheets and I could feel my lungs become as hard as rocks within me. I looked at my hands and my feet. Blue lines were etched under my skin and continued to grow up my limbs.

I looked at the endless black above me and watched as the glowing wisps gushed out of my throat and disappeared into the air. I collapsed onto the ground. My throat was singed with frozen burns and my mouth had ice lodged between my teeth. My entire body ached as heat flooded back into it.

"Get up," the same voice from before commanded, only quieter and closer.

I growled and hugged my knees into my chest. Again, some ghostly person with an air of higher power demanded too much of me. Tried to end my suffering and grief before it even started. First, with Nebula, she commanded me to leave behind everyone I loved in order to come to this other worldly-torture. Now, it is here with Death hurting me and demanding protection of his ways in return for not being saved.

"No," I snarled back.

"No?" the voice pressed as his body wrapped long, cold fingers around my arm.

"No," I stated again.

The man's fingers tightened around my arm and burned my skin. He pulled me up over his shoulder and carried me deeper into the dark room.

The farther back the room went the darker it got. Strangely, the darker the room got the brighter the man became. His skin glowed with a pure white glow and radiated around him.

After several long and angry moments the man rested me down into a chair. It was the kind of chair you find in the dentist, but the leather was black and worn in wavy patterns and a thick, furry white blanket was clinging to the back.

The man sauntered to his own plush couch and lounged across it. He cracked his knuckles one by one and pressed his finger-pads together with a sour pucker decorating his lips. His skin was weathered and baggy around his jaw bone and eyes. Worry lines and crows-feet marked his face. His hands were in the same condition, wrinkled and sagging in odd spots. Like jeans that fit in the store but after a wash were baggy and loose in odd places. A white beard accented his old face and perfect waves sat atop his head. He had on a black suit and a patterned tie. His eyes were the most startling thing about him they were normal, as normal as any living person. They were dark navy and hid so much behind them.

"They said you were different. I knew you were different. I just can't place my finger on it." His words glided smoothly off of his tongue and rolled into my ears.

I pursed my lips.

He smiled slyly and patted my knee. "Go and find Nebula. You are not assigned a role, today. Come back tomorrow."

I sat still in the chair and frowned. I wasn't assigned a role, that day. I wasn't assigned a role, that day?

His smile faded and he waved both of his hands at me. "Leave," he commanded. I could feel the anger dripping from his voice.

I flinched and scrambled from my chair. I awkwardly nodded at him and turned. I stalked back in the direction we came from. The room seemed before then, but only a few feet away from Death I could already see light leaking from underneath the door.

"You know," Death's voice broke the silence. His voice was gentler, but rage was still lying below the layer of calm. I stopped and looked over my shoulder at him. "Most people would have fainted when I entered them. My cold soul would have over whelmed them. You didn't."

I bit my lip and nodded. I turned and walked right into the door. Second time today, I thought bitterly as I slipped out of the door.