THE ETERNALIA SERIES: Transcendence/Keena

CHAPTER 12. - A NEW LIFE, A NEW OUT-LOOK

"Come again?" Keena said.

"Death requests entry into Aizeal, and would like to speak with you" Unknown said.

Keena stared at Unknown, not knowing what to say. An endless sea of questions flooded his mind. He opened his mouth, but no words came out.

"Shall I tell him his requests have been granted and bring him before you?"

Keena closed his eyes and nodded his head quickly, to which Unknown faded away from sight. Eterna helped Keena stand himself up. She straightened his clothing out and slid his hair back with her hands, giving it a complete slicked-back appearance.

What the hell is going on?! Death? DEATH?! I know I fucked up bad, but it's not like I destroyed the entire planet... did I? Keena's thoughts scrambled.

Moments later, Unknown silently reappeared with another human figure; it was a handsome, Italian-looking male who stood at five foot eight, had short, black hair that was parted and slicked back, and a wore red, green, and brown suit jacket and dress pants, a red bowtie, and brown alligator dress shoes.

Get the fuck outta here... Keena thought to himself.

"myKeena, allow me to introduce you to Death" Unknown said.

Keena, Unknown, and Eterna all saluted Death with their respect gesture. Death looked at all of them.

"What does that mean?" he asked, his accent mildly thick.

"It's... our sign of respect... sir" Keena said, awkwardly.

"Oh, I see"

"I mean, unless you prefer-"

Keena extended his hand, but Death raised an arm in polite decline.

"You, eh, probably don't want to do that, kid" Death said.

"...Fair enough" Keena said, retreating his arm.

"You look like an intelligent lad; would I be correct in assuming you know why I'm even here?"

"I'm going to guess I'm in trouble" Keena said, remorsefully.

"Well, depends on how you look at it. See, I'm really just here to chew you out. And, well, basically that's about it"

"What? No punishment or anything like that?"

"How could I? I'm out of my jurisdiction, and I lack the authority for such a thing anyway. Plus, it's not really my style"

Keena looked at Unknown and Eterna, then back to Death.

"Wait, what?!" Keena asked intently.

"You must not know how things really run in the universe, huh kid?" Death asked.

Keena shook his head.

"I see. Well, I'm not at liberty to discuss all the details and workings of existence. Let's just say, what you did on Tharen kind of screwed me over a bit. You disturbed the natural balance and flow of things, making mine and others' jobs a lot more difficult, temporarily. A lot of questions, paperwork, upset customers, the whole nine. You catch my drift?" Death explained.

"Not entirely, but we were actually about to discuss us fixing that very problem" Keena said, somewhat happily.

Death looked around.

"Wait, you mean, you guys can actually do that?" he asked, squinting his eyes.

Keena looked at Eterna.