Between Life and Death

Dancing With Death Part 5

●DEATH●

"Guys?" Death called out as soon as he got back to his home. "I'm back!"

Mercy burst out of the nearest room and asked, "How did it go? What'd she say? What did you do? Did she-"

"Fine, it was fine," he said, waving off Mercy's questions, choosing to omit the fact that Life had kissed his cheek.

"She didn't say goodbye to any of us," Truth said as she walked out of the same room as Mercy, pouting.

Death chuckled at Truth's attempt at childishness, smirking as he said, "She did. She told me to thank the both of you for your company."

Truth flicked her hair back and said, "I know I'm amazing. You're all so lucky to know me and be graced by my presence."

Mercy scoffed and said, "Keep telling that to yourself, Truth, and we'll have to change your name from Truth to Liar," earning a growl from Truth and a laugh from Death.

"Hey, do you guys know where everyone else is?" Death asked. "While it's fun to watch you guys pass rude remarks back and forth like a baseball, I'd like to tell everyone else that I'm back. We have other more important things to do. You know, like running a kingdom."

Mercy nodded, ignoring Death's last sentence and gestured to a door down the hall. "They're in the library, although I'd be careful. Fury and Vengeance have managed to get Justice into a mood."

"Thanks," Death said as he turned from the two ladies and made his way towards the library.

"Hello?" Death called as he opened the door to the library. He was greeted by raucous laughter and a feminine scowl. When he went to investigate, he found the rest of his court gathered around an open book, laughing, all except for Justice who, indeed wore a scowl on her face.

"What's going on, guys?" he demanded, startling whoever was next to him.

Justice, with an expression of annoyance, said, "These two idiots thought it would be funny to look in the dictionary for synonyms of themselves," pointing at Fury and Vengeance when she said "idiots".

"Did you know that I can also be called Asperity?" Fury asked, gripping his stomach. Vengeance burst into laughter. "Sounds like a girl's name."

"What the hell, guys. Stop acting like drunken fools," Death ordered. Justice, along with Time, simply shook their heads.

"What do you think we've been trying to do, Death?" Time asked. "Trust us when we say they're not getting out of whatever they're in anytime soon. They've already been at this for hours."

"I'll leave you to it then...." Death shrugged. "It's about time I get reaping. I'll see you guys around."

Time closed his eyes and nodded thoughtfully. "Hopefully we'll be done with this mess once you're back."

"That would be great," Death said as he teleported to a fallen soul.

Death found himself in the gardens of Life's palace, and his blood froze when he saw the dead Guardian. Heart pounding, Death feared the worst, Did Life kill another? I should check on her after I've extracted the soul.

He placed his hand over the Guardian's heart, then severed the soul. The soul took no time in escaping from the body, then ramming itself into Death's face. "Hey, man, what do you think you're doing? You live under my rule now," he said harshly, waving the small, glowing orb away.

This is all your fault, the soul said.

Death rolled his eyes and scoffed. "You're not the first soul to say that to me, and while I usually launch into a long description about how I don't kill things, I'm tired and want to get this over with. What the hell happened here?"