Sudden Departure

Chapter Twenty-Seven

My heart ached. My head pounded. My stomach churned. I was spinning and swimming inside my own mind.

 I flopped to my feet inside of the Gateway. My knees buckled and I collapsed against the wall.

 Alex was dead. It was all my fault.

 Strong arms lifted me up and dragged me from the Gateway.

 I closed my eyes and released a struggled moan. My chest heaved and my breath hitched. I coughed and choked as the people pulled me into the Main Hall.

 I could feel everyone's eyes on me when I stumbled in the people's grip. I wheezed and collapsed in their arms.

 When I opened my eyes again, I was staring at open blackness. There was a faint, white glow bobbing around in the back of the room.

 The grips on my arms loosened, and then became nonexistent. I crashed to the ground and didn't get up. My will to do anything disappeared after the fight. My head, heart, and body was too tired.

 I lay on my stomach and sobbed. After a few minutes, I sniffed and pushed myself into a sitting position.

 "I can tell your mission wasn't successful," Death concluded coldly. His sarcasm woke me up.

 “How can you tell?” I spat back, acid dripping from my voice.

 Death rolled his eyes dramatically. “Get up,” he ordered. “You have another job to do.”

 “No,” as I said this, my mind flashed back to the first time we met. Something along these lines happened then, too.

 He pinched the bridge of his nose. “Are we really going to do this again?” Apparently, he remembered, too.

 I flopped back to the ground and folded my arms across my chest. I huffed out a heavy breath and fluttered my eyes shut.

 “Get up,” Death argued, emphasizing each word. “You have another mission to go on. Now.”

 “What is it?” I said with a pouty tone.

 “You’re going to act as a Receiver and bring that girl that just passed, Alex, to the Barracks.”

 I snapped my eyes open and slowly sat up. “H-h-how could y-you?” I whispered as I climbed to my feet. “HOW COULD YOU?!” Now I was yelling. I was standing in Death’s face, angrily wagging my finger at him. “HOW COULD YOU DO THAT TO ME?! YOU KNEW SHE WAS GOING TO DIE. THAT I COULDN’T SAVE HER, BUT YOU STILL MADE ME GO ANWAY!”

 “Shailene,” Death said in a calm, quiet voice. “Listen-“

 “NO!” I snapped, cutting him off. “It’s your turn to listen to me.”

 Death clenched his jaw and nodded tightly.

 “I don’t know how, but you knew. You figured out how important Alex is- was to me. She was my last line to living. Almost being a person. I didn’t want to leave there, Death. I had so much to live for, and so did Alex. That’s why I went back there so much. I don’t like living in the darkness, and I don’t want that for Alex.”

 Hot and angry tears burst from my eyes then. “I loved Alex, Death. I just spent a few weeks with her, but they were the best I’ve had in a long time. She’s like this epic, long-lost sister that just completed me. Now, she’s dead.

 I pulled myself from my angry haze and looked at Death. He had a solemn, blank face. He nodded and swallowed heavily.

 Frustrated, furious, and molten lava boiled in my bloodstream. “HOW COULD YOU NOT CARE LIKE THIS?!” I screeched and threw my arms out. “It’s your fault that I’m here; you failed to get Terrance to me in time and you didn’t get me to Alex in time! Now, you go and pull some sick stunt like this! You are supposed to be guiding me, not torturing and killing me again! YOU DON’T CARE!!!”