Death's Apprentice

25

It was a long wait. By the time Death came back to pick me up, I had tried every way of sitting in the rolling chair possible, even the ones that resulted in it flipping over.

"Jeez, kid. Did a tornado come through here?" Death looked around the room. Papers laid strewn on the floor, some of them soaked with whatever Kai had in his thermos. He sat the chair up before crouching down next to me.

"You were gone for five hours," I groaned. "I almost started making origami. I don't even know how to do that! And for the record, this is not what immediately going home looks like."

"Yeah, kinda got into an argument with St Peter."

"Well, are we going home now or are you going to come up with something else to do?"

"I was thinking about stopping at McDonald's, but now we're not going to," Death said. His hand closed around the fabric of my sleeve. Within seconds, the harsh fluorescent lights were replaced with the overcast skies of his domain. He released me, before standing up. "Don't make me drag you back home. There's a lot of rocks in this field and I don't feel like healing you."

"Can I sleep here?" The ground was comfortable, free of rocks and branches.

"Sure," Death started towards the mist shrouded house in the distance. "If you feel like having a boulder fall on you. It won't kill you, but, well, you're getting crushed by a boulder."

I scrambled to my feet and scampered after him, a dog following its master. My strides lengthened until I kept pace with him. Death didn't say anything to me, and I said nothing to him. Something agitated him while he was in Heaven; his resting expression had been replaced with a frown. He slammed the door open and tossed his cloak on the rack.

"I'll be in my study. There's leftovers in the fridge." He disappeared upstairs. Under different circumstances, I might've followed him, but I had other priorities than stalking my boss. One of which involved showering.

I slipped my shoes off and hung up my cloak. My stomach rumbled, but I ignored the siren call of the fridge, opting to scrub the blood from my body. I locked the bathroom door, stripped out of my clothes and tossed them into the washing machine. I grabbed a towel and washcloth from the linen closest before stepping under the steady shower of water.

My skin hurt by the time I finished, rubbed raw by my scrubbing. Everything I bumped into shot pain through my nerves but I couldn't see any blood, and that was the only thing that mattered to me. Satisfied, I started humming as I stepped out of the shower; my feet sank into the rug. I rubbed my hair with the towel before wrapping it around me. I looked to the sink counter, only to remember that my only set of clothes was currently resting at the bottom of the washing machine which wasn't even on.

Getting more clothes had never crossed my mind. Which left me standing wearing only towel in the only bathroom in the house.

I sighed and slipped out of the bathroom. One of the stairs creaked as I made my way upstairs. Violin music floated from the direction of Death's study. I made sure the towel was tightly secured before walking to the door. I lifted my hand, took a deep breath, and the door opened.

"Is there a reason you're standing outside my study in nothing but a towel?" Leaning against the door frame, Death held a violin in one hand, the bow in the other. "Because I'm practicing."

"Are there any clothes I could wear? I shoved mine in the washer."

"Did you pretreat them?"

"Yes, I pretreated them. Again, are there any clothes I could wear?"

He sat the violin and bow aside. He tugged at the cuff of his jacket, seemingly lost in thought. Death nodded. "Lilith dropped some of hers off when she changed your bandages. I managed to get some of the less revealing ones. They should be in the dresser. Now if you excuse me, I need to keep practicing. I'm not losing to Lucifer again." With that, the door was slammed in my face. I didn't care, I got what I needed.