Thorns

788

Petals and sparkling yellow light fell down upon the pale, fragile boy. He lay peacefully on a bed of bushes in a glass house. Sniffles and light sobbing ripple through the still atmosphere. Tears of Mother Nature drop onto her son's blackening body.

A black splotch has formed on his chest and has been rapidly spreading ever since. His skin has grown pale and his body has thinned. The condition is only worsening.

"How did this happen, Death?" Mother Nature has a raincloud around her head. The raindrops mix with her actual tears.

"This is a plague that slowly kills; therefore, he is not dead yet. It can only be cast by me, but I of course did not do this. So it must've been-"

"Josh." JJ seethes. He can feel his skin heat up with anger. He knew that evil creature had hurt Simon. The anger subsides as he sees the black plague creeping to the arms. The dam breaks. JJ bursts out into tears.

"I cannot believe he would ever engage in such deadly behavior. On someone so innocent as well." 

"Can you fix it?" Mother Nature gazes up at him with woeful eyes, drowning in despair.

"No, for I can only kill. I cannot even undo my own curses." Death says. Simon's mother joins JJ in a fit of tears. "I am so sorry, Mother Nature. This should have never happened. I promise you he will receive a fitting punishment this instant." Death assures. He steps back and twirls into a black cloud of mist, disappearing to hunt down his forsaken son.

"What about you, Father Time? Can you heal him?" she asks in hysterics.

"I, personally, cannot. I may preside over those who can heal, but I can only control time." he unfortunately admits.

The news cause her to let out a heart-breaking wail. The rain begins to downpour and all the flowers cascading up the glass walls wilt. 

"But-but-but-!" Father Time takes her hands to provide comfort. She stops crying for a moment to look at him. "But, while I cannot heal, I know all who do. I can provide you the best healer in training at the moment."

"W-who?" she whimpers. The rain slows to a sprinkling.

"His name is Vik."

JJ's head shoots up from crying over Simon's body. Oh how the worlds were colliding around him in dizzying ways. 

"You've got to be kidding me." JJ whispers to himself in his hands.

~

Days had passed where Josh did not emerge from his room. He had locked himself in darkness. Sulking, lost in thought, feeling bad for himself. His sight drifts to the closed and covered window. The light peeking through beckons him. He rolls off his bed onto the floor and crawls to the window. Sitting on the floor, he barely lifts up the blinds to sneak a peek of the world carrying on without him. The sun burns his eyes for a minute before adjusting. He stares, jealous of the people outside.

For the first time, his loneliness felt... lonely.

It wasn't fun anymore.

Suddenly, his floor went from a gray carpet to a dusty pale greenish-yellow rocky ground. The window disappeared and he is faced with a dark purple mountainess wall. He knows exactly where he is. Home.

"Joshua!" A voice as deep as the valleys roars, shaking the endlessly tall walls. Josh winces. Begrudgingly, he peers behind him.

A large faceless black mist in a black cloak gazes down upon the fearful boy.

"Yes, father?" he meekly responds.

"This has got to be the most disappointing disappointment from you ever." Death sneers at his son.

"What?" Josh is confused.

"You don't even know what you've done?" he snarls in disbelief. His shadowy hand unzips a tear in the air to show Josh the consequences of his actions: Simon laying bedridden, out cold and dying.

"Simon?!" Josh reached out to be with him but Death zips the tear back up before he could get to it.

"As punishment, I am banishing you to the Underworld. Here, you will be in charge of taking the souls across Styx River. You need to learn some responsibility." It is to keep him from hurting anyone else. "Freezus, here, will row." He motions to the tall skeleton with a large paddle in his bony hand. "You're job is to help the souls find their belonging and forgive themselves. If they don't, it's into the fiery pits for them. Also, take off that hoodie."

"What? Why?" Josh grabs fistfuls of his cloth tightly.

"So your face can be seen." Reluctantly, he pulls it over his ahead and huffs crossing his arms. He tries to keep up what he has left of his now cracked armor. "You'll be lucky if that boy survives. That's the only way you'll ever see the surface again."

The air is burning hot yet freezing cold at the same time. Josh, however, doesn't feel any sensation except for regret. If only he hadn't lashed out at his only friend. This is when people from Earth would start praying but here there is no god to pray too. You can only pray for Death's forgiveness. Something he does not handout for anyone, not even his son. There seems to be little hope for Josh.

So, hopeless, the boy turns to the tall skeleton for direction to his new destiny. Freezus walks Josh to the wooden boat he will be stuck riding for the next century. Josh steps into the ride and sits slumped over with his arms crossed. Freezus glances at him for a second before setting sail into the floating river of trinkets, oddities, gadgets, and personal belongings.

Josh sees an outline of a man sitting before him. His first soul to tow to its eternal afterlife. The whispy figure examines the river of items either side of him. No one says anything, only an eerie echo floats about.

"This is my dad's watch!" the man suddenly shouts. He takes it from the collection.

"What's so special about it?" Josh questions, glimpsing up for a mere second.

"Every generation it gets passed down to the first son. I was my dad's first son. I never felt like I deserved it."

"Why?" he continues to interrogate.

"Because I never went to visit my dad when he fell ill. I abandoned him when he needed me most. I never got to say goodbye to him... The watch still got passed on to me." The echoes return to kill the silence. "Time really isn't on our side. It always felt I had forever until he died. I realized I couldn't make up what I had lost. I swore I'd never forgive myself."

"Well do you now?" Josh asks the all important question. Still his head remains low, his eyes barely look at the soul across from him.

"I-I... don't know. I tried my best to be with my mother until she passed."

"You're gonna have to make up your mind or you're getting sent down there regardless of your choice." Below them is a fiery toxic green liquid with souls screaming in agony below, climbing over each other to be on the one little plot of land in the massive sea. Forever stuck there, in pain searching for relief from the liquid.

The man looks scared.

"No, I don't forgive myself." he confesses.

"'Kay. See ya." Josh grabs the soul of the man and dangled it over the sea before letting go and watching him fall as he screams out for mercy.

Freezus scoffs at Josh in disgust.

"I see why your father doesn't have you come visit. You're quite chilling."

"Why thank you." Josh takes it as a compliment. The rower stops paddling back.

"Death isn't about being cold. It's about helping people with a traumatic experience move on to a peaceful state. Did they not teach you this in school?" Freezus scolds the young death.

"I didn't really pay any attention in class." Josh says in a low, gravely voice.

However, the words the skeletal keeper had just passed on left Josh thinking.