Lucky Decade

2

Chapter Two: Robes and Luck

The coldness consumed Stella as she examined the clothes she was wearing. One moment she was on the rooftop anxious to see her brother. In another moment, she was being pushed off the rooftop. In the next moment, she was lying in a pool of blood. And now, she was in the middle of nowhere in strange clothes.

She wore a white robe that covered the whole of her body. The sleeves covering her arms to her wrist and the robe touching her toe. She couldn't feel her heartbeat nor did she hear herself breathing.

Stella's eyes darted from side to side as she examined her surroundings. She was in a dark vacuum and as much as she looked around she realized nothing confined her to the place. The darkness was so thick it blinded her.

The place looked like an infinite space in which the darkness ruled. And with every ticking second, she became oblivious to the coldness.

She stretched her hand and her hand touched something. Her fingers traced the object and she realised it was a chair. She took her seat on it and a long table appeared before her.

"Where am I?" she asked, her eyes widening when she saw the table appear before her out of thin air. Her voice did not echo and no one responded either. Faint footsteps approached. Her eyes darted from side to side and she began to tremble.

"Where am I?" she shouted again, her voice louder this time than before. But it was still the same. At that moment she began to miss her mother. As crazy as Ruth was, Ruth would never leave her alone and she never felt alone with her.

She heard the footsteps getting closer and she was almost certain she felt her heart throbbing in her chest. She stared in the direction of the footsteps as a dark figure approached. A hooded figure appeared before her in a robe blacker than the thickness of the dark that surrounded her.

Stella strained her eyes but she couldn't see the figure's face. The creature right in front of him ignited great tremor and fear in Stella. The hooded figure had limbs and a head and from the look of things and its stature, it looked human.

The hooded figure moved and sat on the other end of the table that appeared in front of her just seconds ago.

"Do you really want to know, little creature?" the hooded figures spoke. The voice echoed in ways that Stella never heard before and she almost felt her skin go numb. His voice was harsh and gloomy and the only thing it did was ignite extreme fear into Stella. She swallowed the lump that had formed in her throat and gave a polite nod.

"You're in my house" the hooded figure continued with that same tone and voice and gradually Stella's fear subsided. All she did was stare at the face of the hooded figure as he spoke. "A space between what you were and what you will become. A place where souls find unrest. A place the living cannot visit. My home. The limbo" he continued and every word he uttered seemed to echo and it frightened Stella the more.

She looked at the figure with widening eyes. If she was dead she was probably in heaven or hell. And from the look of things she was certain, this was neither heaven nor hell. And if this place was neither heaven nor hell and a place the living cannot visit. Why was another person here with her and who was the figure that sat at the other end of the table?

"And who are you?" she managed to ask, freaking out internally.

"Allow me to introduce myself," the figure stood up with a gentle bow and continued. "I'm the controller of the bridge between life and the afterlife. My name is Death. And you can see me because you're dead." She gaped at him as the realisation hit her.

'Death. She was here with death. And she was dead?' Every second that passed accelerated the fright she felt. And the thought that she was alone here frightened her the more. With a shaky voice, she asked.