Existence (24 page)

He broke a rule with you. He can’t break the rules. If he doesn’t right this wrong then he’ll pay. It must be corrected.” She began tilting her head back and forth again, studying me as if I were an unknown specimen. I realized her eyes no longer looked insane but more like those of a cat. Her features had all taken on a glow. She wasn’t human. She wasn’t a mental patient. She was…something else.

“What are you Gee?” I asked.

She smiled. “You really want to know?” She stopped stalking me and glanced around the clearing as if expecting someone else. Were there more like her out here? “I guess since it’s your time you can know. You really should have known all along. Your time has long since passed. You’re like an overdue library book. Tick tock, tick tock, you’re costing me valuable time. This isn’t my job. It is HIS,” she hissed, scanning the clearing again and I realized she was waiting for Dank.

“Who’s Dank?” I asked. She grinned at this question and raised one of her eyebrows that were now just as blond as her hair.

“Who do you think he is, Peggy Ann?” she taunted.

“He takes those who die on to wherever they are supposed to go,” I replied in a whisper almost afraid to hear myself say the words. Gee began to cackle her maniacal laughter.

“Well, if you were correct then this would be all the much easier. But seeing as how you are slightly off, it makes this harder. Dank isn’t a transporter. I am.” I stood staring into her large, dark eyes that seemed to shimmer like her lips.

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“That’s right, Peggy Ann, I take them up or I take them down,” she said with a snarl of distaste. “And you were going to be easy. You were going up. You would be given a new body and a new life and your soul would have done what good souls do. They live forever, over and over again. But NO!” She shouted into the darkness as red sparks flew from her fingertips. “NO, PAY-GAYN, that isn’t want happened.

WHY THE HELL NOT? Well this time your pretty little soul was in a pretty little young body and you had a lovely smile and a lovely walk and a lovely laugh and you were interesting. You could see other souls and you were
braaave
and blah, blah, blah. Whatever.” She paused and glared at me. “You got to him. No one is supposed to get to him.” She began stalking back and forth in front of me again, watching me as if she wasn’t sure what to do with me. “So, now it is me who has to right this wrong. He is too weak to do it. He wants you. He doesn’t want to send your soul with me to go up and live a new life. He can’t stand the thought of ending things for you.” She rolled her eyes and threw her hands up in the air with a frustrated sigh. “I’ve been sent to get you, with or without his assistance. He’ll be here in the end—don’t frown. You’ll see his sexy face again.” Gee started walking toward me with her catlike prance.

“You didn’t tell me who he is,” I said, backing away from her.

“What is he? You still don’t know? And here I thought I’d made it all very clear,” she taunted, stopping right in front of me to run a red fingernail down my face. I shivered at the familiar, icy touch. The blond who had tried to drown me had felt like her.

“You tried to drown me,” I said hoarsely, searching for some resemblance to the blond I’d thought Dank killed.

She grinned and shook her head, “No, Peggy Ann, that wasn’t me. Ky was another transporter who your lover boy annihilated. You can see now why I’m not real fond of the job that has been entrusted to me. He isn’t going to be happy 175

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with me. I don’t want his anger directed my way when I snuff out his precious one. After all, who wants to fuck with Death.” I swallowed against a sudden knot of fear in my throat.

“Death,” I managed to whisper.

“Let her go.” Dank’s voice filled the clearing and Gee stiffened. Her grip went lax before it tightened again, this time with more intent. Breathing was now impossible.

“NO!” Dank’s voice broke into the darkness. Gee’s grip released as her body slammed flat against the ground. I gasped for air, staring down at her as she glared up at Dank with a mixture of fear and hate.

“It is time. I have been sent. You cannot break the rules.

She is a soul that will be given another life. You can find her again. End this,” Gee begged, glaring up at Dank. He stepped over her and reached a hand out to touch my neck. The warmth soothed the burning pain Gee’s icy grip had left.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered as he gazed down into my eyes.

I nodded not sure what he was apologizing for, but I knew I would forgive him for anything. The wild cackle from behind him caused his dark blue eyes to transform into glowing sapphires. He turned and glared back at Gee. “Leave and I’ll let you exist.” His hard, cold demand penetrated the darkness.

Gee stood, watching him fearfully. “I can’t leave until you do your job and I leave with that soul.” Dank shook his head and his eyes seemed to cause her pain. She grimaced and stepped back. “Listen, I didn’t ask to be the one who had to piss off Death. They sent me. I had no choice.” She pointed at me. “I like her. I get what you see in her but she has to die. It is appointed.”

Dank turned completely around and stalked toward her.

“NOOOOO,” he roared. Gee backed away with a terrified expression. I reached for Dank, grabbing his arm.

“No, Dank, please,” I begged. He stopped and turned back at me.

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“Do you understand what she wants? She isn’t your friend, Pagan, although she played a very good role.” I stepped closer to him. “You’re Death and I am supposed to die.” I tore my eyes from his and looked at Gee. “And she is going to transport me.”

Dank shook his head and glared back at Gee’s relieved smile. “You made it sound that simple? You made her think she could just die and float away and have another life?” A growl rippled from his chest and Gee stepped farther away, her body visibly trembling. “It doesn’t work that way, now does it, Gee?” he snarled, and I felt the muscles in his arms bulge under my touch.

“I’m here to right a wrong. You broke a rule that can’t be broken. You can’t keep her, Death. She’s not a pet to play with. She’s a soul and your only claim to a soul is the fact you take the body it lives in when the time is appointed. You do not own the souls.”

“I will NOT take her soul. She’s going to live. Her death did not happen.”

Gee threw her hands up in exasperation. “Yes, we know that. Because YOU stopped it! She was supposed to be crushed in that car. You were to take her soul from her body.

Ky was to take her up. BUT, NO! You took her body out and saved it.”

My legs gave out as the truth of Gee’s words hit me. The little girl from the hospital’s words came rushing back to me.

“Don’t look so sad. He said this body I have is sick and once I die I will get a new body and a new life. Souls aren’t forced to wander the earth. Only those that are too scared to go on are left here to wander. If you chose to leave the earth you will return in a new body and a new life. Your soul will, however, be the same. He told me that the man who wrote my favorite books, The Chronicles of Narnia, said that, ‘You are not a body. You have a body. You are a Soul.’” Dank reached for me before I sank to the ground. I gazed up at him. “I met a little girl in the hospital. She had met you.

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She was sick and she was going to die and you told her that her body was sick and not to be afraid because she would get a new body.”

Dank shook his head with a tormented expression. “I know what you’re thinking and no.”

I stared over at Gee and she glanced away from me. There was something I didn’t know and it was important. I gazed back up at Dank. “What are you not telling me, Dank? Why can’t you take my body and let me live life again? I can be with you then once my life isn’t appointed to die and you aren’t breaking a rule.”

Gee shook her head and turned her back to me.

Dank closed his eyes tightly. “You won’t come back,” he said in a hoarse whisper.

“Why? You told the little girl she would. Gee said I would get another body and I would go on living; that is what souls do.” Dank reached out and cupped my face with his hands.

His thumb brushed my lips. I hated seeing the pain in his eyes. I wanted to end his pain. Why wouldn’t he let me?

“Pagan, the moment I became consumed with you and chose to break the rule everything changed. You’re my weakness. I chose you over the rules. Once you are taken you will be kept. I will no longer see you or be given a chance to be near you. I am Death. I can’t live with the light and you will live with the light. Forever. Never to return to Earth. I can’t resist you so they won’t let me keep you.” He bent down and kissed my nose gently. I trembled under his touch.

Tears burned my eyes. I couldn’t stand the thought of never seeing him again.

“And if he refuses to take your body he will be taken as a result. Are you going to tell her that part, Death? Are you going to tell her how you will no longer be free to roam the Earth as Death but you will be condemned to Hell? You’ll be as lowly as the fallen angels. If she lives, you essentially die.” Gee stood watching Dank with her hands on her hips. “The choice is now. Once your powers are stripped I’ll be 178

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transporting you down. And I truly hate to go down.” She flicked her gaze toward me. “You can live and have eternal life while he burns in Hell with the rest of the fallen angels and sinners, or you can go with me and live in light and let him continue to live the life he has lived since the creation of man. For he is, and has always been, Death.” 179

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The dark sky began to churn around a core of light. I grabbed Dank’s arm with both of my hands as if he was about to disappear. “What’s happening?” I asked over the sound of the wind roaring in the distance. Dank shook his head, with his eyes on Gee.

She glanced from him to me. “They’re going to take him.

Because of you, he will be considered as one of the least. He has fallen. He broke the rules.” Gee began to yell over the storm-like winds enclosing the clearing. I let go of Dank and walked forward, knowing I had to stop this and he wasn’t going to tell me how.

“What can I do?” I screamed at Gee.

She glanced behind me to Dank. “She isn’t like the other humans. It’s why you fell for her when no one else ever tempted you. Let her make this choice.”

“NO!” Dank yelled from behind me with a fierceness in his voice verging on panic. I ran toward Gee, afraid Dank would stop me.

“Tell me,” I demanded. She stared back at me as her glowing features seemed ever more otherworldly. The storm grew stronger. Her blond hair whipped wildly around her creating the appearance of the immortal she was.

“He can only be forgiven if you die. He is Death and he will have to accept your soul. I can only do what it takes to kill your body but in the end, until He is no more, Death has to take your soul.”

“NO! I WILL
NOT
TAKE IT! SHE IS A NEW SOUL! MY

WEAKNESS WILL NOT CONDEMN HER,” Dank roared from behind me as his arms pulled me away from Gee.

She ignored Dank’s protest and continued to watch me as the storm grew stronger. I had a power here that Dank wouldn’t admit and Gee was too frightened to tell me. She was trying to. The friend I thought I’d made at the mental house may truly be my friend after all. There was no wicked 180

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intent in her gaze like I’d seen in the other transporter’s eyes.

She was pleading with me silently. What was the choice? If Dank refused to take my soul then how could she kill me even if I walked right into her arms? Dank’s arms seemed to be fighting against a pull from the storm that wasn’t pulling at me or Gee. It was here for him. I glanced up at him and touched his anguished face so full of determination to save me that he was willing to be sucked into Hell.

“I love you,” I said, causing his face to contort in pain.

“I’m not a man so I do not have a heart that loves as a human does. I’m an immortal god that dwells with supreme power because I hold the keys to Death. But you are my existence. I am yours.” Hot tears streamed down my face as I stared into the face of someone who comprehended an emotion much stronger than my weak, feeble words of love.

His arm was ripped away from me by the storm-force wind and he stood like the god he was while a dark funnel formed around him. My heart pounded in my chest and I ran for Gee, knowing somehow there was something I could do. She could take me, I could see it in her eyes. There was a way for me to stop this. Gee watched me as I got closer to her and I noticed the hope flicker in her eyes.

“Help him! Do what you can but don’t let them take him, please,” I yelled over the roar behind me torn from the chest of Death. Gee nodded and glanced back over my shoulder.

“She made the sacrifice. It’s finished,” Gee announced with a loud, deep commanding tone. Her eyes came back to me as she touched her hand to my head.

The air around me ceased. No longer could I draw oxygen into my lungs. It took all my willpower not to try and gasp for air. If Dank saw me struggle I knew he would fight whatever force bound him to free me from Gee’s power. The cold, damp ground rose up to meet me and I lay limp as the sharp pain of suffocation burned my lungs. The storm around me faded away. I heard no more and felt no more. It was different than before. This time the pain eased away quickly 181