Death's Apprentice

Lily stood there stiffly, unsure of where she was. She had just been talking to her Guardian Arno, when darkness and whispers had surrounded her. The space around her did not look like the Inbetween she had gotten so used to. She grabbed her cloak and threw it around herself, envisioning herself back in the grand hall of the reapers. But for the first time since she had taken on the mantle of Death, the cloak did nothing.

Something was unsettling about this place, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on what it was. She caught a little bit of movement out of the corner of her eye and quickly turned to try to see what it was. Lily suddenly felt her blood run cold when she was met with a familiar set of blank white eyes.

A dark entity.

Lily fought the urge to take a step backwards, reminding herself that she had more power than any dark entity.

Lily Hoagen… Lily Hoagen…

The black expanse was whispering her name in such a way that made her skin crawl. At first, she thought it was just one voice echoing through the expanse, but then she realized that the darkness around her seemed to be squirming.

The blackness was completely made up of dark entities. She jumped as one of the entities grabbed her by the ankle, and then another one wrapped around her arm. They all started to descend on her, and for one horrifying, confusing moment, Lily realized that she was not seeing any death visions.

“Stop!!” she yelled, throwing her arms out with a burst of white light. The dark entities hissed and recoiled. Lily stood there, breathing heavily.

“Why don’t any of you have death visions?” she demanded. She hadn’t been expecting an answer, so when she heard a light chuckle, she felt goosebumps and shivers travel up her arms and down her spine. She had never heard of a dark entity that could talk before…

“Who are you?” she asked, still holding her hands out as she looked around.

“I’m an old friend.’

Lily slowly turned to see some of the dark entities part to reveal a young man in his twenties with short white hair and a long dark cloak.

“I would ask if you are one of the Builders, but I have a feeling that’s not the case.” she said, her eyes narrowed.

“Well, I was a Builder a long time ago.” he said with a friendly smile.

“Why don’t any of these dark entities have any death visions?” Lily asked him, not lowering her defenses.

“You can’t die if you were never born.” the man explained.

“So you’re saying these people used to be Builders?”

“A long time ago. They left when I did.”

This response opened a bunch of new questions, which registered as confusion on her face.

“Left? What do you mean by that?”

The man sighed dramatically, leaning back and floating in the air.

“Oh Lily. I told you a long time ago this whole memory thing in the plan would be idiotic. If you just remembered, we wouldn’t be in this mess.”

He floated towards her, reaching his hand out to her, but she stepped back coldly.

“You know Lily, I could help you remember your time as a Builder. Before you were born. Knowledge is a powerful thing. In fact, I would say it’s everything.”

“I disagree.” Lily told him, clenching her hands into fists. “Otherwise, why would a five year old take the place as Death?”

The man circled her in the air, but Lily stood her ground.

“Oh that’s right. You were in that school shooting at a young age-weren’t you? It’s a pity you had to leave life so young. If we had just gone with my plan from the start, something like that would have never happened.”

Lily had no idea what he was talking about, but something inside her told her that this man was only telling her half truths. Something about this man was sinister.

“What do you want?” she scowled. The man laughed softly.

“What do you want, Lily Hoagen?” he asked, dodging the question. She took a moment to think about this.

“I would like some answers, but I don’t think I want them from you.” she told him. She tensed up when he put an arm around her shoulders.

“Oh come on. Lighten up Lily. You really don’t want to remember anything? Not even… your Builder name?”

“Go AWAY!” Lily growled, swirling her cloak around her and bursting into light. She heard the dark entities hiss, and a moment later, she found herself standing back in the realm of the reapers, as if she had never left. In fact, Arno was standing beside her, completely oblivious to the fact that she had disappeared for several minutes.

“-don’t understand how this could have happened.” Arno said with a worried look on his face. “I thought the Insanities were supposed to prevent something like this from happening?”

Lily looked around, feeling on edge from her recent unpleasant meeting. Arno had picked up in his conversation right where he had left off as if nothing had happened. He paused when he noticed Lily seemed stressed.

“Lily? What’s wrong?”

“I was just gone for several minutes Arno.”

“What?”

Lily started walking towards one of the portals to the other realms, Arno quickly following behind her.

“Where are you going? And what do you mean you were just gone for several minutes?”

“I need to check something with the Fates. I want to ask them if they have any access to the strings before birth.”

“You mean those Builders you talked about? Like the one you kept seeing as a child?”

As the two of them approached the portal, Lily paused, biting her lip.

“Arno, I fear we may have a bigger problem than the escapee.”

Arno stared at her, trying to think of what could be worse than a person who killed people and didn’t feel bad about it. Worse than someone the Insanities couldn’t affect.”

“Are we talking as bad as when-as when Helen-.”

Lily slowly nodded, causing her Guardian to go pale.

“Arno, I think I just met the creator of the dark entities.”