Death's Apprentice

“So Helen. Answer me this… If the people here in the land of the Inbetween are from all different parts of the world, how do we understand each other?”

The plump woman sat back in her chair and watched as Lily and Edgar hopped around.

“What language do you think I’m speaking?” she asked.

“Uh… I don’t… I just never really thought it about it before. I assume German… But I can’t really tell…”

“Exactly. I mean we have all “passed on” as they say, so we are really communicating more telepathically. The basic concept of what we are trying to say comes out in the way that we need to hear. Didn’t you ever ask anyone these questions when you first showed up in the Inbetween?”

Arno shrugged. “No one really wanted to talk to me. Never really had any friends before.”

The woman smiled. “Well you do now.”

For the first time in a long time, Arno began to feel genuinely happy…

Lily’s surroundings were warped and dark. She could see a light somewhere above her. She reached out slowly to it but could not reach it…. A cold feeling came over her as she floated deeper and deeper down into the dark…

The five year old blinked back into reality and back to the fact that she was shaking hands with the middle aged woman in front of her. The woman was covered in plants. Moss grew on her shoulders, and shamrocks and flowers popped out of her curly, dark brown hair, which was up in a messy bun. A large beetle with a florescent green shell nestled into her nest of hair.

“Hello Lily. My name is Alma.”

“You drowned!” the little girl blurted.

“Yes I did…” she said, eyeing Death a little curiously. “It seems she has the same gift that you have dear friend. If I remember correctly, a similar thing happened when I first came in…”

“Yes. That is one of the ways I knew she was meant to take my place.”

Alma bent down to Lily’s level. “I’m the “Mother” of the Earth Workings Lily. Would you like me to take you there and show you around?”

“Earth Workings?”

“Yes. It’s where we make all the things that the Earth needs.”

“Woah… Like what?”

Alma smiled. “Well let’s go see-shall we?”

Lily began bouncing up and down, excited to see more new things.

Death seemed to give a sigh of relief. “Thank you Alma. Lily really needs to continue her training, but I do need to do some investigating regarding these Dark Entities.”

“You’re not coming Death?”

“No. But do not worry. You’re in good hands.”

“Ok.”

“It still amazes me to see the trust that children have…” Alma thought out loud. “All right Lily and Arno! Let’s go!” At that, Lily jumped up into the glass ball that she was starting to get used to, and as always, her Guardian struggled to keep up. She waved goodbye to Death as the dark smoke started to cover their view. A sweet smell filled the air, and the smoke cleared to show that they were standing in yet another fantastical world. Lily and Arno looked around in amazement.

They were in a forest-with very large trees hundreds of feet tall. A swarm of butterflies of all shapes, sizes, and colors, came out to greet them. Lily giggled gleefully as they surrounded her. Even Arno smiled.

“Welcome to the workings of the Earth!” Alma told them, the butterflies swirling around behind her in a wonderful display of color. “Here, we design, create, and tend to all the souls of the plants and animals who spend their time in the Inbetween.”

“So the plants and animals who die come here too?” Lily asked.

“Of course! And they also eventually move on!”

“That’s interesting…” Arno commented, holding his hand out as a butterfly softly landed on his finger. “I never thought about where they all might go…”

The three of them started to walk through the forest as Alma filled them in on the different things regarding the realm.

“Now we have several different “mothers” and “fathers” as we call them. That simply means they are the overseer of their section of the realm. To protect and tend to all the things they have, and to make sure everything in the living world is running how it should be. Let’s see… Where should we take you to first? I know! The labs! That’ll show you more of how we run!”

“Ok!”

With a wave of her hand, the butterflies surrounded them until the forest was hidden from their view. When they dispersed, they were standing in a winter wonderland. Lily could see a few polar bears and arctic leopards walking along an icy lake, and evergreens dotted themselves across hills of snow covered plant life.

“Arno! Look! Snow!!” the five year old yelled jubilantly, reaching up and trying to catch the falling snowflakes.

“Wait. So there’s weather in the Inbetween??” the Guardian asked in amazement.

“Kind of. The plants and animals accustomed to colder climates come here. And of course, it’s our job to make sure every aspect of the Earth is working properly. We have different areas so everything can be appeased. The labs just so happen to be in the arctic portion.”

Alma led them along an icy river, which ended at a frozen water fall. The thick ice hung there and glistened as the snow fell silently and beautifully. The little girl did not even realize that she wasn’t even cold.

The two of them followed the Earth Mother behind the wall of frozen water and into a clean white laboratory. Lab tables lined themselves along the spacious room, and the people of the Earth workings realm bustled about here and there, looking at papers.

“There are several different things that we do here and several different levels. This is the one where all the calculations and technical things are taken place. In order to work here, one must have an understanding of how things work.” Alma said proudly.

“Calculations? But-“

“Yes Arno. Math actually has a purpose. A very large purpose at that. Many would call what we do magic, but it’s all simply science that not everyone understands.”

She led them over to a clear elevator, and soon they were going down deeper into the labs.

“The first place I’ll take you to is the testing floor. It’s where we test different environments and such. I think our Winter Father is actually down there right now…”

They stepped out of the elevator and into a circular room lined with doors. It probably wasn’t that large, but then again, to a five year old, everything seemed big. Alma put a hand on Lily’s shoulder and led her to one of the doors and opened it for her so she could look inside. The little girl blinked. Inside the room was a desert landscape with oddly bent prickly trees and little bushes here and there. A yellowish sand carpeted everything, and somehow there was a blue sky and a sun beating down on everything.

“This is the Mojave desert Lily!” Alma told her. “In the testing rooms, Earth workers come down here to practice season changes and test things out. This desert may seem brown right now, but just you wait...” The woman gave her a smile, and then knelt down in the desert dirt and put her hand on the ground. Slowly, some of the green plants started to open up and reveal that they were actually flowers. The brown soon was covered in bright reddish orange poppies, mixed with little white flowers here and there. Lily looked around in awe.

“Of course, like every realm, the Earth Workings has different jobs. A lot of Season Changers come here to train.”

The little five year old squatted down and touched one of the soft petals of a poppy. Then she put her hand on the ground. She could remember what her teacher had been telling her about bean plants and how they grew… Was it the same with flowers? Slowly, underneath her hand, a little plant started to pop out of the ground.

“Look! Look! I made a plant!!” she said excitedly, bending really low and putting her face on the ground.

“Wow! Now how did you do that?” the Earth Mother asked curiously as she and the Guardian bent down to look at Lily’s creation.

“But-wait-how did she-? She’s only five! She doesn’t understand all these things yet!”

“I do too! I learned in school!” the little girl said pompously.

“Arno, those who come into the Inbetween young start understanding and learning things a lot quicker than they would in the living world. And yet, even that being said, I’m a bit surprised myself that Lily was able to bring something out of the dirt; and in the desert no less.”

“I made a flower! I made a flower!” Lily sing songed, dancing around.

“Why do you think that is?”

Alma was silent as she thought about this and led them out of the desert landscape.

“I think it’s because she’s to take Death’s place. Whoever becomes Death needs to have a general understanding of all the realms so they can be better suited to help everyone. What’s she been like in other places?”

“Well, pretty great actually.”

“Then that’s a testament to you that she really is supposed to be Death.”

The Earth mother led them into another room, where a short round man in a heavy blue coat dripping with icicles and snow white hair stood in the middle of a green forest that smelled of fresh rain.

“Alma! Nice to see you!” The old man said jubilantly.

“Lily, this is our Winter Father, Frederic. Frederic, this is Death’s new apprentice Lily and her Guardian Arno.”

“Nice to meet you! I was just down here practicing a bit.”

“Can I see?” Lily asked.

The old man smiled and put his hands in the air. Slowly, ice started to creep up on the leaves and the grass whitened with the oncoming wave.

Once again, Lily watched with the utmost fascination.

After Lily watched the fantastic work of Father Frederic, Alma took them down even deeper into another room. This new place had stables with a comfortable atmosphere and a nice warm glow about it. It seemed to go on forever, but had a lower ceiling than some of the other places they had been to. Lily peered into one of them to see a walrus with saggy skin slowly look up at her. She could tell that it must have been very old.

“This is where the animals of the arctic area who have been here a while come just before they move on.”

“What’s ‘moving on’?” Lily asked curiously.

“It’s when your time in the Inbetween is over. Oh look! We have an arctic fox getting ready to go! Look!”

Lily and Arno peered over into a stable as white specks of light appeared and started surrounding themselves around the old fox. The lights went around and around it gently, and the animal had a glow around it. It was raised off of the ground a little, a sense of peace and calm coming over it. Lily almost thought it smiled as it soon disappeared in a burst of light.

“Where did it go?” she asked, looking up at the Earth Mother.

“No one knows for sure, but we know that moving on is a beautiful thing, and nothing to be afraid of. We know that whatever happens next is somewhere peaceful and happy. It’ll eventually happen to everyone here in the Inbetween once their work here is done.”

Lily nodded her head and stared at the spot where the fox used to be.

After being led around the arctic area, Lily really wanted to see the spring area, so Alma took them up out of the building, and with a flourish of snowflakes, they appeared in a large field full of flowers. The little girl couldn’t get enough of the scenery she was seeing.

“Lily!!!”

Lily turned to see a small group of children running towards her.

It was some of her friends from her Kindergarten class!!

She jumped up and ran to them, feeling excited to see familiar faces.

“Lily-I swear…” Arno huffed, running after her.

“What are you guys doing here?” she asked them.

“We’re going to be Earth Workers!!” the little red headed boy named Randy yelled.

“I’m going to gwow fwowows.” A little chubby faced girl said with a grin.

“Are you going to be an Earth Worker too Lily?”

“Nope! I’m going to be Death!”

The five year olds gaped at her in awe.

“Do you want to play?!?” an asian boy a little smaller than the rest asked.

“Alma-can I play with my friends?” she asked, hardly able to contain herself. The woman laughed.

“Yes. But just for a little bit-we’ve got a lot to do.”

“But-“ Arno began.

“It’ll be fine Guardian. We’ll keep an eye on them. Besides-they aren’t really in any danger here.”

“Ugh. Fine. Go have fun Lily.” Arno said a bit hesitantly.

The little kids squealed with delight and ran off together in the field, frolicking through the flowers and tagging each other.

After a little while, Lily began to feel a bit tired. That’s when she noticed the old woman. The woman was sitting on a boulder in the midst of the all the wildflowers-her hand grazing along the top of them. Curiously, the five year old came towards her.

“Hello.”

The old woman looked up and smiled at her. “Hello dear. How are you?”

Lily swayed there a bit shyly.

“Would you like to sit down with me?” she asked.

The little girl nodded, and the woman reached out her hand to help her up. As expected, Lily began to see the scene that killed her. However, this time was different… She had seen it before. Once again, she found herself staring at a couple in a car, holding hands…

“Jeremy!” the girl screamed as the car came towards them.

When she came out of it, she stared at the old woman in surprise.

“You’re Sarah!!” she exclaimed.

“Why yes dear…” she said softly. “Now how did you know that?”

“You’re married to Jeremy!!”

The woman froze. “How do you know about Jeremy?” she asked, hardly daring to breathe.

“Well, he told me. You were hit by a car.”

Lily didn’t know why, but it looked like the old woman was about to cry.

“You’ve spoken to him? You know where he is?” she asked hopefully.

“Yep! I see him all the time! He told me to keep his name a secret though.”

“So he goes by a different name then?”

“Yes….Is something wrong?”

Sarah looked down at the flowers sadly. “I haven’t seen him for a very long time… I thought… I don’t know... “

“He hasn’t come to visit you?”

“No…”

Lily folded her arms, thinking that this was rather silly. Why wouldn’t he come see her? And why mustn’t she tell anyone about his past? She looked at the old woman in front of her and remembered how Death had talked about her.

“I’m his apprentice.” she told her proudly. “I’m going to take his place.”

“Oh really? Now why is that?”

“Cause he said that you and him are almost done in the Inbetween. He misses you a lot I think.”

Sarah’s wrinkled face took on a look of confusion. “But...how would he know that? And… why…”

“Lily! It looks like you’ve met our Spring Mother!” Alma cheerfully interrupted as she and Arno walked up. “Sarah, this is Lily, Death’s new apprentice.”

Sarah’s eyes grew wide as she looked in between the little girl and the Mother of the Earth Workings.

“Death?”

Lily suddenly felt that she had said too much. Her face grew very hot with the feeling of getting in trouble for something and her stomach did knots.

“Well, it was nice to meet you Sarah!! I hope we meet again! I’m going to go play!” she said quickly. And with that, she jumped up and ran back to the group of kids.

This interaction with Death’s wife had brought up questions. Questions that a five year old was probably going to forget, but she made a mental note to ask him why he didn’t come to see her and to tell him that she looked sad.

She quickly got distracted as the other kids ran around with her in the field and flowers, teaching Lily a new game that they had learned in the Earth Workings Realm. Lily laughed and then stopped at the edge of the field when something caught her eye…

She bent down to see a withering flower-it’s purple petals hanging on by mere threads. It was the first dying thing she had seen since coming into the Earth Workings. She looked up into the woods to see a trail of dead and dying things. She turned around to see that Arno and Alma were still talking to Sarah, and that no one seemed to notice her on the edge of the field.

She would only be gone for a second…

And slowly, she ventured into the dark, dead woods alone…

White and black bare trees contorted themselves above her, and the greens she had been seeing began to fade into grays. She traveled farther and farther along the dying path, when she came to a clearing with a large white tree, its bare branches twisting up towards the heavens and blocking the sky. It was then that she saw what looked like a little black creature huddled near the base.

“Hello there!” Lily soothed, reaching out a hand to touch it. As soon as she touched it, something happened that she did not quite expect.

She was brought into another death vision…

She felt a pain in her chest and felt herself being catapulted backwards-a gunshot straight to the heart. The person dropped the bag they were holding-blue and red lights flashing around the darkness.

Lily jerked back in shock, and then the little black creature started to grow. It was soon towering over her-an inky black blob with two glowing white eyes and very long arms.

A dark entity.

She gasped and staggered backward as the shadow lumbered towards her. It opened its ugly mouth and let out an earsplitting screech. The little girl turned to run, only to find another Dark entity blocking the path back the way she had come. She turned again to find that there was another one sprouting up from a little black ball.

“ARNO!!!” she screamed as the shadows came closer. In a panic, she ran off the path and into the thorny woods. She could hear the dark entities screeching behind her. She had no idea what would happen if they caught her, but she didn’t want to find out. Tears blurred her vision, and she suddenly was falling as she tripped and tumbled down a slippery bank. She skidded to a stop right in the middle of some skeletal bushes. Disoriented, she popped her head up and then cried out in fear as she saw that they were hot on her tail.

She scrambled to get away, but the thorns and briars held fast. She pulled at them in desperation, tearing parts of her clothes in the process. Ahead, she saw a hollowed out tree. Lily finally pulled herself free and tripped again.

“Arno!!” she cried, wiping the tears from her face and wiping dirt on it in the process. She crawled over to the tree to try to find refuge, grabbed on to one of the roots, and then screamed as one of the shadows grabbed onto her ankle.

She was whisked away into another reality… A man stood on top of a building… and then stepped off. The wind rushed past him, and it ended with a sickening crunch.

Lily tried to focus on holding onto the tree root as the dark entities started to surround her… Another one grabbed her arm, causing a searing pain. She screamed again and briefly saw a vision of someone being hung. She covered her head and closed her eyes….wishing it would all be over…

She could hear screams. Wailings… People yelling at her. What happened to dead people if they died? Could they die? Or would she simply be encompassed in darkness for eternity? She cowered and waited to succumb to whatever her fate was going to be.

Before she knew what was going on, the dark entities gave an enraged screech. Lily managed to open her eyes for a moment to see Arno standing there-glaring at the shadows that were over her. He noticed Lily looking at him, and for a moment, she could see the panicked look in his eyes. With a screech, they charged towards him. He stepped back, and then almost in desperation, he held out his hands to defend himself. But instead of a white light like Lily was used to seeing, vines and plants burst up from the ground and started wrapping themselves around the inky blobs.

Arno was obviously surprised at this, but then squeezed his hands. With a screech and burst of white light as the vines squeezed their victims, the Dark Entities were soon gone.

Lily felt herself fading.

She was aware of more people running towards her, and the urgent shouts started to become muffled. She could feel Arno holding her in his arms.

“We told you not to go too far!” her Guardian’s upset voice said through the haze.

The world around her got blurrier and blurrier and her vision was darkening around the edges.

“Lily? Lily!! Hang in there…”

Lily Hoagen’s world went black.