Death's Apprentice

Lily was floating.

Her time in the Inbetween was not yet over…

She was surrounded by light, a peaceful feeling flowing through her. There was no fear, sadness, or heartache.

Only peace.

For a long time, it was silent, but eventually she began hearing deep muffled voices surrounding her.

Slowly, she opened her eyes. Things were blurry at first, but little by little, they began to become clear. She was laying on a table of sorts in a white room. Beside her in a chair, was her Guardian-his face buried in his hands.

“Arno?”

He jerked up to look at the little girl now sitting up staring at him. A tear rolled down his cheek.

“Are you sad? Why are you crying?”

Slowly, the Guardian reached a hand out to her, and then threw his arms around her in a hug.

“We all thought we had lost you… You were gone…”

“No I’m not! I just had to take a nap!” she rubbed her eyes and yawned. That’s when she remembered what had been happening right before her nap.

“The Dark Enties! Are they gone? They almost got me!” she cried in a panic, looking around.

“It’s ok… They’re gone now. You’re safe…” her Guardian soothed. “How are you doing? Did you feel ok during your… er… nap?”

“Yep yep! I feel all better. I’m not done here yet! That’s what the light told me.”

“The...light?”

“The light made me feel better.”

Lily could see that this was just confusing him, so she went onto something else.

“How long was I asleep? What did I miss?” Arno looked around a little warily.

“You’ve kind of been out for a while… But don’t worry about it. You have other things to think about. We should go let the others know you’re ok.”

“Ok!”

With that, the five year old jumped off the table with as much energy as she normally had, and one wouldn’t have even known she had been attacked.

“Lily! Wait! Please stay close-we don’t want anything to happen to you again!!” Arno cried, grabbing her before she could run out the door.

“Ok…”

The two of them walked out hand in hand and headed down a corridor. Soon, they came to the blank white door of Death’s office, which Arno knocked softly on. Without so much as a sound, it opened for them. The two of them walked into the room to find Death pacing.

“Lily!” he said in surprise.

“Hi Death!”

Death came and knelt down on one knee, regarding her with concern.

“Are you all right?”

“Of course silly! My Guardian saved me!” Beside her, Arno hung his head.

“That’s not what everyone else is saying…” he mumbled.

“Hey-she’s awake now Arno-I knew everything would turn out. I still think you’ll make a great Guardian.”

Arno didn’t respond.

“Lily-how did you wake up?”

“I just… did…”

“Death gave a sigh of relief and plopped down in his chair. “Well at least we know that people can wake up after an attack now…”

“Wait-are there other people sleeping? Did the Dark things get other people?”

There was an uncomfortable pause.

“Arno, why don’t you wait outside for a moment. I think it’s about time to fill little Lily in on everything that’s going on…”

The Guardian nodded, gave one last look at the little girl, and quietly left the room.

“So what’s going on Death?”

The old man ran his fingers through his hair. “There were other attacks while you were asleep. You’re the first one to wake up.”

“Oh…”

Lily plopped down in the chair across from Death, and was brought back into the memory of meeting him for the first time. She remembered introducing herself and shaking his hand. Seeing his death vision…

Which reminded her of a few things.

He was about to say something else when the little girl interrupted his thought process.

“I met Sarah!! She’s sad! Why haven’t you visited her?” she scolded. The man froze-not expecting this to come out of the girl in front of him.

“What?”

“She misses you.”

At this, Death seemed to turn a little sad. “Lily, things are more complicated than you can understand at this age… I can’t go see her for our own protection. You’ll understand one day after seeing all the realms.”

“Oh! And...when the Dark Enties touched me… I saw death visions… Why did I see death visions?”

He regarded her for a good long time after her question, trying to decide what to say next. .

“Lily, I know you’re still very young, but I think it’s time you found out how Dark Entities come to be-.”

He was interrupted with a torrent of knocking at the door. Before he even had a chance to say anything, four Greeters burst through the door. Arno stood just outside and peered in after them, a puzzled expression on his face.

“Death!!” Garry gasped, clearly out of breath.

“Sir! Something’s-happened!” Rose added, smoothing out her white blouse and subconsciously wiping her sweaty palms on her white jeans.

“Something’s happened in the living world sir. We’re going to need as many reapers as you can spare-.” Marissa told him.

“This is the largest order I’ve ever seen!!”

Robert was standing there with his arms full of papers, looking rather pale at the prospect of how many new people would be coming into the Inbetween.

Death only took a moment to take this in, and then immediately sprung into action.

“Contact Sgt. Downey. I want some of his Guardians with us so we can work without any worries. Make sure all Greeters are at their posts, and tell Zachary to order the Reapers to the Reaping zone. What exactly has happened?”

“It looks like a terrorist attack-some kind of bombing.”

“Alright. Let’s get this done as quickly as possible to prevent unnecessary pain.”

The Greeters nodded and ran out the door as Arno stepped back to let them pass. Death followed them and turned back to the little girl looking up at him curiously. He gave her a reassuring smile that she could tell was masking his exhaustion, the wrinkles crinkling up at the corners of his wise old eyes.

“Lily, I guess it’s time for you to get another shot at reaping. We’re going to need you.”

The devastation at the Reaping Zone was like nothing little Lily had ever seen before. She could hear sirens and people yelling, and the skeletal structures of stripped buildings that had been eaten away by some sort of bomb. Debris blew away in the wind, and water trickled out of pipes as white flakes of ash floated peacefully up toward a swirling, smoke darkened sky. Helen of course had not approved of Edgar and Lily being there in the first place, arguing that they still hadn’t had enough experience with less gory deaths. However, the situation called for as many able bodied reapers as they could spare, no matter how young they might be.

Lily looked around at the crumbling buildings and the scene of chaos that surrounded them. This situation made it a lot harder to reap those on the lists, for some were hidden under rubble, and there was a lot of confusion as screams and smoke filled the air. The little girl thought it weird that she couldn’t smell the burning rubble or feel the water droplets as firemen sprayed the area. For some reason, she didn’t need to be told who was on the lists. She simply knew. It seemed that the same was for the other Reapers as well.

“Over here children!” Helen exclaimed, calling them over to a woman attempting to CPR on a battered man who was covered in horrible burns on one side. “Edgar, take this one, Lily, you take the little girl over there, and I’ll go over here-.”

Lily looked over to see a little girl on the ground, her face dark with soot and ash, her auburn hair spread out around her head like a tangled octopus that had been pulled out of the sea. She couldn’t have been much older than herself as she lay there staring up at the sky with a pained expression. Lily couldn’t bear it any longer as she ran over there and placed her hands over the girl’s chest.

Breathe.

Lily took deep breaths and soon, the light was coming out of the girl’s chest. The light in her hands felt warm, and then turned cooler, almost like she was trying to hold onto the water droplets of a cloud. The light dissipated as the girl on the ground drew her last breath and promptly died.

Despite the horror of death, Lily smiled, knowing that the girl would be arriving any moment in the land of the Inbetween. She looked up as she heard a familiar voice arguing with someone.

“But I don’t know if he-.”

“I don’t care! He’s supposed to die Byron! Do your job!” an older reaper woman with a long raggedy black cloak scolded. The man scowled as he looked down at the man before him. Lily couldn’t really see over the rubble what the dying man looked like, but she guessed that he didn’t look good at all.

“Are you really going to leave him like that? Let him suffer?”

“He’ll suffer in the Insanities anyway.”

“Then good.”

Byron glared at the red headed woman and then knelt down to reap the man. Lily was surprised at how quick he was able to do it, and then started to wonder why Byron had been so hesitant. Wasn’t it better to reap the people? But then what was the Insanities?

The five year old shrugged it off and then skipped off to find more people, trying to reap them as fast as she had seen Byron do it. Her Guardian of course, stayed close by, but kept getting distracted himself, for he was not the only Guardian there.

Lily jumped over a large cement block and accidentally bumped into a tall skinny man with long black hair that she had definitely seen before, holding out his bow and arrow in preparation for anything that might come their way.

“Hello young one.” He said pleasantly.

Lily stared up at him dumbfounded. He was smiling… He seemed nice enough…

“Er… Sorry Fan…” Arno said a little awkwardly as he came up behind her. Fan’s expression changed to a look of disgust, much to Lily’s annoyance.

“Hello. Arno.” He said it as if his mother had just made him eat yellow squash, which Lily knew was the most disgusting thing on the planet.

Lily’s Guardian stood there a little awkwardly and then started to lead her away gently. The five year old turned around as they left the man and stuck her tongue out at him, mad that he was treating Arno like nasty vegetables at the dinner table.

“Arno? Why are the Guardians here again? I forgot.” Lily asked as she made her way to an older man half buried in rubble.

“The dark entities. They are here to protect the reaping process… and uh… Lily, does all this not bother you at all? Or…”

Lily felt the light dissipate through her fingers again as the man before her died.

“What do you mean?”

“Well… You’re still so young… and you’re… out here killing people…” he said a little hesitantly, sure that he could have phrased that much better to the five year old.

The little girl shrugged and brushed herself off.

“I’m helping people. That’s what a reaper does right? And I’m Death’s pentice, which means I get to help a lot of people!”

Arno shook his head in amazement as he followed her what was left of the entrance steps.

“Sometimes I just don’t understand you.” He said quietly, getting another nasty look from a Guardian woman brandishing an axe.

“Well there’s still a lot a lot of things that I don’t understand.” She said simply. “And why is everyone looking at us weird?”

She had begun to notice it as they walked through a smoky room where the ceiling had fallen through. It wasn’t just the Guardians giving them nasty looks, but the Reapers as well. And it was a lot more than normal.

“There’s a lot of people who aren’t happy with me…” he confessed, looking down at the ground as Lily reaped a middle aged man wearing a singed suit. “They-they say I’m not fit to be a Guardian cause…”

He trailed off, causing Lily to look up at him expectantly. When he didn’t answer, Lily put her hands on her hips and gave him the sternest look that someone of her age could give.

“Arno!! You tell me why they’re saying that to yous.”

For a moment, the Guardian stared at her and then smiled weakly.

“I’m being scolded at by a kindergartener…”

“ARNO!!”

Lily felt furious. Why was he being weird? She stepped up to him and hit him on his leg with her tiny fist.

“Tell me!”

“Now calm down Lily…”

“Tell me!”

“I think it’s time for you to take a little break…”

“No! I don’t want to!”

She screamed and thrashed around as he lifted her up and carried her over to a less populated area that she could calm down without bothering anyone. Lily ignored the looks she was receiving as she pounded on her Guardian and whined, feeling the rage boil inside of her from not getting her way.

Finally, they were in a little room that was still kind of intact, where Arno set her down.

“Lily. I’ll tell you if you calm yourself down.” Her Guardian exasperated, holding her arms and preventing her from beating him further. Lily scowled, took a deep breath, and folded her arms in a pout.

“I don’t like grownups saying I’m always too young. I can do the things just fine!”

“Everyone is saying that it’s my fault you were attacked.”

Lily stopped as the words sunk in. The words had slipped out of his mouth quickly like a train coming out of a tunnel, and without completely knowing why, there were glistening tears in her Guardian’s eyes.

“I just-I want to apologize. If I had been watching you more closely I could have-you wouldn’t have-.”

Lily felt horrible. She hadn’t meant to make her Guardian cry! She quickly hugged him to try to make retribution.

“I’m sorry Arno. I think you’re the best Guardian ever! And those other people are just meanies!” she told him as he sniffled.

Arno did not reply.

“Am I going to find out what the dark entities are now?” Lily asked curiously as she, Death, and her Guardian made their way down the hallway towards the glass portal.

“Yes Lily. We are going to the Insanities realm today.”

“Um… Sir? Are you sure this is a good idea? I mean, with the attacks and all, there’s no telling what might happen if-.” Arno fidgeted.

“Lily is strong. She’s my apprentice. Besides-there’s two of us to protect her. We can handle it right?”

“But-who’s going to protect us?”

Death thought about this for a moment as the dark smoke of the glass ball started to fill the air and surround them.

“Weeell, I could try to give comforting words about that, but I don’t feel like being dishonest… So, just… don’t need protecting and we’ll be fine!”

Arno swallowed. The idea of going into the Insanities at a time like this more than frightened him. He was more than well aware of how many people wanted him there-of how many thought he should have been sent here rather than being chosen for any occupation in the place of second chances.

Lily stood closer to Arno as the smoke cleared. The place around them seemed dark and dreary. Broken lights hung from their fixtures and flickered and sparked, casting an eerie pulsating glow across the broken hallway. Debris and peeling walls decorated the emptiness. It almost reminded her of the Reaping Zone she had experienced earlier.

Death took a hesitant step forward, and then they all flinched as a wire cast a big spark.

“Uh...Are the Insanities normally like this?” Arno asked warily, holding on a little tighter to Lily. “Cause it’s definitely a lot creepier than people say...”

“Something’s wrong…”

The buzzing of the electrical malfunctions was then joined by whisperings.

“Arno…” The little girl murmured, clutching on tighter to his pant leg.

A shiver sent itself down her spine, and she could feel pricklies on the back of her neck, a feeling of fear welling up inside her just like when she had sneaked and watched that scary movie her parents were watching even though they told her not to. Slowly, the three of them turned around. A big black blob stepped out of the shadows, towering over them.

Before anyone had a chance to scream or yell or run, Death swung his cloak around them and Lily felt a rather uncomfortable sensation of feeling her body stretch in indescribable ways. She almost felt like some sort of wispy, dark cloud as they darted across the air as their own version of a shadow. Lily could barely tell what was going on, but before long, they were in a different room, back in one piece.

“We need to keep moving. Sorry Lily-your training will have to wait. We need to find the workers.” Death ordered seriously, moving forward with a flourish of his cape. “There is another glass portal on the other side of the realm.”

Lily and Arno hurried after him.

As they hurried down the hallway, Lily ran her fingers over the gray peeling walls and wondered what this place was like before… That’s when she heard a noise coming from one of the rooms.

“Arno!!” She cried, running to him. She was not about to venture anywhere by herself in this place! The three of them stopped and Death approached the slightly broken door with caution. He opened it with a slow rustic creak that could have been the flinching sound of someone trying to play the violin and failing horribly. In a corner of the dark room, a young lady with dark brown hair and light brown skin cowered behind a little cart.

“Daya.” Death sighed in relief, going over to her.

“H-how d-do you know my name?”

“He’s Death. He knows everybody.” Lily said matter of fact.

“Are you alright? What happened here?”

The woman shakily stood up with Death’s help, leaning on the cart for support.

“D-Dark Entities…”

“Did they attack?”

“They must have had too many escape at once…” Arno thought out loud. “Or-the large reaping! They must have taken advantage of the large reaping we had!”

“They made a big mess here…” Lily said a little distastefully.

“The Dark Entities didn’t make this mess. At least-not the ones we are used to…”

“What?”

Daya buried her face in her hands, holding back tears. “Some of the workers here-they started changing… It started with Laerke. She was trying to change things-she didn’t like how things were run, and she… and she… It was subtle at first, but no one wanted to believe it until it was too late.”

“What are you saying?” Death asked, a sinking feeling attesting to the fact that he already knew the answer.

The woman sniffled. “Some of the workers have turned into Dark Entities.”

The three visitors took a moment for this to sink in.

“Laerke too?” Death asked quietly.

“Yes.”

“But-that’s impossible! I thought-.” Arno interjected.

“It seems there is more to this than we understand.” The old man said somberly. “Daya-is there anyone else here that… is... still themselves?”

She nodded. “It was only a select few that turned-most of us just turned and ran, and hid to get away. I haven’t seen anyone else since for a while though…”

“All right. How are the occupants?”

“How they normally are. I’m just worried that without the workers we won’t save as many as we usually do… We were making a breakthrough with the people who’ve been attacked too. Turns out that they had been put in a similar limbo state as the occupants for a time.”

Lily could see the cloaked man thinking hard. He looked down at the little girl staring up at him expectantly.

“Lily, I wanted to break all of this to you slowly and simply like it was for me, but unfortunately I can’t.” He knelt down on one knee and put his hands on her shoulders. “I need you to listen very carefully. Dark Entities are actually people. When someone makes bad decisions in their lifetime, they come here to work things out. And I’m not talking about little things. If they make many bad decisions or if they do something that could seem unforgivable, they go through a period of time where they realize what they’ve done. But one thing you must realize Lily, is that hardly anyone wants deep down to do evil. All the doors here are unlocked. It’s simply up to them whether or not they can let go of the things they’ve done. Now, I know you’re young and this is all probably very hard for you to understand right now. But I know you have power inside you. And I need your help. Arno and Daya will help you.”

Death took a moment to tear off a piece of his cloak and give it to her.

“This will help you travel. Just do what I did and think about where you want to go. I need you to find as many workers as you can and get them to the other glass portal. Also try to help as many occupants as you can on the way. Understand?”

Lily nodded, a bit dazed.

“But-where are you going?” she asked as he stood up.

“I’m going to get help. We can’t have more people coming into the Inbetween when it’s not safe and in order. The timekeepers will fix that.”

Then without another word, he brought his cloak around himself and dissipated in a wisp of dark shadows that left the room.

“But-but-.” Arno stood aghast. “Death!!”

Despite the Guardian’s protests, it was already too late.

The Master of the Inbetween was already gone.

“How could he just leave like that??” Arno exasperated, pacing back and forth. “Doesn’t he know how dangerous this is? He must! People are turning into Dark Entities and he just leaves.”

“It’ll be ok Arno. He gave me part of his cloak!”

“Oh yeah. Great. Cause that makes it completely fine.”

“Guardian. Please calm down-.”

“I AM CALM.”

Arno sat down and leaned against the wall, beginning to panic. Lily went over to him and sat down with him. After a moment of letting him calm himself, she broke the silence.

“Are you scared?”

“...yes.”

“Me too. I think everybody is. But you make me feel not as scared. Cause I know you’ll protect me.”

Arno sighed. “I know you feel that way, but...I just... I really thought I failed when…I can’t go through that again…”

Hesitantly, Daya approached the two of them, and sat down next to Lily.

“So your name is Arno?”

“Yeah…”

“You seem to hold a lot of guilt inside of you. You can’t carry things like that around in the Insanities. It will eat you alive. You must accept what happened in the past and realize that there are still good things you can do now.”

Arno ran his fingers through his salt and pepper hair and took in a deep breath.

“Ok. Well, we need to go anyway, so…” He stood up abruptly, dismissing his sudden panic. Lily hopped up to join them, and then the three of them quietly headed down the hallway. For a while, it was silent. But then, little by little, they started to find people. Workers in their tattered gray clothing-hiding in the corners and crevices of rooms here and there.

“Where’s Death?” Lily heard her Guardian mutter under his breath. “Wouldn’t he have been back by now?”

The little girl began to wonder this as well.

“Ok everyone. We are coming up to a floor of occupants. Be careful and try to convince as many as you can to come out and join us. I know we usually take things slow, but we are in a sense of desperation right now.” Daya told the group of workers, doing her best to keep her voice steady. They traveled carefully up some stairs and then one by one, they each started stepping into different rooms down another hallway. Curious, Lily followed Daya into one of the rooms, Arno close behind.

Suddenly, they were no longer in a creepy hallway with broken lights. Instead, they were in a quaint little home, where they were watching a washed out woman with ratty brown look through drawers frantically. She stopped when she pulled out a wad of money. She looked around, and then ran out the door. The scene changed, and Lily was looking at the same woman-on the floor in an abandoned building-surrounded by some odd looking things that Lily had never seen before.

“WHY?!” a voice screeched from the opposite side of the room. Lily turned to see the same woman on her knees-her scraggly pink tinted hair covering half of her tear stained face. She twitched and scratched her arm vigorously.

“I need more… I need something...I-I…” she muttered. Lily held onto Arno’s leg in fear, while Daya marched up bravely to the woman on the floor.

“What’s your name?” she asked kindly, reaching a hand out to her. The woman sniffled.

“Vicki.”

“Well Vicki, my name is Daya. It’s pleased to meet you.”

“What’s wrong with her?” Lily whispered to Arno.

“Well, I hear that addictions from the living life carry on with you to this one. But you have no body to satisfy it with. Like, smoking for example.”

“My teacher said smoking is bad for you.”

“Wish they knew that in my time…”

Lily was also about to ask what addictions were, but then realized, that she already kind of knew. She didn’t know how she knew, but she did.

The girl and her Guardian watched as Daya took the hand of the Insanities occupant.

“It’s time for you to move on.” she told her gently, pulling her up.

“But-I stole from my grandma-I-I-did other things-I don’t deserve to-.”

“There is such a thing as mercy dear friend. And change. The past is in the past. Forget and move on.”

“I-I can’t-I-.”

Lily couldn’t stand it any longer. She broke free of Arno and ran towards the woman.

“Don’t give up Vicki!! It’ll all get better!” she exclaimed, throwing her little arms around her. The woman slowly looked down at the little girl before her, looking a bit surprised.

“No one has hugged me in a long time…” she whispered.

“We have to hurry! We are all in danger! We came in to save you!” Lily exclaimed.

“I don’t deserve…”

“Look-we don’t have time for this.” Arno piped up. “I’m the least deserving out of everyone and I’m not dwelling on it. So if I can move on-you can too.”

The woman seemed to take courage at this, seeing that someone else wasn’t perfect either. “All right. I’ll try.” she said a bit weakly.

“That’s the spirit! Now come on!”

Lily pulled the woman by the hand happily-feeling proud that they had convinced her to come along. Who else would they be able to help? She bounced back into the hallway-forgetting all about the danger that everyone was in and leaped into the next room without thinking.

“Lily! Wait!!” Arno exclaimed, hot on her tail.

The next room was completely different.

Even familiar.

It was an empty kindergarten classroom.

In the middle was a teenage boy with his head down.

“H-hello?”

He turned around slowly, and immediately she recognized who he was.

It was the boy who killed her.