by Billi Bell
“Were there more groups of them in a certain area?” Death asked, hoping for a sign.
Sunny recalled her vision, “Yes, America, around the northeastern side. I saw an immortal, Josiah, slightly affected. He’d been near someone who was in contact with the rotter. I’m sorry that’s all I see, it’s like he sailed across the world.”
It was good enough for Death to go on, by now he would have brought some attention to himself. Sunny started pouring more tea when she got the feeling something was wrong. “The priest is in danger.”
Death was instantly out of her seat and into the next room. Dominic was nowhere to be seen. She knew he wasn’t far, only she or Sunny could have allowed him to leave the cave. They continued to search the halls when Death spotted a black orb.
“Don’t tell me he was stupid enough to touch one of them,” said Death.
She walked over to the orb and peered inside, as Dominic turned to her and painfully scream out. His words were silent, but she could tell he was crying for help. An old woman with a large blade was closing in on him.
Death touched the orb and was transported into the home. Dominic was relieved to see her but was in so much pain he couldn’t move.
“Oh my goodness, the Great Reaper herself,” said the old woman.
“Let him go, Emily,” said Death with her scythe in hand and ready to strike.
“I know you can come and go as you like, but he has to stay, doesn’t he? This is my personal hell, and I have to give him permission to leave, don’t I? He would have left already if he could, and you can’t help him out of here either, can you?” She laughed at an extremely frustrated Death.
“What a smart one you are,” Death replied. She walked closer to the old woman until they nearly faced to face, given a few inches in height or so. “Do you really want to piss me off? I won’t leave until he does, and you know what I am capable of.”
“I can put up with a lot of pain. I don’t know how long I’ve been in here, but I’m not the fragile little old woman I used to be.”
Dominic couldn’t believe his eyes, he hadn’t been around her for long, but he could help thinking she wasn’t challenged often.
“Emily, do you know what the “depth” is? It’s a room that houses the worst of the worst souls that have ever been reaped,” said Death. “People who have caused a colossal amount of death and pain are submerged in hot scalding water for days at a time. If you let him out of here, I’ll only leave you in there for a day. If I have to figure a way to break him out, I’ll order you to be left in there forever.”
Once Death’s last words were spoken, Dominic was back in the cave and no longer felt any pain. Sunny rushed over and asked if he was okay. He wanted to answer her but couldn’t help but look into the orb. Sunny shielded his eyes away, “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”
After only a few minutes, Death exited the orb and began wiping the blood off her blade. She looked over to a terrified Dominic. “There is no “depth,” only me and for the last time don’t touch the fucking orbs. We’re leaving now, Sunny got us a location.”
Dominic began to follow Death but felt an opportunity slipping through his finger. He turned to Sunny. “Can you find someone for me? I lost my fiancé, and I’d like to know she’s safe. I’m not sure if she’s alive or dead. Her name is or…was, Elizabeth Daniels. She would know me by James.”
“I’m not sure, I can try, if it’s okay with Perse- Death,” Sunny replied. Death was admittedly intrigued, she’d seen a woman in his memories over and over, but they were all hazy. She gave her consent and Sunny led them all back to the table.
“Do you have anything of hers?” asked Sunny.
Dominic carefully pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and slowly handed it to Sunny. She gently held it in her hands and began going into a trance. As she started searching the world for Elizabeth’s soul, she felt as if she was being followed. Every time she turned to see what was there, the feeling was gone. After a while she knew she was getting closer, she heard a woman’s voice scream, James.
“I know who sent you, tell him to never look for me, or the Ghost will kill him. Please, and tell James I love him. Go!”
Sunny snapped from her trance and looked over to Dominic, hesitant to carry on the message. She gave him back the handkerchief, held his hands and told him the what she heard. While Dominic processed the news, Death spoke first.
“What did she mean “Ghost?” she asked. “Did she say who?”
Sunny shook her head. “It was all she said, and it seemed very dangerous for me to be looking for her. The entire time I know someone was watching me.”
Death wanted more information, but time wasn’t on their side. She placed a hand on Dominic’s shoulder. “We really need to go. We can revisit this at a later time.”
Dominic raised from the table. “Is she alive?” he asked.
“She is in a state of limbo, and there seemed to be a lot of people there with her. I heard many voices.”
He thanked her and left the room. Death began to follow him before Sunny said something that shook her to the core. “I think it was Hades.”
Death froze at the name of the God of the Underworld and asked Sunny if she were positive. Sunny nodded a definite yes.
“I felt as if I was being followed by familiar energy. I now remember where I felt it before. When he came into the cave, it reeked of him for days, and we both know he’s wiped out entire civilizations before.”
“Do not speak another word of him until I return. Once I send the rotter to the afterlife, we’ll discuss this in detail.” She left and met Dominic at the door to the cave.
After they exited, and it sank beneath the Earth. Death offered to take him back to the manor, but he declined.
“I could use a distraction now more than ever.”
CHAPTER 12
Ling rode through the desert looking for the marker described by Death. She used her powers to protect both her and Yazhu, her horse, from the hot sun. After riding over miles of sand, she finally saw what Death meant.
“Go to the very center of the Arabian Desert and ride north. You’ll soon come to an oasis. Enter, and there will be a mausoleum. Break the lock and inside you will find four sarcophagi. Your task is to make sure there is a body in each one and report back to me immediately.”
The beautiful oasis was at least a mile wide and covered in lush greenery. At its center was a large pond that was directly in front of a massive white marble mausoleum. Ling wasn’t surprised no animals were occupying the desert paradise; despite the attractive facade it felt drenched in death.
She jumped off Yazhu and led her to just outside the mausoleum. A few steps up and she began to open the door but got the feeling she was being watched. After pausing a few moments, she heard movement behind a tree and lunged her scythe towards it. Her scythe, like all other Horsemen, was a slightly smaller version of Death’s, sans the red orbs. The size of the scythe decreased with the rank of the reaper.
As she intended the blade landed in the tree, and the intruder jumped from his cover, Samir. Ling rushed over, pulled her scythe from the tree and held it to his throat.
“On your knees,” she commanded. She didn’t know if she could actually kill another reaper. Death had been the only one she’d seen do it, but she was willing to give it a try. He could have easily been the traitor about to kill her.
“Why the fuck are you following me?” Ling asked, pushing her blade close to his neck. “You have 5 seconds, or I’m separating your head from your body.”
“I saw you headed back to her home after the meeting, I was going there too. When you left I could tell something was up, so I took a chance and followed. What is this place?”
“You needed to know she trusted you too?” Ling asked.
Samir nodded. She decided to trust him but refused to tell why she was here. She couldn’t tell him where exactly they were anyway. Samir rose to his feet and followed Ling back to the mausoleum door
.
“Just so you know, I will be telling her that you followed me here,” said Ling. “I don’t keep secrets from her.”
Samir acknowledged the warning, “I shall accept whatever punishment comes my way.”
Despite Death’s warning, the doors were not locked. Ling pushed them open and headed straight for the first sarcophagus to the left. Samir couldn’t help but notice how much larger on the inside it appeared. The sarcophagi seemed to be intentionally spaced as far as possible from each other.
Its lid was simple and less extravagant than the other three. On it was an engraving, written in a language neither, she or Samir recognized. They assumed it was most likely the name of the deceased, written in an ancient text. Ling began pushing the lid towards to wall and Samir joined her. He didn’t dare ask her why they were doing this. A strange oasis hidden in the middle of the desert couldn’t have been a good thing. He wished he’d listened to his instinct and not followed Ling.
They got the lid about halfway open, full enough to see a body was still there. It was tightly wrapped in linen and appeared to be male. Ling was preparing to close the lid again, but Samir stopped her.
“Don’t you want to know who this is?” asked Samir. Ling hesitated long enough for him to take the lead and slowly unwrap the head. It didn’t take long to see skin, a light brown complexion with dark curly hair. When he fully revealed the corpses’ face, Ling stopped him.
“That’s far enough, we shouldn’t even be doing this.”
They took a moment to look at the man’s body. His sarcophagus was large enough to fit his tall, muscular frame. Samir knew they were alone but couldn’t help but look behind his shoulder. Ling remarked at how “fresh” he looked. “As if he’d just be buried today.”
The dead man didn’t look familiar but could easily have been native to the nearest land. Ling wrapped the dead man’s head again, and they placed the lid back in its place. She then turned to the other stone chamber, and this one was much different from the other. The sarcophagus was entirely hand carved and meticulously made. The lid featured a young man that appeared to be sleeping with a set of tools at his side.
“He was well loved by someone,” thought Ling.
This lid was much more massive than the previous one and took both Horsemen at full strength to get it less than halfway opened. When they finally did, they found it empty. Ling had the feeling Death expected this all along. Samir, on the other hand, was much confused.
“Why would someone make such as extravagant resting chamber and not use it? It’s obvious this has been here a while.”
Ling had no answer, but she figured Death would. They closed the lid and found two other bodies in the remaining stone coffins; an older man and woman that were just as fresh as the other corpse.
The Horsemen departed from the mausoleum, and both took one last look at the paradise before them, knowing they’d never see it again.
“I would bet anything this place was made just for them, a paradise in the middle of hell on earth,” said Samir staring up at the sweltering sun.
Ling walked over to the pond and found it now filled with fish. She looked up to see small wildlife coming to life everywhere, filling their ears with sounds of nature. Samir approached a large tree abundant with many different types of fruit but was stopped by Ling before he could pick one.
“We should go, I think we’re affecting the oasis, and I don’t know if that a good thing.”
Ling and Samir climbed onto their horses and rode to the edge of the oasis. As soon as they were no longer standing on the grass, the animal noises stopped. Samir looked back at the tree and saw it now barren of fruit.
“As I said before, I will tell her everything that happened here, so I suggest you get your answers together. I beg of you not to lie to her, you know how much that angers her.”
Ling watched as Samir walked away, get onto his horse, and disappear into a portal. She headed for her own but gave one last glance back to the mausoleum before commanding Yazhu to go.
CHAPTER 13
England: 1768, Summer
Captain John Barrows had been ill for months and knew his days were short. He hadn’t commanded a ship in nearly four years, and his wife had died the previous summer suddenly. He had nothing to live for anymore and could only hope to die soon. He was surprised he even made it to his late 50s, but he was ready to die and answer for his sins.
At his home he lay still in his bed, short of breath and unable to move. His years of sailing and smuggling had culminated into a slow and lonely death. Each breath he took caused pain that alcohol could no longer numb. Between his lungs and his liver, death was going to be a relief.
Shortly after midnight, his sleeping tonic kicked in, and he closed his eyes. When he opened them, he was met with a face from his past, Audrey. She stood across the room, blocking the bedroom door.
“What are you doing here?” he screamed. “You’re dead, and you have been for years.”
“I am not the person whom you speak of, she’s at peace,” she said. She made her way to the fireplace, and he watched it come alive with flames. “I am Death, and you are mine.”
Barrows rose from the bed and rushed towards Death but stopped short when he caught sight of his body. He stared at his corpse, his face twisted in fear. He turned back to Death and asked if he was going to hell.
“I hope not, but I have an hour after you die to send your soul on its way. I plan on using every second of that hour honoring my deal with Audrey. However, if you are rejected by the afterlife, I get to place your soul in a tiny little orb and have access to you forever.”
Death formed her scythe and stood in front of Barrows. “I am going to rip out your entrails and tear you to shreds.”
Barrows’ breath became rapid, and he decided to make a run for it. He ran from his bedroom and made it out the front door before being greeted by Death, standing at the bottom of the stairs and wearing a broad grin.
“Please don’t hurt me, I know I’ve done bad, but it’s just—,” Barrows said before dashing back inside and into the kitchen. Grabbing a knife before he bolted out the back door only to be met again by Death.
“You know you can’t escape me. Are you wasting my time on purpose?” asked Death. She strolled up the stairs forcing him to back into the kitchen. Feeling cornered he jammed the knife into her chest.
“Ha! You filthy demon, I’ve gotcha now,” said Barrows gleefully. He thought he’d just got one over on her but watched in horror as she pulled the knife out of her heart and plunged it into his. He looked down as black fluid began to drip from her wound. His arms flew upwards, and he was lifted from the ground. His body was now stretched out in the form of an “X” and impaled in each hand and foot with wooden stakes.
“Please, don’t,” he begged to her. She couldn’t believe he was actually asking for mercy after stabbing her in the heart. Death closed in and began to press the stake deeper into his right foot, causing him to scream in agony.
“Did they all beg for mercy when you raped and murdered them?” she asked, digging the stakes deeper with every word she spoke. “Did you take pity on the women you slaughtered and children you sold into bondage?”
“I did nothing wrong,” he said. This angered her even more, and she drove her scythe into his chest. She began to carve him like a piece of meat.
When the hour was over, Barrows had died a thousand deaths, more than enough to avenge Audrey and the other women he’d hurt over the years.
Death released his bloodied soul from the stakes and watched him fall to the floor. A portal opened to their left, and she ordered him to stand. Barrows slowly made his way to his feet and headed for the portal to the afterlife. The second his foot entered the entrance he was thrown across the room and Death began to laugh, rejected.
“Peace will never be yours,” she said. Barrows watched as she reached into her cape and pulled out a small round ball and in one moment he went from the floor of his kitchen t
o the deck of The Duchess. He searched the ship from top to bottom and found no one. A captain without a crew in the middle of a still ocean. He was doomed to drift for eternity, alone. This was his hell.
Meanwhile, Death placed the orb into her scythe’s handle, so he could always be within reach.
CHAPTER 14
Death and Dominic made their way to the small home in northeastern Pennsylvania. It was one of only a few free states. The population of former slaves and their descendants were rapidly rising, evident by the small, crowded village they had just entered. Death knocked on the door and to Dominic’s surprise, patiently waited.
The door opened, and a little black girl in a blue dress stood at the threshold. Dominic bent down and smiled, holding his hand out to shake. The small girl looked unsure of what to do and looked over to Death, who gave an approving nod. She looked back to Dominic’s hand and shook it with a timid smile. Death reached inside her cape and pulled out a heavy book. She handed it to the young girl who smiled brightly at the gift.
Dominic stood up straight when a tall man suddenly appeared behind the little girl. She left, and he took her place at the door. He was tall with light brown skin and a muscular build. He appeared to be in his mid-30s but was already mostly gray.
“Death, hello, how you been?” he said. “Come on in, we just getting ready for supper.”
Dominic noted a slight accent. “French?”
He stepped back enough for her to pass, but blocked Dominic from entering the door. “Josiah, let him in, we need to talk, and I can’t leave him out of my sight.”
Josiah still hesitated a moment before reluctantly moving to the side and allowing Dominic to pass. He closed the door behind them and led them over to a small living room. The tiny house wasn’t much, but it was well maintained and gave the impression that a loving family called it home. The smell of food cooking was causing Dominic to feel nauseous as he recalled the toxic stew.
