Lucian slowly brought his hand up and waved it in front of the older man’s face.
The man kept his fixed gaze on the distance, his eyes tearing up again.
Once he was certain that he couldn’t see him, Lucian thought of Lisa, and as he did so he pressed his pinky and thumb together, vanishing in an instant.
Lucian took shape in Lisa’s apartment, his black robes settling around him.
“I told you, just a quick shower and then I’ll take you out for a walk,” Lisa told a chubby French bulldog, who made a snorting noise as it followed her. She squatted in front of the dog and used a napkin to wipe his face. “You’re so snotty this morning.”
She stood again, and Lucian noticed just how rail thin she was, her ribs visible under her skin, a curve to her spine that looked unnatural.
He watched as she stepped into the bathroom. The shower was already running, steam seeping out into the hallway. He turned his attention to Lisa’s French bulldog as it slowly made its way over to the couch, where it used a little step ladder to climb up.
The pup rested its head between its paws and looked in Lucian’s direction, one of its ears bending forward.
“Can you see me?” he asked the dog, and for a moment, Lucian thought that the animal's ear had twitched.
He asked the question again and got nothing.
Lucian was just about to tap his fingers together and leave when he decided to check on Lisa’s date of death once more, to see if it had changed.
He floated into the bathroom and was glad for a moment that she couldn’t see him.
How odd would it be to be showering and then suddenly see Death standing there?
A smirk stretched across his face, which quickly morphed into a sad smile as Lucian again realized what he was, and what he actually meant for someone.
And just as he was about to poke his head into the shower curtain and take a look at Lisa’s death date, the dog started barking.
Lisa turned away from the showerhead, and pulled the curtain aside, yelling for her dog to stop.
As she did so, she slipped, going sideways, cracking the side of her head against the faucet.
A loud thunk! followed her action, and Lisa gasped for air.
“Lisa?” Lucian asked, now hovering over her, watching her cheek twitch. “Lisa!” he shouted as her information appeared before him, her date of death changing.
Name: Lisa Gedney
Date of Birth: 04/28/1990
Date of Death: 10/21/2020
He heard the dog scratching at the door. Lucian watched in horror as the woman let out her last breath, her eyes opening for just a moment, her pupils locking onto him, and then settling.
Lucian felt an overwhelming force come to his face as he tried to hold back tears. The energy passed, and his next instinct came.
He tried to lift Lisa, but his hands went right through her. He then tried to turn the water off, but was unable to get a grip on the spout.
Lucian stood, his arms crossed over his chest as he looked down at Lisa’s body. He already felt haunted by the fact that she had locked eyes on him, that she had seen him. And now what? Old Death never really explained much about that. What happened to her soul now?
It took another moment for Lucian to get his wits about him, but once he did, he stepped through the bathroom door, right past the French bulldog, which was barking maniacally and running in a little circle.
He heard another knock at the door as someone called out Lisa’s name; rather than see who that person was, he floated up through the ceiling of the apartment building, to the rooftop.
Lucian stood there for a moment, recognizing that he was back in Salem, the sea glistening in the distance even if the clouds were gray.
The implications of how he had been responsible for this came to him again.
If he hadn’t removed the parasite, when would Lisa have died?
Death really was death.
Chapter Eleven: Funeral
Strange as it was, Lucian decided to ride with his mother to his own funeral. He was still reeling from what had happened at Lisa’s, but there was literally nothing he could do about it. He only hoped it wouldn’t take a family member too long to find out that she’d fallen in the shower.
Lucian arrived at his mother’s home just as she was getting off the phone with Connor, telling him that she was fine, that she would drive herself even though he insisted on coming to pick her up.
She shook her head as soon as she hung up the phone.
“Oh, Connor,” she mumbled to herself as she got her keys. “Leave it to Samantha, as always.”
Predictably, Samantha had taken care of arranging most of the affairs, even though she wasn’t yet officially part of the family.
They hadn’t had a wedding yet, and after Jennifer was born, the two were too busy dealing with a baby to make it happen. But Connor and Samantha were planning to finally get married in December, about six weeks from now, which was another thing Lucian figured he would attend, as odd as that was.
After gathering her things and once again making sure her makeup was okay, his mother started her Toyota Corolla, soft jazz coming from the speakers. She started to cry as she looked to her steering wheel.
“You can do this, Sylvia,” she said to herself, choking back a sob. “You did this with Bob.” She sniffed and checked her makeup in the rearview mirror. “Bob, I know you aren’t in here, but if you can hear me, I hope you are up there with Lucian. He didn’t deserve this.”
“I’m right here, Ma,” Lucian whispered from where he sat in the passenger seat. He realized once he looked down that he actually wasn’t sitting, that he was more floating in a seated position.
While he wasn’t tangible, and technically, none of his surroundings were either, his levitating ability seemed to compensate for this, which was how he sat in the car with Lisa the other day.
It still didn’t make a lot of sense to him, but Lucian had a feeling it was a mind over matter kind of situation.
After a soft sigh, his mother backed her car out of the driveway, biting her lip again as she came to the main road.
“You can do this, Sylvia,” she said to herself.
“You don’t have to go, Ma,” Lucian started to tell her. “I’m right here. Let’s just go somewhere else. The beach. Boston. Hell, Philly. I don’t care. You and me. Just drive.”
Lucian’s mother turned up the music, tapping her finger on the steering wheel as she took the back way through the neighborhood.
She always took the back way.
This caused Lucian to smile a bit, knowing that there was a faster way, and also knowing that his mom appreciated the longer drive. It gave her time to check out the houses, some of them for sale, others in desperate need of renovation.
Now it was Lucian’s turn to bite his lip as they pulled up to the funeral home, his mom getting out and a cousin of his coming forward to give her a hug.
“I’m fine, I’m fine,” his mother said.
“We’re so sorry for your loss,” said his cousin, Julia. “Mom’s in there too.”
“I’ll find her in there.”
Rather than go inside the funeral home, Lucian hovered outside for a moment, noticing how empty the parking lot was.
He felt stupid for wishing that more people were at his funeral, but he also had a feeling that most never knew who attended their burial, and seeing such an empty parking lot made him wish he had gone out more, made more friends in some way.
The owner of the funeral home came out and greeted Lucian’s mother, giving her a long heartfelt handshake, a calm smile on his face the entire time.
He placed a hand on her shoulders and led her in.
A car pulled up and Lucian saw his ex get out. They’d been together for about five years after high school, and Lucian had nearly married her.
Katy had curly brown hair which was pulled back into a frazzled ponytail. She looked utterly distraught as she sat in her vehicle for a momen
t, her eyes closed. Eventually, she got out of the vehicle, a clutch gripped tightly in her hands as she passed in front of Lucian.
Name: Katherine Rossi
Date of Birth: 08/21/1991
Date of Death: 06/13/2079
“Hi, Kate,” he whispered, “thanks for coming.”
Lucian watched as Connor pulled up in his big truck, Samantha having to stand on the railing to get Jennifer out of her car seat.
Connor wore a suit that didn’t fit him very well. Lucian noticed that his brother had lost weight, especially once he recognized the suit he wore to church last Christmas.
Connor walked in an agitated way, and it only took another second for Lucian to see the parasite attached to Connor’s neck, its body hanging off his back.
“You motherfucker,” Lucian said to the parasite, his eyes narrowing on its yellow, translucent form.
Connor sneezed, a bit of blood appearing on his palm.
Rather than let Samantha see his bloodied hand, he cleared his throat and told her he needed to go back to the truck for a moment, where he quickly cleaned off his hand with a rag he’d stashed in the driver’s compartment.
He returned to her side, taking Jennifer from Samantha.
Jennifer wore a black dress, similar to her mother’s, and as Connor carried her, she rubbed her eyes like she was sleepy.
“I need you acting good in here, baby,” Samantha told Jennifer as she checked the clips in her hair.
“She’ll be fine,” Connor said.
“You really don’t want her bursting out crying during your brother’s funeral, do you?”
“She’ll be fine,” Connor said gruffly as they entered the funeral home.
Lucian floated outside for a moment, not prepared to go inside. Once it became clear that no one else was coming he drifted in, straight into a room where people were viewing his open casket. There was a small line, maybe fifteen people, Kate, Connor, Samantha, and Jennifer at the back of it.
There were a few people he knew from high school, a few people from his mom’s church, and some relatives.
There were also a few friends from the construction site he used to work at, the men with their hair slicked back, their wives in new dresses.
And rather than look at everyone’s information, getting a glimpse of their death dates, Lucian simply floated over to his own casket and looked down at himself.
His skin was pale, a bit of blush to his cheeks, his dark brown hair swept over to the side. He wore the same suit as his brother, a rose on his lapel, nothing in his hands.
Everything up to this point had been surreal, but seeing his own coffin, and the line of people waiting for their chance to view his dead body, topped anything he had experienced before.
And at that moment he remembered what Old Death had told him, that everyone around him would die.
Taking a look around the room reminded Lucian that there wasn’t a person in here that would live past a hundred years from now. But if Lucian kept this up, he would still be alive, still hunting parasites.
Eventually, everyone made their way past the coffin, his mom stopping the longest, but not crying. She simply placed her hand on his chest, whispering for him to save a place for her up there.
If she only knew…
Lucian remained in the corner of the room as the priest from his childhood church entered through a wooden door in the back, carrying a Bible with him.
He set it on the lectern and said a few words, asking that everyone pray with him. Once he was finished, one of Lucian’s childhood friends stepped up with a few notes.
“I can’t believe it,” his friend Jason Hamilton said, looking over to Lucian and the coffin, “I really can’t believe it. You are strong, you are a good friend, and… I’m sorry,” he said, clearing his throat. “You know, you always told me that you wanted to travel the world, and I would ask you where you would go first, you told me Japan. I don’t even know why you wanted to go to Japan,” he said, and a few people in the audience chuckled to themselves.
“I was just a kid then,” Lucian said, floating closer to Tom and ignoring his death date.
“I don’t even know if you had ever eaten Japanese food before. Maybe some sushi. And I know you weren’t a big fan of anime, but you liked video games, so I suppose those come from Japan. What am I saying? I just remember that you always said you wanted to visit there, that you hope to live for several years in a different country, just to get a different perspective. You always hinted at this, that you were interested in seeing what the world looked like. And it’s not fair that you had to go this way. You never got that perspective. You never went far from Salem, or Beverly, but I can tell you this, Lucian,” he said, choking up again, “people cared about you, I cared about you, and this community will never be the same without you here.”
Jason took a seat next to Kate and Lucian’s aunt came up to the lectern.
She spoke about Lucian as a child, how curious he had been, and how creative he was. She wiped her eyes a few times, but she held it together.
Eventually, his mom came up, then Connor, his brother gripping the lectern and gritting his teeth, trying not to let anyone see him cry as he said a few words.
Lucian could only take so much more, and rather than stick around and continue to listen to people remember him, he started to move his thumb toward his pinky finger, just about to teleport away when he noticed the female angel in the corner.
Life looked the same as she had before, a blue streak across her eyes, her golden hair long and flowing, her body encased in armor, her wings slowly flapping. She locked eyes with Lucian and pointed toward the ceiling.
He understood exactly what she meant.
Lucian floated upward, and the woman floated as well, not breaking eye contact with him as they arrived on the roof.
“I thought we had been over this before,” she said, drawing her weapon, the blade shimmering.
“You don’t understand,” Lucian started to tell her.
“What is there to understand? You are stalking these people; you will not kill them.”
“You don’t know anything about this, do you?” Lucian said, ignoring her sword, his fists curling at his sides.
“Anything else you’d like to say before I finish this?” she asked, flourishing her blade.
“That’s my goddamn body down there!” Lucian spit, a vein pulsing on the side of his neck. “This is my funeral!” he roared.
“Your funeral?”
“Don’t you check these fucking things!?” Lucian’s MX-11 materialized in his hand and he pointed at Life. “I need you to get the fuck out of here,” he said, his stats flashing before him.
The angel’s armor began to spread up her body, forming a sharp golden mask. “You think that would do any good against me?”
“I don’t know why you keep coming around, but you should find someone else to watch over. These are my people to watch over,” Lucian said, his voice tinged with animosity that he rarely showcased. “This is my family.”
“What is your name?” the angel asked, lowering her sword.
“Why does that matter to you?”
“I suppose I could just find out by looking below,” she said, starting to sink back into the rooftop.
“Lucian. Lucian North,” he said, saving her the trouble, “and down there is my brother, Connor North, my niece, Jennifer North, and my mom, Sylvia North.”
“And now you are Death?”
“No, I just float around wearing black and killing parasites. Of course I’m Death.” Lucian took a deep breath in. “It’s been a rough day. I saw someone die.”
“You claim to be Death and that you saw someone die, yet for some reason this troubles you?”
“It’s not funny,” Lucian said, “she didn’t deserve that. She was taking a shower.”
“Then maybe you shouldn’t have pushed her,” the angel said, lifting her sword again.
“Pushed her? How am I supposed to do tha
t? I can’t really touch anything here aside from parasites. I’m guessing you are the same way.”
“I don’t hunt parasites, I hunt you.”
“Really, that’s all you do?”
She raised an eyebrow at Lucian. “No, I do other things.”
“What’s your name?” Lucian asked, his MX-11 still trained on her.
“Danira,” she said, a golden halo starting to glow around her head.
“What are you doing?” Lucian asked.
“I’m calling for backup.”
“Why would you do that? We’re just having a conversation here.”
“You are pointing a weapon at me.”
“Well, you have a sword that looks like it’s probably magical.”
Danira glanced at her sword. “It is magical.”
“Then I think we’re even here. Maybe if we just both lowered our weapons and talked this through…”
“I don’t think it’s that easy,” she said.
“Why? Because we are supposed to be mortal enemies? What do you even know about what I do?”
“I know everything about what you do. You go around checking people’s dates of death, and if that date has passed, you kill them.”
“I can’t kill anyone, dammit,” Lucian said, his finger coming closer to the trigger of his weapon.
“But that’s not true. You know that you can kill them, and you know how you kill them,” she said, and as those words left her lips, Lucian noticed something moving quickly toward them.
A male angel landed on the rooftop, his golden wings lifting and settling as he drew a sword.
“I really wish there was another way for us to handle this,” Lucian said, completely ignoring the male angel. “Hopefully, I will see you again, Danira.”
And with those words, he tapped his thumb and pinky finger together, disappearing in a flash, leaving the two angels standing on the roof of the funeral parlor, Lucian’s body in the coffin below.
Lucian reappeared on the beach in Portland, Maine.
It had been a rough day already, but before he headed back to his room at Old Death’s Place, he wanted to look out at the beach one more time.
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