Page 107 of Death is My BFF
“Thomas will prove it for you soon. You’ll see.” He smirked, and I imagined he was incredibly handsome, once. His entrancing, blazing coal eyes bore into mine, until my head felt heavy. “You took shelter in the Crossroads today. Tell me, has a revelation unfolded?”
“He killed you,” I said. “He killed you in the arena.”
His smile tightened.
“Who are you, Malphas? To Death?”
“A ghost,” he replied.
My shoulders tensed up as he approached me. All thoughts about Thomas strangely lifted away, as a crushing weight built up in my chest. Certain details about Malphas disturbed me up close, like how his eyes were onyx black with no visible pupils, or how his skin appeared so pale I could see some of the veins beneath it.
Malphas raised a clawed finger. “Death lied to you, didn’t he?”
All I could do was stand static, numb to fear. The air shifted, rippled, as if his power were edging closer to me.
“Don’t you see what he really wants is control over you?” Malphas circled me, strobing in and out of focus like a broken camera lens.
“Don’t be naïve, Faith. He wants you to obey his every command.
Like a good pet.”
Ultimately Death’s intentions with me were unclear, but if there was one thing that man enjoyed more than anything, it was controlling everything around him. My mind harked back to every encounter with Death, how he asserted his authority over me in every possible aspect, from the interview, to the date, to the fable about him being a Carrion Angel, and then finally, his unwelcome visit to my home. Every move he’d made had been a deliberate, calculated decision to maintain a power position.
“You poor girl, you had to discover the truth about him for yourself. You haven’t even seen the worst parts.” Malphas moved his fingers in a small motion. I could have sworn something akin to a claw scraped lightly against the inside of my skull.
“Remember when you were hurting, and he kept hurting you?” Those obsidian eyes held me in place, two scary bottomless pits skimming over my features as if he were reading a book. “You can feel it, can’t you? His power over you. It lingers in your veins, awaiting his next command. You were afraid to let him in. You have dreams,aspirations. Too many girls your age get swept up in temporary relationships, just like your friend Marcy. And Death . . . he knew this from the beginning. He knew you wouldn’t be easy to break, unlike other mortals. That’s why he hid his true intentions from you. You were a conquest to him, a mouse for the cat to play with. Deathknewyou were developing feelings for him, and he knew you were hesitant to let anyone in. He took advantage of this. He put you in danger. Now he’s put your family in danger. He doesn’t care aboutyou. He only wants your soul, his property as he sees it, and everything else is inconsequential.”
At the mention of my family, my face turned ashen. I couldn’t allow my parents to fall into this mess.
I imagined my date with David at the carnival, and all the distance he’d put between us whenever I tried to understand him, which I was sure was by design. How was I supposed to put my trust in someone that I only knew through fragmented memories and fabricated alter egos?
The demigod leaned in closer, drawing my attention to his alien yet attractive features. “Aren’t you the least bit curious why he came to your house, darling?” Malphas asked. “He didn’t have to interact with your parents at all. What point do you think he was trying to make there?”
That he was powerful, and if I didn’t do exactly as he said, both my Mom’s and Dad’s lives would be in danger. With merely a glance, Death had put both my parents under his spell. It would take even less effort for him to kill them.
“How do you know all of this?” I asked Malphas, fighting past a fuzziness blurring my vision again.
“I voice an echo of what you already know in your heart. Death may claim to protect you, but you know it is out of selfishness. Look at his actions, Faith. Not his words. Only I can stop him.” A chilling smirk curled his sinister mouth. Malphas stepped back, fading into a growing darkness behind him. “Summon me in your darkest hour.
I am yours.”
I woke up in a cold sweat. Morning light streamed in through slight gaps in the blinds, cutting across my eyes and making me wince and roll onto my side. Nausea clawed my throat and when I lifted my forearm, it throbbed where the demon had injured me in the alleyway.
Jolting up, I swung my legs off the bed and bolted to the bathroom. I barely made it to the toilet as I dropped to my knees and retched.
With white knuckles I gripped the porcelain seat, dripping sweat, acid, and suppressed tears into the water. My muscles were weak and overworked, as if I’d run a marathon the day before. I practically had. I flushed the toilet and dragged my feet to the sink to rinse my mouth out several times, then two more times with mouthwash. As I brushed my teeth, I wrestled with the depressing thought that there was no way out. I was hopeless in my situation now.
“Let’s recap,” I told my reflection. “You’re prophesied to start a war between Heaven and Hell and who knows what other realms.
Every evil creature and their mother are after you. You’ve developed the ability to see into the past and the future, not to mention an uncontrollable lantern power that affects evil beings. If you don’t do as Death wishes, he’ll massacre your entire family. Oh, and you still have to go to school.”
School. Sprinting out of the bathroom, I lunged for my alarm clock on my nightstand and read the time. The screen was black.
Probably broken from Death’s light show with our electricity the night before. I growled and checked my shattered phone screen. I was three hours late for school!
My bedroom door blew open, hitting the wall with a crack.
“SURPRISE!”