I felt a weight on the mattress and my arms were moved and held away from my face.
Death was leaning over me, his mouth mere inches from my own.
“Mya, the shock is hitting your system. The part where you realise that you are actually dead. At the moment your brain is trying to convince you that you’ve banged your head, or you need some kind of psychiatric treatment, but you don’t. You just have to accept it with the evidence before you. And that is that you can breathe if you like, if it makes you feel better, but you don’t need to; and that you’re dead, living in the Home of Wayward Souls, with me… Death himself.”
Next, he leaned down and swept his mouth over my own. Just a gentle brush of his lips over mine. I didn’t expect them to be warm, but they were, or maybe it was just that mine would be so cold. As my own mouth parted in response, he broke the kiss and moved off the bed and away from me. He sat on the velour chair. “Now would you have felt that if you were dreaming?” he questioned.
I shrugged. “Dreams can seem very real at times.”
“Well, you’re not dreaming, Mya. You are dead. But if it helps you to think it’s an hallucination you’re going to come out of at any moment, then believe that for now. You will have more bouts of denial over the coming days, I’m sure, but the sooner you accept this is your undead life, the better, as the wayward need you. They’re packed in here a bit tight.”
“And whose fault is that? The poor spirits. Like sardines packed into the second floor. You’re right though. I need to get active about things. Keeping busy might stop me from freaking out about being dead. It’s just hard to accept though.”
“Your body has been discovered in the real world. We can visit there. Go to your funeral. That might help you to accept things.”
“Th- they found me?”
Death nodded. “As you requested, you perished of natural causes. Your heart gave out.”
“How did they find me though?”
“Lawrie called an ambulance after we left. The story is that walking home toward the Tube after your date together, you just collapsed. Vampire suggestion meant the explanation was easily accepted.”
“Oh.”
“Your colleagues are sad today. Lawrie pretended to be your sibling and called your boss. The police will have tried to trace your relatives.”
“Who is arranging my funeral? Am I going in a pauper’s grave?”
Death shook his head, “Lawrie is arranging everything. And we can go there if you like and either hang around the shadows, or… you can be your own twin sister.”
That got my attention. “I can go to my own funeral? Oh yes, definitely yes. I can ask my colleagues what they thought of me and they’ll all have to say nice things. Oh, won’t Cathy think it’s weird that Lawrie’s there? She saw him come in the shop and knew about my date.”
“He’ll suggest she’s never seen him before if she says anything.”
“Oh, yes, of course.”
I’ll let you know when it’s all been arranged.”
“I’ll need a new outfit, for sure. All black except for a red Louboutin sole. Yes!”
“From someone who was panicking about their demise ten minutes ago, you are now rather excited about it.” Death smirked.
It reminded me that his lips had just been on my own.
“Why did you kiss me?” I asked him.
“To show you this is all real. That I’m real,” he answered.
It wasn’t really an answer at all, but I felt I had enough things that I needed to consider without Death’s feelings being one of them.
“Okay, so I think I’m going to go and explore Gnarly Fell next because I need a few things.”
Death nodded. “I’ll get you a credit card.”
“Won’t I have to wait for that to come?”
He smiled at that. “Not here in Gnarly Fell.”
“Right.”
“Do you want me to come with you?”
I shook my head. “No. I need a little time on my own.”
He nodded. “Understandable. I’ll leave the card and a mobile phone registered with my number on the side table in the hallway. Call me if you need me, okay?”
I gave a half-hearted smile. “Thanks for being here, but you’d better go do Death things now. I’ll be fine.”
Death got up from the chair and left the room. I looked down at myself. I was still dressed in the clothes I’d died in and they were now covered in dust from the bed. I needed cleaning products or a cleaning service and fast. Time to go say hi to some other residents of Gnarly and see what was out there.
Like Death said, I wasn’t cold, and so I made my way to the hallway, brushing off the dust bunnies as I went. He had indeed left a credit card and an iPhone 4 on the side table, and so I picked those up and placed them in my pocket.
Didn’t I need a key to get back in?
Sod that, I’d get back in somehow. I needed out of here. The dark, dismal building was starting to affect my mood. When I felt fed up in life, I went shopping. I didn’t see why it had to be any different now I was dead.
The first hurdle came as I walked out of the front door and stood on the path from the front entrance and looked down the steep hill.
How the heck did I get down there? It had clearly been raining a lot here and the path was muddy. I placed a foot on it and then another, starting to slowly make my way down… and then my right foot slid and the rest of me followed. My bottom landed with a squelch.
“Oh my god. Who puts a house on top of a steep hill for crying out loud?”
“The first Death did. We can’t have people wandering up here. It’s for the dead,” Death said holding out a hand.
He helped me to my feet.
“Well, what are we going to do, because I need to be able to get to the village?”
At this my guide guffawed. It was highly unnerving. He made the strangest sound like a grunting pig as he doubled over.
I stuck a hand on my hip.
“What’s so goddamn funny? You’re supposed to be grim, not hysterical with laughter.”
“M- Mya.” Actual tears rolled down his face. “You’re a vampire.”
Again, he doubled over.
“Yes, I’m aware of that. So?”
“So you can just… whizz down the hill. You have vampire speed.”
“I can whizz. Of course I can bloody whizz. My membership of the Vampire Book Club needs revoking. I’m so busy thinking about purchasing a vacuum cleaner when it’s my brain cells that are being sucked out.”
I looked down at my muddy butt. “Great first impression.”
But Death was still laughing, so I closed my eyes, pictured being at the bottom of the hill, and off I went.
Death
I really did have things to do but being with Mya was intoxicating. Her humour, her taking in of her new surroundings, and her opinions. It was all like a breath of fresh air blowing through Wayward Souls. Something sorely needed. I’d wanted Mya to meet a soul and see how she went on with helping them to move on, but after her freak out, I could tell she wanted to get out of the house. It made sense for her to go explore. It would help her come to terms with her undeath.