Nina had never drunk a single drop of alcohol before, yet she was sure that the drunken feeling was very similar to what she was experiencing now.

As Carmichael pulled the trigger, she could barely hear the gun explosion, smell the gunpowder, and see the flash of silver that turned out to be the bullet.

"This time, dying won't hurt you." That was what he said before pulling the trigger. He was right, it didn't hurt, and she didn't feel anything. It was like flipping a switch and transporting to a dark room in a matter of mere instants.

But that idiot, Frederick Carmichael, was wrong about something. When she died, she didn't feel pain either.

It was fast. It was the same. A single bullet took her by surprise, and fear turned to adrenaline disconnecting her body milliseconds before her skull was pierced.

It was the same. The darkness claimed her. She knew that she was still present, not alive, but she hadn't left either. She opened her eyes after what felt like hours, and appeared in a new place, one where no physical sensation existed, but her awareness remained. She was greeted by concern and fear for what she left incomplete, what those earrings represented.

This second time, it was the same.

She appeared on a whitish iridescent plane and could only see through tunnel vision, like looking through a kaleidoscope. It took her eyes long minutes to get used to what was behind this bizarre illusion, what she really could see, what her human mind had the ability to process and shape. It resembled a hallucination, an incomprehensible vision.

Death was the greatest mystery of mortals, one that was only solved when you died, but she, who had already died once, still understood absolutely nothing.

After what felt like a slow blink, she appeared in an office. Gray walls, white tile floors, with the smell of floor cleaner, and an infinity of chairs where many people were sitting with lost gazes. She looked back, finding a door with a sign that read: row to the afterlife.

She remembered that long line. The same one where she was formed until she found the note at her feet and returned to the mortal world to look for Carmichael, the Death Deceiver.

Nina frowned. She had no idea that death was so... Bureaucratic.

"Nina," a familiar voice called.

Nina turned to find Carmichael's partner, a boy with too-blonde hair and square glasses. He always had an unimpressed expression on his face, the kind of person you could scare, and instead of flinching, he'd sigh and call you stupid.

"And Carmichael?" she asked.

Andrew directed his gaze to the front and Nina, imitating him, saw Carmichael talking to a person through a window in a front desk.

"Are you okay?" Andrew questioned.

Nina turned her gaze from Carmichael to him, slightly surprised. Since she died, no one had exactly been nice to her or asked about her well-being. She caught a lump in her throat, vowing to hear her dad's soft voice, feeling his hands on her shoulders or caressing her cheek to comfort her when she cried. She missed him a lot.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she replied quietly. "Thanks for asking."

Andrew simply nodded and shoved his hands into his pocket, keeping his eyes on Carmichael from a distance.

"Usually he's not like that," he assured. "I don't mean to defend Carmichael, but I don't want you to get the wrong idea either."

Nina snorted.

"You mean he doesn't usually shoot people?" she teased. Andrew shook his head, not reacting to her joke.

"I mean he's usually not that cold. Actually, he is empathic." He narrowed his eyes. "Too much."

Nina couldn't buy that. She didn't believe that someone who deceived Lady Death and caused worldwide chaos could be altruistic. On the contrary, he seemed downright selfish.

But if it weren't for that, you wouldn't be here. She thought to herself, pouting slightly at the realization.

She glanced at Andrew out of the corner of her eye and crossed her arms.

"And what exactly are you two?" she inquired. "How did you meet?"

Andrew lowered his eyes.

"We..."

"Damn bureaucracy!" Carmichael exclaimed, taking them both by surprise.

He walked towards them with heavy footsteps, his coat billowing behind him. Nina rolled her eyes.

"Now what's wrong with you?"

"Of all the things Lady Death could have kept of life, she had to choose bureaucracy and a dirty office," he complained. "Why not Eden? Or at least a more comfortable waiting room!"

Andrew shook his head.

"It's not made for you to take pleasure in and want to hang around." He pointed to the door that led to the row to the afterlife. "Your way out of this little hell is over there."

"I'm not going to step foot in that place again," Carmichael replied.

Nina, instead, looked around, at the people sitting and waiting and the others working like it was an office without rest.

"And what about all these people?" she asked "Why are they here?"

"The ones that are waiting do exactly that, wait," Carmichael explained. "They found a small refuge here and avoid the afterlife. Some could stay here for years. They end up losing themselves, their memory, their essence and they become shells."

Nina shuddered at the thought. Of course, there was no escape from death. Not even a Death Deceiver could completely outsmart her, they would always live under her jurisdiction, and at any moment, she could force them to transcend.

"The workers aren't real people," Andrew added. "If you observe them well, they're nothing more than amorphous figures. Created by Lady Death so as not to scare off the mortals who come here."

Nina scrutinized those silhouettes and yes, it was true. They weren't solid figures, they didn't feel human like themselves or even as the carcasses that were sitting and waiting for everything and nothing.

"CARMICHAEL!" A shout attained Nina and Andrew's attention.

Carmichael was the only one who wasn't surprised, instead, he exhaled heavily and rolled his eyes discreetly.

"Scarlett," he murmured, then turned on his heels in the direction of the voice and exclaimed: "Scarlett!

She was a tall woman, dressed in a formal black suit with a tie, but the most striking thing about her was her vibrant red curly hair that fell to the middle of her back. She seemed angry and, if Nina was being honest, she was kind of scary.

"Damn Carmichael!" she snapped.

"What a welcome," Andrew muttered, a slight smirk on his lips.

"Are you still mad about what happened a few months ago?" Carmichael asked, placing his hands behind his back. "Wouldn't you forgive a face like this?"

Scarlett bared her teeth.

"Stop giving Lady Death trouble," she warned. "Annoy me as much as you please, but not our Lady."

Nina leaned closer to Andrew and asked quietly:

"What did he do to her?"

"You don't want to know," he replied.

"There's no way I'm letting you converse with Lady Death!" Scarlett exclaimed.

"Oh, really?" Carmichael teased, raising an eyebrow. "And why is that?"

"My duty is to prevent trouble for Lady Death." She pointed at him. "And you, Frederick Carmichael, are a miserable problem on two legs."

"I love when you offend me, you know?"

"Masochist."

Carmichael laughed. It was the most strangely charismatic and charming chuckle Nina had ever heard before. It was exceedingly fake.

"This is important, Scarlett," Andrew chimed in, bringing seriousness to the matter. "Be professional and put aside your conflicts with Carmichael for a moment."

Scarlett didn't seem to like having her professionalism questioned and she narrowed her eyes, fixing her attention on Andrew.

"And what could be so important?"

"It's private."

Scarlett was disturbed.

"I am the right hand of Lady Death!" she exclaimed. "Nothing should be private, neither for her nor for me."

"The only thing you need to know, Scarlett," Carmichael added, "is that if we don't fix this situation soon, death will be in danger.

The redhead widened her eyes.

"All the more reason I should know what it is!"

"We'll speak to Lady Death first," Andrew conditioned. "Then we will tell you everything."

Scarlett didn't seem to agree, no, she didn't agree. Nina was suddenly tempted to hide behind Andrew and pretend she wasn't there. She had a bad feeling.

"You can't condition me, Cornelius," she hissed, but just as she looked like she was about to snap, she was interrupted by the sound of a phone. Scarlett froze, dropping everything to hastily pull out the device. It was a red cell phone and just as old as Carmichael and Andrew's. Scarlett lifted the tap and answered immediately. "Lady Death, how may I serve you?"

Andrew and Carmichael exchanged glances, the latter with a smirk, the one of someone who was about to get away with it.

"Yes, Lady Death," Scarlett let out with a calm, professional tone, very different from how she spoke to them with screams. "I'll deliver your message."

She hung up the call shortly afterward, gently closed the phone's tap, then turned to Carmichael stiffly, nearly biting the inside of her mouth to hold herself back.

"Lady Death wishes to see you," she informed, glancing at Nina. "Both."

"Me too?"

Scarlett ignored her and closed her eyes, letting out a sigh.

"Don't give her trouble," she warned, parting her eyelids again, her brown eyes were extremely intense, conveying her firmness. It was a human gaze and Nina was very curious as to how she had ended up in such an important position.

"I would never give my dear Lady Death trouble," Carmichael assured her, just as seriously.

Scarlett just looked at them one more time with a warning tone, and then she turned on her heel, walking away without another word.

"I'll wait for you here," Andrew said. "If you don't come back, I'll assume you were forced to transcend."

"Always so optimistic, my dear Cornelius," Carmichael teased, patting him on the back.

Andrew pursed his lips.

"Do not call me that way."

Carmichael smiled at him, then took Nina by the shoulders.

"Are you ready to meet Lady Death in person?" he asked.

Nina allowed herself to be led with slight annoyance.

"I already know her."

"Oh, yeah?"

"Who do you think gave me permission to be a Death Deceiver?"

Carmichael let go of her shoulders and walked beside her, looking down at her given the height difference.

"Did you see her?"

"No. I received a message from her."

"No one can see her."

"Not even Scarlett?"

Carmichael shook his head.

"No human can. We're dead, but we have not ceased to be essentially human," he explained, pointing at his head. "Our eyes are not made to see entities like this and our mind is not capable of processing what it cannot understand. Death is somewhat of an abstract concept for us. Probably, if it stood in front of you, you would only see a plethora of colors and amorphous figures."

Nina gave a very low, almost choked laugh.

"Like a painting."

Carmichael, for the first time, smiled sincerely at her, without any ulterior motive.

"Like a painting," he conceded.

He led her through a long hallway, with the same gray walls and the same white tile floor. There were black doors all the way, the ones on the right side with the same sign that said "row to the afterlife" and the ones on the left side a sign with a thick black arrow pointing forward that said "Lady Death". They followed that path until they came to the end of the corridor and found a different door, completely white, with a black handle and without any indication on its surface.

"It's here." Carmichael stopped.

Nina felt a hole in her stomach.

"Do you think she found out about your scam?" she whispered.

Carmichael didn't answer, instead reaching for the handle.

"Don't say anything unless she tells you to," he warned, returning to his serious demeanor.

Nina pouted, however, she didn't refute him. Carmichael turned the knob and opened the door inward.

"Excuse me, my dear Lady Death," he announced, entering.

Nina followed him a few steps behind and the room was definitely not what she expected. She believed that they would enter some kind of throne room, a majestic place, worthy of an entity as powerful as death, but it was nothing like that.

It was a completely white room, divided by a black curtain. She supposed that behind it was Lady Death. She couldn't see her, but Nina and almost all of humanity had a tendency to imagine her like a grim reaper; dressed in black from head to toe, with a bony body underneath and a scythe. Perhaps, if he imagined her like this, that shape could manifest instead of an amorphous and incomprehensible aspect.

"Lady Death." Carmichael inclined his head.

Nina followed suit.

For long moments they received no answer, just a sepulchral silence that was too loud.

Until Carmichael's cell phone rang. An abrupt notification that made Nina tense.

Carmichael took out the device, opened the tap, and read aloud:

"Nina is your responsibility."

Carmichael sighed.

"I'm aware."

Another message:

"Your duty is to guide her."

Carmichael nodded.

"I understand, Lady Death."

One more message:

"Then why does it bother you so much?"

Carmichael hesitated. Nina couldn't quite read the expression on his face, perhaps it was concern for what Nina's presence meant, the danger she represented.

"I'm afraid I might misguide her," he confessed. Nina knew it was a lie.

Another message:

"Don't doubt what you shouldn't doubt."

"You're right," Carmichael replied, more serious than usual.

One more message:

"I have a gift for her."

Nina was shocked.

"For me?"

The answer came in the form of the sudden appearance of an object in her hands. She didn't even realize when it appeared or how, but when she looked down, she found a bright pink cell phone, old and with a tap like the one the others had. What caught her attention the most, was a small and cute grim reaper flap.

"It's so cute!" she smiled. "Thank you very much, Lady Death."

This time the message reached her phone. There was no number, it was unknown and the screen turned completely black with simple green symbols that read:

(⁄ ⁄•⁄ω⁄•⁄ ⁄)

Nina couldn't help but laugh. Death looked like an old man trying to empathize with children of a completely different generation. It seemed most adorable to her.

"Thank you," Nina repeated.

Carmichael then casually cleared his throat.

"Do you need anything else, my dear Lady Death?"

She responded with a short message:

"That's all."

The relief in Carmichael was instant.

"Do you want us to talk more?" he offered cordially. "I'm afraid we haven't had a good talk in a long time, my beautiful death."

A message:

"Right now I'd rather you focus on Nina. We'll talk another time, my loyal Carmichael."

Even Nina herself felt some excitement when Lady Death called him "her loyal Carmichael." It felt like when her father congratulated her or told her how proud he was.

Carmichael smiled and gave an exaggerated bow, ruffling his hair.

"It will always be a pleasure, my dear Lady Death," he assured. "I will come whenever you need me."

This time there was no answer. Carmichael nodded to Nina and they headed for the door.

Before leaving, Nina decided to say goodbye too:

"Goodbye, Lady Death."

She did receive an answer.

"Good luck, my brave Nina."

For the first time since her death... she cried.