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My life was a horror film that I was unable to press pause or hide underneath a blanket to block out a single moment of it. But did I really want to hid under a blanket and block out every single moment of it? Although my life was a horror movie, my inner self was sitting at the front of the movie theater with popcorn and an XL soda in hand, curious what will come of Faith William's life. There was a part of my that was curious as what would happen next in my life, what new bridges would be built in my path and what obstacles I would have to avoid.

      Things didn't seem to be looking up in this horror film. Figures, since in every single horror film either everyone dies, or everyone around the main character dies.

      Let's recap my own personal horror film. I hadn't seen my family in a trillion years. I missed them terribly to the point that I felt like an orphan. I was pretty that my parents didn't miss me at all, though, because I hadn't gotten any sort of contact from them, and Death, being the arrogant person he is, must have temporarily wiped my existence from their minds instead of letting me visit them, everyone and their uncle wanted me for something, and Death, in particular, was Hungry Like the Wolf when it came to discussing my soul.

      I mean, I didn't feel much different from other girls. Well, besides the fact that I now had nails with the length that the Kardashian's would kill for and teeth that made Jaws look like a bunch of guppies swimming around the ocean.

      Not to mention, I technically wasn't even a girl anymore. I was an adult. Plus, I wasn't entirely human anymore. I was half-human, half reaper.

      Words couldn't explain how frustrated I was with myself. I knew, I knew, that Death wasn't prince charming, or a family man that wanted four children and a beautiful house with a picket white fence and a golden retriever named Rover. I knew that he was no good for me. That being said, I couldn't deny the spell that he had me under, the attraction to him that was embedded deeper into my soul than anything I could ever imagine. And it was terrifying. It was terrifying; knowing that my attraction for him had grown that strong was a painful reminder that I was weaker than him.

      Maybe I had to stop caring. Maybe I had to be just like Death and lose myself to the darkness. Shut off my humanity entirely. It was possible, I know it was possible because I could feel the switch, feel how easily I could let myself go. But I refused. Something forced me to hold on, to keep moving on.

      So I would do that as long as I could. Keep holding onto my seat in the movie theater and watch the horror film until it was over.

     "What the hell is going on?!" Death boomed though the gymnasium, shattering my eardrums. Everyone was silent. Dead silent.

      I knew that something was terribly wrong.

      A dark figure appeared at the entrance of one of the gym doors, unmoving. A halo of dim light emphasized their wide shoulders, which weren't as wide as Death's, but came pretty damn close. It was evident that they were carrying a large archer's bow.

      The lights of the gymnasium flickered rapidly, the floors trembled violently, and an abrupt wind burst open the doors of the gym, plastered my clothes against my body, and knocked me straight to the ground.

      "Hello," the man at the door said. "Very hospitable building you have here, we only had to kill fifteen people in order to find you guys. I saw we, because....well..."

       I know that voice.

      "Thomas!" Marcy wailed.

      "Protect Faith Williams at all costs!" Death roared in his velvety compulsion voice.

      Vents burst open in the gym and a flocks of black birds came pouring in. Hundreds of them, thousands, engulfing every inch of the air until they swarmed towards the center of the room creating a massive vortex around Death.

      "Death!" I shouted, fighting to get back onto my feet. Another wave of wind came flooding in, knocking me back once more. I unleashed my claws at my sides and held on, digging them deep into the ground as the floors quaked.

      "Imprison the angel," a rough voice slid into the room. Malphas. The lights were back on and Thomas was gone.

      Chaos erupted.  

      Marcy, Pink Hair, and Leo both fell to their knees, clutching their heads and screaming at the top of their lungs. Leo, the only other visible male in the room, was the first to start morphing into what I expected was his hell hound form, his teeth elongating and his frame widening. He stood up to his full height, letting out a monstrous howl which was followed by two less baritone howls of Marcy and Pink Hair. There features were sharp and dangerous.

      A howl of an animal echoed throughout the room, directing my attention to the ceiling. My eyes went absolutely wide. It had appeared out of nowhere. Crawling along the ceiling was a massive, grey-blue thing. It resembled mix between a dog, a bear, with its large muzzle and pointed ears, but had the body of a sinewy snake with a sharp, pointed tail. Along its spine was a pair of folded dark brown wings that twitched with alertness.  As I stared at it, stunned, the monster's jaws opened wide in almost a smirk, allowing a glob of saliva to escape it's mouth and fall straight onto my leg.

      Death, consumed by the vortex of birds, was crouched in the middle of them all, watching the monster above me with brightly lit eyes. Standing to his feet, he looked down at his hands, looked back up at the monster. He held up his hands towards the top of the vortex and the black birds began to fall dead to the ground, one by one, creating a pile at his feet. Even in the midst of it all, I was entirely confused why Death hadn't done that in the first place.

      He didn't want to kill the birds.

      This was one of those moments where Death confused me. He was so evil and so heartless, but at times he revealed a part of himself that I never knew existed.

      I had to stop thinking he was a good person, I would only let myself down.

      The monster on the ceiling howled loudly. It quickly looked away from me, beginning to leap from the multiple planks of wood and poles that lined the three story gymnasium, descending to the floor. As it crawled along the ceiling, it's tail whipped at lazily whipped at a fluorescent light fixture which instantly sparked. One of the cords holding it to the ceiling severed and the fixture swayed. The last cord severed from the weight of the fixture and began to fall towards me.

      With inhuman speed, I tried frantically took my claws out of the floor, but knew that I would not get them out in time before the light fell on me.

      Death!

      Something gripped feet with its finger tips, yanking me towards them. I cried out as three of my talons were ripped free of my finger tips. Soon, I was completely engulfed by a massive, muscular beast that pulled me against itself and grasped the back of my neck, holding me possessively against itself. We rolled together across the floor until I was protected beneath him, right as the light fixture above crashed loudly to floor next to us. I continued to scream in agony, warm blood seeping down my arms from the empty slots where my nails once were.

      "You'll heal." Death pressed his mouth against my ear. "Malphas is here. He's preventing me from dematerializing. I need you to run in any direction away from here, just run," he whispered in my ear, his eyes watching the beast leisurely descend to the ground. "Run!"

      "What about you," I said breathlessly, tears welling in my eyes. The pain in my fingers was so extensive that it was beginning to make my entire body numb. "What's going to happen to you?"

      "I don't know. He doesn't just want you. He wants me, too," Death said, looking me right in the eyes. "That goes for Malphas and Sophus. I'm not running from them both. Especially Malphas."

      That creeping, lurking, dreadful feeling that comes with the brooding thoughts of loosing someone you care about seeped down my spine. My mouth parted so say something, when that dreadful feeling locked it's wiry fingers in the base of my throat, preventing me from saying anything but a feeble,  "Ok."

      Death had been looking at me in the same way, his thoughts elsewhere, when suddenly he shouted out a foreign curse. Shot with an arrow in his right arm, Death got up from the ground, his warmth leaving me, yanked the arrow from his arm and searched around the room for the bowman, and let out a deafening howl when he was nowhere to be seen, matching the animalistic qualities of two things that fell sloppily to floor near me, hissing.

      After seeing that one of the creatures had started towards me, Death grabbed it by its hind leg with his good arm and threw it towards the other creature like a bowling ball, knocking them both against the wall, hard.

      "Faith, get the hell out of here!" Death was shot in his other arm, and then the back of his leg before he collapsed to his knees, his head rolling on his neck, and his arms sagging at his sides. He collapsed, shakily holding himself up by his left hand. Adrenalin kicked in and I leaped to my feet, searching frantically around the room for the source of the arrows, but Death threw out a hand in whatever energy he had left, stopping me.

      Leave me, I heard him in my mind.

      I stumbled back in horror as two of the bizarre monsters recovered from Death's attack, circling him angrily and snapping their wet jaws. One of their tails whipped outwards and slashed Death across the torso, their mouths lifting in a wide smirk that reminded me of a human gesture. The wound started to burn and Death clutched at it, just as he had when I put a silver cross to his face. They continued to slash his skin, burning his flesh with whatever slick liquid covered their skin. Silver? Holy water? Death's jaw tightened, but he showed no other sign of pain.

      Thin hands gripped my arms and hauled me straight off the floor. In shock, my eyes slowly processed their faces. Marcy. Leo.

      "Come!" Marcy said, tightening her grip on my arm. "Thomas is gone!"

      I pulled back. "I'm fighting."

      Marcy's eyes softened. "Faith..."

      "These things aren't wild, they're tamed...they aren't attacking us. And they're waiting for something. For someone," I said, eying the snake-like creatures with interest. "I'm not leaving. I'm not--I'm not leaving Death. He doesn't deserve to be left alone, even if we have our differences. Nobody deserves to be alone."

      Leo gripped my arm, anger filling his eyes. "He can handle himself, you can't! Your life isn't the only one in danger. If you don't leave right now, we'll all die trying to help you."

      It was the slap in the face that I needed.

      Marcy gripped my hand and pulled me into a spacious locker-room, leading me through hundreds of large lockers. "There's a back way out of the building for emergencies. I'm not sure if Thomas came in this way or not, so we have to be careful He was with someone else so I think we should--"

      "It has to be Thomas, Sophus, maybe even Malphas, and if it's all three of them than we're screwed," I intervened, trying to catch my breath.

      "The D & S Tower is as armed as you can get." Leo shook his head once. "If unwelcomed demons can enter this building....then none of us are safe anymore. A war has begun."

      We were running so fast, now, and my emotions were still running so wildly throughout my body from my conversation with Death, that that my eyes were blurred with tears. Leo plowed through doors like a bulldozer determined and powerful, not even bothering with the handle or us keeping up with him. Leo moved like a lean jaguar, with powerful long legs and arms, and bluish-black hair.

      When we got to a spiraling staircase, Marcy leaped onto the railing and looked down. As I peered over as well, I saw an endless, terrifying amount of stairs that we would have to climb. Marcy turned over her shoulder and held out her hand. "Do you trust me?" she asked. "We can leap down each floor of stairs."

      I didn't take her hand. "No," I said honestly, swallowing down a rock in my throat."I used to trust my best friend."

      Climbing up the edge of the rail, I slowly gazed down the spiraling staircase and instantly shut my eyes. Nausea rippled in my belly. I could turn off my humanity. I could be fearless. This was the quickest way to get out of here and I had to suck it up. I had to go into a state where I didn't care. Where nothing mattered. Where Death, Marcy, and everyone else who had screwed me over wasn't there.

      That was when I felt Leo grab my hand. We both I looked at each other. Leo nodded at me once with a small smile, helping me get down from the railing. We stepped a few feet back, exhaled, and then both leaped straight off of the railing into the center of the spiraling stairs with my arms over my head. I had a moment of weightlessness, unleashed my claws, and gripped another railing a few floors down. I gripped the railing with both hands and peered up at Marcy, who no longer was perched on the railing that I dove off of.

      I watched as a small switch blade came hurtling over the edge of the railing.

      "Let go of me!" Marcy screamed.            

      My heart stuttered. "Marcy?!"

      "We have to keep moving!" Leo said at my side, hoping over the railing. He started to help me over, when I heard grunts and growls echoing from above, curses in both a male and female voice. I paused on the railing, stretching my neck to try and get a better view of what was going on.

      A blonde man's back that had a bow strapped around his shoulder was slammed against the railing, gripping the back of it just before he flung over. Laughing deeply, he . "We're evenly matched, you should just give up and let me slit your throat--"

       A pair of black leather feminine legs wrapped tightly around his neck, choking him momentarily and ending his sentence, hurling him forward out of my sight. I continued to hear grunts and metal clashing against metal. I looked down, debating whether or not to follow Leo or help Marcy.

      Before I could make my decision, Marcy leapt over the side of the railing, landing on the railing in front of this.

      "Thomas is completely armed!" she said, leaping over the railing and yanking open a door that read Floor 73. "We have to get out of the stairwell! I only bought us a little bit of time."

      "MAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRCYYYYY!" Thomas roared in a terrifying voice.

      "Hurry!" Leo threw open the door into a long hallway with office doors and water coolers and lead the way.  lead the way, steadying me when she made a sudden turn into another hallway and I almost lost my footing. When I turned around, Thomas was fast and hot on our trail, eating up the distance between us with his powerful legs, and when I turned around again, he was gone.

      A handgun slid along the floor, stopping right at my feet.

      And so was Leo.

      "They're gone! Leo and Thomas are gone!" I shouted, fear overpowering my voice and making it crackly. I picked up the hand gun and my hands were shaking violently. "Leo...he's going to kill him."

      Marcy frantically called up a line of elevators that we came to, but they all appeared shut down. "Damnit!" She kicked the elevator hard. "This is not good. This is not good, Faith."

      "How do I use this," I said, my hands visibly shaking.

      "It's an automatic. Aim and shoot," she said, unleashing another blade and facing one side of the hallway. "It's too quiet. Quiet is never good."

      A soft noise made my sensitive ears twitch. I turned, watching as a panel of the hallway ceiling slowly slid over. Carefully, a person with a gas mask over their head peered at us from upside down, and then stuck out their arm, throwing a small metal-like ball into our direction, dispersing an off-white gas . Marcy leaped at the noise, her eyes going wide with shock. Thomas covered his nose and mouth with his shirt, backing up.

      A shadowy man dropped down from the ceiling, falling into a tuck and roll and then casually making his way towards us.

      Sophus.

       "Marcy...it's him. It's him..."

      "Who? Where?" She grabbed at my arm and hauled me away from the cloud of gas. Before I could feed my body with oxygen, another metal ball appeared in our path, bursting into fumes.

      "Sophus," I whispered, gripping the gun hard in my hand.

      "Don't breath in!" Marcy screamed, pushing us through the gas."They'll expect us on the first floor at this point," she said. "If we go to the roof, we can get to Devin's emergency helicopter."

      I started to hear whispers. They were deep and foreign, soft like velvet and made my vision start to waver. I honed in on the whispers, pressing my fingers to my temple, until I could make out what they were saying. Faith Williams. Faith Williams. Faith Williams. Faith Williams.

      That was when I started to really hallucinate.

      All around me was wet, black liquid, seeping from every crevice of the hallway, dripping, and forming foreign words before my eyes. Circles and squares, filled with the same repeating pattern of intricate lines. I spun around, my eyes wide, as the black liquid began to all melt to the ground at once, pooling towards me.

      I collapsed to the ground, crawling wildly away from the liquid.

      "Faith?" Marcy asked, concern flooding her eyes. Her voice was deep, masculine--an alien voice, and her face started to stretch and contort into someone else. As she reached towards me, her mouth flashed a wide, cynical grin that just didn't belong, and I could stills see the shadowy figure coming towards me from behind her. "Faith! Faith, what's wrong? Speak to me! Tell me what's wrong!"

      "Can't you see it! Can't you see the liquid?" I shoved away from her, my pulse in my ears. I had to get away. I had to get away from the liquid. From Marcy. From Leo. From everyone.

      From Leo.

      "One of those creatures came down the hallway and turned on the bowman. We have some time," Leo said from above me. His hands were comforting, lifting me up off of the ground and into their arms. He assessed my body, inhaling by my mouth. "Minor toxic bombs, mostly for distraction and disorientation. Your senses should both balance out in a little bit."

       We can help each other, Faith" a voice hissed from behind. Leo whirled around, and there, at the end  of the hallway was a man dressed entirely in black with black mask with leathers traps that wrapped around his head and small vents around his eyes and mouth, concealing his identity and altering his voice. His figure wavered, shaking violently, stretching and darkening. He was coming towards me, his one shoulder stiffer than the other.

      "You can save her. You can save my mother. Let her call to you through the Unknown. She is trying to reach you."

      Suddenly, Thomas flew through the shadowy man as if he wasn't even there, turning his body into mist. He drew back his bow and aimed it right at Leo. "You backstabbing son-of-a-bitch! You're turning your damn demon blood, human things against me! I'm telling Malphas!"

      "Kill them all," a voice hissed.

      Startled, he fell back against the wall and aimed at nobody in particular, his golden eyebrows scrunched together. "Malphas told me all about you," Thomas ground out, swiveling his position behind him. "Those symbols... I know you can take over bodies, just like your dead mother could. You're not getting anywhere near me or I'll shove an arrow up your ass."

      A beast howled in the distance.

      "You have to get back to the home base at some point, don't you?" Thomas continued, talking to an empty spot in the hallway. "I'll put another arrow in you, but this time, I'll finish you off. Nobody betrays me. Nobody. Your body can only mimic your actions for so long without your soul before you lose it for good."

      "On the count of three, we're running," Leo whispered to Marcy, voice controlled but his eyes wide in some sort of veiled emotion. He slowly let me down, testing my balance.

      "I'm fine," I ground out softly, shaking out of his grip. "Just really, really confused. What's wrong with Thomas?"

      Thomas shut his eyes tight, pressing his hands to his skull. "He's in my head! That's what's wrong with me! He gets in your head, just like Death!"

      One of the snake-like dogs with grayish skin came sliding into the hallway, sprinting towards Thomas and ending his shouts. Thomas, startled once more, unleashed his bow and released an arrow into the beast. The beast howled wildly, thrown back from the arrow, then ran once more towards Thomas as if it wasn't even phased. Thomas unleashed another arrow, starting to run backwards, then another.

      The beast just kept running.

      "Mark my words, I'll kill you, Sophus!" Thomas shouted.

      Thomas, Marcy, Leo, and I all turned at the same time ran through hallway after hallway at the pace of a  movie set at fast forward. The walls on both sides of my face were blurs. At the end of the hallway stood another beast, hissing wetly.

      "Don't stop running! We'll deal with one in either direction! Charge it!" Marcy cried from behind us. I turned over my shoulder towards her voice, right as an arrow shot her in the back of the thigh. Marcy's leg crumbled underneath her and she fell to her knees, then her stomach. The blade in her hand went clattering to the ground in front of her.

      "Or we can give them something to chomp on!" Thomas replied, leaping over her.

      "Marcy!" Turning on my heel, I went back towards Marcy, shooting endlessly towards the beast as it leaped onto Marcy. As the shots were fired, my ears began to rang and my bones jerked with each pop of a bullet.

      "Faith, no!" Leo shouted.

      As the bullets penetrated the skin of the beast, its flesh began to bubble and smoke. A stench spread throughout the hallway. Abruptly, I tore my eyes over my shoulder, fully aware that everything had gone quiet. The beast that was once on Marcy had its gaze on me, it's muzzle wide open. The beast on the other side of the hallway had slithered right past Thomas towards, it's head down and it's eyes focused on me.

       In slow motion, both of the beasts began to run towards me, their ears down and their jaws open in a howl, and the man with the mask over his face appeared right next to Leo. He had no solid form, and appeared like a mist, the same height and size as Leo, and crashed right into Leo's body, knocking him hard into the wall.

      Leo's immediate scream shook the walls, veins throbbing in his forehead and his neck, his fists clenching at his sides and his body stiffening and cracking wildly, dropping him straight into a position on all fours as he continued to howl in pain. Both of the beasts came to a sudden halt, their backsides hitting the ground in an obedient sitting position, their crazy gazes upon my black eyed friend as he slowly, wobbly stood back to his feet.

      "That didn't hurt too bad," Leo said, then put on a the mask that had been in his left hand on his head. He yanked the gun out straight of my hand and cocked it. "I have no more time for fun and games," he continued, putting his gun into its holster and clasping his hands behind his back and stepping past one of the beasts. "My name is Sophus. I've managed to work on and off at D & S for over a hundred years without anyone saying anything, and you just ruined my cover. If you don't take me to Malphas and Death within ten minutes, I'll have one of my lovely, obedient creatures rip your intestines out and bite off your genitals."

            Thomas' eyebrows went straight past hairline.                                                                                                          

            "Bring both of the girls as well," Leo added, his beasts hissing at his side. "I want an audience."

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