The cold mocking eyes of a child's drawing stared at me, the yellow sending a chill down my spine. While it was recognizable as a person, the lines were shaky and so many were half erased that I couldn't tell if it was meant to be angel or demon or mortal.

"Stop moving," Death pulled the last of the bandages off. "We need to fix these."

"You could have done it while I was out."

"Souls aren't going to reap themselves, kid. I called Lilith and asked her to put the bandages on you. It might have actually been Lucifer, but I'm fifty percent sure it wasn't."

"Wha-" As I started talking, wisps of light came out of my mouth. They gathered together in Death's palm to form a flickering flame. It reflected in his eyes as he studied it.

"Hold this." He pushed it into my hands, leaving me to stare at it, and walked out of the room. Wind blew as he returned and he dropped a pile of books on the floor. He flipped through book after book, giving each one a second before tossing it over his shoulder.

Bound in cracked leather and covered in a red substance, which I hoped was Kool-Aid, the last book in the pile was the largest, combining the size of an oversized atlas with the thickness of a dictionary. Smoke and ash billowed from its pages as Death opened the cover and flipped through the massive book.

"So are you going to explain what this is or are you going to try to tell me I don't need to know?"

"That's your soul core, soul heart, vessel of your immortal being, sprout of life, flame of existence, record of your deeds."

"You know none of that explains anything, right?"

"You know how your heart pumps blood through your body when your alive? That little fire does something similar. It pours energy into the rest of your soul. If anything happens to this thing, you cease to exist."

My mouth went dry. "Why is it outside my body?"

"Kinda hard to look at it without pulling it out, unless you'd rather have had me destroy the rest of you to get to it?" He kept flipping through his book before carefully placing it aside, still open. He took the fire from my hands and sat it on the book, before slamming the book shut.

I jumped, heart racing. When I didn't immediately disappear, I looked at Death. He rolled his eyes and held his hand over the book. A green glow emitted from it and a new, smaller book appeared ontop. Death picked it up and tucked it inside his cloak.

"I should have done that earlier." He waved his hand, sending the books flying back to wherever he had gotten them.

"What exactly did you do?"

"I now officially own your soul. Though this is really a technicality since you're already my apprentice. Now let's see what we can do about those cuts."

I sighed. He wasn't giving me a straight answer and while I was curious why, I was scared I wouldn't like the answer. Death pulled off one of his gloves and held his hand an inch above my skin, causing the cuts to quickly mend.

"Before you ask, because I know you're going to, death aura. Normally it kills people, but you're already dead so it heals you."

"So if I'm dead, and if I eat poison..."

"You'll get sick and you'll hate yourself for the next week. Just ask any of the people who gave pets poison. Are you hungry?"

"Are you going to poison me?"

"I told you, it would be a waste of good poison. I was thinking more along the lines of mac and cheese."

I nodded and laid down. "I'm going to lay here and try to take a ten minute nap."

Death chuckled. He put his glove on before pulling a blanket over me. I groaned and stretched, ending up tangled.

"Kid," he said. "You are weird."

"Says the guy with white hair. Come get me when the food's done."

I couldn't see him leave, due to the blanket covering my face, but the flick of the light switch and the door closing left little doubt that he'd left. Closing my eyes, I did my best to fall asleep, to get some rest besides what I got from passing out. Death came back before that could happen.

"Food's done."

I rolled out of bed and followed him downstairs. The smell of macaroni and cheese filled the air. My stomach rumbled. There were already two bowls placed on the table and I looked at Death, with an eyebrow raised.

"Kid, I may have healed them but I don't want you up more than necessary. You're the first mortal to be connected to my realm and I don't know how her powers will affect you. I'm not taking chances." As he talked, he messed with his gloves.

"I feel fine." I sat down and started eating.

Death mumbled something, but I couldn't make out what he said. He didn't repeat himself and neither of us said anything the rest of the time we ate. It was only after we finished and the dishes were in the sink did the silence break.

"What's the deal with you and Life?" I asked.

"Life is a beautiful lie, fooling everyone with promises of love and happiness and peace. Everyone thinks she's a miracle, but hidden under her surface, she's a curse. She wants everything her way and if something doesn't fit her view she destroys them. I don't fit into her world. Ever since I killed my first blade of grass, she's hated me. She's done her best to imprison me, to destroy me." His hands clenched, knuckles turning white as he stared at the table. "She's turned people immortal. I try my best to track them down and kill them, but they can see me coming and I have to physically touch them. It would be so much easier if I could use my aura."

"How many are there right now?"

"Five, but Life keeps making more to keep me from going after those. They've been around forever and with every passing day they get harder and harder to find."

I slouched in my chair, tapping my foot. "Why would she make people immortal? Aren't you guys supposed to be balanced?"

"She's the reason the balance is screwed up. She wants to preserve life at any cost. She's willing to set off the apocalypse to achieve that."

"That doesn't make any sense, but okay."

"Tell me about it," Death groaned. He dropped his head to rest on the table. "She's the only one who wants the apocalypse. Everyone else is pretty satisfied with the way things are. I mean, Lucifer doesn't want to become a lifeguard for at least a few more millennia. But-"

"Do you like cake? Cause I kinda want to make a cake."

"You interrupted me to ask that?"

"It's an important question. I can't eat a whole cake by myself."

"Yes, you can. You won't gain weight."

"I wasn't worried about my weight." I glared at him. "I got sick the last time I ate an entire cake. Actually, I'm going to make brownies and give most of them to Luci." I walked to cabinet and started looking for brownie mix.

"I heard brownies." Luci's head popped up and he crawled out of the portal to the fiery abyss.

Feet hit the ground and Luci started shrieking as Death chased him around the kitchen.

"Begone, demon! Back to Hell! Stop trying to steal my food! "

"Stop hitting me with a chair!"

I ignored the sound of breaking furniture and sat the box on the counter. I grabbed an egg from the fridge and started mixing up a half batch. Humming filled the air, not drowning out the goat-like screams of the devil coming from the living room.

"And you wonder why people show you with goat legs!" Death yelled

I pinched the bridge of my nose and I sighed. The oven cane up to temperature and I shoved the pan in, setting the timer. A bag of powdered sugar rested on the counter and I casually ate some of it along with the batter left in the bowl.

I shut the oven off a few second before the timer went off and I pulled the pan out. I should have let them cool down before eating them, but Death and Luci were acting worse than my cousins. They didn't deserve brownies. So I ate the entire small batch of brownies. With my stomach full and my mouth still coated with the taste, I walked through the living room, past Death and Luci who were wrestling, and into the sunroom. I laid on the couch and stated out the large windows.

It didn't take long for Death and Luci to walk in.

"Where are the brownies?" Luci asked.

"I ate them."

"All of them?!"

"Yep. There might be a few crumbs left in the pan though."

"You didn't leave us any?" Death asked. "I thought you said you couldn't eat them all."

"I said I couldn't eat a whole cake. Brownies are a different story. Hey, can you get me some milk?"

"You can get it yourself." Death let Luci walk out first before following.

"I made brownies!"

"You ate them all."

"I was going to share, but you guys were acting worse than five year olds. And I can make more."

"You won't."

"You wanna bet, old man?" I got up and went to the kitchen.

"See, reverse psychology works," Death said to Luci.

I rolled my eyes as I started mixing up the rest. "Not reverse psychology if I was going to make the rest anyway," I mumbled.

I peeked into the oven to see how they were doing, temptation shot through me, but the stomachache quickly shot the other bullet down. The timer went off and Death and Luci rushed in, fighting to get to me first as I pulled the tray out. The second it was on the counter, the brownies were gone, with each entity holding half of the tray in their arms.

I stared at them. They tore the tray in half. I groaned, too full to deal with that, and went back to the sunroom. I could at least get some peace and-

"You have more than me!"

Chapter: 1,755

Book: 15,434

Yay! I got a chapter done and now I really want brownies so I'm gonna see if I have stuff to make them

See yah