The next day, I found myself standing knee-deep in something I hoped was water. The smell would have given it away, but with Vicks slathered under my nose, it was hard to smell anything other than the sharp scent of eucalyptus.

 Death didn't bother putting any on. He said, "If smells bothered me, I would have quit a long time ago." 

We waded through the water, venturing ever deeper into the flooded catacombs. It seeped into my shoes, and it squelched around my toes. I grimaced and tried my best to ignore it. I was going to take as many showers as I could after this, and maybe shove my feet into the lava lakes of hell. The further we went, the tighter the passageway became. Bones reached out and snagged my cloak on jagged ends while pale white skulls stared out at me from the walls. Those same bones were the only things I could see; Death blended into the darkness, and the sad excuse of night vision I had before wasn't working. For the first time in my afterlife, I was glad for the tiger harness buckled tight to me.

"Death?" I called when the line went slack.

"What?" His voice came from right in front of me. My shoulders relaxed. 

"Nothing, I just wanted to make sure you didn't ditch me." 

His deep laugh traveled down the passage. Out of nowhere fire filled the eyes of the skulls, leading down the passage like will-o-wisps.

"Okay, how many powers do you have?"

"Enough to help me in my job," he said, starting forward again. "Unfortunately, parting water isn't one of them."

The muck around us grew shallower with every step we took, soon giving way to a dry floor. I'd like to say we were quiet, that nobody would be able to hear us coming. I can't. Death's shoes squeaked worse than wet sneakers on school tile. My shoes were content making the weird gushing sound you get when liquid's moving around your foot, but that wasn't any better.

Death turned a corner. "You know, some of these bodies-"

My scream interrupted him, along with the thud of something hitting a wall. "Rat rat rat rat rat!" I ducked around him with shudders still making their way down my limbs.

"Kid, that was- okay, yeah that's a rat, all right. Run." He pushed me along.

"I thought you liked rats?"

"Only when they're carrying the plague or making food. Not when they want to eat my leg."

When we could no longer hear the angry rat noises behind us, we slowed to a walk, and Death took the lead again. It wasn't necessary. We took two steps and found the door we were looking for. There were large holes in the ancient wood, most of which were patched up. A chain fastened with a rusted padlock held the door shut.

Did Death bother looking for a key? No. Did he decide to play SWAT and kick the door down? Yes.

"There were probably other options to that," I said, picking my way around large splinters. "Like at least three."

"Was there another option to me taking away your night vision? Yes, but it wasn't as fun as dragging you through this place with the backpack." Death pulled down his hood and flashed me a smile. "Now help me look."

"You took my nightvision?! When? Why?"

"Uh, cause it was fun? Why else would I take it? Come on, help me look. It's been a few centuries since I've been down here."

I nodded. A few skulls lit up, along with candles. Candles lined shelves hewn from stone, they sat on every surface that didn't have papers, bones, or glassware. Death picked up a flask and swirled its contents around.

"What is this place?" I asked, looking through a stack of papers. They were brittle and a couple had noticeable tear stains, much like the ancient copies of books in high schools.

"A lab to try to create a vaccine for the Black Death. It didn't work, but you've got to admire this guy. He uses his immortality to research cures for diseases and doesn't hang around high schools like a creepy stalker." He walked around the room before picking up a candle.

Liquid wax dripped down the side, at least until Death poured it into his palm. Dipping a finger into it, he used the wax like acrylic, painting symbols on the walls and floors. Waving his hand to dry the last of the wax, Death looked back at me.

"You want to see something cool?"

"Your idea of cool or mine? Because I have the feeling you're going to summon a bunch of rats."

He never told me. The wax closest to us glowed the same bright green as his eyes, while that farther away gave off a white glow. One of the symbols gave off a lavender glow; it gradually grew brighter.

"Here, kid. Hold this." He handed me my scythe and the harness vanished. "Go see if there's something by the door. This might just be a false positive."

"Okay." I turned and walked back to the door, taking a candle with me. I wished Death wouldn't have taken my night vision, but if he wanted to get a laugh, well, I preferred to have him do this over what God does.

I knelt down in the chunks and splinters of the door. The bright flame eating away at the wick burnt a dark spot in my vision. I sighed. I thought being dead would get rid of after images, apparently not. Either being dead didn't get rid of it, or Death accidentally took my immunity to them along with my night vision. Who am I kidding? He would've done it on purpose.

Shaking my head to clear my mind, I went back to searching in the small circle of light around me. All I found was wood, metal, and splinters. Lots and lots of splinters. I tried to pull some of the bigger ones out, only to succeed in pushing the smaller ones further in.

"Death. Do you have any tweezers?" I asked.

"Why- Why would I have tweezers?"

"You have a crap ton of pockets. I don't know what you keep in there. I've seen you pull a travel mug out of that thing."

Death grunted, and I heard a crashing noise. "Kinda busy, kid."

I looked over my shoulder. Weird glowing masses were leaping at Death and he tossed one at a wall.

"Uh, do you want help?" I slowly stood up, raising my scythe.

"I want you to run as far away from here as possible. These things are more concerned with me, but- just run."

I didn't argue with him, or with the weird glowing rabbit-rat-dog-flytrap thing that has its eyes trained on me. I took off, trying my best to protect the wavering flame. It was my only source of light, the fires in the skulls had extinguished themselves.

Nails scrapped the stone behind me and I sped up heading into the water. This time Death wasn't there to carry me past the deepest part so the water reached past my belly button. The sounds stopped. I turned around. The glowing creature stood at the edge of the water, growling softly.

"Aw, what's wrong? Can't swim?" I teased it and laughed.  As it turns out, teasing a glowing creature that doesn't technically exist isn't a good idea.

It leapt into the water and started swimming towards me. In response, I turned and started running. Water moved around me with loud sloshing noises. I made a mental note to see if there's a lake at Death's place, as I struggled to make headway. Luckily for me, the creature wasn't used to swimming and it was having just as much trouble as I was.

After several panicked and painfully slow minutes, I made it into shallower water. The creature was close on my heels. My chest burned. I had no way to tell what caused it.

"Where's the exit at?" I forced the words out, despite the growing pain, and despite the fact there was no one there to answer my question.

I didn't need anyone, anyway. The exit was visible from where I stood. A shaft of light shone down through a manhole. I gave a small cheer, chucked the candle at the creature's face, and scrambled up the ladder.

"Oh sweet sun, I am never leaving your sight again." A loud sigh left my lips, and I tilted my head back. I couldn't feel the warmth, but I didn't hesitate to pull off my shoes and dump out the water in them. My socks soon joined them on the pavement.

My hands still hurt, the splinters were still in them, but the pain was only now resurging. Panic, the newest way to forget splinters.

A loud growl echoed up and before my eyes, the creature leapt straight out of the manhole.

"Oh come on," I said,  scrambling to my feet. I didn't bother putting on my shoes or socks, I didn't have time. Besides, what was the worst that could've happened? Not like I could die from an infection.

Breaking away from the near deserted sidestreet, I entered a busy midday street. Stalls lined the sidewalks. Shoppers walked around with baskets. I tried to get lost in the crowd, but the creature kept tracking me. Annoyed, I swung down another alley and onto another empty road. The only people outside were a mother and her two children.

I didn't pay attention to them as I rushed by. I froze in the middle of the road. Something was wrong. My chest hurt worse than before, it wasn't enough to make me double over, but it was annoying. The nails on the the road stopped and I whipped around, just in time to see the creature leap at the smaller daughter.

"No!"

I expected blood. I expected the creature to clamp its jaws down, despite it being something born from Life's powers. What I didn't expect was for it to be absorbed by the girl. She stumbled backwards and rubbed her eyes.

"Are you okay, Marie?" the mother asked.

"I'm okay." Marie smiled at her mom. She looked fine, in every sense of the word.

"Are you sure? Did you take your medicine?"

"I'm sure. Hey, Momma? Who's that girl in the street? She doesn't look like she's feeling okay."

I drew in a sharp breath. I forgot people could see me, but that wasn't why I did that. When she turned to point at me, I caught a look at her eyes. Her bright purple eyes.

Chapter: 1,792

Book: 30,089

Dun dun dun

How'd you like the chapter?

I'm gonna go eat.

See yah