Chapter 2: Air Drop? No Thanks. 

We piled off the bus. I realised that we were in a carpark, almost like the one I had died in today, and there were lots of yellow school buses around us. Some people were also alighting from the buses. I assumed we were all dead. 

A small part of my brain screamed at all the weirdness. Why did I still have the ability to think, anyway? I thought I was dead. And this odd business- yellow school buses, carparks... Perhaps it was so weird that my brain had just shut down and treated it as normal. I didn't know, and I didn't want to find out. 

"Okay, let's go," the Grim Reaper ordered, once the granny had hobbled down the bus.

A thought occurred to me. I was sure there was only one Grim Reaper. Why had he come personally to collect all four of us? Was it the...prisoner 303? I sneaked a glance at him and was met with a hostile stare. Woah. Okay. I reminded myself not to make eye contact with him again. 

The bus drivers of the other yellow buses were dressed like, well, normal bus drivers. 

I looked around the surroundings as we marched to a building nearby in the clouds. The carpark was floating in the air, and it spanned yards and yards, impossible to count. The blue sky loomed over, and I was so close to the clouds, I could practically reach over and touch one. 

We neared the building. Here there was a bottleneck, by which I mean there were at least a thousand dead people rushing for customs. I wondered why. That was soon answered-

"An announcement!" A loud, very very loud voice boomed around me. I jumped, as did a thousand other people. It seemed to be coming from above us, but I didn't know how it was possible, since we were already in the clouds. "Customs are closing in 1 hour. If you are not cleared by today, please wander around aimlessly until tomorrow!"

The Grim Reaper rolled his eyes, not looking concerned at all. But I, on the other hand, was very worried. I did not want to stay in this massive, floating carpark until tomorrow. I wanted to be somewhere, doing something. 

So I gathered my courage, and said bravely "Hey Mr Reaper. I don't want to wait until tomorrow. Can you fast forward me?"

He glanced at me, his black cloak billowing behind him as the wind blew. I couldn't help thinking that he was handsome, although perhaps his skin was a little too pale. He should spend more time in the sun. 

Then his pupils dilated with horror. I couldn't imagine why. He spun around, and seemed to see something, and then he spun back, and said "Why, I forgot. Oh goodness. If you four don't get settled today, you'll spend the night in my newly renovated bus. Oh gosh, I cannot have that, I simply can't. Do you know how much it cost me to renovate it? Why do mortals charge so much?" 

"Wait, your bus can be repaired by mortals?" I asked.

The Grim Reaper wrung his hands and seemed to want to pace up and down, only he couldn't because we were packed against other people like at a concert. "Yes! Of course! My bus is a Mercedes, after all. But that isn't the point! Oh gods! Okay, I want you four to push as many people as you can out of your way. You have to make it to Customs."

The people in front of us turned their wide eyes to us. 

All of a sudden, chaos erupted. There was a mass stampeding towards the doors of the tall building, which glittered and beckoned at us. 

"You are not getting there before me! I waited five years!" A woman to my right screamed, shoving me out of her way.

I almost fell, but was caught by black-gloved hands. The Reaper.

He steadied me as much as one can when you are being shoved in all directions, and muttered quietly "I shouldn't have said that out loud." I caught a sheepish grin on his face.

"Hell yeah!" I screamed back as I almost toppled over again, this time to the left.

He regarded me silently, and then his hands shot out, grabbing me by my waist. I was so surprised I didn't say anything, and we launched into the air.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHH!" I yelled.

But truly? It was amazing. The most amazing ride I'd ever had in the air. And that was saying a lot- because I had done all those crazy height challenges humans could think of, abseiling and paragliding and everything- all for television. I whooped and squealed. Below, everyone stared at us in amazement, and then someone cried "That's Kayla Marie!"

I felt my stomach drop to the ground.

"Kayla! Marry me!" "Sign my arm!" "Kayla!"

I cringed. "Hey, Mr Reaper, can you, uh, bring me to Customs faster?"

He tightened his grip around my waist, and I bet he was scowling when he said "I'm trying. And just call me Grim, please."

"Grim please," I said.

He sighed in a mixture of annoyance and exasperation. I knew, however, that he was trying his best, only there were so many, many dead that it was taking a rather long time. I realised that the thousand I had seen earlier had just been the start- or should I say, end- of the queue. And something else- the glittering doors I had thought were the doors to the Customs building had been an illusion, a trick of the mind to give the people at the end hope that their fates would be decided. It was terrifying to know it had been an illusion. I shivered. 

"Are you okay?" Grim asked as he ducked and swerved through the air. 

I swallowed. "Yep." In fact, Grim was a horrible flyer. There was so much turbulence!

"One minute left!" The loud voice boomed again, and scores of people below us groaned collectively, except for the few who screamed "Kayla!"

"Go faster!" I yelled. "I hate waiting!"

I could hear him grumbling. Somehow, that put a smile to my face. Grim was weird, but he was funny. 

All of a sudden, the ground below us cleared. Well, I mean that a group of people shuffled to the side and left a large gap. The ground was blue from here, with occasional patches of white. And then I came to yet another realisation: we had been walking on a glass sheet.

Ugh. My lunch threatened to come up my mouth and onto...well, onto the people below, my ardent fans who wanted Kayla Marie merchandise. I got the feeling they wouldn't appreciate my vomit, though.

"Grim Reaper, come down."

A stern voice echoed throughout the land. "And bring that Hollywood starlet with you."

Grim's fingers stiffened, and then we were both dropping through the air.