I felt arms encircling me from behind and dropped flat, springing away. "If you touch me you die!" I screamed, dead serious.

I backed into a corner like a trapped animal as the figure from before, who was actually a really cute boy with white hair, walked forwards. "Calm down. We're not going to hurt you." He extended his hands out in surrender.

"No, you will only hurt yourself! You can't hurt me! I'm expecting it!" I crossed my arms over my head in a defensive 'X', trying to block any blows to my head.

"We won't hurt you!" a booming voice came from behind the boy. I shrank back.

A large overweight man in all red, with familiar black boots, walked forwards, and I frantically tried to melt through the wall, the shadows becoming agitated and quivering, snaking up my limbs protectively. The man reached for my wrist but the shadow around it grew pointy and poked his hand. When the man tried my other wrist, the shadow lashed out and slapped his hand away as I crumpled into a ball on the floor. The shadows took the form of a boy, also cute, and he stood over me protectively. He looked oddly similar to the boy with white hair, but he had black hair and purple eyes instead of blue, and his skin was grayish. The boy with the black hair had no shirt on, and he had black jeans and sneakers. He crossed his arms, holding a long staff. He went from being made of shadows to a real, physical person in minutes, glancing at me as I tried to find my happy place.

"Back away from the girl. She is under my protection." The boy in black had a voice similar to the boy with the white hair and blue hoodie, but it was almost slightly British.

"Get away from her, Jet," the boy in blue warned.

I was on the verge of panicking and passing out, but I muttered "That's a cute name."

"Why thank you, princess." Jet winked at me and smirked at the boy in blue.

"Did I say that out loud? I'm sure your name is hot too," I muttered, the floorboards under me starting to wither. I snapped my fingers weakly, and every animal and insect I had ever touched that was half-alive and didn't die from sickness came scuttling out, forming a carpet under me. Some animals were just skeletons, their flesh rotted away long ago. They lifted my limp body and started to carry me away from everyone and everything as the two boys bantered. They set me down and covered my body with their own, snapping their teeth at the gnomes that came close.

"Hey, where'd she go?" the boy in blue asked, seemingly just realizing I was no longer behind Jet.

"Jack, what did you do with her?" Jet demanded, and I chuckled weakly, drawing their attention, scattering the zombie critters.

"See, I told you your name was probably hot too. Hey, can I pass out now?" I waited a moment, but I stayed conscious. "I guess not." I unclipped my scythe and stood, supporting my body with the shaft and running my left forefinger along the blade, blood smearing along it. I gently touched a small moth with the cut on my finger and it dropped dead. My blood is like poison. I fiddled with my bellybutton ring and ruffled my hair, bumping into a gnome and turning it into a zombiefied one. "Okay, how do you get out of this joint? I got souls to collect."

Jet grinned, and I would have flushed if I wasn't already dead. As it was, I grinned back. "Come with me sweetheart. I got a place where you can stay until your ready to leave."

"Fine. But I got my scythe if you try anything." I staggered over like a drunk and he wrapped an arm around my arm before I could protest. "No no no don't touch my skin I kill everything I touch-"

"It's fine. I'm already dead."

"I accidentally killed Cupid a few years back. Cupid was immortal too."

"Oh." Jet seemed confused. "Well, I'm not a zombie yet, so I think I'm good! Come on babe."

"Call me that again and you'll be missing a few appendages."

"What's your name?"

I was on the verge of blacking out again, but muttered "Lav-" before something grabbed us and dragged us into the shadows as he held me to him. I saw darkness and cages before my eyes slid shut.