Death and the Lady

Lily opened her eyes and stared blearily at the stark white ceiling above her. Slowly she turned her head and blinked at the multitude of bags that hung on the pole beside her. Several lines trailed down from them and converged into a single needle that was stuck into her arm. One bag was a dull red colour that looked suspiciously like blood.

She turned her head to the other side and looked at the woman who was asleep in the chair beside the bed. Her head was sunk onto her chest and she was snoring softly. From where she lay Lily could make out the salt and pepper hair and the lines on the face. Strange, there seemed to be more of them now. Even as she watched the woman shifted position and made a small, warm ‘blup, blup’ sound as she moved her head.

Lily frowned at the woman. “Mom?” she rasped. Her throat hurt and felt dry, like she hadn’t drunk anything in a while.

She looked vacantly at Lily for a few seconds, trying to blink the sleep out of her eyes. Then her eyes widened and the woman jumped up and hugged her tightly. Pain shot through Lily and she mad a small, painful sound, making her mom let go as though she were on fire.

“I’m so sorry! Did I hurt you?”

Lily shook her head and tried to hide the pain that must have shown on her face. She tried to sit up, but groaned and fell back onto the pillows.

“Oh, you shouldn’t try to sit up yet, darling. The doctor said that you’ve broken a few ribs and that a piece of steel reinforcement had gone straight through your leg!” Her mom turned teary eyes towards her. “They told me that you’d died!” she exclaimed, “They told me that you’d bled to death and then you came alive again! They’re saying that it’s a miracle!” Her mom smiled through her tears.

Lily fell back again and stared up at the ceiling. She remembered the burning in her veins, the ache that had filled every inch of her body. An ache so badly that she’d wanted to die.

“How long was I… asleep?” she asked.

“You were in a coma for three weeks. Everyone was certain that you wouldn’t wake up again.”

“I want to wash my face,” Lily muttered and pushed herself upright.

This time she pushed past the pain and managed to get upright. Her mom was on her feet again and was trying to push her back onto the pillows.

“No, you shouldn’t move.”

Lily slapped her mom’s hand away. “You can either help me to the bathroom or stand aside.”

A smile broke out on her mom’s face at the harsh tone. Lily thought that it was strange.

“Still a fighter,” her mom said lovingly, “still want everything your own way.”

Her mom took her gently by the shoulders, trying to stay away from her aching ribs and helped her towards the small bathroom that was part of the private room. She deposited Lily by the sink, kissed her softly on the cheek and left.

Lily stood with her hands pressed to the cold porcelain of the sink. The short walk towards the bathroom had made her head spin. Her leg throbbed painfully in its brace and she tried to think past the rushing in her ears. Her chest hurt every time she drew a breath. Hot, stabbing pains raced all up and down her body, reminding her of every painful muscle along the way.

When she looked up into the mirror over the sink she froze in horror. In the mirror was a familiar stranger. There were her eyes, large and steel grey, but they looked larger in her gaunt face and hollow cheeks. Her skin was unnaturally pale and her raven hair hung down her back in wild disarray. She’d always loved her hair and had kept it at just above her rump for years. Now it looked unhealthy, lank and stringy.

But that wasn’t the most startling thing about her. From under her eyes and stretching over her cheeks were black lines that looked like smeared and run mascara. Her lips were black and there were dark rings around her eyes. She looked like a ghost, like something out of a horror movie.

She looked, in fact, like Death. More like Death warmed over, but still Death. The image in the mirror moved and the black mouth started to form words, lifting a pale, black nailed hand into view.

She gave a startled cry and stepped back, right onto her injured leg. Pain shot up her leg and it trembled, unable to take her weight. She fell back hard and her back hit the wall behind her. She gave another cry of pain when her broken ribs protested and the fire in her leg made her grit her teeth.

The door flew open and her mom rushed in. She sat staring at the wall in horror as her mom fussed around her. Slowly she raised a hand and touched her hollow cheek, eyes wide and hand trembling. Suddenly she jerked and pushed her mom away.

“I’m going to be sick,” she said and pulled herself towards the toilet, where she threw up.

Lily felt her mom pull back her hair and felt her rubbing her back. Her mom waited patiently for Lily to finish throwing up and gave her a cloth to wipe at her mouth. Lily sat with her hand covering her face. Her whole body was trembling and she felt as though she had a bad fever.

Her mom flushed the toilet and ran a hand lightly over Lily’s brow, talking softly to her. Lily didn’t hear her over the buzzing in her ears and her head was spinning. She felt sick to her stomach and doubted whether she could make it back to the bed, even with her mom supporting her.

“Do you want to go back to bed, honey?” her mom asked and Lily shook her head.

“I don’t think that I can walk.”

“Why don’t I help?” a voice from the doorway asked and Lily’s eyes snapped open.

Memories slammed into her so hard that she thought that she was going to be sick again. She visibly convulsed as she was thrown back into the darkness with Death in front of her, speaking the lines from the old Ballad of Death and the Lady. She remembered the duel and terror filled her. What had she been thinking?

You have defeated me at my own game, child, but there is a price for your victory today. Return now to your body and await the toll that must be paid.

She slammed her hands over her ears as that dead voice echoed in her mind, reminding her again of the promise she must complete. A toll must be paid and it will be high.

The thought spun through her mind. Vaguely she heard her mother calling out her name, but Lily couldn’t see them beyond the darkness behind her eyes, beyond the skeletal shape of Death looming over her.

Something connected hard with her cheek and slowly the darkness around her faded. Lily opened her eyes with a groan and her hand went to the hot mark on her cheek. Her head and chest throbbed.

The voice! It was the voice of the man from before. The man in the rubble.

She moved too fast and her ribs stabbed with pain. She ignored it as she jerked her head up to look at the man in the doorway. He was strongly built and dressed in the uniform of a paramedic, about half a uniform. The top of the overalls were tied around his hips and a white shirt framed a wide chest and broad shoulders. It sat so snugly that could see every bulging muscle on his chest and abdomen. He was hunched in front of her, hand raised and looking at her with concern. He was so close that she could smell his aftershave. Too close.

His face was strong and square and handsome as sin with a straight nose, the bluest eyes she’d ever seen and a shock of pale-blonde hair. He looked like the man you imagined when you thought of German men.

“You,” Lily managed, but her voice was choked with pain.

He lowered his hand. “Are you back with us now?” he asked and her hand went to her cheek again.

“You slapped me?”

“Sometimes a little pain brings you back from the nightmare. You shouldn’t even be up, in fact.”

He reached for her but she pushed his hand away. “I’ve been in a coma for three weeks. I just wanted to wash my face when I saw-” Lily stopped abruptly when that image flashed behind her eyes.

Another wave of nausea washed over her and she slowly fell over onto the cold tiles. They felt like ice against her hot skin. “I think I’m going to be sick again.” Pain stabbed through her at the impact, but she ignored it as her stomach churned.

He frowned at her. “What did you see?” he demanded and she moved her eyes to look sceptically at him.

She frowned, why did he sound so adamant about what she’d seen. Why did he want to know so much about her time in the darkness. She didn’t trust him, he felt dangerous. Instincts riled against common sense.

Why shouldn’t she tell him? Wasn’t hallucinations a sign of head trauma? She didn’t want to worry her mother any more than she already had.

She opened her mouth to tell him, but a lie came out instead. “Being stuck in the dark under the rubble,” she said, feeling tears spring to her eyes. Just thinking of that pressure terrified her.

Lily didn’t know exactly why she lied, but she did lie. Something about this man made her unwilling to trust him, and she wanted to trust him at the same time. It was a strange feeling.

“Who are you?”

Her mom gasped. “Oh, I forgot that you two haven’t been introduced yet. Well, not officially. This is Haji Eisenberg; he’s the paramedic that saved you.”

“Haji isn’t exactly a German name,” Lily said and he smiled.

He looked different when he smiled. The corners of his eyes crinkled up and he had a dimple on his left cheek. Strangely, he looked like a handsome and naughty boy when he smiled.

“My full name is Johannes, but my little brother couldn’t say it when he was little. It stuck. How did you guess I was German?”

Lily pushed herself upright again, wincing at the stab from her ribs. The nausea had faded enough for her to dare sitting upright. Her mom fluttered to help.

“Just a feeling,” she said and ran a hand over her face. “Why do I feel so horrible?”

Haji looked at her critically. “Well, you haven’t had any real food in three weeks and you basically bled to death. I watched you die when we lifted the rubble off you.”

Lily heard her mom gasp and saw Haji quickly turned to look at her. “Could you go and get her some juice? And some cream crackers? It will make the nausea go away faster and it’ll be good to get some sugar into her. You’ll find some in the cafeteria, if you don’t then ask some of the kitchen staff to give you some. Tell them that I sent you,” Haji said and Lily’s mom hurried out with a nod. “Nothing too sweet or acidic.”

Lily stared at him in shock. It was the first time that she’d heard anyone order her mom around like that.

“I’ll carry you back to bed. You look shaky enough as it is.”

Before Lily could protest Haji stuck his arms under her legs and behind her back and lifted her as though she weighed next to nothing. She gasped and grabbed at her head, which spun horribly. Haji paused and looked down at her.

“Are you alright?” he asked and she nodded.

“You moved a bit too fast.”

Lily peered through her fingers at her reflection in the mirror, and was relieved to see that it was her own face. Still hollow cheeked and pale, but thankfully without the strange black marks under her eyes.

When Haji started to move Lily grabbed him around the neck to keep her balance. Her head swam and she tucked it in between his chin and his shoulder, trying to ignore the slow spinning around her.

Haji looked at her from the corner of his eye and was worried by the lack of colour to her features. He thought back to when he’d watched her life bleeding away, even as he fought to staunch the flow. Even then he’d felt a strange connection to this girl. He’d watched her die slowly, and then watched her come alive again.

Carefully he placed her on the bed and pulled the covers over her. She put her head in her hands and groaned in a heartfelt way. Strangely for him he placed a hand against her brow and was shocked about the cold clamminess to her skin. Those were symptoms of shock.

“Are you alright?”

Lily lifted her eyes and looked at him. “I’m okay, just a little woozy. I’ll feel better after I eat and drink something.”

Haji sat down and looked critically at her. “I watched you die,” he said and she blinked at him.

To his surprise she turned her head away. “You said.”

“What did you see when you died?”

Haji watched Lily’s head jerk slightly at the question, but she still didn’t turn to meet his gaze. Again her hand went to her head.

“I was in darkness,” she finally said.

“Was there anyone with you?”

She nodded. “There was someone.”

Haji’s hands balled into fists and he leaned forward. “Who was it?”

Finally Lily turned to look at him and he saw the deadpan expression on her features. Her eyes had gone dull and she seemed almost ghostly.

“I don’t remember.”

Haji’s expression turned sceptical as he stared at her blank face. Lily regarded him solemnly for a few moments and then lay back carefully, wincing at the stab from her ribs.

“Did the person say anything to you?”

Lily turned upraised eyebrows to him. “How come you think we talked?”

“Did you?”

“I don’t remember.”

“That’s convenient.”

Lily chuckled. “Like you said, I died and came alive again. Maybe I talked to an angel, I don’t remember.”

“You have to tell me if you talked to anyone, even if they warned you against it.”

Lily frowned at the desperate tone in Haji’s voice. “I just remember darkness and someone close by… and a smell.”

“A smell?”

Lily looked uncomfortable. “The smell of smoke and fire,” she lied.

The whole conversation was uncomfortable. She felt uneasy talking about this with him, almost embarrassed, like she was caught doing something she shouldn’t have. His earnest tone wasn’t helping either.

“Then what happened?”

Lily turned her head away again. “I woke up.”

“Did the person say anything to you? Anything about a toll that must be paid?”

Lily’s heart stuttered for a moment before she spoke. The nausea washed over her again and she breathed slowly and deeply through her nose, concentrating on anything other than the nausea or Haji.

“I don’t remember anything like that,” Lily lied again. “Why should you care, anyway?”

“He wouldn’t have let you come back without asking some kind of price.”

“Who wouldn’t have sent me back? What are you talking about?”

“Death!”

“You’re crazy!”

They glared at one another and Lily abruptly turned away onto her side. The movement made her head swim but she bit down on the nausea that kept washing over her.

“I’m tired; I think you should go now. I’d like to rest.”

“Death will come back and ask you to pay for your life. Whatever he asks you to do, don’t do it. You’d be better off dead.”

Lily didn’t answer him and she heard him grunt and turn to leave. She heard other footsteps hurry towards the door and his heavy footfall pause.

“Oh, are you already going?” her mom asked and Haji nodded.

“Your daughter is tired, but I’ll drop by again tomorrow to see how she’s doing.”

Her mom smiled. “That’s so kind of you. Thank you very much.”

Lily heard Haji leave and heard her mom settle down on the chair he’d been seated in. She listened to the crinkle of a wrapper and the soft thud as a bottle was placed on the bedside table.

“Such a nice man,” her mom said and Lily made a soft noise of acknowledgement.

“Yes, very nice,” she said flatly.

“Do you know that he came by every day to check whether you’ve woken up? So nice of him.”

Lily glared into the middle distance and frowned darkly to herself. Strange how he seemed to know about Death’s demand for a toll.

“It’s so nice to meet someone so passionate about his work. I’ve never met a paramedic quite like him.” Her mom gave a theatrical sigh. “It’s such a shame I’m too old for him.”

Lily’s eyes widened and she rolled over to stare at her mom. “Mom! Completely inappropriate!”

Her mom chuckled. “But it did get your attention.”

Lily rolled her eyes. “When can I get out of here?”

There was the sound of a tearing wrapper and her mom held out a cream cracker. Lily took it gratefully and nibbled at the corner. Truthfully she didn’t feel hungry, she just felt sick, but she had to get something inside her stomach or else she’d never feel better.

“The doctor will be around in a little while and then you can ask him. He usually comes on his rounds around now.”

Lily glanced up at the clock on the wall opposite and her eyes widened. It was seven in the morning.

“No wonder you were still asleep, mom!”

“The nurses kept telling me to go home, but I just couldn’t leave you alone. Maybe you woke up and I wasn’t here. Haji often agreed to keep an eye on you so that I could take a shower and change.”

Lily looked down at her hands. She could still see the healing scrapes on them, even after three weeks. How deep had they been? Again the memory of that face in the mirror jumped into her mind and she shuddered.

“Can I have some of the juice, please?” Lily asked and her mom handed her a damp bottle.

“Here you go.”

“Thanks.”

Lily sipped at the juice while she stared blankly ahead of her. The juice was sharp and acid on her tongue, but it made her feel a little better. She looked up at a sound and saw a man in a white coat standing in the doorway. When he saw her looking at him he grinned widely.

“Good morning, young lady! I’m glad to see you up and about. Well, up at least.”

“Dr Bascule,” Lily’s mom said as she stood up. “Good morning.”

The doctor was young with dark hair and dark eyes and he wore a pair frameless oval glasses. He was smiling and had a handsome face, not nearly as handsome as Haji, but a close second. His shoulders were wide but he was built leaner than the paramedic and he seemed far more approachable.

“Good morning Ms. Valleyscape. I’m glad to see your daughter woke up at last! We were truly starting to worry.”

“She woke up about an hour ago. She had a bit of a spill in the bathroom but I’m sure nothing was hurt any more than it already is.”

Dr Bascule’s eyes darkened when he turned to look at Lily. His smile faded a little and a frown settled between his eyes.

“You should not have been moving yet, miss,” he said sternly and Lily blushed.

“I just wanted to wash my face! I feel grubby.”

Suddenly the smile was back and the young doctor strode into the room. He held out a hand, which Lily shook and marvelled at the strength in his grip. His face was open and friendly as he spoke to her.

“Nevertheless, I’ll call some nurses so that they can help you to the bath. I am Dr Ryo Bascule and it is a pleasure to finally meet you, Miss Valleyscape.”

“Everyone calls me Lily.”

The smile widened. Lily swore if that smile got any wider the top of the young doctor’s head was going to fall off.

“Tell me how you feel. Are you in any pain?” Dr Bascule asked as he walked to the end of Lily’s bed and picked up the chart.

“My ribs are on fire and I think I’ve lost my leg,” Lily said sarcastically and he laughed.

“Ah yes, you broke five ribs and a piece of reinforcement did pierce all the way through your leg. You also lost nearly all of your blood.” He frowned down at the page for a moment and then met her eyes. He turned to face Lily’s mother. “Do you mind if we talk in private, Ms. Valleyscape. There are a few things I need to clarify with your daughter for the investigators. You may stay, of course, but it may be hard for you to listen to.”

Lily’s mom paled and she hurriedly got to her feet. “I’ll be right outside,” she muttered and hurried out, closing the door behind her.

“How considerate,” Dr Bascule said in an odd tone of voice as he looked at the door, then he turned to Lily. “Call me Ryo,” he added.

“What’s going on?” Lily demanded and glared as he walked around the bed towards her. “Touch me and I will break something of yours.”

To her surprise and horror he bowed low to her. When he straightened up he held out a hand towards her. In the palm of his hand lay a strangely shaped key. There was a skull on the one end and its eye sockets were inlaid with two small blue stones. The other end was a block with another skull etched into it.

“Lilith Valleyscape?” Ryo asked and she was struck by the strange tone of his voice.

Somehow his voice had turned from light and friendly to heavy and dark. She remembered another voice, deeper and darker than this one. Ryo’s voice was a mere shadow in comparison to that other voice.

“What?” Lily asked suspiciously and he smiled.

“I have been sent to give you a message. When you’ve recovered use this key on any door and come to find us. A toll must be paid. For if life were merchandise that gold could buy, the rich would live… only the poor would die.”