Death's Apprentice

The four of them were standing in the realm of Guardians.

Alone.

The walls were crumbling, the majestic pillars in ruin. The grandiose chandelier lay in shattered broken pieces on the floor. The breathtaking silence was eerie-almost like the silence of a tomb.

“This isn’t good…” Sarah said softly.

“Where is everybody?” little Lily questioned, her voice echoing and bouncing off of the stone walls.

Death looked down at his hands, which were back to the wrinkled state that they were in before they left the Inbetween. He looked over to his wife, whose long white hair was braided and intertwined with little pink flowers and a small venus fly trap. He looked around at what used to be the grand hall of the Guardians. There was no time to talk about the memories that had come back to Sarah. There were other pressing matters.

“We need to find everyone. You were right Lily. The Inbetween is falling apart.”

They walked down the ruins of the hallways and up a staircase.

“What’s that door lead to?” Lily asked, pointing to what looked to be a metal door with a window near the top.

“Do you remember when you got Arno as a Guardian and we visited the archway?”

“Yeah.”

“It’s above that.”

The whispery sounds of something drifted from the door. The group approached it with caution. Slowly, Death opened the door. Lily could see a type of bridge extending from the side they were on to the other. An orange glow illuminated from the torches many feet below. Death stepped forward, and then without warning, the door slammed shut behind him, cutting him off from the rest of the group.

“Jeremy!!” Sarah cried in a panic, tugging at the door that wouldn’t budge. A bone chilling maniacal laugh erupted from the room beyond the door.

“What’s going on?!” Lily protested as Arno and Sarah peered through the window.

“Helen.”

Arno lifted the little girl so she could see. The door didn’t seem to be too thick, for they could hear everything.

“Helen-what has happened to you? What have you become?” Death asked in horror.

“Thissss isss the new agesss… The waaaay thingsss were aaaalwayssss meantttt to beeee…”

“No it isn’t!”

Helen threw her head back in a screech, her entire face blackened and warped. Lily could tell that there was no going back now. She was too far gone… Completely turned into a dark entity. The woman started to grow bigger, different parts of her body bubbling up to catch up with itself as she got bigger and bigger. Death took a step back. Lily started to wonder if he was afraid.

Helen was now a large dark entity, towering over Death.

“YOU CAN’T COME BACK. I’M IN CHARGE NOW!!!”

One of her arms shot out at him and pinned him against the door, cracking the glass in the door.

“JEREMY!!” Sarah screamed as he struggled to get out of Helen’s grasp. The dark reaper picked him and slammed him down on the bridge. He rolled and held onto the bridge to stop himself from falling. Helen stalked over to him as he hung there, trying to pull himself up.

“Stand back.” Arno commanded, setting down Lily. He got a running start and then slammed against the door, which didn’t budge. He hit it again and again, trying to break it down.

Lily stood back and watched. She wanted to do something-but what? Death needed help. She suddenly realized that there was something in her pocket… She pulled out a small piece of black fabric and realized what it was.

A piece of Death’s cloak.

Determined, she twirled the fabric around her and she turned into the wispy dark cloud and squeezed through the cracks in the window. She materialized on the other side.

“Lily?!” Arno called in surprise, his voice slightly muffled from behind the door. He began to bang more desperately. The little girl looked around, and picked up a piece of glass from off the ground and threw it at Helen.

“Leave Death alone!!” she yelled.

The dark shadow turned slowly to look at her, sending a chill up her spine.

“I’m not… scared of you…” she said, the tremor in her voice betraying how she really felt.

Helen gave a deep laugh and changed direction to come toward her. Lily did not want to look over the edge. She knew it was most likely a dizzying height. If she fell she would be fine right? She was already dead… What could possibly hurt her?

Then why did Death look so frightened when he looked down? Lily ducked out of the way as Helen’s arm came toward her. She whipped around her and ran across the bridge, which began to hug the wall and go down in a spiral.

“LILY!!” she could hear Arno yell. She slipped and started to slide down the path, Helen following her like some giant dark beast after its prey. Lily swerved to a stop and for a moment, she could see what lay below.

Hundreds of dark entities in a writhing pit, waiting for something to fall. If she fell, she most certainly wouldn’t die-but she would be encompassed with fear, misery, and hundreds of horrible death visions and screechings. She gasped and scrambled to get away from the monstrosity coming for her. Tears and fear welled up from inside her.

Then suddenly Arno was standing there, standing up against the darkness. She looked over to the side to see there was another door there, slightly ajar. Of course. Arno was a Guardian. He knew his way around this realm. He would be the one to find another way in.

“Helen! Stop!!” he yelled.

“Noooo…” she hissed. She descended on the both of them, and Arno threw himself over Lily to protect her. The world around her disappeared, as blackness encompassed them. Then without warning, there was a screech and Lily and Arno looked up to see Sarah standing there, vines entwined around her arms. Helen’s long arm whacked her against the wall, and the vines shot out and swiped at the dark entity.

The Guardian picked up Lily and ran towards Sarah to help. Helen picked her up and threw her against the others, sending them all tumbling.

“ARNO!!” Lily screamed as she started to roll off the edge. He reached out and grabbed her hand, barely stopping her from falling.

“What do we do??” Sarah called out in panic.

As if to answer, a large dark wispy cloud swirled over to them. The lights darkened, and Death was there, the shadows blending in with his cloak. But instead of fighting Helen like Lily thought he was going to do, he cast his cloak around them and they disappeared into the darkness…

Lily could smell rain and grass. She looked around to see that they were in some sort of forest. The sound of a waterfall and a river mixed with the chirping of birds.

“Where are we?” she asked.

“The Earth Workings. I don’t know why he brought us here though.” Sarah said. Death lay in her arms.

“What’s wrong with him?” Arno asked, coming over.

“I can’t… take her by myself…” he told them, exhausted. “I think the power of Death is in flux-a default so it can’t be corrupted.”

“So Helen’s using that for bad?”

“No. Her power is coming from something else.”

“Then what are we supposed to do if the even the Master of the Dead can’t stand against her?” Arno asked, sounding worried.

“I don’t know… But I will do my best. I will give everything I have to protect the Place of Second Chances…” Sarah kissed him on the forehead.

“Don’t worry. You don’t have to do this alone.”

“So why did you bring us to Earth Workings?”

“I didn’t. I don’t know how we ended up here.”

“Oh that’s reassuring…”

Lily plopped herself down on the ground, feeling tired. Why did everything have to happen all at once? She almost wished that she could have nap time.

Almost.

She needed time to let everything sink in. Then she looked up at one of the large oak trees before her.

“That tree is moving on.” She said quietly.

Lily watched as white mist seemed to rise around it and it grew brighter and brighter. Little flecks of light swirled around it and the mist started to follow. When the cloud was gone, so was the tree.

It seemed like such a beautiful thing-like coming to the Inbetween. Of course, Lily’s journey after her death had not been all easy, but she wouldn’t have traded it for anything else in the world. She assumed that moving on was something similar.

But better.

Arno looked around, and then turned to Lily. “Come on Lily. Let’s get to higher ground and see where we are.”

“Ok!”

Lily bounced after her Guardian as they made their way up the rocks of the waterfall so they could get a better look at the world around them.

What they saw was very unsettling.

They seemed to be in the last place of the realm that wasn’t dead. The sky above them was overcast, a few droplets falling down, and it looked like there had been either a fire or an explosion or disease that had taken away the green and replaced it with melancholy.

“How are we going to fix this Lily?” Arno said sorrowfully. “This is too much. We can’t beat them.”

“Yes we can. Don’t say that.”

“I hope you’re right...”

“I know I’m right.”

Arno snickered at the little girl’s confident attitude.

“Where do you think all the people with Arno? What happened to them?”

Her Guardian sighed.

“I don’t know Lily. There are a lot of things I don’t know.”

Lily looked across the deadened landscape that stretched for miles and miles, with what looked like the jagged shapes of mountains in the background with storm clouds looming above them and swirling ominously. She felt a sense of worry creep up on her for her friends in the Inbetween. Where were Fish and Star? Where were the Fates and Alma? Where was Ms. Rose, Garry and Marissa?

Then a horrible thought came to her.

Where was Edgar?

He had been with Helen before all of this craziness had happened, but she hadn’t seen him ever since coming back. She hadn’t even thought about it. Tears dangerously threatened to drip out of her eyes, but she held them back, knowing that she had to be strong. She felt a hand on her head and looked up to see her Guardian, smiling down on her reassuringly. Feeling tired, she leaned against his leg and they started their travel back down the slippery rocks of the waterfall. Without warning, Lily stopped dead in her tracks.

She could hear music.

“Arno-do you hear that?”

“Hear what?”

The little girl looked around to try to find where it was coming from. She started hopping down a different way, and then stopped when she found an opening in the rocks.

“I hear music!!” she exclaimed, pointing. Arno joined her and listened intently.

“I think you’re right… Death! Sarah! I think we found something!”

A few minutes later they were making their way down a dark wet tunnel. Lily could hear the sound of water drip drip dripping over them and occasionally, she felt a little chill as one would land right on top of her head. Right when all light seemed ready to vanish, they could see something ahead.

“Look!!” Lily piped up, running forward as all five year olds do. Arno followed quickly after the tireless little girl, getting more used to catching up with her. They soon found themselves in a colossal cavern, with moss growing on the rocks and little luminescent fish swimming around in a little underwater stream. Lily could even see some golden thread flowing through the water, and then saw something that looked suspiciously like a well-dressed fish that she had seen in the Dream Realm.

The thousands of refugees in the cavern didn’t notice them at first. But as they made their way through, they started to draw quite a bit of attention.

“Mother Sarah!!! Mother Sarah!!!” the group of children Lily had played with cheered with delight, running up to them. The old woman hugged them as they flocked around her.

“Death?”

“Death’s back!”

“We’re saved!!”

Everyone started talking at once, and soon the leaders of the realms were making their way through the crowd towards them.

“You’re back!” Alma said with relief. “And where have you been Sarah? We’ve all been worried about you.”

Sarah smiled and squeezed Death’s hand. “Remember that husband I was telling you about?”

“...What?”

“Yes. This is my wife Sarah.” The old man said nonchalantly.

They all stood mouth agape.

“You’re married?!?” George asked disbelievingly.

“Of course I am. Sorry for the delay. We did not know where anyone was.”

“What took ya so long?” Sgt. Downey demanded.

“How did you find us?”

“What’s going to happen next?”

“We ran into Helen… She is far gone… We need to discuss what to do next. Is there somewhere we can discuss this privately?”

“Yes. Follow me.” Alma told him, leading the way. Lily started to bound after them, but Death stopped her.

“Lily, you should get some rest. You’ve been through a lot. And you have done more than enough to help.”

“But-.”

“Let the adults handle this.”

Lily sighed. “Ok…”

“Thank you Lily.” Death gave her a reassuring smile, and then left with the other leaders, leaving Lily with Arno.

The five year old’s mind was working in overdrive, thinking about everything that had happened. She wanted to find Edgar and make sure he was ok. With some persistence from Lily, Arno agreed to help her look for him in the many refugees bustling around in the cavern. She had never really thought about how many people in the Inbetween there were, but seeing everyone together in one spot was quite the sight to see.

She looked over to see some Dreamlanders making some Earth Workers and Savers laugh, and some Guardians showed off their muscles to some dreamy eyed Fate workers. Some Time Keepers were talking animatedly to some Greeters, and a group of Reapers sat in a corner, looking ashamed.

Despite the wariness of Arno, she walked up to the people dressed in black. Some of them seemed to be very angry with their comrades, and Lily realized that they had been divided when Helen rose to power. Not all the reapers had rebelled.

“Hi.” Lily said quietly.

The reapers looked up, only to have some of them look away again.

“Why hello Lily.” Ludovic said with a strained smile. “I’m glad to see you’re ok.”

The little girl nodded and looked over at the reapers who were avoiding eye contact.

“Lily…I’m…I’m so sorry…” a young teenage boy pleaded. She recognized him as the one she bit once. “I had no idea things would end up like this…I…I just…”

“There are no excuses for what we’ve done…” a tall woman said miserably. “We only hope you’ll be able to forgive us one day.” Lily looked up at them with her big green eyes.

“What you did was not nice.” She scolded as they hung their heads. “But I forgive you. As long as you promise to be good from now on, I won’t hold anything against you.” Tears filled the eyes of some of the reapers as she hugged their legs. That’s when she noticed a large man off by himself, with his back to them, his worn trench coat spreading across the rock he was sitting on.

“Is that Zachary?” she asked.

“Yes.” Vinicius told her. “He’s the only dark reaper that somehow made it back.”

“You mean he was turning into a dark entity?”

“Yes. And somehow he came to himself.”

Lily looked over with interest at him, wondering how he was feeling and wishing she could make things better for him.

“Does anyone know where Edgar is?” she asked hopefully.

The reapers shook their heads.

“Zachary might know though. I think he had something to do with him.”

With a sigh, Lily ventured over to where Zachary was silently staring at the wall.

“Hi.”

“Hello Lily.” He said in his scratchy sandpaper voice.

“Do you know where Edgar is?”

Silently, he pointed to a group of children jumping over the stream, where she could see her little friend laughing and playing.

“Thanks!!” she exclaimed, her fear vanishing-replaced with joy.

“Arno-I’m going to go say hi to Edgar and play with the other kids!”

Her Guardian nodded, casting a wary look at the scowling reaper beside him, and then catching the eye of three Greeters that were terribly familiar. He smiled and walked over to Garry, Marissa and Rose, so he could have someone to talk to but still be able to keep his eye on the little girl that gave him so much trouble.

“Edgar!! Edgar!” Lily exclaimed, running to him. The little boy stopped right as he was about to jump over the stream again, and turned around, his face lighting up as he saw her.

“Lily!! You’re ok!”

The little girl gave him a big grin as they met in the middle.

“Lily-I’m-I’m sorry that I told Helen about Death- she said that I needed to-.”

“It’s ok Edgar. I’ve been worried about you! How did you get here? I thought you were with Helen!”

The boy gave a sideways smile.

“Zachary helped me. He was turning into a dark entity, and then all of a sudden he wasn’t. He turned back to normal. I was feeling really scared and stuff, and Helen wasn’t making sense anymore, and then Zachary grabbed my and we ran for it.”

Lily looked over to the trench coat reaper with a sense of respect and gratitude.

“I’ll have to thank him.” She said mostly to herself.

“Do you want to play?” Edgar asked. Lily smiled.

Of course she wanted to play.

“Lily…”

Lily sat up and looked around. She could have sworn she had heard someone say her name. She had gone off to a little corner to think about things for a moment, when she had heard a little whisper or something. She looked over at her Guardian, who was helping Miss Rose round up some of the other children and then quietly stood up. She looked over to see some sort of white light coming from one of the tunnels, and then as quietly as she could, she snuck over to it.

She kept following the light down the tunnel, but it always seemed to fade into another direction before she got too close.

“Lily…”

“I’m here!” she whispered, running after the light. “Who is it?”

The little girl slid down a tight little tunnel and then found herself in a small room. A little pool of water lay still in the center. She couldn’t tell where the light was coming from, but the room itself was bright, with sparkling white rocks.

“Hello?”

“Lily.”

The little girl turned to see the Builder she had met before, her white hair flowing over her shoulders. She smiled. “Thank you for following me.”

“Thank you for helping me. Sorry I got mad.”

“It’s ok.”

“You’ve been helping us a lot-haven’t you?” Lily asked.

“We’ve been doing what we can. We’ll end up here one day too you know.”

“How many Builders are there?”

“A lot. But that’s not important. You’ll remember everything when you move on.”

“What is the moving on place?”

“I can’t spoil that surprise for you silly. But don’t worry. We were told about it when we were all builders. You were really excited.”

“Were we friends in the Building realm?”

“Yes. Very close friends. But enough on that. We want to help you save the Inbetween.”

“We?”

“Yes. I received special permission to come here. Once things are fixed, we can start rebuilding the Inbetween. Now listen very carefully. I have some information about the dark entities.”

Lily leaned forward expectantly.

“They have power, that much is certain, but it is infinitely small in comparison to what everyone here has.”

“But the dark entities hurt me. And people are turning into them.”

“That’s only because they let them.” The girl bent over to be more on Lily’s level. “Everyone has light inside of them. Haven’t you noticed the light coming from your fingertips?”

“Yes, but I thought that was the Builders helping me or something.”

“No Lily. That power lies within yourself. Dark Entities act on selfishness. Those who act for the goodness of others are ones who overcome it.”

“That’s why Zachary stopped becoming a dark entity!” Lily gasped. “It’s because he helped Edgar!”

The girl nodded and smiled warmly.

“You’re getting it. Now think of the things that you’ve learned about people from each of the realms. Think hard. What did you learn about people from the Dreamlanders?”

Lily thought about it.

“I learned to be creative.” She reasoned. “And to work together to make something cool and fun. I also learned about making people laugh when they’re sad.”

“Good. What about the Earth Workings?”

“Um…I learned that everything has a purpose. And that things aren’t always as they seem…”

The little girl thought of the poppies in the desert and how something so beautiful had come out of something so dead looking.

“And we can always bring the good out of something.”

“Yes! Now what about the Insanities?”

“Everyone deserves a second chance. And we all need forgiveness. Even if it’s for ourselves. And-in the Fates I learned that we need to believe in ourselves and have confidence, like with Arno. And-and the Guardians are about service and protecting those around them! The Timekeepers have purpose because they know how things are supposed to be-like when the reapers came in and they wouldn’t give up!”

The Builder nodded with approval.

“Now what about the reapers Lily? And Death?”

The little girl thought long and hard about this one.

“We can’t let power go to our head. Everyone is important, no matter who they are or what their job is. And death is important. Sometimes bad things happen, but it doesn’t mean the end. It’s just another part of the adventure.”

She looked up to see the girl smiling proudly at her.

“Some would say that you are older than five little Lily.” She said, beaming. “And I guess in a way, they would be right. You’ve learned a lot in the short time you’ve been here. We knew you would. This is why we chose you as Death’s apprentice.”

“The Builders are the ones that choose who Death is?”

“Yes. The person who is to be Death must be someone who does not seek power for personal gain. Someone who understands the realms and the people, and most importantly, someone who understands the importance of death itself.”

Lily nodded, soaking all of this in and thinking about it.

“So how do we defeat the dark entities? Can we bring them back like Zachary?”

“No. Just like the Insanities, the only impossibility lies within themselves. There are no locked doors. They are always open. But do you think Helen would be able to forgive herself for what she has done to the Inbetween?”

“No…”

“That’s right. It’s easier to disillusion yourself and twist the truth instead of living with it. This is what Helen has done. And there is no turning back. However…”

Lily balanced on her tip toes, waiting for the answer that would save them all. The girl leaned forward and gave her a smile that seem to twinkle with the crystals around them.

“There is still goodness in everyone. And that goodness is their downfall. If you bring it out, it will eat them alive. Bring it out in yourself and don’t forget the things the realms have taught you. And remember…”

She held her finger up and tapped Lily on the nose, starting to disappear in flecks of lights, and it looked similar to the moving on process the little girl had seen a few times before, but she knew this time was different. The girl slowly started to vanish particle by particle, speck by speck as her soft voice echoed in the small glowing room. The builder’s last piece of advice to Death’s apprentice.

“Light can always overcome the darkness. Not saying that it always will, but if you work hard enough, it can...”