Death is My Frenemy Rewritten (Book 3 of the Rewritten Death Chronicles)

Chapter 24: Middle of the Night

*Death's cloak snaps around Kat as she REVEALS she has returned*

NOT ME SAYING I'D UPDATE FOUR HOURS AGO AND LITERALLY WORKING THIS CHAPTER THAT ENTIRE TIME CUZ IT TOOK MORE WORK THAN I THOUGHT ROFLLLLL

We found Victorian Death huddled in the corner of his washroom with his knees to his chest and his head bowed so that his damp black wavy hair curtained over his face.

The light from waning candles cast shadows all over the room, but like his windowless bedroom, they supplied enough light to still see the details in the room and the details were depressingly minimum. With a dark, dreary coloring scheme and a bathtub with golden claws for feet that could have passed for a pool for an elephant.

"Too late to turn back now..." The deep timber of Death's voice purred out like soft velvet, but his words held a dangerous edge of insanity as he rocked on the floor. "Don't open the door. We were so innocent, and there was so much blood. Too late to turn back now. I don't have that power, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. It follows me wherever I go, whoever I touch it stains. Decayed, decayed..."

"Alexandru?" When Ace stepped further into the room, Death's head snapped up, his eyes so black no whites showed. "Are you okay?"

I watched as a splotch of black skin across his jaw faded into the illusion of his beautiful tan face. I pictured the hellish dark monster with horns and wings beneath this human-like façade and could practically see it trying to claw its way out of him.

"He was here," Death said, blackness dripping from the corners of his trembling mouth. His eyes were distant now, like his mind was somewhere else. "He was here, he was standing over me."

Ace touched my forearm like he wanted to stay behind him and edged into the room. Death's head tilted up as Ace came closer, his eyes unblinking. His jaw was shaking slightly, the chattering of his teeth heard from all the way where I stood.

"What more could he want?" Death's voice suddenly turned shrill with rage, with madness. "What could he want with me?"

"Malphas is gone," Ace said, carefully keeping his distance from the shadows leaking across the floor from Death. He was keeping his cool, but I could see the slight tremble in his hand as he light another candle with his fingertips. Clearly reliving this memory was having an effect on him, too. "You killed him, Alex. You're having hallucinations."

"Malphas? I wasn't talking about Malphas..." Death dropped his chin to his chest, his nostrils flaring as he took in his clothes. "Why have you not called for a maid to draw me a bath? You must despise me to leave me soiled in this...substance. What is this I'm covered in?"

"The substance is the demon blood you drank," Ace said with distain in his voice. "We can't have anybody else in here, you're unstable."

Death absorbed all of this in a face of stone. "I'd rather die of fucking stink than have you sponge me down."

Ace made a disgusted face. "Like I'd ever offer to do that. As long as your arms work, you'll bathe yourself."

Death sneered with arrogance, his eyelids closing like he was too exhausted to hold them open. "Do I look like a commoner to you? I'm a prince of Hell." He rubbed his stomach in slow circles with his one hand. "Are there any cookies out there on my nightstand? I'm starving..."

"I'll help clean him up," I spoke up.

Ace looked sharply over his shoulder at me like I'd said the wrong thing.

Death's head tilted lazily to one side, the dark slashes of his brows bending in. I could tell his eyes shifted to me because a crescent of white showed in an eerie way. He stared and he stared at me. Something brushed my shoulder, and I yelped as I realized one of his shadows was reaching for me from the wall. They were crawling up my gown too and I frantically shook them off.