WATTYS 2023 SHORTLIST
Cara, a troubled college dropout, finds herself slowly falling for a handsome stranger - who turns out to be Death incarnate. But the arrival of a mysterious being puts Death's home for lost souls and his very existence at risk...
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My skin gets caught on more thorns and brambles than I can count as I sprint back towards the mansion, but the pain doesn't register. I'm so beyond pain, and terror, and all of the other emotions that can be adequately explained with words.
Simple words could never describe what I've just witnessed, what I've just felt.
When I finally throw open the back doors to the mansion, trembling head to foot, there's only one thought flitting through my mind: get out get out get out get out.
I don't know how or why, but it's exceedingly clear that Death has been lying to me the entire time. Hell, he might be lying to the other residents, too. He's not the harmless caretaker that he's tricked me to believe in. He is everything that I thought Death would be – worse – and I can't believe I ever thought any different. That I started to care for him...No. No, I would not be his next victim. I've spent too long running from death to give up now.
The stairs protest under my heavy footfalls as I rush up to the second floor and push into my room. It shouldn't take long for me to pack all of my things, and now with the gift of Mem's scooter, getting far away from this house in a short amount of time shouldn't be a problem.
But before I can zip up the bag and make my swift exit, I'm stopped short by a quiet voice at the door. "Don't leave."
The breath rushes out of me as I turn to face Lisa, barefoot, who is already blinking sleep from her eyes. The hurt in her gaze is unmistakable, and for several moments I struggle with what to say. Finally, I settle on, "I have to." Lisa's brow scrunches, and I add, "I don't think it's safe for me here."
"You got hurt?" Lisa's eyes widen as she surveys the pricks of blood on my arms, caused by my mad dash through the forest. I start to wonder if I should warn Lisa about Death when I hear his voice – his normal, human voice – rumble down the hall and Lisa swivels towards it.
"Lisa, is everything okay, dear?"
I'm not sure why, but I'm not fully prepared for the moment when he appears in my doorway, brows furrowed with worry. Totally normal; no sign of horns or scales or claws. No hint of that wicked scythe, either. At some point between now and our encounter in the garden, he'd thrown on a Kermit the Frog t-shirt and a pair of sweatpants. As if it had all been a dream.
"I think Cara is leaving," Lisa replies, her lower lip wobbling as tears start to gather in her eyes. Death crouches down and picks up the sleepy girl, holding her to his chest. It's such a jarringly tender image that it makes me start to doubt what I'd witnessed outside. But no; I could never make that up, not in a million years. Gary, kneeling on the grass. The angel of Death, towering above him like a shard of fallen night.
How do I reconcile all of the horrors I've experienced with the man standing before me now?
"Is that right?" Death quietly asks Lisa. Her face is tucked against the hollow of his throat, so he's looking right at me all the while. His eyes speak for him in the silence. Don't go.
