Skin and Bones (boyxboy) ✓

Chapter Five

"Nooooooo..." I heard the man moan and I turned to watch him. "I want to be alive!" He screamed, his unfortunate limbs flopping slightly as though he was a weak toddler laying there on his belly.

"I want to be alive."

Kind of a weird thing for someone who was alive to say.

"Yes..." The man beside me said in a low rumble. "He is dead already. His rotting corpse will do him no good on this earth, he must pass on."

He was dead.

I felt a sudden chill run over my body, it ran down from top of my skull, my nose, down to my fingers, all the way down to my toes. I frowned.

"But..." He's moving. I wanted to say. He can't be dead. But my mind countered that with another argument; he was covered in maggots and insects, part of his head was missing or falling off, part of his face looked bloated and swollen, his eyes... How did he see out of those eyes?

"How can he see?"

"He cannot."

"Oh." Well that made more sense than him somehow being able to see...

Silence.

"So that's why he smells so bad."

I saw those red eyes appear in my vision again as he turned to look at me, an eyebrow raised, and there was a short pause before he replied.

"Indeed." Man his voice was so low and husky... 

And then finally it struck me... "So... You're like, a demon or something?"

"No..." He said slowly, a deep growl in his voice, the deep black shadowy fog reaching up around us once more, seemingly wrapping around me from behind like a cloak trickling through the air in a breeze, with intent. "Much worse, I am Death himself." 

As he spoke he moved closer, and one long stride had him an inch away from me already. I would have pulled back, because that's what I normally would have done if anyone else had approached me so fast, but I don't think I'd ever had such a handsome face so close to me before, ever. It was really hard not to marvel at it. Wow, those eyes, I had thought they were red contacts before, but of course they weren't. Now that I saw them closer I could see the details, they were so stunning.

"You're Death?" I asked slowly, feeling distracted.

His hand slipped up behind my neck and wrapped around it so that I could feel the bones brush my skin. For the first time I realised that those really weren't fingers, they were actual bones. I should have been frightened, better yet, disgusted, and yet I couldn't help but shiver at the way his hand felt around my neck. Something about this position made me feel oddly vulnerable, in a way I was not at all used to. "Does that frighten you?" He asked me, a grim smile slipping onto his devilishly handsome face. "Do you fear me?"

I frowned. "So you're... like, the Grim Reaper or something?"

"Yes."

"The real Grim Reaper?"

His eyes glanced at the scythe in his hand and quickly flickered back to me. "What exactly did you think this was for?" He asked, his eyes squinting at me.

I shrugged. "Stop looking at me like that." I complained.

"Like what?" He cocked his head to the side slightly.

I shrugged again. "Like I'm an insect and you're about to step on me. Why should I know what your scythe is for?"

"Well you appear to know what it is, human, why do you think I'd have such a thing with me?"