Dead Boy Walking

E P I L O G U E

Death wasn't a person so much as a feeling. He was the gatekeeper of the wandering souls, the steward for the passing and the man at the crossroads of life and death.

He didn't feel or think - everything about the spirit was instinctual. He was one of the only laws known to the world. One of the only rules that every human stood by was Death, and that one day he would come to take them all on a similar journey to the After.

Death stood at the side of the road and under the downpour as harsh droplets of rain fell on his dark umbrella and ricocheted to the puddles below. He was a faded shadow under the sour yellow streetlight that flickered on and off in the dead of night.

With one hand on the base of his umbrella, he used the other to dig into his suit jacket pocket and retrieved the old pocket watch. His long, pale fingers gripped the gold watch that ticked by in his hand as he waited patiently for the next customer to arrive.

As usual, he was early. Death often came early.

The sound of shoes slapping against the concrete and water splashing echoed around the empty roads and a smirk tugged at Death's thin lips. He slipped the watch back into his pocket and faced the corner where he saw her.

Quincy Sinclair, the girl whose brown hair stuck to her rosy cheeks from the rain, came rushing in. Her eyes were wide when she spotted Death under the streetlight and stopped so suddenly that Alfred Kingsley, who trailed behind, crashed into her back with a frown.

"Death," she stated. Her voice was quiet through the rain and eyebrows furrowed so deeply that they created a dent between the two.

"Quincy and Alfred. Don't worry, I'm just checking in," Death replied. From the time written on his watch, it was the New Year's Eve that Alfred Kingsley was supposed to die. Kingsley, though soaked from the rain, looked very much alive.

"We're fine," Quincy cut in sharply.

Death nodded his head slowly and the gold sheen of life that exuviated from Kingsley was clear even through the darkness. It was a bright aura that stuck to his body and stretched out before melting against Quincy's ambience.

His aura was like a lighthouse to other spirits and Death could feel the ones who weren't as lucky to have escaped, like Kingsley, crawling their way to him. It wouldn't be long until they'd flock to his side and beg for a solution to their problems. Death wasn't sure if Kingsley would be able to handle it.

Death watched as the boy placed his hands onto Quincy's shoulders to steady himself. The sound of the party still echoed through the ground and Kingsley's honey-brown eyes were wide with anticipation as he waited for Death to say something else.

The night that Kingsley's ghost form disappeared and Quincy made her wish, Death saw something shift. It shifted within Quincy and it shifted within the world that he walked. Her anguish was enough to break all promises he'd made to the boundaries and it was enough to allow her mother and Kingsley to be saved together in the same universe.

Their lives were so deeply entwined that one couldn't live without the other. While Amélie Sinclair stayed, Kingsley lived. Quincy Sinclair and Alfred Kingsley resided at opposite ends of the scale and they balanced one another too perfectly for the universe to ignore.

"Right," Death clicked his tongue. His dark hair was slicked back too tightly to be freed by the harsh breeze that whispered in his ears. Everything about the soul collector was put together - much unlike the teenagers who stood in front of him.

Quincy's eyes narrowed suspiciously into a glare before she clutched onto her friend's arm. She made a move to walk around the pale man in front of her but as she pulled Kingsley along, he failed to move.

The once ghost boy's legs were planted firmly onto the ground. "Wait a second, Quinny," he murmured. "There's something else you wanted to say, wasn't there?" He directed at Death.

Death's paper-thin lips lifted into a smirk and he shrugged his shoulders under the dark suit.

"No, go on," Kingsley encouraged. He pulled the girl back so that they stood side by side like a barricade. "Tell us what it is."

Death waited for a beat, enjoying the way the pair squirmed under the gaze of his dark eyes that glowed emptily like a never-ending abyss.

The temperature dropped drastically and even the leaves shivered through the air before landing at their feet.

"This isn't the world you grew up in. Sure, it exists in the same universe that you once knew but it's not the same. You'll have to learn how to adapt together. That's all I wanted to say," Death finally admitted.

While Kingsley's stare was sceptical, Quincy was ready to leave. It was obvious to Death that talk of what they'd gone through unnerved her. He'd watched her morality as it folded and tore and put itself back together again. He'd watched that look in her hazel eyes as it snapped upon seeing her parents together and felt as her heart broke.

Quincy was different now, so what did that mean for the pair. Kingsley was different too, did that make a difference?

They were questions that Death didn't have the answers to. He didn't understand the universe nor did he try to. So instead of interrupting, he watched the two stumble away into the night.

He'd seen the storms they'd created by holding hands and heard the way the After screamed their names over and over again. He'd felt the torment the other worlds experienced at the loss of two such bright souls and saw the reflection of a new future as it echoed in their eyes. 

So, he let it happen because who was Death to come in between the gates of life and death other than a wandering soul himself who wished for more?

He watched with bated breath because Quincy Sinclair had a boy in her room and this time, he was real.

***

A/N
I finally made an epilogue after contemplating it for soo long!! i can't thank everyone who has read this story enough for giving it a chance. Whether you voted on every chapter or kept silent through it all, i love and appreciate you all!!
i'm happy with how this turned out especially with the call back to chapter one.
anyway, thank you, i love you, keep in touch and i'll see you around.
- meg <3