Ceaseless (Existence Trilogy #3)(39)

Pagan spun around to look at her. “Gee?”

“Yeah, Peggy Ann it’s me. Who else would be listening in on this crazy assed shit?”

“Gee, let me do this,” I said not wanting her here for this.

“You can’t do this, Dankmar. You should have kept your mouth shut. But you couldn’t. Now you’ve started this and you gotta finish it,” Gee turned her focus to Pagan.

“We’ve already done this song and dance once but I will tell you it was a helluva lot more fun then. The drama was high and Dank’s existence was on the line. This time we don’t have to worry about people dying and shit.”

“Gee, leave,” I demanded. But Gee was one of the few beings who didn’t fear me.

“Sure thing. But first let me clear this up. Pagan, Dank’s actual title in the great big grand scheme of things is Death. When it’s your time to go, this is the guy who shows up.”

Pagan took a step back from me then another. She shifted her frightened gaze from me to Gee . I waited for her to argue or call Gee a liar. She didn’t do either of those things.

“Say something, Pagan,” I begged.

“Stay away from me.” she demanded then spun around and ran.

Pagan

I was afraid to sleep. Miranda was gone. Gee was… Gee was an old friend of Dank’s. I jumped up and ran over to the bathroom door and locked it on my side. I went and locked my room door too. It wasn’t that I didn’t believe them. Dank had talked in my head, controlled my sleep, and appeared out of nowhere. He was something. Accepting that he was Death was easier than thinking he was something like a ghost or wizard or god forbid—a vampire. Those were mythical creatures. They weren’t real. But Death, Death was real.

Could Death be more than just the time a body dies? The soul has to let go. Is death called what it is because of the one who takes the soul? It made sense. I believed him. And I was equally terrified of him. It wasn’t healthy for a human to have a relationship with Death. He was the end-all. I wasn’t ready to die. I didn’t want to see him again until it was my time to go. I hoped that wouldn’t be until I was very old and wrinkly.

A knock on the bathroom door startled me and I grabbed the nearest tool I could find. A pencil sharpener. Not very threatening.

“Open the door, Peggy Ann or I’m coming in. It’s real easy for me.”

Was she Death too? Were there more of them? Did they all sing in rock bands or dress emo?

“Fine. I’m not gonna beg,” Gee said as she appeared in my room.

“What are you?” I asked scooting back on my bed holding my pencil sharpener in front of me.

“What you gonna do? Peg me with a pencil sharpener? Really?” Gee shook her head in disbelief and walked over and sat on the end of Miranda’s bed, then jumped back up again. “I forgot about the action this thing has been getting lately. I think I’ll stand.”

“Please just go away,” I begged.

“First, I need you to ask me about all those crazy-ass things you have going through your head. You won’t talk to Dank, so talk to me.”

“Are you a death too?” I asked, because I had to know if I should be praying for my soul and digging out those rosary beads of Miranda’s.

“Death is one being. Dankmar is Death. He has been and will forever be.”

“Why do you call him Dankmar?”

“It’s his name. Dankmar means ‘famous for his spirit’. It fits. He used to only have the name Death. An old Irish lady gave it to him right before her soul’s departure. She said he deserved a name more fitting.”

His name meant something? Why did that tug at me? He was Death, for crying out loud. “Why is he a lead singer in a band?”

Gee cackled with laughter, “That’s a damn good question. Even Death gets bored. Every few decades he is something different. It all started in the first century when he became a Gladiator. The list is long but the ones that amused me most were when he was a pirate in the 1500s, an outlaw in the 1800s and in the 1920s he was a gangster. He found a music that appealed to him in the early eighties. So now when Death isn’t taking souls, he’s a singer in a rock band. However, one time not too long ago he was putting an end to that one too. He had something else that filled his time. That has changed recently.”

“So Death just walks the earth? He has no other dwelling?” I was having a hard time wrapping my head around this.

“Yep. He just fills his limited free time with hobbies.”

“Then what are you?”

“I’m a transporter. I take the soul once Dankmar takes it from the body. I take it up or down. Whichever way it’s going. The ones that go up get another life. It’s pretty simple. Humans try to make it more complicated than it is. The creator doesn’t make new souls often. Only when so many bad have come through that his quantity of good is limited. For example, you’re a new soul.”

I was a new soul. How strange. People lived their entire life not knowing if they had past lives. Not knowing if they would get another. But I now knew this was my first chance. My first experience. There was no past for me. This was it; I only had future.

“Is it my time to go? Is that why you and Dank are near me? Are you going to take my soul soon?” That was my biggest fear. I didn’t want to die. Surely if this was my first life I would get more than just eighteen short years.