I blinked at him. "What kind of ritual?"
He pursed his lips and shook his head. "I'm afraid I don't know it. If Cotio or Doc were here, they might be able to help us, but I doubt I could perform the ritual myself or even find all the ingredients."
The tears pushed out of my eyes and slid down my cheeks. "Then. . .then does that mean-"
David grasped my shoulder and looked into my eyes. A small, tense smile lay on his lips. "Don't give up hope just yet. We still have the second option."
I swallowed my tears. "But how are we going to get him to take it back?"
David glanced around the room. "I'm not sure, but we won't have much chance to return his kindness from this suite." He turned to me and held out his hand. "Do you still trust me?"
I smiled and accepted his hand. "You know I do."
He slyly grinned and pulled me against his side. "Good. Now let's stay here in this nice, safe room and try to figure out what to do." Even as he said this he pulled me towards the door.
We reached the entrance. David grabbed the knob and flung open the door. Oliver stumbled into the room. He caught himself and straightened.
David smiled down at our little imp. "How good of you to join us in our joint escape plan preparations."
Oliver folded his arms and scowled at David. "I wasn't doing nothing wrong. I was just-well, just offering my services."
David arched an eyebrow. "What kind of services?"
The young boy rubbed his fingernails against his chest and grinned. "I can be a distraction.
David chuckled. "And how do you propose to do that?"
Oliver smirked and jerked his head towards the open door. "The same way I did the last time, with a little climbing."
"But the guard isn't that way," I pointed out.
He rolled his eyes. "I'll just get into another room and go out into the hallway. The guy'll see me and try to get me, and then you two can do what you want to do."
"And what's that?" David questioned him.
Oliver shrugged. "I don't know and I don't care. If you don't want my help then that's fine." He turned to leave, but David grabbed his shoulder. Oliver glanced over his shoulder and frowned.
David pursed his lips. "Please. We need your help."
Oliver grinned. "Don't be so serious. I'll help ya."
Oliver led us to the sliding-glass door and past that onto the balcony. He grasped the railing and swung one leg over the side. David grasped his shoulder.
Oliver looked over his shoulder and frowned. "What's the big idea? You want me to go or not?"
David looked him square in the eyes and his voice was firm. "Whatever happens, remember that we'll help you, no matter what. Do you understand?"
Oliver pursed his lips, but gave a single nod. David released him, and the boy climbed over the railing and down to the lower balcony. He slipped into the lower room and disappeared.
David turned to me and sighed. "I guess we'll see how binding a short friendship can be."
"So you think he'll come back?" I asked him.
He took my hand and led me to the front door. "I'm not really sure, but we'll find out-"
"Hey! Copper!" Oliver's voice yelled from the hallway.
"What are you doing outside the room?" the guard yelled back.
"You gotta catch me to find out!" Oliver taunted.
"Hey! Get back here!" The guard's footsteps pounded down the hallway away from our room.
David opened the door and peeked into the hallway. He glanced over his shoulder and grinned at me. "Remind me to pay him well for his services."
7
David led us back to the theater area. The sounds of the play wafted through the closed doors. He frowned and lifted his head to sniff the air. "Damn it. . ."
"You can't smell him?" I asked him.
He pursed his lips and shook his head. "No. He's using the same technique Asena used on Avalon Island to mask his scent."
"Then how are we-ah!" Something strong tugged on the arm not looped around David's arm. I whipped my head to my left. Nobody was there.
David looked at me. "What's-Dakota!"
The strange tugging returned, and brought some friends. A pair of hands grabbed my arm and yanked me from David's hold. It dragged me past the theater and down the hall towards the elevators. David grabbed my other arm and pulled. I felt like I was being split into two.
"Not helping!" I yelped.
David stopped his pulling, but the invisible hands didn't. It pulled us to the elevators where it pressed a button and one of the doors opened. We stepped inside and the doors closed behind us. The same invisible hand pressed the button the lowest floor available to the elevators, the cargo hold.
I tried to twist out of the thing's grasp, but it held. David squeezed my arm, and I looked up at him. He shook his head. "You can't free yourself from this with brute force."
I cringed. "Any way your werewolf spit or something can scare it away?"
"I wish that were true, but no."
We were forced to ride the elevator to the last floor. The doors opened and I was pulled into a dark, straight hallway lined with shut doors. Only the emergency red lights gave us light.
A door stood open at the end of the passage. I was pulled through with David latched onto my other arm. Our footsteps echoed in the large, pitch-black space. I couldn't see my hand in front of my face. The invisible hold released me some five yards into the area and I winced when I heard the door slam shut behind us, blocking off all light.
Then the lights flickered on, and I wish they hadn't.
Around us stood the horrible, painted faces of the carnival people. They surrounded us on all sides, and beyond them were towers of tall, packed crates with narrow paths between them. The carnival folks' black-ringed eyes stared at us without blinking, and they stood as still as statues. All but one, that is.
The man in black stepped from their ranks. David pulled me behind him and narrowed his eyes. "Fennix."
The man in black stopped two yards in front of us. He swept one arm over his chest and gave a deep bow. "At your service, Mr. Dives."
My eyes widened. When Fennix bowed he revealed a small figure behind him. "Oliver?" I whispered.
The young boy pursed his lips and averted his eyes. Fennix stepped back to stand even with Oliver and set a hand on the boy's shoulder. "I must admit I wasn't sure Oliver here would be useful, but placing him in your care was in the end he proved to be very helpful for both of us."
David's eyes narrowed as he studied Oliver. "You tricked us?"
Oliver shrugged, but still didn't look at us. "Yeah, so what?"
David glared at the young boy. "We trusted you."
Fennix stepped in front of Oliver and clucked his tongue as he shook his head. "I'm afraid your trust was misplaced, and now you find yourself in quite the hopeless predicament."
David pulled out the death card and held it out to Fennix. "Then this truly is yours."
Fennix chuckled. "Yes, and you can't seriously believe I would accept the curse so easily, do you?"
He snapped his fingers. The shadowy puppets around us moved in. The man on stilts grabbed David, and a midget and the bearded lady grabbed me. They pulled us apart, and David was bound in heavy chains. The bearded lady grasped my arms and stood behind me.
David narrowed his eyes at Fennix. "If it's money you want, then I'll pay you. I'll pay you anything you want."
Fennix sighed and shook his head. "You're still so naive, Mr. Dives. I can't very well have so many wealthy individuals leave me without payment. It would start a very bad habit among those I wish to-"
"Blackmail?" David interrupted.
Fennix chuckled. "Among my clients, shall we call them. I would be out of business very quickly. That is why I must make an example of them by taking in exchange something very precious to them." He cupped his chin in my hand and studied my face. "You did choose a very pretty little mate, didn't you? But it's only the best for the wealthy while we
honest folk make a hard living."
I wrenched my chin from his hand and glared at him. "You wouldn't know honesty if it bit you in the ass."
Fennix smiled and stepped over to David. He reached down and picked up the death card from the floor, and straightened to examine it. "Quite an ingenious little trick, isn't it? A voodoo priest taught me the basic spell, and I added my own little flair to the affair."
"Hilarious," I quipped.
Fennix held the card over his head. The air around the card rippled and became distorted. A few fragments of shadow flickered into view, forming a whole creature that floated above me. My eyes widened as I beheld a scythe-wielding creature of darkness.
David struggled in his bindings and tried to lunge at me, but the rest of the gang held him in place. "Dakota!"
The bearded lady made a hasty retreat away from me. I stumbled back as the shadowy figure floated towards me. It raised its scythe over its head. I flung up my arm. The thing brought its scythe down on me, and all turned to black.
I felt cold. So very cold. Something ghosted over my face. My eyes fluttered open.
I found myself on my back on a hard concrete floor. Above me was a gray sky of clouds that never moved. I sat up and blinked. The world around me was a mess of thick fog. The cold, thick air moved over me and tingled my skin. I stood and wrapped my arms around me. The air was deathly cold.
"Hello?" I called.
I stiffened. A pair of shoes clacked against the hard surface. I whipped my head left and right. A figure in black walked out of the thick fog. My pulse quickened. Fennix.
But wait. It wasn't Fennix. The shadowy figure became focused. It was a man in the black garb of a funeral director. He wore a top hat and in one hand was a cane. His tails fluttered behind him as he walked over to me and stopped. He was thin and impossibly pale.
The brim of hit hat covered his eyes, but I could tell he looked me over. A smile curled onto his red lips. "You are rather more well dressed than my usual fare."
I glanced down at myself. I still wore that stupid white dress from the theater. I looked up at him. "Your usual fare?"
He clasped the cane between his hands and nodded. "Yes. I received your ticket a half a day ago, and have been waiting." He held up one hand and pinched between two fingers was the death card.
I blinked at him. "What are you talking about?" I looked around us and furrowed my brow. "And where are we?"
The man swept his arm over the area. "This is the junction between life and death."
My eyes widened. "Are you serious?"
His dark eyes fell on me, and for the first time I saw they weren't black. They were red. "Death does not lie."
A wave of deep, dark despair washed over me. I gasped and stumbled back. My mortal self recoiled from this immortal being. I clutched my fast-beating heart.
He chuckled. "You needn't touch your heart. It no longer beats."
I narrowed my eyes. "Of course it beats. I can feel it right now."
He swept his hand over me. The beating in my chest ceased. I looked down and gaped at my chest.
"What you felt was only an echo of your body's response to my presence," he told me.
I swallowed the lump in my throat and nodded at him. "Then you're. . .you're-"
He bowed to me. "Death."
I felt the color drain from my face. Or rather, I thought I felt it. I stretched out my hands and looked at them. "Then I'm-"
"Very much dead," he confirmed.
I slid onto my knees and stared dumbly at the gray concrete floor. "Dead. . ." I raised my hands and looked at their lively skin. "I'm really dead?"
Death walked up to me and set the bottom of his cane a half foot in front of me on the floor. "Yes."
I closed my eyes and shook my head. "I. . .I knew I'd end up here sometime, but not like this. Not this soon."
"I am rather unpredictable, though in your case the end was rather predictable," he commented.
I tilted my head back to look into his red eyes. "Isn't there anything I can do?"
Death shook his head. "There is nothing you can do."
My arms dropped to my side and I stared down at the white floor.
Death swept his red eyes over me and a grin slipped onto his red lips. "However, there is something that can be done."
My heart would have beat if it could. "What? What is it?"
He held up his hand. "Patience. I will explain." He held the card up. "Do you know what this card does?"
I nodded. "Yeah, it kills me."
"In its basic form, yes, but there are certain rules that must be followed. The curse cannot extend to another person. If anyone is killed with the cursed person, the curse is broke and both souls are saved from me." He chuckled. "At least for the present time."
I frowned. "But nobody else died with me."
He smiled and pointed the tip of his cane at my stomach. "A very innocent soul did die with you."
I looked down at my gut and back at Death. "Come again?"
He arched an eyebrow. That creepy smile never slipped away. "I see. You don't know." He took off his hat and swept his arm against his chest in a low bow. "Then may I be the first to congratulate you on your pregnancy."
I started back. "My what?"
He put his hat back on and chuckled. "Pregnant. I believe you know who the father is."
My mouth dropped open. "David. . ."
Death nodded. "Yes. As things stand, and as the rules of the death curse have been broken, I must send you back."
I whipped my head up to stare at him. "I get to live again?"
He smiled and bowed his head. "Precisely. That is, unless you wish to remain on the floor of the junction."
I hurried to my feet and shook my head. "No, I'll come."
He swept his hand to a foggy spot to my left. "Then let me be your guide to the world of the living. I have some unfinished business there to attend to."
8
Our feet clacked loudly along the hard floor as Death guided me into the foggy abyss. I could barely see a foot in front of me, but Death's form never wavered beside me.
I studied my companion. "You know, that death card shadow looked a lot more like death than you do."
He arched an eyebrow and the corners of his lips curled up. "Yes. I will have to file a copyright infringement."
"So how much do you know about me?" I wondered. "I mean, do you just know when and how I died?"
"Life and death are both my specialties. If I know little about your life than it would be harder to predict your death," he pointed out.
I winced. "So you know everything about me?"
He chuckled. "Your bed-wetting secret is safe with me."
I breathed a sigh of relief. "Thanks, Mr.-um, what do I call you?"
"I prefer the name Mortimer."
I wanted to snort, but at that moment laughing in the face of Death didn't sound like such a great idea. "So, um, Mortimer, how exactly are you going to bring me back to life? Do I get to walk through some light or something?"
"Nothing so dramatic, I assure you," he replied.
Mortimer stopped and used his cane to point at the air in front of us. A round hole appeared in the fog and expanded around us to sweep aside all the fog. I turned in a full circle. We stood in the cargo hold. Time also stood, but very still. Everything and everyone was frozen. Fennix's stooges hung around the sidelines and close behind us and to our right was David still held by the stilted man, but I wasn't sure how long that would last. David was partially transformed into a werewolf, his face contorted by anger and his metamorphosis.
In front of us stood Fennix with a twisted look of triumph on his face. He still clutched the death card in his fist. Over his right shoulder hovered the fake death
I turned to my left and my eyes widened. Beside me lay my crumpled body. I glanced at Mortimer. "You can stop time, too?"
He arched an eyebrow. "Time? That unusual way humans measure life? It has no bearing on me. We are me
rely at a point in lives, a memory that is the present."
I tapped my toes against my body. My foot went through my solid form. "So how do I get back to being a part of life?"
A sly smile slipped onto Mortimer's red lips. "Like this."
He butted me with his cane. I fell forward into my body. The world went black for a moment and it felt like being slammed into a brick wall. I opened my eyes and gasped as my body kick-started itself into life. I sat up and clutched my chest. My heartbeat greeted me with a hard thump.
"Dakota!" David shouted.
I twisted around and smiled at him. "You won't believe what Death's real name is."
Fennix stumbled back and his eyes widened. "W-what is this? You're supposed to be dead!"
I whipped my head to our foe and glared at him. "Mortimer brought me back because you broke the curse death rules," I told him as I climbed to my feet.
He blinked at me. "Mortimer? Who are you talking about?"
"Me."
All eyes fell on the thin, black-clad figure who stood off to my left. Fennix's troupe who stood near Mortimer shrank away from his unnatural aura.
Mortimer took a step towards us and tipped his top hat at our little group. "Good evening, good gentlemen, and my dear new friend, Dakota."
Fennix's face turned a ghastly white and his mouth flopped open like a fish. "Y-you're-you're-"
Mortimer chuckled. "Death. I am glad you recognize me, Fennix. We have had many mutual dealings, but I believe this is the first time we have had the pleasure of meeting face-to-face."
Fennix swallowed his stuttered. "What are you doing here, and why did you bring her back?" He jabbed a finger at me.
Mortimer followed his finger and smiled at me. "It seems a few rules were broken when you sent her to me." He returned his attention to Fennix and his smile tensed. "If you remember what the voodoo priest taught you then you should know only one life can be taken by the curse." His eyes flickered to the shadow beside Fennix and his lips curled down in a frown. "And I greatly dislike my image being used."
"I did follow the rules! There was only her!" Fennix insisted.
Mortimer closed his eyes and shook his head. "I am afraid you're greatly mistaken." His eyes flickered open and fell on Fennix. "And it is a mistake that you will not make again."
Fennix stumbled back as his eyes bulged out of his head. "N-no. Please. I-I'll do anything!"