Chapter 1
December 5th
Thursday
7:52am
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Ivery
Another morning, another shitty day at Bayview high school. The halls stink like fart spray, the work of the school “pranksters” who think they're so funny, I promise you they're not. Girls half dressed in the winter, popular kids walking slowly and gossiping, kissing, making out in the middle of the hall. Typical. The “jocks” who stand by the team captain or whoever locker while they push each other around and throw footballs around. That one “lost cause” kid is trying to bully the nerd kid into giving him his lunch money. Good luck with that, no parent is sending their kid with cash when you can transfer the money straight into your child's account from the comfort of your home, and the peace of mind you kids wot accidentally “lose” the money. Same old dirty, sticky, smelly halls. Same old lockers, same old teachers Everything in Bayview is the same as it always is. Same kids in the same spot and the same hall with their same friends.. Yet something in the air feels eerily different. The walk to homeroom is the same as always, i get to choose my seat first and set up without anyone watching me do it. I can have a nice small talk with my teacher or I can work on the last few problems on the homework I did not finish last night. Everything is the same yet something feels different, I seem to be the only ones who notice, Everyone else is living their life peacefully talking, listening to music, waking themselves up.. But I just can't seem to push away the feeling that something is not right, something is wrong.40Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBe6PBNZCsW
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December 5th
Thursday
8:26am
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Ivery
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Ugh where is Penny? I swear that girl is always late. I mean she literally has a car. I wouldn't mind if she was late but she insisted on being my partner for this stupid project and since she's not here I'm stuck doing all the work. We go through the same routine every day, day in and day out.. I'm so tired of this.. In response to this thought I let out a long, exaggerated, drawn out sigh and continued working glaring at the door waiting for my best friend to come in. Not 20 seconds later no one other than Penny Katzs comes bursting in the door, she looks beautiful. She has on a cute pink skirt and a white croc top, with her grandmother's ashes in a beautiful necklace locket, a cross necklace and butterfly necklace. She had a bunch of bracelets on either wrist and cute little 3 inch hoop earrings she plots down next to me.
“26 minutes late ladies and gentlemen.. I wonder what your excuse is this time.. Maybe you woke up late? Your car was out of gas or my personal favorite, you “needed” some starbucks.” I tease my best friend as she unpacks, sure enough she does have a grande strawberry creme frappuccino in her hand
“Oh har har.. You never fail to give me a hard time do you?
“Never.” I roll my eyes and smirk at her “You know that it's 8 in the morning tight? That shits a full on milkshake. I mean it's not even coffee there's literally no actual coffee in it”
“It wakes me up in the morning, I meannnn it's actually really good. You wanna try some?”
“Um.. No.. Thanks though”
“Whatever.. Hey what's with your outfit? I'm not trying to sound like a bitch or anything but you literally look like you rolled out of bed”
I rolled my eyes and sighed “I just wasn't feeling it today I was just tired, I just felt bad, like exhausted. I didn't have the energy to get ready like I normally do.”
“Oh.. Are you ok? Is it like sick “I just feel bad” or like i'm on my period “I just feel bad”
“Neither, I just felt.. I don't know, sluggish?.. I have no idea, I just didn't want to get ready this morning.”
“Hm..” Penny just shrugs and takes a sip of her frap. Penny’s a good friend, she's just not into the sentimental look deeper inside yourself crap.
Right at 8:30 on the dot the loud speaker turned on, letting us know that it's time for the morning announcements. Our homeroom teacher Mrs. Evans was very strict and kind of bitchy about talking during the morning announcements saying it was “disrespectful to the Bayview TV student cast who were trying to bring us our daily news.” I honestly couldn't care less about “disrespecting” those kids but I ultimately didn't want to get lectured so I decided to stay quiet, Penny obviously didn't want that either so she also decided to stay quiet, today the announcements were a bit different.
Instead of the Bayview TV students telling us about the weather and when whatever practice starts and ends and or whatever school activity we have next, Mr Mathew, our principal, was on.
“Hello students of Bayview high.. I come on the morning announcements bearing bad news.. This morning we received the extremely sad news that 11th grade student known as Enzo Reed died by suicide last Sunday night… I know we are all saddened by his death and send our condolences to his family and friends. Crisis stations will be located throughout the school today, tomorrow and all of next week for students and staff who wish to talk to a counselor. The funeral will be Saturday December 11th at the Saint Lucas church about 1.8 miles away from the school. Details will be sent in an email to all parents, students and staff. Any and all students may attend. Thank you so much for your time, Bayview. Make it a great day, and teachers go easy on the students and their work for the next few days. This is your principal signing off.”
That's what was “wrong” I Could have sworn I was feeling. Someone died.. Enzo died. He.. Killed himself.
The entire class was silent, the teacher looked baffled, sad, confused. The students looked the same, but only for a few moments. When everything clicked there were a few tears of common empathy and sympathy in the classroom, but a deaf person with glasses could see that these emotions were not exactly sincere.. My heart sincerely shattered for Enzo, I didn't really know him, but I mean nobody did. He wasn't a social pariah or anything but he was an extremely quiet kid. He never talked to anyone and he always ate lunch by himself. We were never friends but I sat next to him in AP English. Once time I told Penny she couldn't copy my notes because she was once again late, I was only joking around, and teasing her and she was trying to get the notebook out of my hand, she grabbed it and tossed it to the floor in front of my desk jokingly but her aim is wand was absolutely horrible and it landed right by Enzo’s foot, right out of my reach, he bent down and handed it me our eyes locked for like a second his eyes were a gorgeous gray color. We weren’t friends but we were friendly enough. I have no idea why I wasn't like everyone else in the class, they felt bad, they had basic human empathy and sympathy because someone was so sad and depressed he killed himself. And I also felt that, but I also felt Guilty. Like there was something I personally could have done.. I felt horrible, I wanted to bolt out of the room and go throw up.
But then again, I've always felt more emotional than others. When my dog died I was the one most affected and I don't even particularly care for dogs. He was my parents' dog because my mom loves them, I wasnt mean to him or anything. I fed him, and I played with him. But we weren't close, I hated it when he came into my room, when shed his fur on my bed and you never really caught me just petting him or snuggling with him.. But when he died I cried the hardest, I was truly devastated he died. I was sad for my mom because I knew home much she loved him, I was sad for my dad because I knew it made him sad to see his wife so sad, and obviously I was sad because a living creature lost his life.
But.. Enzo was dead? That couldn't be true. He was fine.. He was that quiet kid that everyone knew but no one talked to, and that boy.. Killed himself?.. What? That can't be true.. I always saw him in the halls, and- and in class, with his beautiful- I mean absolutely gorgeous gray eyes and shoulder length brown hair.. He- he didn't look like someone who was depressed. He was just.. quiet. It's not like he wore black hoodies all the time, and or always looked sad, sure he wore hoodies but everyone does, and if anything he looked perturbed, or angry maybe, like he was super irritable.. Why would Enzo Reed kill himself?
After the dead silence in our class graduated to whispers Penny turned to me and started whispering
“Enzo?.. Enzo Reed?.. I’ve heard that name before.. Who.. Who is that? I think I know but I could be wrong.. It's that freak who sits alone at lunch right? With gray eyes and brown hair?”
Her sudden whispers to me snapped me back into reality, I quickly wiped my tears and looked at her. Yeah that's him I was truly sad about Enzo's death. But as I looked around he was just being treated as a gossip topic, no one looked nearly as sad as me and the few people who did cry have already stopped and wiped their tears, even the teacher didn't look all to sad but at least she was a better actor than everyone else and at least kept a sad look on her face. Everyone including Mrs Evans was like I don't know, faking?
“Hello?? Ivery? Did you hear me?” Penny looked at me with a confused look
I realized I space out and ignored her question and I thought of the answer but didn't actually say anything out loud. I cleared my throat and looked at her.
“Oh yeah, sorry yeah that's him. Gray eyes, brown hair, hoodie, jeans, you know the works. And he's not a freak Penny, have somefucking respect.”
She put her hands in the air like she was surrendering and said “Yeah, yeah whatever”
I looked away again. I honestly couldn’t stop thinking about how that kid literally had no friends yet everyone has the audacity to be sad, me included. But atleast im not just acting sad to be deemed socially acceptable. At Least i'm actually sad. I'm actually really truly sad that a fellow classmate of mine killed himself. How is everyone just looking like it doesn't matter at all? How could Penny just call him a freak like that? They are all so clearly faking, their emotions I mean it's awful! How could they? He just died for Christ sake
I put my fingers to the bridge of my nose and started rubbing it. Penny looks at me as if I was an Alien.
“Hey Ivery… are you sure you're, ok? You look..-”
“I'm fine.” I take a deep breath and exhale deeply. “I'm fine, I'm just ready for Homeroom to be over.”
“I guess If you say so..”
I went back to thinking my thoughts while Penny turned to her other friends and started gossiping to her popular friends group about Enzo Reed.
“I think he killed himself because he was failing school and his parents were super mad at him”
“Well serenity said he doesn't even have “parents” he only has a mom,a brother and 2 sisters.”
“I heard Enzo was super smart so that defeats the theory that he was failing.”
“He was the school outcast, he was a freak. No wonder he killed himself, he was probably super depressed he had no friends.”
Already I was sorta fed up with their gossiping and the cruel words they were using to describe him, and I honestly couldn't believe they were talking about him like this, I shot my hand in the air
“Mrs. Evans, can I please go use the bathroom?”
The teacher looked at me and nodded, so I got up from my seat, grabbed the hall pass, and rushed to the bathroom. On the way there tears streamed down my face, real genuine tears, I ran into the stall, locked it and started throwing up in the toilet.
I can't believe Penny and her stupid friends are all that shallow and horrible calling him a freak like that. I mean we just found out about his death- his suicide this morning, 20 minutes ago and their already gossiping, spreading rumors, and calling him names?? Of course he didnt kill himself over fucking grades whats wrong with them?? He was like one of the top 20 smartest kids in the school. Me, him and another kid in my ELA class got a letter of recommendation from the ELA teacher Ms Perscott. Why do I feel like this? I didn't even know him. I'm so overly sad and Enzo Reed was just one of the hundreds of asshole boys at this highschool. Except maybe.. He wasnt an asshole, he was actually nice or at least I think he was. We never really talked, I just know that he never said anything rude, mean or crude towards me or any of my friends, and I'm pretty sure he never said anything negative or assholy to the “fat” kids. But that's just the bare minimum right?
I flushed the toilet, opened the stall and walked to the sink, where I first washed out my mouth, then my face, then I looked in the mirror, I really did look like shit. I usually do my face care routine and some mascara and clear or pink lip gloss with a cute little outfit and a natural rubber band hairstyle when I'm not wearing braids. But as I looked at myself in the mirror a short tired teen with dark circles on her creamed coffee colored skin stared back. My hair in a sloppy bun/ponytail, not even really sure which I was going for, looks back at me.
I look awful. Like truly. Penny was right. I'm not sure why but I just feel bad, murky. Just bad. And the fact that I just found out Enzo died isn't making me feel better either. In fact if it wasn't obvious I feel 10 times worse.
Oh my god, Anthony!
I raced out of the bathroom and went back to class, I went right to my seat. I grabbed Penny's shoulder and turned her to face me, by the look on her face she was thinking exactly what I was. Anthony was Enzo's twin brother. I couldn't believe that I had forgotten Enzo was Anthony’s twin brother, I mean I know they didn't look alike but Anatomy is my guy best friend, and I hadn't remembered something so important as Enzo was his brother until 8:53 a whole 20 something minutes after the announcement was made. How could I not remember my own best friend's brother?
I pulled out my phone and positioned myself so the teacher couldn't see what I was doing while Penny covered me. I texted Anthony.
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Ant 🥰🔥😝
Thursday 8:54 Am
Hey Anthony.. Im so so sorry. The whole school
just found out about your brother like 20 minutes
ago.. Are you ok? I know you and Enzo weren't
close but that's still family.. Is this why you
haven't been at school all week? Text me when
you can. You know i'm always here for you.
You know that right Ant? Just text me..
Delivered 8:54am
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I wanted to wait for the sign to turn from “Delivered” to “Read” but only a minute later the bell rang signaling the end of first period. I sighed, packed up all my belongings and walked out. Usually Anthony would be waiting outside for me so we could walk to 2nd period math together but he hasn't been here at all this week. How could I not know my own best friend's brother Killed himself? Why didn't he tell me? I had asked him a bunch of times this week why he wasn't here, on monday he said he was sick on tuesday and yesterday he just said “Family issues” I asked if everyone was ok, and he told me yes. Why would he keep this from me? I guess I realize if his brother killed himself his first priority wouldn’t be to text me about it, he probably hasn't picked up his phone since he texted me on Wednesday saying “family issues” ... Poor Anthony. He was older than Enzo by... 4 minutes? So technically he was the “man of the house ''. Since he was 8 when his abusive dad just cleaned out his moms savings account, his college fund account, the joint account, his moms personal account and left. Leaving them broke completely and utterly broke.
I don't know how to get him to talk to him. I want to go to the funeral, but I really have no place there. I’m Anthony's friend not Enzos... I could go as a support system for Anthony, but I don't know, I just feel like I have to go. Like... I don't know... Something is just nagging me that I have to go to the funeral. Like I said before I could go as a support system for Anthony. I guess but his family is there. If he wanted me there, he would have personally asked me or told me what happened with his brother sooner. No. That’s selfish. He probably has bigger and better things to worry about then informing me about this, he probably figured I’d found out eventually.
I start walking to math alone but eventually decide to pull out my phone and send one last text to Anthony.
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Hey Anthony.. Im so so sorry. The whole school
just found out about your brother like 20 minutes
ago.. Are you ok? I know you and Enzo weren't
close but that's still family.. Is this why you
haven't been at school all week? Text me when
you can. You know i'm always here for you.
You know that right Ant? Just text me..
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I here for you Ant if you want to talk you know i am
I love you, you know that? Im sorry i just found out
About what happened now. Can i come over after
School? To i don't know.. Comfort you? Your my best
Friend Anthony, im her if you need me.
Delivered 8:57am
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I put my phone away and ran all the way to math class, the math teacher Mr. Powell is super strict and he shuts the door at exactly 9am and wont open it until you go to the office, get a late pass and come back. I’d rather not do any of that today so I might as well just hurry. Though maybe he’ll be lenient today seeing as we just found out about the suicide of a fellow student.
I got into class at 8:59, Since I ran I'm a little out of breath but not too much. You'd think since I'm an “athlete” I wouldn’t get winded just because I had to run up a flight of stairs but go off I guess.
I sit down and unpack. I remember we had a quiz today but thankfully and kind of amazingly Mr. Powell pushed the quiz all the way to Monday which is before Enzo’s funeral but that's fine. He actually looks sad, not too sad but you could tell unlike everyone else’s sadness his sadness was genuine. Like mine. Me and him actually felt something. Who knew/
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The day went by quicker than I thought it would. I noticed that most kids had not “forgotten” but basically forgotten about Enzo’s suicide. I guess everyone just moved on? He was obviously like talk of the school but it was just hot gossip no one actually cared. I'm sure if Anthony was here his heart would actually break into 100 million pieces. Thinking of Anthony just makes me even more sad than I already am. He read my message like 30 minutes after I sent it but he never responded. Seeing as school only has 11 minutes left until we were out.. He's left me on read for like 6 and a half hours. But I'm choosing not to stress or get sad over it. He's got a lot on his mind. He is probably spending time with family, or he’s at work or something.. I mean his brother just died. Which means he's now the main bread winner of the family.
At 2:50 another unexpected announcement came on, usually we only have morning announcements so I was just a little confused. I soon noticed it was just the principal again
“Good afternoon good students of Bayview High. Today has been a sad day for all of us. We encourage you to talk about Enzo’s death with your friends, your family, and whoever else gives you support. We will have special staff here for you tomorrow to help in dealing with our loss. Let us end the day by having the whole school offer a moment of silence for Enzo Reed.” He pauses for a few moments then continues to speak
“Let's get through this one day at a time. As a reminder the funeral for Enzo will be held on december 11th at about 7pm to about 9pm at the Saint Lucas Church about 1.8 miles away from this school. Have a great rest of your day.. This is your principal signing off.”
Once again the class was silent. Conversation slowly then quickly started up again. It was the last 10 minutes of class, the teacher just sat at her desk grading papers. She didn't look sad or even at all bothered. She just looked.. unsympathetic.
I just sighed, shook my head and pulled out my phone.
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Penny 😝🙄❣️😏
Thursday 2:53 Pm
Penny do you think we should stop by
Ant’s house today?? He might need someone
To talk to and we ae his best friends.
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I don't really know what to do. Its kind of a
Family Issue.. We’ve known each other
since we were Freshmens though.. So maybe
He wouldn't mind if we came to see him..
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I don't really know what to do could you just
please answer?
Delivered 2:53 Pm
I waited for Penny’s reply for like 7 minutes before the bell rang signaling the end of school. I packed up and left the classroom going outside. I usually drive home but my parents took my keys after I got a ticket for speeding so I had to walk, so there was really no rush. She still hasn't responded so I texted again. This time a little more urgently.
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Ummm?? Penny Hello?? Why aren't you
responding? School is over. I know your on
your phone because your always on your
phone
Delivered 3:01pm
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The fact that she wasnt answering was especially upsetting and aggravating because I was trying to figure out if we should go visit our grieving friend and she isn't answering the phone. That girl is literally chronically online. She constantly gets her phone taken by teachers because she's on it in class so much. So I know she's seen my message.
I continued to wait and wait but she didn't respond for another like 12 minutes then she finally texted me back.
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Hey hey sorry sorry. I was with
Marcus I didnt see ur messages
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I dnt rly think we should go
Over there. He's with his family.
We’ll jus see him when he comes
Back to school.
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Wow, with Marcus? Oh come on Penny
Anthony’s dead brother is more important
Then ur stupid boyfriend.
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I dnt think hes gonna be back in school
Until after the funeral. So we’ll see him at
The funeral
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Yea.. I'm not going to the funeral. I hate
Seeing dead bodies, so i'm not going
Plus i didn't even know the dude so im
Not gonna force myself through that.
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Ok fine whatever. I'm going. I kno i
Didnt rly know him either but i feel like
I have to go. Just to pay my respects
And to try and comfort Anthony. Yk how
I feel abt him
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Ok well don't be too pushy with Ant
He's grieving so give him time. He
Might not respond right away. Plus
He’s probably with his family a lot
Now. so just give him time.
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Yeah I knw.. Ugh ok i will. Anyways ive
Gtg i have to walk home remember? i’ll ttyl
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Bye Ivery, ill ttyl. Be careful getting
Home, watch out for creeps. I
Promise tmr I'll drive u home
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December 11th
Wednesday
6:54pm
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It's been about a week give or take since the principal announced Enzo Reed's death to the whole school. About a day or two after the announcement the whole school seemed to remember that Anthony was Enzo's twin brother. How he hasn't been to school in 2 weeks and blah blah blah anything they can hold onto for gossip and rumors.
The service for Enzo starts in 6 minutes. Because it's winter it's unsurprisingly already dark outside. The snow on the grass is beautiful. I haven't gone inside the church yet. I’m just standing like a dork in the parking lot. Anthony responded to my texts a few days ago saying sorry that he didn't answer sooner. When I asked him if I should come to the funeral he said and I quote “ You don't have to.. but go off i guess.. do whatever you want” now I'm not so sure if I should go. I don't want to impose.. He probably just wants to grieve with his family. Even if I want to go, I don't really want to make him upset.
But Would he be “upset” if I went inside though?
Eventually I decided that I'm gonna go in and just sit in the back. Which is exactly what I did. I sat in the back of the service. I saw Anthony hold his mother as she cried. I noticed that besides teachers and both the vice principal and the principal I was the only one from school here. You'd think since they announced his death to everyone at least some people would have shown up.
I turned off my phone and sat quietly as I listened to the funeral sermon. I didn't necessarily want Anthony to know I was there so I stayed in the back, and when it was time to view the body I stayed seated, I was scared if Anthony saw me he’d be mad for some reason. And I was also scared that Enzo had like a slit in his throat and there'd be a nasty scar or more accurately a gaping wound because since he was dead it wouldn't have scared over, but I guess that people pay some person to make the body look presentable. The principal didn't exactly tell us how he killed himself. The possibilities were almost endless. After viewing the body people were going up and telling stories about Enzo, and dread started to fill me. I watched how his mom went up to tell a story but just fumbled her words and broke down crying. I watched Anthony walk with her back to her seat, he looked like he wanted to cry but he kept a tough face only shedding a few tears. This sight made me start crying. Tears flooded my eyes like a flowing river. I wanted to go and hug Anthony and his mom and his sisters but it wasn't my place. They were having a moment. A family moment.. I understood that..
I don't belong here, I didn't know Enzo, and Anthony sure as hell didn't exactly invite me. I tried to stay but I just couldn't, my heart was breaking for the family. So I made the hard decision to get up and leave early, I was out of sight anyways. No one even knew I was there. So no one would know if I left, So I got up and sneaked out of the church into the parking lot. As soon as the door shut behind me I was hysterical. Hyperventilating and crying constantly, I couldn't face Anthony or his mom. I had no idea why I felt like this for someone whose name I barely knew but it was like leaving a huge gaping hole in my poor fragile heart. I stared at the obituary in my hand.
What is wrong with me? I started wiping my tears and pulling myself together. Suddenly I noticed heavy breathing behind me, the man who is speaking has a low, Husky, intimidating voice.
“Ivery Lani Rein.”
I whipped around “Huh? What-” He said it matter of factly, like he knew that was my name. It wasn't a question I was scared but I wouldn't show it.
“Who's there? Who are you?”
I ask aloud but of course I dont get an answer, I hear footsteps I get more and more scared and alarmed as the footsteps grow closer until a man who ive never met, who I’d say was in his late 50s with black and gray hairs spread almost evenly around his head, pale white skin, tall about 6 foot something like maybe 4 or 5?, lean, skinny, his eyes are as black as tar and he has bags underneath them that are bad enough so that it looks like he hasn't slept in years. His voice is more intimidating than his body but it's still scary. He basically looks like an older, more handsome, more intimidating version of L from Death note. Not really but kinda. As he gets close enough so that he's only a little past and arms length away I get more and more defensive and worried.
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“Who- who are you! Stay away.. I'm being serious” I reached in my pocket for my pepper spray that I bought for “just in case” but I dont pull it out just yet, I just kept my hand firmly on it in case he advances.
“I'm Death! Pleased to meet you, Ivery..”
“Death? Seriously?.. Are you fucking crazy or something? Like, are you seriously on drugs?? How do you even know my name you creep!”
“Yes ma’am. I'm Death. Azrael, Thanatos, grim reaper.. I could go on if you'd like.. And I know your name because I know everything about you Ivery.” After that he just bursts out laughing like I said the funniest thing on the planet40Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ11d3eV67ia
“And no I'm not crazy or on drugs, that's just my name..Ivery”
“Oh wow really? It totally doesn't seem like it when you're laughing like a crazy person.” I say sarcastically, then i realize if this dude is crazy or something I probably shouldn't taunt him.
“Just stay away from me!” I whip my pepper spray out from my pocket and aim it directly at his eyes. But I dont spray just yet
“Just get away from me you creep! Or I swear ill-”
“I can see that you're about to threaten to scream and or mace me.. Please don't. Just hear me out ok? Plus the mace wouldn't do much harm to me either way. You're just gonna have to just trust me Ivery. I am Death. I can't exactly prove I’m Death to you but I am actually very pleased to meet you Ivery. Even if your still threatening me with Pepper spray..''
I scoff and snort
“Death? Really? You really accept me-"
"June 17th. 2022, your dog who you had for what was it.. 5 years? He died at St Bernard's animal hospital at 7:49 Friday June 17th 2022. He was 5 years 3 months and-”
“-and 16 days.. We both say it at the same time. I'm more than a little freaked out but what can I do exactly?
“But how?-”
“I can't tell you when you're gonna die or when someone else you know is, otherwise you'll try to avoid it. But trust me Ivery, I am Death.”
I paused for a moment. I didn't know what to say or what to do, I ran the possibility in my mind that he could have been a vet in that animal hospital and that was the reason he knew that information but it doesn't seem very plausible plus even if he was, how would he know my name. My name shouldn't have been on any of my dogs' hospital files, only my parents. I was only 15 2 years ago. Plus even if it was why would he go through all the trouble just to fuck with me? I think for a second more before I finally decide to speak again
“Let's say I believed you.. What is it that you want from me? I do believe you have souls to be collecting or whatever. I'm pretty sure I read somewhere at least 2 people die a second and you've been sitting here watching me, waiting for me and talking to me for at least a few minutes. Are you coming to take me? Am I dead?”
“No Ivery you're not dead. Far from it in fact and as for the death toll a second, I do believe that it can wait. I'm rather efficient when it comes to “make-up work” so it'll be fine. Don't you worry your pretty little head another second about it. As for what I want from you.. I'd like to.. Make you and offer... A way to.. Extinguish your guilt.. A second chance if you will.. For you… And for someone you know by the name of Enzo River Reed.”
“What?? A “second chance”? What are you even talking about?” To one of my greatest fears, tears begin falling from my eyes again. I hate it when people see me cry, especially people I don't know who I just met. It makes me look weak, especially because I'm a girl and girls are already seen as “emotional”. I quickly wipe the tears away and face him again. With my voice breaking with every word I speak.
“Look, even if you are “Death”, which I find extremely, almost impossibly hard to believe, you can't turn back time. All you can do is cause a death, you can't stop one from happening.” Death was just a little hurt at my “all you can do is cause deaths” comment but he continues to grins at me.
“You give me little credit. Look let me buy you dinner Ivery Lani Rein, Let me properly lay out my proposal and the conditions. I’ll answer any and all questions you have.”
“And why should I trust you enough to go with you alone in your car and let you buy me dinner. How do I know you're not some serial killer who's gonna somehow poison my food. Or kill me when I get in the car with you?. Who know if your gonna pull a fucking jeffery dahmer and take me to your house, try to kiss me and when I say no kill me!”
“I suppose that's for you to answer. Follow your heart, I'm not going to force you, but just know I'm not going to hurt you, Ivery." Death began walking towards his black BMW right inside the parking lot of the church, while laughing, probably at me, everything I was ever taught about stranger danger, and not getting into strangers cars, was running through my mind, I was probably gonna end up kidnapped, raped and or murdered. This was definitely the most irresponsible, reckless, acting on an impulse, out of my pocket, dangerous, craziest, stupidest thing I've ever done. But what could I do? My gut was telling me that he was telling the truth. Plus what am I to do? Pass this opportunity? No. If I get kidnapped I get kidnapped. Because the truth is.. I've just been so incredibly sad… and if this is a way that I could save Enzo's life? Why wouldn’t I take it… Anthony would be grateful, Anthony's mom and sisters would be grateful, hell even Enzo would probably be grateful. He killed himself because he thought he was alone in this world.- Probably, so if i just show him he's not alone or whatever he might be grateful then he won't want to kill himself. Right? Plus I know how I am.. How could I pass up an opportunity like this? Only an idiot would turn this down and one thing I'm not is an idiot. Anyone in my position would do this.. Right?.. All those tiktok I watch about how fast I’d catch Stockholm syndrome, or all the dark romance books I read.. How could I not go with “Death”?
I hesitate one last time, smirk, and then I sigh
“Here goes absolutely fucking nothing..” and with that I take a deep breath, say a little prayer to guarantee my safety and run towards Death's car. Hoping to God I didn't just make the biggest, stupidest mistake of my whole life.40Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5DArtwnOQg
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