Intermezzo VII - A Girl Called Death

Intermezzo

Sarah groaned awake. Even though the room was quite dark, she recognised it as her bedroom. She frowned as she sat up, she was in bed, in her room, in her house. How? Last thing she remembered was being on the ‘train with Faelnon and the others. Her frown continuing, and now accompanied by a curious curl of her mouth, she climbed out of bed, she was fully dressed, and Richard was nowhere to be seen. Quietly, carefully, she crossed to her door and pulled it open. There was a silhouette. Sarah yelped and jumped backwards.

‘Honey, what’s wrong?’ Richard asked, a fake smile plastered over his features.

‘Oh Richard, phew, I was worried. How’d we get back here?’ Sarah smiled, breathing deeply with a hand at her chest.

‘I brought us here.’

Curiosity taking over again, she asked, ‘Why?’

‘Because those people aren’t good for you. And now they have ruined our one chance, I’m sorry, but everything has gone wrong.’

‘Aren’t good? Ruined? Wrong? Why?’

Richard, or the Seventh, sighed deeply, pretending that he was affected, ‘I’m sorry, but to protect my interests, I’m going to have to ask you to die.’

Sarah looked at him, slowly becoming scared, Richard never was one for practical jokes.

Richard grinned broadly and sadistically and stepped inside the room.

Sarah backed away, around the other side of the bed, putting that in between them.

Richard moved around, but before he reached Sarah’s side, she leapt onto the bed and jumped off, on the other side. She dashed out of the room.

Richard chased after, not thrilled.

Sarah dashed along the banister and swung fully around to head down the steps. Richard was there, a small section of banister (before it turned and ended where Sarah was) separating the two.

Sarah, genuinely panicked, dashed down the steps, and rushed into the kitchen. Richard kicked at the small piece of banister, it shattered away from him and he stepped over the edge, with a soft thud he landed halfway down the stairs. He quickly followed her.

Sarah dashed past the dining table where just a few hours ago everything had been so wonderful. She sprinted the length of the kitchen and hauled open a door, she slammed it shut after her. Now where? She had three options, to try and break through the locked back door, the pantry, or the basement. She, however, had no time to decide, the door flew away as Richard appeared. Shivering, Sarah looked at him, ‘Why are you doing this?’

Richard grinned, ‘Because I’m one of the big, bad bullies your little friend Faelnon was telling you about.’ He reached out and caught her by the neck, lifting her into the air.

Sarah thrashed, but could not get free.

‘Goodbye,’ he chuckled and spat out the next words, ‘My love.’

Sarah went wide eyed as Richard threw her backwards, she heard the door she had crashed into break from its hinges and tumble backwards, it continued to fall, beneath floor level. It was the basement door. With several sickening, audible cracks, Sarah crashed down the steps and lay, at the bottom, sprawled out, unmoving, lifeless.

The Seventh grinned again, removed a small orb from his pocket and tapped it. A few seconds later, there was an explosion of flame next to the Seventh, from it, the creature known only as ‘Death’ appeared. ‘Boss, would you mind finding another way to contact me? Not that my mind splitting in two from the pain isn’t fun and all-‘ he paused as he spotted Sarah, ‘So… what’s she doing?’

‘Being dead, you moron. I need you to do something.’

‘Let me guess,’ ‘Death’ gave up its previous guise of Shandor and became Sarah.

‘Now, come with me.’



In a blink of an eye, both of them were standing in Sarah and Richard’s ex-cabin. The Seventh turned to ‘Death’, ‘I need to let them know our lovely lady won’t be rejoining their fools quest, but it needs to be convincing.’

‘Death’ smiled, ‘I’ve got the perfect thing, we write a note.’

The Seventh looked doubting.

‘Seriously, when I become a person, that includes everything, down to hand writing! We just write a little note: ‘Sniff sniff, I’m so homesick I’ve gone home’ and we’re done.’

‘Then do it.’

‘Death’ proceeded to write a simple note, it left it on the desk. Before they leave, it commented, ‘This form isn’t half-bad, and it would be a new and fun way to torture these fools…’

With two bursts of flame, they were gone.