Episode Two

Amongst the Ashes.

“It's a scythe,” Daisy whispered to herself with dread.

Her breathing became frantic as she tried to calm her racing heart. For 10 years, for 10 whole years, she had been called insane and a fool for believing that the Grim Reaper existed. But now she could see him standing in front of her, looking exactly as she remembered from her childhood.

She tried to speak but her mouth failed to make a single noise, her whole body seemed to have frozen in shock. She sat still, but her eyes remained focused on the man in front of her. Her labored breaths were the only sound amongst the silence that had taken over the whole building.

Death took his steps closer to Daisy and Mrs. Barden, his scythe dragging behind him until the tip of his shoes touched the woman. He kneeled to look at the whimpering lady, a gloved hand reaching towards her face. Daisy remained still observing the man fearfully. Even though he was closer, Daisy could still not see his face. It seemed as if a fixed smoke was hidden under the cloak, darkening his features completely.

Suddenly, Mrs. Barden's whimpers became louder. Daisy looked away from the man and towards the old lady and gasped in shock. An iridescent smoke was trailing out of her body as she shook in Daisy’s arms.

Daisy finally got the strength to fight, her arms coming forward to push death away. Her pushed startled, and he fell backward before regaining balance. Even though Daisy could not see his eyes. She could feel the wrath from under his hood. She tried to crawl away but death had already grabbed her in his arms, he squeezed making stars shine over her vision before it went completely black.

Daisy woke up to a bright light shining directly in her eyes.

“She's awake,” the doctor announced as he pulled his torch away from Daisy's pupils.

“Oh, thank the stars. Daisy,” a woman cried before rushing over to her side.

Daisy turned towards the voice to find her mother, Satrina sitting beside her, clutching her hand in hers. She had mascara stained down her cheeks and down her face and her usually neat hair was ruffled

“Where am I?” Daisy asked in confusion.

She tried to remember the last thing before passing out and immediately felt her heart race. She had met Death. He was real. Daisy thought feeling a sense of happiness to know that her memory was not fake. But her excitement quickly faded into dread as she realized the reason she had seen him.

“Mrs. Barden, is she okay? She asked even though she was aware of the answer. Her mother squeezed her hand in sympathy before replying,

“Honey, Mrs. Barden passed away during the fire? She had a serious burn on her body and her old heart couldn't take it. The firemen found you two together. Oh, my baby girl. You were so brave,” Satrina blurted before breaking down into fresh tears.

Daisy frowned, knowing what had happened.

“I saw him,” she told her mother.

“Who baby?” Satrina asked.

“The Grim Reaper, the one from my childhood.”

Hearing her words her mother's face fell. The doctor shuffled on his feet confused,

“The Grim Reaper?” he asked curiously.

“It's nothing. Daisy had an imaginary friend when she was young. I think she hasn't grown out of it yet,” Satrina explained to the doctor who nodded in understanding.

“Oh, that's possible,” he started when a person experiences something traumatic like Daisy did in that fire, the brain can play tricks to cope with it. So I think a few therapy sessions with our hospital psychologist can fix.”

Daisy closed her eyes in frustration.

“Of course they won't believe me,” she thought, “there has to be a way I can prove it to them.”

Her mind raced trying to find a way she could prove to everyone that she wasn't insane. “The book,” she suddenly remembered. The book she had found before the fire started seemed like the best source for her to find more on death. When can I go home?” Daisy asked the doctor who chuckled.

“ Right now, if you want,” he told her, “fortunately, you did not sustain any injury during the incident. Your oxygen level has also come back to normal and looking at how excited you are to leave. I'll say you're feeling all better now.”

Daisy nodded at his words, “Yeah, I feel fine.”

“Alright then, I'll ask for the release forms and grab you the psychologist for sure before you leave,” the doctor said exiting the room.

“Okay, come slowly. Come slowly,” Satrina guided her daughter inside the apartment.

“Am fine you can let me go,” Daisy told her in clips to her crutch for balance. Satrina stepped back from her but her eyes stayed glued on Daisy with concern.

“I need to go find the book as soon as possible,” Daisy thought she knew her mom would not let her go anywhere at the moment. It seemed that she had spent more than a couple of hours in the hospital and the light had already given way to darkness. It was around 8pm already and Daisy needed to get to the library before it was cleaned up in order to find the book.

Suddenly her mom's phone started to ring.

“Oh shit!” she exclaimed as she turned away from Daisy to answer the call. After a short conversation, she turned towards Daisy again.

“I'm sorry, honey, but it seems like they want me at the office right now. A big client just got arrested and I need to go over before his interrogation starts.”

“It’s completely fine mom. I'll just go to bed anyway,” Daisy said internally squealing at the opportunity that had presented itself you sir.

“You sure?” she said to her daughter, her feet already in her black stilettos, “Dad should be home in a few hours. But if you have any problem before that just call me, okay?” She said rushing out. She did not even wait for her response, already on another phone call.

Daisies sighed as she stared at her mother walk away. She felt a pang of pain in her heart but she took it off immediately.

“There's no time to move around, Daisy,” she told herself. She kept a check on her mother and waited until her car disappeared from the driveway, then she hurried over to the door herself and walked out.

Daisy stood in front of the library building. The memories from the morning seemed like a distant echo. The building looking so different. Usually the library remained to glow with yellow lights even at late hours of the night filled with students. But today, the moonlight couldn't hide the black and walls or the broken windows. A yellow tape was sealing the entrance to the library but Daisy ignored it. She climbed over the tape grimacing slightly when her injured foot touched the other side of the ground. She limped inside her heart pounding in her throat.

She had watched enough horror movies to know what happened to clueless people that ventured into an abandoned building where someone had died. But her curiosity won over her fear and she continued to walk deeper into the ruins, debris and charred pieces of wood crushed under her shoes as she walked over to the place she had found Mrs. Barden.

She remembered clutching the book until finding the poor old lady on the floor. Then she had dropped the book on the floor in order to cradle her body instead. Daisy shone her flashlight on the floor and trying to find even a page from that book.

Suddenly something glowed in the darkness catching her attention. She walked over to the object and gasped in surprise. The book laid on the floor amongst the ruins yet it looked untouched by its surroundings. The embossing on the cover glowed as her flashlight touched its surface as if it was real gold.

She placed her hand on top of the book trying to feel for any damage, but other than some dust and ash, the book was in a pristine state. Daisy quickly scooped the book in her arms, hugging it to her chest and got up to leave. The book felt warm to the touch as if it was a living thing on its own.

She could hear voices of guards coming closer to the entrance of the library so she hurried her pace. She exited the building only seconds away from getting caught. She maintained her strained pace until she rounded corner. Then she stopped to catch her breath. So much for judging the two kids earlier for not being able to run.

“Can't even walk one block before panting,” Daisy uttered in disgust she leaned her back against a wall and placed her crutch against it as well. She pulled the book open again.

Finally being able to see it clearly under the bright streetlamp. The book was bound with leather and the inside looked as if it was written by hand, old calligraphy writing with small smudges of ink, but the most remarkable thing about it was the detailed figures sketched by hand. One illustration caught her eyes immediately. The illustration was surrounded by a border designed with intricate brush strokes with what seemed to like crush gold, and a bright red and dark blue details covered the entire illustration.

Finally her eyes landed on the center of the illustration and she gasped immediately. She continued to stare at the dark almond shaped eyes and straight nose. The lips caught her attention painted with blood red. The lips were curled in a central smirk her heart skipped a beat as the lips reminded her of a familiar smirk she had seen only a few hours ago. The realization made the hair on the back of her neck stand up. The face belonged to Death himself.