Monsieur Death

Evangeline

I woke up in a dark bunker. I wanted to jump up and demand where I was, but the pain in my leg stopped me. Liam leaned against the wall. His eyes were closed, and I realized he was asleep.

“Liam?” I whispered. He jumped. I immediately felt bad.

“Hey! You’re awake!”

I rolled my eyes at the obvious statement. “Duh, Liam.”

He smiled somewhat ruefully. “And you’re back to normal too.”

“What happened?”

“The Shalkra bit you.”

“Oh come on, Liam! I know that!”

“Shalkra’s have poison in their bite. You’re lucky. A bigger bite would have immobilized you for life.”

“Great.” I swallowed.

“So you probably won’t be able to walk or move much for the next few hours. Good news is, you killed the Shalkra with your nail. I jumped in the river to save you-“

I ignored how sweet that was.

“And found the bunker under the river. I just managed to open before I ran out of breath.”

I forced myself not to smile. Why did I care so much?

“So.... this is the secret bunker that’ll lead us out to Taj Mahal?”

He shrugged. “I guess.”

“How long have I been asleep?”

“Three days.”

“Three days?!” I had slept for one day when I broke my arm, but for never for this long.

I was quiet for a little while. So was Liam.

“Hey, you okay?” I asked before I could stop myself.

He nodded. “It’s just.... so different from being a god.”

I shrugged. “I wouldn’t know.”

“Yeah. I can’t imagine being a human my whole life.”

His fingers hit the side of the bunker nervously.

“Or maybe I can. I’m feel like I’m already forgetting what’s it’s like to a god. And I have.... reasons to want to stay.” He looked away from me.

My stomach dropped. Did he mean....me?! But I forced a different question out.

“Why did the gods send you here anyway?”

He looked down.

“I mean, I know for saving that little boy’s life, but why? Will you ever get to go back? Is there something your waiting for?”

He looked away.

“What is it, Liam? You have to tell me.”

“I....” He faltered. “I’m waiting for someone to die.”

“What?! Who?!”

“I don’t know! Judgement told me I would know when the time’s right.”

I didn’t answer. I had a feeling Liam knew, and he had a good reason for not wanting to tell me.

“Who’s Judgement again?” I asked.

“King of the gods.” Liam replied. He closed his eyes.

“You should have slept.”

“I couldn’t. I don’t know what’s down here.”

“This is the secret bunker-“

“Yes.”

“Get some sleep.” I struggled to sit up. “I’ll wake you if anything happens.”

He shook his head. “Now that you’re awake, I need to open the portal. We don’t have much time left.”

“What do you mean?”

“I... I have a month to get- to find out what’s going on.”

I narrowed my eyes. “How long as it been?”

“A three and a half weeks. This is October, so we have six days to contact Judgement, defeat Doctor Plague, and set everything right again.” He groaned and leaned against the wall. “We’ll never make it.”

“Don’t talk like that! We still have a chance! Come on, open the portal. We have to get out of here.”

And I really wanted to see a portal be opened.

He sighed. “I hope it’ll work. Judgement told any normal human could do it if they knew where it was and how. So it shouldn’t matter that I’m not a god anymore.”

He motioned for me to stand back. Then he ran his fingers along the wall. I heard a quiet click. Nothing happened for a minute. Then the room started to spin. Not the entire room, but a small circle of wind began to rip the floor and ceiling up, forcing it to join the hurricane. It was sort of like when you saw smoke. You could tell something was different, but you could actually see what it was. I stepped back. I could see a blurry scene of.... sand? Liam gripped my hand, and I jumped.

“We have to jump.”

“What?!” The portal was becoming bigger and bigger, and nearer to us. In a few minutes, it would hit us.

“We have to jump into it. Otherwise it’ll smash us against the wall.

“It looks like it’s already planning to do that!”

“Jump!” Liam yanked me through the quickly narrowing portal. And for the second time that day, I blacked out.