Death is My BFFLAD Rewritten (Book 2 of the Rewritten Death Chronicles)

Chapter 15: The Graveyard

HEY HI HELLO BABIES, HOPE EVERYONE'S HAVING A NICE SUMMER! 

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It arrived in short auditory clips. 

Someone was screaming, but there was darkness. It was a woman's voice. Fear clotted her cries, choking out her last breath in a rasp. And then there was silence. Awful, endless silence.

I felt a twisting sting in my chest. Whoever that woman was, I knew she was dead. I knew she was dead because Death knew she was dead. She was dead...and her killer...he was still alive.

I awoke with a start. Sweat trailed down my forehead, and I wiped it with the back of my hand. Goosebumps lined my skin like an itchy blanket had rubbed me the wrong way, and I had the eerie feeling that someone was watching me.

I leaned over and flicked on a lamp. The room was empty. After a few minutes, I felt my muscles relax again and I sunk back into the bed.

"Boo."

I let out a small scream. Death was standing a few feet away from the lamp I'd turned on, clad in black sweatpants and a dark grey t-shirt that exposed the black, intricate marks on his arms. His fohawk wasn't gelled as it normally was, leaving the black hair down the center of his skull slightly curled and softer looking. His stubble was longer and shaped into a slight beard, refining the planes of his face. And I could have sworn he had a few more piercings than the last time I'd seen him...

I snapped out of it.

"You–! " I launched a pillow at Death, which he effortlessly caught with one gloved hand and tossed back onto the bed. "You! You need to stop doing that! Are you physically incapable of entering normally into a room?"

"I die for my my dramatic entrances." His mismatched eyes shifted to the slightly ajar box on the nightstand, where the remains of the giant cupcake were, before shifting back to me. A small grin played on his lips, but he smudged it away and cleared his throat. "You look like you slept well."

My face heated. I wasn't exactly a morning person, but seeing Death this time around had made my heart clench. I thought of his birthday present to me, and how hard I'd cried over it. It'd been so thoughtful that I'd almost convinced myself he hadn't bought the giant cupcake that I'd shamelessly devoured before passing out. That he hadn't fixed my childhood teddy bear.

I didn't realized how badly I needed to be comforted until I'd held that teddy bear. He'd known. He'd known I'd needed that kind of comfort because no mater how much I denied it, or how scary the prospect of it seemed, Death knew me better than anyone else.

So I would tell him that although we had our differences.... Although we were a bitter, maddening duo, we were still a force of nature. I was light and he was dark, but he was a darkness I could get used to.

But what could I really expect from him? The immortal. The monster that named himself Death. His eyes. His voice. His kiss held a magnetic decree of night. Even in familiarity, his darkness beckoned me too close, dared me to let it consume me wholly.

Still, I'd wished he hadn't left me the night before. I'd at least tell him that much.

But a meager, "I did sleep well," was all I could manage to say out loud.

We stared at each other as we did.

"In my defense, I did knock," Death finally said, changing the subject easily. Thank God, because the tension in the room was so unbearable I could feel it in the air. "Anyway. How long will it take you to–" he waved a gloved hand in the air– "get ready, and do that girly shit girls do."