Kisses From Death | Book 1

S E V E N T E E N

S E V E N T E E N
Lights, Camera, Action

THE CLOWN FIASCO had, needless to say, shaken me up considerably. Less than fifteen minutes had passed since I escaped the lunatic in a rainbow suit but that fact alone did not make me feel any better. If Death had placed clowns as his first line of attack, and the saying of 'saving the best for the last' was true, then by golly I'm in for a delightful treat with each second ticking by.

I was a ticking time bomb here.

Death had made sure to remind me time and time again that my hours were ticking by. Every few minutes or so, a loud ring would ensue, reverberating across the span of the maze to signify that a certain amount of time had already passed. I could feel his cameras and eyes on me, just waiting to sip up any bit of action that he might squeeze out of this morbid entertainment show.

Furthermore, I do not know when it happened or even why it was so but my watch had stopped working. The hands were no longer moving as it used to, and this made everything a whole lot worse than of before. I could only assume that it was due to the fact that I was no longer in the human realm that had caused such a phenomenon to happen. Due to this unfortunate turn of events – in which I have all the doubt that it was natural – there was no possible way for me to keep track of the time.

This change was disruptive. I had become too obsessed with checking my watch every few minutes the very second in which Death had placed a countdown towards the end of my life and this screw up was meddling with my nerves, plucking at my fears one at a time as I started to slip away from sanity.

I needed to find my way out of this maze, and quick.

The 'jump through the hedge' trick had certainly come with repercussions as I no longer know which way forward exactly is. I had taken a random guess and ran in the direction in which I was met with a blockade before jumping through the hedge. And soon down the journey, I was met with yet another fork in the road. This time, in contrast to what I might have chosen on a normal day where there wasn't a time bomb strapped right on my back, I went towards the road less taken.

Today was, of course, not a normal day. I am desperate, and nothing about desperation is normal.

Desperation is an obsession, a crazy need due to infatuation or fear. I fear what I do not know, and as a girl that knew every little thing all the way down to the dirty little secrets of my every schoolmate back in both high school and in college, this was a fear I was not accustomed to. Being so used to knowing makes one vulnerable when left in the dark. And tonight, I had never felt any more lost as compared to the times before.

It was like a contagious and deadly disease that ate away at my insides, gnawing at my bones as I begged for mercy. The feeling was close to having this nagging presentiment in one's stomach about a disaster that was about to strike at any given time.

Through this past couple of days, I had felt things in which I previously thought were impossible. Things such as fear, regret, helplessness, and much more. Being at the top of the food chain constantly meant that fear was not something that consumed me. It was a weapon in my hands against the less fortunate. Hence, such an emotion of discomposure was not something in which my body was accustomed to and knew how to properly manage and deal with accordingly.

With fear came the risky decisions. There was no time for me to sit there and ponder over which was the lesser of two evils. As a ticking time bomb that did not have the luxury of plentiful hours to waste and burn, I had to make decisions at breakneck speed. Resentfully, not only that, such decisions would also have to be a favorable wholesome and secure outcome.