|[ DEATH'S APPRENTICE ]|

[Chapter Two]

The Outside

Unknown date

At some point I realised I still existed.

I wasn't sure entirely how much I still existed, but I could still feel air on my skin, and coolness underneath me. My limbs were heavy – filled with iron, and impossible to move. I tried to twitch a finger but I couldn't seem to locate my fingers... or my arm. No, there it was... attached to my shoulder. My mind's eye snaked along the limb, remembering where the elbow was, and where my fingers connected. I strived to lift my arm or even to shift my feet but my body refused to acknowledge the commands. I could feel a hard ice cold surface pressing into my back and the bottom of my limbs. I blinked awake, not even realising that my eyes had been closed, and saw nothing but pure white around me. There was no light or objects to cast shadows in the room – or whatever it was I was in – and I tried turning my head to see if there was a door. Just like my limbs my neck refused to move and I found myself stuck staring up at the ceiling - or where the ceiling would've been if I could see one. But the flawless white left no indication of walls or rooves. For all I knew the ceiling could've been hundreds of feet above me, or only inches away from touching the end of my nose.

Slowly, as I accepted I wasn't going anywhere anytime soon, I began to take in other sensations. I could feel clothes on me – pants and a singlet. I felt like shivering – I was cold – but my body wouldn't even let me do that. Muscles tensed under my skin as chills rippled through me. I tried to speak but my mouth was clamped shut. I suddenly realised it was totally silent. No noise at all. I couldn't hear anything, no air flow, no voices, not even my own breathing.

Why wasn't I breathing? Suddenly my lungs ached for air. My head spun, brain on fire as it realised how deprived of oxygen it was. It felt like my chest was tearing apart, struggling for air. I gasped, sucking in oxygen, shocked. It acted like a release and I found myself able to move. I scrambled to my feet, spinning on the spot, trying to understand what had happened. How had I gone so long without breathing? And why could I suddenly move?

I tried to find a way out of the room, my limbs shaking. I was breathing heavily, panic threatening to engulf me. I was trapped in a strange place and yet despite my fear I couldn't even hear my own heartbeat in my ears. I pressed a finger to my wrist, trying to find my pulse. I felt nothing underneath the cold skin and tried the artery in my neck. Still nothing. My lip trembled as I pressed my palm to my chest, right over my heart. There was a brief moment of horror, as I waited to feel the steady thump under my touch. The seconds stretched past until I knew I should've felt something already. Nothing. My chest remained empty and noiseless. I was... dead... dead. Of course, I had jumped. Memories flooded through my mind like splashes of paint on a canvas. Mrs Stochlim's shocked face; Dust telling me to jump; the feeling of the air clutching at me with cold fingers – the ground swooping up to meet me. The agonising pain as my fragile body crunched into cobblestone and was shattered into a thousand pieces... bright red... I sucked in a sharp breath and fell to my knees, arms wrapped around my stomach. I felt sick, my stomach climbing up my throat, and my head was spinning. Questions flew through my brain: Where was I? What was going to happen? How did I get out? As if to answer my thoughts there was a flash and I looked up to see a square of brick wall on front of me. It was an odd sight, to see a wall with nothing around it. Bare edges of brick hovered in an unwavering wall in the mass of white light, towering high up into the air, finally stopping where the ceiling of this place must've been. A wooden door set in the wall swung open, inviting me forwards, and I warily moved back to my feet. Was someone waiting in there for me, behind the door? I sighed and closed my eyes, letting my head fall forwards. I was dead already. It wasn't as if I could be killed again... could I? I jerked my head back up, brushing my hair out of my face. Were there layers of death? Could I be sent further and further away? Only one way to find out.