Kisses From Death | Book 1

E I G H T E E N

E I G H T E E N
Truth or Death

I WOKE UP with a pounding headache, my eyes still closed shut as I groaned out loud. From the peace and quiet of my dreams, I slowly slipped back into reality bit by bit. Steadily, the carnival music all around me started to stream into my ears, waking me up more and more as my eyes shot open. However, even though my eyes were open, I was still left in the dark. A blindfold was presumably put on me, leaving me clueless as of to what could possibly happen.

Panic flooded my veins as I started to struggle, hands escaping from behind my back to tear the blindfold from my eyes. When I took it off, my sight was blinded by a stroke of brilliant white light. Stunned by this, I backed away in my seat, only to wobble slightly as I was thrown off balance. Instinctively, my hands reached out to grab something. Instead of holding on to a table or even coming in contact with the ground, my palms touched cool glass panels that were just close enough for me to balance into place again.

"You're awake!" Death's familiar voice mocked, a happy grin on his face as if he was pleased with himself.

Carefully, I began to withdraw my hands at a snail's pace, pushing myself securely back onto the seat. When my vision cleared, I was transported to a new part of a carnival; right in the center of attention once more.

Death had placed me in an enclosed dunk tank with just a single stool to prop me up from a tub of water that filled up the bottom half of the tank. A crowd made up of adults and children dressed in those same creepy mascots and clown suits stood gathered, watching me. Death was there too, standing just right beside the dunk tank with his classic signature evil grin.

Like most dunk tanks, not even the tip of my shoes was touching the surface of the water. I glanced down, careful not to tip myself over. Wanting to see why was it that Death had lifted so far above the tank of water, I studied the liquid. It was nothing out of the ordinary. The water was crystal clear and looked to be the cleanest pool of water I had ever seen. There was nothing inside, no piranhas, and no electric eels. So what could be so harmful in regards to that liquid that needed me suspended away from the water until Death wanted me to touch it?

"Careful not to fall in, doll. I imagine a vat of concentrated acid would not do well for your pretty little features and such a shame that would be. Heaven's Falls is not as innocent as it sounds. The waters are deadly to mortals." Death commented with a hint of a ruthless smile to his voice, making me jolt back when I realized that he had just declared the liquid as a pool of acid in which I was currently hovering over.

"What?" I asked in shock, disbelief masking my face as the crowd chortled at my reaction. "I won the maze fair and square. What happened to my thirty-minute immunity?"

"The immunity is against the personifications of our powers, Andy. Also known as those ghouls that you must have noticed around the boathouse and in the maze, as I recall you nicknaming them." The corners of Death's lips lifted into a cruel grin. "But do you see any ghouls here other than my lovely subjects?"

It was as if on command, the crowd began to roar with laughter again. I swallowed the bile in my throat in a failed attempt to calm my racing heart.

"That's cheating!" I yelled, carefully not to tip myself over the seat as I shot my best glare towards Death.

"Who said that I would ever play fair?" Death shrugged. "I kept up to my promise of immunity against those demons. I never said that the immunity was against me. And even if it was, I am not touching you right now, Addison. The only thing that can save you from getting dunked into a vat of acid and eventually dying is your honesty. But then again, alas, honesty isn't something that the majority of the human population own these days, am I right?"