Death’s Door

Lucius opened the door, feeling the pain in his chest grow with every step he took. He slammed it shut once inside the house and fell onto the carpeted floor, tears streaming down his cheeks. He took a deep breath to calm his nerves while his eyes were trained to the floor. Slowly, Lucius crawled to his room and climbed into the bed. He pulled the sheets over his body to block the sunlight that peeked through the window.

Each day became more and more exhausting heading straight to the hospital after school. This was the third time his mother was taken back there from some sort of incident back home. Whether mentally or physically, it was a trauma that flashed through her and made her collapse to the floor. Up to a couple years ago, she worked as an administrative medical assistant at a hospital a little more than half hour away. Once the faints began, she teleworked instead. After a while, even that became a difficult task for Lucius’s mother. She took on a personal leave until she recovers, but nothing has been improving.

“Mother…” Lucius spoke in despair, “please, whatever happens, don’t leave me. I need you…alive, not...”

He shut his eyes to mitigate the pain. Then, a voice whispered into his conscience. Another voice made him twitch slightly. More voices filled his head in fear, spouting bouts of terror and panic. He opened his eyes and rubbed his head which pounded from the cacophony. He curled into a ball, but noticed through a small hole of the tangled sheets an old notebook on his nightstand; it contained all the notes and doodles he wrote during the school year. That’s right—he forgot to bring it today. He sighed and turned away, too much grief lying on his chest to draw or write.

After a long pause of silence, he abruptly lifted himself up and threw the sheets away from his body. He took the book and flipped through the pages, skimming through each slice of the past until he reached one that has yet to be written or drawn on. The page itself had blue, faded lines that went across the page horizontally. There was also one, solid red line towards the edge of the page. Lucius himself preferred a blank page, but he was too lazy to grab a sketchbook instead.

“Pencil…” He muttered as he scrambled supplies around the drawers of his desk. Finding one moments later, he gripped it tightly and pondered what he should draw. Nothing came to his mind except the thought of Death. His thoughts were beginning to consume him again and his hand moved on its own accord. An outer ring, then an inner ring within it. Lucius stared at the sheet as if he was in a trance, yet full of apathy. He looked at the shapes created as his hand moved deftly, making more circles and now triangles, lines that connected to each circle—even lettering he could not understand himself. The last design was a two pronged shaped staff at the center. The shapes came together and took up the entire page. Lucius came back to reality and stared at the design, now surprised.

He whispered to himself, “What is this?”

“Death.”

Ominous and menacing, a curved blade pressed against the child’s throat, threatening to rip through. The cloak revealed nothing, but Lucius could only see at what he perceives as white, bony hands. A cold breeze flooded through the room and all the light that was before fleeted away, leaving nothing but utter darkness.

All Lucius could hear was a hushed, deep voice: “You dare…”

Then a set of eyes—no, eye sockets—revealed themselves beneath the hood of the cloak. They pierced into the child’s own dark, brown eyes. A smile spread across the figure’s face when it inhaled the scent of fear and blood. The scythe trailed down the child’s body, resting it upon his heart.

“My, my. Cocky, aren’t you?”

Another figure with a cloak appeared behind the first one, looking much more human. Although he had white eyes, wide with insanity, that glowed under the hood. He walked over to his victim and pulled his hood down. Yin looked at the human boy and a wide smile crossed his face.

“Fear me not, you think? Well, I shall show you why humans must know their place in this world, why mortal beings fear…” Yin leaned closer. “The Dark.”