The King of Death

[azurara]

It's not too long. I'll post them by chapters. Please tell me what you think! This is just the first draft of it, and it still needs a lot of fleshing out. But I'm debating about getting it published. I already have someone who is probably willing to be my editor, but I want to get some outside opinions on it! Thanks and good reading! biggrin  

[azurara]

-Chapter One-
He awoke from the darkness with a grin. His name? Embry Collin. Description? Dark brown hair cut short and choppy. Brown eyes that he rather hated, even though he’d been told many times they were much more beautiful than the “startling” green or blue eyes that girls seemed to lust after. He was very tall for his age of seventeen, 6’3. His father must have been a thin, tall man for Embry was very gangly. He was all arms and legs, like a stickman.
So when Embry awoke, there really was nothing to be happy about. The last thing he remembered was the frantic warning screams of terrified people. He couldn’t figure out why everyone was so scared. Why was everyone screaming?
Then there was the sensation. His body flying through the air, head slamming into concrete. The shattering of glass. Warm blood oozing around his body and soaking into his skin. And always, always was that constant screaming.
Before he fell into that darkness, after everyone surrounded him in shock, he remembered the eyes. Blue eyes of liquid silver, gleaming down at him in laughter.
And now here he was, a silly smile pasted sideways on his face, and his head swimming in glorious joy.
Embry stretched languorously on the bed; a long thing covered in silken sheets. His face widened with pleasure. His feet didn’t hang over the edge of this bed like his one at his foster parents’ home. He stood up, and he didn’t have to slouch down either. He decided this strange place was good. But where was he?
Curious now, he left the big, dark room he’d awakened in and found himself in a hallway. Doors lined the walls, room numbers glistening gold on each door. So he was in a motel of sorts. Strange, he thought amid his happiness. He walked until he found the front desk. No one was there.
“Hello?” His voice came out rough, like he hadn’t used it in a while and it had changed. “Is anyone here?” His answer was a deathly still silence that made him uneasy. The happiness started to leak away.
Embry wanted to leave now. His skin crawled, and he gave a big shudder as a cold breeze brushed his neck. Turning around, he found the exit. The door had a big black EXIT sign, and under it a bold red caption, reading simply:
Proceed with caution.
Well, he thought this was an emergency. And so, without another thought of indecision, he unbolted the several locks and bolts, and pushed on the door.
Nothing happened.
Embry bit his lip, and then shoved it harder. This time the door creaked in protest, then slowly, ever so slowly, the door opened.
What met Embry’s eyes was shocking. The motel was out in the middle of nowhere, sparse hills rising and falling all about him. The sky was dark; he guessed the time was about twilight. But the craziest thing was the people. Thousands upon thousands of people were lined in front of the motel, all of them bowing to him while he stood in the doorway.
That’s when the cheering started, a loud thunderous cry of joy, an impact of pain in his ears that had only found silence since he had awoken in this place.
One person left the crowd and walked up to stand before him. To his utter astonishment, it was the girl he remembered from before. Her liquid silver eyes burned into him like molten fire. He didn’t remember what startled him the most, her voice itself, what she said, or the happiness with which she said it.
“Welcome! Welcome to Death, my king.” Then she, too, was on her knees.

Embry had always wondered what death would be like. He could never fully imagine himself as an invisible ghost wandering the earth, nor could he see himself in a perfect heaven or fiery hell. Even the thought of not being never seemed quite real.
But of all the different things Embry had thought of death, he had never truly imagined it like this. Death was like a whole new world.
When Embry awoke for the second time, he wasn’t quite as surprised to see those bright eyes once again peering with amusement into his.
“Hello!” She whispered excitedly into his ear.
“Umm, hi.” He looked around and found himself in a shadowy room. There were no windows, only a faint light sitting on a bedside table. The musty smell of oldness only a basement could contain permeated the air. He was lying on a small bed in the far right corner, and she had a chair pulled up to the side of the bed, which she anxiously perched on the edge of. “Where am I?”
“My house. This is the spare room. After you crossed through we brought you here.” She glanced around apprehensively, taking in the shabby room, and then her eyes quickly flew back to him. “I’m sorry, I wasn’t expecting you so soon.” Even in the dark her silver eyes gleamed, and she seemed to radiate a light of her own. How beautiful, he thought to himself.
“And who are you?” He asked, now sitting up and trying to get a good look at her. She was small, smaller than him anyways. At most she must have been 5’6. Her hair was dark brown, almost black, and long; down to the middle of her back as far as he could tell. Her skin was slightly pale, but rosy all the same. She wore a black jacket over a white shirt, and he couldn’t tell what she was wearing over her legs and he would look suspicious by leaning over to look, but he thought maybe they were regular blue jeans.
“I’m your guide. I get to teach you all of the basics and such.” She flashed her teeth at him, trying to distract him from the fact that she had avoided his question by not telling him her name. “Don’t worry, you’ll be out of this place soon. The palace has been a total wreck since the last king died.” She cast him another anxious glance, obviously hoping that he was pleased with the room.
“It’s fine. Wait… you can die? But I thought we were already dead.” He frowned. How could you die in death? It just didn’t make any sense at all.
“Your soul can die. Once your soul has died, you are nothing. You will be fragmented dust floating in oblivion. Your whole existence will no longer exist.”
Embry shuddered. “So what happened to the last king? And where does that put me? Wait, why am I your king?”
She laughed, a tinkling that made him giddy. “Hold on, too many questions. The last king was murdered. We don’t know why, and we don’t know whom to blame. And you are the king because you chose to be. With our last king dead we were left helpless. We are very weak without a king... free for anyone to attack. So we waited for you. You were the next person to walk through the death gate, so now you are the king. The king of death.” She looked at him, waiting for his reaction.
He was stunned. Absolutely stunned, and very confused. How could all this have happened? Did that mean he was on the murderer’s list? What a crazy way to pick someone to be the king. Just wait for the next person to die and announce them as king.
“Enough questions for now. I’ll explain the rest later. Right now there are some people you must meet.” She stood up and looked down at him. “There’s a bathroom, the next door on the left. There are clothes for you there and you can take a shower. I’ll be waiting upstairs.” Then she was gone.
He sighed. Why was all this stuff happening? Maybe it was all just a dream. A really crazy dream. In a trance, he walked to the bathroom and took his shower, lingering in the hot steam of the water. Idly he wondered if the water was the same here as it was on earth. He wondered if they were still on earth. He wondered what, exactly, death was.  

[azurara]

-Chapter Two-

“Hello, hello, hello!” The large whiskered man bellowed. “Nice to meet you Embry!” He shook Embry’s hand vigorously. Embry winced. The man was going to break off his arm if he didn’t stop shaking it so hard.
“I’m Broghan.” His green eyes twinkled merrily. Embry idly wondered why everyone was so happy around here all of the time.
After his shower, Embry had slowly made his way upstairs to find himself in a vast dining room. A round wood oak table sat in the middle, surrounded by four matching chairs. A crackling fire warmed the room, and a long rug threaded in numerous designs covered most of the wooden floor. The smell of cooking chicken had made his mouth water intensely, and now his stomach grumbled angrily.
“Brogahn! Don’t you know who that is?!” The girl entered the room with a platter of food, already setting it down on the table to scold Brogahn.
“Well of course I do! This is Embry.” His big belly jiggled as he laughed.
“Yes, and you know who Embry is? Embry is the king.” The girl spoke slowly as if he were dumb.
“Good lord! My king!” Brogahn fell to his knees, making the whole house shake. Embry tried to look anywhere else but at Brogahn, he felt conspicuous standing at the head of a fat bowing man, and very uncomfortable.
“Please stand up.” He said, glaring at the girl as he did so.
“Of course, my King. I apologize for acting so…” Obviously Brogahn couldn’t find the word he wanted, so he just left it at that.
“Please! Just call me Embry.” He said in frustration, wondering why he just had to be the next person to die and be declared the king.
“Of course, King Embry.” Brogahn smiled weakly at him.
“JUST Embry. Not King, not Lord, not anything! JUST Embry!” Embry shouted, finally losing his patience. “I don’t even want to be king of this place! I just want…” He trailed off, wondering what he truly wanted.
He didn’t want to go back, he wasn’t even sure if he could. He had never had any true friends, and his foster parents weren’t really interested in him. He really had no future going for him, nothing to truly look forward to. Only loneliness. No, he didn’t want to go back. But what was here for him? Being King? He didn’t think he could help a bunch of dead people against… against what? They were in death, what else could there possibly be? The girl, who for some reason always avoided telling him her name, had told him that they were weak without a king. But weak from what? Rebels? Other… places?
And then there was this strange thing about the people here always being happy. Not a fake happy-happy, but an unusual joy that even he had experienced when he first came here. Happy… and secretive. It was weird; almost wrong in a way.
“Embry, just eat the food,” The girl said, thrusting a plate of food at him, interrupting his thoughts. Her lips were pursed, her thoughts hidden behind a grim face. Brogahn glanced enviously at the platter of food before bidding the girl farewell and leaving. Embry turned to the girl.
“Why won’t you tell me your name?” He asked in frustration. Ever since he had found himself in this place he had gotten more and more confused. Nothing made sense here, and it was all getting him very angry.
The girl just looked at him, before slowly shaking her head and sitting down in a chair at the table. Embry looked at her for a long moment before also sitting down and poking at his food.
“If you aren’t going to tell me your name can you at least tell me a little bit about yourself?” Embry asked her, his frustration wearing off a little. He knew that he would inevitably learn the answers in time. He always did.
“I was born in a small countryside cottage. My aunt took care of me when I turned thirteen, the year my parents died in a fire. Three years later I was murdered.” She spoke briefly, almost like she was speaking about someone else. “…Why? Why were you murdered? But you’re so…” Embry stopped. How could someone murder her?
“I have no idea,” Was all she would answer in a detached tone.


It turned out that the place Embry was staying at was located in an enormous city, the central point of Death. Above the city loomed an eerie castle, pointed spires raising high into the sky and casting a shadow over the sun. Embry and the girl walked for about an hour through the dark city, meeting no one. It was like the place was empty. But Embry saw the curtains being closed out of the corners of his eyes, and it made him very uneasy. There was something so wrong with this place. The girl was silent most of the way, and by the end of their journey he still couldn’t drag it out of her who they were going to meet.
They stopped in front of a beautiful house, huge oak doors towered high above them, and a balcony with huge windows peered every outward. Embry strained his head high up trying to see the top of the house, which ended in a pointed roof. The girl lifted the doorknocker and quickly banged it three times, the loud noise echoing through the silent streets.
The door almost immediately swung open, causing Embry to jump backwards in surprise. The girl merely looked at him in amusement. Two elderly looking people stood staring down their noses at them.
“What do you want?” The lady snapped, tapping her fingers impatiently along the doorframe.
“I made an appointment with you yesterday night, to meet him.” The girl gestured his way.
“Of course. Come in then.” The severe lady replied, staring angrily at Embry. After the couple ushered them in, the wife quickly set about making tea, while her husband quietly told them to sit down wherever they liked.
The house was enormous. A huge fireplace roared in each room, and expensive paintings hung on every wall. Couches and rugs all matched in color, brilliant hue’s that pleased the eye. Embry stared in awe at the house, amazed at all the décor. Every door was huge, with polished silver handles, but every one was shut tightly. Embry and the girl sat down at a glass crystal table in the dining room, where the thin man was already making himself comfortable.
“So, why did you want me to meet them?” Embry whispered to the girl, cringing from having to know these snooty people.
“Embry, these your parents.” She said quietly, casting a polite smile to the lady who was supposed to be his mother. Embry gave a small gasp of surprise, but he instantly closed his mouth when the lady cast him a glance to kill.
“But…!” He gave a small protest, looking helplessly from the girl to the older couple.

“I just can’t believe that you would have us meet him! I never had a child!” His mother, Constance, declared as if he were not sitting there, pouring everyone their tea. She had brown hair, pulled tightly into a bun. Her expression was severe and sharp. His father, Darby, was a thin man with a weedy voice and a mustache he twirled around with his fingers in thought.
His father had been quiet before, but now he spoke up. “Embry, you say? You must have been our firstborn child. We had to send you to that foster home down the street.” He wouldn’t say why though, instead he changed the subject, as if the topic of his son was not interesting enough for him. “So how was the way through the gate? I had to deal with beggars. Stinking, flea-ridden beggars. It was absolutely horrid.”
Embry didn’t know what he was talking about, but his mother seemed more interested now. “Ah, yes… The way through. I also had to deal with those beggars. Disgusting.” She said snootily.
“Umm… the way through? What do you mean?” He asked tentatively. “All I had to do was walk through a motel. No one was there, it was completely empty.”
“That doesn’t seem like a very hard test.” His mother mused, taking a dainty sip of her tea.
“He must not be a man then!” His father declared. “Only a weak man would have such an easy test!”
This last thing left Embry speechless, and he was silent through the rest of the conversation, tuning out their wonder at how he had managed to become the king. Finally they were ushered out of the house, and Embry turned to the girl who had remained quiet during the first awkward exchange.
“Now why did you have to go and make me meet my parents!? Didn’t you know that I had never met them before?” He turned on the girl, his anger growing back. “Why does everyone go around here being so secretive? And what were they was talking about, ‘the way through’?? WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS PLACE?”
“Calm down, Embry. No, I didn’t know that you had never met your parents, because you never told me.” She said, her fiery eyes blazing. “And here I thought you would be happy that I reunited you with your parents!” With this, she turned her back on him and abruptly marched off, leaving him behind in a confused daze.  

[azurara]

-Chapter Three-

Embry found himself wandering the dark streets of Death, sorry that he had blown up on his one friend here. Night had fallen fast on the strange city, even though it had only seemed like a little after noon when they had left his parents house. He walked uneasily down the cobbled streets, the lampposts casting a yellow glow on his form. He was lost, but he didn’t want to admit it. Ok… so... we came around this corner. And then we came from the right, wait no, the left... and then her house should be on the far right corner there.
But as he turned the last left corner, he found himself in an alleyway. The silence gnawed at him, and he uncomfortably eyed his surroundings. A small breeze from the back of the alley brought the sour smell of rotting garbage.
Turning away from the alley, Embry contemplated his situation. He could try and find his way back to his parent’s house, but he doubted they would appreciate his need for help; or he could keep looking for the girl’s house.
He decided to keep looking. It couldn’t be that far from here. Death can’t be all that big, can it? He thought to himself, stepping forward back into the lighted sidewalk.
But at that moment, a small noise caught his attention. It sounded like a cat mewing, as if it was in pain. It came from the back of the alley, and he quickly turned around, fear rising up in him and clawing at his throat. The noise came again, a faint suffering mew. Then scratching, as if whatever was back there was trying to dig into the walls of the buildings around it.
“Kitty?” Embry spoke into the darkness tentatively. The mew came again, and the scratching continued. The rotting smell became stronger.
“Here kitten!” Embry called, a little louder this time. He stepped closer toward the alley, his heart beating fiercely and his pulse racing. At that moment, the cat raced out of the alley with a loud yelp, like an orange fireball, and leaped onto Embry, it’s claws digging into his skin.
“Ouch, ouch! Off me, you mangy old…” He stopped, for out of the darkness peered a rat. It was huge, whiskers quivering angrily, beady eyes gleaming. It’s greasy, wiry hair stuck up angrily in all directions, patches of black fur missing. It’s tail curled along its body, and he sneered at Embry and the cat. The rotting smell permeated the air, and Embry almost gagged.
“Well, well, well. If it isn’t the new king.” The rat growled in a deep low voice, stepping out of the shadows and closer to Embry and the yowling cat attached to him. “The people have been eagerly expecting you, you know. But now we shall have a tasty dinner, and the people shall be without a king again.” The rat laughed, an evil low pitched cackling that only a rat could pull off. It made Embry’s skin crawl, and the laugh seemed to pull at Embry’s soul, making him take a closer step to the rat. He fought the feeling; tried not to be so mesmerized by the horrible laughter. But he couldn’t, and he took another step. “Yesss, come closer to me, my soft fleshed boy.” The rat leered, continuing his cackle.
Another voice, a stronger voice, broke into Embry’s mind. “Stop.” Came the girl’s voice, a simple command, yet demanding and unrelenting at the same time.
“…Or maybe we shall meet another time.” The rat said in a hurried voice before quickly scurrying back to the shadows of the alleyway. Embry shook his head, as if to dislodge the lingering hold on his mind.
“What was that?” He asked the girl, who had realized her mistake after she had left him and had found him just in time to save him from being a rat dinner.
“Never mind that now. Let’s get you back home.” She said brusquely, obviously still angry. She slowly removed the cat’s claws from his chest, and before she set the cat free Embry took the orange fur ball into his arms and held it.
“Then let’s hurry. I’m freezing.” He said to the girl, shivering and holding the warm cat closer to him.


“So are you going to teach me about this place, or what?” Embry asked the girl, sitting down comfortably in a chair around the table, the orange tomcat curled up in his lap and purring like a motorboat. She already sat, sipping a warm beverage.
“Of course. But first, do you want some of this? It’s actually rather good.” She gave him a smile, and showed him the drink. It was dark brown, like the color of hot chocolate. Embry might have been fooled into thinking that that was what it was, if not for the smell. The steam rising off of the drink brought him the scent of alcohol.
“What is it?” He wanted to know, watching her take another sip of the drink.
“It’s called Berovian. It’s actually a drink derived from the ancient death dwellers. It contains chocolate, among numerous other things.” She laughed, and he glanced at it suspiciously. “You really have to try it before you judge it.” She persuaded.
“Ok, I guess I’ll try it. But only a little.” Embry gave in cautiously. The girl left and came back with a steaming cup, which he quickly took a gulp of to get it over with, and found that he enjoyed the Berovian. It tasted wonderful; leaving a sweet taste on his tongue and warming his belly.
“So, where do you want to start?” The girl began. And so Embry began to learn of death.
No one knew when death was created; only that it expanded into the endless vortex of time. It had been the haven for almost every person who has died. But recently Death has been undergoing dark changes. Rats roam the alley’s, hypnotizing unwilling passerby’s for food. Shadow’s become murderer’s, stalking their prey at night. Other countless things were happening, threatening the existence of Death’s souls. Death was no longer the resting place that it used to be. No, it was now turning into a horrible hell.
“But why is all this happening?” Embry said, his head resting in his arms on the table, his cup of Berovian empty.
“No one knows. That’s why we hoped a king would help. Everyone is counting on you.” She answered. Embry didn’t answer and she continued.
“There are other places, other resting places for the dead. They are known as the otherworlds, and are reserved for the more monstrous species. For some reason, they are leaking into our death, instead of staying in theirs. That’s how the rats got in, and the shadow monsters. We don’t know how much longer we will survive. Somehow, we need to stop the destruction—” She was interrupted by a knocking on the door. She stood up and opened it, revealing a short skinny man with an Afro of kinky red hair.
“Squip!” The girl cried happily. “I’m so happy you could make it!”  

[azurara]

And that is it for now. wink  

[Lady Pole]

I hope you publish it soon, because I need to find out what happens!
I really like this story so far. I'm totally hooked.  

[azurara]

Thanks! Maybe I'll post some more of it later. wink  

[Lady Pole]

azurara

Thanks! Maybe I'll post some more of it later. wink

:nudge:  

[Underestimated_Angel]

I love it. Somehow, I can just totally believe it when you write it. I can't do that.