#zepporah

[keyiithecity]

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#zepporah #kingdomwar beautiful voice! (at Kingdom WAR Church)

[100dow2010]

050. Breaking the Rules

             “Quick, hide!”

             “Where?” she hisses. “These rooms aren’t exactly secret-friendly.”

             “Um,” I murmur, searching frantically for any place she could use to hide. “Here, under the covers!” I decide, pulling back my bedsheets for her.

             “If I’m found in your bed, that’ll just make it worse. I can just leave…”

             “No!” I shout. Another round of knocking sounds. “It might be nothing, you don’t have to go!”

             “It sure doesn’t sound like nothing.”

             “Just get in!” I command. Finally, she obeys. There’s still a visible mound on the bed where she is, so I try to hide it beneath more blankets and pillows and such. It doesn’t work.

             Louder, angrier knocks come, so I shout, “I’m coming!” just as angrily before opening up the door. It’s Zipporah. She looks like she’s about to knock again, but, without the door there, her fist is a few inches from smacking me right in the forehead.

             “Machiel,” she snarls.

             “Zipporah,” I respond, and sigh, “To what do I owe this pleasure?”

             “I thought I heard someone in here with you,” she says, coming in without an invitation. “A female. You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that, would you, Machi?”

             “Don’t call me that,” I growl.

             “Do you know anything about that, Machi?” she repeats, flipping a long strand of hair at me playfully.

             Looking over to my bed to make sure nothing is visible, I see Talma is no longer there. I sigh. “Well, gee, Zipporah, I don’t know. Last time I checked talking to girls wasn’t a crime, even to Kanzah.”

             “It is for you,” she spits.

             “Oh? And why’s that?” I ask, giving her a dumbly innocent smile.

             “Don’t think I’m not on to you,” she says and jabs a finger into my chest. “I know what you’re up to.”

             “Oh, excuse me. I forgot how offensive being friends with girls is so offensive to you stuffy higher-ups.”

             “Is that what you call it,” she pouts, thrusting her finger hard enough forward to send me reeling a few steps backward. “Well, that may have been how you operated back when you were human, but let me tell you something: we don’t do that sort of thing around here.”

              “Really? Maybe that’s why you’re wound so tight; maybe you should try it sometime. Of course, not with Kanzah: that would just be wrong. If you want, I’ve got some time free right now.”

             I smirk at her, and soon her fist is ramming against the side of my head, sending me falling to the ground. I reach my hand up to the wound, but the hit wasn’t even hard enough to draw blood.

             “You’re revolting,” she spits through clenched teeth, before spinning around and marching out my door.

             “And you’re up-tight!” I call after her. “My offer still stands, though.”

             She doesn’t respond, so I get up and slam the door shut. Looking around at my once-again empty room, I sigh and jump on my bed, lying on my back with my hands behind my head until I fall asleep.

[100dow2010]

019. Gray

     I tried to tell him something—anything—to comfort him in his last few minutes, but the words stuck in my throat. As his grip on my hand slowly loosened, all that managed to escape from my throat was senseless stammers.

            “You can’t have him,” I said without turning around.

            “Well, isn’t this interesting,” a female voice responded. “It’s a pleasure to finally meet you in person.”

            My whole body clenched. “You aren’t taking him; I won’t let you.”

            “Oh, really. And why is that?” she asked, coming to stand next to me at the foot of his bed.

            “He’s the only person in this world I ever cared for, and the only who’s ever cared for. You can’t take him fro me.” I felt tears rolling down my checks, but I didn’t care. All that I cared about right now was not letting her take my only friend.

            “I’m sorry, Michael, I really am, but it’s nothing personal. It’s just my job. All of you people die eventually.”

            Suddenly there was a sickle in her hand and it slashed through him without leaving a trace and just like that I could tell that whatever had been left of him was now gone forever.

            Grabbing the woman who just killed my one and only friend, I looked her straight in the eyed and said through clenched teeth, “Bring him back. Now.”

            “I’m afraid I can’t do that,” she said through a smile. “If you’d like to negotiate his return, though, I can take you to my boss. I’m sure he’d love to meet with you.”

            “Fine. I’ll do whatever it takes.”

            As soon as I let go of her and stood up, the floor suddenly fell out from under us. In an instant, the hospital room I was in was replaced by endless, swirling black.

            Then, in another instant, I was coughing my lungs out on a hard, gray floor. At first I thought it was another endless color, but then gray walls and a gray ceiling came into focus. There was no distinctive feature on anything, though. It was all just… gray.

            “Well, come on, then. It’s best not to keep Kanzah waiting. I’m sure he’s expecting you.”

            Now that I was on my way to saving my friend, I took the time to calm down and study my guide. She had long, red hair that was adorned with what must have been multiple pounds of jewelry. Large, golden rings hung from her ears; smaller rings latched onto the majority of her fingers. Her icy blue eyes gave me a look that told me she was enjoying how angry I was.

            “Shall we?” she asked again.

            “Lead the way,” I answered, my voice full of hostility.

            She led me straight through a big set of gray doors, into a plain, gray room. A little kid in a gray business suit sat behind a thankfully brown desk, watching the door as we entered.

            “He finally asked to see you,” the woman and said and walked over to the boy.

            “I’ve been waiting for you, Machiel.”

            I ignored them both and stormed over the desk, pounding my fists down hard enough to make everything on it jump. “You’ve got my friend here somewhere and I’m not leaving until I get him back.”

            “He can’t come back,” the kid told me plainly. “Your friend is dead. His time had come.”

            “Don’t give me that crap!” I yelled, wiping everything off his desk in one angry swipe. “He was only twenty-five, how could you say it was his time already? You have to bring him back! He had so much to live for! And now… I’ve got nothing. Why should I go on if you take him away? What am I supposed to live for?”

            I ended my rant right next to the kid’s face, but his expression was the same as it had been before I had said anything.

            The woman who had brought me in here, however, made no attempt to hide her laughter. “Cute. Is he your boyfriend or something?”

            The kid and I both ignored her, staring at each other for a long time before he asked, “You have no reason to live without him?”

            “N- No, I-”

            “Would you do anything to save him?”

            “Yes, of course!”

            “Then work for me.”

            I took a step backward and gave him a weird look. “What?”

            “Stay here and guide souls for me and I will let your friend come back to life. You will be able to see him whenever you’re not on duty, and he’ll be free to live the rest of his life.”

            I stopped to think, looking between the two as I did. He had the same expressions still; she had a wide smile that I didn’t trust at all. But still… it would save him.

            “You’ve got a deal,” I told the kid and stretched my hand out. He took it, then smiled the tiniest bit.

            “Of course, first you will have to die.”

            A split second later, I felt the worst pain I had ever felt in my life. I looked down to see a gaping hole in my chest, and what looked like the kid eating my insides.

            The next thing I knew, I was waking up on a gray bed with a throbbing headache and no idea what was going on.

            And I’ve been surrounded by gray ever since.