“Are you really going to make me ask?” Death wasn’t even paying attention to me as we walked down the hall to what I assumed was his room or office or study or wherever it was that he did things.

“About what I was doing while I had you digging?” As much as I wanted to know that, it wasn’t exactly what I’d had in mind when I asked. “I don’t understand your confusion, it is quite obvious that I was also digging.”

“That isn’t what I meant.” I was glaring at him but he was walking too far ahead of me to see. “I meant that.” I poked at the box, which he deftly moved out of my reach as soon as I got near.

“I’ll tell you eventually, right now I just need you to take a shower. You smell. I can’t go walking around with a smelly collector now can I?”

“Are you ki…”

“Hide.” He’d stopped suddenly and shoved me aside into another room just as I heard footsteps. I peeked out of the doorway just in time to get a good look. “You can come out once I’ve left.”

“Dante! Where have you been?” Before I even had time to think about questioning him, Hope had come out of nowhere and grabbed hold of him to drag him away. Her efforts to move him were in vain, but it didn’t look like it was actually stopping her from trying. “And why are you covered in dirt? You’re filthy! I swear I let you out of my sight for one minute and you go off somewhere and come back looking like…”

“Here.” Dante pulled something out of his pants pocket and held it out to her, I couldn’t see it from where I was standing but it had shut her up and her eyes were glowing. “Its previous owner didn’t have the guts to give it, so I dug him up to do it myself.”

“You remembered!” Hope flung herself around him and I turned away, slightly embarrassed to be watching someone else’s embrace.

“Hope, I’m getting dirt on you. Perhaps we could carry on elsewhere after cleaning up a bit.”

“Fine, let’s go.” Hope stayed put hanging from his neck as he walked down the hall and out of sight.

“They’re weird aren’t they…” Amy had come down the hall from the opposite direction.

“They’re kind of a cute couple though, maybe if Death had a little more emotion they would look like a normal cute couple.”

“Nothing about that is normal. You heard the part about him digging up a grave to get that pendant for her, right?”

“So that’s what it was. I guess that solves that mystery.”

“So what did you end up doing?” Amy was looking at my dirty appearance curiously.

“I dug up a grave, destroyed a fake corpse, and retrieved a mysterious box that I don’t know what’s inside.”

“Sounds like a typical Tuesday to me.” Amy shrugged.

“So it’s Tuesday. Good to know again.” The separation from time I’d felt since waking up had been bothering me.

“Come on, let’s get you cleaned up,” Amy chuckled. I felt like I was missing something. “I’ll show you where the shower is.”

---------------

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

I’d already washed up but something had stopped me from getting dressed again. I had passed in front of the mirror and seen something out of place. It was me, but I couldn’t recognize my reflection, which was arguably the most philosophical and simultaneously cliché thing I had ever thought about. Nothing about me had really changed. I’d braided my hair and my eyes were drawn to the scar on my chest, but there was a deeper change that the mirror could only hint at. I wasn’t the same girl. I’d begun to lose myself. Hardly any time had passed at all and yet I wasn’t afraid of anything anymore, and that scared me more than anything ever had. My very existence was a mystery to me, I was lost. A new hatred for mirrors was beginning to form in my mind.

“Are you done in here yet?” I wasn’t sure how long I’d been staring at myself, confused. It must have been a while for Amy to walk in. “Samantha?”

“How long did it take you to realize you were someone different?” She’d been through the whole thing before right? If anyone understood, she would.

“You seem to be going through the motions pretty fast.” She grabbed a robe from the hook by the door and wrapped it around me. “It took me three months, but it didn’t surprise me when I first saw it. I figured it would happen, just not so fast.”

“How did you deal with it?”

“I kept a part of who I used to be alive. As long as I still know that it’s safe, I can deal with what I am.”

“What is it?” I couldn’t think of anything from my old life that I could save, I never really had much to begin with.

“I had a brother. I killed Hope to save his life. Even though I’ve been forced to live like this forever, he got the chance to live a normal life. He started a family that’s stayed strong for generations, I survive by keeping tabs on them.”

“I had a brother.”

“Where is he now?” Amy sounded optimistic, as though I could have the same connection as she did,

“Dead.” I mumbled. “He disappeared after a gang fight involving the kid I killed. That was part of the reason I did it, actually.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.” Amy’s optimism had disappeared.

“It’s okay, I’m a tough girl. I can manage.”

“Staring at your reflection for an hour isn’t exactly a strong indicator that you can.”

“I just fell asleep for a bit.”

“We don’t sleep.”

“I’m over it. Could you just give me some fresh clothes already?” I didn’t want to talk about it anymore because the more I thought about it the worse I felt. I was still me, I just had to remember it.

“Here,” Amy held out a small pile of clean clothes that looked suspiciously like her own, “Make it quick. I’ll be waiting in our room, I have something to show you.” I took the clothes and put them on the counter in front of me, now bothered by the fact that I had been expected to find clothes on my own before her arrival. The thought was only a mild distraction, however.

Eager to escape the gaze of the reflection in the mirror, I threw my clothes on as quickly as I could and made my way out of the washroom. The room I shared with Amy was just down and across the hall. It would have been more convenient if our room had its own facilities but something told me the layout of the place was meant to be anything but convenient. When I walked into the room I didn’t notice anything particularly out of the ordinary. Amy was sitting at the same wooden table I’d sat frozen at before. The only real change I saw in the room was the chessboard she’d set up on the table. Was that what she wanted to show me?

“Chess?” I remembered playing when I was little, I couldn’t remember who with, but I hadn’t been good at it and I couldn’t really remember how to play.

“This is how I pass a lot of my time. Hope has never been the most active contractor, so I play a lot. Mostly with myself, but you’re here now.” She paused. “That is if you want to. I won’t force you to play, people don’t tend to play games they know they’ll lose.”

“Who said I would lose?” I sat down, grinning. I probably would lose, but a challenge sounded nice. Even if it was only chess, knowing I wasn’t completely invincible would be refreshing.

“Do you know how to play?”

I nodded.

“Pick your side then.”

“White moves first right?”

Amy nodded, returning my previous gesture with a smile.

“White then.”

Amy carefully spun the board around so that the white pieces were in front of me.

“The last person I played, who wasn’t me, said that even though white moves first black has the advantage of getting to know their opponents strategy before revealing their own.”

“I’ll be honest, my strategy here isn’t very subtle.” I moved a pawn forward. “I. Am. Aggressive.”