"Is that a guitar?" Ted asked.

Death looked down at the basic black and white fender stratocaster. Yeah, figured I could practice a bit while we wait around.

"You play the guitar?" queried Sid.

I haven't before, but hey, I figure it can't be that hard, right? Death explained. Plus, just imagine me grinding along a rail while jamming out on this guitar. You gotta admit, that'd be pretty sick.

Ted shook his head. "Things are just a little tense right now. I don't know that it's really a great time to work on that."

I mean, no time like the present, right? Death said. Besides, we're just going to be waiting around anyway, right?

Kkrrrr

Abraham finished pushing a table in front of the door. He stepped back and looked at the skeleton for a moment before he moved over to an open seat in the corner and sat down.

"Would him making noise truly change things?" Azrail offered. "This strange creature of a man is strong, but I doubt any noise we make would alert him to our presence any more than simply being here would. After all, he seems quite perceptive."

"I do not know if it is appropriate," Sid agreed, "but I agree with Azrail. If we do not have more preparations to make, then I do not see Death practicing the guitar actively harming us."

Ted rubbed the back of his neck. It was that Death felt so relaxed about everything more than him wanting to play the guitar. They'd basically painted targets on all of their backs when they tried to kill the smiling man. He had somehow survived and was here now. With how aggressive he had been, and how much he tried to instigate fighting, how could he not come after them?

"But what if he tries to sneak up on us?" Ted asked in what he thought was a flash of genius. "If you're playing the guitar, we wouldn't hear him coming."

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"We never had the luxury of hearing him coming before," Sid reminded Ted. "I doubt that will change today. Guitar or not."

Ted knew he was right as soon as he said it. Defeated, he just agreed.

"You're right," Ted said. "It won't make any difference. Besides, there's not much more we can do here until Og'drimun gets Narissa, and maybe she can do some magic or something."

"Real magic, huh?" Azrail mused. "I'm afraid I've only seen the fake kind. More trickery than actual magical ability."

Abraham scoffed. "I figured you'd have half a dozen stories about magic."

Azrail glanced down at his own open palms and smiled. "I'm afraid not. Plenty of stories and rumors of powerful magicians forcing others to bend to their will. Even one time this young girl convinced my handlers that she had destroyed our seat of government. It was quite convincing, but in the end, she was nothing but a charlatan."

Abraham smirked but kept quiet as he leaned back in his chair so far that the front two legs lifted off of the ground. He kept it up and managed to balance the chair as he just barely rocked back and forth.

Death pulled out a guitar pick that looked like it was carved from bones and strummed it down the strings. Sweet, time to get in some real practice!

He wasn't too bad. He had a decent rhythm, and then he tried to play some chords. Ted's opinion of his skill immediately flipped. It was obvious not only that he had never played before, but that he hadn't even looked at a p pamphlet about how to play the guitar.

Discordant notes flew through the air as Death's skeletal fingers ran wildly over the guitar strings.

"Maybe this was not the best idea," Sid stated as he physically cringed from the terrible noises being forced out of the poor musical instrument.

"Sounds like music to my ears," Abraham said with a smirk as he folded his both of his hands behind his head.

"There is a sort of pleasure in the amateur nature of it," Azrail lied.

Ted physically winced as the guitar wailed under Death's fingers. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad when the smiling man showed up. Then they would at least have something else to focus on.

"What, are you hoping his ears will fall off?" Narissa said as she walked into the room with a stern frown on.

Hey, Narissa! Glad to see it's you there Lulu, and not...well, you know. Death pretended to cough as he stopped playing.

"Happy to be of service," Lulu smirked as she tipped her head towards Death. "Of course, physical appreciation is not necessary, but definitely encouraged."

She held out her straw hat towards Death and coughed as she made it obvious that she was asking for monetary compensation.

Death let out a laugh that sounded like rusty iron gates swinging in the wind. I don't really have pockets in this, but...ah! Here you go.

He dropped the guitar pick into her hat. As she nodded gratefully to him, Ted let out a sigh of relief.

But that relief was quickly shattered as Death said, Not like I need it anyway, I can just pluck at the strings with both hands! Like I'm always doing a solo.

"Fine, but not while I'm here," Narissa warned. "We need to prepare for that monster to show up, don't we?"

"We barricaded the door and haven't really gotten around to doing much else." Ted explained. "We're not sure if that will even do much, or anything at all."

Narissa looked over at Sid. "That's it huh? Usually, you guys seem so skilled at preparing for things. I'm a little surprised that's all you've done."

Sid looked away from her and stayed silent. Ted let out a sigh and looked down at the ground. To him, it felt like she was calling him out directly. He was trying, but it apparently wasn't enough.

"Right, well whatever," Narissa said as she strolled up to the center of the room. "No need to worry about that, because I'm here now! Just follow my excellent directions, and we'll have this place ready with the greatest trap you never could have dreamed up. If he dares show his face in here, he'll be in for quite the surprise!"

Ted nodded. "Alright, just tell us what to do."