Chapter 2: Dead on Arrival

Danny

"Who are you?" Danny breathed angrily. His small form shook from his pent-up fury. He was coughing up ick, his family was dead, and this guy had the nerve to watch him like he's some amusing animal in a zoo!? Danny wanted to punch him in his smug mouth.

The man quirked an eyebrow at the question and folded his hands in his lap. "I'm the reason that you are alive. Now, sit and stop being so disrespectful." Unable to disobey, Danny stiffly marched over to the other folding chair and sat down, scowling. The man continued without even looking at him, making Danny livid. "You've grown quite a lot since I've last seen you. It's to be expected. You were a newborn at the time, all pink and squishy like most humans are when they're born. I didn't think you'd make it 12 hours, let alone 14 years."

Danny tried to say something snarky but found that his jaw was glued shut. The man sighed. "Even with as insignificant as humans are, I express my condolences for the loss of your family. Especially Madeline; it's difficult to come across someone as smart and creative as your mother was." Danny's eyes widened. The man actually sounded…apologetic? "I suppose it's my fault in a way. If you hadn't run into me today, we could have delayed the arrival of your more violent…abilities for at least another 2 years, even with the effects of the Ghost Portal accident."

Danny suddenly found his lips unstuck. "How do you know about that? Did you kill my family?"

"No, you did a fine job of killing them all by yourself," he quipped. "But I am the one who kept them dead; I'm Death, after all."

Danny stared at Death. It was impossible. It should be impossible, yet…why did it strike him as true? If it was true, then there was only one thinkable reason that he was here. "Are you going to kill me?" he whispered, the words nearly getting stuck in his throat.

Death rolled his eyes. "I obviously shouldn't have let you be raised by humans. You've apparently inherited their sense of supposed importance and their need to ask idiotic questions. No, foolish boy. Why would I have created you merely to kill you before you've done anything?"

"You talk like I'm not human, like I belong to you." Danny's chin jutted up in defiance. This being did not own him.

"Of course you belong to me, son," Danny reared back like he was struck. "You're an experiment that's turned out profitable, half human and half dead, created to live a few years and dissolve after your purpose is through." Death stared at him bored as Danny reeled with the information. How could he be half dead!? That was scientifically impossible! "I imagine that's why your body has started to leak ectoplasm. It is poison to the white blood cells of humans, yet your body produces it along with your blood. But it's still majorly incompatible with your body, so you will start expelling it in any way possible when you use your powers. It's possible that excessive use would kill you, but you'd have to wrestle an archangel for that to happen. You're the child of the one who will kill God, after all."

Danny's brain felt too small for all of this info. His mom cheated on Dad? With this? God existed? And now…now he was supposedly tied to Death for the rest of his now short life, like a pit-bull to its master? His eyes snapped up to meet Death's, which he now realized were the exact shade blue as his own. He had the being's hair too, without it being slicked back, and their mouths seemed similar in shape. Death smirked as if he could read Danny's thoughts. "What if I don't want to obey you?" he asked, licking his lips.

The room grew colder and the shadows around them grew deeper, blacker, much like the ectoplasm that was still oozing from his left eye. Death's lips quirked up as he took a sip of his soft drink, the straw slurping noisily as nothing was found in the cup. "You don't have a choice, Daniel," he grimaced. "I wish your mother had named you something else, it's like talking to one of the walking feather dusters…" he muttered, but soon focused back on his creation. "Humans may have free will, but you're not completely human. This means you obey me."

The words swirled around Danny's brain, imprinting them into his memory forever. He could feel their meaning take hold of him, like the very sentence was wrapped around his limbs, forcing him to follow the orders of the immortal before him. Danny knew with absolute certainty that he couldn't defy any orders he gave him.

He was trapped. Forever.