White Death

Chapter Two

Dazed he looked around. He wanted to lift his hand up to scratch the back of his head but when his fingers rubbed over the material he sat on he kept rubbing and looked down. He was sitting a bed, with prefect white sheets. White, just like the walls, the floor, the door and the window post of this room. All was white and it reflected the sunlight that blasted in through the window. He had to squint his eyes against it, not used to it as it was supposed to be winter. But looking out the one window, seeing the clear, perfect blue sky, there was no sign of winter to be seen.

'Where the fuck am I?' He looked down at his clothing and frowned. Even they were white. White loose pants and a white button-up shirt, even his shoes! White sandals! But the thing that surprised him the most, was that he was clean. And the clothing was clean. He sniffed, not the stench of his own sweat and the mud he slept him, but soap and shampoo. The idea of someone washing him while he was unconscious sent shivers down his spine and he forced his thoughts elsewhere. Like how in the Hell he came here!

The last thing he remembered was being shadowed by three bulky men. Duo had made the wrong decision by walking into a dark alley with a dead end. He was trapped and as he turned around he remembered seeing that one of the guys had a baseball bat with him. He didn't know what they wanted from him, he had no food, no water and these were obviously no homeless men. They wore fashionable sport shirts and brand new jeans and sneakers. He remembered they just started kicking and beating him, he flinched, remembering vividly the force that was used to slam the bat into his back and stomach.

But the last fragment his mind could summon was him, lying on the ground, on his back, his vision was blurry. He could feel something trickle down his face, blood. He whole body ached and he just stared up at the man, who raised the bat and then swooshed it down, aiming for his face. He must have hit him, for he could remember the intolerable pain and then... nothing. His mind was blank after that. Common sense told him the men thought he knew something THEY wanted to know and they took him to their house to interrogate him. But from his years on the streets he knew no one would survive such a blow in the face. Beside, he could not find the remains of any wound that had been on his body last night.

Am I dead? He asked himself. He whipped his head up at the door as it opened almost soundlessly. He frowned, the man walking in was certainly not one of the guy from last night.

He was old, well, at least he had grey hair, about at shoulder length, held together in a braid. Surprisingly his face showed no signs of age. His frown deepened as he wondered why the hell the guy wore a dress. It was a white Sari (a.k.a. Saree, Sare, Seere, Sadi etc), he could tell that much, but a Sari was a traditional outfit for Indian women!

'Ah, you are awake I see.' He closed the door behind him and walked up to the bed, Duo scooted back as far as he could.

'What do you want from me?' He snapped, eyeing the man suspiciously.

'What makes you think I want anything from you?' The man calmly asked, taking another step forward.

'Well, then why am I here?'

'Everyone comes here... eventually.' The man said with a gentle, understanding smile on his face.

'... Am I dead?'

'Yes.'

Okay, so this was supposed to be the moment when he gasped in surprised and his eyes would grow big and shimmer with unshed tears. Well, that just wasn't who Duo was.

The man looked up, strangely with only mild surprise as Duo's laughter bubbled from his mouth, echoing off the walls in the almost empty room. The pale old man just waited for him to finish, to lose his breath, never interrupting. Never saying a word.

That didn't satisfy Duo and he soon fell silent, gazing at the man. Then laughed shortly again and shook his head. 'Very funny, I get it now...'

One grey eyebrow was raised.

'So, where are the camera's? I didn't know the Jamie Kennedy Xperiment also picked on homeless people. Or is this Punk'd?' He laughed again, but fell silent when the man did not seem amused and did not do anything that would prove that this was a hidden camera show.

'C'mon, I mean... the dress? It kinda gave it away...'

The man cast his gaze down, a mixture of guilt and that annoying understanding shone in his grey eyes. 'I am afraid you don't understand. You really are dead...'

'Of course I am! But if this is heaven, i have to say you sent me to the wrong destination.' He sarcastically said with a grin. It was strange that the man didn't budge and seemed very serious, but he was probably a hired actor or something. No biggie.

'I know... But for you, the Supreme Court made an exception.'

Duo felt a little itch. He didn't trust the situation. It seemed so logical and stupid at the same time that he was dead, it left him confused. He COULD believe he was death, but this was not what he expected heaven or hell to be. It all sounded so fake. 'the Supreme Court' it sounded like a cheap movie with bad plot and was only watched by people because good actors played in it. And even they could not make it an success.

'What, you don't have anything to say to that?' the man questioned, smirking a bit.

Duo was just confused and didn't know what to think of this situation.

'Come.'

Duo stubbornly shook his head.

'Come with me, I'll show you.' He reached his hand out towards Duo, but duo just looked at it as if something dirty was handed over to him.

The man sighed, then quickly went to the side of the bed, grabbed Duo's arm and pulled him up.

'Hey!' Duo tried to free himself but the man's grip was stronger then he predicted.

'I'm sorry Duo, but everyone has to go through the denial phase in a quickened pace.' He dragged Duo with him out of the room. Not surprisingly the large hall they ended in had, just like the room, white walls and white ceiling. The floor was different though, broken white tiled, with in the middle of each tile a brown square. Strange, but it did make the hall look longer and wider. Or was it really that big? Grand chandeliers hung from the ceiling, their gold reflecting the sunlight that streamed in through high windows.

They past many, many doors and finally reached a small hallway to the right and left the immense hall. Duo did not know if it was just his mind playing with him or if he really could not see the end of the hall, it was THAT large.

'What is in all those rooms?' Duo questioned, deciding to give up pretending to be in a show, if that was the case, then he would be caught by surprise.

'People like you. Newcomers.' The man said, they left the small hallway through which they left the large hall and ended up on a large square. Grey-white tiles and a few field of grass, giving the square it's only colour except the blue sky above. In the middle there was a large fountain and for the first time he saw more people walking about. Dressed in the same strange way as his escort. They walked slowly and calmly, like they were in no hurry at all, like they had all the time of the world. It unnerved him. What unnerved him even more was the realisation that this could not be some set up... it was just too immense. So he really was dead? What would happen now?

'Do you believe me now?'

'Do I have a choice?'

'You don't seem sad.' He remarked and duo shrugged, the man could not be more right. Of course he wasn't sad, his life was hell! Days were filled with hunger, sadness, loneliness, fear. He just never got his lucky break, but maybe this was it.

'I am Java.' The man in white finally introduced himself, he held out his hand and cautiously Duo shook it.

'Java Who?'

'Just Java.'

They released hands and Java walked on. Not knowing what else to do, Duo followed him while looking around like a curious child, eager to learn about the world.

'So... Java, where am I?'

'You are in the city of angels... sort of... think of it as the capital of heaven.' Java finally said with smile, looking back to see Duo's reaction. But Duo remained sober, still silently hoping this was all a joke. They walked past white pillars in old roman style that supported the second, third and forth floor of the huge building, with a square in the centre.

They entered another small hall while Java kept talking to him about insignificant things like why the building was build the way it was. This one building covered the entire city, a city the size of Tokyo, with once in a while a large square with fountains of grass fields. He was amazed that no one got lost in here, at least, he thought no one did. Java didn't really give him details about that.

They encountered a few women, angels, as all people here were apparently angels. They were also dressed in white Sari's, what he immediately noticed was that the hems of their Sari's were gold. He looked at Java, but his was complete white and so far he recalled that all the others he had seen also didn't have golden edges.

'What's with the gold?'

Java frowned and looked around, then he spotted the women. 'Ah, it is not just decoration. There are different kind of angels. You have angels who are born here and people who lived a good life on earth and instead of just going to heaven, they get the honour of becoming an angel. The golden edge means they are pure angels, they never experienced life on earth.'

'So you were human first?'

Java nodded 'Yes, but before you think of me as unworthy and inexperienced, keep in mind that I have been an angel for over five thousand years.'

Duo's eyes widened shortly. 'How old do angels get?'

'We are already dead, so we can't die. But after ten thousand years, you are freed and will be send to heaven as a normal..., dead, person. Finally free from the obligations you had as an angel.'

He made it sounds like being an angel was quite an un-godly, no pun intended, job. They were in a large hall again, one similar to the first one they had been, only this time he could see the end, a large wooden door.

'You said that 'The Supreme Court' made an exception for me, why? I didn't live a perfect life. I don't even want to become an angel.'

Java raised his eyebrows 'You don't? But as an angel you can help so many people!'

'Yeah, but I don't want to become an angel... because they never bothered to help me when I needed them!'

The conversation died as it started to get uncomfortable and they walked the rest of the way in silence. He wondered what was behind that door. God? Was Java bringing him to God?

'Where are we going?'

'The Supreme Court, where you can have all your questions answered.'

Finally some good news.

'And after that?'

'Then we get you settled in.'

Settled in? Who said that he was staying?

The doors opened automatically for them and closed behind them with a echoing bang. They were in what seemed like a large white... ballroom. There was a row of pillars to support the weight of the ceiling and different from the hall was that even the floor was white.

In the centre of the room, on a small stage stood three chairs, thrones. The one in the middle was the largest, with red pillows, the other two were smaller and had golden pillows. No one was there, but he guessed it were the seats of the so called 'Supreme Court'. A name that gave him the urge to laugh since it reminded him to a cheap, really, really bad movie he once saw.

'I come here to present to you, Duo Maxwell.' Java ceremonially said. Duo was just about to point out to the grey haired man that, obviously, no one was there when he suddenly heard a voice behind him.

'Java, you are late.'

Jumping in surprise, Duo turned, three men, with looks similar to Java's, past by him to take a seat in their thrones. He frowned and looked back at the large wooden door. How did they come in without them hearing?

He turned back to the old men, now seated. The first thing he noticed was that their outfits were graced with golden lines. So that meant they were born here, if he remembered correctly.

He felt a little uncomfortable with the three of them staring at him like he was a piece of meat.

'The one and only Duo Maxwell.' The man in the largest throne finally said.

Duo frowned, was he famous up here? He had a feeling that it wasn't meant in a good way.

'I can't even start counting the times you cursed us Angels. Even an immortal man doesn't have the time for it.'

Duo switched his gaze to his feet.

'What did we ever do to you?' He questioned.

'Nothing,' Duo softly answered, 'That's the problem.'

'Did you expect us to clean up every time you made a mess!' He angrily asked, leaning forward a bit, strengthening his glare on the braided young man.

'You could have at least helped me out a bit.'

'We did help you out. More then you deserve. We introduced you to the orphanage, many families were willing to adopt you, but YOU refused.'

'And then you just decided to burn the orphanage down!' Duo screamed, finally looking up.

'... We are not responsible for everything that happens on earth.'

'We are not here to discuss what happened in the past,' Java said after a moment of silence, 'We are here to discuss Duo Maxwells future.'

'I rather go to hell then spend eternity with murderers like you people.' Duo growled, angry why he couldn't just been sent to Hell. And he was in no mood to talk to anyone. He was used to talking to nobody but himself.

'That happens to be impossible, since you are not officially dead.'

Surprised Duo looked up at the men in the thrones and then at Java.

'We took your sould out of your body before they delivered the final blow.'

Duo just kept on frowning.

'When the soul is not in the body at the moment of dying, you are not dead. Your body is waiting for you in the hospital back on earth.'

'Why did you let me live?'

'We saw it as a good opportunity to show you what we really do up here. To make you see that we don't just sit on a cloud and send lightening down to earth with the intention to kill... as you once so flatteringly described our job.'

'If you hate me so much, why care?'

'We thought that you deserved to see what we really do and we thought you deserved a second chance in life, that's why we let you live.'

'And what about Solo! Didn't he deserve a second chance!' Just when he said that his eyes grew wide with realisation and a smile appeared on his face. 'Is Solo here!' He asked excitedly.

'No.'

Yeah, stomp on my dreams, why don't ya. 'Is he... is he in Hell?' He had a hard time controlling his anger. Nobody just sends Solo to Hell!

'No, he is in Heaven, he just isn't an angel. He did not live his life perfectly.'

'C'mon, he was five and homeless! What did you expect!'

'We know, that's why we didn't sent him to Hell.'

'Can I visit him?'

'Let's just get to the point.' The man in the large throne said, ignoring his last question. 'We have granted you permission to stay here for an unlimited amount of time.'

'Unlimitted?'

'Yes, you'll be send home as soon as we see fit.'

'Jippy fucking yay...' He sarcastically said and waited for the man to continue, but apparently, he was done. He came down from his throne, so did the others and walked away.

When he turned, they were gone, again he never heard the large creaking door open and shut.

'You took it surprisingly well. Realising you were dead but... not really dead... hearing that you'll be staying here for a long while...' Java stopped when Duo lay a hand on his shoulder.

'I'm still in shock, believe me, the ranting WILL come. Mark my words.'

Java smiled, not at all impressed nor threatened. 'I will be your guide during you're stay. Feel free to ask me anything.' Java lay his hand on Duo's shoulder and guided him to the door. 'Come, I'll show you your room.'

They went through many halls again, some large, some small, but all were long. Up a few grand stairs to the third floor of the immense building. When Duo asked him how come people didn't got lost, for as far as he knew Java answered with a smile: 'They have ten thousands years to find their way here. I myself know this place like the back of my hand.'

'Here is your room.' They stopped in front of one of the many white doors in the hall. His name was written on the door in shiny ice blue letters.

The first thing Duo noticed was that there was no lock on the door, but he decided not to mention right away.

Java opened the door and Duo was not at all surprised to see that it was mostly white, broken white in this case, to make it a little warmer and the bed was from dark wood and had red sheets.

Their was a small desk that was surprisingly made out of glass, just like the chair and a stack of paper lay on it. Duo frowned and gave Java a questioning look.

'Most want to keep a diary...' He softly explained.

He was shown the shower and he couldn't help but ask why you needed to shower even after you were dead.

'You'd be surprised just how much life in heaven resembles that on earth. You have to eat, sleep, pee,' he winked, which made Duo chuckle, 'And shower... for our sake.'

Going back to the main room Duo went to stand in front of the window, looking outside. Thank god he had a view of a large square, with a large fountain in the middle and benches surrounding it. It seemed so much like a market place on earth, only then without the stands. But there were many people, Angels, walking about, talking and laughing.

The setting sun bathed all the white in warm orange colours. When it slowly became dark lights sprang on all at the same time and stars filled the darkening sky, not a cloud to be seen, maybe because the city was above all the clouds?

When he finally turned around he noticed Java was long gone. But he shouldn't have expected him to stay, he had been staring out of the window for, probably, hours. He didn't even notice...

Eternity did went by fast...

He looked down at himself when his stomach rumbled. He could stay here, risk starvation while waiting for Java, or he could try to find food for himself. Being a streetrat and more then capable to take care of himself he chose the latter. Though he should have known better.

Down the hall, to the right, the first stair he would encounter, he remembered that much from when Java brought him to his room, but as soon as he stood at the bottom of the stairs, he was lost. He could go straight ahead, left or right. He wasn't sure where they came from, all the halls were similar. All white.

He went straight ahead, then took a right turn, another right turn, without thinking about it he took another right turn and chuckled when he found himself back at the stairs where he had been before. At least, he though it was the stairs he'd been before. All the stairs, just like the halls, looked similar, except for the few big ones in the large halls.

Knowing he had to find the grand stairs to get back to the first floor he choose left this time but a few steps into the hall he stopped. He couldn't see the end of the hall, it was a hall with doors similar to the door to his rooms. With names in blue writing on it.

He thought about knocking and asking if someone knew the way, but he wasn't about to give up that easily. He went back and took a right turn. A few left turns, a few times straight ahead. But he was lost in an endless maze of narrow hall. Walking through them he occupied himself with reading the names. Some strange, some normal, some unpronounceable

'Where is Java when you need him.'

'Right here'

Shocked, to say te least Duo turned to find Java standing a few feet away from him.

'Lost Duo?'

Duo huffed. 'Of course not. I was just enjoying the... scenery.' He said, his ego in the way.

'Of course you were. But, even though you are obviously not lost, do you allow me to guide you to the dinner hall of block S1?'

'Block S1? What is this, a prison?'

'No, there are just so many people that we can't stuff them all together in one dining room so we divided the building into blocks. Each block has it's own dining room.'

'It still sounds like a prison.' Duo retorted while Java guided him back through the halls, he seemed to know where he was going and before long they reached large, double, glass doors that said 'S1' in fancy letters. Behind it was a very large room, which seemed like some sort of restaurant with a walking buffet. Their must have been about a hundred tables, each round table had room for eight people.

The sound of eating angels, forks and knives clattering and sounds of laughter and conversations died away and all head turned towards Duo.

Duo, feeling uncomfortable with about eight hundred pairs of eyes fixed on him, just stared at his feet.

'Just get back to eating.' Java said with his ever friendly voice and they obeyed, ignoring them once again, continuing the chattering and clattering.

'Let's find you a spot. I know some nice kids.' Putting his arm around Duo's shoulders he guided him past a few tables, Duo looked around and saw that a blonde boy, sitting at one of the tables waved excitedly at them.

Java waved back and somewhat quickened his pace, walking towards the blonde who shared his table with five others.

'Quatre, I want you to meet Duo, whom I have spoken about to you earlier.'

'Yes, i remember Java.' The blonde, Quatre, smiled friendly at Duo. 'Have a seat.'

Slightly nervous duo sat down, the next thing he knew, Java left saying a quick goodbye and disappeared into the crowd, leaving them with six strangers, all looking at him.

'Hey, I'm Quatre and these are my friends:' He pointed to the young man sitting next to him, brown hair covereing half of his face and one of his gorgeous green eyes. 'Trowa Barton.'

Trowa nodded, but remained silent and his expression neatral.

'The grumpy Chinese,' Qautre pointed at a Chinese man, with black hair held in a pony tail and dark mysterious eyes, glaring at him, 'WuFei Chang, forgive him, we've been trying for a long time but the stick up his ass just wouldn't budge.' That brought up some laughter.

Quatre continued, introducing also the redhead sitting next to him, curly short hair and friendly grey eyes, named Catherine Bloom. A girl with blonde hair held in a pony tail and large blue eyes going by the name: Nina Berke and at last a young man with short, dark blond, curly hair, a face full of freckles and kind brown eyes: Charlie DeHaven.

Duo nodded friendly at them, still a little uncomfortable even though they, especially the small blonde Quatre, seemed like nice people.

'Well, I'm Duo Maxwell, just arrived.'

'Really? Usually they let the newbees dine in a different hall the first few days, 'cause they're still in shock.'

'Well, thus far I'm not all that shocked, I mean... I've been hoping, praying to die for a very long time.'

'Had a tough life on earth?'

He turned towards the Chinese, WuFei if he wasn't mistaken, who had asked the question. His eyes shown with understanding, he noticed his suit, not a sari but white pants and T-shirt like himself, had no golden rims. He nodded, as an answer to his question.

'So, what do you think thus far?' Nina asked, happily munching on a bite of food.

'Well, I haven't really seen all that much. Well actually I did, a lot of halls, but they all look the same anyway.' He earned a few laughs and then Quatre offered to walk him to the buffet. The kid must have read his mind.

Walking to the tables that were stuffed with all that you can immagine duo couldn't help but blurp out a few questions. Questions that really didn't matter, like:

'Why do you wear pants and shirts while some others wear sari's?'

Quatre shrugged 'You can choose what you want to wear and since we're young we choose this. The girls prefer the sari's as you can see, as do the older men as it is somewhat a symbol of status.'

'If you don't mind me asking,' Duo asked while filling his place, the scents driving him mad with hunger, 'How did you die?'

Quatre gave him a sad smile 'I don't mind. I... our plane crashed. I was going on a holliday with my parents with our private jet, for some unknown reason it crashed.'

'Did your parents also become angels?'

Again the sad smile. 'My father didn't, he was a bit an alcoholic, nothing awful, but he didn't live his life 'perfect'. My mother is an Angel though.' The smile turned into a happy one.

'How did you die?'

'I was homeless, got beaten up.' Duo simply said, for no apparent reason deciding not to tell Quatre that he wasn't really dead. He would feel like such a misfit.

They walked back to the table and Duo enjoyed listening to them while they talked and joked about things that were only funny if you had been there when it happened, but he still enjoyed it. Quatre tried, in vain, to include him in the conversation, but he preferred to just listen.

Miraculously Java showed up just when he was finished to bring him back to his room. When he walked with them for a while, when they reached the blondes room he said a polite goodbye and told Duo that he was more then welcome to visit and sit with them during dinner.

'What do you think?' Java asked, referring to Quatre.

'He's a nice guy, WuFei and Trowa are okay to, but I didn't really got an impression of them. The others seem nice too.'

'They are very nice, I'm sure you'll become friends. Here we are.' They had reached Duo's room and Java opened the door for him. 'Tomorrow I'll show you around a bit and introduce you to some of my friends and boys like Quatre, who I consider my sons.'

'Appreciate it. G'night.'

'Sleep well.'

Duo closed the door and leaned against it while looking into his room, it would be the first time since ages that he would sleep on a bed (without being unconscious after almost being killed). He suddenly felt a bit empty in the large white building where he would spend an 'unlimited amount of time'. What did that mean? A month? A year? Ten-thousand years? The thought was frightening. What if he didn't like it here? Would he have to spent eternity here? The thought of being immortal after dying didn't sound pleasant at all. Wasn't the fact that you were an earth for a limited amount of time the one thing that made life so special? Because everyday could be the last? He remembered some of the people on the square and in the halls, who weren't at all in a hurry. Why hurry? Because if you didn't get the job done today it would be tomorrow, if not tomorrow then you have all eternity to finish!

Sighing he went to lie on the bed, staring up at the, of course, white ceiling. He closed his eyes and slowly calmed down. Before he knew it he was slowly slipping away, the next time he would open his eyes it would be morning, and a smiling Java would stand beside his bed.

Hmmm... uh... I can't decide, what do you think?

The next chapter will probably be up soon since I found my muse! Been hiding under my bed the entire time! –winks-

C.W.