Chapter 3: Not Alone Anymore

The hospital was in an even worse condition with a person dead in the waiting room. The corpse remained because the hospital was so short-staffed. Death vanished and reappeared briefly to ferry the souls of the dead.

It certainly wasn't a surprise when they found the doctor tied up and gagged. Kitty was busy licking his hand. She wasn't having his kittens yet which was a relief. There were no signs that anyone tried to rescue the doctor either.

"Stop this, now," Puss said. Death surely had a way to bring Kitty back to her senses.

"Yes, yes." Death used his sickles to graze Kitty's head, drawing blood. "Wake up."

"You're my one and only!" Kitty embraced Death.

Death growled. "This – this feels nice. No one ever hugged me before." He leaned in for a kiss which Kitty allowed.

"Focus, Muerte," Puss said.

"Oww," Kitty yelled. There was an arrow sticking out of her head. "Pinch me."

Puss did as Kitty instructed.

She curled up into a ball. "This is just a nightmare, and I will wake up soon."

"Child, it was my mistake," Lamb said from the wall.

"You should have let him claim her." Wolf had just his head sticking out of the wall. "If only you waited a few seconds."

"Claim me?" Kitty said with righteous indignation. "As if you could."

"I easily can," Wolf whispered creepily in her ear.

"You are MINE." Lamb tackled Wolf. She tossed away her wolf mask and started kissing Wolf.

"How about fixing the dog first?" Death said.

"You have extended their strings time and again. Why?"

"Why have you used a love arrow on Kitty?"

"Do you seek companionship?"

"When have you meddled in matters of the heart?"

"If Cupid could do it, why can't I? Fools are blind, and die with regret. A few beckoned to me before their time."

"Will you heal Perrito?" Kitty asked.

"It shall be done." Lamb took a deep breath. "Shine once more, before the end."

A blue circle appeared. When it vanished a few seconds later, Perrito's leg was there anew. The magic also woke Perrito up.

Perrito screamed in agony. "It hurts."

"Odd," Lamb said. "Explain."

"It feels like something's wrong. I can't explain it."

"Just do it again." Wolf bit off the newly acquired limb.

"I – I can't do that for a few hours yet!" Lamb shouted in a frantic tone.

As the wolf chewed on the newly acquired limb, he spat out the medical adhesive within.

The gagged doctor made enough of a fuss for others to notice him. Puss ripped the tape off.

"I can wr-wrap it up," the doctor said. He sounded terrified.

"No," Lamb said. She conjured an hourglass in her hoof. "Take this."

"What do I do with this?" Perrito was in agony.

"Touch it."

The hourglass vanished.

"Shout Zhonya in your mind."

"I did shout Zhonya," Perrito said.

"No, not like that! You need to get the pronunciation right in your mind."

A few more attempts and nothing happened, all the while blood flowed out from the wound. It wasn't just right, slightly off.

"Just wrap it up," Wolf said.

While the doctor prepared to do so, Perrito turned into a gold statue when he finally pronounced it correctly.

"You're not done here yet, Kindred," Death said. A ring of hellfire appeared when Lamb and Wolf started sinking into the shadows.

"We do not need to remain. We shall return when he's ready," Lamb said.

"As if."

"I feel your loneliness," Wolf said. "You want them to remain."

"I am Death," Death said.

"And so are we. You've saved them multiple times already."

"I have not seen you since the Wishing Star," Puss said. "It is not true."

"His actions changed what was meant to be, like how he appeared within the bar. If you kept drinking. It is not our way. All I know is that he saved you, not how. It is not wrong to desire companionship. Just do as we once did."

"I care nothing for them," Death said.

"Claim them then."

Death approached with his sickles drawn towards Puss. "Gladly."

Puss sensed his intent, and he parried the attempted strike. Kitty also joined the fray.

"Two against one? That's hardly fair," Death complained.

A cramped hospital room didn't give them much room to fight. What attacks Death launched only grazed them at best. As they fought, they knocked tons of equipment over. Their fight even knocked the gold statue of Perrito around.

"Can the statue be damaged? Death said with a hint of worry.

"We don't know," Lamb said.

"Enough."

"You do care for them. We know your strength."

"Care?" Kitty laughed. "What an odd way of showing it."

Death carefully repositioned the statue of Perrito.

"If he wanted you dead, you would be," Lamb said.

"You failed to kill Kitty when I arrived," Death said.

"We savored the moment. If you had not come, they would've been ours. Death is inevitable. What will you do when they pass from this world?"

"I don't care about them."

"One bite is all it takes."

Puss didn't even realize how the wolf sneaked up on him. The wolf had his jaws around his throat.

"Amigo, a little help," Puss said.

"It's not his time yet," Death said.

"Consider this for correcting fate. Puss in Boots was found dead four hours later in the bar," Lamb said.

"Be serious. Leche doesn't kill anyone," Puss said.

"Well? He's overdue."

"Go ahead."

The wolf chomped down.

Death screamed, "No! It wasn't supposed to end like this."

"I'm still alive." Puss blinked. The wolf was no longer holding him in place, but rather a shadow, that he can pass through. He quickly stood by Kitty's side – if slightly behind her, totally not intent on using her as a shield.

"If you want a friend, I can get you an axe," Lamb said.

Death was angry. "Death needs no one."

"Puss in Boots walks alone," Puss said.

Death grinned. He laughed. "What was your other favorite saying? The legend will never die? Gato, what if you joined me? How perfectly ironic and absurd."

"What's so special about him?" Kitty yelled.

"You can join me too." Death hugged Kitty which soothed her rage.

"Let her go," Puss said with his sword drawn.

"Are you still affected by my arrow?" Lamb asked with concern.

"I remember – everything that I've done. How I threw myself at the doctor after he put on a bandage."

"Which I very much did not want," the doctor said. He was still in the room – just on the edge of the blazing hellfire ring, trying to minimize his presence in the room.

"I can't deny that his fur feels nice. I thought I was special, so why him?"

"How many are willing to never die?" Death asked.

"I never said that I wasn't."

"Joining Death?" Puss asked. "What about us, and Team Friendship?" Team Friendship still didn't roll easily off the tongue. "I've tried to obtain more lives."

"You protected them all," Lamb said.

"Let us go!" Wolf carried Lamb by biting on her neck.

"Dear Wolf, what offends you so?"

Wolf gently set the sheep down so he could talk. "Unnatural, impure."

"What shiny teeth you have."

"The better to eat you with my dear."

"Just wait till we're alone." Lamb turned to Death. "Will you be happy with just one? Will they be happy with you alone? It's for an eternity."

Watching Lamb and Wolf flirt made Puss feel jealous. The white sheep and black wolf looked cute together. If only Kitty saw him in the same way. He also wondered if he would be happy spending an eternity alone with Death by his side. The answer was, maybe. "Puss in Boots used to walk alone, but not anymore, it seems."

"Can I even have them all?" Death asked.

"What makes you think that you can even have one?" Lamb asked. "It has never been tried, but you won't know until you do."

"We need time to think," Puss said.

"Now is the time. Lives are short, and may flicker out of existence at any given moment."

"Perrito is still a statue."

"We are waiting, thanks to someone." Lamb glared at Death. "That means hours. Why don't you just use an axe?"

"I don't want to risk turning into two humans. I also don't want to fight myself," Death said.

They weren't going anywhere anytime soon. Wolf started grooming Lamb to stave off boredom. If the others weren't here, they would certainly go further.

Immortality was in his grasp, and Puss wasn't sure if he wanted it. More lives were one thing, eternity was another.

"What if we don't want to be immortal anymore?" Kitty asked.

Lamb said, "Tomorrow is a hope, never a promise. Make the best of this moment."

"Lamb, tell me a story." Wolf yawned.

"There once was a cat that thought he was immortal."

"Pick another," Puss said. He had no desire to hear a tale about himself.

"The cat realized he was on his last life, then sought to acquire more."

"And he realized that friends mattered more than more lives," Kitty said.

Lamb sighed.

The time passed very slowly within the confined space. None of them could leave for Death wouldn't allow it. After what seemed like an eternity, Perrito became flesh and blood again.

Perrito screamed in agony as blood poured out from his wound.

"Not here, not yet." Lamb invoked her magic, healing Perrito properly this time.

"This is amazing," the doctor said – who finally mustered up the courage to speak. "I don't suppose you can heal others?"

"It is not our way. We serve the balance."

"And yet you play favorites," Death said. He turned to Puss and Kitty. "Now, I expect an answer."

Lamb miraculously agreed to work at the hospital, only on Monday. The doctor was very thankful. It contradicted everything Death stood for – yet they were allowed to play favorites. Seemingly forgotten by the others during the commotion, Death repeated his request. "Will you join me?"

They had to update Perrito on Death's offer for them.

"I don't know," Perrito said. "My dream is to become a therapy dog. Not become Death."

"We are there for their final moments. Some are filled with regret," Lamb said.

"Will I have to kill anyone?"

"No," Death said.

A collective sigh of relief came from Puss and Kitty.

"Does it have to be now?" Perrito asked.

"No," Lamb said. "Only a promise."

"Can I stop if I don't like it?"

"We do not know. Wolf and I were once one. We used an axe to become two. So, we would always have a friend. You can try. If Death hadn't been there, you would belong to us already. He saved you nine times already. Part of me still wants to collect."

They were manifestations of death. Lamb was subtly implying that if they didn't agree, she would claim them. A bit of coercion was all it took for Team Friendship to agree – it wasn't right now, and they could change their minds later.

Death was beginning to regret this decision – and it was the first day he saw his "friends." They all died at once because of a sunken ship. What did he see in them those decades ago? They weren't breaking any rules by doing so – but it felt stupid.

They were in an abandoned school to act out one of Perrito's fantasies. Instead of reading about the legends from after, they were those legends themselves. And so, they were performing a play that Perrito liked. Death was here to make sure nothing went awry – on their very first day, not that he had any desire to join in the frivolity.

"What am I doing here?" Death said.

"Come on, it'll be fun," Perrito said.

"I should have used the axe when I had the chance."

"What part do you want to play?"

"Does it matter?" Death said. What made matters worse was that Lamb appeared from the shadows. "Why are you here?"

"It's my day off," Lamb replied. "How do you like your new friends?"

"I hate them."

"He just doesn't want to be part of the play," Perrito said.

"Can I have a part?" Lamb asked.

"Sure!"

It wasn't much but there was a part just for a lamb. Miraculously, she agreed. After giving everyone their parts, Perrito wanted to rehearse.

Up first was Lamb ripping up a magic scroll. Death rode out on a white horse. "And here I go conquering the world." His part was over, and he could doze off or that was the case except for the incessant fighting he heard.

Puss and Kitty were fighting over who got to play War.

"Famine gets to eat, a lot, I hope," Death said.

Puss finally won their bout and rode out as War. "Without a kingdom to topple, what am I doing here? This is stupid."

"Come on, it's supposed to be fun!" Perrito said.

"I am Famine, and I am hungry," Kitty said. "We really need better lines."

Perrito rode out with his horse. "I am Death, the end of–" He fell mid-speech. "What happens if I die again, can that happen?"

Lamb said, "You can use the axe."

"Oh right, then there will be two of me."

"It doesn't work like that," Death said. "Lamb was a man, that became a sheep and a wolf."

"So do I become two men?"

"Let's not find out," Kitty said. "We love you for who you are."

"Pests," Death muttered. "We could be doing other stuff."

"You don't have to be here."

"But I do. To stop you if you do anything stupid. I should have used the axe. Why did I ever offer this?" Death said.

"What do you want to do?" Perrito asked.

"Just not this."

"Want to rub my belly?"

"Why not." Death reasoned that if he did that, the atrocious play would cease. Perrito's fur was soft and comfortable.

"How long are you going to do that?" Puss asked.

"Do you want a turn?"

"What, no."

"This is better than being part of the play."

"You chose to spend eternity with us," Kitty said.

"Nooo!" Death shouted at the sky. Today was only the first day in forever.