Total pages in book: 92
Estimated words: 87781 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 439(@200wpm)___ 351(@250wpm)___ 293(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87781 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 439(@200wpm)___ 351(@250wpm)___ 293(@300wpm)
She was dead. She had died, been hit by a bus crossing the road on the way to work, and for a split second, she saw the vision of her bloody and crumpled body beneath the front of the bus, bystanders gathered around her, yelling.
But that wasn’t enough to stop her. She wasn’t just going to accept her death. She was going to do everything she could to fight it.
If she could escape Tuonen, the Son of Death, if she could get back to where she came from, maybe she could find her way back to the world. After all, it wasn’t like he was transporting a prisoner. She had a feeling everyone else who died never put up a fight.
So she kicked toward the surface until her head broke through.
She gasped for breath, thinking how interesting it was that she was dead and yet still had to go on breathing.
Then she started swimming for shore, as fast as she could go.
There was a splash behind her, and she knew Tuonen had jumped in the river after her, but she had to keep going. She had to try.
She had too much left to live for, even dead.
The shore came quickly, but the snow that gathered on the banks of the river were high. She tried to climb out, but the snow fell in around her. Still, she kept going, pulling herself out of the water, feeling more frozen by the second, then moved as quickly as she could through the packed snow until she was on her feet.
She knew Tuonen was behind her, knew that with his long legs and his strength and the fact that he was an immortal God of sorts, he would catch her soon, but she kept on going, as fast as she possibly could, one foot in front of the other. She didn’t even know if she was running in the right direction; there was only snow as far as she could see. Off in the distance, there seemed to be a herd of white reindeer, only they looked rotted, and she could see their bones through their fur.
Land of the Dead, she thought to herself. This can’t be my future.
Seconds after that thought, she was tackled from behind.
Tuonen pushed her into the snow and then flipped her over on her back, pinning her arms down with his hands. She stared up at him, at his otherworldly face, at the white snowy sky behind him, the way he looked like a black stain against it.
And yet there was something so beautiful about it all, something beautiful about him.
Beauty in death.
Beauty and death.
“What are you doing?” Tuonen snarled at her, and for once, she saw fear in his eyes. “You can’t do that.”
“I’m trying to go back,” she said, struggling for a moment before she realized it was completely useless. He was impossibly strong. “I’m trying to live.”
“You could have died again,” he said, a harsh gleam in his eyes. “If you die again in this land, you will be sent to Oblivion, where you float in darkness for eternity.”
She blinked in shock for a moment, her stomach sinking. “Well I didn’t know that!” she sniped.
“Now you do,” he said. “And if you try anything again, I may not be able to save you. There are monsters in the water that will consume you, creatures on this land that will tear you to pieces. There’s my mother, a demon, and my father, the God of Death, and they don’t mind handing out punishment to stragglers.”
Desperation welled up inside her. “Please, Tuonen, you have to let me go.”
He gave his head a stiff shake, his jaw tense. “I’ve never let anyone go. That isn’t for me to decide.”
“But you can,” she said. “I know you can. You have that power. You can take me back to where you found me. Isn’t there a way back?”
Oh, please, tell me there’s a way back.
From the hesitant look in his eyes, she knew there was.
“Tuonen, please,” she said again. “Take me back. Let me live. I have so much life left, so many other lives to change. There must have been some mistake, I shouldn’t be here. If you let me live again, let me see my parents, let me save those dogs. I’ll…I’ll do anything. I’ll make any bargain. I promise.”
Now she had his attention. He adjusted his grip on her wrists. “What kind of bargain?”
“I don’t know,” she said, feeling hope swell through her. “Whatever it is you want, as long as I can go back and live my life.”
He seemed to think that over, shifting his jaw back and forth. “I could get in trouble,” he eventually said. “I would have to strike a deal with the Killerling.”
“Who is the Killerling?” she asked.
He sighed and then got to his feet, quickly reaching down to pull her up beside him. “They are the ones who hunt those who refuse to die,” he said. “There aren’t many of you, but there are enough. If I let you go back to live your life, they will come for you, even if I tell them to leave you alone. They will try and kill you, drag you back here, and there’s nothing I can do about it.”