Chapter 1

“Do you ever let any human escape death?”

The ruler of the underworld looked over at the person who had asked the question with a disdainful look and scoffed at him. It was a ridiculous question to ask.

“I would never do something like that. The rules are simple, if their name is on the list, I take their soul to the underworld to be judged. There is nothing else to it.”

Today was a quiet day in the underworld. For once he had enough spare time to sit by the windows in his throne room and drink some tea. The endless night view wasn’t much to look at, but it was all his. It was a shame the ruler of hell had come to visit him.

“Nocturne, some of your predecessors broke the rules and allowed humans to keep their lives,” the ruler of hell pointed out. “None of us are heartless despite our origins.”

The ruler of the underworld changed over time. There was a mandatory 50 year minimum time period and then the ruler could choose to continue or put their souls up for reincarnation so they could be human again. A majority of the time the ruler would get bored of the monotonous tasks and voluntarily leave the position after the 50 year minimum. Some had been dismissed from the position because they had tried to break the rules that governed the universe.

The previous ruler of the underworld, Azrael had fallen in love with a human who should have died. He had returned the human’s soul and had been caught for it. He had been removed from his job and the girl’s soul had been taken to the underworld. 

The current ruler Nocturne was determined that he was not going down the same route. He was going to keep this job until he was bored of it.

“Trust me, no matter how pretty the human is, I will take their soul with me,” he retorted. “I won’t fall for a pretty face.”

The current devil, Draven shrugged. “It doesn't matter to me. I just like to have something to amuse myself with. It is quiet today.”

Nocturne reached for the list of names. It was a short list. There were no natural disasters today or pandemics. He was content to leave most of the list to his underlings and go out to collect the remaining souls later.

For now he was going to enjoy the view out the gaping windows and relax. He tossed his long gray hair back over his shoulder and picked out a cake from the plate.

“It is,” he agreed. “I won’t be able to take your presence for much longer though.”

Draven was a tall man with horns protruding from his hair and enjoyed wearing red. Today he was wearing a long red leather coat and a very tight red pair of pants. There was nothing in between, he was keen to flaunt his perfectly chiseled chest.

He pouted at him. “Hey, I put your name forward for this job. You’re only able to live in this splendor because of me.”

“I know you only did it because you take pleasure in my discomfort,” Nocturne pointed out. “We’ve known each other for too long.”

Many years ago he had made a poor decision and had accepted Draven’s advances on him when he had worked in hell. It had turned sour very quickly and he rejected him. Draven had not taken it well and the next thing he knew, he was the ruler of the underworld.

Ruling the underworld was not a pleasant job to have. He was in charge of taking dead humans’ souls to the underworld for judging which meant he saw people die constantly. The feeling of guilt and the things he had seen had been traumatizing at first.

Now he was more emotionally numb to even the bloodiest death. His heart, if it was even still somewhere in his chest, was closed off to everything.

“Ah, you’ve always seen through me,” Draven said. “I’m only here because I don’t have many souls to torment today. Our jobs feed each other after all.”

When a human died their souls were taken to the underworld and then they were judged and sorted accordingly. Draven took the sinners to hell to torment with his underlings and the pure went into paradise under the direction of the archangel Celeste. After one year in either world, the souls would reenter the reincarnation process.

The three of them worked together to a degree but they never liked to be in the same room as each other for a long period of time.

Death picked up his list again and glanced over at Draven. The devil was showing no signs of leaving to return to his realm. That made up his mind. He stood up and flipped his cloak back into place.

“My break is over, it’s time to collect some souls. I cannot leave everything to my underlings.”

Draven waved at him. “Come back soon.”

“I will not.”

***

Leo beamed up at the sun in the afternoon sky. Everything was going so well today. The weather was amazing.

He had just picked up his exam results from school. He was now officially a straight A student and he was going to his first choice university. 

His parents were over the moon about his exam results and were going to reward him with a new top of the market phone. His old phone had a dangerously cracked screen and couldn’t cope with new apps. He had been angling for a replacement phone for months.

To say he was ecstatic about everything today was an understatement. 

There was even more to be happy about.

He had a date in the evening.

Leo had encountered his crush whilst he had been at school and whilst high on the feeling of success had decided to risk asking his crush out on a date. If he had been rejected it wouldn’t matter as they were going to different universities. Instead of a crushing defeat, his crush had said yes and chosen a restaurant.

He spun around happily as he walked along the street with his results tucked under one arm. Today was the best day of his life.

As he walked down the street he passed a boy from school who had made it his mission to call him every homophobic slur known to man. Instead of pretending the boy didn’t exist like he usually did, Leo was happy enough to smile at him instead and move on. They weren’t likely to see each other ever again.

His mind moved onto working out what hairstyle he was going to try for his date and his outfit. His crush had admitted to having a thing for him since they started sitting next to each other in physics and had been too shy to ask him out.

Leo stopped at a set of traffic lights and noticed they were just changing from amber to green. He decided that the car at the front of the waiting queue was far away enough to risk it and he dashed across the crossing.

That was a mistake. He knew it was as he saw the car rapidly come closer to his view and he was thrown in the air by the impact.

He felt a splitting pain in his head and then nothing at all.

The world was very still when he opened his eyes. The red car that had hit him had stopped and so had everything else. Leo looked around and saw his own dead body lying on the ground. It wasn’t a pretty sight.

He looked at his hands and saw they were translucent. 

It was official, he was a ghost.

Acceptance slowly set in as he stared at his body on the ground and his fading hands. He glanced up and saw that the cloudless blue sky had changed to a dense black. He took another glance at his body. 

His parents were going to be so upset that he was dead. So was his crush. He was never going to make their date this evening.

What was going to happen to him now?

As he thought that, he noticed that he was no longer alone.

The tarmaced ground began to fill with smoke and then the smoke took on a form. It was a man. A man was approaching him and he looked like he was from another world.

The man had long gray hair that held several curls and was adorned with a black crown. His black cloak swirled around him as he strode over to him and Leo saw that he was wearing a blue shirt that generously showed his chest, black pants and knee high boots. His face was nothing short of dangerously beautiful with sharp cheekbones and a high profiled nose. Leo noted his glowing gray eyes as the man came to a stop in front of him.

“Leo Adley.”

It wasn’t a question. This man knew his name.

Realization swept over Leo in an instant.

This man was from another world and knew his name. He wasn’t going to be a ghost and be able to see the people he loved, this man was going to take him to the place where dead people went. Tears welled up in his eyes.

“Please don’t take me,” he begged.

***

Nocturne wasn’t happy to see Leo Adley looking so aware of himself. Everyone died differently and their souls behaved in a variety of ways after death. His favorite ones were the souls that just waited for him to take them to the underworld without saying a word, like they understood fully that their time was up.

Then Leo proceeded to beg for his life. It was irritating.

“I am death,” Nocturne told him. “You died and I am here to take you to the underworld so your soul can be judged. There is nothing you can do to stop me.”

“But I’ve just got into my first choice university and I have so much ahead of me. I’m only 18!”

Nocturne gestured around at the silent scene of the car crash. 

“You are dead,” he said plainly. “There is nothing you can say to get me to keep you alive. You have nothing to bargain with.”

He hoped Leo wasn’t going to take much longer. He wasn’t the only person dying today and his patience after seeing Draven today was low.

“I know I’m attractive,” Leo said. “I’ll promise to marry you if you let me go.”

For once Nocturne was completely lost for words. Humans trying to cheat the natural cycle of life often bargained with him. He had been promised things like money and power. 

Leo was the first human to offer his hand in marriage.

He was right about being attractive. His face was framed in waves of blond hair, his hazel eyes were brimming with tears. His lips were plump and pink. He hadn’t seen a human this enticing before.

He almost wished that the souls of dead humans looked like they did at death so he wouldn’t be tempted like this. Leo’s dead face on the ground was not very appealing.

“What makes you think I want to marry you?” he asked softly. “I’m Death. I don’t think like humans do. I live in the underworld and the only time I’m here is to take souls back with me for their judgment.”

Why was he telling a human all of this information? He really didn’t need his consent to take his soul.

Leo wasn’t perturbed by his question. If anything he got perkier. “I can come and live with you in the underworld! It must be dark and depressing there. I can be your sunshine!”

Once again Nocturne was lost for words.

“The underworld isn’t for humans,” he said eventually. “It is for souls, demons and angels.”

The human didn’t take that as a rejection. “You can visit me here then.”

Nocturne put his hand to his forehead and sighed. He really didn’t know what to do with this human. It felt wrong to reach out and take his soul by force.

Instead he wiped the tears from Leo’s eyes.

“You were meant to die today,” he told him. “There’s no way around it no matter what you offer me. You are not the first person to want to stay here.”

Leo’s tears came faster and he felt a pang in his heart. That was odd. He barely remembered that he had a heart in his body. He wasn’t human after all. He looked down at Leo’s face and made a final decision.

“I will let you go today,” he said softly and kissed his forehead. “In return, I will have your hand in marriage.”