Never Play Against Death

When heaven nor hell wants you, you only have death to play with.

  I just found myself there.

I had no memory of how I got there, or where I am going. I was just…there. I was standing in the middle of what seemed to be a red desert. Its sand was fine and I could feel my shoes sink into the redness of the ground. I looked up and saw that it was gray. There were no clouds, no stars, and no moon. It was all just gray, like the place I was in was in eternal dawn without the sun’s rays to give colour to the sky. It was dim yet the desert seemed bright. In fact, I didn’t need some sort of light source, I could see myself and the red horizon fine. I could make out where the gray gloomy sky meets the fiery redness of the sands.

“Where am I?”, I said blanky to myself.

“Welcome”, a cold hissing voice spoke from behind me.

I spun around from the suddenness of the speaker’s cold hissing voice. And I found a tall skinny man with short greased hair and somewhat yellow eyes. He was wearing a tuxedo with a blue bowtie. He smiled showing his crooked long yellow teeth. His skin was pale, paper white even. But he stood with authority and a bit of spunk.

“Who…who are you? Where am I?”, I managed to say. He just smiled. And spoke after a long eerie silence.

“Oh Jack, don’t you recognize me?”, he smiled shaking his long skinny head and showing off the biggest chunk of his front yellow teeth.

“What? Who are you? Do I know you?” I said “How’d you know my name? Where am I?”

“Well, I guess some souls do forget once they Crossover”, he said as he rolled his eyes.

Souls? What did he mean by that? Then it hit me.

The last thing I remember was I was driving the car. My pregnant wife was sitting next to me. We had an argument. Then we reached a bridge. And then…

“Do you remember now?” the man said studying the look on my face.

“I-I crashed our car from the bridge.”, I said, recalling every scene “And-and I don’t know what happened next.”

“Sure you do”, he said.

“Am I dead?”, I said “I’m dead! Oh my God I’m dead!”

“Therefore, do you now know who I am”, the man raised a brow.

“You’re you’re the devil?”

“What?” the man shook his head and frowned. His voice disappointed. “Oh Jack. That guy doesn’t want Rejects like you.”

“What do you mean?” I asked in confusion “You mean I go to heaven.”

“Um, naaahhh”, he said “You’re not wanted there either.”

“You better tell me who you are man!”, I said losing patience.

“There you go again with your patience Jack”, he smiled as he walked closer. I instinctively stepped back. I felt that he was bad news.

“You’re a lost soul”, he smiled “On top of that you’re a Reject. Heaven nor hell don’t want a trash such as you Jack.”

“What?Why?”

“You’re no good guy, we all know that, so naturally heaven doesn’t want you. You’re also too bad to be contained in Hell. And when the devil doesn’t want you he sends you back to sender…Me”, the man explained. “I’m Death.”

I had trouble understanding what the hell he was talking about. I surely died, but why can’t I go to either places and why am I in this sort of purgatory. Until it hit me. What happened to my wife? No, what happened to my baby?

“Your wife and kid died with you, you know” he said as if reading my mind. “It was all your fault.”

“No, no, no”, I said stepping back, my hands reached for my head in shock. “We-we went into a fight. Me and my wife argued. And I slipped off the bridge. I was careless. I-I killed my family.“

“That’s way too much sins for Hell”, Death said as he stretched his skinny white fingers and blew on them in a gentlemanlike gesture. “The devil has his hands full at the moment, so he gave you to me.”

“What are you going to do to me? I’m already dead! You can’t kill me again!”, I declared.

“True true Jack”, he said. “But here’s the good part. I don’t have the power to lock you in hell, or give you heaven, but I can give you back your life.”

I remained quiet.

“But yeah, as what you said, you killed your family, and yourself for that matter, so you’re gonna be dead still even if I resurrect you, so it’s a waste, don’t you think?” he smiled again.

“What do you want to do with me?” I said as I wiped the tears from my eyes. “I deserve to go to Hell. I killed my family. My wife and our baby. Why don’t you just send me to the devil and I will ask him to-“

“Self-sacrifice, I admire that Jack”, he said cutting me off, smiling and nodding his greasy head “But yeah, as I said the devil is busy, and he can’t take another silly Soul like you.”

“So what are you going to do with me?”

“How bout this? Let’s play a game. If you win, I will resurrect you, your wife and your baby, so you can get that second chance, I will even place you guys in a time prior to the accident so you can avoid it. That’s second chance at its finest”, he said counting to four with his white skinny fingers, he counted three souls and one time jump to a certain period and scratched his greasy head.

“Yes yes please” I said as my eyes lit up “I will do anything for them, anything for that.”

“But if I win, I will resurrect you alone, and place you in any time during your life that I see fit”

I nodded. I had nothing to lose. If I win, I get to see my family again. If I lose, I can still see them any time in my life, or I can build that family again if he ever decides to send me back to my baby years. Death surely seemed generous, but he didn’t realize that I win both ways.

“Okay let’s play.”

“Atta boy Jack”, Death smiled and pulled out two yellow dice. The dice looked old and worn and it gave me the chills “These babies were a gift from the devil. Made from the bones of the worst souls in Hell. I would say a piece of your kind of evil.”

He tossed the dice in the air, and I could make out the sides where number one was, there was a carved skull, rather than a dot for one.

“The game is simple. We each roll the dice, whoever gets the highest score wins. We will have three rounds, whoever wins two rounds wins the game.” He explained while tossing the dice. The game was simple enough. But it scares me that it all relied on chance. But I approved. “let the game begin.”

“I will go first”, Death said as he tossed the dice in the air. They both landed with a thud on the red sand. The score was eight. I picked up the dice. They both felt cold and uneven around my fingers, but I tossed them in the air. Six. My heart skipped a beat.

“Oh ho, I won Jack. First round goes to me then,” he picked up the dice casually. “Ready..” He then tossed the dice again. It landed on the sand and it was a nine. I picked up the dice and shook them in my fingers, praying for a miracle. If I lost this round, I would go the long way and be sent back to my childhood or something. I tossed the dice. The first die landed on a four. The second one bounced off the sand and landed on a six. I got a ten.

“Oh ho”, Jack smiled “Well done. You won the second round. Off to the tie breaker we go.” Death seemed to enjoy the little game. I didn’t enjoy it one bit. He picked it up and tossed it in the air. Both landed on the same time, and shown it was Two. Each die landed on the skull side, one. “Wow, snake eyes. Looks like things are looking good Jack.”

I couldn’t help feel a sigh of relief. Two is the lowest number that you can get in a two die game. Anything is better than that. I tossed the dice with confidence and both landed on the same time. It was a twelve. I jumped in triumph.

“I won!” I said.

Death clapped, and congratulated me and scratched his head. He picked up the dice and pocketed them.

“Well done Jack” he said “It was fun while it lasted.”

“Are you really going to send me back?” I said excitedly. “Are you going to send me and my family back?”

Death nodded.

“Come here”, he said “I always keep my word Jack. It was fun playing with you.” He then grabbed my shoulder “Enjoy your second chance” He then gave me a push and instantly, I felt like I had fallen backwards in slow motion. My vision clouded, and I could feel myself floating.

“It was fun playing with you” I heard him repeating “It was fun playing with you…again.

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            “Jack watch out!”, my wife screamed at the passenger seat beside me, as I snapped back to reality. I was on the wheel of my car. My wife was beside me. She was pregnant, and we were on the bridge in a rainy day.

            CRRAAASSSHSHHHH…

            The car swerved off the road and destroyed part of the bridge, and the next thing I knew we were falling to the river. My eyes widen as we were about to hit the water. Then everything went black…again.