Death's Apprentice
The Soldier

Lily quietly followed Death down the hallway. A Guardian? What did that even mean? At the end of the hallway, she could see a big glass ball similar to the ones the other Reapers used, but this one was bigger, and the pedestal that held it seemed to be made of pure gold, The crystal sparkled, and as they walked up to it, it opened for them like a swirling clam on a mermaid movie Lily saw once.

“First thing to learn little Lily, is that there are several different realms. And if you are going to take my place, you must become well acquainted with all of them.” Death explained, gliding across the floor.

“What’s a-a-that thing you just said?”

“Oh. Realm? Basically another world or place.”

“Oh. Ok. So will the glass ball thing get us to these places?”

“Yes.”

With that, Lily clambered into the ball after him and stayed close as black smoke started to fill and surround them. She clutched Death’s cloak tightly, fighting back the fear that was creeping up and sending shivers up her spine. She closed her eyes and held her breath as the darkness completely encompassed them.

“Lily. It’s ok. You can open your eyes.”

She slowly obeyed to see that they had arrived in a completely different place. The clean blank white walls and old hanging light bulbs had been replaced with brown stony walls and torches. The two of them walked down the warm glow of the hallway towards a large old fashioned wood door with intricate engravings on it. Standing on either side, were two large men with staffs standing guard. The one with dark skin had short dreadlocks and a chocolate brown trench coat, and the other had shoulder length blonde hair and was wearing a leather jacket and jeans. When they walked up, the two of them saluted immediately.

“Sorry sir! Didn’t realize you would be coming!” One of them interjected, standing upright. Death gave a little smirk.

“Yes. We have come to hire a Guardian.”

“Yes sir. Who will it be for today?”

“My new apprentice…” he told him, gesturing to the little girl beside him. “Her name is Lily Hoagen.”

The two men looked down in surprise, their salutes faltering slightly.

“You found a replacement?!?”

“This little girl?”

“She doesn’t even come up past my knee!!”

They burst out laughing.

“Yes, well, we’re here to get her a Guardian.” Death said rather impatiently.

“All right, all right.” The trench coat man snickered, opening the door for them to let them pass.

The little girl holding on to Death’s hand looked around in amazement. It looked like they were in a castle. They walked into a very large room with grandiose pillars and a chandelier that shone like the sun. Just like the realm with the Reapers and Greeters, Lily watched as several interesting characters walked around. However, the characters in the Guardians realm looked completely different. Every person seemed to have a different look about them.

Lily watched as a large muscular woman wielding an ax walked by them, her brown braided ponytail bouncing up and down on her burly shoulders. A tall thin man also passed by, his long black hair flowing behind him as he gripped a bow. The five year old scooted in a little closer to Death, thinking that some of the people here looked a little scary. As they walked through the large room, Lily watched as the Guardians would walk into a series of glass balls very similar to the ones that she had seen before.

“Are they going to different places too?” she whispered as they walked towards another door.

“Yes. The Guardians are in charge of keeping the people in the living world safe, as well as keeping order in the Inbetween. Whoever you choose however, will be different, because they are going to stay with you and watch after you when I can’t be there.”

“I get to choose?” Lily asked. “And what do they keep the people safe from? Are they like policemen? And-.”

Their conversation halted as Death knocked on a door. There was a rustle from behind it, and soon, the door sprung open, revealing a disgruntled man wearing a white t-shirt stretched over his enormous chest with a whistle hanging around his neck.

“What?!”

It was obvious he was expecting someone else, for when he saw the master of the dead in front of him, he quickly tried to back track.

“Oh! I mean-hello Death! Er… Sorry about that…” he said rather nervously, running a hand over his buzzed head. “What can I do for ya today? Sorry again sir, I uh, wasn’t expecting you…”

“No one does…” Death muttered. “I’m here to hire a Guardian for my new apprentice. Lily, this is Mr. Downey.”

Death gestured to the side to reveal the five year old standing there with him. Mr. Downey stood there for a moment, wondering if this was a joke, when it suddenly dawned on him that the master of the dead would most likely not be joking. He burst out laughing.

“Now I see why she needs a Guardian!” he guffawed. “The next Death is a little girl!! Zach and the others aren’t going to be happy with that at all. Man I want to see the look on his face when he replaces out!”

Death folded his arms, unamused with the man’s light heartedness on the matter.

“Well, don’t laugh until you formally meet her.” he scoffed.

Mr. Downey wiped the tears from his eyes and held out his hand to her.

“Nice to meet you Lily.”

Lily thought she saw the flicker of a smile flash across Death’s face, and then she shook hands with the large burly adult in front of her.

Her surroundings suddenly changed as she was pulled into another memory…

“KEEP MOVING YOU ROTTEN PIECES OF CRAP!” Sergeant Downey spat at his men, marching down a dirt path in a camouflage uniform. “WE’VE GOT TO BE OUT OF HERE BY 0700 HOURS!!”

As Lily watched this, she heard Mr. Downey say some words that she had never heard before, but it sounded like he was saying not very nice words. As Sergeant Downey watched his men take down the camp, he seemed to be satisfied, and walked back towards his tent. He looked at all the letters addressed to Sgt. Ashley Downey and then grabbed a roll of toilet paper.

“Wakowsky!” he shouted to a scrawny soldier standing nearby.

“Yes sir!”

“Make sure everything runs smoothly. I’m gonna use the bathroom.

“Yes sir!”

Sgt. Downey nodded and slipped into a little room to take care of his business.

BOOM!

Lily soon came back to reality and stared dumbfounded at the buffoon standing in front of her.

“You died on the potty?!?” she said in disbelief. The man froze.

“Uh…what?”

“AND you have a girl’s name!!”

“Ok ok!! Uh… Let’s get you a Guardian!!” he said quickly, his face turning redder than the apple she had eaten for breakfast that morning.

“Thank you.” Death kept a cool collected smile on his face, but Lily knew he was laughing inside. Lily looked up at Death curiously.

“Death? Mr. Downey was saying some not so nice words.”

“Ah. You heard those huh? Well, don’t say them. They’re bad.”

“Ok.”

Sgt. Downey turned to what looked like a phone on the wall. He picked up the receiver and pushed a button.

“SOLDIERS! ATTENTION!”

Lily watched in amazement as the large room quickly filled with hundreds of Guardians forming into organized lines.

“Attention!!” they said in unison, standing very straight.

“If you do not have a descendant you look after, I need you to head to the training field. Death’s new apprentice needs to pick out a guardian. You know how this goes.”

The soldiers saluted, and then a smaller group of them marched quickly through a large door between two pillars.

Mr. Downey turned to them. “Alright. Let’s go down to the training field so you can see what they’ve got.”

Lily started to feel a bit nervous as they followed the soldiers down some stairs and through a dark hallway, eventually coming out to a monstrous room holding a large field with seating around. Once they were there, Death took a knee to be on Lily’s level.

“Alright Lily. Listen carefully. It’s going to be up to you to choose who your guardian is and-.”

“But-but-I don’t know which one to choose!” Lily interrupted, feeling spikes boiling in her stomach. “Can’t you just choose one for me? What if I choose wrong? What if-.”

“Lily.” Death said patiently. “I can’t choose for you. It’s hard to explain, but… you’ll simply know when you replace the right person.”

Lily cocked her head in confusion.

“What?”

Death put a hand over his heart and gave her a little smile.

“You’ll feel it in here. Think of it this way: have you ever had hot chocolate?”

“Yes.”

“It’ll feel like you just drank up a whole cup of warm hot chocolate. Got it?”

Lily nodded, even though she still felt very unsure about it all, and then, with an exasperated breath of air, she walked down onto the field. She watched as a young woman with short hair pulled out a little contraption from her belt. She turned some gears, and it extended into a glowing electric dagger and swiped it at a block in front of her. The block fell apart, cut in half by the little object in the girl’s hand. The girl looked back at Lily, looking pleased with herself. Lily nodded curtly and scurried off somewhere else, feeling like all the people around her were too tall and too scary.

Lily went from person to person, feeling unsatisfied with everyone she came across. She shook a few of their hands, only to replace that some died in battle, or war, or something relatively normal as getting sick. She couldn’t even see properly, and she couldn’t see everyone. Not to mention that she was definitely not getting the hot chocolate feeling from anything.

Adamantly, she marched over to the edge of the field and climbed the little wall so she could go up the steps and see better. She was about to climber higher and higher up the steps, when she noticed a man sitting in the seating down at the bottom, his chin resting in his hand, staring at the other Guardians and their displays of strength with a hint of sadness.

He was wearing a simple worn jacket, and his mouse brown hair had flecks of gray in it. Lily couldn’t see any weapons on him. Curious, she made her way back down the stairs towards him.

“Hello.”

“Hello.” He responded, continuing to look straight ahead.

Lily tilted her head around him partly so he could see her and partly so she could get a better look at him. Worry lines ran along his face, and an occasional white or gray hair stuck out from his chin.

“Are you one of the Guardians?” she asked.

“Depends on who you ask.”

“Well are you?”

“I guess so.”

“Then why aren’t you down there with everybody else?”

“Cause I can’t do anything.”

“What do you mean?”

The man finally broke his gaze to look down at the curious little girl in front of him.

“You sure ask a lot of questions.”

“What do you mean you can’t do anything?” Lily asked again.

The man sighed.

“Well little girl, usually when someone is chosen to be a Guardian, they are given tools or powers or weapons to help them do their job. See, everyone here goes through a type of… I guess you could call it magical or something… It’s a… let’s see… I guess a type of archway? Yeah. Archway. And when you walk through it, some items appear on a pedestal for you to use.

“And you didn’t get anything?”

“Nope.”

“Well maybe you didn’t need anything.”

“Hmm…”

Lily looked out at all the other Guardians and then back at the sulky man in front of her.

The little girl held out her hand.

“I’m Lily. What’s your name?”

The man gave a sad little smile and shook her hand.

Just as she was expecting, Lily was whisked away into a memory that she knew would only last a split second in reality. She was soon watching the man walk down a desolate street in a uniform and army helmet-holding on tightly to a gun. The man stopped when he heard something from one of the old abandoned buildings. He looked around, and then whispered to someone hidden.

“It’s all clear.”

A young teenage girl with long dark hair stepped out from a dark alleyway, looking around nervously. She was wearing a rather worn looking faded blue dress and a dark coat.

“A-are you sure Arno?”

“I think so… You sure you’ll be alright once you get to the dock?”

“Yes. My father should be there waiting for me. ”

Arno gave her a good long apprehensive look and then continued to lead her down the road.

“Eva, I have a feeling it’s not going to be that easy.”

The fifteen year old swallowed, a worried look on her face.

“Stop!”

The two travelers froze and then slowly turned around. There were some more soldiers standing there. One of them had a red and white band on his arm with a black symbol that Lily thought she recognized from somewhere.

“Where are you going?”

Arno gave him a salute.

“Just escorting this girl to the train station with the others sir.” He told him, grabbing the girls arm a little roughly.

“That’s all right. We can take her from here. We need you to report at the border.”

“But my orders-.”

“Well your orders have changed. We need you at the border.”

Eva looked up at the soldier beside her, a look of fear flashing over her face.

Arno glanced from Eva to the soldiers in front of him as they came closer and closer. He bit his lip.

“Eva. You’re going to have to run.” He said under his breath.

“But Arno-.”

“Make it to your father. Get out of here.”

Without warning, he pushed her to the side and took the butt of his rifle to one of the men in front of him. Arno pulled a man’s arms out of the way as the soldier tried to fire, the gunfire going up into the air.

“Eva!! Go!” he grunted, getting an elbow to the face. The girl ran as the sound attracted more of the soldiers. Arno was soon knocked to the ground, his helmet falling off and rolling across the cobblestone.

“Traitor!” Someone shouted. Arno couldn’t see who, but there was a bang and everything suddenly went black.

“My name is Arno.”

Lily stared at him, not knowing what to say.

“Uh...Are you ok?”

Lily started to feel a little something inside her well up in her chest. It felt nice and warm, and she had the sudden realization that this was probably the hot chocolate feeling that Death had been telling her about. She was about to ask him a million new questions when some of the other Guardians walked by.

“I wouldn’t trust old Arno there little girl. He’s made out of everything nasty.” A young man with swept back straw colored hair laughed.

“Besides. He doesn’t do much protecting. He just murders innocent-.”

“I never killed anyone.” Arno said softly, standing up.

“Oh yes. That’s what all the Nazi’s say-‘oh I was just following orders-’ or ‘I didn’t know what was really happening-’ Likely stories.” An older woman loaded with all types of guns mocked.

“I was never a Nazi!! I was a German soldier!” he yelled angrily, his fists shaking.

“Same thing.”

In a huff, Arno stalked off as the others laughed. Lily gave them a dirty look.

“You meanies! You should say sorry!” she exclaimed. And with that, she ran after him.

“Lily-just pay no mind to me. I’m of no use to you anyway.” the man said with a hint of frustration at the guardians that had just been heckling him.

“Did Eva ever get to her Daddy?” she asked. The man in front of her stopped walking, and turned to look at her in disbelief.

“How do you know about Eva?”

Lily looked at him expectantly. When he didn’t answer, she asked her question.

“Will you be my Guardian?”

This caught him by surprise. “What?”

“Great! I’ll go tell Death! Come with me!” she exclaimed, grabbing him by the hand. He had no choice but to let the little girl lead him across the field as slowly, the other Guardians started to notice.

“I want Arno!” she told the adults waiting for her.

“Him?!?” Mr. Downey said in disgust. “Why did you pick him?”

“I think he’ll be a good Guardian. And I got the hot chocolate feeling!”

“That’s the rules isn’t it Mr. Downey?” Death complied smoothly. Mr. Downey grumbled something unintelligible.

“Well… yes... But I didn’t expect her to pick the Nazi out of all people. I’m surprised he didn’t go straight to the Insanities in my personal opinion…” Arno gave him a sour look.

“The Nazi’s didn’t even have the majority in Germany you know… We didn’t even vote to put Hitler in power. He just kind of took over.”

“Whatever.”

“What happens now?” Lily asked obliviously.

“Well, the Guardian ritual needs to happen.” Death told her.

“SOLDIERS. THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE. BACK TO YOUR STATIONS.” Sgt. Downey yelled with a booming voice so loud that Lily had to cover her ears.

“All right. This way.” The Sergeant said rather grumpily, leading them down another hallway.

“So Arno-how long have you been here?” Death asked the rather dazed ex-soldier, putting a hand on his shoulder.

“A while... I… never really expected to ever be chosen as someone’s Guardian...People like me-well… they aren’t exactly popular down here...” He seemed to be in a bit of disbelief.

“Well that’s the great thing about children isn’t it? They can see past what everyone else can to the heart of what makes someone who they are. I think you’ll make a fine Guardian for my new apprentice. Make sure to take care of her. It’s quite an important job after all.”

“I’ll-I’ll do my best sir.”

“Good.”

The four of them entered into a circular room where the ceiling seemed to have no end. In fact, Lily wasn’t sure if she could see a ceiling. It almost seemed that it was just open to the night sky, but seeing as they were all dead, she wasn’t sure if that were actually possible or not.

In the middle of the room, was a type of archway with something silvery and transparent stretched across it-almost like a thin sheet of water.

“Oh! Arno! This is the place you were saying?”

“Different one, but similar yes.” He told her.

Mr. Downey then stopped and turned to the two of them.

“The two of you need to stand on either side of the archway and clasp hands. And then Arno, you should know what to do.”

The soldier nodded, and he and Lily walked towards the archway and did as they were told. Lily slowly reached into the archway, the silvery stuff in the middle feeling like the cold vapors of a cloud around her hand. It tingled a bit. As soon as Lily was holding onto Arno’s hand tightly, the silver turned into a brilliant blue, and golden strings seemed to shoot out from the sides and wrap gently around their arms.

Lily laughed cause it tickled, causing Arno to give a small smile. She looked ahead at him through the archway, a shimmering blue version of him.

“What’s your last name again Lily?”

“Hoagen.”

Arno had a determined look on his face as he squeezed her hand.

“Ok. I Arno Falkenrath vow to do everything in my power to protect and defend Lily Hoagen in whatever danger may come our way. Even if it comes to my own harm.”

As he said this, there was a bright white light that filled the room, and when it came back down, the archway went back to normal. The two of them looked around, unsure if they had done something wrong.

“Is… that it?” Arno asked.

Lily looked back to see Death giving them a little smile and Sgt. Downey gawking at them.

“That has to be the lamest Guardian ceremony I’ve ever witnessed.”

“So it’s done?! But-what now? I mean-what was the whole light thing?” Arno protested as they started to be led out of the room by Death and Mr. Downey. “How am I supposed to protect her?”

“It’s different for everyone.” Mr. Downey dismissed, still a little upset that Arno had been chosen in the first place. Death put a hand on Arno’s shoulder in reassurance as they made their way back to the glass ball. .

“It’ll come. Don’t worry. The light has connected you with Lily. I’m sure that when the time comes, you will be able to do what is needed.”

“What a vague statement. ‘Oh I’m sure it’ll be alright.’ How lame.” Mr. Downey grumbled.

“Now Mr. Downey-no one likes a frowny face...”

“Yeah yeah. Turn it into a smile… Why does Death have to be so snarky?”

With that, Sergeant Downey made his way back to what probably was his office without so much as a goodbye.

Death gave an amused smile, and then led the child and her new Guardian to the glass ball.

“More will be explained to you at a later time Arno. For now, let’s get you back to the Reaper Realm and make the announcement. We’ve got lots to do!”

Lily looked up at Arno as the black smoke started to fill the air. He looked very lost and unsure of what was happening. He noticed her looking at him and shrugged.

Lily Hoagen giggled.