The InBetween

Twenty-Three Rabid Monsters (Miguel's POV)

Miguel could tell even from where he was seated Jacob and Tyrone were crying as they were lowered into the pit. The plan was well, certainly a plan.

To review: Him and Connie were disguised as Life's entourage demons. He made copies of his own costumes and gave them to wear. It was a little over-sized, but nobody batted an eye. Next up, gaslighting. Miguel got unexpected cold feet during this part, so Life did mainly all the talking. He really sold it, as they got front row seats. While they stalled, Death actually snuck into the pit, avoiding the damage by using something called his 'divine form.'

Miguel got cold feet during most of the ceremony. Something about seeing his friends in such a helpless state threw him off, so he ended up missing his part of the plan: Which was to fake a mugging. Jacob sobs were clear as crystal as the two ended up in the pit. Good news though, the fire died down, so Death must be dealing with Lilith and winning right about now.

The demons waited and waited, but after the boys disappeared in the black it was all just awkward silence. The cannibalistic woman beside the group grunted "What's supposed to happen now?" She called out to Doom, the head of this whole operation.

"We wait, until the mother of darkness Lilith emerges...I think."

"I knew we needed all four souls for it to work," A demon from the very back - likely the one with buckteeth they kicked out earlier- pointed out "Never try to do things your own way when there's a prophecy telling you not to!"

Suddenly all the demons stared panicking. All of them throwing different suggestions, comments and questions without answers into the air.

"What do we do now?"

"We need to find those other kids!"

"Forget them, we need new sacrifices."

"None of that will do. The ceremony can't be repeated again."

"Nobody said it had to be done at once. We drop two in now, another two later. Lilith still rises!"

"How do we find another two souls?"

"We never should have just went ahead with two!"

"We did what we had to! We couldn't keep Lilith waiting any longer!"

"Well now she'll have to wait longer anyway until we find new sacrifices!"

"Chaos, I don't know how yet, but this is all your fault."

"WHAT?!" the bushy-haired cannibal yelled to the rows behind her. "HOW IS ANY OF THIS BECAUSE OF ME?"

She didn't receive a response, just pondering silence "Well?!"

"Hang on," the demon replied "I'm just thinking of a plausible way to blame this on you..."

"You took care of the last first two sacrifices," The buck-teeth man made his way up to call her out. "You should have taken care of the next two as well!"

"I was only handed two kids!" Chaos yelled.

"Well you should have saw to it that the other two make there way to you before deporting the last into the second ring. Really this is on you."

With the crowd too busy accosting Chaos, Life grabbed Miguel and Connie and pulled them away from the seats and far away from the ceremonial area as a whole. Once they were far enough, Connie whacked the boy over the head "That was your cue to rob me, what happened?"

"Tyrone and Jacob..." Miguel muttered "Are they?"

"It's okay buddy, they're with Death now." Life patted the boy on the back. Miguel felt sicker. Someone should let Life know that saying 'your friends are with Death now' after they've been dipped in a black fiery pit is NOT exactly the comforting words he thought they were.

Still, Miguel understood what he meant and nodded. Death was gonna get them out of there soon enough. Besides, Tyrone and Jacob were already dead. How much more damage could they take?

A silver lightning bolt shot of the hole, piercing the dusty sky and catching everyone's attention. Shocked, terrified and almost deaf; the kids and Life huddled and turned away.

Miguel felt his heart explode. He looked at Life, desperately searching his golden eyes for some sort of false hope. Life ruffled his hair "It's okay. It's okay..."

"Are THEY okay?"

"Yeah. I can recognize Death's sliver lightning anywhere. You're okay. They're okay."

The crowd were ecstatic, mistaking it as a sign of Lilith. Doom got on stage and announced it "She's here everyone! We waited a while, but she is risen! Bask in the glorious presence of Lilith: Mother Of Darkness!"

A dark cloak floated up from the hole. Miguel felt his knees buckling. "Death couldn't have lost...he's Death!" he said, leaning against Life a little for support.

The cape was in a huge ball, when it unfolded everyone anticipated to see the unholy goddess. So you could imagine the rage they felt when the sacrificed little boys were revealed.

Before anyone had a moment to process what was happening, the cape flew over the boy's heads and encased everybody on the crowd. The boys floated down off the stage. Miguel couldn't believe they were really here. After all this time they were right there. As the demons danced around confused under Death's cloak, the g**g rushed up to the stage.

"GUYS!" Miguel long threw his mask off and had his arms raised up and apart for him to catch his friends. Jacob looked down at him and just flopped onto the boy. Tyrone copied his actions. Miguel was practically suffocating under the pair but he could care less. He was just so happy to have these guys back. Life and Connie helped move the boys off. 

"Are they okay?" Miguel asked

"They're a little hurt. But nothing I can't subside for a while." Life pressed his fingers against the boys heads, allowing a golden stream of light to circulate their bodies. After a few moments, the bumps around their ankles and arms flattened, scratches and scrapes cleared away and the boys got up peacefully like they'd woken up from a nap.

"MIGUEL! CONNIE!" Jacob grabbed the two and in a split-second they were all in a bear hug that Life joined seconds later. Jacob still smelled like garbage but Miguel had to admit, even before they were healed he and Tyrone were a sight for sore eyes. "I thought you guys were gone forever" Jacob sobbed "I'm so glad to see you're back!"

"You're ruining my disguise!" Connie complained, though she was glad to see these guys too.

Miguel felt a slap on the back of his head and turned to see Tyrone. He shook his head "See? THIS is what happens when you try to pick a fight with a girl."

Miguel stood up with Jacob still clinging to his arm and faced Tyrone "I got something for you."

"A gift, for me?"

Life revealed the bag and gave to Miguel, who rummaged through it and brought out the spiral patterned notebook and camera. "So you can start the memoir of your afterlife." Miguel said sweetly.

Tyrone inspected the presents for a few seconds before meeting Miguel's eyes again "The spine's crinkled. I hate it."

Miguel rolled his eyes as he brought his best friend into a hug "Love ya, too."

"Okay guys, very sweet. But the heaven is that?" Connie pointed to the demons who they were all screaming under Death's cloak. Dark green smoke poured out from under the leather, and Miguel caught a glimpse of what was under there. 

"Is he...mutating them?" He asked Life. 

The deity nodded "He's making them see their biggest failures, revealing the true form of a disappointment, I guess. It's what Lilith would've wanted."

"Um, okay. Let's just get out of here."

"nOt SO FaST!" A deranged voice echoed from under the nightmare that was Death's cape. A woman, or what was probably a woman. (Miguel had to respectfully look to make sure) crawled toward them at lightning speed. Her lower half was totally gone, with only the armor of her outfit keeping the rest of her body intact. She looked a hellish red, the kind of red that shows up when one gets acne. Her voice was layered and gravelly, and through all the burns and damage you could sense true murderous rage in her red-rimmed eyes. Tyrone and Jacob stared in fear and mostly annoyance, like this was the mutated face of a woman they knew all too well.

"You gUYS tHInk i'M GOING tO leT You GEt AWAY wITh ThIS?? OH NO...SOOn, wHEN I take aLL FIVE of YOU fOr SacriFICE, i ShAlL EaRN ThE UncONDITionAl RespECT Of ALL my pEERs, You'll sEE! They WILL ALL SEE! JUST YOU WAIT UNTIL I-"

"EW IS THAT SOME SORT OF DYING SQUID?!" Connie screamed and raced over. She stomped on its head multiple times while yelling "Get away from us! Also I'm sorry, but I'm putting you out of your misery!"

"Leave some for us!" Tyrone called as he ran down to join Connie in her stomping. He also shouted things, like: "That's for hitting Jacob! That's for smelling weird! That's for liking bald, bucktoothed men!"

"Guys, you got to go." Life said, pulling the guys away and practically carrying the kids far away from that horrific sight.

"What do mean by 'you'?" Miguel didn't like where this was going.

"You guys need to get back to heaven. I have to help my better-half with Lilith." He set them all down and had them link arms. He maneuvered his hands into creating a protection sphere around them. "Just say where ever it is you need to go followed by 'please.' It should take you there in a jiffy." 

"I hate to be that guy," Connie said "But where was this when we were first heading DOWN here?"

"I could have used it, but I just don't like the major motion sickness afterward." Life explained.

"Will we see you again?" Miguel asked. He was already still worried about Death, he couldn't lose Life too.

"Guys it's fine, I'm a demi-god. It's not she can kill me!" Life re-assured. He kissed the sphere, a way of kissing them all goodbye and floated down to the scene to assist Death.

The kids all looked at each other, waiting for someone to say it. But from how the other three simultaneously turned to Miguel, he realized he'd have to call it. Taking a deep breath while stepping just an inch closer to Connie, he said.

"Heaven, please. Cloud lane to be specific."

And in a dash they were gone.