The InBetween

Twenty Whatever's Ago (Connie's POV)

Twenty days...

Twenty hours?

Heck, twenty MINUTES ago everything was fine just fine. Connie was bonding with Miguel, Life and even Death, despite him not able to add anything to the conversation. Now, Miguel and her were surrounded by flesh eating mutant demons with Life compromised and Death still in the form of a stygian carriage.

In a panic, Connie reached into the backpack and pulled out another bottle of utopian orange juice. This thing must've been a well-known brand as all eyes fixated on the drink instantly. "You want some?" The girl called waving it around. Without waiting for an answer she threw it across from the crowd, taking out another bottle and flinging it far from the area. The demons dispersed like smoke as they angrily grabbed at the bottle and wrestled each other for it. 

"Damn good drink," Miguel said, but closed the bag as Connie reached in to throw some more. "Don't waste all of it!"

"We need to find Tyrone and Jacob! Priorities, Miguel!"

"I'm saving it for them, though."

"No point in giving orange juice to two burnt up corpses!"

She brought out more and more drinks to distract the hungry monsters. She then grew concerned as she just found more and more. "Jesus Miguel, how many of these did you pack?"

"It's a damn good drink, what can I say?"

Connie was almost sad she'd never find out how 'damn good' this drink was as the last two bottles were flung twenty feet away.

The kids looked over to their other friend, who was being looked over by Death. Life shuddered and rippled back into his original form. Miguel asked if Life was okay, Death looked at the child with certainty. "It's Life. It's not like they can die."

"Grimmie's right." Life groaned as he staggered to his feet. "I've faced MUCH worse than a demon ambush. You should know that." He winked. Connie remembered a story he told of when he barely escaped a bunch of homicidal French people for simply asking where their morals lied. 

"We have to escape here before they come back for us..." Death morphed into a carriage again. Life pulled the kids in as Death's cloak hauled them along a red dirt road far from those nasty mutants.

"You guys got something on your mind?" Life asked sympathetically. Connie hadn't noticed until now how much of a big frown she was pulling. She could hear her uncle's voice say in her mind "Frowns are for clowns!"

"We were too late," she confessed. "For Tyrone and Jacob. We were too late, weren't we?"

"Don't say that." Miguel said .

"Yeah, those two seem like survivors from what you've told me." Life referenced a time where Jacob stood outside in a heatwave wearing black, furry winterwear with only hot tea for refreshments. She couldn't remember if it was a dare or some sort of punishment, but the boy saw through to the end.

"Let's get back to those stories, huh?" Life suggested, bouncing a little to lighten the mood. Connie stared at his injury. It was a deep graze that ripped down his back to the end of his arm where his wrist was. Life caught her staring and told her to chin up. "I've been through worse, remember? Those demons just caught me off guard, if I wanted to, I'd kick them all to the polluted skies and back again!"

Miguel chuckled a little and offered Life some of the juice. He respectfully declined "Saving it for your friends, remember?"

Connie smiled. She really liked Life, but she couldn't help but wonder how somebody so nice and energetic could also be so unfair and kick her around all the time. But she supposed this Life in front of her and concept of Life she'd been living were pretty different. From what the girl had heard, Life's job isn't to supervise you during your time on Earth, just to ensure your entrance into existence goes well. 

Connie figured there was more to it than that, but that was all she want to know.

"Anyone have stories?" She asked.

"Well, there was this one time-" Miguel started, but was hastily cut off when the three landed on rustic road. Death had transformed back into himself. Life gave out to him, but he pulled out his cloak and camouflaged them again. Now all four were a dark hallway that echoed when they raised their voices.

"What gives?" Life snapped, his voices tossing in all corners of the hall.

"I saw...I think I saw-" Death choked out, surprisingly choked up for being, y'know, DEATH.

"Spit it out!" Miguel chimed.

"I saw the sacrifice, it's happening." He said at last. He pulled his cloak off them and positioned it just as cover from whatever they were hiding from. What Connie saw, almost made her lose the lunch she never even had.

Behind the fabric, there were rows of demons all standing and waving their arms in excitement. Above the crowd, to children were suspended in the air with rope and an old crane. Below the kids was a black fire pit. Connie could see the details of the hole very well. It wasn't another portal to the third ring, unfortunately. The gorge below the kids roared with black fire. The figure of a woman appeared in the fire. She almost looked like she was jumping out to the children, trying to pull them into the void to endure the same t*****e as her for years and years.

Connie looked at the boys. One had a pink sweater vest, another had a purple and yellow striped top. But she didn't need that to know the two kids in question were obviously-

"TYRONE AND JACOB!" Miguel shoved the cloak aside to get to them, but Death quickly pulled the boy back, creating the illusion of a rock to cover the group.

"Are you insane?!" He asked,  slightly shaking the boy. Connie wasn't being touched or given out to, but she still wanted to flinch. Something in her gut told her that making Death himself angry was a lot worse than what those demons were doing. "You wanna get into that pit with them?"

"That was the plan, wasn't it?" Miguel argued

"Terrible plan," Death turned to his offended other half "No offence, but we need a new one."

"Luckily for all of you, I have one." Life said, making doubles of the outfit he had on him. Connie was surprised by the seemingly limitless powers Life and Death held.

"Dress up is not a plan." Death shut down Life quickly, but Life persisted.

"It's not dress up. It's our last ditch effort to save Miguel's friends!"

"So what is this last ditch effort exactly?" Connie asked. She didn't doubt Life had a plan. But the situation seemed rather hopeless at this point. What could the deity pull out from his hat at the very last minute?

"Well Connie, it's like I always say," he gestured the costumes over to the two, asking them to put it on.

"When all else fails: Gaslight."