Young Writers Society

The light turned on and the occupant of the room was revealed. Long black hair, pale skin and eyes that seemed black too. He looked really creepy, and Amy wasn't sure whether this was just another trick of the cabin. Her eyes drifted to the staircase leading up to the rest of the cabin, but she wasn't sure what would happened if she tried to pass this mysterious being, if she'd be fast enough.

"Who are you?" She asked. She didn't want to scream, not yet. But she would if she had to.

Wren immediately stiffened.

She knew that sound. She was a hero - being part of the profession made her used to the noise. But she couldn't figure out why Amy would be screaming, especially with a scream like that. It didn't seem like she had found a creepy bug or a spider.

(Wren would have definitely screamed if it was the last one.)

"I did," she said. She glanced at Wilson and Hablex. "It sounded like Amy was screaming."

She waited for just a moment before hurrying towards the stairs.

Whatever the reason was, she'd make sure Amy was safe.


The light was so sudden and bright that he had to cover his eyes with his arm. When his eyes finally adjusted to the new brightness of the room, he lowered his arm and looked at the room's other occupant.

He still didn't give an answer. He knew he should. That would be the polite thing to do. But he didn't know what to offer as a name, and didn't know what he was supposed to do about the woman in the basement.

He faltered.

Then he very quietly muttered, "'m Thana."

It was so quiet that the woman would have had to strain her ears to hear it over the TV. He opened his mouth a little more to ask the same question of her, but then he heard someone coming down the stairs.

A girl darted down the stairs. She couldn't have been older than eighteen, but something about her felt...familiar. Not like she was familiar herself, but some little detail about her that reminded him of someone else.

The girl stared at him.

He stared at her, going the extra step of looking at the souls of both the strangers. Their souls were human.

...What were humans doing here?

"'m Thana," he repeated, as an offering. He had decided that introduction was something he could manage.

Wilson lifted her brows a little at the sound, but didn't show any indications that she was going to move - at least, not very quickly. She watched as Wren shot off to do what she was good at: hero-ing, and apparently detective-ing.

She looked over to Hablex. "Well. Shall we follow?"

Hablex glanced at Wilson, her thoughts running a bit wild. She made up her mind quickly though, since Wren fearlessly ran down the stairs to unknown dangers and situations, she should be able to as well.

“Yes, let’s.”

She hoped that the worried feeling in her chest was her overreacting and not because something bad was going to happen.

Amy decided to scream. She wasn't sure what to expect from this strange person, but at least, if the others were aware of her predicament, they'd come to help her.

She saw the way the strange being looked at her after she did, and she darted for the stairs. She ran so fast she tripped up them.

Her heart was pounding a million miles a minute, and as she regained her balance, she screamed again, hoping someone could hear her.

"Help me!"

Amy's scream was heard - by Wren, who was standing less than a foot away when she gave it.

Wren winced at the noise. It was loud, and done right into her ear. Amy must not have seen or heard her rushing down the stairs. She was pretty quiet, and was currently standing in the darkness of the stairs. It wasn't too surprising.

"It's alright," Wren said, stepping into the light. She gave Amy a comforting smile. She tried to ignore the part of her that knew that Amy wasn't going to find comfort in a seventeen year old. Amy didn't even believe that the Actor existed, much less that Wren was him.

But that was okay. Wren could deal with that.

Just like she could deal with the man at the bottom of the stairs.

The man had also flinched at the scream. He seemed so startled by it that he had gone stumbling back into the wall behind him. For a moment, Wren felt really afraid. Dressed in a black suit and wearing an all black outfit, he looked like a stereotypical villain. He was the creepy kind of guy that would have brought them here.

But she couldn't let herself feel so afraid if she wanted to do something.

"Who are you?" she asked.

"'m Thana,' he repeated, his voice quiet. He was reaching into his pocket for something. Wren jumped down the last few stairs and grabbed onto his wrist. It took her a moment to realize he had just given her his name, and another to realize that he was just pulling out a regular old smartphone.

She kept her hand on his wrist.

"Why are you here?" she asked.

"...Why are you here?" he replied.

"I asked first," Wren said, mustering all of the Actor's confidence into her teenage voice as she looked up at the man. "What are you going to do to us? Are you the one who brought us here?"

The man jerked his hand away. Wren blinked and stared at it. She had been holding on as tight as she possibly could; he couldn't have ever pulled his hand away that easy when he looked so lean.

"You shouldn't be here," he softly said. "You're human."

He sunk back a little into the darkness of the room, staring right at where her heart was. "...Your soul says you're human," he added, as if she needed the confirmation. As if he needed the confirmation. "But you...you feel different. Like you're a...god."

Wren took a step back and stared up at him.

The opening lyrics of The Lightning Thief Musical started playing in her head. Suddenly, she was back in her bedroom, reading through the Son of Neptune from the comfort of her bed. A new death god had just been introduced, even though the first Percy Jackson series should have covered something like that.

His name had been Thanatos.

Hades had been the ruler of the dead. Thanatos was the god of the dead. He was the Greek grim reaper, if she remembered right.

He had said his name was Thana.

She could see her soul, and had compared her to gods.

"Thana is short for Thanatos," she managed to get out. "You-You're the Ancient Greek's god of the dead."

Wilson gave a nod to Hablex as she got up and led the way down into the basement, descending down the stairs in time to witness Wren grab a guy’s hand, lose her grip, and declare him a god after he did the same to her.

Well, this was fun.

“Oh! Thanatos!” she greeted with an air of familiarity that only made sense to her. “What are we doing here? Well, we’re wondering the same thing. I mean, I for one, was surprised to be brought here. But in any news, good to see ya!”

Hablex stared at Wilson, then at the newly introduced Thanatos. Wrapping her brain around Wilson being some form of Time was one thing; having this world's god of death standing in front of her was a whole different scenario.

Perhaps she should be grateful all of these things weren't happening in her home, as there was no way she could run away from these problems. But, then again, if a kind of Death stood in front of them all, did that mean they were dead? Or going to be dead?

"Does that mean we're going to die?"

Once she'd ascended the stairs, it took Amy a moment to realize what was happening. Wilson seemed to know who the strange man was, so maybe she'd overreacted. Still, sneaking up on her like that was not cool.

He was Thanatos.

The God of Death.

That only meant--

No. It couldn't be. Amy swallowed.

There was a long, drawn out moment of silence.

Thanatos seemed to be just as overwhelmed as Wren, even if he was the one that was actually a god. There was a look of confusion flickering across his face as he stared at Wilson; Wilson was friendly with him, but it was almost as if he didn't know her.

He stared down at her chest and furrowed his brow. It was right where he had looked before saying something about her soul - maybe he was checking Wilson's? He paused, blinked, and stared up at Wilson's face even in more confusion that before.

Then he looked at Hablex.

The gravity of Hablex's question was only just beginning to sink in. Wren had been too busy geeking out thanks to her Percy Jackson phase (which was still going very strong) to realize the implications of being in the presence of the death god.

She held her breath.

"No," Thanatos finally said, his voice just as quiet as before. Wren let out a sigh of relief. "I...I don't take souls. I don't even know who you are..."

Wilson was trying really hard not to laugh. If they were all dead - well, if she was dead (which was impossible, really - sure, she could lose her physical form but she’d never die) then they would ALL be in big trouble.

She didn’t realize she was grinning the whole time as the others’ expressions turned grim.

“That’s fair!” she chirped. “So how’d you end up here, then? Didjya pop up randomly with no idea how you got here like the rest of us?”

At Wilson's cheerful expression, some part of Hablex's trepidation melted away, yet she still felt quite worried for everyone else. Something like the god of death did not mean good things, or at least she thought that was how everyone felt.

She held off on speaking, as she was interested in how he would answer her questions.

He shook his head.

"No," he said, his voice barely above a whisper. Wren had to strain her ears to hear what he was saying. "I was supposed to be here..."

He trailed off, gaze going to the staircase. There was a desperate, nervous look to his eyes - a look that Wren realized she recognized all too well. She had to bite back a relieved smile at the realization. He was like her. Not with his comment earlier about her being like a god; she didn't understand that part. But what they did have in common was their shyness, even if his seemed a little worse than hers.

Wren could take comfort in that.

Thanatos tapped his foot.

"Are you waiting for someone?" Wren asked.

He paused for a moment, looking at her like a deer caught in headlights. A moment passed. Then he gave a little hesitant nod before glancing back in the direction of the stairs.

"She was the one who came here with me," he said. "This place is her creation. We were supposed to arrive together, but her spell must have brought her to a different part...Maybe outside of the cabin-"

He was cut off by the sound of the front door loudly swinging from the floor above them.

A snow pile was created out of nothing in front of wren "hello?" a voice came from the pile "are you friendly?" a face poked out of the pile and looked at Wren "im Silver....."