Ginny's phone pinged. She lifted it up and wiped her tears away. It was her new phone but as she stared down at it, her phone roared to life without her even touching one finger to it.
The phone launched itself into the notes app, drew a smiley face for her before it scrolled down and began typing out a message for her.
Miss me?
Then it scrolled further down and uploaded a picture for her.
It was a picture of her mother, tied to a chair and gagged. Below that was an address to Harold's abandoned building.
❃❃❃
Ginny and Bale rushed to the building. They stopped under the building and waited. There were cameras all over, and Ginny knew she would be caught in them. But she didn't care now. Her mother was all that mattered. Just then, her phone flashed to life again.
Number 03-23.
Ginny flew towards the staircase, with Bale right behind her. When they reached the third level, they were panting. They found themselves in front of a metal door with the correct unit number. Ginny tried the handle but it was locked.
All of a sudden, the door burst open and Ginny tumbled inside. But within the next split second, the door closed behind her, separating Bale from her.
❃❃❃
Bale transformed into Death right away and penetrated the metal door. He entered the room and floated everywhere.
But Ginny was nowhere to be found.
❃❃❃
Ginny raced into the room after her mother's voice. "MOM!"
"Ginny!"
Ginny stopped in her tracks in the room. One of the walls was missing and two women were standing near the edge of it. One woman was glaring at her and she had her hand wrapped around her mother's arm, who was tied up and gagged.
The woman dangled her mother over the edge.
"NO! MOM!" Ginny cried out. "Who are you?"
The woman left her mother at the edge and pointed a gun at her. "Move, and your mother falls over and dies."
"Okay! I won't move! What do you want?"
The woman glared at Ginny. "You killed Harold. He was my fiance."
"I didn't," Ginny tried.
"I saw the CCTV footage, you foolish bitch. I saw you kill him," the woman spat. "But I erased that footage. Do you want to know why? Because I wanted revenge for myself."
"If you saw that footage, then you know I didn't mean to kill him."
"He still died because of you. Harold was everything to me, and you took him from me. I had tried to hack into your phone but guess what I found? Someone else was already there and he blocked me. So I broke into your home and hacked your old phones and waited until you realised your phone was being hacked. Then you would switch to your old phones. Too bad you don't have a safe phone, huh?"
"Why did you wait so long for? What do you want?"
"I want to watch you lose your mother the same way you lost all your loved ones - to your own folly."
"Wait, please. Take me instead. Don't hurt her. I killed Harold, not her!"
"If only it were that easy."
❃❃❃
Death burst into the room Ginny and the two other women were in. Materialising in front of them into his human form, they both gasped.
"What the fuck?" the woman said.
Who was she? How was she involved? Why was she pointing a gun at Ginny's mother, who was dangerously close to the edge of the building?
"Drop the gun," Death said.
"Who the fuck are you?" the woman said.
"I am Death. Drop the gun or I'll reap your soul."
"Hah. As if," the woman said. She stepped over to Ginny's mother and grasped her shoulder to push her backwards.
"Ahh!" Ginny's mother yelled as her feet neared the edge.
"Watch her die, you bitch!" the woman yelled at Ginny.
Death poured his smoke forwards. The date hovering over the woman's head was still far into the future. She was to die old. But he didn't care. The tendrils of smoke escaped from his fingertips to fuse onto her soul.
❃❃❃
The woman collapsed to the ground, clutching onto her heart, her body writhing from a heart attack. Ginny yelled and flew towards her mother.
But as quickly as the woman had fallen to the ground, her hand had found her gun again. She pointed it at Ginny's mother and with one pull of the trigger, the gun fired.
A bullet hole pierced into her mother's chest, and as lightning tore the night sky behind them, her mother fell over the edge of the building, down three storeys.
Ginny raced to the edge and looked over, screaming for her mother. Her body was on the ground and she sped out of the building, descending the stairs as quickly as she could.
When she was next to her mother, she collected her into her arms. "Mom, Mom," she repeated. "Stay with me, please."
"I'm sorry," her mom said, as her eyes slowly closed.
"Stay with me! Mom!"
But her mother's body stilled.
"Bale!" Ginny cried out.
Silence responded.
"BALE!"
❃❃❃
Death stood behind Ginny in his true form. The rain showered around them heavily. She was crying out for him, but she couldn't see him. He wanted to comfort her, but how could he bring himself before her? He had foolishly assumed that he could lengthen her mother's life but it only ended with her dying as planned.
"BALE!"
Tears left his eyes as he watched Ginny's heart break. He used to only feel aches in his heart for her, but what he was feeling now was full blown anguish. He wanted to ruin the soul of any who would dare to harm her, but alas, she had lost everyone she loved.