Tea with Death 21

The two Veth growled as they threw Tenuk into Death’s home, picked him up, threw him on a sofa made of flesh, then stormed off. Tenuk was uncomfortable at first both from his ass having hit the cold stone floors and from the sofa he was sitting on, but since he was sat in a room with lots of angry Veth going backwards and forwards, he didn’t want to complain. After all, any one of them could kill him with ease.

As she sat there, the Veth seemed to lessen in number, as if they were all doing different things and were finishing their jobs. They’d set out a large dining table with four seats and lots of fancy candles. None of those seats appeared to be for Tenuk, they were all Veth-shaped.

After a bit of waiting, a Veth that Tenuk recognised walked by. Now was his chance.

“Hello, uh… Continuity! That’s your name, right?”

Continuity tutted. “You picked a bad time to come here, Deitic. Everything is a mess currently.”

“Isn’t everything always a mess?” Tenuk asked.

Again, Continuity tutted. He was carrying a tray with four glasses on it, each one made of sparkling crystal. He laid them out on the table, still tutting, then set out some cutlery.

“Um…” Tenuk was about to repeat his question, thinking that Continuity was ignoring him. But as he was about to speak, Continuity snapped.

“You have no damn idea how messed up She is right now. Far more than normal. We are in dangerous territory, you more so than everyone else.”

“Actually…” another voice interrupted. It was Arkay, the Veth Prime, who was covered in blood for some reason and being really careful not to get any on the floor.

“I just had two Veth fucking mop in here, kid,” Continuity growled. “You got the meat?”

“I have. It’s cooking now,” Arkay smiled weakly. He looked tired. All the Veth did. “But him being here is probably a good thing. She doesn’t do super crazy retarded shit whenever her shitty unfuckable boyfriend is around.”

Tenuk blinked. “Bro, I’m right here.”

“We only call you that because if we said your name, Death would instantly teleport right here and probably attack us for not announcing your presence or something like that,” Continuity sighed. “Death is highly unstable, and while Arkay is correct that you somehow have a calming effect on Kinisis, we do not want to… accelerate things…”

Suddenly, something bashed on the door behind them. Continuity and Arkay both panicked and pulled a sheet of fabric out of nowhere, using it to cover the dining table and chairs. The door exploded open and Kinisis was prancing around throwing ribbons everywhere. She was clearly incredibly excited.

“Heya!” Death grinned as she danced around. But as she spotted Tenuk, she froze. “When did he get here?”

Arkay glanced Tenuk “About a second before you did!” he blurted, thinking on his feet. “We were literally just about to tell you that the person you fancy but literally cannot fuck without turning him into dust had just arrived… You know what?” Arkay turned back to Continuity. “I think I may have overstepped my boundary a bit.”

“Yes, just a bit,” Continuity sighed as Kinisis grabbed both of them by the neck and punted them through the open door, before slamming it shut.

With the two Veth out of the picture, Death decided to skip around the room and see what they had been hiding. She saw the badly hidden table and chairs, removed the sheet and sat down, hinting that Tenuk join her.

“Come, kiddo!” Death beamed. “Looks like they cooked dinner for us! Must have known you were coming!”

Tenuk sat opposite Death, feeling awkward. “I think the top Veth actually wanted to speak to you privately and I kinda ruined their plans…” he admitted. “They say you’ve been acting crazy lately.”

“I’m not crazy.” The tone of Death’s voice changed completely. Her eyes seemed pretty damn angry, and her teeth were jutting out of her jaws.

“I’m just repeating what they said.”

“And what did they say?” Death’s teeth looked particularly large and pointy.

Tenuk gulped. “Not much… I just got here…”

“Tell me.”

Tenuk knew better than to mess with Death. “They said that things are messed up more than normal, and that we are in dangerous territory right now. They didn’t really say much else… Death, I don’t know why the Veth are upset with you. I think the best way to find out would be to talk to them and ask them, rather than threatening me.”

Death’s expression changed into a much happier look. “You know what, Tenuk? That’s a great idea! But first, we’re going to have whatever our little buddies have cooked up!” Death leaped from her seat and wheeled in a large, meaty thing, slowly rotating over a fire.

“You know what? I think I came at a bad time…” Tenuk hesitated as he got up from his seat. “I’ll let you sort things out with your Veth and I’ll come back later. Maybe next time I’ll bring some wine or something nice. Is that okay?”

Death wasn’t listening. She was busy taking giant bites out of the large carcass.

“Alrighty. I’ll see you later…” Tenuk muttered as he sneaked away.