Dicing with Death Read Free

object came to a halt just in front of him. Max’s breathing came fast and hard. It was the blade of a scythe. He scrambled up, wanting to run, but his feet were like two blocks of concrete.
    With a faint swish, a dark hood fell back to reveal the side profile of a face. No, not a face…
    Max staggered back a few steps as a skull of gleaming ivory swung around towards him.
    There was a seven-foot skeleton staring down at him.
    It was the Grim Reaper.

Chapter Four
    Max stared into Death’s eyes – well, his eye sockets – until the distance between Max and the Grim Reaper appeared to lengthen. The skeleton’s ivory features blurred as he floated away. This was the time to make a run for it.
    Then Max saw what Death was moving towards.
    The Grim Reaper raised his scythe, and from it spilled an eerie blue light that trickled down onto a small, crumpled pink bundle.
    â€˜Oh, no,’ Max whispered.
    His sister was curled up in a tangle of undergrowth.
    Max desperately wanted to race over to Amy but running towards her also meant running towards Death.
    The Grim Reaper looked across at him and appeared to grin. With two bony hands he brought down the long-handled scythe.

    Max bolted forward as the blade sliced down like a guillotine. Launching himself off the ground, he threw himself across Amy’s lifeless body. ‘No!’ he screamed. ‘You can’t have her!’
    Max waited for the slice of cold steel against his neck. Amy lay unmoving in his arms. Time ticked by, and still his head was safely attached to his body. Daringly, he squinted upwards. The Grim Reaper had vanished.
    Max turned his attention to Amy. ‘Please don’t let her be dead,’ he whispered, stripping off his coat and tucking it around her. Amy’s face was as white as one of her china dolls and her lips were purplish blue – the same colour she had been just minutes after she was born. David had called him into the hospital room where his mum was lying with Amy in her arms. ‘Say hello to your new baby sister,’ she’d smiled, dropping a kiss onto Amy’s head. Max had felt a sharp jab of jealousy. ‘Half-sister,’ he had pointed out.
    For the first time in five years, Max felt uncomfortable with the way he’d acted that day.
    â€˜Amy,’ he urged. ‘Come on, open your eyes.’
    Gradually it dawned on him that not only could he see Amy, but that she was lying in a pool of light. Glancing up he saw the source of the light was the scythe. Death hadn’t gone at all, he had simply moved further away.
    The Grim Reaper regarded him, skull tilted to one side. ‘Enough!’ His voice reverberated like atomb slamming closed. ‘It is time. Your sister must leave this world.’
    Something deep and angry inside Max began to boil. He leapt to his feet. ‘You can’t take her,’ he screamed with clenched fists. ‘I won’t let you.’
    With only a skull for a face, Death wasn’t naturally good at expressions, but despite this Max got the impression the Grim Reaper didn’t like being defied by a mortal. ‘Don’t be foolish,’ he boomed. ‘Move out of the way.’
    â€˜I don’t think so,’ Max croaked.
    Death tipped his head back, almost as if he were laughing, and appeared to take a huge breath. Then he dropped his head again, opened his jaw and released a howling blast of freezing air.
    The force of the surge knocked Max off his feet and propelled him half way across the glade. He slammed against a tree trunk, the sudden pain in his back fighting for supremacy with the agony in his ears as roaring wind tore through the forest.
    A giant hourglass appeared in the air above Amy. Death appeared to be waiting for the last of the sand to run from the top bulb to the bottom. A gold thread shimmered between the hourglass and Amy’s heart. Max gulped. It was Amy’s lifeline.
    Once again, Death raised his