The Black parade

"How long can I see her?"

Virgil frowned, which then turned to a half smirk, "How long did it take for you to die?"

"I don't know!" I exclaimed angrily.

"Fear, Regret!" Virgil called out over his shoulder, not taking his eyes off of me.

"Yes Master Virgil?" the twins said in unison.

"What was the exact time?"

"Three minutes!" Cried one

"No! It was more like four minutes!" Replied the other.

"Well which one is it?!" Virgil said impatiently, tapping his foot on the moldy faded carpeting of the auditorium.

"Uhmm..maybe 3...no no....4...or maybe even 2...?" the two twins argued.

"Ach, never mind! Escape artist, how many minutes?!" Virgil shouted, pointing at an obscure looking hunchback of a man.

"Aye boss, the lad took approximately 3 minutes to die," was the response.

"Ha! I was right!" exclaimed one of the twins.

"Ohh..enough already you two!" Virgil said, waving them off with his bony hand.

He turned to me, "You have 3 minutes to talk to your daughter, only 3! Nothing more, nothing less!"

I sighed, "3 minutes is not enough for that! It's the first time I've ever layed eyes on her!"

Virgil thought this through before speaking, "Fine, 6 minutes if you want to include the 3 minutes it took for clinical death to become biological death! But that is all! Now go!"

"Go where?!"

The escape artist appeared by my side, "Hold on lad, I'll get you to where you need to go! It's me job afterall!"

Before I could say or do anything, he grabbed ahold of my arm and squeezed hard.
I suddenly felt waves of heat, cold, warmth, brightness fading into dark, dark into light, all of this all at once! I had to close my eyes from it.

When I opened them, I was standing in a dark corner of a small quiet living room. A little girl was sitting on the floor having a tea party with her stuffed animals. I was afraid to come out of the shadows, for her to see what a monster her father had become.

"Go on young master! Tick-tock! Tick-tock!" I heard VIrgils voice in my head.

"I'm awful just to see!" I hissed.

"Who's there?" the little girl said, looking around the room.

"GO NOW OR COME BACK!" Virgil screamed in my head.

I stepped out of the shadows before the little girl, shaking like a leaf.

"Hello mister! Where did you come from?" she asked.

I took a timid step forward, trying to speak.

"I'm not supposed to talk to strangers, but are you lost mister?"

I slowly knelt next to her, "Hi."

She smiled, "Hello mister!"

"5 minutes!" Virgil hissed into my ear from the beyond.

"5 Minutes."