Allison Brice’s story “A Death in New York” was published in Metaphorosis on Friday, 20 November 2020. 
As a broke millennial living in an expensive city, I have had my fair share of roommates — some awesome, some awful. I have often used the phrase ‘roommate from hell’, and I thought that perhaps that could be literal. Living with Death as a roommate would certainly present some challenges. Would they clean up? How are their social skills? What music do they listen to? (No, non-existent, One Direction.) Obviously this would drive any normal person insane, so Death’s roommate had to be just as much of a hot mess as they were. This created the character of Sophie, a crass, aimless, dirtbag lesbian who chain smokes and does not have her life together. Sophie, coincidentally, was named after my girlfriend’s roommate’s cat, who only occasionally allows me to pet her. New York is the city of possibilities, so that became my setting. I spent a lot of time there myself as a broke college student, so I remember some of my favorite haunts. The only thing missing was a wild card, someone to propel the story forward. Since the story already featured Death, why not add God? And while I was at it, why not make God a woman — a soccer mom, at that? Once those pieces were in place, I just ran with it to see where the story would go. Obviously, the answer was ‘straight to Hell’.
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