Brook X GN Reader || I'm The Grim Reaper

Chapter 46

Fan art by @H0peP0nd on Twitter :)

"...Sure... What do you want to talk about?" Chase brought his arms behind him, giving him support to keep sitting up. He wasn't shirtless anymore, wearing one of his blue long sleeves shirts, and he was covered in his blankets.

The image of Scarlet, the disfigurement of whatever she turned into, whatever she was as she held a head and severed foot and ankle was stuck in his head. It made his stomach hurt. Or maybe that was because of the wound, he didn't really know.

"...What happened to you? In that alley?" Scarlet was silent for a moment, holding out her hand to give Chase the bottle of water, which he reached for. "I'll tell you, just drink some water first. If you don't drink, you'll die..." She paused, looking to her side. "Because you're human."

She looked forward again. "...A reaper doesn't need to drink. I'm not human. My body is... nothing. It's a puppet, animated by my soul. What that means... Exactly... Is that you can pluck off my arms, or rip out my heart, and I'll be "alive". My soul is just animating this pile of flesh. But, I'm not alone in here... There's something else inhabiting this pile of meat, with my soul."

Chase couldn't help but imagine Scarlet's body with a demon, the one that he saw in the alley, taking over every bit of her besides where her white soul sat in the middle where her heart was.

"A demon. This demon is powerful and gives me my reaper abilities... But if I start to lose touch with my "humanity", the demon will take over completely... And I won't be able to regain control until something connects me to whatever it means to be human." Chase stared at her, trying to process her explanation.

"...Something that connects you with what it means to be human..." Scarlet remained silent, waiting for him to go on, but he was waiting for an answer. "...So, what is it?"

Scarlet shifted, bringing an arm to her face, touching her lip with her finger. "Uh, well. How can I say this..." Chase looked to the side, waiting for her to say whatever it is she needed to. She put her arm down, biting on the inside of her cheek, her face flushing and her cheeks becoming pink with embarrassment. She turned to look at Chase, finally. "Y-yeah?" He asked her.

Her face became a darker red as she tried to work up the courage to say it. "...It's you... I-I think you're the only thing that can pull me back from my demon..." Chase's eyes widened slightly. Scarlet turned away from him again. "...You did it twice. You probably don't remember the first time, but my demon took control, and when I saw you... I came back. And of course, three days ago... Your voice managed to reach me... I don't think anything else could have gotten me out of that state..."

She turned front facing the wall to the other way, so Chase was looking at the back of her head instead of the side of her face. "So, yeah. I'm sorry... That... I'm dependent on you, in that way..."

Chase's face flushed as well. "...I'm the link to your humanity..." "Yeah... I'm sorry." Chase narrowed his eyes. "Why are you apologizing?" "Well, it's a lot of trouble for you. We are supposed t be working together, and now you have to make sure my demon doesn't take over... I know that I'm just a tool-" "Hey, stop!" Chase interrupted her.

"Scarlet! You're not a tool! Don't say that ever again!" He threw his hand out in an angry gesture. "We work together, but more importantly than that, you're my friend! I don't have any problem helping you with that demon thing at all, that's what friends do for each other- ah..." He bent forward, holding his torso as the gestures finally got to his wound.

"Chase! Don't overdo it!" Scarlet reached out to him. "You're still healing..." He panted slightly. "I forgot... You stabbed me... H-How am I alive...?" "I-I told you, I sewed you up. You need to stay still so that the stitches don't rip open..." "Wha- You were serious? Where the hell did you learn to do that?"

"I dunno, I just remembered how to do it." She remembered her live self telling her what to do. "...In my past life, I guess I sutured a lot of wounds... SO it felt like second nature..." "Wait... Hold on... You remembered something?" "Yeah, but that was it. I still don't know who I was." Chase sat up fully again.

"I'll find out who you were, Scarlet. I haven't forgotten. I promise you." Scarlet turned to face him again. "Y-Yeah. Thanks. Uh, s-so, how did you find me anyway? When I was a demon?" "Ah... Yeah. A while ago when I gave you that phone... I installed a location tracker onto it." Scarlet's head whipped in surprise to look at Chase.

"I took you to the amusement park to manipulate you into trusting me, then presented the phone as a gift. I wanted to use the phone to investigate who you were further. The blood, the disappearing, the murders. I thought it was okay to do because you were a murderer, and manipulating murderers in any way is fine. I went through it logically- do the ends justify the means. And my answer then, was yes. But, the circumstances mean nothing. What I did was wrong. I manipulated you and tricked you. I'm sorry. You're under no obligation to forgive me. I did a lot of things to manipulate you, Scarlet. I'm a bad person, as you're well aware. But, I don't want to be that person with you. You're important to me.

...I want to ask you a question. But before I do, there's been something on my mind for a while. Regarding you. That I want you to know before you answer." "...Yeah?" Chase inhaled deeply. "So... There's this popular ethical dilemma It's called "The Trolley Problem." He brought his knee up to rest his arm on.

"It goes like this... There is a trolley coming down the tracks. Ahead, there are five people tied down, unable to move. You're standing a long way away, next to a lever. If you pull this lever, the trolley will switch to a different set of tracks, with only one person tied to it. So you have two options in this scenario. You do nothing like a coward, and five people die. Or you can pull the lever, diverting it to the one person, and have a net gain of four lives."

Scarlet narrowed her eyes. "There's only one correct answer to this problem. You pull the lever and reduce the overall loss of life. It's obvious. I never understood why this was even an ethical dilemma... Or so I thought." He closed his eyes for a few seconds, opening them again.

"I'm a pretty pragmatic person. I've always taken pride in my ability to overlook feelings for cold, hard logic. Emotion and attachments have always come around to bite me in the ass. They've historically held me back from doing what needs to be done. So, I abandoned that. thinking of the world in a formula of "make the decision that prevents the most suffering, no matter what is easy. It's robotic. But humans aren't purely logical beings. And I think I've ignored the emotional side of myself for too long... S-since I can't logically figure out why I like being vulnerable with you."

His face flushed again as he looked to the side and down. Scarlet raised an eyebrow at this. "So, g-going back to the trolley problem thing. I would always pull the lever to the track with one person, to save the five people... Unless. The person on the track... was you..." Scarlet's eyes widened slightly, the blush on her face returning and her mouth dropping open in shock. Chase was boiling at what he just said, his face a bright red as he was suddenly aware of Scarlet's gaze on him. "S-So!" He continued, trying to get past it.

"D-d-d-d-d-d-don't get me wrong, if it was anyone else, I wouldn't give a fuck, I'm still the same Chase." Was it hot in here? "A-and the reason I told you all that is to b-be totally honest with you. About everything. When we met, we didn't trust each other. We used each other. But things have changed... A lot. What I did back then is still wrong. And I'm sorry. I will never do it again. I will always be completely honest with you, from now until forever. And it's up to you if you want to believe me or not. You don't have to forgive me if you don't want to. If you want to leave, and never talk to me again, that is absolutely understandable."

Scarlet looked down a little, her hair falling in front of her face. "...So... Just let me know," He mumbled, looking to the side again.

She turned back to him after a moment of thinking, giving him a closed-eyed smile. "Of course, I forgive you, Chase. You keep phrasing it like I'm some paragon of mortality that you took advantage of... I'm awful, remember?" She brought her hand up to graze her lip with her finger again. "I murder. I kill. I'll do anything to not get sent back to the Ninth Level. In the end, we're just two really bad people. And maybe, that's why we need each other. Since, each other... Is all we have."

She rested her hands on the edge of the bed, turning back to look at him again.

"The power of communication." - Graveweaver

Words: 1644

What would you guys do? Sacrifice someone you love for the 5 people by pulling the lever, or do nothing?