A Business of Misery

Tip #5 | Remember that Every Human is Unique

This story is part of a compilation I like to call 'Stories that go well with lofi hip-hop,' so if you're interested, this is the stream I listened to while writing this.

Humans are incredibly interesting. Just by observing them, you get a glimpse into their world. You get to see what they care about, what they liked to do, where they like to go, who they hang out with, and so much more. I like observing humans, but that's all I do. Nothing more. I guide them to the afterlife, of course. I go down to the human world when someone is on their deathbed and I help comfort their soul as it passes on to Purgatory, or whatever they like to call it. I don't involve myself with humans any more than that, though.

I find human behavior to be extremely intriguing. They do so many things that are just unnecessary for a species and they usually enjoy it. People run just for fun, they gather in groups of varying sizes and dance, play together, sometimes just sit and talk. They form bonds with members of other species and actually care for those other creatures as if they were one of their own. I love being a grim reaper—for humans I should say. Are there grim reapers for dogs and fish and birds? I don't know. If there are, they don't guide the souls of the fallen to Purgatory, or at least not the same one that humans go to.

Humans eat for pleasure because they have an abundance of food most of the time, they use money to buy things and work in order to get money, they also lie and cheat and steal and perform acts that other humans consider evil. They pretend to be people that they aren't just so others will accept them and be friends with them. Humans always have something to hide, but most of them show their true colors when faced with death. That's what I find so fascinating about them. The fear of their end inspires a change of heart in many humans, and they end up displaying their true feelings—admitting love, protecting others or failing to do so.

You can learn a lot about someone just by observing who they call first when they know the plane they're on is about to crash. When a human believes they are about to die, their whole demeanor changes. Depending on the situation, they tend to either accept it and collectively grieve with those around them, or they flee if able and trample any who stands between them and a chance to escape death. "Tragedies" is the umbrella term humans use to describe events which lead to immense loss of human life. These are my favorite times to be a grim reaper.

Attending a tragedy is so exhilarating because you get to observe tens, hundreds, maybe even thousands of humans all reacting to the same catastrophe, but they all have such unique responses. Many run for their lives, many accept their fate, many choose to end it themselves so they have some sort of control. Imagine watching as a nuclear powerplant goes up in flames. Thousands of people running and screaming for their lives as radiation explodes into the atmosphere and the surrounding landscape.

Hordes of people rushing through narrow hallways and cramming each other through doors. The most famous of these tragedies was in a place called Ukraine on Earth. Chernobyl, it was called. Only three or four dozen people died directly from the disaster; a pretty small number compared to other bad occurrences in the human world. Even so, the impact of the meltdown remains to be seen there to this day. I got to witness that tragedy, and it was beautiful. Some of the workers tried to help each other escape, others pushed past and tried to save only themselves.

The man I guided to the afterlife was of middle age and had a family; he was scared upon death and I got to calm him before he passed on. A similar display of chaos happened on a huge boat in the middle of the ocean one spring a long time ago. The ship was named the Titanic. Around 1,500 people died when the boat sank. There weren't enough life boats and the majority of the passengers drowned or froze to death in the icy waters. Surprisingly, a lot of the people who had fallen into the sea tried to help each other stay afloat, but it wasn't until after the ship had surrendered to a watery grave that they worked together.

When boarding a life boat was still an option, the crowds were rambunctious and forceful. I remember seeing one man push his way to a lifeboat that had been reserved for women and children, as most of them had been, but he slipped on the wet deck and fell into the water. Fifteen-hundred reapers all in one place; can you imagine? The woman I guided to Purgatory has also slipped and fallen into the ocean when the boat broke in half. She was carrying an infant with her; the baby was too young to guide to the afterlife, but I managed to cheer the woman up and guide her soul happily into eternal slumber.

Times of war are especially busy for us reapers. The wars of the past were certainly more deadly than the wars of the present on Earth, but a good number of humans still lose their lives to conflicts they're ordered to participate in. War is especially interesting for human behavior because most of the people involved don't want to be there. Sure, the Chernobyl incident took place at a location where people worked, and from what I understand most humans don't want to be at work, either, but in the case of wars, the soldiers actively want to escape.

Humans understand that they must work to survive in their society, but soldiers don't understand why they're fighting most of the time. It makes their deaths extra unsavory for them. What the humans call World War II was easily the busiest we reapers have ever been in a time of war. I guided 86 humans to the afterlife directly due to the war over the course of those six years, and I remember every single one of them. My favorite was a boy who was killed near the end of the war. He wasn't a combatant; he was a toddler in school when an enemy of his nation dropped a massive warhead on his hometown.

The boy was actually rather happy upon death. His teacher had ducked under a desk with him and was comforting him up until the end. They were both vaporized instantaneously when the bomb exploded a few miles away. Even with having so many tragedies under my belt, seeing so many reapers in one place is such a stunning display. The light from the mass of souls being guided to Purgatory is beautiful. I've been around for a long time; I'm one of the few reapers existing today who has been. I can say with certainty that the most influential disasters when it comes to killing humans are the ones caused by disease.

Humans are surprisingly durable despite their fleshy outside and weak wills. However, their immune systems are only so durable and sometimes a simple virus or bacteria can get the better of them. Their selfish nature comes into play once again when you see that they often don't care about the ongoing pandemic and continue acting as usual, only for the disease to spread and wreak havoc on the world. In the early years of the 20th Century of the most popular human calendar, a single virus killed as many as 100 million people. I guided 102 people directly due to the pandemic in those three short years that the virus reigned.

The most memorable to me was a man who lived on a boat at the time. He wasn't killed by the virus; he tried docking his boat at a port in eastern Europe and was refused. When he explained that he needed food and fresh water, the men guarding the dock told him he'd have to wait to be cleared by the military who had seized control of the port to limit travel in and out of the nation. The man tried forcing himself into the port and was shot dead. That wasn't even during the worst pandemic I'd ever witnessed unfold on Earth. In the middle years of modern civilization, a plague the humans deemed The Black Death swept across the world.

Upwards of 200 million people were killed during the seven-year tragedy. I guided 197 humans to the afterlife directly due to the plague in that time; I don't really have a favorite one. There are too many to choose from. Admittedly, I kind of like seeing humans act selfishly sometimes. It adds some variety to what I get to see as a grim reaper. It helps remind me that every single human being on Earth is a unique individual. It can be easy to get lost in the work of guiding souls to the afterlife, and you can forget that each person needs special treatment when trying to comfort their soul.

I think my favorite thing to appear as to someone on their deathbed is their favorite pet. Even if the animal is still alive, seeing it rest beside their beloved human can bring said human such joy nine times out of ten. At the end of the day, what I like to see is a happy soul getting escorted to Purgatory. Whether the person that soul belonged to acted selflessly or selfishly before death, whether they expressed love or protected others, whether they were an all-around good person or lived a life of crime, I don't care. Everyone deserves happiness in the end, and if I can't bring it to them, then I have no reason to exist as a grim reaper.