A Business of Misery

Tip #10 | Never Argue with Fate

Grim reapers are a vital part of the universe. That's what they always say, anyway. That grim reapers are an important piece of the machine that keeps existence running. They keep life and death in check. They ensure that no soul is left to weigh down the rest of existence. They want you to believe that your existence as a reaper has meaning—that you aren't just a collection of energy serving the will of an unknown, uncaring power that sleeps at the borders of the ever-expanding void that is the universe.

Who is "they?" I don't know. None of us do. We have no reason to know, no reason to care. That's another thing. Grim reapers aren't supposed to care about anything beside guiding content souls to the afterlife. If grim reapers didn't do that—our one purpose—then the universe would be overrun by restless spirits and would throw off the balance of life and death, but what does that even mean? What does any of it mean? I know I shouldn't care, but I do. I also know that there have been grim reapers before me that began to care about something and were removed from the universe because of it.

If a grim reaper doesn't just stay quiet and do its job, then it is removed. I don't know how, and I don't know what happens to the energy that comprises it. I don't know if there is an afterlife for grim reapers. I've heard rumors that there isn't even an afterlife for humans. Or for anything. That, when we guide souls to "purgatory," it's really just nothingness. They don't get to live out their fantasies in an endless dream, experience true bliss in Heaven, or be reborn in a cycle to find true peace. No. I think when a reaper guides a soul to the afterlife, the soul dissipates the same way a disobedient reaper does.

So, I decided to stop reaping. I put down my metaphorical scythe and walked among the humans for a time. I kept my interactions to a minimum and simply enjoyed being free from the shackles of an existence chosen for me. I was able to observe for observation's sake rather than watch for the next poor soul to pass. I felt content myself, much like the souls I had been guiding for countless years. Of course, I did not escape the reality of death entirely. Death is a natural part of the world just as life is, so for as long as I wandered the human realm, I still witnessed death, though I never imagined that it could be so common even for beings seemingly intent on avoiding it.

It felt like everywhere I went, death was found. I thought, perhaps, that it was just because I was so used to spotting death in lively environments that I was homed in on it by nature, but then I realized that overtime, I began to find death surrounding me more and more. It followed me wherever I went. The unguided souls of the dead clung to me like a foul stench and I was only surprised to find that so many souls went unguided. Did my exit from the world of reapers really make such a difference that these souls had no one to lead them off into the void? I thought such influence from my decision to be humorous, but unlikely.

Truly, I felt that instead I was beginning to see the reality of the universe without the filter through which a reaper is born to view the world. There had always been souls left unguided. A grim reaper only focuses on the one they are there to reap and never the others around it. I had assumes that another reaper would arrive to guide the second person in a car crash, or that person trapped in the burning building across the road, or the child left to starve on the streets, but no. No other reapers ever came. None of us ever knew of the countless souls left to wander aimlessly on Earth as we assumed they did in Purgatory.

I often found myself wondering exactly what a soul does when left unguided. I turned my attention away from the humans that surrounded me and began to watch the dead that scattered the streets, hid in the corners of homes, stood in the rain while the living retreated indoors. I admit that I almost felt sorry for these souls. Nobody paid any attention to them. Nobody could see them. But I could. I paid attention to them. Perhaps that's why they attached themselves to me. It never bothered me having empty husks of human spirits clinging to my body attempting, maybe, to drag me down with them.