The last words

Diana knew it was wrong, it was one of the first rules they taught her when she decided to become a Grim Reaper.

"Dead and living people can't interact."

The second rule was "Never pity dead and living people." 

She was one of the best, older grim reapers appreciated her work, and even Death itself was interested in her. 

Centuries passed since a grim reaper took her away, She forgot why she decided to dedicate her death to becoming one of them, but she was proud of herself.

All that hard work to become so good, all those souls walked to the world of the dead with success, and now she was going to ruin everything.

That day's mission was very easy, she did it so many times: she had to walk an old lady toward the veil, as grim reapers called it.

When she arrived, the woman was sitting at the kitchen table and she was looking at the oven with sad eyes.

"I'm going to miss cooking", she exclaimed, as soon as she saw Diana:" In my family, they're all so bad at cooking, they are going to starve without me" she added, trying to smile.

Every soul had a different reaction to her presence. Some of them cried, others screamed or were very confused, she had to reassure them, to explain to them they were dead. A lot of them didn't accept it.

But several souls, especially old ones, waited for her, peacefully, without causing any scene, as if they were waiting for her.

The old lady followed her, in silence, till the anteroom. Diana knew that place, that limbo between two worlds, had a name, but she was very bad at remembering words. There, it was where grim reapers walked souls to, beyond it, none of them, not even the oldest ones, knew was happened, just Death was allowed into that place.

If walking souls to the limbo wasn't easy, nothing would have ever been as hard as being sure, once there, they wouldn't have tried to run away.  Some souls did it, they went back to their world, becoming what humans call ghosts. 

Ghosts could be harmless, they were just souls that didn't feel ready to leave their house or their families, but others were so scared, and angry, that became dangerous, even toward people they loved and cared about when they were still breathing. 

Once souls left the limbo, all the connections between them and the world vanished, there was no turning back.

So, if Diana wanted to do it, she didn't have much time.

She looked around. Grim reapers were chilling around or busy keeping an eye on the souls they walked there, no one would have paid attention to her, at least that was what she hoped.

"Come with me", she whispered to the old woman.

"Young lady, I think this is the place where I should be right now."

Diana almost laughed, it's been a long time since someone called her young lady.

"There's someone who would like to talk to you before you leave, come with me."

The woman, looking confused, followed her.

All the other souls looked at them. While everyone was walking in a direction, she and the old lady were going in the opposite one.

"Diana, where are you going?"

She ignored the grim reaper who just talked and with a hand gesture, she made the lady understand to walk faster, without stopping. 

The limbo was dark, when the light of Earth hit them, they both had to close their eyes for a few seconds while getting used to it.

"We don't have a lot of time, follow me. Even if I'm sure you know the way better than me."

The portal brought them back to the woman's house, where Diana found her.

They walked for a few minutes, among living people.

"They can't see us, it's so weird" she heard the woman saying.

Lot of grim reapers, at the beginning of their training, couldn't get used to walk among people without being seen and heard, as if they were ghosts. Diana never thought it was a weird thing and this made her understand that when she was alive she was used to being ignored, to be a ghost to everyone, except to one person who she had now forgotten. But she was sure it was a woman, probably she had the same age as that soul that was now following her.

"We shouldn't be here, right?" asked the woman, when they stopped in front of a yellow house.

"No, we shouldn't, but this person has something to tell you."

"You mean I can talk to them? To my family?"

"No, it's forbidden. If you wish to communicate with them, you should become a ghost and be stuck in this world, forever."

Diana knew very well how many untold things souls brought with them beyond the limbo. 

"I love you"

"I hate you"

"The keys you were looking for are under the couch"

"I cheated on you"

"I'm proud of you"

Words they could have never said.

"But you can hear them. Even if they don't know you are here,  humans believe that somehow the people they lost can listen to them and this is why they often talk to souls."

When they entered the house they walked upstairs, without wasting any time, to a bedroom with walls covered in pictures and posters.

On the bed, with ruined makeup and red eyes, for the too many tears, there was a girl. She was holding a little photograph of the same soul who now was happily smiling behind Diana.

"There's something I never told you and I regret it. You have no idea how much I regret not having said these words to you, such simple words, but if you were here, I'd tell it to you hundreds of times" said the girl, with a shaking voice, looking at the picture: " Thank you".

The same words the soul said to Diana, before disappearing beyond the veil, forever.