Karma

Year 2206, March 24, The Real world.

    The cars roared with noise as the odd stranger walked alongside them. A night sky that often brought darkness was overwhelmed with the lights of the city. The man walked slowly without care. His head faced the concrete ground, a gray hood over him, and his hands stuffed into his pockets. He stopped dead in his tracks. The cold air swirled. The environment unchanged, the hooded man looked upward to reveal a gray hockey mask. Each hole in this mask showed nothing but a black void as if he lacked any features beneath it. Swiftly a cold breeze blew through the area. Another walked toward him. They sobbed and stumbled, muttered and spoke. The man who wore the odd mask reached one arm behind himself. He took the scythe that had floated no more than an inch away from his back. The scythe that looked to be made of bone and old grey rope moved smoothly and easily to its master's will. As he began to walk again he pointed the tool out and down from himself.
    Flickering and dancing a ball of blue flames sat above the approaching person. Although they looked up then and again to check their path, they did not notice the figure before them. Beautiful colors of reds and golds passed around them. The two continued to approach one another. Without breath the hooded man stepped once, twice, and three more times closer to the person in his path. With a familiar, swift and graceful movement he raised his scythe and brought it down onto the human. As it fell quickly toward them it also quite as easily passed though, as if it weren't even real. The flame that had no real glow to it caught onto the blade and lit it ablaze. Still taking no notice, the person continued past the man unharmed.
    "I hope." The hooded man spoke in a low gruff voice. "That you will find a better life in the next, my friend." The flame disappeared, and he countinued onward with his bandaged hands back in his pockets. Seconds, minutes, and even a hour passed before he turned from the narrow sidewalk and continued to walk, in a hunched poster, into the city park. The night felt relieved as it fought less to bring its darkness to the park. The man made his way to the bathrooms. He entered. A yellow light flickered in the cold empty room. He walked with echoing steps to the end of the mirror and faced it. "Why must he choose such a place to meet." He sighed, before raising a fist. He knocked three times on the mirror. Then waited. A few minutes passed and nothing happened. "Where is he?" A few more minutes passed. "Karma!" He snapped at the mirror in frustration.
finally as he stared into his own reflection the image in the mirror began to change. He watched as a pale finely dressed man with a white top hat appeared instead of his own image. The man held a kind smile that even his bright red eyes couldn't fight against.
"Hello, Death." The man in the mirror acknowledged the man in front of him.
"Hello, Karma." The other seemed tired."what would you like from me, my friend."
"You know you still owe me for letting you use the Other Side to get around."
"yeah, what of it."
"I want something-"
"Get to the point. I know you want something I shouldn't be giving you, and you should know I don't care and am still gonna give it."
"Right, you get away with breaking rules once in a while like Angel." Karma sighed. "If you insist on taking the fun out of it. I want the soul of a Jared Luken. You should have collected it today. Now hurry and give it to me."
"can I ask why."
"No."
"Fine, I do owe you." Death took his scythe again and focused on the name Jared Luken. After a moment a blue flame appeared. It sat and danced on the blade. His bandaged hand reached forward and gently picked it up. "Please don't tell anyone I gave you this."
"Of course. You get in trouble, I get in trouble, and vice versa." Karma's hand reached forward through the glass and took the small ball of fire. "Now you can go ahead and leave, I am expecting another." He looked up from the flame as he held a great grin.
"Alright, I was planning to crash at Demon's tonight, since you ain't gonna let me back in the Other Side until morn'in." Death's voice carried an obvious annoyance to it. Then he walked off as he raised a hand goodbye.
The reflection held the flame in his hand as it slowly faded away, and then his picture also soon vanished from the mirror, which left the cold room once again empty.

    "Goodnight Jared." A woman said as she watched the young chef leave for the night. Jared headed out into the night air. A swift cold covered him as he took a sigh of relief, for the stress of the day was over. He began walking his normal route home. The city was loud with all sorts of noises, people laughing and yelling, the steady stream of cars, and loud music that came from the different pubs. At moments like this he was happy to take a nice walk through the quieter park, which would lead him home.
At first he enjoyed the fresh air and quietness of the area, but as he came closer and closer to the other side an eeriness filled the air. It felt as if the coldness of the night had turned to a freeze, and the shine of the moon became dull and dark. Jared hugged himself as he rubbed his arms to keep warm. Something shifted in the corner of his eye. He glanced over to see nothing. A bush rustled beside him and he turned in fright. As he did so his foot caught a root and he fell to the ground.  
his hands sank into the muddy ground as he sat there stupidly. "Gosh, I am glad no one was here to see that." He blushed in embarrassment. Quick to his feet he spotted near by bathrooms and went to wash up. A yellow flickering light gave the room a haunted feeling to it. Jared looked into the long merrier and examined himself. An expression was unpleasant. "Geeze I am filthy." He sighed. "I hope it doesn't stain." He rinsed his hands and then tried his best to remove what he could from his clothing. The flickering light was beginning to bother him. He looked into the merrier and even began to think he could see his reflection change.
"I should go before I get a headache from that dumb light." He rubbed his eyes, and began to turn away.
"Leaving so soon?" Someone asked behind him. Jared froze he thought he was alone. "Turn towards the merrier my friend." And without thinking Jared turned slowly and frightenedly back towards the merrier. Cold sweat began to farm on his brow. He was frozen in shock and dismay. An odd looking man stood in place of his reflection. His skin was sickly white and his eyes a bright red.
"W-who are you?" Jared muttered out.
"Oh? You don't remember me? Well I guess it has been a very long time for you. My name is Karma."
"I-I know you?" It didn't feel real to Jared.
"Yes, we met when you were about six, I believe."