The Reaper

Chapter 1: Serious Bussiness

The house was silent, all except for the floorboards, which creaked as I attempted to walk silently across them. After all, sneakiness is key for my job. For one, if one of the living in the home heard me, and entered the room in which I was present, I would have to make up a clever lie to explain why someone in a black cloak was in their home, holding what they could easily mistake for a murderers axe. I wanted to avoid that, as I was a horrible liar. But, it seemed that I was even worse at being silent.

As I walked towards a door on the left side of the hall, my scythe shook violently in my hand. The tool was-or at least I assumed-sentient, and could sense a spirits energy, their aura if you will. I still didn't quite understand how it worked, despite how many times Randy attempted to explain in to me. I followed the scythe, followed the vibrations to that door. It was plain, wooded and unassuming. The only thing that identified it as something other than just a bathroom or laundry room door was a metal sign hanging from the door. It was obviously custom made, as their was a name that I had never  seen on a normal store bought sign.

Esmeralda

By now, my scythe was about to jump from my hands and crash into the door. I swallowed, tightening my grip. There was a dead person on the other side of that door. Or at least the entity of a dead person. I knew I had to go inside the room, but my legs refused to step forward, my hand refused to turn the doorknob.

The scythe shook impatiently. "Calm, Ares. I need to get ready." I told it. Ares was special, composed of Dark Matter and linked on the molecular level to the current Reaper-me, as of now. The tool got it's name when the first Reaper used it in battle against the forces of Lucifer and Seoul. It performed almost as well as Ares, god of war, and so its name was given.

Before Ares had another chance to vibrate, I twisted the knob, and pushed it open. Inside was a simple bedroom, with all the nessacary items for it to be a bedroom. A bed, dresser, and an end table with a small lamp. I scanned the small room, finding no other items. I concluded that this room was a depressing place to die. 

Eventually I found the spirit. It was of a young girl, likely in her early twenties, perhaps not yet old enough to drink alcohol.  Her hair cascaded across her face like a waterfall-a waterfall composed of keratin, of course. I had no intel into the color of her hair or skin, as her spirit was the same color as the rest. A translucent sea green shade. The body was nowhere to be found, which led me to believe it had already been taken to the funeral home.

I approached the spirit, who was on her knees, in a hysterical fit. Tears rolled down her cheeks without getting them wet, as she whispered to herself, just loud enough for me to barley hear.

"This can't be happening. Oh my god, they took me. But I'm still here, I'm still in my room. So how?" her words were cut of by a violent sob that seemed to choke her, causing her to hiccup.

In all honestly, I felt awful. But I had a responsibility. At least she seemed like a good person, so she would not be punished for eternity in Seoul. Staring at her, I lifted Ares over my head. She was still crying. I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and took a swing that would have cut a human being in half.

                                                                                          ~

"How was the first day-err night?" Randy asked me as I deposited Esmeralda's spirit into the afterlife, leaving the judges to decide her fate. Heaven, Seoul, or the normal afterlife.

"Fine. I didn't break anything, at least." I told my mentor, walking to a nearby sofa. Funny, how the Grimm Council kept sofas and comfy chairs right beside their long desk, but I supposed comfort was nessacary.

Randy sat down beside me. "Lack of broken objects is always good." he replied.

I nodded, not saying anything back. I let go of Ares, leaning the scythe against the wall. My cloak slipped off of my body in a thick, slimy mass, returning to its place on Ares' handle.

"Come on, Andrew." Randy said, "We've got work to do."

"Didn't I just do work, Randy?" I asked, irritated.

"Not that kind of work, I meant studying. There are creatures out that that will try to kill you. You need to be prepared." he replied, approaching a small table with a chair on either side.

I rolled my eyes, but walked to the table and sat down across from Randy. I had learned that protesting hardly ever gets you anywhere, especially with your superiors. So I had no choice but to partake in whatever "studying" Randy had planned for me.

Randy placed a manila folder on the table. It was stuffed to the point of almost bursting. Papers and sketches and photographs stuck out visibly. If I looked hard enough, I could catch a word on the papers or an arm or leg or eye in the sketches and photographs. Randy opened the folder, and the contents would have flooded into his lap if not for the paper clips binding them to the folder. After a few minutes of searching, he pulled a sketch from the center of the enormous mass of content. With a sigh, he placed the folder onto the ground, and set the sketch on top of the table.

The sketch was of a mass of mist, or smoke. It was a dark gray, almost black. As I stared longer at the picture, I noticed the smoke was in a humanoid shape, with two yellow dots (I assumed they were the eyes) located where the head would be on a human being. Whatever the creature was, I could tell it hailed from Seoul.

"This," Randy said, stopping my train of thought, "Is an Inner Demon. They aren't nessicarily bad when bound to a human being. In fact, they play a key role in a spirit's judgment. Whether or not a person listened to their Inner Demon during life determines where they will spend the rest of eternity."

"What about the ones that aren't bound to anyone?" I asked, my eyes not on Randy, but the drawing.

Randy bit his lip. "Those are the ones you need to watch out for. They still have the power of possession, and since they are not tied to a specific person, they are restless. They jump from person to person, making them do things from robbing the gas station or killing an entire household of people. Your scythe can defeat them, but not while they are in possession of a physical body. If you attempt to destroy them then, you risk also destroying the body they are inside of."

I nodded, making mental notes in my head. "Got it."

Randy smiled. "You're a fast learner." he complimented.

"Thanks, I guess." Honestly this stuff wasn't hard to remember, or learn, for that matter. My IQ was over 100 last I checked, and I was either near or a bit above genius level intelligence.

Randy stood, placing the drawing back inside the manila folder, then closing it with effort. He looked at me. "You should go home. You still have your responsibilities on Earth, do you not?"

I nodded. My foster parents were likely in an outrage that I hadn't loaded the dishwasher yet. It was Randy's fault, for snatching me in the middle of the night, and not letting me go home for two days.

Oh well, I guess.

The dishes could wait.