Death Has a Daughter

Ch 7 A Few Guardians Too Many

A few Guardians too many

Right after I ported from the insanity that had just taken place, I moved onto the next thing on my agenda for today—Earl. This soul was ninety-four and I had ranked him as the easiest on my list. Since I'd already wasted so much time earlier, I would need a quick one to ensure I'd be the first to bring back a soul.

My feet walked up to his nursing home bed, which was surrounded by his family, and gently placed my scythe into his chest. He took a deep breath right before I put it in him, like he knew it was coming. There were no Guardians here to stop me from getting his soul. This made sense because of his age and illness. He'd lost his mind—from what I could—tell months ago, and had stopped eating without the assistance of a tube before that.

We nicknamed these nursing home places 'slaughterhouses,' because they were just like the ones humans took their cows to, except not as cruel. They both were in the same business of only selling one-way trips. They were places you brought living things to die; they just differed in the delivery.

My scythe collected his soul, and I quickly transported it to the researchers, who welcomed me with a high-fives.

"We knew you'd be the first to bring one in!" Richard, an extractor, who was one of Dad's friends, said from behind the counter of the researcher's claim facility.

"Thanks," I said, as I forced a smile and placed my scythe on the counter for him to extract. This would have been a lot cooler if I hadn't had such a crazy event happen earlier. After seeing what a high-risk soul looked like, Earl just didn't fill the edge. At least I had brought him to his final resting, which his soul needed. He'd looked like he'd been a pretty nice man, considering he had a ton of grieving family by his bed. His destination was probably not going to be somewhere in the lower edges of my realm, which I found comfort in.

"It's been quite some time since we've been able to extract a soul from this beautiful scythe of yours. I'm sure it was quite happy to come out of retirement," Richard said, as he pulled out the extraction tool from under his side of the counter.

The extraction tool was one of the things that always amazed me. It looked like a small, dark-silver scythe. Small, colored gems, meant to represent each family's stones, started at each end of the scythe and lined up to meet in the center where a stone, four times the size of the others, lay. The stone in the center held no color; it was crystal-clear until it was occupied by whatever soul it was receiving. Once a soul was inside the scythe, the center stone appeared cloudy, like a thick mist on a muggy day.

It was the only tool known to our realm that could extract a soul while not at a vulnerable moment. It had to have this power or we wouldn't have any way to get the souls out of our scythes. It also had to be strong enough to hold onto a soul. Otherwise, there would be souls escaping during the transformation, leading to them wandering aimlessly.

The extractor's job was to take the soul from my scythe's ruby center, using the extraction tool, and temporarily hold it in one of the thousands of stacked, oak drawers that were behind the counter—each one meant to hold one soul at a time. Each drawer had a dusty, gold knob and was labeled with a plated number. After the correct documentation was completed, the soul would be placed in a drawer, where it would await final judgment. Once judgment was made, the extraction tool was then carried to the soul's final resting place in hell, by a filler. Once the filler arrived at the soul's destination, the extraction tool was given to the handler, who entered the extraction tool's code, which then released the soul from its center stone. Each extraction tool had its own lock that required a pass code known only by the handlers. The code was entered by touching the stones that were on the outside, in a certain order.

Richard put the extraction tool up to my scythe's center and I watched as the old man's soul was transferred. I said 'thank you' to Richard, and ported to my front door.

Surely father would have some explanation for what happened today.

****

"Hey Dad," I said as I walked in and saw Dad on the couch.

"Hey, what's up, how did your scroll check out?" he asked, walking toward me with excitement. I could tell he would love to still be out there. He shouldn't have retired so early, but he'd had to raise me alone since, my mother had died.

"It's um...good... except..." I said, as I pulled out my scroll to show him, and his eyes lit up with excitement of seeing my list, it had been a while since he saw one.

"Did you get anything higher than a level three? I heard a lot of the dads saying their children didn't get anything higher than a two. They were upset. I think they wanted their kids to get higher levels; it is only their first list though, I told them. Seemed to help a little bit. How'd your list turn out? I know you got at least some level three's, possibly a four?" he asked.

"Yeah, I have a few three's and definitely one four. That's actually what I..."

"That's amazing, Cendall!" he said, interrupting me with a huge hug. "The boys are going to be so jealous when I tell them my daughter got higher-level souls. Nice work!!!" he said with a smile and I just smiled back. I couldn't complain about my higher-level one now. Surely, if I complained about the soul, they would take it away and question my abilities.

"Why the grim face? I know you'll do great; I have no worries. Are you worried about Drake finishing his list before you and people doubting your win at the Reaping? I have no doubts that you'll come out on top again, Cendall."

"You know it!" I tried to say with confidence. "I've got to go do some tracking; I'll be home later." What the hell was I going to do now? I couldn't let anyone know about that soul now. They would for sure think I was "complaining." If anyone else in my class got it they would be extremely happy, especially Drake. Everyone in the realm would have already heard about it. But, man, five Guardians to get around? This was going to take some major work. I would just have to follow her all day until I saw a good opportunity. That was the only way I was ever going to get this soul. I wasn't naïve enough to think I could fight four high-level Guardians on my own. I would have to become a stalker and wait for my opportunity.