Death's Reaper

Confusion

"You're kidding." He stood ridiculously tall while I was still sitting on the sand.

"No I'm not." I held out my right hand.

He took one look at my hand, and then me. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"What I said. Now help me up." I held out both hands for him to take.

"Why should I?" I gaped at him.

"Because it's the nice thing to do, and since we'll be dealing with each other every day we might as well practice helping each other."

"There's no need for this." Was his prompt reply.

I sighed. "Can't you just do what I ask?"

"No." Was his firm reply.

"Fine then." I pushed myself up, wincing as the sand came in contact with my hands, now feeling pain in my right hand, left wrist and leg as I used my hands to push myself up. I nearly fell back down again afterwards.

I would have fallen down, had Brady not grabbed onto my arm and provided support to my back. I grinned at him. "I knew you'd have some good in you."

He froze up and shoved me away, nearly causing me to fall to the ground again. "Hey!"

"S-sorry." He muttered.

I brushed the sand off my body and inspected my hand and wrist, frowning at the small scratches and cuts.

"What were you saying earlier? About being a soul reaper."

I turned my attention back to him. "I meant what I said and said what I mean." I replied cleverly.

He glared at me from behind his tinted glasses- something I could now recognize from the tip of his mouth pointing down and his eyebrows clenching together a little bit, something that could barely be seen unless I was really attention.

"Well, when my mom died and dad took Jack and left, I was left in my grandparents'- my mom's parents- custody. Dad probably already told you that part. What he doesn't know is that mom never moved on. She was unable to go to heaven or wherever it is ghosts are supposed go after death- that part's really not my business. I found the God of Death and convinced him to let mom move on, and he agreed, in exchange for my life."

"What?" He interrupted.

"Which basically means I'm his soul reaper and he gives me all this cool equipment that I mess with to make better and I help ghosts who can't or won't move on to move on. Except he confiscated my babies because apparently I'm a workaholic and will work myself to death otherwise- can you believe the guy? So I'm basically stuck with trying to avoid ghosts until I get at least my scythe back because the jerk said he wouldn't give back my stuff until a week later, which is seven days from now." I groaned, missing my babies already. The hard work, blood and tears I put into the Automatic Ghost Storage Device and the scythe was gone. At least I still had my phone. "So does that make sense?" I asked.

"Absolutely not in any way whatsoever." He replied promptly.

I raised an eyebrow. "Which part do you not understand?"

I could see his mouth moving as though he was chewing gum, or the inside of his mouth.

"How did you find the God of Death?" He leaned in closer, eagerness and curiosity practically oozing from his body.

"I followed the instructions in the book-"

"What book?" He frowned.

I glared at him. "You have a bad habit of interrupting people. I think the title was Gods A to Z or something-"

"That doesn't exist." He blurted out.

"I said I think that's what the title was. It said something about finding the Forest of the Inner Mind by doing a ritual with a recently dead, which was my mother, and one of the living- me. So I found this forest, walked a heck of a long time and eventually found him. Then you know the rest, right?"

He shook his head. "You didn't explain anything at all."

This wasn't getting anywhere. "I have to get back to work right now, when I get back home we can have a long drawn out discussion about this, alright? I have a few questions I'd like to ask you as well. We can play twenty questions."

He looked taken back and frowned while considering the deal. "Very well, this would be an excellent topic for my research."

"Great!" I turned around to leave when Brady called out. "Wait, I should walk you back."

I glanced down at my skull ring, the diamond eyes were no longer glowing as they had done so earlier but they still had a mystical glint. I turned back and smiled. "No thanks, I'll be fine. If I run into danger, I'll find some way to get away."

Besides, I was under the protection of Zukros, the jerk. Trying to keep me in the dark and taking away my weapons while secretly protecting me?

His kindness was absolutely infuriating. I didn't need some sort of father trying to keep me safe.

I earned my independence and I fully intended to keep it.