The Reaper

The Reaper - Biblical

'I don't hate you, I just really, really, really don't like you.' - Unknown

The little girl stared up at me with smiling eyes. She repeated her name over and over being carefully that she won’t forget it. Her pale hand still gripped my black shirt and her body wavered. She was going to transfer. Her body started to break up into pixels, starting at her feet then worked its way up her legs to her torso. But her green orbs never left mine as it finally came to her face.

“Thank you Diomedes.” She whispered with the wind as she swirled up into the cool night air.

Thank you for what? I thought as I watched the small dusty fragments scatter in the air. A throat cleared from behind me and I spun around to find another Reaper with the longest marron hair doing what might’ve been close to a smile, it just looked creepy on us.

“Dio, sweetheart, I missed you.” Xenia dramatically flailed her arms around and flew over to me. She wrapped her arms around me but I shook her off.

“Xenia, we are not human. We do not feel this emotion called ‘Love’.” I pushed her away and set a scowl on my face. I was pretty patient but her high-pitched voice could drive me over the edge in a matter of seconds.

“You didn’t seem so emotionless with that little ghost girl a few seconds ago.” Xenia pouted and stuck out her lower lip. She ran her long tongue over her sharp, white teeth. “Besides, we don’t have to be in love to… get physical” She added and once more clung onto my arm. I pushed her off and launched myself into the air with her right behind me.

“Aw, come one Dio. Don’t be that way sugar.” She laughed shrilly and it took all I had to keep her scratch-free. It was considered a major offense to hurt or injure another Reaper, Life sentence, even death, if you kill a Shinigami.

“What do you want from me?” I asked her trying to keep my voice controlled and anger free.

“I want you.” Xenia replied with a shrug, her large black wings flapped rhythmically and in time with mine. I ignored her response defiantly and kept my face in front of me.

I stopped flying and just hovered in the air. She whipped by me at the speed we were travelling at then she doubled back to next to me. Xenia crossed her arms and her wings flapped hard to keep her aloft. A deep frown was now evident on her face and her red eyes grew hard.

“Diomedes, you have a look on your face… what are you thinking?” Xenia scowled as she studied me. I just stared at her blankly. She was getting on my last nerve and I did have a plan. I was figuring ways to kill her without making it look like I was the one to do it.

“I’m not thinking about anything.” I grumbled deciding not to harm her.

I looked to the sky again to marvel at the stars. What one cannot have is what one wants. It was a quote used many a times by humans. Reapers were doomed to stay underground, we had wings but we weren’t allowed near the heavens. The moon was full and shone brightly through the haze after the rain. Its glow glimmered along with the stars and I reluctantly dragged my eyes away from it onto Xenia.

“Are you still pining after the stars? Are you crazy? We were not made for up there, we have to stick to the shadows Diomedes.” Xenia grabbed my forearm tightly, her razor-sharp nails digging into my flesh. Her bloody eyes searched mine for a reason as to why I wanted to be up there.

“I know we stick to the shadows. I’ve seen every crevice of this place and the Underworld. I’ve been alive for thousands, millions, of years Xenia. I want to know what else there is.” I argued and ripped my arms out of her iron grip. Her nails had created half moons where they indented into my skin and small droplets of black blood were falling out. Once they came in contact with the air though, they vanished.

“Is that why you were talking to that ghost?” She pressed on, raising her voice’s normally high pitch a notch higher, “To find out about another place?”

I shook my head at her. She wouldn’t understand, she was brainwashed like the others. You were only allowed to be on the Earth and the Underworld. You could only do these certain jobs. You could only be in this place if you were born like this. They kept telling us these things since we were in the first stages of our ‘life’. But I knew better, they could not order me around like this because I was one of the first made that actually saw our God and was given our tasks. I was an actual Fallen Angel. I was made to keep the Reapers to their jobs and because of that, I couldn’t enter my Home.

“No, you don’t understand it Xenia.” I answered her roughly and resumed flying. She made an exasperated sound and followed after me.

“Then make me understand. Why are you always so cold towards us? Huh, so Mr High and Mighty kicked you out. It doesn’t matter. You’ve got a new ho-” I slapped her roughly.

“He did not banish me.” I growled, clenching the fist I used to hit her. Her eyes widened in shock and she abruptly stopped flying. Her pale hands prodded at the red mark and she winced slightly.

“You hit me.” She whispered. Her eyes narrowed dangerously and she stared me dead in the eye. “You actually hit me.” She said louder this time. “You bastard, you HIT ME!” She shouted.

She was outraged and her normal blood-red eyes lit up in a fire. She lunged at me like a cat and I had to dodge last minute otherwise she would’ve turned mid-flight. One of her nails caught me on my neck and scraped off some skin. I winced and felt the small wound heal instantly. I didn’t have time to deal with her now. I always felt the need to travel to Heaven but now it was a task that burned my chest. I stared at her, putting my authority, my rank, every power into my gaze and caught her eye with it.

“Leave Xenia, I don’t want to deal with you anymore.” I ordered and I felt her body tremble under my gaze. She huffed and her body dispersed into the air. I sighed and rubbed my forehead.

I closed my eyes and felt my body transfer back to my domain. I knew I had arrived when the heat had multiplied by thousands of degrees. My eyes flew open when I felt something nudge against my leg. My pet Hell-Hound growled a welcome to me. I stroked his rough leathery fur and long snake-like tail. He was a Cerberus. A three-headed dog. I looked around the bare stone room. Outside the land was dark cobblestone streets with lava flowing in-between cracks, giant flames sprung up randomly, creating walls of fire and danced into the dark red sky that had blackened from smoke. The flames sent flickering shadows across my living quarters.

Inside, it couldn’t have been plainer. I had a single chair propped up against one wall and a desk full of miscellaneous things. A blanket was crumpled on the floor for my Cerberus, and that was all. I only feed off a sufficient amount of souls of Atheists, we couldn’t touch religious people. They had to either come here or go to Heaven. And I never needed to shower or use bathrooms.

My eyes travelled over the things littered on my desk; a retractable telescope, a small rock from Earth and next to it a much larger one from Hell, bunches of scrolls tied together with red string were toppled over on each other, and a Bible. I lingered on the dusty old book. An unfortunate soul that was sent here somehow brought a Bible with them and gave it to me when they had to get rid of it. I never touched it and it sat in that same spot on the corner of the table for eons. The burning desire once again flamed in my chest and I grabbed the Bible and stuck it into the same pouch where my Death Diary is. I ran a hand through my hair but quickly stopped, it was a bad habit I saw Humans do. I whistled to my pet and walked out of my room. What was I doing? I do not have any idea on another land and no clue how to get into Heaven. I’m only constricted to Hell and Earth because of my job, so if I quit my job I should be able to reach Heaven’s Gate. With that thought in mind I flew through fire and jumped over the lava streams. Cerberus was right behind me, his three heads barking all in sync.