The Reaper and I

Chapter 1: A job

Chapter 1

This time the death is common. She’s a 97 year old woman and just dying of old age. I sit at the edge of her bed watching her final moments in this world before I take her soul. Her breathing slows then stops and she enters an eternal sleep she will never wake up from. I grab her soul as soon as it rises from her body and store it in my bag before walking up the wall. I put my hand the cold plaster and concentrate on opening a door to the underworld. As soon as the door opens I step through into a bedroom area to find James playing Xbox. “You’re the Grim Reaper and your playing Xbox” I said to James and he looked up at me with smile.

“Even the Grim Reaper needs some gaming time” he said with a shrug and went back to playing his game. I walked over and picked up the game case and shook my head.

“Darksiders? Really?”

“What? It’s a good game” He defended pausing it “Did you get the soul?”

“Yep, shouldn’t you be doing that instead of playing Xbox?”

“But that’s what demons are for”

“You’re an idiot” He just shrugged at my comment and held out a hand. I sighed handing him the soul “I honestly have no idea why some decided to trust you with souls” again he just shrugged at my comment but turned to me with a huge grin on his face.

“Want to play catch?” He asked throwing the soul up and down with his hand. I hit him for such a horrible idea. He chuckled but continued to throw the soul.

“You are terrible today” I tell him shaking my head.

“You say that everyday”

“Yeah, but your extra terrible today” he just laughed at me as he opened up a small door in the air pushing the soul through.

“Happy?”

“Yes”

I’ve been doing this ever since I died last year 2 weeks before my 17th birthday saving my sister, but instead of dying this douchebag here decided he needed some extra help. So for some stupid reason he chose me for his helper. At first this job scared the crap out of me because who wants to be death, but I kind of got the hang of taking souls. No actually that’s a lie, it still scares the crap of me. So I’ve been living with death himself instead of sitting in the clouds singing with angels or playing fetch with my dead dog. James is basically a lazy douche who sits around and never actually does his job; he has totally destroyed everything I’ve ever imagined the Grim Reaper to be. I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing, but he doesn’t wear a hooded cape or run around with a death scythe. The only thing he wields is an Xbox controller and his deadly cooking. I shudder just thinking of his “Welcome to the Darkside’ dinner he prepared when I arrived, it looked like he put road kill on a plate and tasted even worse. Not that I have ever tasted road kill. I honestly don’t even know why he prepared that dinner considering we don’t need to eat, but we still can because my afterlife wouldn’t be worth living if there wasn’t any chocolate. The only thing James has going for him is his unearthly good looks. He has light skin with a slight tan, black hair, a killer body, silver eyes and is about 5’6ft. While I have auburn hair that reaches mid-back, pale skin, a skinny build, green eyes and am only about 5’1ft.  Yeah being a reaper isn’t that exciting.

I sighed watching James continue to run around with a large sword killing demons, unfortunately in the game and not in real life. I got up to leave but James stopped me “Can you grab another soul for me?” I groaned at his request.

“It’s your job why can’t you?”

“Because”

“Because?”

“I just don’t feel like it” he said with a shrug with his eyes glued to television screen. I groaned again “and because I’m the boss”

“Fine”

“Check the list, it’s on the table” I walked out of his room and into the kitchen where the list was lying on the table. The list basically tells you who, where, when and why someone is going to die. It’s pretty big list. I felt him come up behind me he leaned his head on my shoulder and started to go through the list until his finger stopped on a name. I didn’t bother reading the name and skipped to the other details. It’s murder and it’s happening near where I died. The thought of being where I died freaked me out but it was my job so I pushed James off and walked to the wall and shut my eyes imagining the area I wanted to go to. When I felt the wall shift under my hand I opened my eyes taking a step into a dark alleyway. The same one I was killed in. I shivered and rubbed my hands up my arms even though it wasn’t cold. I heard voices further up the alley. I swore and ran towards the voices hoping I would get there in time to get her soul, but as soon as I turned the corner I froze in horror and instantly regretted not looking at the name. The person’s soul I had to take was my sisters. Two people were holding her and the other had I knife positioned to take her life. Not caring that I was breaking the rules I screamed out her name running towards her. The guys turned around to look at me and I took that opportunity to knee the guy with the knife and twisted it out his hand holding it towards his throat.

“Fuck off” I hissed at him. He got up and gestured for his friends to follow, I thought they would have put up more of fight. I looked down at my sister on the ground that stared back at me in horror. I can’t believe I’m still saving my sister after death.

“Y-y-your dead” she stuttered. I shushed her I moved towards her but she shot to her feet and backed away from me. I took another step towards her but she turned around and ran into the darkness. A single tear ran down my cheek that I quickly wiped away. That bastard set me up! Anger replaced my sadness; I put a hand on the wall and imagined James’s room. In a flash I jumped though the door.

“You Bastard! You set me up!” I almost screamed at him. I went to continue but decided against it when I saw the look on his face, he looked about as pissed as me or maybe more.

“You didn’t get the soul!” he yelled at me “You interfered, I told you it was against the rules!” All my anger turned into fear. He was terrifying when angry.

“Sorry” I whispered

“Sorry?” he laughed at me “I should kill you for this, but I won’t if you make it right”

“How?”

“Kill your sister and take her soul”

“No!”

“Do that or take someone else’s soul to replace it”

I swallowed and looked at James “Okay”

“Okay?”

“I’ll take someone else’s to replace it” he shrugged at my response.

“So 2 people deserve to die to save your sister?”

“2 people?” I asked confused.

“You and another just for your sisters stupid mistakes” I swallowed. He was right another person couldn’t die just because of the mistakes of my sister but I couldn’t kill her. Didn’t I prove that when I sacrificed my self for her?

“How?”

“What?”

“How do I do it?” He pulled out a knife from his desk.

“A single cut with this this and it should extract their soul” I took it and turned it over in my hand looking at the carvings in it. I looked up at James. “Don’t make a mistake like your sister” and with that he turned and opened a door in the wall giving me one last look before stepping through it leaving me alone to make a decision.