A Dance With Death

|| Chapter 44 - Guarded ||

          

If I were not in a near-death situation and if I were living my normal life, I'm pretty sure that if the thought of me meeting the Grim Reaper would've crossed my mind, I certainly wouldn't have thought of meeting him under the circumstances of the world ending. And I certainly wouldn't have dreamt of being involved in a war for his cause.

It's funny how small incidences can change so much.

Imagine if I hadn't gone to meet the boys, I would've stayed at home and not met the accident. I wouldn't have achieved this unusual state of the in-between and wouldn't have discovered this entire new world. Of course, all of it had been planned, but there's no doubt that the choice, if chosen differently, would've changed a lot of things.

Now here I am, in a war of the afterlife – a world I was never supposed to belong to. Not now anyway. I am fighting for Death and his Order.

After forming their plan – about co-ordination and communication strategies – all the reapers leave for their respective duties, except Althea and Ektor, as Althea has responsibilities towards my safety and we still aren't sure of Ektor's situation. When asked whether she'd require help from other reapers, she declined by saying that she can protect me, and that the others should focus on protecting more souls. This way, there would be more assurance of the Order being guarded.

Zebediah questioned Ektor as to why he hasn't been more involved, but he simply replied by saying, "I'm worked up. I'll stay here and help Althea keep Zayn safe." Of course, Ektor can't be trusted with my life, but he'll be of some use. Althea has pleaded Ektor to not do any 'funny business' and Ektor swore over his 'non-existent boss' that he wouldn't.

It doesn't take long for Althea to start establishing a normal reaper conversation with him. It's like she has forgotten the deal and forgotten about his apparent involvement with Caius. She doesn't even care anymore. If I didn't know any better, I would say that she really believes that Caius can be put down now. She knows something about Ektor and she's not telling me.

And here I thought we were done with secrets.

Every time I try to discretely bring up Ektor's case, she would dismiss it by changing the topic. After a number of failed attempts, I let the matter go. She would tell me if she felt it was important.

Or maybe she isn't hiding anything from me, and she's indeed started believing the possibility of Ektor being innocent.

Somewhere, even I feel it's true. There's no reason for Ektor to have worked with Caius. The justifications he gave were valid. We shouldn't have even considered this. Obviously, this was yet another distraction set by Caius. We're well past it now and moved on. Ektor hasn't done anything suspicious, so I can stop worrying about him. Ignore it as Althea has.

We're alone in the waiting room. Ektor is sitting across me, tossing the skull from the summoning in his hand to keep himself occupied. I'm trying hard not to be affected by it. All the other stuff is still scattered around in a disorganised manner. None of the reapers even bothered cleaning it up. I felt quite uneasy about the mess, but they didn't budge. In the words of Griffith, "They won't affect the alive ones 'cause they can't see them. They won't effect you 'cause you won't even feel them. Quit whining." And then he went away.

I've been reading the cover of the magazine placed on the table beside me again and again. 'Ways to prevent heart disease,' it says. Too bad there might not be any tips for ghosts. I am tired of seeing the fit man on the cover flashing a smile and a thumbs-up. Way to stay positive in this trying time. It's not like I have an option. I can't bear this silence and the anticipation, and I can't pick up the magazine to read it. If by some miracle, I do get the ability to hold it, then it wouldn't exactly be pleasant for the next person who walks into the room to see a magazine floating in mid-air. I can't say it wouldn't be amusing. If the plan of defeating Caius doesn't work out, then I could always turn to being a ghost and freak people out for the rest of my never-ending life.