Afterlife

Reaping Troubles

                                                                     Reaping Troubles

First, there was a flash of lightning, a loud crack of thunder, and then the lights went out.  Kate was alone, babysitting at the neighbor’s house. The twins were sound asleep in their cribs.  A flash of something abnormal appeared at the doorway of the living room.  Kate was watching Nick at Nite on the TV softly so she wouldn’t wake the twins.  That was when the lights went out and rain started pouring outside.

Another crack of thunder was heard and whimpering came from the kitchen.  The neighbor’s dog, a Golden Retriever, zoomed into the room. It jumped into Kate’s lap. “Goldy, get off!” Kate said playfully.  She stumbled into the kitchen next to the living room, looking for a flashlight. She turned it on and carefully walked upstairs, Goldy following.

A strange aura of menace followed her upstairs. Thunder shook the house and lightning illuminated the top of the stairs. What Kate saw made her gasp and sent goose bumps breaking out on her skin.

“Is this real?” The girl murmured, trembling slightly.

There was someone wearing a long black robe with a hood pulled over its face. It floated in the air slightly, but somehow still made cracking sounds with its black boots.  Its head was tilted to the ground so Kate couldn’t see its face.

The cloaked figure lifted its hooded face and Kate screamed. The figure’s face was a skull! Rotting flesh clung to it. He stared at her. He had just taken out a scythe when Kate screamed more.

“Oops. Wrong place,” the Grim Reaper said, and then scowled.

The window nearest the Grim Reaper creaked open and he floated out of it. Kate stared after him in shock.  She realized Goldy had been growling the whole time the Grim Reaper? was at the top of the stairs. Kate checked on the babies. Somehow they were still asleep. She walked out of their room and went downstairs, muttering,” I need to stop staying up late...”

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The Grim Reaper murmured, “That was embarrassing.” He walked away from the house and melted into the shadows. There, he turned into a teenager wearing all black.  His cell phone started playing a Gothic tune and he fished it out of his jacket pocket. “Hello?”

“GRIM!!! YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO HAVE REAPED THE GHOST BY NOW! WHAT HAPPENED?” a woman’s voice yelled at him.

He said calmly,” I’ve got it all under control Mira. I just went into the wrong house by mistake.  Bye.” He hung up on Mira, who was about to say something.

He casually strolled through the door of the next house, but now more cautiously because of the trouble in the last house. Grim didn’t need a repeat of the golden retriever trying to bite into his left leg. He slowly walked upstairs where the feeling of future death felt strongest.

He walked to a room where loud snoring could be heard. Inside was an old woman sleeping in a bed, untroubled by the recent blackout. But as he floated into the room, the old woman stirred and woke up.  She jumped up and brandished a heavy metal lamp. “I can see you Death! You can’t trick me!” the woman yelled.

“Grandma is obviously going a little batty,” Grim thought before the old woman hit him on the leg with the lamp. Unfortunately, the metal in the lamp, silver, was something that could hurt ghosts, even Reapers.  There would be a bruise on his leg for quite some time.

Grim ran out of the room and out the front door. He could hear the old woman say,” And stay out!” But to add to his misfortune, Mira was standing outside.

“Why didn’t you get the ghost? I had to miss a major traffic collision in California because of you! You’ve been a Grim Reaper for centuries, what happened now!”

Getting angry, Grim said,” I don’t know! I thought there was a soul to reap, but there wasn’t!”

“Grim Reapers never lose souls.” Mira said.

Choking it out, Grim said, “I must have been wrong.”

“Fine. But don’t do it ever again or you’ll lose your job and just be demoted to a Ghost.”

“Okay…” Grim sighed.

“Now let’s go. We have a busy day tomorrow.”

A black, sleek car drove up to the side of the road where they were, and Grim and Mira stepped inside.

Grim’s fellow Reapers murmured, “Hi,” and sipped coffee.

The “Death Car” immediately stretched to include another row of seats for Grim and Mira, even though it still looked the same from outside. Grim and Mira got in as the Car drove away. The stars twinkled as the Reapers laughed and joked. Grim stared out of the window, upset and not really looking at the blurred scenery that rushed by.

“Why did I get a false alarm? Those never happened to me before. My sixth sense has always been perfect.  I hope I can figure this out soon,” Grim thought, trying to ignore glares from Mira.

Suddenly, he saw a flicker of light from the window, as though someone had flashed a camera at the car.

He craned his neck to see what it could have been, but the flash was already gone.

“That was weird,” Grim thought.

He looked to see if anyone else had seen the light, but no one looked surprised or tried to look out of the windows.

Then he saw one girl staring out of her window, her green eyes wide. Grim identified her as Melissa Graves, a new Reaper who was sitting in front of him.

Their eyes met as he whispered to her,”Keep this a secret. I’ll check it out later.”

Melissa nodded but continued to stare out her window. Grim sat back trying not to think of that sinister flash. Somehow, it scared him more than most people were scared of him, the Grim Reaper!

“Just relax, it was nothing.” Grim reckoned to hiself. His eyes started to close and he fell asleep.

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