The girl, no the pest was insistently annoying and irritating. She kept asking so many questions about my work and what I was doing. This was one of the reasons to why I didn't like souls hovering over my shoulder.
"Hey mister, how did she die?"
"Hey mister, what are you doing?"
"Mister-" I cut her off with a sharp look as she clammed her mouth shut.
I concentrated on the woman's memories, trying to look at her fate without the little pest staring at my back, boring holes in it with her eyes.
"Look, girl. I would really appreciate if you didn't stare at me. In fact, just keep quiet for a minute." I furrowed my eyebrows at her as she closed her eyes and pressed her lips tightly together.
"Thank you..." My sigh was exasperated.
The peace and quiet lasted only a minute before blabber and loud questions filled the air. I was getting more and more frustrated with babysitting this ghastly girl.
"Listen...girl..."
"ER-SU-LAH!"
"Ursula. I need to continue with my job and I can't do it with you here so do you mind thinking of reasons why you are stuck here?" Her nose wrinkled as she flopped to the ground, her legs sprawled across the hospital floor and thought deeply.
I sent the woman's soul to rest before turning to see the girl with her eyes screwed shut, her mouth panting and her figure shivering.
"Are...are you alright?" I asked tentatively.
"Ma-Ma...B-o..." Her words were shuddered out.
I stared at her unsurely, was she alright? I was not experienced in the ways humans acted. She was making her body smaller like a mouse in the vicinity of a wolf. Her face pressed down on her knees and her arms tightly wrapped around her shoulders.
"What is it?" I said sharply, perhaps this was a clue to why she was in her current predicament.
"Bro-Ma...F-Famil-" She collapsed to the ground, her tiny body crumpling with a small sound.
"Little girl? Hello? Ursula?" I shook her gently before sighing and laying her unconscious body on one of the free beds. I looked at her through thoughtful eyes, souls were not prone to sudden panic attacks, they were never sick as they were just wisps of the person they were used to be.
This girl was indeed a mystery on her own. Her very existence was strange and I now knew that she held some sort of importance with her sudden shakes and alarm. A soul would not be able to feel anything or react with emotions after a certain period of time. That was why I had to reap them quickly before they transformed into an angry spirit with their dissatisfaction of life and that no one could see them.
Angry spirits were chaotic tricksters that was fueled with strong emotion, humans made movies about them. Poltergeist was the common name and they showed them as playful ghosts that were pure evil but in reality, they were just lonely and distraught.
I had to find someone who knew more about these types of situations. I had to go to the place where all memories of good and bad were judged upon and the fate decided. My work is not simple and apparently it is decided that I do not have the best judgement so in a way, I have a 'co-worker'. She does not have a name, only a title, she is the lady of the scales, the keeper of justice. She decided the fate of many and looks upon every life with not a ounce of feeling and thus, her judgement is fair and just.
We do not hold a friendly relationship, in fact, the last time I held a conversation with her was when Noah was building his ark but in this scenario, I would have to seek out for her help.
I carried Ursula in my arms as I traveled to the courtroom hidden in a corner of the world that could not be touched, it was located in the middle of the earth, a place so desolate and burning warm that no human would dare to reach. The room was carved out of the rocks and was surrounded with boiling lava, it was disguised to look like nothing more than a cave filled with molten lava.
I pushed past the shield and entered the courtroom. A place that shone with knowledge and the scars of death and life, the walls were of a velvet black, the colour of a black hole. Lining the room were rows and rows of benches and a judge's bench that was raised high above the others. A shadow was sitting there, quiet mutters flowing through the room. This was the room of judgement and justice.
"I assume you have a valid reason to intrude on my time." The shadow spoke out in a calm voice.
"Indeed. I assure you that this is a matter of grave importance." I spoke, putting the girl down across one of the benches, her body slumped and ragged.
"Go on then, pray tell what is this scum doing here?" Her tone insolent.
"This soul is as pure as a newborn child yet she could not be put to rest."
"My dear old dog, have you lost your touch? A soul, especially one of a human, has to be put to rest. Even the darkest of souls has their place in the depths of hell. Why should this peculiar one be any different?" She sneered.
"I swear by the seventh star that she cannot be put to rest and has these panic attacks where she mutters and cries."
"Those years haven't been kind to you old fool, you're losing your mind."
"I insist that you take a look at her and decide for yourself if I am indeed mad or if I am telling the truth."
There was a silence as Justice, herself, pondered about my invitation. She was impossibly judgemental and you could say that she was born that way, her main purpose of her existence was to judge while I was crafted to reap.
She dropped down from her high bench and landed without any sound. The shadows curling at her feet and rising upwards to form a dress of midnight black, a fine gossamer fabric that was fitted to hug every curve of her body. She was old, perhaps older than time itself yet she had the face of someone in her late-twenties. Her eyes were violet, the colour of wine or a grape yard and held many secrets deep within. Her skin was a rich brown and her hair was dark and flowing in a veil of black.
She was Lady justice, the keeper of secrets and the Lady of scales.
