Heir

7) Officer

"It's so tasty." I savoured the food. "The food I ate in my hometown is never good."

Mr C smirked. "Traevale? The food is great. Perhaps you've been eating the wrong dishes?"

"You visited Traevale?"

"Countless number of times, Aubrey. Being a messenger, I travel all over the East. Traevale is usually a stop on the way to various places, since nothing interesting ever happens there."

"You do realise that you're insulting my hometown?"

"Lord, no! I'm merely stating the facts." He gobbled down a huge chunk of beef.

After we ate, we went back to the Inn.

We agreed to meet each other tomorrow morning and went into our separate rooms.

After showering and all my other natural businesses, I fell onto my bed and closed my eyes.

...

"Curses! Ellie is so going to kill me. I can't do this. I'm just too scared. Why choose me?"

I opened my eyes and looked out the window. It was very late at night. Who would be outside my door in such an unearthly hour?

And that voice...The situation was really weird. His voice wasn't exactly loud - it was soft, actually, but I could feel something tugging at my heart. It sounded raspy, as though he hadn't been drinking for years.

What was going on?

I stood up and hurried into the door, opening it.

A skeleton stared right back at me.

I was not kidding. Nope. A literal skeleton. No flesh, no nothing. Just bones. It was staring at me, startled. How could I tell? Somehow, it's face (which was not really a face, just a skull) morphed into a surprised expression. It's eye sockets widened and it's jaw was opened slightly, no doubt confused.

It was wearing a black cloak that covered his body. It's face (skull) was covered with a hood. It looked exactly like the illustrations that depicted the grim reaper without the scythe.

Anxiety replaced my heart, pumping liquid panic everywhere throughout my body. I was too stunned to say anything. We decided to hold a staring contest. He won.

"Who are you?" I whispered.

He stammered. Yes, STAMMERED. "I...please don't kill me. Please!" He looked genuinely frightened (yes, his face certainly revealed more than your average skeleton), but that could be just a trick.

Confusion washed over me like a tidal wave. What did he want from me?

"I won't hurt you, Mr...?"

"It's not important. How could...could you see me?" the skeleton stuttered. "I mean...no one can...see my true f...form. Curses!"

"I'm sorry?"

The skeleton paused for a while. Its eye sockets stared at me with an intensity I couldn't describe.

"Scythe!"

Silence. I watched him, at a loss for words.

"Scythe?"

"I am not Scythe." I replied, not knowing what to do about his sudden outburst.

"Not you...I'm sorry, I..."

I took a step away. Then another. And another.

"Oh...right.. " the skeleton looked away. "Macharis?"