Grim

Chapter One

The psychic looked us over, her eyes stopping at me. "You," she said, and pointed a finger at me. "Come here. Come closer." I moved towards her, and my friends giggled behind me. "What is your name?"

"Uh... I'm Ladell." The psychic raised an eyebrow and shook her head.

"No. What is your real name?" She looked at my friends, and their smiles dropped. "Go on," she beckoned, "What is it?"

"Nobody uses my real name. Why should I tell you?" She didn't blink. I turned to my friends, who ushered me to tell her. "It's Gloriana. Are we good?"

The psychic nodded and took my hand. "You will not live much longer. This Wednesday the 27th. A car accident." She opened her eyes; my friends stifled their laughter behind me.

"A car crash. What if I just don't drive? Then what, psychic lady?" We all laughed, coming here was a joke. Psychics are all frauds.

"It will happen. I am sorry, Gloriana, but you will not live much longer." She dropped my hand, and for a brief moment, I felt like she was telling the truth. My friends laughed, then grabbed my jacket and pulled me up.

"Come on Ladell, we'll protect you." I turned to face my friends and felt a sense of relief. 'Yeah. Just a crazy lady trying to make a few bucks' I thought to myself.

***

On the 27th, I stayed home. I kept thinking about what the psychic had said. Her words swam through my ears. "It will happen. You will not live much longer." I knew it wasn't possible to tell the future, but I thought I'd play it safe.

Nothing out of the ordinary happened, and I went through the entire day no more alive or dead than I had been when I woke up. You can't predict the future. You can't scare me. I went to bed that night with a laugh in my throat and a smile on my face. Everything was fine, better than fine. Until I woke up, or rather, didn't.

***

When I got up in the morning I didn't feel tired, yet I felt as if I hadn't slept. I looked around and noticed I wasn't in my bedroom; it looked like my room, but it was empty. There was no bed, no dresser, and no clothes strewn across the floor. Just a bookshelf and an old wooden chair that came with the apartment.

"Where the hell is all my stuff?" I shouted.

"Gone. They packed it when you died." I turned to see a man dressed in a black suit.

"Who the hell are you? And what do you mean, 'when I died'? I'm clearly not dead." I crossed my arms. Was this some kind of sick joke?

"Oh sorry, you're new aren't you? Let me introduce myself, I'm Kellen. I'm a Grim Reaper." He extended his hand.

"A what sorry?" I laughed. I must still be dreaming. "Okay, you know what, just give me back my stuff and let me get on with my day, alright?"

He looked at me and frowned. "Miss... Gloriana Stone, right?" He looked down at a clipboard. When did he get a clipboard?

"It's Ladell. And if you don't mind, I'm leaving." I turned around and started walking, but suddenly, he was in front of me. "What the..."

"Please, Ladell. Listen to me. I know this is a lot to take in but I need you to understand. You died about a year ago. All your belongings were packed and sent to your mother. It says here that you broke Rule 232, avoiding death?" He flipped through the pages in the clipboard.

"This is serious. You're being serious." I looked around at my apartment- my old apartment. "So why am I here? Why didn't I just die?" Kellen sat on a simple black chair. Where did that chair come from?

"As I said, you broke Rule 232. One may never avoid or tamper with the circumstances of his or her own or another's death. You saw a psychic on Saturday, June 23rd of last year. You died on midnight of Wednesday the 27th of a 'heart attack'. This is our standard cover death. Do you follow?" Kellen looked up.

"Yeah I guess. So, if I hadn't seen that psychic, I would've died in a car accident. Just like that? None of this?" He nodded. "I wish I could turn back time. This is too weird."

"We can give you that option, if you'd like. However, we are obligated to offer you a choice. Option one, you can turn back time and die a normal death. Option two, you can spend an equivalent amount of time to the life you lived in one of our psychoanalysis facilities. Option three, you can train to become a Grim Reaper." He pulled a pen out of his jacket. "The choice is yours."

I sat down on the old wooden chair and weighed my options. I could die a normal death and just end up wherever it is dead people usually end up. Clearly, I wasn't going to choose option two. Spend twenty years in a mental hospital? No thank you. Then... there was option three, training to become a Grim Reaper.

"If I were to choose option three, what would I do? I mean, what is the training?" I asked, and Kellen smiled.

"I'm so glad you asked. You see we're quite often running short on good Reapers. It's like training for a job really. You'll spend a few Reapings with a trainer, which will most likely be me, and he or she will show you what to do. Of course, you will be given a new life, a new face and a new name. Nobody will recognize you." A new life? I get to live?

"Done. I choose option three." I stood and walked over to where Kellen sat on his simple black chair. He stood.

"Right then, let's get started." And we were gone. That was where my life as Ladell Stone ended and my life as Vea Harris began.