"No you're not really dead, dead," Death chuckles again and they could've sworn he purrs for a moment, "it's a figure of speech."
Eyrin could've sworn her heart stopped for a few moments. She can't regain her composure just yet and just stays unmoved, sweat beading on her temples.
"What do you want?" Leo asks again, shooting glares while clenching his jaw.
"I told you," Death's expression changes. It suddenly becomes grim and when he looks at him, Leo can tell his eyes changed from black to crimson一the color of blood, "I don't want anything from you," he repeats himself and in a snap of his fingers, Leo cannot feel his own body.
Death takes steps closer to Eyrin, who's still stunned about everything that's happening. Death crouches and in front of her, wraps his coat around her, and then pats her head. He then smiles and with a gust of wind, Leo is on his knees, grasping for air. When he looks around, they're gone一including Eyrin.
———
"There is no way I'm going to do that."
One minute Eyrin was so flabbergasted she couldn't even get on her feet and run away from Heritage Park and then the next second she's glaring at Death, standing fearlessly on top of the Aura Tower.
Death's supervisors, called Reapers一as she just recently knew一still stand in circle around them but unlike earlier at the cemetery, Eyrin is less afraid.
She should not be afraid at all, she believes, specially when Death itself is asking for an unusual favor.
"I'm not asking you for a favor," Death counters, as if reading what's on her mind. "This is a negotiation." Death's face become more serious. He even put on his mask, and when he does, his clothes ripped apart and his famous hooded shroud hugs his physique at the same time his scythe appears on his right hand.
"Heed me," Death speaks, his voice booming in the open space. It echoes inside Eyrin's mind. It sounds piercing, totally different from what she hears when he's talking in the form of that blonde psychopath wearing a suit and tie.
For a moment, Eyrin thinks he's pretending, trying to seem uncanny一but that thought shatters away when she realizes one thing.
She's literally talking to death.
Death knows no pretend. It doesn't pretend to care nor pretend to distinguish. Death looks cunning, but in that scheme, she feels comfort.
As she stares at it, ashes smoke out of its eyes so hollow, she can fathom unending darkness一but it feels seductive.
Death itself is inviting.
Her pain, hatred, disgust, and anger subside as she welcomes its presence as the warmest caress she will never find in the living world.
She suddenly wants to give in, taking little steps closer, her hand reaching to touch its face.
"Take me," her mind voices out that only she can hear. As she inches closer, everything becomes calmer.
Death clears its throat and with a snap of a finger, it takes its previous form.
Eyrin stops on her tracks, realizing her face is only an inch away from that psychopath. She looks away, fuming.
Death chuckles. "Take the task, Eyrin. Be my soul collector just for 30 days," he says.
"What's in it for me?" she asks. "Why did you even choose me?" And though she already knows the answer, she waits for Death's confirmation.
"You can see them and to collect, all that you need it to touch them, and I can give that to you," he explains and from his pocket he shows her a medallion. "This is my essence. Wear this and the dead will fear you. They're so much easy to collect when they're afraid."
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Paranormalin which a guy that is robbed and murdered realises that his unfinished task in the world of the living is to save his brother from taking his own life. this is a story of doubts, disappointment, fear, neglect, sorrow, maybe a little bit of love, a...
