That day as Leo opens his eyes and welcomes the first ray of sunlight peeking through the thick clouds overhead, he suddenly wonders one thing.
Did he ever get the chance to grow up?
The sky that was still dark thirty minutes earlier is now filled with variants of yellow that soon reveals the canopy of blue. The ocean above shows itself and the morning brings yet another day.
But does it still matter?
It's his eleventh day as a meandering soul that still doesn't know his reasons or even what his purpose are. It's his eleventh day and everything is just sinking in, overwhelming him.
All he knows is that it's easier to put things this way: his time stopped while everyone else's move on without him.
"Leo?" he hears Eyrin calls in a hush tone. He sighs and pulls himself up from lying down on the roof. He spends the sky another glance and a tear escapes from his eye. It happens faster than he can notice it but he knows what he felt but he likes to keep it to himself. He brushed the thought off and with another sigh, his frown turns into a dimpled grin.
"Next time you miss me, try to be subtle about it," he teases as he gets in through the open window. "Good morning," he adds but Eyrin is too busy tying her uncombed hair to a knot to utter a single reply. He wonders why his charm doesn't work on her but just decides to shrug it off.
"So who's gonna be our next soul?"
Eyrin thought that since they were able to get one soul yesterday, it wold be like that in the remaining days. All her hopes are turned down when another supervisor meets them in the college cafeteria during lunch time.
His name is Brent. Unlike Allen who's all about work and nothing else, Brent talks too much. He talks about how there's a lot of reapers out there and that Death is the CEO, the Brent and Allen including the other three are the supervisors, and the five of them extend their management to a multitude of leaders and collectors around the world.
"Why do you need substitute soul collectors? Where are the original ones?" Eyrin inquires. She's wearing a pair of earphones so she can talk freely and so everyone around her won't feel weird about it.
Brent just smiles. "You'll know it in time. Try not to think about it so much."
Eyrin is not convinced. How can she put herself in so much trouble with things she know nothing about. She's not even in the corporate job world yet but she already knows what it feels like to be controlled. However, she shrugs it off and decided to save it for later. Maybe she'll ask Death himself.
"I don't know if Allen already explains to you but you're not supposed to reap souls, not that you can though, but you know what I mean," Brent speaks and this time Eyrin and Leo pay attention. At least they deserve to know something more about their job.
"After the reapers cut the tie between a soul and a mortal body, a soul is allowed to wander around for forty days, to complete their final task."
Eyrin suddenly remembers what they did after her grandmom passed away. On her forty days they prepared a feast and a group of people prayed for her soul. Her mother told her it was necessary for a soul to safely crossover to the other side.
Brent validated that belief but he clarifies that with or without prayers, a soul should give in at the end of the 40th day.
"What happens when they don't?" Leo asks.
"In a day they'd feel thirst and hunger they would never learn to contain. These feelings could only be pacified with the help of a fresh soul: those who just died. You know what I mean, I'm sure," Allen explains so casually.
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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...