Voyage

Clearing my throat, I looked over to the soul sitting in front of me and started the report.

"It says here you were disembarking the plane with your daughter when she tugged on your pant leg. She pointed at her father. Who was waiting only a short distance away. She let go of your pant leg and ran to him, jumping in his arms. He cuddled her to his chest. When you arrived at his side, he greeted you with the perfectly faked enthusiasm of a student seeing their teacher on a weekend in June. You almost fell for it, unlike your daughter who only knew only the loving, caring, happy, father he put up or her.

You two had divorced the previous April. You had been dating for the past five years. It was working great, until you both said "I do," and moved in together. You even adopted a child. How sweet. But your marriage just wasn't working out. So you got a divorce, smart move. The kid would stay with you for a month, then stay with him for a month, so on, so forth.

Which is why you kissed her on the head and waved goodbye. You turned away and hailed a taxi, telling the cabbie where to go. The hotel you were going to tay the night at. Your ex-husband and daughter walked to his car. Watching them, you wished you could go back to the days not so long ago when the three of you would walk together genuinely happy. You looked away and sighed as the cab came to a stop at a red light. After all the cars passed the light turned green, you continued towards the hotel. A truck ran their red light. They ran straight in to the side of your taxi, killing you instantly." Shifting in my seat, I ajusted my glasses. "This is what happened, correct?"

"What?" They said in the most flat tone I've ever heard. "Are you telling me I died?"

"Well, yeah. You did."

"I did? Wait, what about my daughter? Is she okay? Does she know I'm gone? Please tell me she's alright."

"See, this is what I like. Your not even concerned about yourself. But, yes. She's alright, she wasn't old enough to know you as anything other than a loving parent."

"Oh. Good. So, where are we?"

"First please answer my question. Is the report correct?"

"I- yes." They looked down at their lap.

"Wonderful." They looked up so fast I was tempted to ask if they hurt their neck.

"What do you mean by wonderful." The hurt evident in their tone.

"Well now that you've answered my question, we can get to the good part."

"And that is?"

"The part where you ask me questions about whatever you wish, and I answer them."

"Really?"

"Yep! Fire away, I have all of eternity."

"Okay, first question. Where are we?"

"Oh, That's a good one. We're in my office, of course."

They looked around for obviously the first time since they arrived. "Well I can see that. But, where are we?"

"We're in my realm that I share with Time."

"You have a whole realm to yourselves? Okay, that's just plain awesome."

"Yes, I suppose it is."

"Wait a minute here." They said, hand up to quiet me, "Who's Time?"

"Time, just as their name says. Just like I'm Death, they're Time. They oversee all of time. They help me by stopping the flow of time here. That way I can sort through all the souls and not fall behind."

"That makes sense in a weird sort of way. So that means you oversee all of deaths?"

"Yes Ma'am." I replied, a little pride in my tone.

"Ah, no. Not a Ma'am."

"Hm, okay, would you prefer Sir then?" I asked, picking up the red marker from my mug of pens and such.

"Yes please." For some reason, He looked ashamed. I had no idea why. It wasn't his fault my staff made a mistake.

"Alrighty, let me make the correction in your file," I looked through a couple of the papers on my desk until I found his info file, and fixed the mistake. Changing the bold F to M. "Honestly, I can't believe this. I told my Reapers to make sure the files were correct and up to date. They should know this already," I mumbled under my breath. I looked up at him. "I'm so sorry this mistake was made."

He chuckled. "No, it's alright. I'm used to it by now. You don't get through life like me without things like this."

"Which is quite unfortunate. You would think, as almost all powerful beings, we could at least check the soul to make sure the file is correct."

"Hey, I have another question."

"I told you already, fire away."

"Is," he faltered, "is my soul male?" He looked up at me, meeting my eyes, his eyes looked ever so hopeful. It was heartbreaking.

"Of course. Why wouldn't it be?" I asked. It made absolutely no sense to me. I'm checking his soul right now. It's definitely male. Why wouldn't it be?

"Because I was born a girl." He whispered, looking at his lap once again. Wringing his hands together. That explained his worries.

"Your vessel has nothing to do with what your soul is. Absolutely nothing."

"You're sure?" He was looking at me again.

"Completely." I nodded for extra measure.

His smile could light up the darkest room. It was absolutely stunning.

"So," I clapped my hands, getting his attention. "Any more questions?"

"Yeah, just one more. Now what? What happens to my soul now? Do I go to Heaven? Hell? Rebirth? Or none of the above?"

"Well, now? Now, I send your soul to Life so they can send you on the voyage to rebirth."

"So there's no afterlife, none?"

"No, sorry, sweetie." I smiled reassuringly.

"It's alright." He gave me a weak smile.

"Ready?" I sat up, pushing the cair backwards.

He took in a shaky breath. "Yeah. Yeah, suppose so. I'm ready. Until next time I guess." He laughed, trying to lighten the mood.

I smiled back at him. "Yes, until next time, dear."

"Goodbye, sweet Death." He said, standing up aswell.

"Goodbye, sweet Abel."

"That's the first time anyone's ever used my name."

And then they were gone. Leaving the room painfully silent. The only evidence that he was once there, was a thin curl of blue smoke, slowly disappearing.