The Heaven Affair

Broken Sky

"I can go back..." violent coughing obscured the rest of his sentence.

"Careful, just breathe, and for gods sake cover your mouth." Zacha said, pushing his glasses up his nose. 

"Trying..." Azure choked, pressing both hands over his mouth.

"Sweet death, don't suffocate yourself." Zacha said, rubbing the other reaper's back. "You're stupid, you know that right?" 

"Am not." Azure muttered. "Someone's just pissed his collection application was denied again. 

Red splotches appeared on Zacha's freckled cheeks. "Oh that's rich, I take time out of my day to actually acknowledge your existence and this is what I get." 

"Quit playing saint, you'd stab me with my own scythe if I wasn't looking"

"At least I can collect a soul without being attacked by some demon!"

Azure opened his mouth to respond but broke out coughing again. 

"ENOUGH! I get promoted and you two are the knuckle heads who I apparently have to 'manage' Well tell you what. This is death, and when it comes to death, NO ONE GETS WHAT THEY WANT, SO PUT THEM BACK IN YOUR PANTS AND STOP THE COCKFIGHT!" 

"Sorry." Azure muttered. 

"Don't strain yourself." Zacha sighed. 

Eris crossed her arms. She had really thought that management would be a lot more fun then this. Every reaper team was made up of three members. A supervising officer, intelligence and a field agent. Eris herself had started out as a field agent. Honestly that had been for fun...

"We're missing a soul." Zacha said. "If someone hadn't turned his back and-"

"SHUT IT" Eris yelled. Honestly immortality was overrated. This is what she had to deal with every day for the rest of time. The afterlife really sucked. 

The rest of the work hours passed in silence. Zacha was slightly scared of Eris's response to talking, while Azure's throat was too sore to speak. 

Eris didn't think she could make it through the day without aspirin. They should make aspirin for the dead. 

"Alright, that's time." Eris said. "Get out of here." 

"Thank god." Zacha muttered, packing up his things and leaving as fast as he could. 

~~

Out of all the jobs of reaperhood, intelligence had to be the worst. When one pictured a grim reaper, they pictured a dark figure in a robe, swinging the scythe. 

That was what Zacha had pictured when he agreed to the contract. What he had gotten, an extension of the life he had gone to great lengths to leave behind. 

He had tried so hard. Every reaper was forced to go through a series of tests to be tracked in a specific position. Studying was Zacha's strength, if he could memorize it, he could do it. 

For some reason his applications were denied, his perfect test scores ignored. 

It wasn't fair. He was more then capable. They let Azure keep his scythe even after his failures. Zacha knew he was meant for more, it was a given. 

The fools in upper management would do good to see that, that was for sure. 

Zacha knew that his arguments couldn't be repressed forever, but until then, he would wait. 

One thing Zacha did when he was distracted was wander among the living. It was interesting, he thought, how reapers were able to give off an impression of life but were unable to feel it.