Reaper

Earthlish

Well, their lives on Earth might be fine and dandy, but mine sure isn't. If I had my way I wouldn't have to spend anytime here at all.

Now, I wouldn't say Caelum is a great place, but I sure like it a hell of a lot better than Earth. Unfortunately for me, I have to come back at some point. Coming back to Earth, for me and all other angels, is our source of energy. Recharging of sorts. I may hate it here, but I have to be here, so there's no use fighting it.

While I am on Caelum, I appear to be sleeping on Earth. Of course, I am not really there, it just looks like I am. In order for angels to get to Caelum, we have to do what humans just consider falling asleep. So, naturally, to get back we wake up.

I groan as I pull my body out of bed. Apparently many humans hate getting up, so this is not out out of the ordinary. I just happen to hate Earth. Gravity pulls down on me in an uncomfortable way that it does not in Caelum. That is awfully annoying.

Here on Earth, I am a "normal" 20 year old girl. I have an apartment, a roommate, a cat. I work a part time job, I pay rent. It's fair to say, my life sucks.

Luckily, however, I stopped going to school a long time ago. My roommate, Jordynne Banners, the only human I regularly interact with, just assumes I dropped out. But honestly she doesn't mind as long as I pay my fair share of the bills.

I walk into our cramped kitchen, Jordynne is already sitting at the counter, sipping coffee and spreading butter on her bagel.

"Morning!" She chirps, beaming over her steaming mug. "You look grumpy. Didn't sleep well, huh?"

I grimace a bit, "Nope," I lie, "I just tossed and turned all night." I finish off with a lighthearted, and extremely forced, smile.

"Well that's too bad," she says, before intently turning back to her breakfast. I don't initiate anymore conversation, and instead decide to look for my cat.

"Here, Captain." I click, ducking to look under the sofa. "Where is the shitty kitty," I say affectionately, under my breath.

I find him on the coffee table, only to be met by a cold green eyed stare. Captain is not only stubborn and cruel, but is also the man of the house. Hence the name. But he lets up a little for me, which is good considering he is the only thing on this Earth that I don't hate. Let's just say the feeling's mutual.

After a good petting session, and getting dressed and ready, it's off to work for me. Unfortunately, it's not reaping. It's my day job. The worst kind of day job. Retail.

I work at a small thrift shop in Seattle. Walking distance from our apartment, so I don't have to deal with cars or any other public transportation. But trust me, it still sucks balls.

I wander the aisles of the women's section, trying to ignore my pounding headache. One of the less pleasant things about my quote unquote, "human form," is when I get human pain. I can't actually get sick, but apparently I can get a headache from attempting to deal with idiot customers. Jesus, lady, I'm sorry I couldn't take your expired coupon. No need to call for the manager. Oh well. Just another reason to completely and utterly hate this planet and all the humans on it.

I let out a sigh, at the sight of an angry looking older woman approaching me. Looks like the fun isn't over yet.

The apartment door slams shut behind me. Jordynne is already sitting at the table working on some homework. She has morning classes at the community college on Tuesdays, so she's always home before me. "Hey Archer!" Jordynne's overly optimistic voice rings out. "How was work?," she asks. I honestly don't mind Jordynne, but still, she sometimes gets on my nerves.

"It was fine," I grunt, before heading to the bathroom to shower, avoiding any more interaction.

I've had more than five hours on Earth, which is the amount of time it takes for minimum energy to be restored, so I'm perfectly ready to go back to Caelum. Jordynne doesn't question why I go to "sleep," so early. She never does. Which is good because I do it as often as possible. I'm an angel, Caelum is my calling, and I try to spend as little time away from it as possible. Yes, I have bad memories of an awful childhood there, yes I don't actually like Caelum, but I don't like Earth either.

Basically, in all my 545 years of living, well technically 20 years of living and 525 years of death, but in all that time, there's nothing I actually remember liking a lot. So I deal with things I don't like—Earth and Caelum—and just do my duty.

Closing my eyes, I feel myself slowly slip out of this dimension, into the in between, to open my eyes to Caelum's rising sun.