Death Screwed Up

The DMV

When Steve told me I was going back to Earth, I assumed that Jake would do his little teleportation thing and we would be merrily on our way. I definitely wasn't expecting this.

We were standing in a sea of Jakes. The whole room was swamped in the black of their identical cloaks, and if it wasn't for the fact that Jake held onto my hand tight enough to cut off its circulation, I would have definitely gotten lost within the first five minutes.

The endless rows of dull grey chairs were filled with reapers. The exposed walls had stains on the bottom that I really hoped were water damage and not blood. Honestly, with all of this depressed moping-around and the snail pace, it reminded me of a DMV center.

"Hey," I leaned over to him and whispered. "What number are we?"

Jake let out a huff of annoyance. "I literally just told you a minute ago. How did you already forget?"

I pursed my lips. "Fine then. Don't tell me."

I pulled my hand away from him, but he held on like a vice. "Don't let go. You're gonna get lost."

I really wished I could have argued with him more. After all, no one was moving and this sea of people was really not dynamic enough to get lost in. But just then the overhead screen popped up with the number 1229, and he tugged me all the way to the counter.

A poshly dressed lady with a string of pearls around her neck sat behind the counter. Just like Steve, she looked almost normal. The only thing that told me otherwise was the fact that each one of her nails had a sharp talon. Her monotonous voice cut through the rest of my assertion of her. "Case number?"

Jake handed her the paper, and in the most intimidating voice I had ever heard said. "1229."

The lady scanned the paper and nodded. "Make your way into Room 3."

Without even a simple thank you, Jake started tugging me again, but this time I was prepared. I dug my nail into his hand and he finally let go with a yelp. "What the heck Sam?!"

I kept walking towards Room 3 and raised my head high. "I can walk on my own thank you very much."

He let out a grunt but seemed to think better than to argue with me. It was peaceful, walking with him. Or at least it was until we entered Room 3, which, indicated by the fancy cursive letters underneath the bold black of the room number, was the room for Travels.

The inside looked exactly like an interrogation room at a police station, right down to the metal table, lone flickering light, and even the hooks on the table. It looked like it was built to host a traitor of the state, not hand out VISAs to Earth.

Once we sat down, it was a whirlwind of questions and paperwork. They started with why we had to go. I was honestly a little salty that Steve couldn't have just gotten us a free pass, especially considering how serious this case could be. Instead, we had to make up a cover story about how Jake and I had to go check up on a soul that was teetering on the edge of needing to be reaped. Then moved on to where we would go, which was a very good question that had me pointedly looking at Jake. The whole time he was doing most of the talking to keep with our cover story, after all, no one wanted to project the screw up in the system. At the very end, they asked us stuff like our blood type and allergies - definitely not a question I thought they were going to ask. Finally, they handed us each a glossy slip of white paper with a red stamp on it, and that was it.

When we finally left the room, I asked Jake, "Now what?"

He kept walking, but instead of leaving the building, he walked over to a small corner on the side. "Someone else has also filed for going back before us."

"Yeah, so?" I shrugged. "Don't you guys always have to when you go to reap someone?"

He shook his head, and his hood swayed ominously. "No, this whole wing is for 'non-reaping travels', so whoever signed in before us is suspicious."

"What does it matter anyway?" I asked.

He was quiet for a minute, and I grew increasingly aware of how strange we would look if someone walked by now. As I thought about it, I had never seen two reapers together before. They were always independent. "It doesn't mean anything." Jake held out his hand. "Now, we go back to Earth."

~~~

Finally we are going back to Earth! What do we think of how this whole Underworld is managed?