The Grim Reaper's Girl

The New Grim Reaper

A week had passed. 

Mindy and the Grim Reaper had been busy delivering souls and exploring Mindy's powers.

Other than being able to travel in time and space, reading souls' thoughts and emotions, and granting acceptance to souls, Mindy found that she could also communicate with the living by being an 'inner voice' in their minds. It was ironic - her own inner voice had slowly disappeared when she died, but she could now be a voice in others minds.

However, she couldn't review a soul's full life and memories and make it relive its worst memory, like the Grim Reaper could. This was an ability that she was okay without, though, as she would much rather help a soul move on by granting it acceptance rather than pain.

She had asked the Grim Reaper why couldn't they just stop delivering souls, since they didn't even know what was in the light. 

The Grim Reaper had taken her to a soul and showed her from a distance, that if a soul didn't enter the light, they would simply be mourning their own death. In time, the soul's pain multiplied and its resentment made it hate the world it was in, until it tried to create accidents in the world to make others join it. She agreed - leaving souls to fester in their hatred and sorrow seemed worse than the short-term pain that the Grim Reaper used to make souls leave the world. 

The both of them had wanted to go back into the light to find out what was behind it, but the Grim Reaper thought that it was too dangerous, at least until they had a solid plan to back them up. And, to get a solid plan, they had to first figure out how to protect themselves from the light's mind-wiping ability.

Mindy was of the opinion that someone, or something, had to be controlling the light. When she was in the light, she felt as though it was designed specifically to keep her in it until her mind and soul were merged within it or disintegrated or something. But this simply meant there was no way that they could enter the light, since they had no way to see who was behind controlling it. 

The Grim Reaper, on the other hand, thought that the light was a path or doorway to something else. He had been considering the souls he had delivered for the past millennia, and the feeling he had when he saw himself walking in the light. It had always felt like a transitional place to him, a place where souls went but didn't stay. If they managed to support each other and walked all the way to the end of the light, perhaps they would be able to see what was behind it.

The other mystery that bugged their minds was about their powers. How did the Grim Reaper and Mindy get the power to move in time and space, read minds, grant acceptance and relive memories? The only thing that they both had in common was their escape from the light. Does that mean that all souls who enter and exit the light would have the potential to get powers? Or was there something deeper that they missed?

The two mysteries felt connected somehow.

The Grim Reaper had been silent for the past half a day while they walked along the top of a cliff. Mindy could tell that he was mulling over the light again - it was on his face, and she could read his mind now. Sorta. It wasn't as easy as what the Grim Reaper made it out to be - she had to focus her mind on the target for a few seconds before she could get a whiff of anything, and she could only do it when it was just her and the target. The Grim Reaper had told her she would improve with time, but it wasn't easy when all she had to practice on was the Grim Reaper. 

The Grim Reaper suddenly stopped walking and turned to Mindy, excitement on his face. "I've got it. I know how we can go into the light." 

"Do you remember me piggy-backing on your mind when you entered the light?" Without waiting for Mindy to respond, he continued. "We can both go into the light together, with the next soul, in his mind."