Bright red blood splattered over the dry leaves of the earth, all over the body, on the face of the person who committed this heinous act under the illusion of a ‘noble’ deed. The carriage shook endlessly as the victim was thoroughly mutilated to an unrecognizable state and therefore was cradled to the abyss of darkness along with a constant pain that continued to run all over the victim’s body. It seemed to resonate deep in the mind of the suffering person as the warm breaths started to get shorter, the body colder and the vision darker. The once soft pink hair turned crimson, matted with blood, the clear, pale skin ripped to shreds and the lively green irises dull. Rain poured on mercilessly, scattering the blood even more till it encircled around the entire carriage in a ritualistic manner, the cold blade pierced ruthlessly into the sacrifice’s once warm body, draining its blood.
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Everything was still. Too still to be exact. So still that it couldn’t be called Netherworld. Such stillness, such suspense could only mean a forewarning of an upcoming disaster that could sweep both the living and the underworld simultaneously-such occurrence is not anything new, Whenever the living world faces any man-made or natural made disasters, the workload of the underworld gets increased to tenfold.
A commotion was heard on the systematic procedures that were carried out on such a busy work Hour of the Netherworld. A troublesome spirit has appeared. This kind of situation is very common as not all spirits of human beings become peaceful after they die, some even strongly refuse to proceed further to get judged for their deeds during the lifetime and get assigned to their designated place-blissful heaven or scorching hell. Now back to this mentioned commotion, that threatened to hinder the systematic procedures of the Netherworld was none other than a mute spirit. This mute spirit, presumably a woman, has a distorted figure marked thoroughly with red lines yet none of her blood is staining her unnatural white dress. She sat with empty eyes staring at the employee of the After World who kept on asking her the same question of her reason of death. But the spirit did not answer, the frustrated employee was about to contact the higher authorities when someone approached them.
Upon seeing that ‘someone’ the frustrated employee immediately straightened up and saluted.
“New problem?”220Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡe5h7KO62vl
“Yes. Apparently this one here refuses to speak up.”
The newcomer looked at the spirit properly now. The spirit has soft pink hair that reached up to waist, green eyes that were probably bright when she was alive and soft skin that was currently covered with bizarre red marks. What ticked off the ‘newcomer’ was the mute spirit’s unnaturally white garb that seemed to glow amidst the darkness of the After Life. Usually when spirits are carried by the grim reapers, they wear the attire which they wore at the time of their death; none of them ever wore such untainted white dress.
“I’ll be handling this one.”
Soft pink hair floated behind the black suited person who kind of dragged the former to the interior of the spirit world office. The latter has a hunch of this particular spirit; still confirmation of information could never do any harm. Closing the humungous door behind, the black suited left the seemingly harmless, mute spirit floating in front of the large desk in the middle of the room. The black suited looked at the pink hair, dull green eyed spirit through a coloured looking glass that was attached to a pocket clock which was fished out from the safe of the office. It was called L-Clock. A type of clock that was provided to those grim reapers who were promoted to higher posts. This clock not only determines an untimely death of a person but also how much days are left for a living human. It also serves as a communication device. This kind of clock are given to grim reapers of lower rank as well whose job is to simply reap the human souls and deliver them to the Netherworld but the facilities of those clock are not as much as the higher post holders’ one.
The glass of the clock glowed red as soon as it was directed towards the spirit that was sitting quietly. The suited person’s suspicions were confirmed. As soon as the clock was closed, a siren started to blare all over the entire offices and sectors of Netherworld, warning the grim reapers about the sudden incoming of a hoard of human spirits that poured down from the sky in innumerable numbers.
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The spirit spoke painfully slowly upon waiting for her name. And upon asking her the reason of her untimely death, she stared blankly at nothing and then bright red lines started to appear all over her body. The black suited one didn’t inquire any further. From then on, this spirit followed the suited one wherever it went, like a child following its mother. The suited one didn’t mind, neither the mute spirit caused any trouble to the former-wherever it went with the suited one, it always sat quietly and waited for the other one’s work to get finished.220Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3V5xZTPa2R
Unknown best to them, they formed a bond closer to that of what humans call ‘friendship’.
This sudden, unnatural deaths in the living world caused great distress to the grim reapers as they’d have to now work overtime to guide these human souls into Judgement room and then to their designated places as ordered. An announcement also rang along with the siren requesting and ordering all the grim reapers present in the spirit world to tackle this hoard of human spirits.
In one such hectic Hour, the suited person was striding towards the meeting room when this person came across another colleague of another department, who too was going for a meeting.
“Busy Hours, huh X0X9?” Unlike the living world where the sun and moon rises and sets for a time period that indicates the timings of the day, but in After Life no such thing happens. The calculation of time is kept in ‘Hours’. One Hour in Netherworld is equivalent to one month in the living world.
“Oh yes very much so 3XX9. Though it was quite an unnatural one as no natural disaster or wars were scheduled at this time.” The suited one replied with a worried face.
“Oh that means you don’t know?” the colleague asked with raised eyebrows.
“Know what?”
This time the colleague whispered; “All of them…all those human spirits were seen through the looking glass of the L-Clock, and for most of them the glass glowed red.”
The suited one stopped in tracks as soon as it was heard. The dull, depressed spirit’s case came to mind-how the glass of this suited person’s clock too glowed red when the spirit was seen through the looking glass.
The two colleagues bade farewell to each other as they entered their respective meeting rooms. The meeting room was lighted by few candles that flickered giving rise to large shadows on the wall that extended up to the walls and the ceiling. Reapers participating in the meeting entered from different doors that started to appear on the shadowy walls, few higher ranks even teleported. Some reapers revealed their faces; some covered half of it while some covered their face with hood. The black suited grim reaper was the second last person to enter the meeting room, just after the last person scurried inside, the meeting started.
The agenda of this Hour’s meeting is the handling of the innumerable number of human souls. It came to light in the meeting that due to a Holy War waged by humans, such a number of deaths are taking place, most of which are untimely disturbing the balance of the Living and After World. Strangely none of the grim reapers could pin point the reason of this sudden, unscheduled Holy War. No wars were supposed to take place in the next XXX years, then what changed? A catalyst must have been there to cause this variable. So, few responsible high ranked grim reapers were dispatched to find out the cause else it is becoming extremely impossible to handle such hoard of spirits when the number of grim reapers are falling less in ratio to those souls.220Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzdv0Gy9dfV
At last it was decided in the meeting that the variable must be found and no matter whatever or whoever it is, should be annihilated in order to minimize the effects of the existence of that variable. The grim reapers that’ll be chosen to be a part of it will be notified accordingly.
X0X9 shut the door of its office and quickly locked it. Although the lock will be of no use if an emergency search is carried out under the orders of the higher authorities. It won’t be much long when they will also be notified of the existence of the variable in X0X9’s office as well. So whatever has to be done must be done fast. It is not known how much X0X9 could outwit the higher officials, but there’s no harm in trying. It’ll be a shame to allow the higher authorities to eliminate this pure ‘variable’ spirit or to allow it to get devoured by the wicked beats that prowl here.
A knock sounded on the door of the office as a voice from the other side asked to open up the door, even if X0X9 does not open the door, the person from the other side could easily enter the room. Wasting no more time, X0X9 opened the glass window of the office and jumped down along with the spirit. Together they eloped, hiding from the higher authorities as much as possible. X0X9 suspected that the meeting conductors knew something as they constantly flickered their eyes at this grim reaper which was unlikable to the latter.
Finally they came in front of a gorge that was covered with hot, lava flames. It’ll be difficult to cross this wide gorge even with X0X9’s flying skill. As the grim reaper was contemplating what should be the solution, shouts and yells were heard from a distance; the higher authorities’ grim reapers were catching up to them as they charged with full speed. Having no other choice, X0X9 threw the L-Clock on the ground, breaking it to pieces, and the device transforming into a green gem. L-Clock, whenever thrown on the ground or are on the verge of getting destroyed or breaking, simply transforms itself into a gem by default to gain back its original state by staying into a lower state for sometime; in a way this device is immortal.
X0X9 doesn’t know what is going on, what it is doing, it is simply doing what its conscience and mind is probing it to do, neither has any idea why it is forsaking its position as a grim reaper for a mere human soul that turned out to be an extremely pure one. Where is this sense of pity and immense courage coming from?
X0X9 almost shoved the green gem at the dead hands of the spirit whispering a “Go! Now!” before fishing out the scythe from its hilt and charging in defense of the higher authority grim reapers even though it is no match for them. Ultimately they captured the rebellious reaper and tied it down mercilessly.
The spirit didn’t know what to do, her lifeless green orbs stared at the green gem that winked at her with its lustre. She felt a movement in her line of vision and narrowly avoided a rope thrown at her. The thrower missed its target but tried again until the pink haired spirit found herself at the edge of the cliff, any further would make her fall. However before she could move away from the edge, once again in order to avoid a charging scythe at her, she stumbled back, lost her balance and fell backwards, not on the ground but amidst darkness till she felt something wet touching her back and gradually covering her entire body, making her unable to breathe and open her eyes when at some point she opened her green pools, now lively and full of life only to see a very familiar ceiling at the range of her vision.
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She panted as her memories started to get restored, her eyes came into focus and gradually she sat up on her bed, stepped down to stop at the glass window of her room, wondering what had just happened. She shuddered as a cold sensation of merciless blade created goosebumps all over her body. Her head throbbed painfully as she remembered remnants of a painful memory that left her confused as to how she is still alive when she should be dead at this point. Her body showed no signs of plaster or medicine. She was as good as new, all her limbs were intact. When she saw herself in the mirror of her room, she was genuinely surprised. With shaky hands, she touched her face, that lacked the complete maturity of an older woman but was full of budding maturity of a teenager. Her skin was soft and tender, her height diminished and her pink hair rested on her back.
She found herself to be reverted to her 14 year old self!
Judging by the atmosphere of the house and her current situation, it seems she has somehow digressed back to the day when her husband, Johannes died! It was from that very day, malicious rumors about her started to raise their heads amongst the nobility due to her absence from the funeral of her husband. She had never bid final goodbye to her husband but had locked herself inside her bedroom. Probably this sparked the hatred of her children towards her even more. They will start calling her names, may openly showcase their hatred for her as soon as she will stand in front of the coffin of her deceased husband. She had always regretted of her not bothering to improve her relationship with her children...by the time she realized it, it was already too late, the hatred was too deep.
But this time, things will be different.
She'd make it different.
She quickly donned herself with mourning clothes and descended down the stairs to the room where the coffin of her husband is kept.
Before closing the door, she felt like she was forgetting something which she couldn't put a finger on, shrugging that maybe it was not important, she closed the door of her room behind her to descend for a new life and a new beginning.
ns 15.158.61.54da2
