She stood over the corpse, a scroll and ballpoint pen in her hand as she scribbled furiously on a long roll of parchment paper. She mumbled to herself as she jotted down notes, occasionally pausing to glance down at the body.
"...likely hypothermia, judging on coldness of corpse..." she muttered.
She then knelt down, placing two fingers against the lips and neck of the corpse.
"Theory confirmed by discolored lips..."
Dotting the end of the sentence with a period, she attached the pen to the bottom of the parchment, then proceeded to roll it. Shoving the scroll into her jacket, she zipped her only protection against the cold.
Waving her hand over the body lying in the frigid snow, she made a few swift motions with her hands. The body jerked, and then pulsed with white energy. It shuddered once more, before it went limp, more dead than it was before, if such a thing was possible. A fine mist began to leak off the corpse, rising into the air before her. She wasn't surprised, she'd been doing this so long, all of this was a walk in the park for her. The mist shrank, then expanded, taking on a more defined shape as she waited patiently.
"Are-Are you death?" the man's spirit asked, the ethereal form cowering before her.
'If I had ten bucks for everytime I heard that...'
"No, I'm not Death." she responded flatly, turning to walk down the alley.
The spirit followed her.
"But-but...then why are you here? Aren't you here to escort me into the afterlife?"
"Yes."
"Then...who are you?"
'Your worst nightmare.'
"I'm here to guide you to the afterlife."
"I...don't think I understand..." it said.
"I didn't kill you, Death did, understand so far?" she asked.
"I think so." he nodded.
"I'm just the reaper, I've got no say in who lives and who dies, at least I'm not supposed to."
"O...Okay..."
"I'm just here to escort you, so asking me to send you to heaven won't fly." she warned.
"I...uh...wasn't going to..."
'Everyone has, at some point or another.'
"One more thing," she stated, stopping at the mouth of the alley "do you have any unfinished business?"
"I...don't think so..." he stated, staring at his feet.
"Really? No family to see one last time? No spouses to grieve over? Pets?"
He shook his head, staring blankly at his boots.
"Anything?"
Then finally...
"...I...can I have a last request?" it asked.
'Oh gods, just when I was about to go off the clock...' she moaned inwardly.
"Yes, it's the least I can do." she replied grudgingly, though sounding as sweet as honey "What is your request?"
"I...I want to say something to someone..."
"Alright, where do they live?"
It walked off, crossing the street. It didn't notice the car speeding down the street, on a collision course with it. The vehicle passed right through it, continuing on its way with nothing more than a flicker of the headlights.
She followed it across the street, yet another vehicle zooming toward her. The truck passed right through her, both driver and vehicle unaware of her presence. She felt the sensation of being dunked in a lake of freezing-cold water as the truck passed through her.
It continued to walk towards a small apartment building, for what reason, she didn't know.
It wasn't long before the ethereal pair was inside one of the apartments, she discovered it to be standing beside a bed, a woman tangled in its sheets.
"Helen..." it began.
'Oh hell...' she thought to herself.
As long as she'd been doing this, she never really got comfortable watching spirits say goodbye to their loved ones, it was always awkward with her standing by while someone poured their hearts out to someone.
"Helen...I-I uh...know you can't really hear me..."
He received a soft snore in response.
"...but...but I've always admired you...even if I've uh...never admitted it..."
She leaned against the wall behind her, arms crossed as she waited for the spirit to finish.
"I...I love you, Helen..." he moaned, slumping to his knees.
Taking her chance, she walked forward and placed a hand on the spirit's shoulder, trying to console it, for what it was worth.
"I'll...I'll never see her again...will I?" he whispered.
"No...I'm afraid not..." she replied, sounding almost-regretful "at least not unless Upper and Lower Ground meet on Earth for a turf war."
The joke did nothing to raise the spirit's...er...spirits...
"If you've said your piece, it's time to go." she said, trying not to sound like an ass.
It sniffled, then stood, gathering its thoughts.
"Okay..." he said miserably.
"Alright then," she said awkwardly, gathering herself "let's go."
They exited the apartment building, walking out into the street once more. The Spirit turned to her, a puzzled look on its face.
"So...where do I go from here?" it asked, genuinely curious.
Two long, steel girders suddenly sprouted from the ground, bending to touch ends, forming an archway on the sidewalk. Two doors grew from the insides of the girders, the steel reinforcing the sturdiness of the doorway.
"Wh-Where does that g-go?" it asked, amazed at the display.
"Judgement." she responded.
"Wh-What? You mean...you're not going to send me-?"
"Not my job, like I said, I'm just The Reaper." she responded.
"Oh...well- it was nice talking to you- I guess...thank you..." it said, approaching the doorway.
It wasn't often she was thanked for her service, and relished the compliment as the spirit passed through the gateway, on to Judgement.
She sat at a small cafe, her shoes resting on a small table as a book sat in her lap. She read from it as she sipped on her coffee, the sweet liquid inside the cup rushing from the straw to her mouth. Removing the straw from her lips, she smacked them a bit, trying to find a taste for the liquid.
"Huh...coffee's sure changed..." she muttered, setting the cup onto the table.
Turning her attention to the book resting in her lap, she picked up where she left off, some adventurer or other going on a quest of some importance.
"E-Excuse me?" she heard a voice ask.
Sighing, she looked up, finding a middle-aged woman standing before her.
"I uh...I wanted to thank you- f-for the coffee, I mean." she said, pointing to the counter at the rear of the shop.
"No problem," she said "why don't you sit down?"
"I...I don't know..." she stated, casting a glance to the furthest wall of the shop.
"Please, sit down and let's have a chat. We have much to discuss."
The woman's eyes seemed to glaze over, and went unnoticed by all but one of the shop-goers. The woman turned, and went to a table seating a small child. Taking the child into her arms, she gathered her things, before coming back to settle down at her table.
She was grinning on the inside, finding things to be going in her favor for once.
A/N: I feel like I should continue this- what do you think?
ns 18.68.0.78da2
