2.5 It’s Over

LIBRA

It happened the second I relaxed. There was a thump from the landing above, and I sprinted up the stairs, the book I was reading abandoned somewhere behind me. My father was collapsed on the floor, and two men in tattered black robes with their hoods drawn up- the very two men that had been following my father- were approaching him.

A sharp intake of breath filled my lungs. I don’t remember crossing the room, but the next second I had planted myself between my father’s fallen body and the shady figures. The two glanced at each other.

I addressed the one closer to me. By any account, he seemed to be the more aggressive one. “Who are you?”

He did not reply, instead, he smirked.

Realization flooded over me, accompanied by a sensation of a million prickles flooding from head to toe. “You are the Grim Reaper.”

“That’s what they call us, yes.”

“Why are there two of you?”

“Safety procedure.”

“I would say my father is safer without either of you.”

“Our safety.”

“I don’t see why you would need to be safety conscious against an unconscious man. In any case, it’s two against one.”

“Some might argue that it’s now two against two.”

As he spoke, a crooked grin crawled its way higher and higher up his face. It seemed like the rat bastard found this exchange entertaining. I seethed.

“Well this one isn’t moving aside, so you’d better come back another day,” I spat.

A scythe appeared in his hand. “I will have to cut you down too, if you don’t step aside.”

So that was his last defense threat, was it? I shrugged. “We all die sometime.”

“Tell your father that.”

“I will,” I said, the words now forcing their way out between clenched teeth, “when he wakes up.”

The rat bastard scowled and raised his scythe.

I tried not to flinch but my face scrunched up of its own violation. My eyes squeezed shut, I waited for the blade to descend, but it never did.

I hesitantly opened my eyes. The other reaper, who hadn’t said a word so far, had stepped forward to grab the rat bastard’s arm.

“You can’t reap a soul that isn’t due yet,” said the other reaper.

“Then you can move her out of my way. Or go around to the other side. You are supposed to be my backup!”

The other reaper sighed. “This has gone on longer than it should have, I have other places to be. This isn’t even my jurisdiction. We are able to grant additional time at our discretion; I suggest we do that and move on.”

“Not for situations like this! What if he evades us forever?”

“He can’t, and he knows that.”

I looked back and forth between the two, not understanding anything except that the other reaper was on my side. After a long pause, the rat bastard shrugged and turned away. “Whatever you want, as long as you’re responsible.”

The other reaper turned to me. “We’ll leave for now, but you must accept that this is the only time we will make an exception.”

I nodded, though tears stung my eyes.

The rat bastard growled like a wild dog. “This is more trouble than it’s worth. We will be back soon.” The latter sentence was delivered with a pointed glare in my direction.

The other reaper also frowned at me. Our eyes met, and I held his gaze as firmly as I could. I had yet to make my mind up about him. As I watched them disappear into thin air, I finally allowed myself to sink onto my shaking knees and tell myself, it’s over.

—–

Yup, I cheated. I have two reapers. I met one in a bar somewhere and randomly decided to add him to the family, to see if he would spontaneously disappear or something when someone had to be reaped, but alas it didn’t work like that. So I gave him a bed and made him go to sleep. Turns out reapers sleep forever until you wake them up. So anyway, then I had two reapers and had to rethink the plot. Why do I do this to myself?