The night began quietly. Albeit that it wasn't without its commotion earlier. That is, when Jim said he was working a graveyard shift (a fitting expression for a man who's married to a woman who talks to the dead), Melinda had to almost beg him to stay. Not so much because she gets lonely, but she had just finished all the paperwork for her store, not to mention that this was one of the few times that people from the other side left her alone. Therefor, with her husband gone, Melinda would just be bored to death (pardon the pun).
Having nothing else to do, but to play "Solitaire" on her laptop, Melinda spent her night doing nothing else. Until she heard a soft sob. As it sounded masculine, she thought of her husband Jim at first. Still, there was something about the sob that made her doubt that it could possibly be her husband. It sounded as though it was echoing. Just to be sure, she called his name, but the sobbing continued. If it were her husband, he would have in some way let her know it was him, but that wasn't the case. She wasn't sure how she felt. On the one hand, ghosts can be a bit of a nuisance, but on the other she had something to do that night. She got out of her sofa and followed the sobbing.
It came from her basement, where she went down to see who was causing it. But once she got down, she began to wonder what it was that caused it. At her first look, she could swear that what she saw wasn't human. It had the appearance of an old voodoo doll, which was about ready to fall apart. Although a doll, it was perfectly capable of holding up a black notebook, and write in it feverishly. She listened to what it was saying, but she couldn't make sense out of it.
"Shine... shine!" it said.
"Er..." Melinda got closer to the thing, "Hi. What are you..."
"Koraa, onee-san!" it kept saying.
"Er... I don't understand." Melinda replied.
"Why aren't you dead?" it suddenly spoke in plain English, "I wrote your name here so many times and you're still alive!"
Melinda wasn't sure how to react. Should she be frightened to see a weird ghost trying to kill her, or surprised that it thinks he can kill her just by writing her name in a notebook. While she was doing that, it wrote her name one last time, then dropped his book and buried his face in his own hands.
"Calm down." Melinda tried to give it a friendly pat, or something in that nature as she can't really touch him, "You came here for a reason. So let's just..."
"Why are you doing this?" it said to her, "I'm a shinigami, and you're treating me like I'm one of you."
"A what?" Melinda never heard of the term before, "What's a shini...?"
"Shinigami? God of death." it answered.
This was completely new to her: "You can't be serious, there's no such thing as a god of death."
"I'm here, doesn't that mean anything to you?" it questioned.
Melinda took this into consideration: "Okay, suppose you are the god of death..."
"No, not thé god of death." it corrected her, "A god of death."
"Wait, there are more?" this came as another surprise.
"Yes." it answered, "Anyone who ever died on this planet, some died naturally, others died because we wrote their names."
"How so?" Melinda was still confused.
It picked up its notebook again and showed her. It opened it on the first page, which was in a language Melinda didn't know, but the shinigami translated for her: "The human whose name is written in this note shall die. This note will not take effect unless the writer has the person's face in their mind when writing his/her name. Therefor, people sharing the same name will not be affected. If the cause of death is written within 40..."
"Wait a minute..." Melinda interrupted, "Are you saying that just by writing my name in your notebook, I will die?"
"More or less." the shinigami replied.
"Why?" Melinda asked.
"We can prolong our own lives by killing humans." it explained.
"How barbaric." Melinda remarked.
"Any more barbaric than humans killing animals to eat?" the shinigami questioned.
To this, Melinda didn't have any answer. But she wasn't entirely speechless: "And now you tried to kill me? Why?"
"So I can live again." it replied.
"What?" she still couldn't understand.
"I witnessed a human female, about to be raped to death..." it answered, "... but... I couldn't watch that happen, so I wrote the name of the rapist in my notebook. But... for prolonging the human female's life, I had to pay a huge price."
Melinda did seem to be touched that he did want to help someone, which made her wonder all the more why he'd want her dead. Still, she was curious about the rest of his story: "What was that price?"
"As a shinigami, I'm supposed to take life, not prolong it. So when I let the female live... I died."
This seemed to get to her: "You... died trying to save a life?"
"Yes..." the shinigami now sounded more scared, "But I don't understand. When you die, you're supposed to go to Mu."
"Mu?" Melinda didn't know that word.
The shinigami took his time to come up with a proper English translation: "Nothingness. But I'm still here. I thought that I was given a second chance. I thought that if I kill someone now, I'd live again."
"Oh no, I'm sorry, but that's not how it works." Melinda didn't like bringing bad news, no matter whom she was bringing it to.
"No?" the shinigami couldn't believe it.
"You're supposed to head into the light, where you'll find peace and quiet." Melinda told him, "You didn't know that?"
"I know it's popular human believe that you'd go to paradise or hell when you die." the shinigami explained, "But I've known my whole life that there's no truth about that."
Melinda smiled: "I guess being a god doesn't make you all-knowing, right?"
This didn't make the shinigami any happier, though: "So that's all I should be doing? And I... I even tried to kill you... such a human female... who cares about... a poor shinigami like me... I..."
"Yeah, about that?" Melinda had nearly forgotten about that, "Why, of all people, did you think of killing me?"
"Because you're nice to every human around you." he explained, "I don't want anything to happen to you."
"I'm sorry?" Melinda didn't quite understand this.
"I heard things." the shinigami continued, "Everyone says something else, but it all comes down to this, that you're in grave danger. I didn't want anything to happen to you, so..."
"You thought you could save me from all that by killing me?" Melinda questioned.
Again, the shinigami referred to something in his notebook: "If the cause of death is not specified, the person will simply die of a heart attack."
He closed the notebook and continued: "I could write the names of those who'll cause your death, but they're already dead, so that won't take effect. So I thought that if I just wrote your name, then you won't suffer at all. You'd die a peaceful death, rather than a horrible one."
That's when Melinda didn't know whether to be worried or flattered, still she told him: "So, I understand you... you were trying to protect me?"
"Not only that." the shinigami answered, "I'm so afraid of Mu, I just wanted to live again. I... I just..."
Melinda smiled this time: "There's nothing for you to worry about. I can see that, despite of your nature, you have a great heart. You don't have to fear nothingness."
"Are you sure?" the shinigami still wondered.
"Definitely." Melinda assured him.
"I don't know." it still wasn't too sure, "I broke an unforgivable rule. Is there really any place for me in that light of yours?"
Melinda knew this type of uncertainty, so she helped him by asking: "This... female you mentioned, how did she make you feel?"
The shinigami took his time again to answer: "... Warm... light... it was a weird sensation, I didn't think such emotions could exist."
"And does thinking of her help you feel that way again?" Melinda finally asked him.
"Yes... yes it does." it replied, after which it looked up, "Is... is that this light you keep talking about?"
"I can't see it, but if you can see it, it means you're ready to move on." Melinda answered.
The shinigami finally smiled, or did something that looked like it. It got up, picked up his notebook and went towards it. But before he could completely disappear, Melinda had one last question: "Wait! What is it that'll happen to me?"
The shinigami turned back to her: "I... I don't know. Everyone is saying something else, but it's all so horrible. Are you sure you'll be alright?"
Melinda smiled: "Don't worry about me."
The shinigami didn't know how he should feel about that, but something about his expression made it seem as though he was a little relieved: "Thank you, onee-san, for everything."
Melinda didn't know what 'onee-san' meant, but she still had one last question for the shinigami: "Do you have a name?"
The shinigami took one last look at her and answered: "Gealous."
With this, it disappeared into the light.
Seeing this, Melinda could think of just one thing. What was it that he tried to warn her about? Still, if she would think about this for the rest of her life, it would only keep her from living her life. Trying to not think about this, she realized that she has quite the story to tell to Jim. After all, it's not every day, even for a ghost whisperer like herself, that you meet a shinigami.