Okay so I'm back…kinda. Hopefully this will be slightly more organized that before. This prologue and the first chapter are a just a bit of explaining about what the basis for this whole thing is since I explained it to one of my friends and she went "What the bloody…" before telling me what I had just told her from an outsiders perspective. So this should clear up any confusion for later on… and give away a couple of spoilers…sigh I know its probably boring and tedious at times but I swear its vital to the plot. I tried to write it as a blog spot as a last minute thought… hopefully it turned out okay like that. If BlogUniverse is actually the name of a site someone tell me so I can put a disclaimer up for that too….
Disclaimer #1: The basis for the "Gates of Death" and the word "Abhorsen" were bummed off of Garth Nix. I personally recommend any of his stuff since its all very, very good and definitely worth a read in between waiting for the Harry Potter to come out. If you want a list you can e-mail me and I'll tell you some of my personal favs.
Disclaimer #2: I don't own Harry Potter or anything that looks familiar from J.K. Rowling's books.
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Prologue: From the Mind of a Spirit Guide
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BlogUniverse.gtv
AT DEATH'S DOOR: THE TRUTH
A blog by solitaryinu66
Journal Entry # 9872360
Do you know the truth?
Death. The very word makes people breakout in hives and cause small children to ask where their parents are if they won't be coming home. Grim Reaper. That word makes most people imagine a darkly dressed skeleton with a scythe who's coming to steal their soul into the underworld.
I would just like to say that you humans crack me up. Literally. You see this scar here…
Never mind. The way I am now you wouldn't be able to see me anyway. The whole point of this is that I'm going to set you all straight, right here, right now.
First off, the Grim Reaper doesn't use a scythe. He uses a carefully constructed set of keys and bells to bring your soul to Death and control you if you get unruly. I can't verify if he's actually a skeleton or not. The only people who really know are his apprentice who likes to spend her time in the human world (so if you want to know that badly you can have fun hunting her down, you muggles.) and those who his Death is tied to (but they don't even know he's the Grim Reaper so stick with finding the girl.).
Anyway, ol' Grimmy doesn't work alone. He has the Abhorsens to help him out (Hey, he's a busy man.) They're usually assigned to several hundreds of people whom they watch and make sure that they don't just die spontaneously. Believe you me it's much, much better than the old system we had. Everyone used to act like chickens with their heads cut off before Sare found a way to predict the deaths with some special books that are far beyond my comprehension or yours. It's really a pity she Died using her energy to create them, though. She had been one hell of a Reaper.
Most of the Abhorsen are suicide victims. Every now and then we have one that's joined the force by chance or the Reaper himself has chosen, like his apprentice. Oddly enough most of the Abhorsen live in the human world living normal human lives. (That's right, they could be anybody, such as… your creepy next door neighbor.)
The Abhorsens in turn have daemons like me to help them out and communicate to one another with out having to use the mail or internet. We're their "spirit guides" and I use that term as loosely as possible. After all, we do all the dirty work. They just guide the soul back to Death and make sure that none of the other spirits have escaped. Easy stuff. We prefer to be animals, but I knew this one guy who loved to show up as a ghost. (Didn't work out well for him or his master let me tell you…) Our whole job is to gather information about the person our masters are assigned to and if a spirit happens to escape then we are ones who fight them, unless our masters can control the pipes. (Basically, they're a less powerful version the Reaper's bells.) Luckily mine can.
Now for Death itself. I'm sure I've confused you saying that Abhorsens are dead, but live in the human world and carry out everyday things. Now I know that you humans might have trouble understanding this, but stay with me here. The Abhorsens are dead, but they aren't Dead. In fact nobody is ever really Dead until after they've gone past the 9th Gate and go to either Heaven or Hell. Death itself is basically the nine stages of death, a purgatory if you will. The whole thing though is that no one, but the Abhorsens and the Reaper can go back. Believe you me plenty have tried, and so far only one has succeeded... And even he had to try many times before he succeeded in manifesting his body in the human world. (A Tom Marvolo Riddle. Sassy little upstart that one, thought that just because he was all that and an order of fish 'n chips in the human world, he could talk back to ol' Grimmy…anyway that's a story for another day…)
Death is broken down into Gates and depending on just how stubborn, spiteful, angry or complacent is how long you stay in between each one. But basically once you go past the Net before the first Gate, you're stuck unless you really, really want to get back. I personally wouldn't really want to go back. Once you get to the other side you either become an Inferi or wander completely lost for the rest of eternity until your spirit decays bit by bit and the Death Eaters get you. Not pleasant.
Due to company policy I'm not allowed to tell you humans exactly what waits at each of the gates. Just be nice to your Abhorsen and act peacefully through the Gates and you'll Die a true Death in no time, that way no one can ever disturb your happiness. Trust me its better this way.
Oops... I'm late to go help picking up a soul...Ah well I suppose I'll continue this next journal entry.
Solitaryinu66
Comments: 143
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Alright so I would like to start off by saying if this has insulted you in any way, shape, or form, I'm sorry, but please remember it's a Fanfic. (Note the "fic" short for "Fiction" meaning fake.) I'm not making a jab at anyone's religion or anything, and if that didn't even cross your mind while you were reading this just go ahead and move along. ( I live in the "Bible Belt" of the South so I know quite a few people who would take insult to this quite quickly and accuse me of being an atheist...not that I really care since I'm "going to hell" anyways.snort)
I'm debating on whether or not to add random blog spots to help the story along or not... I guess it'll just be the opinions of the reviewers... I have a good idea of where exactly it is I'm going with this, but I'm sure I'll need a beta at some point or another... Anyway, tell me what you think, if this makes sense or if I need to tweak it again. Thanks much!