Hello all. It has been a looooong time since I have put anything here. I have been rather preoccupied with other things in the last good while. Cutting to the chase, I am sorry to announce that this will be my final story. So, please enjoy my grand finale!
This story is based off of the Ed, Edd, N' Eddy Theory. Please do not be upset that the fandom has not yet been mentioned, as it is the biggest part of this story and will consume the rest of it shortly. Patience, dears.
The streets were dark. Night had fallen over the city. Street lamps lit the lonely walkways devoid of life and movement in the still October air. It was silent in the city, the darkness absorbing any and all sound in its black coils. The emptiness was eerily akin to post apocalyptic circumstances. There was no life anywhere in the snaking thoroughfares of Endsville.
All of this made it rather easy to glide through the vacant roads. Her dark hair whipped around her as she flew, feet not even so much as grazing the concrete, down the walkway, snaking passed light poles and city mail boxes. Her glowing red eyes were overshadowed by a deep blackness cast from her brows as she kept her head down. She was on a very important mission that would bring great change to innocent people and great consequence upon herself. A flash of silver lit up the darkness for a split moment as she flew passed a street light, the gleam having been temporarily caught in the shinning silver of her scythe.
It wasn't uncommon in her line of work that people got hurt. It wasn't unusual to walk away from something with lingering damage or to not walk away at all. Her kind had walked the razor's edge of life and death and danced along the blade. One by one, with grace and dignity, they met their ends in the name of all things good. In their sacrifice, they remained a protector of those on the other side and fought injustice wherever it happened to rise.
But tonight was different. Tonight wasn't about the living at all. It wasn't about anything to do with the mortal coil, in fact. Tonight she was on a hunt for the first Grim Reaper, the one who had come before her or any of the others like her. Since the advent of her kind, the original Grim Reaper had all but been put out of business. His methods were unethical, his work was at times cruel, and his conscience of these things was chillingly barren of guilt. Tonight was about setting things right in the Land of the Dead and the new Reaper had a bone to pick with ol' Grim.
The current problem at hand was finding the old Reaper. Finding mortals was simple, they all had their own bright aura's and would leave energy trails wherever they went. The dead, however, we harder to trace. With the dead, there was no aura, no energy trails, there was nothing at all. They no longer belonged in The Land of the Living, therefore their energies were altered into what humans called ghosts, which is why they require energy from their surroundings to come forward.
She figured her best bet would be to seek out the humans that hung close to him first, then let them lead her to him. As the sun began to rise, she changed course sharply for the high school where said humans attended class. Even if she missed them, she could follow their auras and tail them all day.
The street she took lead her to the front of the large school building where busses were pulling in, dropping off clusters of unhappy teens onto the sidewalk. She took up a spot under a nearby tree on the grounds and watched carefully as more and more students gathered on the grass. The area was alight with bright auras. Energy trails weaved, meshed, and tangled all over the place as the teens moved about and mingled before the day began. After two hours of waiting, the last bus pulled up and dropped off the final load of teens. He eyes were fixed on the doors as they opened and color after color spilled out. Then, her red irises shrank around her pupil as a hot pink aura and a bright blue aura broke forth from the darkness of the bus. She had them.
She was about to take off after them when she felt a chill shoot up her spin. She froze and slowly turned to face whatever had given her the sensation.
She locked onto a young man, no older than eighteen, starring right at her through dark shades. He was dressed in all black, long purple hair pulled back into a neat ponytail, and a silver medallion dangling around his neck. His deep purple aura was steady around him as he had not been moving about as the others had and his gaze was fixed on her.
There was no way he could see her, she was dead, therefore invisible to the eyes of the mortal world. He had to be looking at something behind her. However, the intensity of his glim was unmistakable. She took note of his aura, making it a point to investigate the matter later. The only thing that mattered right then was finding Grim. As of now, the showdown had already begun.
She had forgotten how utterly boring and honestly useless much of the schooling kids got really was. There was so very little they had learned that they would actually use in the outside world. So very little would do them any good at all. But here they were, crammed into tiny classrooms, being forced to submit to unconstitutional rules, being fed substandard food in both the taste and cleanliness departments. Day after miserable day was spent here, being subject to tons of useless drabbling simply so someone would have a job in a federal branch of the government. The world of the mortals was a disappointing one at times, being full of falsehoods, nonsense, and of course plenty of kissing off. When death arrives, oddly enough, none of that matters anymore. Strange how that works.
As the teens filtered into their next class, she retreated to the back of the classroom where she could keep a close eye on the two young adults from earlier. As she watched the small room fill to its popping point, she recognized the purple haired boy from the grounds sitting three desks up from where she stood. He wasn't looking at her now, but she knew better than that.
The teacher began the lesson of math that literally almost no one with an average job would ever use in any situation. This bored and irritated the young reaper into picking up a spare text book off of the teachers desk and flipping through it silently. No one seemed to notice, and that just wouldn't do. She lifted the book up high and let it go, allowing it to slam hard onto the desk, jarring the sleepy students awake and scaring the teacher almost to death.
Everyone turned around and looked, but none of the eyes were on her, but rather around her or looking through her. They couldn't see her. None of them could. Except the purple haired boy.
His brows were raised and his jaw was set sternly as if he was upset at her, perhaps for startling him.
She looked at him once more and glided across the room, his head following her. Now she was positive he could see her. With a sudden movement, she flew across the room and stopped an inch from his sculpted nose.
"You can see me." She whispered.
He was still as a statue, but managed to give a subtle nod of recognition.
The young reaper just looked him over for a moment before looking down at some papers on his desk, one of which was a study guide with his name on it.
"Well, that means you and I have something to discuss, then, Piff." She smiled at him, though her eyes portrayed slight frustration.
He remained silent and still, just watching her as she floated in front of him. She stood up and dusted off her black and silver Band-esque uniform and backed up slowly into a corner of the room, allowing everyone to settle down. Once everyone calmed themselves, the teacher resumed her lesson and the teens either followed along begrudgingly or they slept. Except for Piff, who couldn't stop glancing at the corner where the reaper resided.
As soon as the bell rang, the teens fled the room as if it were on fire. The halls quickly cleared of bodies and sounds, leaving behind nothing but several energy trails, all snaking and winding in various directions, but all headed to the same place; the cafeteria. The reaper followed the trails of the two she had locked onto earlier, deciding that she would more than likely run into Piff again.
The sound of many voices became louder as she neared the canteen where every student in the building was at the moment. She zipped through an open door, causing a phantom wind that disrupted two girls in the doorway. She ignored their startled and confused faces as they looked for where the draft could have come from and made her way to the court yard where the two trails lead.
Once she was out in the open air again, she began looking around for the two humans. With ease, she spotted them eating at a pic-nic table with two other males. One put off a lime green aura and the other a yellow aura. She crossed her arms and watched them intently. They were a rag tag group. The outcasts of other outcasts. Two humans who hung around with Death and two hybrids. That was taboo in the Mortal Coil, mixing races, even in the year that it was. Their world was slow to change and stubborn to boot unless it would benefit them in some way immediately. It was baffling how much they cared about the color of skin or the genetic make up of an individual outside of themselves when they knew that the body was only temporary to start with or that your true form looked nothing like a physical thing.
"I know you're following them."
The reaper turned to see Piff standing there, a book held up over his mouth, hiding it. Her red eyes stared unblinking into his shades where there was no reflection. She lowered herself closer to the ground so she would be on eye level with him.
"Indeed." She nodded. "What concern is that of yours?"
"They're my friends." He answered, still hiding his mouth, his voice quiet and deep.
"Well, why aren't you with them now?" She asked.
"I always eat alone." Piff answered from behind the book. "Why are you following them?"
"Why can you see me?" She countered, becoming slightly irritated.
"I've always been able to see..." He faltered for a moment. "... people who passed over."
She starred at him for a long time, trying to figure out this new issue before her. Deep down she knew he was going to become quite a hindrance to her mission, so she had to speak wisely.
"You're a medium." She nodded. "You have a rare gift, there, Piff."
He nodded and a moment of silence settled between them before he spoke again.
"So what are you here for?" He asked.
"Why wouldn't I be just a regular ol' run of the mill ghost?" She smiled.
"That." He nodded towards the scythe in her right hand.
She looked down at the carefully sculpted weapon and then back at him.
"I take it that you have seen one of these before?" She asked.
He only nodded and remained silent.
"Where?" She asked.
He only starred at her, silence falling once more. He knew what she was after now, but he wasn't sure of her intentions or the consequences it could bring.
The reaper took a deep unnecessary breath and spoke slowly.
"I need to speak with the Grim Reaper. It is very important. Several souls are on the line."
Piff's brows furrowed and he seemed to mull the words over for a long time.
"Mandy and Billy are friends with Grim." He answered slowly. "He stays with Mandy mostly. Billy's mother is afraid of him."
"Wise woman." She nodded. The bell rang loudly into the courtyard and the reaper began to float off in Billy and Mandy's direction when she was stopped by Piff.
"Wait." He called.
The reaper turned, irritated but calm, and looked at him as he took his time again with his words.
"What's your name?" He asked.
The reaper studied him for a moment, unsure, before answering.
"Jane." She stated flatly. "Name's Jane."
"Well," Piff began, lowering the book from his mouth once everyone was gone from the courtyard. "Be careful, Jane. Grim's pretty nasty at times."
Jane closed her red eyes and reopened them slowly, the red irises boring into Piff's shades.
"You have no clue." Jane sighed. She floated away from him and followed the bright pink and blue trail once more.
Piff remained in the courtyard thinking over the conversation that just took place. He wasn't sure if he had done the right thing. However, he knew of some of Grim's doings and wasn't surprised that the specter that had visited the school seemed to be wary of and angry with him. Still, his interest had been peeked. He was now involved in something that would more than likely have dire consequences.
Well, there's chapter one. I want to have this up completely by this very Halloween, as it is my favorite holiday, so I've got my fingers crossed.
As I mentioned before, the first two or three chapters are for character development and to introduce Piff into the story and how his character will tie into things as it goes along. I've always felt like Piff never got any love, so here's some love for the previously silent Goth boy who's grown up a good bit since the show.
Jane is on the same level as Piff when it comes to importance and the two's interactions throughout the story will ultimately decide the fate of the cul-de-sac.
Will these two get along enough to succeed in the task of undoing Grim's cruelty? Keep reading to find out.