The bell on the shop door rung as 10 masked wanderers entered. The man behind the counter, a tall lean built man with a scarred face and neck and long silver hair stood from his seat and placed the strange book he was reading on the counter open. The words on the page were red and were writing themselves and fading to black. "Are you the undertaker?" the masked man in front asked. "Is that what the sign says?" the man said to the wanderer. "It also said you have rooms available...we were wondering how many. The rest of the town is booked. They say there is a festival this weekend so many travelers have stopped here." the front man said to Undertaker. "Of course. The winter festival is this weekend. I believe I have about 5 empty rooms each with a bed and extra mattress. Just enough for everyone to have their own place to sleep for the night." Undertaker grinned from ear to ear. "How long may we stay? A few of our companions are injured and may take a while to heal. They will die out in the snow..." "As long as you need. I'll have my assistant help your friends. Evangelina! We need your assistance!" called the silver haired man.
From the door in the back of the shop a young girl with long wavy black hair and bright green eyes peaked into the room. "But you made me wear this outfit..." her small voice chirped up from the dark corner. "Oh well we have injured guests that need your healing powers." Undertaker told her sternly. "Healing powers?" one of the injured asked. He looked up from beneath his half broken straw Chinese hat. With the black cloak with red clouds on it was hard to tell he was injured due to the only visible thing being his eyes. Red eyes, like the funny butler. The only way they could tell he was injured was the puddle of blood on the floor beneath him. "She has many special abilities. Lay your injured on the coffin lids. I assure you the dead wont mind lending a hand to make sure others don't meet the same fate they did." he said. Three people laid down on the available floor sitting coffins. "The rest of you I have the rooms available already. All but the last on the right upstairs. The one at the very end is the bathroom. Make yourselves at home." Evangelina said to the travelers as she stepped from behind the wall she was hiding behind. She was short and was wearing a small red maid's outfit. Her skirt was just below her butt and very full with ruffles and other fru-fru things. Little black bows were around the garters at the top of her knee high white stockings. The shirt was a lace up black corset and red bodice with white laces and bows holding the ruffled straps to the breast pat of her shirt. Every bow was centered with a small skull pin, even the red one in her hair and the rather large one in the center of her chest. The eyes of the chest-bow-skull were made of the largest most beautiful garnets in the world.
The 7 un-injured wanderers walked through the door into the living room/dining room area. And up the stairs next to the wall. "Now to attend to you three. I'll need you to remove your clothing to get a look at the full extent of your injuries." Evangelina told them. She was met with four pairs of curious eyes. "Only if you remove your clothing so we can get a look at the rest of your body." came the voice of one of the travelers. In the blink of an eye his head was pinned to the ceiling by the blade of a silver scythe at his throat. Undertaker was hovering off the ground holding the scythe with both hands to stare face to mask with the rude wanderer. "If you so much as breath in the direction of my assistant after she fixes you...I promise you wont leave here in one piece...Got that human?" undertakers voice was quite a few octaves deeper than his usual chirping and giggling. His fringe was blown out of his face by the quickness of his movements and his golden green eyes peered at the purple pink ones of the man in his face. He removed the scythe only to replace the position of the blade with his hand as he squeezed the travelers throat. "That's enough kid. Let him go." Evangelina told the undertaker. "Of course." "I though you were his assistant? Not the other way around." the only one fallowing directions said. The traveler had removed his hat and mask and cloak revealing his battered clothing, long black ponytail, and eyes the color of the skulls on Evangelina's bows. "Shirt and pants. Drop them." "What!" came four male voices. "You heard me. Your injuries are under your clothes so I need you to remove them. It may hurt if they have been dried to the skin by all the blood." Evangelina moved towards the young man. He took a step back and eyed her. "If you wont then I will." she grabbed the bottom of his shirt and pulled it gently upward until the boy flinched. "Told you." she smiled at him.
Once all the clothes were removed aside from undergarments the three men laid on the coffins waiting for the maid to tend their wounds. The one in the middle, the short blond, was the most severe. "What's your name kid?" Evangelina asked him, brushing his hair out of the way so she could clean the blood off his back. "My name is Deidara. Don't call me a kid I'm older than you." he snapped. She poked the gashes in his back and he yelped. "So your 460?" she asked him. Undertaker giggled and the other three stared at her like she was insane. "Come on. There's no way your 459. 16 at the oldest." the black haired boy said. "Nope. She's older than me by thousands of years. She's 460,000,000,000 this weekend right?" he asked. "It's new-years..." She said. "That's how old the planet is." Undertaker giggled, "And just think, she was reaping every creatures soul right by herself up until about 8 centuries ago. She worked 4,600,000,000 centuries by herself. She's my hero." "But you're lazy," Evangelina laughed as she bandaged the gouges in Deidara's back. "You only worked up until about 40 years ago." "but I was reaped to become a reaper. You were made to be one. I grew tired and old. Look at my hair! It was black when I started!" Undertaker yelled. "We matched and now look! You're still really young looking and I look like an old man!" "Quit complaining. You're immortal so shut up. We just have to dye your hair if you want it black again. Human's age. Just reapers have been frozen in time except for their hair and nails. That's it. You can't die no matter how hard you try to off yourself. Its impossible. And you know that you have the scars to prove it. Go settle the travelers in while I take care of these three." Evangelina ordered. "Yes ma'am." Undertaker sulked out of the room. "A reaper?Who worked alone since the beginning of the planet...OH MY GOD! Your the grim reaper!" the black haired boy shouted. "Yes I am, don't ask me when you will die because I control that. Your injuries will heal and you will live longer than today I can assure you." the rest of the time was quiet as she cleaned and bandaged the three men. Go through that door and up the stairs. The bedrooms are up there I want the three of you in a bed under the covers and resting till dinner. I'll bring you some food tonight." Evangelina told the three and helped them one by one to different rooms.
