The first on the Death List that night had been Shellobeth Avery Thompson.
"Odd name." The red-headed reaper muttered with a soft laugh as he put the list away and continued to walk down the pathway in the direction of the woman's house.
As he got closer to the home it became obvious what the cause of death was. A fire had done it.
"Oh my..." Was the second thing he had muttered that night as he walked up the pathway to whatever was left of the house and inspected one of the busted windows stained black with ash.
The house wasn't completely burned to the ground, its structure still stood, not as strongly but enough to support itself. The door swung limply off its hinges reviling thellll inside of the house starting with a livingroom. A rather cute little room despite half of the furniture reduced to ruble and the only color and pattern in the room was grey,black and white singe marks. As he entered a few flakes of ash snowed down and stuck to his clothing. It was an irritating sight but nothing could be done about it, if he tried to brush it off it would only spread and ruin the material of his jacket.
So instead he sighed heavily and went to search for the body of Shellobeth. The sooner he could find her and leave this dreadful place the better. Figuring the livingroom was vacant the hallway that connected it to the kitchen as well as many other rooms in the house was the next place to look. Upon entering the hallway there was a doorway wide enough that the entire kitchen could be viewed from it and it reviled instantly that it to was empty and with no point in even entering the room one of the many doors would probably contain the body.
The first door across the hallway from the kitchen, oddly stood out from the first two doors seen in the house already. This one was closed, its door knob still a shiny gold color as if it had never been touched before.
"What are the odds that-" He didn't even bother to finish that sentence as he opened the door.
A baby's room. Small and pink colored with a tiny baby crib pushed up in the corner with several baby blankets thrown inside and a small dresser next to it. Slowly stepping inside the room he looked around again.
"What a pity it would be." He said aloud. "If Shellobeth, was an infant."
No sooner had he said this did his eyes fall onto a horrific sight. A small skeleton like hand was poking out from under the many blankets. Pale white skin stretched over the thin bones stood out in the dim lighting of the room.
"Eh." He gasped out, somewhat discussed by this new sight but still found himself pulling back the rest of the blankets.
Curled up in a tiny ball there lay the remains of a small child. Blonde curls were covered in ash and several burns colored the white skin red and pink. The child wore a camosol like top as a dress and still had its thumb in its mouth. From the looks of it the baby was no older than a couple of months.
"So... About those odds." Pushing back a stray lock of red hair he summoned his scythe, laid the child on its back and cut it open.
Its records filed out of its limp form like fireworks. Or firework in this case. The child hadn't lived very long so not many records had been kept.
Shellobeth Avery Thompson. Was written at the top. He read on, curious as to what the child's story was and as he would soon find out, was a very tragic one.
Shellobeth was only 2 and a half months old. She was born to two very dishonorable nobles Richard and Margret Thompson who had no regards for their newborn daughter what so ever and kept her locked in her room most hours of the day, only checking on her every so often to make sure the child was not dead, and what a nasty surprise they received when on this day when they went to check on their daughter found her stone-cold dead. The child's death which was reviled to have actually been caused by an incident earlier that same day. She had died due to starvation. The fire had been started by the frantic mother who upon discovering her child dead feared being blamed for it (Though it was her fault to begin with) and of course leading to the fire to make it seem as though the fire had been what killed her.
"Hm..." He sighed after reading this. "Poor little thing. Never got a chance at life."
He glanced down at the child's face which he hadn't gotten a good look at yet. Despite being stretched thin she was still a pretty little thing. She had a sweet pink face, with soft black eyelashes hid what ever colored eyes she had from view and her dark pink lips were frozen upwards in a tiny smile around her tiny finger. It was a very sad sight. She looked so innocent and so happy despite everything. The reaper shook his head and was about to mark the girl as dead but stopped again to glance at her tiny face one more time. She laid there limp, not moving even with her insides cut open and her body covered in large burns. Her smile looked more like a smirk now as she waited for him to pronounce her dead and then claim her soul but tonight, that was something that wasn't going to accrue.
He watched her for a minutes time then sighed heavily.
"William will punish me for this." He said to the child before scrawling something down.
Slowly a pair of baby pink eyes fluttered open and the child's chest heaved forward as she let out an ear piercing cry.
