Chapter 6: Ronald

The harpy attack in Ashe did serve as a form of motivation to the group. If creatures of Hell were discovering their presence here this early—within a short couple of days—what did they expect to do to protect themselves the longer they were here? So long as there were still secrets being kept, they weren't getting out; and so long as they weren't getting out, they were sitting ducks for the terrifying creatures that prowled around Hell.

Despite the added motivation, though, there was still a heavy amount of reluctance in the group. Those that had already told their secrets and had revealed their true forms served as the ultimate support for them; cheerleaders of sorts. Still, it did not change the fact that the more people that went, the more dark the secrets started to become. Grell's confessions had been relatively tame; telling of lifelong dreams and dropping the façade he'd been keeping the truth shrouded in. Thompson's confessions revealed the fact that he was not a demon at all and that his "brothers" were merely duplicates of himself. The two angels were both guilty of lusting towards demonic beings, and Ashe had even fallen for his ironically impure actions. What more did the others have to hide?

Ronald was the next volunteer, who willingly threw himself forth as the next sacrificial lamb. The threat of another harpy attack, or worse, was all the motivation he needed.

"I'd take an eternity of overtime over this nonsense!" the blonde-haired Reaper stated.

William scoffed; the first sound of acknowledgement he had made in quite some time, "Be careful what you wish for."

Ronald crossed his arms, "Now, don't laugh! I already know my true form is funny lookin'; no need to remind me!"

The teeth in the young Reaper's mouth sharpened into points, giving them an appearance that was much similar to Grell's. his hair—already quite unusual; strawberry blonde with a stretch of black hair growing towards the back of his head—darkened until the majority of his hair was black; the stretch of black hair at the back of his head lightened until it was the strawberry blonde color his hair had been before.

His true form was hardly a surprise to the other Reapers that were present, but the demons seemed intensely curious and mesmerized by the young Reaper's new appearance.

"You're a lot more dashing with black hair, to be perfectly honest," Hannah commented.

"I don't like my true form," Ronald countered, "My teeth are too sharp; one good tongue-twister and I'll no longer have a tongue. In the summertime, my hair gets hotter than blazes."

The demons could not sympathize with Ronald over the issue with his hair. They came from a whole realm that was hotter than blazes 365 days out of the year, save for the rare occasion when Hell froze over. Summertime in the human realm was instant relief from summertime in Hell.

"I must confess that I'm extremely lazy at my job as a Grim Reaper," Ronald began, "But I have a good reason for it."

"A good reason for laziness on the job?" Grell inquired, "Now I'm intrigued. Go on."

"The reason I'm so lazy is because the Grim Reaper Staffing Association in England is not the only Grim Reaper Staffing Association I work for. I work for those in France, Spain, Italy, Russia, Germany, and even some places in the States."

William's eyes widened, "That many? How long has this been going on?"

"Ever since I was a Reaper in training. I had to do because I screwed up. I wound up making a bet with a demon. The bet was that I could collect more souls than he could under the condition that the souls I collected were from those on the To-Die List and the people he collected from were people he had formed contracts with. The bet was to last until I became a full Reaper."

"How on Earth can you lose a bet like that?" Grell hissed, "Even Grim Reapers in training are able to collect more souls than a mere demon going through contracts like they're underwear. What happened? Did you get lazy and not collect any souls at all?"

Not exactly," Ronald replied, "By the time I had become a full Reaper, I had collected 11,110 souls. I was actually proud of myself. But when I went back to the demon, he had somehow managed to collect 11,111 souls. I demanded that he prove to me that all those souls were from contractors and he regurgitated each soul one at a time in front of me. I was disgusted, to say the least; both at him and at myself."

William, Grell, and even old Undertaker shook their heads in disapproval.

"I'm scared to know the price you had to pay that demon back." Grell stated.

A small chuckle from Claude caught their attention. To everyone's surprise, the normally-emotionless demon was trying to hold in his laughter.

"The price was that he had to produce the exact amount of souls we had both taken because of our bet. He had to collect another 22,221 souls. Why? Because I loved seeing him work so hard for something that was so futile. He didn't collect those souls for the sake of his job; he collected them for the sake of trying to win a bet with a demon."

Ronald's head fell in shame, "Claude Faustus was the demon I had made that bet with. Worst of all, he's right. To this day I don't reap sous for the sake of my job; I reap souls so I can pay off that nagging debt."

Many were silent as they looked at each other with unreadable looks on their faces.

Ronald chuckled, "So far I'm only up to 7,692 souls. I still have a lot of work to do."

William shook his head, "Don't you know it's futile?"

A questioning look appeared on the young Reaper's face, "What do you mean?"

"That debt can never be worked off. The souls Claude Faustus swallowed are not relevant; it's like they never existed. No matter how many souls you reap, it's never going to fill the gap of 11,111 lost souls.

"That's the thing about betting with demons," Sebastian added, "Those that know what they're doing—those that are like Claude—will always win and there's no correct payment method for losers."

At that moment, as Ronald realized his foolishness, Claude lost his marbles—or what some could say was left of them. The spider demon collapsed to the dust, laughing.