Time for chapter two! Sorry it took me a long time to submit this, I had some family visiting all the way from California so I didn't really have any time to write or type anything. Anyways, I hope you like the second chapter.
A Grim Apprenticeship
Chapter 2: More Misadventures
(I couldn't think of a good chapter title)
Mandy pulled the reaper list from her robe and unfolded it. Black letters began to magically appear below Irwin's mom's name. Mandy brought the list closer to read the name of their next victim.
"We have to reap Pud'n next. This should be interesting." Mandy said as she tucked the list back into her robe.
"I'm not going in that guy's house, it smells like cauliflower in there!" Billy retorted.
"I thought you loved cauliflower, you ate fifty pounds of it last week." Mandy couldn't believe she was bringing that up again.
"For your information, that was broccoli dipped in tooth paste." Billy said in a snotty voice.
"Whatever. Let's just go to Pud'n's house." Mandy was actually looking to reaping Pud'n.
In a matter of minutes the two reapers were standing in front of Pud'n's house, which had pink shingles and was surrounded by colorful flowers. The door swung open seconds after Billy tapped on it with his scythe.
Pud'n's mom was the one who had opened the door. She wore a yellow dress, yellow shoes, and had yellow earrings on. Her hair was tied in a bun and she large amount of makeup on her face. She looked very neat and organized, but she also seemed like a very nervous woman. Her eyes twitched uncontrollably, much like Billy's mom.
"Hello, can I help you two children?" She asked nervously as her eyes twitched again.
"We're here to take your son's soul!" Billy shouted happily, raising his scythe in the air.
Pud'n's mom shrieked in terror when she saw the blade of the scythe and she fainted, falling backwards onto the floor. Billy and Mandy stared at her unconscious body for moment, then they stepped inside the house. Mandy walked right on top of Pud'n's mom, not even trying to step around her. She stepped on her face before she jumped onto the carpet leading down the hallway. Billy followed right behind Mandy, but stopped suddenly as he stood on Pud'n's mom's face.
"How rude of me, I forgot to wipe my shoes off." He said, noticing the mud that stuck to his shoes. Billy started to wipe his shoes off on the woman's face as if she were a doormat. He jumped down to the floor and giggled hysterically, leaving her covered in mud.
As they walked into the living room they saw Pud'n, who was surrounded with toys and dolls (most of them had teeth marks in them). Pud'n appeared to be choking. He rolled on the floor, coughing constantly.
"What's wrong with Pud'n?" Billy asked worriedly.
Mandy pulled the list out again, "It says here that he's choking on a light bulb." She answered with little emotion in her voice.
Mandy raised her scythe above Pud'n's head, "Well, no sense in wasting any more time." She said as she brought the blade closer.
"Awww, look how cute he is…" Billy said as he looked at Pud'n, whose faced had just turned blue. Pud'n gagged loudly and his eyeballs started to bulge out of his head.
"I don't care how cute he looks as long as I get to decapitate him." Mandy replied cruelly, her scythe blade already pressing on Pud'n's throat.
"No, Mandy! We can't reap Pud'n, he's my rarely-ever-seen best friend!" Billy pleaded.
Mandy looked up at Billy's sad face, "That's not going to work this time, Billy." She said sternly. Billy continued to look sad and pathetic until Mandy sighed angrily, "Okay, we won't reap Pud'n." She slowly pulled the scythe away from the small choking boy.
"Thanks, Mandy!" Billy yelled as he ran over to Mandy and hugged her.
Mandy shoved him into a wall and pointed her scythe at him, "I'll put this scythe to good use if you ever do that again, understand?" She warned.
Billy nodded vigorously, "Yeahyeahyeahyeah!" He was too happy to listen to Mandy's threats at that moment.
They left Pud'n choking on the floor as they walked out of the living room.
"Bye, Pud'n!" Billy shouted backed as Pud'n writhed on the floor.
Pud'n's mom still lay unconscious and covered in mud in front of the door. Billy and Mandy walked over her again and left the house, another reaping assignment failed.
Pud'n's house faded off into the distance as the reapers continued their journey through the neighborhood.
"Can I see the list, Mandy! Puh-leeease…." Billy asked anxiously. He didn't appear to be discouraged by the first two incidents.
"Why should I give it to you?" Mandy asked bitterly, tightening her grip on the piece of paper.
Billy started to reply, "Because…" Before he finished speaking he lunged at Mandy and ripped the list from her hands.
Billy giggled idiotically as he pressed the list against his face to try to get a better look at it.
"You can keep it. I never wanted it anyway." Mandy said casually.
Billy stared at the paper, tilting his head from side to side every few seconds. He turned the list upside down, trying to make sense of it.
"What does it say, Sherlock?" Mandy asked impatiently.
Billy stammered, "Uhhh….it says that we have to reap someone named 'Mimi'." He squinted his eyes, "Her house is…wait for it…" Billy took a few steps down the sidewalk, "Wait for it…." He took a few more steps, "Right here!" He exclaimed, pointing to the rundown old house in front of him.
The grass in the front yard of the house hadn't been cut in years and was almost as tall as Billy and Mandy. The lawn was infested with insects, and perhaps something even larger. They pushed through the tall weeds, barely able to see the stone path beneath their feet. Billy shuddered when he saw a pair of creepy lawn gnomes hidden in the foliage, but he kept pushing through towards the doorstep.
Billy rang the doorbell with his scythe, but Mandy kicked the door open before anyone had a chance to open it. The inside of the house wasn't in as bad condition as the outside of the house, but it was filled with a horrible smell. The living room of the house looked a lot like Irwin's room because it was also decorated with dozens of pictures and paintings. The portraits all featured a small pink poodle with bulging yellow eyes. There were even some small statues dedicated to the poodle surrounding the fireplace.
"It smells like my dad's socks in here!" Billy shouted after breathing in deeply.
A shriveled old women shuffled into the room, "My, what a pleasant surprise! My two grandsons have come to visit me." She said in a shaky voice when she noticed Billy and Mandy. She had curlers in her silver hair and she was still wearing her slippers and nightgown.
"We're not your grandchildren, Mimi. We've come to take you away." Mandy said sharply, a little annoyed at being called a 'grandson'.
"What do you want with my Mimi?" The old woman asked in confusion. She pointed towards a small dog hunched in the corner. It was the same dog shown in all the portraits around the room, but it's once pink fur was now colored a dark green and it was missing patches of hair in some spots. The dog's bloodshot eyes were half closed and the dog was barely moving, as if it were already dead.
"That's Mimi?" Mandy asked as she looked at the rotting dog.
"What's wrong with her?" The woman asked fearfully, looking up at the two reapers. She started to pat Mimi on the head, causing her to make a number of loud choking noises.
"Look lady, we've come to reap your dog and drag it's screaming soul into the depths of the Underworld where it will spend an eternity of pain and misery." Mandy said in a low voice, though there was something sinister about her tone.
"No! I won't let you take my baby away!" The old woman screamed. She picked up the dog, whose legs fell off and disintegrated. She started whispering to the dog, kissing it on the head after every sentence she spoke. The dog looked helplessly at the ground and whined in pain.
"Let's make a deal and have a LIMBO CONTEST!" Billy loudly suggested, "If we win, we get to take Mimi, but if you win, we have to be your best friends forever!" Billy was knocked to the floor by Mandy's scythe just as he finished his proposal.
The old lady continued to babble quietly to her miserably dog, kissing it so many times that more of it's hair started to fall off.
"We can do this the easy way, or the hard way. It's your choice." Mandy pointed her scythe at the women, backing up her threat.
"You'll never get my baby! I'LL DIE BEFORE YOU TAKE HER AWAY FROM ME!" The old lady shouted, " I WON'T GO DOWN WITHOUT A FIGHT!" She screamed again as she pulled out a heavy wooden cane.
Billy and Mandy backed away slowly from the senile woman.
"I'LL BASH YOUR HEADS IN, I SWEAR! I'LL SEND YOU DEMONS STRAIGHT BACK TO HELL!" Foam was starting to fall from her mouth as she shook the cane at the 'demons'.
Billy and Mandy looked at the old lady, then at each other before they darted out the door, slamming it shut just as the old lady threw her cane at them. They ran through the tall grass and out onto the street. They both kept running for a few more minutes before they stopped to rest.
"What a nice old lady." Billy said while he tried to catch his breath, "TIME FOR THE NEXT PERSON ON THE LIST-AH!" He shouted in a strange voice.
Mandy looked furious as she clenched her hands and turned towards Billy, "You stupid cretin, if it weren't for you I would have reaped this whole neighborhood by now!" Her tone was much louder than usual.
Billy let out a melodramatic gasp before he spoke, "Well, I'd be able to do that too if you weren't so mean and UGLY all the time!" Billy yelled back. His voice got even louder when he said the word 'ugly'.
"That's it Billy, it's time to do something I should have done a long time ago…" Mandy said between clenched teeth. It looked like she was about to burst a vein as she stepped towards Billy with her scythe in hand.
Billy scoffed, "You can't hurt me, Mandy. I'm invincible!" He shouted as he pulled off his nose, then reattached it.
Mandy only seemed to get angrier, "Then I'll have to tell our entire class about your horrible little secret." She said menacingly.
Billy's nose sunk into his face and he fell to the ground after Mandy said that. He lay still for awhile before his nose popped back out again.
"Wait Mandy, don't do it! I'll do anything!" Billy begged as he crawled towards Mandy and started to kiss her shoes.
Mandy crossed her arms and looked up at the sky before she conceded, "Fine, I won't tell anyone." She said calmly, but her expression changed when she pulled Billy up by his robe, "But we're going to do things my way from now on, or else." Her angry tone had returned.
Billy nodded nervously, "Whatever you say Mandy, but…." Billy paused, " I GETS TO KEEP THE LIST!" He exclaimed as he broke free from Mandy's grip and ran down the sidewalk with the list, laughing the whole way.
Mandy cursed Billy's eternal soul while she picked up her scythe. She dusted off her robe and turned towards the direction Billy was running in.
"I hate you, Billy…" She said quietly as she walked down the street.
Yep, that's chapter 2. I wanted to put more into this chapter, but if I had done that the chapter would have been too long and like I said, I want to have shorter chapters this time. This is kind of random but, how do you spell Pud'n with an apostrophe S? 'Pud'n's looks so weird. It's freaking me out, man! I want to get chapter three up as soon as possible, so I hope I don't drown within the next day or so (WHY WON'T THE RAIN STOP?). If that does happen, at least I'll be happy in my watery grave knowing that I was at least able to submit the second chapter. Seriousness aside, I would like to thank everyone who reviewed chapter 1 and anyone who might review this chapter. Thanks for reading.