Chapter Five

The back door bursted open and an exhausted grim reaper walked in, ready for his coffin. Undertaker yawned, and he was happy to be over with this job in a few years. As he came into the back of the shop, he found his note that he'd left this morning...THIS MORNING!

He knew he'd forgotten about something important. On his break period he was supposed to check into the shop and see how Vivian was fairing.

This was bad, very bad. He'd become caught up taking overtime. The shop was opening today and he remembered that, but for some reason, he thought the hours were later. This was far from prepared and for him, this was unacceptable. His eyes jolted open and a second wind bursted through his chest. He took his death scythe and high tailed to Vivian's house.

As expected, she was asleep in her bed. Leaving another note, he contemplated. He thought it would serve as a start, and he introduced it with an apology in addition to an explanation of his late night, hoping it would suffice. If she used this against him for the rest of time, he would be disdained of her, a mortal!

He wrote a second portion of the note for her to read later, perhaps after she'd read the first one. He lay the notes upon her end table, looking at her sleeping there already. The bed was large enough...he could...

Shaking his head, the thought did not cease. God forbid if anyone in the house would see him. He wasn't sure if that was worth the risk. Ah! he promised to pay her for her services. Digging through his pockets, he found a silver chain, and he knew it was purely silver. Deeper in those pockets of his, he dug up a crystal, attaching it to the chain in a diamond shape, which he shaped with his death scythe right in front of her, not that she noticed.

He lay that upon the end table, adding to the first note her payment. Money wasn't of interest of him, not for a while. The reaper business paid him well, but pay day was next week, not this time around. Surely this would be enough. There were many curious items in his pockets, but he was unsure of where most of it came from. It was never stolen, only found, and he knew that much.

Vivian's slumbering form tempted him to give in to kissing her on the forehead. She'd done a lot for him already, running the shop for a whole day. He spotted the manuel on the side of her table, and she'd been reading it diligently. Taking his leave, he heard her voice.

"A slight delay?" she asked, tensing her body.

"My apologies," Undertaker said. "Soul collection can be...complicated."

Vivian was silent for a few moments. "You have an order and list of purchases sitting on the desk."

Undertaker was actually surprised of this report, considering he just opened the shop. Well, she'd been there all day, but he did leave the door open for her.

"You are upset," he said. "I understand."

"I'm surprised you showed up at all," Vivian replied. "Either way, you must be exhausted." She yawned herself, but Undertaker could hear the resentment in her tone.

"This will not happen again," he told her, walking over to the bed, sitting upon the end. "Face me." Vivian refused at first, for she was just mad...and disappointed in him.

Her body turned slowly with slight resentment still, facing Undertaker and noting the position of his death scythe against the bedpost. Swallowing hard, Vivian sighed, awaiting whatever it was he was looking to tell her. First, he leaned himself in to kiss her, which she somewhat accepted. She returned the kiss to be sure, but she was still upset, that much was clear. Undertaker gave into his mind, and suddenly his body began to follow after the kiss was broken.

"Did you go to hell?" she asked as he lay down beside her. His head turned, allowing his bangs to fall so Vivian could catch a glimpse of those green eyes. Irresistible, when she wasn't upset with him.

"Actually, I did," he replied. "Demons are most bothersome creatures."

"What do they do?" she asked.

"They eat souls, sometimes before we can get to them," Undertaker replied as his muscles began to sink down into the bed.

Vivian thought about letting this whole incident go, but a part of her didn't want to do that, let him off so easily. As she remained upset, Undertaker began to relax, realizing he was far more tired than he'd previously thought. Vivian watched as he closed his eyes, still cognitively aware but not as much. Smirking, she looked to her nightstand where she discovered the notes and the crystal on the silver chain.

Glancing back to him as she read the first note, she knew he felt sorry about what had happened, seeing the error in his ways and seeking to mend it. He would, eventually, but she knew this would take time. She'd sought him and he replied, there must be a reason for it. At least, that's what she kept telling herself.

Of course! Had no one been there this morning, the shop would have gone completely downhill. Whatever the reaper had been busy with, no one could have kept an eye on the shop. She had, and Undertaker would not soon forget that. He knew the shop was opening today but distractions, distractions. Vivian wondered how she cut through all the noise of his busy schedule, whatever that schedule was exactly. Although she'd brought his system to a halt, that didn't mean he had to stay. No, he had to be staying with her on his own accord.

For a few more moments, she watched him slumbering beside her. Reapers did need sleep, that's what she'd gathered and the first note reaffirmed. She caught sight of the braid still tied off tightly in his hair and that made her smile, if only slightly.

Yes, she was in love with a grim reaper.

Upon her gentle waking, Vivian's body stretched and turned until she hit something beside herself. At first, her body jolted back to her spot, but as her mind came around, she had a guess as to who it might be. Surprised that no one had come to wake her yet, the girl yawned, leaning back into the bed, unwilling to wake up. However, there was enough energy in her to turn onto her other side, only to see Undertaker still next to her.

Something was rather odd about the way he was sleeping. That's it! His chest wasn't moving. For a moment, her eyes furrowed, confused. Bringing her hand to his neck, there was the problem. Undertaker had no pulse!

She shook him a few times, worried over what might have happened overnight while she slept. There wasn't a single wound anywhere on his body, so what the hell could have happened? After a few minutes, the reaper came around, opening his eyes and hissing against the sunlight after so many years of sleeping in a coffin.

Vivian sprang up, closing her curtains to shut the light out and rushed back to him.

"What the hell!" she exclaimed, trying to use a whisper in case someone was awake. "You weren't breathing!"

Undertaker moaned a little, already not accustomed to having someone next to him straight away, first thing in the morning.

"Yes, that happens," Undertaker replied, rolling over to face away from her. "I am a reaper."

"So, when reapers fall asleep, they suddenly stop breathing?" Vivian asked.

"Yes, eternal slumber," Undertaker said, keeping his phrases short. She sensed his annoyance, but she was worried and thus did not regret waking him in the slightest.

"Okay, Okay," Vivian said, stepping down. "Do remember whose room you're in, though. My siblings will be up any moment, and I'm surprised my parents haven't come to wake me already."

Keeping the room in a dim light made waking up slightly more difficult than usual for herself, but it didn't help any that Undertaker didn't move an inch as she got ready for the day.

Vivian still had a life to lead, while Undertaker didn't even have to work tonight. He was going to oversee the shop today and Vivian was going to make sure of it. After getting him out of bed and out of her room, she met with him after breakfast down in his shop, explaining it off to her family that she may have found a new job. They were delighted of course, and Undertaker had indeed paid her, though she was hoping for actual money in the future.

"Am I working here or not?" she confronted him during lunch today. She was the only one eating. Undertaker was taking care of price adjustments, seemingly avoiding the subject altogether about her current employment status. With each pressing question she asked pretty much the same thing, and eventually, she'd need an answer.

"You are a difficult one," Undertaker said, playing with the end of his new cauldron he'd just set on top of a new coffin.. "Your soul may cause some trouble." Well, if they were changing the subject, two could play at that game.

"Very nice," she replied. "Hey, if I get sick and start spewing my guts all over the place, will you catch whatever disease I have?" Undertaker looked up at her this time.

"Depends on the disease," Undertaker replied, ceasing the cauldron's movement. "If it's a flu, no I will not. If it's the Black Death, I just might."

"The Plague affects grim reapers?" Vivian asked, packing up the lunch she could no longer focus on eating. She stood up, organizing a shelf of paper, ink, and paint brushes.

"Oh yes," he replied. "About one third of the entire population was wiped out. It was a busy few years for me. Only 15 reapers died, but staff was low enough as it was. We found a way to combat the disease, not that we could tell the humans. We are, after all, somewhat of divine beings."

"So I see," Vivian said.