"Logan!"
"Logan!"
"Logan!"
Voices were calling his name. Who! Who was calling his name!
"Logan! It's me!"
It sounded like a girl.
"Logan! Look at me!"
But it didn't sound like any of the girls he knew. Not Jenny, or Jo, or Camille.
"Logan… why don't you help him?"
"Help who?" Logan called back to the voice.
"Help Carlos. I know that it'll break all of the rules, but you should look at them first."
"Help Carlos with what?" Logan was confused.
"With me, Logan." Suddenly, disturbing the blackness of the setting, a burst of light devoured the night, and from that darkness, a figure started walking toward him.
"Who are you?" Logan asked frantically.
Finally, the figure stepped into view. Jennifer.
"How can I help Carlos when you don't love him anymore?" Logan screamed at her.
"You're running out of time Logan! You're running out of time!" Jennifer cried. "You're running out! Hurry!" she had begun to shriek.
"Jennifer what are you talking about!"
The light was becoming blinding as her voice got louder and sharper. "Logan! Hurry!"
Logan curled into a ball, covered his ears, and closed his eyes. She was hurting all of his senses. She began to step forward as the light tried to consume her. "Help him Logan. He needs you." she whispered.
The light finally began to take over her body. It reached out to her and grabbed her like vines and began to pull her into the black hole of light. "Quickly Logan! Quickly!" she screamed. And then she was gone. And the place was black again.
Logan's eyes whipped open after the intense nightmare. What did it mean? What does any of that mean? Logan sat up in his bed, breathing heavily. He looked around his room, looking for any sign of reality to take him out of his trance. His eyes were attracted to the fishbowl on his desk; he had gotten the fish about a month after he met Carlos, his mother got it for him. It had lasted longer than any other pet he had in his life. But when his eyes locked onto it that night, it was dead.
"Great. Another fish dead." Logan sighed and fell back into his bed. "What am I going to do about all this? Am I even sane anymore?"
Suddenly, Logan heard a burst of flames. Dammit. Logan groaned and sat back up. He saw no envelope this time, but he saw a cloak similar to his floating around his room. "Holy shit!" he yelled and flopped out of his bed in fear.
The spirit whipped around and then quickly turned to face the opposite direction of Logan again. "Oh my God, I'm dead! Great! That's just great! Great! How did I die, Reaper? How!" Logan shouted.
"You're not dead…" the Reaper mumbled. It was a girl's voice.
Logan jumped to his feet. "Then what the hell are you doing here?"
"Your fish is dead…"
"What?" Logan grabbed the Reaper's shoulder and whipped her around. The identity of the Reaper shocked him.
"Oh my God…" Logan took a step back, shocked.
The small, blonde girl began to cry. "I'm so sorry Logan, please don't be afraid of me! I don't want you to leave me! I really like you Logan!"
"Jenny…"
Jenny wiped the tears from her eyes. "You know what, I'll just do my job and leave, and never speak to you again, okay? I'll just leave you alone now…"
Logan dashed into his closet and closed the door. Great, he's hiding from me. Jenny began to sob as she made her way towards the fish bowl. She was embarrassed and hurt. I'll never be able to be in a relationship, never ever. No one will accept this.
"Come on little guy." Jenny cooed to the fish. The fish's spirit awoke and started to swim around the bowl. Jenny cracked a slight smile and reached her hand into the bowl to pull the fish's spirit out; she put the tiny, energetic spirit into a jar to contain it. Fish spirits were very energetic and free and would often try to escape to fly free. Jenny was about to snap her fingers when…
"Jenny! Wait!" called Logan.
Jenny turned around to find Logan in his cloak, holding his scythe. It was then when she understood what he was. Pet Reapers didn't have scythes, they just had cloaks, there was no need for a scythe, animals weren't stubborn like human spirits. Sometimes, human spirits refused to part with their bodies and so Human Reapers used the scythes to cut the spirit away from the body.
"Jenny, we're the same." Logan muttered, giving her a shy smile.
Jenny felt tears come to her eyes once again, but this time, they were tears of joy. He's like me… Logan dropped his scythe and walked towards Jenny, pulling the hood of the cloak from his head, Jenny mimicked him. "Jenny Tinkler, you are absolutely perfect." he said.
He took her hands and pulled her close to him, she rested her head against his chest and laughed and cried with relief. "You're like me, Logan. I've never met anyone like me."
"I haven't either Jenny, I haven't either." And for the first time in his cloak, Logan couldn't stop smiling.
The next afternoon, Logan began to look for answers. His nightmare the night before was a huge question mark, and Logan needed to solve it. Logan couldn't give up Jenny to make Carlos happy, he would never find a girl like her again in his life and he would not give up this chance. Logan was going to have to help Carlos in another way, and quick, because Jennifer seemed to be very adamant about him running out of time.
Finally, after standing against his locker for the past five minutes, Logan saw her. Jennifer. She was surrounded by the other two Jennifers though, there would have to be some way he could break them apart… Oh wait, I'm "hot" now, maybe they'll just let me talk with her alone…
Logan ran to catch up with the Jennifers, and was able to jump in front of them, just before they left the building. He didn't know how to go about this, so he was just direct about it. "Hey I'm Logan. Can I talk to Jennifer alone please?"
The girls rolled their eyes. "Which one?" they all snapped at once.
"Jennifer Smith."
The other two Jennifers looked at Carlos' Jennifer. "Go." the two told her.
Jennifer Smith shifted her eyes awkwardly. "But how will I get home?"
"We'll meet you in the parking lot." the blonde Jennifer told her.
They began to walk away. "But… but!" Jennifer Smith called after them.
"Shut up, he's hot!" called the curly brunette Jennifer.
Jennifer Smith looked at Logan with scared eyes. He was clearly friends with Carlos and she knew was this was all about. "Hi Logan…"
"Hey Jennifer. I have something to ask you." Logan smiled at her.
Jennifer cringed. "What?"
"Jennifer, why did you break up with Carlos?" Logan crossed his arms and leaned against a locker.
"That is none of your business!" Jennifer barked and she began to turn away.
Logan grabbed her shoulder. "Listen, Jennifer, all I want to know is what Carlos did wrong. Just so he can improve I guess. I want to throw him back into the dating game, and I feel like he has the right to know why you didn't want to be with him anymore…" he lied.
"Listen, Logan. As much as I would love to tell you everything that's wrong with what happened, I can't. Maybe one day I can, but not today. I'm sorry." And she walked out of the school.
"Logan! Logan! With each day you keep running out of time! Stop letting minutes pass! Help him! Fix this!" Jennifer's voice called.
"I'm trying Jennifer! Not like you're any help!"
Once again, light penetrated the black environment and Jennifer came out of the light. She stared at Logan with hurt eyes and she began to walk toward him.
"Logan, I have a secret." she whispered.
"And what's that?" Logan asked.
"I can't tell you it's a secret. But I can tell you this, you're wasting time right now by sleeping. Wake up Logan! Stop being selfish!" she cried, her voice getting gradually louder as the light got gradually brighter.
"I'm selfish? You're selfish! You're the whole reason that Carlos is in this mess! You did this! You made him feel this terrible! Why don't you fix it?" Logan was growing angry.
"Because Logan! You're the only one with any power here! And he needs you now! Just listen to me! Wake up Logan! You're running out of time!"
"Running out of time until what? At least tell me that!" Logan was coming toward Jennifer in a huff of anger.
"I can't. You'll see soon Logan. Soon." she said quietly. And once again the light began to consume her.
"Wake up Logan!" she shrieked one final time.
Logan's eyes snapped open. Jennifer kept interrupting the little sleep he got. He then heard a burst of flames. At least she woke me up for work on time. Logan sat up in his bed and rubbed his eyes. Sometimes I think life was simpler before I had friends. I mean I love Carlos and James and Kendall and especially Jenny, but this is becoming stressful… Logan crawled to the end of his bed to grab the envelope and go, but what he saw shocked him.
A red envelope.
Logan eyes widened. "Shit." he muttered.
He tried to think of who it could possibly be. His mother..? One of his grandparents…? Which family member would he have to suffer through this time? Logan began to tear up as he tore open the envelope. He took out the thin piece of paper and began to read.
Logan Mitchell,
We regret to inform you that you will have to handle the death of a loved one. We also apologize for the grief you must deal with and are sorry for your loss. We are giving you this job a week in advance to allow you to be mentally prepared for this duty. We wish you luck with tending to this soul and we hope for the best for you after it. Here is the details of the reap.
Logan felt a lump grow in his throat when he read the information below the Council's message. Tears started to well up in his eyes, and suddenly he had the answers.
Name: Carlos Garcia
Time/Date: Friday, November 31 at 9:35 PM
Logan couldn't bring himself to read anymore, but he had to. He felt like he was going to throw up. And he did when he read the final statement.
Cause of Death: Suicide
Suicide.
Thanks to squoctobird for the Pet Reaper idea! And thanks to all of you who still read my story despite the fact that I was a lazy bum for a long time and didn't post!