Death

The moon hit down on the water of the harbor, the waves distorting its reflection. Boats rested along the docks, bouncing up and down with the currents, but unable to go anywhere thanks to their ropes and anchors. I was at the city's harbor to do a job, and had just finished up. Now, all that was left was for me to leave before a fuss was started with the discovery of the man's body.

It wasn't like I had done anything wrong; it was his time to depart from this world, after all. At least he went to a good place. So many of the souls lately are going to Hell rather than Heaven, I thought to myself as I walked along the docks. The man, an old fisherman, had lived on this world for more than eighty years.

It was kind of depressing to take somebody after they had made it so far, but I had come to learn to separate what was left of my emotions from my work. A rustling from a stack of crates made me halt. Then, Grim came tumbling out from behind the wooden boxes, the skeleton of a fish caught in his matted hair.

"Now you're following me?" I asked flatly. Grim picked the fish remains out of his hair and tossed them on the ground. "I have a reason this time. You see, Death, I have some information you might find useful." I rested the end of my scythe on the ground and leaned against it so I wouldn't have to put all my weight on my feet. "Go on," I told him.

Grim, tapping his fingers together in a repeatative rhythm, starting to pace around me. "Word's going around that Rogue has his own Reaper understudy now," he crooned. "Just like you, Death." I stood there in silence for a moment while Grim snuck his way over near me and was about to touch the blade of my scythe.

Just as his long fingernail was about to make contact with the metal, I picked it up and moved over some. Disappointment flashed across his face. "If he has an understudy now, then that means he's making his move," I said while looking out at the water. Behind me, Grim was scratching the back of his head. "And you and I both know what that means," he sneered.

I gave him one nod, and that was all. "Yes. It means that Rogue's ready to put an end to our long dispute." I always expected this day would come. Rogue must have finally gotten tired of this seemingly endless fight between he and I, or he had finally found a Reaper worthy to side with him. All of our previous confrontations, were nothing but childsplay.

This would put an end to either his tyranny, or my reign. Grim, now next to me, was lying on the ground and spinning his hand in the water below. "Do you think the little Reaper will be ready in time?" he asked, apparently too mesmerized by the water to look up at me.

I shook my head and told him, "I don't know. All I can do is hope that he can hold his own against whoever Rogue has chosen." Grim chuckled deeply. "Yeah. This little Reaper surely isn't as disposable as the previous Reapers you've put up against Rogue."

That wasn't an understatement. This would be my last confrontation with Rogue; it wasn't like all the other times when it didn't matter if a Reaper couldn't hold their own against him. Now, I had reached the end of my resources. I sighed.

"Regardless, I don't want to see anymore Reapers be taken down by Rogue…..I've witnessed it one too many times, and I'm ready to see the end." I thought back to my previous students that had perished by Rogue's hands. He had sent them all to Hell; an unjust fate to those that were only trying to do the right thing by stopping him. Grim left the water alone, and was now sitting Indian-style beside me.

"Speaking of the little Reaper, has he mentioned anything about me lately?" he asked, looking up at me with wide eyes. I thought for a moment, then recalled a conversation I had with him. "A while back, he asked me why you kept following him around. Why have you taken such an interest in him, anyway? It's not like you to keep your eyes on one target for this long."

Grim brought his thumb up to his face, and began to chew on the end of his long, black fingernail. "He reminds me of myself when I first became a Reaper, and because of that, I want to see how long it will take him to break like I did. That, and he just has a very…..Likeable personality," he hissed with a snake-like smile. "But I must say, that this may be the first Reaper that you've also seemed to have taken a liking to as well, Death."

I crossed my arms over my chest and smiled. "I suppose it's cause he's been more pleasant to teach than the others before him. He doesn't argue all that much, and has accepted this new way of life rather well." I recalled several before him, that were so deep in denial about what they were after their first Reaping, that they might have done anything to take the deal back.

Grim fell back and stared up at the night sky. "I understand, Death. In fact, he even reminds me of you when I taught you to be a Reaper, and look how you turned out," he snickered. When I thought about it, Grim was right. I didn't fight all that much when taking his instructions into the field.

I smiled at the sentimental memory from so long ago. That time was way before Rogue's reign of terror on the world, and it was also a much simpler time. Back then, more souls seemed to go to a better place, but now, things had changed drastically.

It actually sickened me to watch this world's morals decay right beneath my feet, but what else could I do? I was the hand that sent them to the place where they belonged. If I didn't do that, then I would be no different from Rogue. Below me, and still laying on the ground, Grim began to hum a familiar tune that I had heard for as long as I had been a Reaper. Then, I joined in and sang, "Reap their souls, Reap their souls. Where they go, only I will know."

Dan

The night crept up on us, and soon it was late enough that we all decided it was time to go to sleep. I never did confront Shun on my newly aquired knowledge; I didn't feel like it was worth starting another argument with him, and there was also the factor that he might still not even speak to me.

But for the moment, I was just taking in the reality that my best friend, had really died. The fact that he was 'alive' now, didn't really register to me. It was just so much of an alien feeling to think that one of your friends did, in fact, die. But it was even stranger to think about Shun being a Reaper. Heck, it was still weird for me to accept that I was one as well.

The whole idea that I had been alive one moment, dead, and alive the next, was just so asinine. I walked into my room and flipped on the ceiling fan light. Standing in the middle of the room, was Rogue. The sudden sight of him, made me jump with surprise.

"Wh-what are you doing here?" I asked, feeling somewhat like my privacy had been invaded. How did he even get in here without being seen by anyone? It then occurred to me, that he could do this teleporting thing. His bat-like wings were unfolded and rested by his sides.

"I told you I'd be in contact with you soon. You see, I like to do my work at night. It's a bit more…..Peaceful, I suppose. Oh, and here. Put these on." A pair of sunglasses formed in his hands, and he tossed them to me. I caught them, and stared at the glasses with confusion. "Um, you do know it's night, right?" I asked. Rogue cut me a curt look.

"I'm aware of that, but are you aware that you're eyes have gone under a slight change?" I spun the shades by one of its arms and said sarcastically, "Uh, yeah. I can see numbers over people's heads. Duh." Rogue rolled his eyes and told me, "Other than that. Look at them."

Wondering what he was talking about, I turned around and walked over to the mirror resting above my dresser. Sure enough, my eyes looked slightly different; they weren't immediately noticeable, but if one was close enough, they would see.

My eyes didn't look like they normally did. The color of them was a bit more red than usual, and the iris had a different pattern to it. Behind me, Rogue said flatly, "You don't want people noticing them. Plus, for some reason, glasses nullify your ability to see the numbers, so you'll only use it when you wish."

To see if he was correct, I walked over to my door and poked my head out. Lucky for me, a late night maid was turning in the for the night. Above her, I saw the days she had left to live. Then, I slid the glasses on, and saw the numbers vanish.

Stepping back in my room, I took them off and said, "Cool. How do they-" Rogue cut me off and said shortly, "I don't know why it works like that. They just do." I put the glasses back on over my eyes; at least they weren't hideous. "Now, I suggest we get started. I want to get this first lesson out of the way."

Before I could even ask what it was this lesson would be about, Rogue's wings turned into a cloak, and it engulfed both me, and him.

Dan

The cloak lowered and deposited us in a more deserted looking area of the city; run down businesses and garbage everywhere. Even the streetlamps were in need of some repair, but I doubted that they would ever receive any. Rogue's cloak turned back into his wings, and he began to walk past me.

"So, what exactly am I supposed to do?" I asked. His eyes searched around us, and finally fell on a homeless man sleeping on the sidewalk in front of us. "Take that man's soul," he said void of emotion. I turned and stared at him, as if he were mad. "What? You want me to do what?"

Rogue spoke a bit louder, as if I hadn't heard him the first time. "Take. His. Soul." I turned back to the homeless man, and lowered down the sunglasses on my eyes; he still had numbers. "But he still has some days left to live. I'd be killing him if I did this." Rogue's expression turned disapproving.

"Don't tell me I made the wrong choice. If I did, then I can send you on to the netherworld and find someone else." I felt my eyes widen. Was he serious about throwing me away like I was nothing but trash? Was I really that dispossable? I swallowed the forming lump in my throat and asked, "So…..What do I have to do?"

Rogue smiled and something started to form in his hand out of a black mist. "I have somebody that makes…Custom scythes. I thought this would be fitting for my student." It was a double-bladed scythe; one blade on each end of the handle. Rogue tossed it at me, and I caught it. Up closer on the black handle, I noticed that there seemed to be a break in it.

Pulling at the break, the handle broke into two and a chain connected the two new handles. It was kind of like nun-chucks, but with blades at the ends. I connected the handles back together to make the scythe one again. "Cool," I said, and even found mself grinning.

Rogue pointed at the sleeping homeless man and said, "Alright, now go and do as I told you to." I wasn't sure what he expected me to do; I didn't have the slightest clue as to how take somebody's soul. But all I could do was wing it.

So, I walked up to the sleeping man, and raised up the scythe. My hands began to shake, but before I could even second guess what I was about to do, I found myself slicing one of the scythe's blade into the homeless man. He shrieked out in pain, and obviously had no clue as to what was happening; all he knew, was that he was hurting.

His weazing and gasps for air stopped, signaling that he was dead. It then hit me, that I had killed somebody. Actually killed a person. I thought I would have felt sick and hated myself, but I actually felt…..Nothing. From behind me, Rogue said calmly, "Now, do the same thing to take his soul." I cut into the lifeless man's body, and watched as his soul was ripped out.

Images flashed before my eyes, all of the man. Rogue told me, "Ignore what you're seeing. They aren't important." He then stepped in and opened a portal in the ground. Fire lapped up at the air like hands, and I watched the man's soul get sucked into it.

The portal closed up, and Rogue turned to look at me, waiting to see what my reaction would be. After what I had witnessed, any sane person would have been appauled. But I wasn't. Instead of screaming or running away, I chuckled. "That….Was kind of fun."

i'll get to my other story soon (in a bit of a writer's block at the moment). so, i bid thee adieu. Read, review, and other things. ~Copperpelt~