Well, this story wasn't supposed to have more chapters, just a oneshot, but things change in two years, so, here is chapter two. Is a translation from the spanish version of my AU multiverse, but posting in here makes more sense than there.

Hope you enjoy.

(Forgive my english)

GRIM REAPER

-Perishable-

I used to run away from the dark.

I was afraid of the dark, since I was a child.

But now…

Now, I can't think about living without it anymore.

Darkness felt like home.

How many years had passed already? She had lost count, there, in that place, in the infinite darkness, time was relative.

How many people died in the human realm per second? Quite a few, but it felt like an hour of so between each death in the darkness, the time moving slowly. No, there was no way to measure time, not in the dark realms, much less in the human world.

The portal appears in front of her. She saw black, the black she is already used to see every day, and it took only a few seconds to see white, only white. She looked around, trying to get used to the light, to the place where she had appeared, in the Earth.

It was a hospital room, and she also had lost count of the times she had appeared in a similar place. It's been many times already.

The antiseptic aroma felt strange in her nose, especially if she was used to the lack of smell in the eternal darkness, likewise, she had acquired a certain liking in smelling the scent of her old world, because she was banned from going outside of her jail, her room, and now she had the opportunity to notice her surroundings, even for a short while.

She smiles, looking around, searching for the person who gave her that second chance, that second life, the freedom to see the world.

The gift of immortality.

The Grim Reaper walked slowly, her scythe in hand, the blade shining, as she approached her victim with firm, determined movements. Her whole body wearing black and red, the Death colors. It was a dark stain in the pure white colors of the room.

She was white, and she stained herself with red, with Death.

A Victim?

She didn't know if she should consider the man lying there a victim per se, since it always sounded inappropriate when she said it, even in her mind. No, he wasn't a victim and Death wasn't his attacker, but he was indeed an inert body, abandoned by the hands of life itself.

The person was on the bed, his body covered in wires and devices, keeping him alive, and apparently, it wasn't enough. Technology increased over the years, and it surprised her that people still died.

They all died at the end of the day, and there was Death to take them away.

To lead their souls to the eternal resting place.

The first-time Death showed her the human world, after their pact, she was really impressed, impressed in a way that was not at all pleasant.

It wasn't a pretty first visit to the human world at all. She must have been happy to see the outside world, to see the streets, to see a place so different from the city where she grew up. But no, she didn't see anything around her, because someone had died in an accident, and it was chaos, and her eyes were fixated in that chaos.

She saw vehicles stopped in time, people stopped in time, and she also saw blood stopped in time. Everything was inert, the sounds, the clouds, the air, there was nothing there that was alive, much less the body of the soul they were to collect.

She stared in horror at the bloody scene in front of her, shocked at such a painful and spontaneous death. It was a traffic accident, and the person affected must have died instantly, that person didn't even have time to find out what happened.

She felt a hint of relief as she realized it was a quick death, not a slow, painful one.

But who was that person?

Was a good person or a bad person?

Did deserve a bloody death more than someone else?

Death's silver eyes watched her, and she looked back.

Back then, she wasn't used to the presence of that hooded woman, who was still a stranger, but with time it was easier to understand her. Now it was easy to catch what her silver gaze was telling her. She was an apprentice, Death's apprentice, she was going to become Death, she was going to work collecting souls, and for this reason she had to get used to deaths, bloody and peaceful, all kinds of deaths.

Now she had gotten used to it, but at the time it disgusted her. It felt good to make her father bleed, to see him die slowly, to enjoy his last breath, but it was because of the hatred she had for him. But now, she didn't know all these people, and seeing them like this, in such deplorable state, was undoubtedly overwhelming.

"Maybe I should have avoided bringing you into a scene like this."

The Death told her that time, but she appreciated that she showed her something this crude right off the bat. She was going to become Death after all, she was going to have to watch thousands of people die, and not all of them were going to be clean and peaceful deaths, like the one she was looking at right now, a clean and peaceful death inside a hospital.

That person must have been unconscious on that stretcher, he probably didn't have any kind of conscious thought, he didn't even know the seriousness of his condition.

Those deaths were nice, felt right, but they weren't all like that, and sadly there was nothing she could do to help.

Ruby, the human name of the Death, got close enough to the person on the gurney, and ran her gloved hand over the limp body, making it move, wriggling, an image no one could see, only the Death and her apprentice.

The soul, that distorted image of the person, left the body, moving slowly, parsimoniously.

She had learned, with all the souls she had seen, that they came out in different ways. She had never seen a soul that was as desperate as her father's soul when Death made it visible. It was really unpleasant, it disgusted her how he moved like a worm, hysterical, and despite the years she had been in this new reality, she would never forget what happened while she lived, her memory was fresh, intact, as were the feelings of joy and the relief she felt when she saw him there, dead, and then the satisfaction of knowing that he was gone forever.

Cut off from the world of the living.

Of her own life.

The Nightmare was over.

Yes, she was grateful that Ruby had taken her out of that plane, now she was far away from that house, from that chaos, from the memories harassing her every day.

She closed her eyes for a moment, taking a deep breath, filling her lungs with the aroma that was there, especially the aroma that came from a fancy vase, the lilies so alive in a place so devoid of life, in more ways than one. She couldn't enjoy any sound with the time frozen, but she could enjoy her other senses.

Although in her new home, in the dark, where Death could create and materialize at will anything, it was still not something as real and tangible as reality itself, so she used to take a few seconds to touch the surfaces, to feel them in her hands.

She wouldn't get bored of that, of feeling of the human world, the real world, or at least she hoped she wouldn't.

Still, she shouldn't be selfish and ask for someone to die in a nice place to see around, even though Ruby told her it was normal to feel that way. They were infinite, inhuman beings, who at some point in history were human, so it was normal to feel some nostalgia.

Yes, she felt nostalgic, but she couldn't get over the emotion of seeing a place she never had seen before by her human eyes.

She heard the scythe moving, cutting air, and the soul let out a familiar shriek, and she felt inexplicably overwhelmed. She had felt calm just a few seconds ago, but now she had a strange weight on her shoulders. Her feelings became strange, or she had a hard time understanding them. She felt nothing but fear and hate for many years, thus sometimes it was difficult to understand a different feeling.

When she opened her eyes, she was already in the deep darkness, and she already felt calmer there, it was a home, a safe place, something she never had before. Despite being nothing more than darkness, she had gotten used to it, enough to feel comfortable. There were no changes in there, there were no surprises, there was nothing else apart from the two of them, so she felt safe. There she could speak without fear, think without fear, she owned her thoughts and emotions.

Her voice that used to be a prisoner in her own throat.

The Grim Reaper didn't judge her, in fact, she encouraged her to speak more, to have free will.

Death walked through the abyss, her steps firm and determined as always, until she reached the sofa that she used to materialize in there, and before sitting down, she left the scythe straight in the air, buried in nothing.

She noticed, even in the distance, the black veins rising from the Death collar, and she had also noticed them more lately, and it was clear to her that they would increase over the years. More veins in the Death neck, in the Death face.

Yes, Death was an infinite being, but at what cost?

Ruby told her that the deal they agreed was going to give her nothing more than solitude, but she wasn't alone, she had never been alone since she arrived, and she feared that the day would come sooner or later. Death's company was something valuable that she never thought she could ever have in her life.

Silver eyes looked at her, curious. Apparently, her silence must have caught her attention.

She used to be quiet, but not anymore.

"Did he remind you of your brother?"

She blinked, and nodded in response. Now the strange feeling from a few moments ago making some sense to her. How did she not notice before? Ruby was right, that scream reminded her of the sound her brother made when her soul was collected.

Death told her to stay back, that she would go alone to the human world to collect the soul, but she didn't want to. She didn't accept it. She wasn't going to miss a single death, but she had a hard time accepting that she would see her family die as well.

She felt like a lot had happened since that day, when her entire family died.

Her mother, her sister, her brother.

They lived long lives, despite the risks of the paths they chose. She had a grudge against each one of them, but seeing them there, letting out their last breath, was something that affected her more than she thought. She didn't hate them as much as she hated her father, because she knew it was because of him that her family had been this bitter, this disastrous, he was to blame, so the rest deserved at least the benefit of doubt.

And she had given it to all of them.

As the infinite being that she would become after Ruby, she could pry into the lives of humans, be a spectator, and observer, and that would lessen her loneliness a bit, however, she was afraid of becoming attached to someone. Getting attached to someone and not being able to do anything if they died, or, on the other hand, knowing the root of the evil and not being able to do anything to keep it at bay. Those were situations that she didn't think she could bear.

She preferred just to see them die, nothing more, without connection.

In fact, she forced herself to promise herself that she wouldn't spy on humanity, that she wouldn't kill time like that, she refused. She didn't want to suffer for something similar or carry a weight she didn't have to carry. And, when Ruby offered her to look into her family's life, she refused too. Maybe she should have done it, she should have known them intimately, but it feels wrong, morally wrong, even if that meant to know just the bad things she saw in the past.

She could live with that, or she convinced herself of it.

Death offered her hand, gloved and outstretched, and she saw herself approaching, seeking that closeness to which she had become accustomed over time. When she was close enough to hold the gloved hand, Death pulled away from her.

She looked at the hooded woman, and she only gave her a smile in return, while noticing how she removed the glove from her hand. It looked human, but inhuman as well, just like the Death whole body and face, a human hint in the inhumanity, or a hint of inhuman in her humanity. Soon she would also look like that, unless she looked like that already, it's not like she could see herself, and it was embarrassing to ask for a mirror.

The hand was offered again, ungloved, and she took it, without hesitation.

She never doubted of that person, not before, much less now.

The hand, larger than her own, held her in a firm grip, and the silvers continued to watch her, like if the eyes wanted to read her mind, just like when they meet. Since she arrived there, she didn't feel her thoughts being read and in one hand she appreciated the privacy, but, on the other hand, she was forced to talk, and when she arrived, she wasn't exactly good at talking.

Probably she would never be good at that.

"It's only been two years since that day, it's normal for it to affect you. You know you can trust me to talk about it if you want to."

Two years?

Two years since his brother died, therefore, the last person on her family.

She felt an everlasting eternity since that happened, she couldn't believe that only two years had passed. But if a second felt like half an hour, it was understandable.

Her mind seemed to have gotten over it, but, maybe, the heart in her chest hadn't yet, her feelings were still fragile.

Human.

After all, it was her family.

She lowered her face, looking down at the joined hands. She could easily tell which one was her own, so different from Death's. One has big and dark veins in the pale skin and claw-shaped nails, and her own were still smooth, almost alive, but as pale as Death's own. In that they were similar, and she was glad about it.

"My body feels it recent, my heart throbs in pain, although my head, on the contrary, feels as if a century had passed since that day."

She noticed a slight smile on Ruby's face, her silver eyes shining, calm, soothing, as well as the slight movement that her thumb made on the back of her hand.

"The years that pass are perceived differently in beings like us, in a place like this one, our mind works much faster than before, faster than time itself, but human feelings are still imperfect, so they remain stopped, slow, disorganized."

Ruby brought her other hand, this one still gloved, and placed it on their joined hands, holding her, wrapping her hand, and that normal gesture always caused her so much warmth.

Death was warm.

Like Hell itself.

Yes, something as normal as holding hands, for her, for the way she lived, it was the greatest display of intimacy with another person.

And that person was her savior.

She really wouldn't have survived in that cruel world, in the human world, after what she did, nor would she have had the freedom she had there, as Death's apprentice.

"If it makes you feel better, like some sort of consolation, the action you took that day, when you decided to rise and attack your father, you saved the rest of your family. You didn't save them from death itself, nevertheless you did prevent them from dying because of him. They were grateful for what you did, how you freed them from their misery."

She wanted to cry, and she would have, even if she wasn't used to crying, not since she was a little girl asking for Death to come. She was also held back by her own broken feelings, and by the hooded woman herself too, who kept her at check, always, no matter what. No matter what she saw, no matter what she felt, Death was a rock for her.

She felt in control.

Death's voice was still like that, as before, like an echo, but she had gotten used to how it sounded, to the feeling it gave her, and it caused her a mixture of feelings. And yes, now she understood, her human feelings must have tried with all their might to imitate the infinity of her new existence, without being able to achieve it. They were confusing and slow, impossible to decipher at times, and it was clear to her that the more years passed by, the more diffuse they would become.

"Does it get easier over the years?"

She asked, looking down at the silver eyes again, to find them still watching her, always watching her, even when she was focused looked down at the abyss below her feet.

Moments later, Death nodded, slowly, while there was a slight smile on her face.

"…Yeah."

The woman's voice hesitated.

There was still humanity in the inhuman, who was already over five hundred years old, and probably still felt some kind of pain, of suffering.

She noticed how the body of this woman was dying.

Death remained young, but there were some details that made her look closer to death every day, more tired, and it was because she was a human who had acquired the eternal title. She was perishable human being transforming herself into something eternal, and they were completely opposite.

Humanity was fragile, perishable, mortal.

And Death was everlasting, perpetual, immortal.

She stayed silent, frowning

If her brother had died two years ago, and he looked like he was in his seventies when he died, and she last saw him when he was seventeen, doing the math, she must have been there between fifty and sixty years, converted into an eternal being.

She must have more than seventy years old.

More than half a century had passed since she met the Death, and the immortal existence seemed to have weakened in that period of time. If the previous Death withdrew, it must have been because of his human body, who couldn't resist anymore and he decided to leave the task to the next person in line.

Yes, the feeling was strange, she felt way too much to understand it all, but that was her mind talking, her logic.

Ruby was going to retire at any moment, it could be in a year, it could be a decade, even centuries, but the day would come.

She saw herself putting her other hand over the joined hands that lay inert there, in a group, linked.

She hoped this Death would stay longer.

It was selfish of her, but she wasn't ready for loneliness.

She wasn't ready to be without the Death.

To be the Death.