I was reborn, I guess, but I still don't get to live. after I died, I found myself lying beside a woman who seemed happy and also late into pregnancy.
Before I could question why I noticed just past her was a figure with a hazy appearance as if covered in smoke in a deep crimson tattered robe simply sitting and reading a book in the corner of the room.
concerned, I feel I should ask who they are, but before I could, they closed their book and stood up and looked directly at me. empty sockets met my gaze with a skull as white as snow. quite a grim sight had it not been for the simple peacefulness i find myself in as boney fingers grasp my clothes and I'm held by my hood barely keeping myself from falling. the arms wave, and I find myself sitting gently on the floor beside the rooms corner.
"Wait for now. Your guidance isn't needed yet."
I look down at my hands and find dark boney fingers and a pitch black cloak with a very small stature. "What do you mean by guidance?"
"We are Reapers. New as you are, however, like most, you probably only know the end of our job as is our namesake reaping, but we opted in for a bit more than that you see in our presence people have a higher sense or perception that gives out the feeling of death and most will heed that warning. well, to simplify, we strengthen a person's sixth sense and danger avoidance, a guardian angel to many. it's a bit of a thankless job in the long term, so many reapers will abandon their watch and come to reap at the end, oh and we are given one person per reaper till death do us part and yours hasn't been born yet so get used to waiting." he said as he opened his book.
"Where did you get that book?"
"I made it."
"Why?"
"Watch a few lifetimes, and maybe you'll see one so grand and entertaining that you'll have to make a record of all the funny things for when another's life is going slow, you won't have to suffer the boredom that way."
"Are there any rules we have to follow?"
Sighing "No there are no rules. We even hold the power to kill them whenever we want." he states, looking up and over to the woman lying on the bed holding her stomach.
"We get stronger with age, and by guidance after becoming strong enough, you can interact easily with the world around you, and later, your watch can expand beyond just humans, but beware some beings will try to pick a fight if you don't guide their descendent well." saying that he tossed the book in front of me and it landed open at the beginning of chapter 6 titled "Fist Fighting Oden. "
"Allfather, my ass. I tried, but Thor kept running to his death instead of away, so I had to avoid him because his luck alone kept him safe so long as he couldn't directly sense the danger to run toward."
"What happens after they die? we reap?"
"Yes, we reap by doing so we turn in their soul for a reward you see we guide in hopes they live longer because ones ego is formed in time and the collected ego fuels the existence of life and when the ego turns into energy what we give we get a little bit back empowering and strengthening ourselves. The soul itself will bugger off somewhere near its last living desire and then be processed to live again."
"How did I appear?"
"Well, one of two ways a reaper ascended or was lost generally being the ladder as difficult as that is."
"Lost as in dead?"
"Erased, completely, no soul or ego left all of it gets absorbed by existence itself as is generally the fate of a reaper."
"And ascending?"
"Well, you get strong enough. Existence expels you to the void, and their you can make your own place in simple terms. You become God of your own place, never to return but all powerful to make anything you would dream to. don't ask how long it takes. I don't know, but the color of the robe does change with strength, and the brighter, the stronger if it's white their about to ascend."
"Hey, do you think she'll be ok." He points his little boney finger to the woman laying down.
"No, she won't be. Her time is soon." The skull replied vaguely sounding melancholic. A hand holding the book open but given no attention. "It's a girl by the way, the one you're to watch over. Grace was the name she decided on, and no father in the picture, so she'll be alone in the forciable future. Watch over her property and be careful though rare sometimes kids can vaguely see us. You don't want to be mistaken as a demon, they may think she's crazy. It never ends well."
"Thank you for telling me. But may I ask, you seem attached to her and sad. Why?"
The ol'Reaper sits blankly entell a sky blue flame flickered in his once empty sockets.
"She's had a poor live, miserable even but she never cried or complained, life's been against her at every turn. It's been hell keeping her safe but even now at her one chance at happiness, her last chance I simply can't help her with this. She will die and I must deliver her soul. Honestly many say life is unfair, but rarely is it truly and even eons of my watching and guarding of others this is only one of a handful that I feel was truly unfair. So as a new reaper I ask please watch over her daughter."
A small golden flame flickers in the small reapers eye sockets as he nods his head "yes I will."
...
The End Maybe...