Original Fic- Death: A Family Business
Title: Death: A Family Business
Author: Dark-Dreymer
Warnings: Afterlife, so necessarily death. Mild language.
Rating: PG-13
Part: 1/?
Word Count: 3607
Summary: How do you tell your best and only friend that you’re dead? Answer that question for me and I’ll love you for eternity… literally.
Comments: Are Love. Please tell me what you think of this. I don’t mind flames but I will drench them *grabs firehose*
My name's Darren, I'm a reaper.
How’s that for an opening statement huh, pity I can’t use it more often. Can you imagine me at some posh party and all the people are circulating and introducing themselves and some posh busybody comes over like: “Hello, my name is Lord such-and-such. I work in the stock industry. What do you do?” and I’m like, “My name’s Darren Davies I’m a reaper and you’re about to choke on that caviar.”
Should it be caviar or is that too clichéd? Who cares, it actually did happen once, Lord Monty was his name, I didn’t tell him he was gonna die though just quietly escorted his spirit away once he had choked to death.
Like I was saying I’m a reaper. I’m also only 15 years old, so by the laws of our great country I still have to go to school.
So that’s why I’m stuck in a boring assembly dedicated to a girl whose spirit I reaped a few days ago.
Everyone in our English class was asked to write an essay about her or the subject of death. I remember mine because I wrote the truth:
Death is a bureaucracy!
When people die their soul is transferred to the Spirit World. The Spirit World is parallel to our own. We’re all standing in the lobby of the Spirit World right now and there are hundreds of Lifa walking around without us even knowing of their existence, some are walking in the Spirit World and so are invisible, others simply have human shape and are indistinguishable from humans.
When someone dies their spirit ends up in the Spirit World and is invisible to normal humans. At this point a Reaper steps in and informs them of their passing (If they aren’t already aware.) and takes them to the In Desk.
The In Desk is where the recently deceased are analyzed and assigned an afterlife. (This involves a lot of boring paperwork.) After the paperwork is filled in the deceased are given a key to their afterlife. The key will fit the lock to a room, which corresponds to their life. A filer will take them to their room and help them settle in for the first few days.
The Afterlife is not glamorous but neither is it horrific. It is simply a massive complex of afterlives into which every spirit is sorted once their body has expired.
People who lead good lives get good rooms filled with things that will make the rest of eternity more enjoyable. The better a person they were the more things they will receive.
The same is true for bad people. Those who lead bad lives will not live in comfort. They may have basic necessities taken away, and those who are dangerous are not allowed out of their room for all of eternity.
Death is an efficient method of sorting out the mistakes of life!
Of course my piece of work isn’t being read out in assembly. It was far too grim for Mrs. Walters, my English teacher. She’s getting on in years; Dad says I’ll be able to reap her soul when she does finally die. I can’t wait to see her face.
So like I was saying before. I’m a reaper. I wasn’t born a reaper though, for the first 12 years of my life I lived as a human then destiny called me. Actually it was Hecate, Destiny was busy.
Hecate is the ‘Voice of Death’ and despite his ominous sounding title he’s a really good laugh. Hecate gets sent to deliver messages to people from the ‘God of Death’ Voodoo.
On my 12th birthday Hecate arrived in my bedroom at 3 in the morning and delivered me a message:
You, Darren, are the long lost youngest son of the Guardian of the Spirit World: Master Voodoo. I, Hecate, voice of death am here to inform you of your status as demi-god and to give you your duties as a reaper.
Hecate then had to explain to me again in modern language:
You, Darren, are the reincarnated soul of the Demi-God: Yasha. The youngest son of the God of Death: Voodoo. I’ve been sent here to tell you that you have to become a Demi-God again and start reaping souls.
It took me a few minutes to get over this shock. Then Hecate took me into the Spirit World and explained all about Voodoo and his three sons.
Early on in history the almighty God of Creation: Omega made the universe and all the stars, planets etc. On Earth he placed eight gods with the power to create whatever they wanted.
They each separated out and took control of certain aspects.
Hasha became God of the Day.
Dracon became God of the Desert.
Zuref became Goddess of the Sky.
Tronet became Goddess of the Land.
Bah became God of the Sea.
Greed became God of the Night.
Charity became Goddess of Good Fortune.
And lastly Voodoo became God of Death.
Each God also created children who would help them with their tasks. Voodoo created three sons for himself: Morgan, Luca and Yasha.
A few years into their reign over the planet Greed began to lust for more power. Eventually a war broke out and in it Greed was vanquished but Voodoo’s three sons also died.
Rather than create new children Voodoo enacted the Writ of Reincarnation, which took the spirits of his three sons and scattered them to the cosmos. Eventually the spirits would be absorbed into three human children and they would be Voodoo’s children reborn.
As you can probably guess I’m one of those reincarnated Demi-Gods: Yasha the youngest son. As a Demi-God of Death it was my duty to become a reaper.
However a few preparations had to be made first. For one, I could no longer be human; I had to become a Lifa.
A Lifa is a person who had died but is able to retain their body. As a Lifa I don’t need to breathe, eat, drink or sleep. I also don’t have a pulse.
Lifa’s are technically dead, but still able to perform all the actions of a normal living human. Animals can become Lifa’s but are not particularly useful really.
Another change was my age; I had to age faster as I couldn’t remain a child for so long. A spell was cast on me by Hecate, which increased my aging twofold (I aged twice as fast.) Once I looked like I was 18 the spell wore off and now I won’t age at all for all of eternity. However my body can still physically alter: I can grow my hair and nails, I can get tattoos or piercings etc.
As a Demi-God I had received new powers, which would aid me during my reaping:
1) Healing. If I get injured it won’t hurt for more than a few seconds and heals up in under a few hours. This power transcends human levels of healing. (I can heal burns, spinal cord damage, etc.)
2) Walking in the Spirit World. The Spirit World is where spirits go when they die and it’s parallel to the Plains of the Living, basically it means that I can walk around without people seeing me, and I can visit dead people. (Not as fun as it sounds.)
3) Teleportation. I can only do this while in the Spirit World, but while there I can travel anywhere in less than a millisecond. (Necessary to travel the world while reaping.)
4) Speed. (Okay, this one is unique to me. Death’s sons each had one of the powers of Strength, Intelligence and Speed. As the youngest son I got the power of Speed.) I can run faster than humans and pretty much every Lifa. I can also Jump higher and have an amazing sense of balance.
5) Longevity. Though not technically immortal I can only be killed by one thing; a God. However I know all the gods and like them, and they like me so that’s not gonna happen.
So here I am a being of immense godly powers stuck listening to poems about a dead girl during a lousy school assembly.
I wouldn’t go to school but unfortunately I have to. Although Voodoo is technically my Dad, I still have a biological family. I still live with that biological family and they assume I’m a normal teenager and as such I have to go to school. I’m in my last year and after that I’m free to leave forever.
Getting a job is gonna suck. I have no need for qualifications since I have to work part time to fit in with my reaping. So there’s no point in getting 12 GCSE’s because I’ll still end up working in a burger bar or something. (The only subject I’m passing is French because I can speak it fluently. Hecate made sure I could, since I’m going to have to reap souls from all over the planet I have to be able to speak all languages.)
I don’t try at school because of this fact; sometimes I don’t show up at all and simply do extra reaps to waste time. So many people die all around the world there’s always a few going spare. Problem is, I can’t do many of them. Dad (Voodoo) says that because I’m not a full time reaper yet I have to stay within 100 miles of my hometown while I’m reaping even though I could quite easily teleport all over the world.
It sucks, but there’s nothing I can do about it.
I try to avoid normal life as much as possible. Who wants to be a teenager when you can be out reaping souls? Not me, that’s for sure.
Until a few months ago I basically didn’t have any reason to stay in the Plains of the Living, except for homework. That changed though because of one person: Kari.
Kari McCain is the only proper friend I’ve had since I was 11. She’s a complete outcast like me.
When she joined the school she was shunted into our class and from one look at her everyone pretty much chose to ignore her.
She latched onto me though. Maybe it was an idea that I needed a friend too, maybe she simply thought I was the only person who would be nice to her.
I don’t really know, but from that first day she started following me around. It got annoying when I was supposed to be leaving for a reap and I couldn’t because she was there. In the end though she became my friend, perseverance and all that crap.
Kari McCain is a very odd looking girl. (I can’t talk really, but she is.) She has shoulder length fiery red hair that she lets hang around her face untamed. Green eyes, which look freakishly large behind her wire-framed glasses. She’s tall and gangly with bony knees and elbows. She always wears a tartan skirt with long white socks, though her shirt changes every day.
I’m just as bad however. I have sandy blonde hair, which I keep as short as possible because otherwise it sticks up everywhere. I have one blue eye and one green, which most people find unsettling. I’m short and painfully thin and always wear baggy T-shirts with quite tight tracksuit trousers. I’ve had the same pair of shoes since I was 12, they’re white trainers and they’re filthy but they still fit and I don’t want to throw them away.
We’re an odd couple. A lot of people say we look trampy but we really don’t care. Kari always says that we’ll never see them again once we’ve finished school for good. I remind myself that I probably will since I’ll have to reap more than my fair share of their spirits.
Kari is sat next to me during the assembly she’s not paying attention because she’s busily sketching in her notepad. Kari loves to draw, I prefer to write. Sometimes we combine our talents and she illustrates my stories or poems.
The bell rings to signal the end of the school day. I glance down at my watch and realize it’s five minutes late. Not good.
I sprint off almost forgetting to keep to a human pace; Kari eventually catches up with me holding a stitch in her chest she stops, gasping for breath.
“W-Where are… Y-You going?” She asks.
“Home.” I reply casually.
“Y-You’re running… T-That fast… J-Just to get… H-Home?”
“Yep.” I reply nodding.
“B-Bullshit.”
I grin at her, “Ok you’ve got me I’m going to the shop to work.”
I work part time in a charity shop, I mostly work weekends but sometimes I help out after school too. I’m not actually going to the shop but I can’t tell Kari where I am going.
I’m actually meeting Coke and Simon. Coke and Simon are my siblings.
Coke is the reincarnation of Morgan. The eldest son got resurrected as a girl; it’s kinda funny since she has the power of Strength. Coke isn’t her real name; it’s Colleen. But everyone shortens it to Cola, which is why we call her Coke.
Simon is the reincarnated version of Luca and has the power of Intelligence, which is why he hates working for minimum wage. It’s necessary though and he knows why as well as I do. We have to work temporarily 6 months to 5 years at the most otherwise people we work with will notice we’re not aging. On top of that we have to update our identities every few decades, I’m still Darren Davies at the moment but in thirty years time I get a new identity complete with fake ID and passport. I can’t wait, I’m gonna change my name to Raven Storm-crow or something.
Coke’s been around since the dark ages and Simon since the Victorian era, but like me they won’t age anymore so they only look 18. Every month we meet up and take it in turns to pick a restaurant to visit. We’ve got the whole world to choose from so we rarely visit the same place twice, unless it’s really good.
Today is my turn to pick, which also means it’s my turn to pay. It’s one of the reasons why I have the job at the charity shop, I blow my savings for the three months I’ve been working on one single day with my brother and sister, but it’s so worth it.
I’m barely two steps into my bedroom when Coke pops up from the Spirit World.
“We going smart or casual?” She asks.
“Casual.” I say ditching my school bag on my bed.
“Back in a flash.” She says disappearing again.
Simon pops up a second later.
“Casual.” I say before he can say anything.
“Thanks.” He says disappearing again.
You’d think people entering and exiting the Spirit World in front of you would be freaky and scary, but it’s actually pretty easy to ignore once you’ve been exposed to it long enough.
Coke reappears again now dressed in a tight black T-Shirt with the name of some rock group written on it. Black denim jeans and knee high high-heeled boots accompany the shirt.
“Hi Darren haven’t you grown.” She says pulling me into a hug.
It’s an inside joke, obviously I can’t grow since I won’t age anymore.
“Hey guys.” Simon says appearing. He’s dressed in a plain blue button up shirt and blue denim jeans.
Oddly enough I’m wearing the only pair of jeans I have, a pair of white ones along with one of my usual baggy shirts.
“So where are we going?” Simon asks.
I just grin and step into the Spirit World.
Entering the Spirit World is a strange sensation. Coke describes it as ‘Fitting your body through a tennis racket that has had all the string cut out.’ Meaning: It’s incredibly painful but the more you do it the more your body gets used to it and the easier it becomes.
I’ve been entering and exiting the Spirit World several times a day for almost four years now so I barely notice anything. Coke and Simon stopped feeling it long ago.
They follow me as I teleport and we end up in the middle of a street where people are busily walking back and forth.
“McDonald’s?” Simon asks looking at me incredulously.
“Why not?” I ask.
“McDonald’s has been responsible for the deaths of over 40 of my reaps in the last year alone.”
“You do know we can’t die.” Coke says and Simon glares at her.
“What I meant was that McDonald’s food is very unhealthy and I don’t really want to eat it. Ok?”
“We’re not actually going to McDonald’s.” I decide to say.
“We’re not?” Coke and Simon say in unison.
“No. We’re going to Bon Appetit.” I say, “It’s a little restaurant a few yards down the High Street.”
“So why did you teleport us to McDonald’s?” Simon asks frustrated.
“To screw with you.” I say innocently.
Bon Appetit is a little take out restaurant that most people just walk right past. It’s one of the few places I visit on a regular basis since it’s in my hometown.
We exit the Spirit World down an alleyway since we don’t want anyone to see us and then walk the last few hundred metres.
Since it’s a nice day I decide to order the food and eat outside. So we take a bench in the garden outside and watch people busily making their way from one nowhere to another whilst eating fires and kebab meat.
The conversation quickly changes to death. When you spend so much time around it it’s kinda hard to find something not associated with death to talk about. One of us puts forwards a topic and then we each say the reap in the past month and in our entire lifetime that best fits that category.
Coke has the advantage since she’s been alive longer than Simon and I have been. Simon also has an advantage because he reaps people’s spirits all across the world where I can only reap a small percentage. Still it’s a fun game, and in a few months time I’ll be able to reap worldwide too.
“Most gory.” Coke says.
“This month it was an emo kid who cut his wrists and half his arms too, he was right upset when he realized he’d actually died. Attention seeker. Overall the kid who fell into the automatic cheese grater.” Simon says.
We all laugh darkly at the thought. It’s wrong of us, but you have to make fun of death or else it becomes more terrifying than it actually is. Besides we have no reason to fear it, it can’t get us. We are death after all.
“This month…” I pause to think; “Girl who got hit by a car, the car was going 80 MPH at the time. Overall, Have to say the guy who got the piano dropped on him.” I say.
“This month, Guy who got locked in one of those tanning salon thingy.” Coke says, “Overall probably half the civil war victims combined.”
“Why would a guy use a tanning bed?” I ask amidst our laughter.
“I use a tanning bed.” Simon says sounding slightly hurt.
“Yeah, but you’re gay.” Coke says and manages to not make it sound like an insult.
“I’m Bi.” Simon corrects her. Both Coke and Simon are apparently. When I asked why, they said it was because when you were alive for long enough you got kinda bored of just sleeping with one or the other. I’m not sure how I feel about this right now, maybe I’ll change my mind in a few decades.
It’s a great day as always, but in the end they have to go. I hug them both and we make a date for our next meeting. I’ll see them before that and we’ll have a chance to chat, but reapers are busy a lot of the time.
I go home and get some of my largely neglected homework finished before going to sleep for a few hours. I hate sleeping it’s such a waste of time, but my parents have a go at me if I stay up too late, not to mention all night.
I get to school early the next morning and am pretty much instantly face to face with Kari.
“You weren’t at work yesterday, where the hell were you?”
Of course Kari would have gone and checked on my alibi, it’s so like her.
“I went out.” I say.
“With who?”
“No-one.”
“So the guy and girl I saw you with at Bon Appetit. They’re no one are they?”
Crap! She saw me. Why does she have to be so damn curious?
“I can’t tell you.” I finally say.
“Why not. I thought I was your friend.”
A good reason for not having friends is that they can’t play the friend card on you.
How do you tell your best and only friend that you’re dead? Answer that question for me and I’ll love you for eternity… literally.
“I’ll tell you, but not right now.” I finally say.
“You’d better tell me at lunch or I’m gonna kick your ass.” Kari says but seems happy enough to wait until then.
I mentally play through a few conversations in my head, but with no idea of what Kari’s reaction will be it’s kind of difficult.
If I tell her and she can’t be trusted I’ll have to kill her.