Ellron
December 10th, 2010, 05:00 AM
Have you ever seen someone die? Ever knew someone who died? Ever heard of someone dying? Do you wonder what happens to them? Not the body, but the life? Sure, we have our religions. Maybe they go to heaven, or come back in another life. Or maybe the life dies with the body. So many possibilities. Here is the true one. You die, but your soul is stuck here. You need to go to the Afterlife, but can’t on your own. Who you going to call? The real life ghost busters. Granted, you have no idea who we are, so we come to you. We get you into the Afterlife, then we leave. No idea what happens to you after that. That’s the truth. Do you know what they call us? ‘Grim’ (I don’t know what’s so grim) Reapers. Surprise.
Reapers have certain rules. Like, ‘No going to the afterlife,’ and ‘Don’t skip work,’. Because if you skip work, a whole lot of souls will be wandering around in the gap between the Land of the Living and that of the Dead. which can be very traumatising I have heard. And if we go to the Afterlife, as far I know, we burst into flames. There are other rules, but they aren’t so important, and no one breaks them anyway, so no one enforces them. See how that works? I was fine with this arrangement, I don’t usually break rules, but then I broke one by accident, thanks to a smart talking human. Then I got tricked into breaking a second rule. As a result of breaking those rules, I got punished. Which, in the end, makes me break yet another rule.
I was emailed my list of souls today, at 12am. It was not easy getting up for work at 12 am every single day. Especially since sometimes work the day before caused you to stay up to 11. But you know, we have no choice. So I got up at 12 am, made a coffee and went to the computer. I almost dropped my cup when I read how many people I had today. Just one. Just one! I grinned from ear to ear. Sure, I’ll probably have to pay for it tomorrow, but I was thinking more of the now. The now was most important in this job.
It was someone called Wallace Minnick. 82 years old, died of liver failure. I arrived at the hospital 10 seconds before they pronounced him dead. The body looked so peaceful, and the alive soul looked so....not. He was staring at his dead self in alarm. Most did that, or try to get the doctors’s attention. “You are dead.” I said bluntly. No use trying to soften the blow with ‘No one liked you anyway,’ and ‘You won’t be missed on Earth,’ because for some reason, that doesn’t work. Wallace looked at me with obvious terror. “What? Who?” he blundered,
“You died. All those silly Death Sticks, I think. Oh, and I’m Ellron, your Reaper.” He looked me up and down, and I smiled. “ I understand. Red jacket, white t-shirt and jeans don’t scream Taker-Of-Souls. But I am. Shall I open the portal to the Afterlife?” I asked. Wallace said nothing and continued to stare. Damn, he was in shock. The shocked ones are so boring. The scientists are fun, because they are so fascinated. And the religious ones are fun, because a lot of the times they were wrong. I have no idea about God or anything, I don’t go past the Gate, but I know that you don’t come back.
I sighed and flexed my wrists. Closing my eyes, I started to chant. “Iacio meus capitis tergum levo meus manuum quod precor futurus tantum vestri precor futurus tantum vestri ,” A smoky oval thing the size of my fist appeared in front of our faces. Wallace was mesmerised instantly, and even though I had done this more than a thousand times, I had trouble not being hypnotised by it’s other worldly wonder. The Gateway. It was getting bigger by the second. “Teneo iam vos es meus tantum spes,” I muttered when it got to Wallace’s height, which was at least two heads taller than mine. The Gateway stopped growing. I gestured to the Gate. Wallace looked at me, confused. “You are supposed to go in,” I told him. He stepped forward a little, then hesitated. I groaned. If I didn’t step in this would take forever, so I gave him a ‘little’ push into the Gate, which sent him flying right through into the darkness. “A guide will be there to....ah, guide you. Good luck!” I shouted to him, then I turned away and said, “Illic est a carmen ut est meus animus.” The portal disappeared.
I looked around for somewhere to hide. No one could see me do the whole soul-taking-Afterlife-portal-thing, that would just be stupid. So we turned invisible whenever we had to work, then change back. But not in front of people, they would find the sudden appearance of someone quite strange. So I found an empty office. It belonged to Dr. Jerzak. I closed the blinds on the window and locked the door. I pulled out of my jacket a memory stick. Slim and blue with a thing on the side to make the head come up. I rolled up my sleeves, closed my eyes and shoved the stick into the crease of my left elbow. I winced as my visibility (stored in the memory stick) returned. I pulled the stick out and wiped the blood off of it. I looked at the huge gaping hole it had made in my skin, and sighed. It would never heal. Having it reopened, several times a day, every day, doesn’t give much time for a scab, let alone a full recovery. I rolled down my sleeves and prepared to leave the room, but before I could, the door handle rattled. I stopped. Someone was trying to come in. I heard a key being shoved in. Reapers have sensitive hearing. Not good, it must be the doctor who uses this office. I looked around quickly. No where to hide. The handle turned and the door cracked open. In came a woman with raven black hair and traffic light green eyes. Her skin was so pale it seemed to glow, and she was frowning at me.
“What are you doing here?” she asked, “Why was the door locked?” I was speechless. I could not for the life of me think of a good excuse. I considered turning invisible again and leaving, but that would hurt, and also, I came to this hospital a lot and it would be very difficult to come in and out again. “Also, who are you?” asked the woman, “I have seen you before. You come, no one sees you for at least 5 to 10 minutes, then you leave. You haven’t visited anyone, or done anything that anyone knows of. What’s going on?”
“Um, I’m Ellron. I haven’t been here before, I’m looking for my cousin, George Smith. I wandered in by accident. I don’t know why the door is locked, perhaps it locked automatically when I entered?” It wasn’t a very convincing story. I would never have believed it, and I could tell that Dr. Jerzak didn’t either. “Look, I’m sorry for the crappy lie. I usually have great lies, but I forgot to think of one. Please just accept that I did it for a very good reason and I can never tell you what that reason is.” The doctor raised her eyebrows.
“You think that excuse is any better? she smirked. I shrugged,
“Whether it’s a better excuse or not is your decision, but it is the true excuse. Well, as true as you are ever going to know.” Woops, I think this struck up her curiosity.
“Oh really? What is the reason you come here? If not that, why can’t you tell me?”
“If I tell you, or anyone else for that matter, I guess I would be skinned alive, and they’d probably kill you.”
“Who would?” she asked, I could tell she was rather frightened, she knew I wasn’t exaggerating.
“I can’t say.” This was not good. I would never be able to leave now, or come back. What could I do?
“Are you a spy?” the doctor asked suddenly,
“No.”
“An assassin?” Close.
“No.”
“Do you work for the government?”
“Kind of.”
“What do you mean by ‘Kind of?’ ”
“I work for the government, but they don’t exactly know I do.” The doctor, who’s name I still didn’t know, laughed. There was a clock hanging from a wall above a desk, which showed that the time was past 12. I groaned. “How do you work for someone without them even knowing it?” she asked, “Especially someone like the government, who know everything!”
“It’s easy. I work for you too. I work for everyone here, especially the dead ones. Did you know that?” Woah, I did NOT mean to say that. Why did I say that? She shook her head.
“The dead ones? So, you are an Undertaker or Funeral Director?”
“Something like that. Except I don’t exactly take the bodies anywhere.” SHUT UP SHUT UP! WHAT AM I DOING? Dr. Jerzak frowned in confusion.
“So, you prep them here, and then someone else takes them?” she asked,
“Basically.” Dear me, please SHUT UP! Love from, Myself. “What do you do?” I asked, trying to change the subject.
“Paediatrician.” she answered. I wasn’t entirely sure what Paediatrician was or did, but it sounded rather important.
“Maybe you should get back to....Paediatricianing?” she shook her head,
“Nope, my shift’s over. I was about to leave when you showed up.”
“So was I,” I muttered,
“You still haven’t told me what you were doing in there.”
“No, and I’m not going to. Skinned alive, killing you. You know.” The doctor frowned,
“I won’t tell anyone. Promise.” she begged. It was actually quite hard to resist. I was no good when it came to people begging, and, well, this person was VERY good at begging. I almost considered telling her, but then my senses caught up with me. I shook my head. “Yeah you will. You wouldn’t believe me, no way.”
“Yes I would. I believe a lot of crazy things.”
“What if I said I was a Vampire?” I asked, “Would you believe me?” She thought for a moment,
“Are you a Vampire?” she asked me,
“Possibly, but maybe not. Answer the question.”
“Yes I would.” she said finally, “Now can you tell me if you are a Vampire or not?”
“I’m not a Vampire.” I said quickly. Oh this was very terrible. “That would be quite easy to believe, actually. Vampires. So many books and movies about them, and they are made out to be REALLY good too, not the evil creatures they were supposed to be, 500 years ago. People are just wishing they exist, especially teenage girls, so anything weird they see is a Vampire, just so they can believe it.
“I’m not a Vampire, and I have pretty much NO movies and books about me. As far as I know, I am mentioned in inappropriate television shows at most. And no one wants me to exist. So as a result, you will NOT believe me.” I was quite proud of myself, that sounded extremely smart. I think. But it seemed that this doctor didn’t get it.
“So you aren’t human? I just want to confirm that.” she said. Oh crap. She knew what she was doing, I had to hand it to her, I walked right into her trap.
“Maybe I am human, and that’s why no one wants me to exist.” I fired,
“I don’t believe you are human.” she said quietly,
“See! Exactly!” I laughed,
“And there are even more movies and books about humans than about Vampires.” Man, she was good. I was speechless. Seriously, I could not think of anything. “What are you?” She whispered. “Just tell me. Whether I believe you or not, that’s my problem.”
“I don’t even know you.” I said suddenly. “I know absolutely nothing about you except that you’re a pediatrician.” Whatever that is. “I don’t even know your first name.” She shrugged.
“Does it matter?” she asked,
“Yes!” I exclaimed, “Would you tell a stranger about the most important part of your life?”
“Well no but-”
“Exactly. Neither would I.” I looked at the clock, it was half past. I couldn’t believe how much time I had wasted here. “So we can sit here and spend the rest of the day talking about you, or you can go, and forget about me. May I suggest letting me go? I am really quite tired and I have to get up at midnight tomorrow.” I hoped like hell that she something important she had to do. By the way she pouted, I guessed she did. “I would like to stay...but I have something I need to do. But if I ever see you again, I swear, even if it’s in a burning building, I will find out what you are.” Wow, she was scary. “Goodbye Ellron. By the way, I’m Tempany. And I hope that I see you again.” Tempany walked away.
“I hope we don’t.” I sighed. Unlucky for me, things I hoped for generally didn’t happen.
Thankyou for reading! Feedback? And please ignore the fact my pen name is the same as that of the main character. :)
Reapers have certain rules. Like, ‘No going to the afterlife,’ and ‘Don’t skip work,’. Because if you skip work, a whole lot of souls will be wandering around in the gap between the Land of the Living and that of the Dead. which can be very traumatising I have heard. And if we go to the Afterlife, as far I know, we burst into flames. There are other rules, but they aren’t so important, and no one breaks them anyway, so no one enforces them. See how that works? I was fine with this arrangement, I don’t usually break rules, but then I broke one by accident, thanks to a smart talking human. Then I got tricked into breaking a second rule. As a result of breaking those rules, I got punished. Which, in the end, makes me break yet another rule.
I was emailed my list of souls today, at 12am. It was not easy getting up for work at 12 am every single day. Especially since sometimes work the day before caused you to stay up to 11. But you know, we have no choice. So I got up at 12 am, made a coffee and went to the computer. I almost dropped my cup when I read how many people I had today. Just one. Just one! I grinned from ear to ear. Sure, I’ll probably have to pay for it tomorrow, but I was thinking more of the now. The now was most important in this job.
It was someone called Wallace Minnick. 82 years old, died of liver failure. I arrived at the hospital 10 seconds before they pronounced him dead. The body looked so peaceful, and the alive soul looked so....not. He was staring at his dead self in alarm. Most did that, or try to get the doctors’s attention. “You are dead.” I said bluntly. No use trying to soften the blow with ‘No one liked you anyway,’ and ‘You won’t be missed on Earth,’ because for some reason, that doesn’t work. Wallace looked at me with obvious terror. “What? Who?” he blundered,
“You died. All those silly Death Sticks, I think. Oh, and I’m Ellron, your Reaper.” He looked me up and down, and I smiled. “ I understand. Red jacket, white t-shirt and jeans don’t scream Taker-Of-Souls. But I am. Shall I open the portal to the Afterlife?” I asked. Wallace said nothing and continued to stare. Damn, he was in shock. The shocked ones are so boring. The scientists are fun, because they are so fascinated. And the religious ones are fun, because a lot of the times they were wrong. I have no idea about God or anything, I don’t go past the Gate, but I know that you don’t come back.
I sighed and flexed my wrists. Closing my eyes, I started to chant. “Iacio meus capitis tergum levo meus manuum quod precor futurus tantum vestri precor futurus tantum vestri ,” A smoky oval thing the size of my fist appeared in front of our faces. Wallace was mesmerised instantly, and even though I had done this more than a thousand times, I had trouble not being hypnotised by it’s other worldly wonder. The Gateway. It was getting bigger by the second. “Teneo iam vos es meus tantum spes,” I muttered when it got to Wallace’s height, which was at least two heads taller than mine. The Gateway stopped growing. I gestured to the Gate. Wallace looked at me, confused. “You are supposed to go in,” I told him. He stepped forward a little, then hesitated. I groaned. If I didn’t step in this would take forever, so I gave him a ‘little’ push into the Gate, which sent him flying right through into the darkness. “A guide will be there to....ah, guide you. Good luck!” I shouted to him, then I turned away and said, “Illic est a carmen ut est meus animus.” The portal disappeared.
I looked around for somewhere to hide. No one could see me do the whole soul-taking-Afterlife-portal-thing, that would just be stupid. So we turned invisible whenever we had to work, then change back. But not in front of people, they would find the sudden appearance of someone quite strange. So I found an empty office. It belonged to Dr. Jerzak. I closed the blinds on the window and locked the door. I pulled out of my jacket a memory stick. Slim and blue with a thing on the side to make the head come up. I rolled up my sleeves, closed my eyes and shoved the stick into the crease of my left elbow. I winced as my visibility (stored in the memory stick) returned. I pulled the stick out and wiped the blood off of it. I looked at the huge gaping hole it had made in my skin, and sighed. It would never heal. Having it reopened, several times a day, every day, doesn’t give much time for a scab, let alone a full recovery. I rolled down my sleeves and prepared to leave the room, but before I could, the door handle rattled. I stopped. Someone was trying to come in. I heard a key being shoved in. Reapers have sensitive hearing. Not good, it must be the doctor who uses this office. I looked around quickly. No where to hide. The handle turned and the door cracked open. In came a woman with raven black hair and traffic light green eyes. Her skin was so pale it seemed to glow, and she was frowning at me.
“What are you doing here?” she asked, “Why was the door locked?” I was speechless. I could not for the life of me think of a good excuse. I considered turning invisible again and leaving, but that would hurt, and also, I came to this hospital a lot and it would be very difficult to come in and out again. “Also, who are you?” asked the woman, “I have seen you before. You come, no one sees you for at least 5 to 10 minutes, then you leave. You haven’t visited anyone, or done anything that anyone knows of. What’s going on?”
“Um, I’m Ellron. I haven’t been here before, I’m looking for my cousin, George Smith. I wandered in by accident. I don’t know why the door is locked, perhaps it locked automatically when I entered?” It wasn’t a very convincing story. I would never have believed it, and I could tell that Dr. Jerzak didn’t either. “Look, I’m sorry for the crappy lie. I usually have great lies, but I forgot to think of one. Please just accept that I did it for a very good reason and I can never tell you what that reason is.” The doctor raised her eyebrows.
“You think that excuse is any better? she smirked. I shrugged,
“Whether it’s a better excuse or not is your decision, but it is the true excuse. Well, as true as you are ever going to know.” Woops, I think this struck up her curiosity.
“Oh really? What is the reason you come here? If not that, why can’t you tell me?”
“If I tell you, or anyone else for that matter, I guess I would be skinned alive, and they’d probably kill you.”
“Who would?” she asked, I could tell she was rather frightened, she knew I wasn’t exaggerating.
“I can’t say.” This was not good. I would never be able to leave now, or come back. What could I do?
“Are you a spy?” the doctor asked suddenly,
“No.”
“An assassin?” Close.
“No.”
“Do you work for the government?”
“Kind of.”
“What do you mean by ‘Kind of?’ ”
“I work for the government, but they don’t exactly know I do.” The doctor, who’s name I still didn’t know, laughed. There was a clock hanging from a wall above a desk, which showed that the time was past 12. I groaned. “How do you work for someone without them even knowing it?” she asked, “Especially someone like the government, who know everything!”
“It’s easy. I work for you too. I work for everyone here, especially the dead ones. Did you know that?” Woah, I did NOT mean to say that. Why did I say that? She shook her head.
“The dead ones? So, you are an Undertaker or Funeral Director?”
“Something like that. Except I don’t exactly take the bodies anywhere.” SHUT UP SHUT UP! WHAT AM I DOING? Dr. Jerzak frowned in confusion.
“So, you prep them here, and then someone else takes them?” she asked,
“Basically.” Dear me, please SHUT UP! Love from, Myself. “What do you do?” I asked, trying to change the subject.
“Paediatrician.” she answered. I wasn’t entirely sure what Paediatrician was or did, but it sounded rather important.
“Maybe you should get back to....Paediatricianing?” she shook her head,
“Nope, my shift’s over. I was about to leave when you showed up.”
“So was I,” I muttered,
“You still haven’t told me what you were doing in there.”
“No, and I’m not going to. Skinned alive, killing you. You know.” The doctor frowned,
“I won’t tell anyone. Promise.” she begged. It was actually quite hard to resist. I was no good when it came to people begging, and, well, this person was VERY good at begging. I almost considered telling her, but then my senses caught up with me. I shook my head. “Yeah you will. You wouldn’t believe me, no way.”
“Yes I would. I believe a lot of crazy things.”
“What if I said I was a Vampire?” I asked, “Would you believe me?” She thought for a moment,
“Are you a Vampire?” she asked me,
“Possibly, but maybe not. Answer the question.”
“Yes I would.” she said finally, “Now can you tell me if you are a Vampire or not?”
“I’m not a Vampire.” I said quickly. Oh this was very terrible. “That would be quite easy to believe, actually. Vampires. So many books and movies about them, and they are made out to be REALLY good too, not the evil creatures they were supposed to be, 500 years ago. People are just wishing they exist, especially teenage girls, so anything weird they see is a Vampire, just so they can believe it.
“I’m not a Vampire, and I have pretty much NO movies and books about me. As far as I know, I am mentioned in inappropriate television shows at most. And no one wants me to exist. So as a result, you will NOT believe me.” I was quite proud of myself, that sounded extremely smart. I think. But it seemed that this doctor didn’t get it.
“So you aren’t human? I just want to confirm that.” she said. Oh crap. She knew what she was doing, I had to hand it to her, I walked right into her trap.
“Maybe I am human, and that’s why no one wants me to exist.” I fired,
“I don’t believe you are human.” she said quietly,
“See! Exactly!” I laughed,
“And there are even more movies and books about humans than about Vampires.” Man, she was good. I was speechless. Seriously, I could not think of anything. “What are you?” She whispered. “Just tell me. Whether I believe you or not, that’s my problem.”
“I don’t even know you.” I said suddenly. “I know absolutely nothing about you except that you’re a pediatrician.” Whatever that is. “I don’t even know your first name.” She shrugged.
“Does it matter?” she asked,
“Yes!” I exclaimed, “Would you tell a stranger about the most important part of your life?”
“Well no but-”
“Exactly. Neither would I.” I looked at the clock, it was half past. I couldn’t believe how much time I had wasted here. “So we can sit here and spend the rest of the day talking about you, or you can go, and forget about me. May I suggest letting me go? I am really quite tired and I have to get up at midnight tomorrow.” I hoped like hell that she something important she had to do. By the way she pouted, I guessed she did. “I would like to stay...but I have something I need to do. But if I ever see you again, I swear, even if it’s in a burning building, I will find out what you are.” Wow, she was scary. “Goodbye Ellron. By the way, I’m Tempany. And I hope that I see you again.” Tempany walked away.
“I hope we don’t.” I sighed. Unlucky for me, things I hoped for generally didn’t happen.
Thankyou for reading! Feedback? And please ignore the fact my pen name is the same as that of the main character. :)