"You're still an enigma," I said out loud.
I looked into her soul and information on her ran through my head.
Name: Elaine
Lifespan: Null
Race: Human
"Let me go…. Who are you?" She asked with tears in her bright blue eyes.
Beautiful as they might have been, they now seemed dim, swollen, and lifeless. She looked like she had lost much and was ready to give up.
"It doesn't matter who I am. What matters is that I need you," I said to her, pulling her away from the edge. The girl was taken aback by what I said.
"I don't know you, why would you need me?" She wiped away her tears.
"I have my reasons," I said to her. "Now, explain to me why someone like you would want to kill yourself," I demanded.
"I-I have nothing else to lose," she said as if each word weighed heavy on her.
"You have yourself," I assured her.
"THAT'S NOT GOOD ENOUGH! My brother was the only family I had left. He was sick, but I was close. I was going to cure him. I was going to cure many like him. Knowing the last of my family had fallen victim to some book.... I- I can't believe life can be so fragile; can be so cruel," she shouted at me, then went back to her sulking mood.
It was at that moment I noticed the once blinding light around her getting dim.
'Shit!' I thought.
"Then live for me… I'm not asking you not to kill yourself. Just to postpone doing so until I'm done with you. You're right, life is that fragile. But there's no reason for you not to put some worth to it before you go," I said to her.
"Ha-haha-hahahaha," she laughed hysterically as if a good joke was what she was waiting for.
"Why are you laughing?" I asked, puzzled.
"You're quite arrogant. I just met you. Why would you tell someone who wants to kill themselves to live for you when they don't even know you...?
Doesn't matter, I guess. It worked, and you've convinced me to live just a little longer, so thank you. If I can be of some use to someone before I go, then I can go with no regrets.
That aside, I'm curious to know what a stranger like yourself could possibly want from me, or was all that just hot air to stop me from jumping?" She said with a smile on her face as the light around her shone slightly brighter.
"I'll let you know soon enough. Just don't kill yourself when I'm not around. Go ahead to the ground floor, there will be a tall brown woman waiting for you. You can't miss her," I said to her, then signaled with my hand for her to leave.
"After all this, you're just going to leave me? Where will you be?" She asked.
"I have some other business up here," I said to her.
"If I find a bunch of police down there waiting for me, I'm going to kill myself just to spite you," she said annoyed as she took the lift down.
"You, you just stood there and watched. Why didn't you do anything?" I asked the guardian, who was present the entire time.
"I cannot interfere with the lifespans of humans. It was her time, there is nothing I could have done to change that. No matter how much I wanted to…I could not go against Theos. Nonetheless, I'm glad you showed up. She doesn't deserve a death like that. Your book changed her fate, but Theos will always try to find ways to keep the balance.
However, I never expected a Reaper to save a life the way you did. Has the new Reaper finally abandoned his philosophy and taken a liking to this human?" The guardian asked genuinely.
I slowly reverted back to my 8ft reaper form. An aura of death hung in the air. However, the guardian seemed unaffected by it.
'Is he mocking me?' I assumed.
I looked into his soul and allowed information about him to flash through my brain.
Name: Uriel
Lifespan: ∞ (infinite)
Race: (-)
'Lifespan infinite? He's probably stronger than I, then. Is that why I can't see his race, or is it something else?' I began to think. 'If I manage to kill a guardian, just how much stronger would I become?' I thought in anticipation.
"You can't kill me, Reaper. If it is not within…" he tried to say before interrupting him
"Stop! I am well aware of that stupid saying of yours. I assure you, it won't be long till it no longer applies to me," I said to him.
"So enthusiastic; so full of ambition! You remind me of Cain throughout the first few hundred years after becoming a reaper. He also had ambitions.
Now, my time as Elaine's guardian has ended. Even though she is still alive, I will soon be assigned to another human. I have no choice but to leave her in your care.
I don't know what plans you have for her, but I ask you to allow her to die peacefully once you've accomplished them," he said to me.
"I have no obligations to do that unless you are willing to take her place?" I said, conjuring my scythe. Uriel smiled and then suddenly disappeared in a whirlwind of papers before I could make a move.
"Tailed Lilith," I said out loud.
The tailed Lilith then appeared behind me, coming out of a dark cloud.
"I believe you've already heard everything. I'll need you to take care of that woman until I can safely revert to my human form," I said to her.
"Why should I have to take care of some human?" She said unwillingly.
"Because I said so," I replied, then opened a gate and walked through it.
"Bastard…" she said.
...
"Boss, boss..." a skinny, short-looking man called out.
"What is it?" Moonlight answered as he skillfully played with the knife in his hand, moving it between his fingers as if it were one of them.
"We found him," the skinny man said, raising a book. On the cover was a tall, dashing man sitting on a chair. The same man who burned down Club Rumors.
Moonlight then immediately stopped playing with his favorite knife and got up from his chair. He walked up to the skinny man, who held the book, and grabbed it out of his hands.
"That shit stain had time to write a book?" Moonlight rhetorically asked out loud.
He then signaled for everyone to leave the room with a swish of his hand as he walked back to his chair. By the time he sat, he was utterly alone. He opened the book and started reading till he finished the next day.
"Holy fuck-" Moonlight said to himself in disbelief.
"Who the hell is this guy? Anyone who can think like this is not normal. It's like he has always been next to me. Looking at every flaw within me. I must find this man. I have to know!" Moonlight said to himself.
He then shook his head as if coming out of a trance.
"Thomas!" he shouted. A few seconds later, a tall, well-built Asian man in a suit rushed into the room.
"Get the car ready, we're going to the airport," Moonlight commanded.
***
A 7ft skeletal figure could be seen hovering above what used to be a vast cornfield, brimming with life. Unfortunately, all the plants were now dead, making the once beautiful scenery a wasteland.
The skeletal figure manipulated the dark cloud around him and conjured all manner of objects between his hands. From weapons to furniture, and even gadgets. If he understood the makeup of it, he could construct it.
With all the knowledge he had acquired around the world before writing his book, there was little that he did not understand to construct. However, no matter how much in-depth knowledge he had in a field, he could not construct a living thing. Be it a plant or an animal.
The skeletal figure then stared intensely at his hands. The cloud seemed to retreat from them, going up to his elbows. This caused his skeletal hands to heal and be surrounded by flesh once more.
'It's getting easier to manipulate the cloud. I can last longer in my flesh form if I transform only parts of my body instead of the whole,' I thought to myself.
"Alright, time to see how the rest of the world is fairing," I said to myself.
Images of human beings, all over the world, began to flash through my mind. Through the eyes of my shadows, I could see each of them at an incredible pace. They flashed so fast it felt like I was seeing them all at the same time. I then narrowed my focus to the humans who were closer to death.
'I see the deaths I have caused are still piling up.' I thought to myself with a grin on my face. 'However, this will not last. I must initiate the second phase,' I contemplated as my grin was replaced by a serious look.
"Tailed Lilith," I called out. A few seconds later, she flew out of a dark cloud from behind me. "What do you want?" She asked, annoyed.
"What is the situation with Elaine?" I asked her regardless of her mood.
"I have rented a suit for her in some Equinox Hotel, I think. She has been in her room the entire time and has yet to come out," she said in one breath.
"Alright, tell her to get ready, then take her to her workplace. I'll be meeting her there shortly," I said to her.
"What are your intentions with her? Have you perhaps fallen in love with this woman? I wouldn't be surprised you were once human after all, so it's only natural to fall for such a beauty, Mr. Reaper," she asked, looking down on me.
I slowly flew closer to her, to the point where I was right in front of her face. "Have you known me to do anything out of love?" I said to her in a cold tone.
"My mistake," she quickly said, then disappeared into a dark cloud.
I then flew back to the house and pulled back the dark cloud from my right hand to open the door. I couldn't help but slip out a victorious grin from the smoothness of this process. I was becoming more proficient with the cloud.
I stepped into the house and went straight to the kitchen in search of an air-tight container. I eventually found a glass tube, similar to the ones one would see in a chemistry lab, and then kept a small portion of the dark cloud within it. The dark cloud hovered within the glass tube, constantly changing without form.
'This much will do,' I thought to myself, then covered the tube with a cork. I went upstairs, soon after, then put on one of my father's suits, keeping the dark cloud away from my face and hands.
Beneath my clothes, the dark cloud still raged on. The suit did not decay, however, as I had control over the properties of the dark cloud.
'Phase one has worked better than I expected. The lifespans I have taken into myself are helping with my control of the cloud and increasing my resistance to Theos. Soon, it will be like controlling any other muscle in my body,' I thought to myself as I held the glass tube in the air.
"With this, phase two shall begin!" I said out loud.