"Deven Marchant," Astral replied without emotion.
Souls who were taken before their ti were always returned to be reborn, and among all the ones Astral had brought in, this Deven wasn’t supposed to be here now. Though the rest had co on ti, Deven’s had co ahead of his ti.
"Store his soul for a rebirth."
Astral didn’t like that, but the creature didn’t voice it out and did as it was told.
After that ti, Astral continued to do its work without going against any rules and was even granted a pet to feed and train into a new Watcher. Astral nad the pet Kuhn, a na the creature had picked and heard from the living world in one of its visits there.
"You shall be my companion, and I shall feed you real good. In no ti, you shall beco a Watcher too," Astral promised its small pet.
But that never happened as unusual emotions began to creep into the creature that was supposed to be as emotionless as a stone. Reapers were never supposed to feel, they were cold-hearted.
Astral was supposed to take a sick, dying girl’s soul that day, but it hesitated upon seeing the grief in the parent’s faces.
The creature stood aside with its scythe, watching the scene of a grieving mother and her dying daughter.
The little girl had only lived six years of her life and was sick with smallpox, where breathing was hard, but she held on to her mother’s hand, already sensing death was in the room and could see it at her last mont.
"Mama... will I die?" the girl had asked with teary eyes to a mother who already knew there was no way to save her daughter.
"Mama, can you... sing a song?"
Watching the scene as it was and seeing how a mother sang to her daughter in her last mont, Astral looked down at its watch, seeing the hands of ti for the girl had co to an end. It did sothing no reaper should do. It turned back the hands of her ti, prolonging her life to thirty more years from now, and then disappeared.
Why Astral was forgiven for its mistakes was because, after making one mistake, it made up for it by working double ti. But through the years, the creature broke more rules than any other reaper had, and the elder was forced to summon the creature.
"You have done more mistakes than good, Astral, and I am starting to feel disappointed in you."
"Forgiveness, I ask," Astral bowed.
"You have beco a high-ranked reaper, and if you hadn’t made all these mistakes, you would have gotten a chance to beco even higher and rule a set of reapers. This will be your last ti. If you break another rule again, it will be the end of you and your pet. This will be my last forgiveness."
Astral knew the punishnt for reapers who broke too many laws. They stopped existing, and as much as compassion for the living was growing inside the creature, it didn’t want to stop living.
"We shall not make other mistakes ever again," said Astral to its pet, who followed it around everywhere and listened to whatever it’s master said.
Astral tried not to break another rule until it made the mistake of going ahead of ti to death’s next victim, a young vampire demon whose identity was Rohan Dagon on it’s list of people to die that month.
Just like with its every other victim, Astral went to check who this one was and didn’t expect to find an abandoned young boy. Sothing about the lonely, hollow look in the boy’s eyes stirred a strange pull inside the creature, making Astral curious enough to stick around until the boy’s ti was over.
Astral witnessed how the boy’s parents turned their backs on him, treating him like he wasn’t truly a part of them. Sothing in that rejection resonated deeply within Astral, as if a forgotten fragnt of its own past was coming through the boy’s pain, being left alone.
The boy was a strange one, who had no fear of death even when he saw it.
"You can see ," Astral had asked when the boy stared at him.
The boy gave a curt nod. "I’ve been able to see you for a week now. What are you, and why do you keep coming back to my room to watch ? It’s getting unsettling," the boy remarked with his head tilted back as he studied the creature.
"I’m the one whom man fears the most," Astral replied. "I’m the one you call... Death."
The boy’s eyes moved up and down the length of the tall reaper, and then the side of his lips pulled up. "I am not scared of you. I’m not afraid of death."
"Why?" Astral asked, intrigued, as up until now, everyone feared him.
"Because I’ve lived in hell for years. Although I’m not afraid of you, I’m not ready to die. I haven’t lived yet. I still want to go around like everyone does," the boy said to the reaper. "Are you here to kill ?"
"Not yet. Your sand hasn’t finished running out."
"What do you an?" the boy had asked curiously.
"Life is an hourglass, boy. It inevitably runs out. And everyone’s amount of sand is different. Yours..." He pointed his scythe at the boy. "Is almost out, and I am here to wait until it’s gone."
"You’re a demon that takes souls then?" the boy asked with no fear in his voice, but instead fascination at the fact that he could see Death with his eyes and talk to it.
"You may think of it that way."
"When does my sand run out then?" the boy questioned with a collected voice that made Astral stare at him like he couldn’t believe it.
No one stayed this calm in the face of death, and Astral had witnessed many reactions of people but not one like this.
Even those who prayed and longed to die also feared it. But this one did not hold that kind of fear in his heart.
"Death does not give its victims the date of their death. It hits you when you least expect it. You shall have to live the rest of your days knowing you don’t have much ti left. And until then, I won’t be far away from you to take you."
"Then at least if you will be here, you can be my company before the day. You must be really lonely to keep standing without talking and watching all day."
"Death does not bond with their victims. I am not here to make friends, but to keep an eye."
The boy smiled bitterly. "Well, I will take you as my friend and talk to you. If you don’t want to listen, you can go back and co again the day you’re ant to take away." The boy eyed the reaper. "I can sense loneliness when I see it. You are as lonely as I am. It can get truly hard, you know, living, yet not feeling it. Hearing the laughter of others beyond these walls and being unable to understand how they could laugh and truly feel it."
Astral understood those feelings far better than anyone else, living yet not feeling, longing for sothing that was way out of reach, to live in this world and experience every emotion without restrictions.
Though Astral had promised not to break any more rules, the creature found itself coming back to the boy who shared the sa feelings as him.
"This here is Kuhn, my pet. When I will take you, it will feed on your last mont," Astral had introduced to the boy, who was eyeing the pet and moving in circles to study it. He even reached out to make an attempt to remove its small hood, but Astral hit his hand away and reprimanded,
"Not a plaything. Head is not to be opened."
Rohan scoffed. "Why is its head round? Why is it called a pet if one can’t touch its head and pat?"
"Not to be touched by a living person. Don’t touch."
As forbidden as it was, Astral beca friends with the boy, even prolonging the days of his death by a few more days just to have his company.
"You know what I want so bad to have before I die, Astral?" the young Rohan asked one evening as they stood before an empty fireplace, watching the thick webs around it as a fire had never been lit in it.
"What?"
Rohan turned to look at the creature. "I want to have my own family and be loved by them. Mama and Papa don’t want , but I want to experience being wanted." He clicked his tongue. "But then that is impossible because I can feel my ti is not long anymore."
"How do you know?" Astral asked, as he knew the boy only had two days.
Rohan gestured to the reaper’s watch. "That thing is ticking louder every day. I can tell it’s ticking for . Can we still be friends after I die?" He looked up into the jet-black eyes of the creature.
"No, reapers and souls can never be friends. Reapers are too busy to be around the soul in the other world. Can’t."
The boy let out a sigh. "I see, so it’s my last mont with you as well."
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