久久综合激激的五月天

After training with the fire fighters she had returned to her bedroom for quick bath but then Gertrude offered to massage her tight muscles to which she said yes. Laying there on the massage table, as she started getting comfortable, Severus showed up and told her they had a live one. This was his way of referring to a freshly dead soul, or one whose body was about to draw it's last breath. 

Scarlet sent Gertrude out for a minute and then she took the sleeping pill. Now that she was at level three, she could reap fresh souls, not just the wondering ones. 

The fresh soul she was to pick up was in the capital which made Scarlet smile. She could not go there with her physical body right now but as a grim reaper, she could go anywhere. 

"When you reach level six, you will be able to change your face and use a temporary physical body to walk around in the capital if you want." Severus told her. 

This made her want to level up faster, she could practically enter the palace and the emperor would never know that it was her. Holding on to Severus, he blinked and they appeared in the capital at once, inside of a hospital. Of course, it had to be a hospital, they were the breeding grounds of death according to the forum. Hospitals, battle grounds and cemeteries were the best places for grim reapers to work. Souls of the dead were always lurking around everywhere one looked.

"Ah, this must be like a hotel for grim reapers." she told Severus. "Open your soul gourd and go to sleep and when you wake up, everyone that died will have walked in by themselves."

As she spoke, she opened hers without thinking twice. It was a change from looking for souls in the forest or collecting them from the temple.

"What do I do next?" She asked Severus.

"Just walk from room to room, visit the sick, give some energy to those whose time has not yet come but are experiencing immense suffering. At times, a fresh soul needs convincing to let go so if you see one, whisper to them."

It was a new experience for Scarlet walking through walls like a ghost, unseen and unheard by the patients and their families. This was a big hospital, it had many med beds that were almost fully occupied. Why did she think that because of superior technology hospitals in the interstellar were usually empty? They were filled with people in pain as much as the ordinary earth was.

On one bed, an elderly man was coughing fitfully. Scarlet could see the grey smoke coming from his body, he was about to die she knew. He probably had less than five minutes left and he was surrounded by loved ones.

"The doctor has said that they found a new treatment father, just hung in there for a while." His son said.

The elderly man nodded but his pale face did not present much hope.

Scarlet thought to herself that it would have been better if they said everything they wanted to say from their hearts. Everyone deserved a chance to say goodbye.

 She never got that chance, maybe if she whispered to them that he was dying...

"Do not interfere with the living." Severus stopped her.

"I just want...."

"I know what you want to do but you are a grim reaper, the proverbial angel of death. Your duty is to get souls from point A to point B and if a dying person is holding on, occasionally you convince them to let go."

She looked at the man and his face with a pitiful smile as she waited for the seconds to exhaust and she could take his soul. In a weird way, Scarlet likened herself to a vulture waiting for someone to die so that she could finally get a chance to feed on the carcass.

"Let me guess," a very audible voice said close to her suddenly. "You feel like the family deserves to say goodbye."

Surprise shook her body and she looked to her left. A young handsome man stood next to her, his face was one she had seen before on star net, the actor Ramslin.

"It's you!" She gasped.

"I heard there was another reaper on my planet but knowing that it was Scarlet the hound, now that was a surprise." He replied.

"I think you mean our planet, I didn't think I would meet you this soon."

"Well, I was passing by when I noticed you here. I caught the last bit of your conversation with your hound, impressive by the way." He commented.

"Thank you." Severus answered proudly and he stuck his chest out.

"This is my pet Snowball," he showed them the fluffy white cat with a mean look on it's face which proceeded to ignore them. "You were wise to caution her, I once made the same mistake she was about to make. I whispered to a mother that her sick child would die soon, and according to the information I had it was true. What I did not expect was for the mother to poison herself and the child before the child's time was technically up. Worse even was the fact that the child's fate had been altered and she was supposed to live an extra sixty years but because of my whisper, the child died an untimely death. I have not interfered in their death since then, If it's a live one, I stand on the side and wait for the clock to run out."

The elderly man's clock run out, he drew his last breath and passed away. While his children, grandchildren and loved ones cried, Scarlet collected his soul.

"See, it's better for everyone this way." Ramslin was smiling. "Goodbye hound, see you around soon, we have a lot to discuss after all, business wise especially. By the way, thank for reintroducing food to this world, I used to eat in secret but now I eat openly and use you as an excuse." He laughed. 

Watching him leave, Scarlet was left with a few unanswered questions of her own, like who altered the fate of the child he was sure was about to die? 

"Severus, how do you know that someone is about to die? We were on the blue star so how did you know that someone in the capital was about to die?" 

"There is a hall in the underworld which only soul pets can access, in there we can see the humans who are about to die, it's like they have a contract with life which is about to expire. One of our duties is to guide our grim repears to these people. Let's return, our work here is done." 

Scarlet woke up in her room, Gertrude was back, giving her that relaxing massage and somehow, she slept off again.