Sairos
Legacy Name: Sairos

I awoke to the sound of Luci’s soft purr, humming in my ear. A new day, a new set of souls to collect. I climbed out of bed, as my feet hit the cold floor it sent a shiver up my spine. I shook off the chill and started to dress for the day. My stomach started to growl as if two dogs were fighting for its last meal. I opened the fridge, it was bare except a half container of butter and one drink left of milk that expired a week ago. I can’t remember the last time my fridge had anything decent to eat inside of its four eggshell white walls. Luci hopped onto the counter and let out a meow, he was hungry to. I opened up the cabinet above the fridge and grabbed out a jar, inside were souls. The jar glowed softly, I opened it up and grabbed the last soul out and gave it to Luci, and he snatched it up quickly and purred in acceptance as he ate. As a reaper it was quite easy for me to get souls to feed Luci, he is a demon cat after all and I would never let him starve even if it’s against my code to be stealing souls to feed a demon. Lucifer is his real name but since he has been with me he has always gone by Luci, he has been with me since I was human he stuck with me during my death and long after as I started my afterlife as a reaper. Luci rubbed himself against my legs informing me that he was done, it was time to leave for the day. As I headed out the door I grabbed my scythe that leaned against the wall.

As I stood outside, sun gleaming overhead, a crow fluttered its wings nearby, a single black feather floated down and landed at my feet. I reached into the inside of my coat and grabbed my Tomb. The Official Mortality Book is its full name, every reaper has one when they graduate and become a full reaper. This book is how reapers get their orders for the day on witch souls to reap and where they are located, this book also ensures that we don’t keep any of the souls that we reaped. Lucky for me I grab souls not on my work log and let other reapers deal with the disappearance. In the end they usually decide that a demon has got to the soul before the reaper even had a chance to, it’s usually a slap on the wrist for a reaper not getting there in time, nothing to serious, so all in all everyone wins in the end. I opened up my Tomb, it’s pages stained yellow and its edges frayed from age, the day’s work log appeared on the page as if someone were writing them as you read. Chancery Lane district W.C.2 was where my first soul waited. I closed the Tomb and set off.

As I arrived I saw the scene. A pool of blood stained the ground where the person use to lay, it must have been sometime last night when they took the body away. Humans are such violent creatures, to think I ever was one sends a shudder up my spine. Just above the blood stain floated a bright light. This is a soul, it’s not as bright as the other souls I have reaped in the past, it seems that as time goes on the souls seem to lose their shine and become dull. The soul is as beautiful as a mature bed of scarlet roses after the first dusting of snow falls upon them making its petals glisten and shimmer as though diamonds had been strategically placed upon the petals, but as time goes on the cold freezing of the snow takes its toll upon the rose bed causing the petals to brown and wilt. Then with its relentless cold, the petals start to turn black as the night with no moon and no stars until finally it has consumed the roses to a point that life appears no more and even the snow itself has turned darker, less pure until finally it to darken upon the bed of dead roses. When a soul leaves the body it gathers all the pureness that body had possessed. The brighter the shine the more pure the person was. As I stepped closer the soul reacted and floated inside one of the two tiny skulls that hung from the top of my scythe and the film that held his memories started. The film flew out from his soul and swirled around me as I watched his life unfold. I see him as a newborn living with his mom, then as a young toddler getting into things and being mischievous, the film jumps forward to him starting out as a young adult, it looks like this is his wedding day, he's waiting at the alter. It jumps forward again, it shows his death, he's walking down the dark alley from a long day at the hospital, a dark figure appears and points a gun at him and without hesitation pulls the trigger. The film winds down and sputters just before it disappears. I took out my Tomb marked him off and looked over my log then went to finish the rest of the work day.

I walked into the Grim Reaper Staffing Association the noise of reapers rushing around hit me like a slap to the face. You can walk into the Association at any time of day and it will always come off as the busy time at the train station, peopling bustling around, shouting, rushing to get to their next stop. I always hated this part of the day when I had to come in to turn in my logs, it was too chaotic. As I went to take a step someone tripped in front of me, papers flew every which way. As the looks of it, it seemed that this reapers was a new trainee. The worry flustered face, nervous sweat stains, and the shaking hands are a dead giveaway. I let out a soft sigh, only loud enough for myself to hear as I walked around him, a chuckle escaped Luci as he jumped onto my shoulders. When I arrived at one of the teller windows I stated my name. The teller set down in front of me what seemed to look like a crystal ball, I took my scythe and gently tapped the crystal ball, as I did the souls I collected from the day floated out of the tiny skulls and into the crystal. The ball in this state full of souls shined bright. To a human the site would be enough to make a grown man weep in amazement with how pure it shined. Luci and I were used to this, as so was every other reaper. It didn’t amaze me as it used to, the souls seemed to lose their shine and became dull in my eyes. The teller grabbed the crystal ball and set it into a container to be brought to the vaults. I gave the teller a faint smile as she wished me a fair night as I left, with the extra souls I collected tucked neatly inside my coat in a glass jar.

As I was walking home I notice a light shining in one of the alley ways, it’s too bright to be any normal light, and it has a supernatural shine to it. Thinking it might be a soul that hasn’t been taken care of yet I decide to go grab it, you can never have too many souls when it comes to feeding a demon. As I got closer to the souls I began to doubt myself that it was a soul, no soul has shined this bright in centuries. As I turned the corner I stopped dead in my tracks. It was a soul. As all my centuries of a reaper I have never seen a soul that shined this pure. I looked down at Luci, he too was taken back in disbelief. It’s beautiful. I took a few steps closer, I notice a pale girl laying underneath in a puddle of blood. She had a gapping crevice where her heart should have been. I get closer until I’m standing at her side. It looks as if someone…no wait something reached in and tore it out of her chest. My eyes wandered to her face, my chest tightening as I did so. I fell to my knees. She is breathtaking, I have never seen a human as pure as her…she looks as if she could be an angel. What is this I am feeling? I have never quite felt something like this in my whole lifetime as a human or as a reaper. My eyes wondered back to her soul that stayed hovering above her, I outstretch my hand towards it, as the tips of my fingers brushed it ever so slightly a light exploded in brightness, which is all I remembered before I passed out.

I jolted awake and gasped as I did, towering above me was the same girl that had just been laying in a pool of her own blood, dead. How is she alive? The gaping hole that was in her chest has disappeared. She stared at me, her emerald green eyes shining. She tilted her head to the side like a confused dog, her long scarlet hair cascading off her shoulder as she did so. “Are you alright?” Her voice even sounded angelic, so soft and sweet sounding, like smooth honey. I stuttered to get my words out. “I…I’m fi…fine.” Her worried disappeared as relief took over. She smiled at me, in that moment my heart skipped a beat. After what felt like hours of silence, I spoke up. “H-how are you alive? When I saw you before you were dead on the ground, you didn't even have a heart. There’s no way you could still be alive.” A giggle escaped her lips. “Well…I was dead, there is no denying that. But then a bright light appeared and it woke me from my death. This light, it told me not to worry that I was safe. It told me that I am now an angel. My soul had been so pure that it had transformed me." Even though I have bee around reapers and demons, and many other supernatural beings, angels were considered a rare sight. "What is your name?" I spoke softly, almost a whisper. "Mercee!" She said cheerfully. "And what is yours?" She tilted her head as she spoke. "Sairos...and this is Luci." Luci let out a meow and hopped onto Mercee's lap. He then proceeded to curl himself up into a ball and fell asleep. She started to stroke his midnight fur "A demon cat, why he is just adorable!" She looks so peaceful, her smile is bright, it's been a long time since I felt at peace with anyone.

From that point on Sairos, Mercee, and Luci stayed with one another. They ended up falling in love and marrying even though such a thing was forbidden. Love is mysterious, it can make you feel as if you were the happiest and luckiest person in the world! But it can also make you feel alone, and depressed. Love can even make you become crazy or obsessed. It depends what you make out of it and do with it, that determines what love is to you.

Story by me