Jarenth has a minion!

Shaun the Zombie Kitten

Name: Jaren
Race: Sentient Undead
Age: 126 years

Personality: Jaren tends to be quiet most of the time, a result of being more or less completely alone for over a hundred years, but when he does speak it`s always with an effort to patience and clarity. He has a quick temper but hides it well when among others he respects, knowing full well just how scary he can be when angered. He was not exceptionally bright in life, but many long years have brought him much wisdom.

Past: Jaren was a teenager when he first met Death. He had been walking home when he`d been mugged. He described the muggers to his gang of friends, who recognized them as being members of a low-life street gang from the other side of town. Thinking themselves more than a match for a couple of fellow kids, they set off in search of blood. They found it, but not as they`d envisioned. They tracked the two thieves back to an abandoned warehouse deep in the gang`s territory, but instead of finding two gang members, they found themselves faced with the entire gang. It was 20 to 5, and Jaren`s poorly equipped group was quickly disposed of.

When he came to, Jaren didn`t feel anything. At first he feared he had been paralyzed, but he quickly found that wasn`t true, he could still move, even open his eyes. When he did he was staring into the eyes of a fat creature who seemed to be half man and half goat. The beast gave a great laugh that could almost be taken for jolly if it wasn`t so equally terrifying. "Finally!" He said in a deep voice that made Jaren shiver.

"Took you long enough, son, I`ve been waiting! Knew one of you was sentient." He slipped off the half-wall he`d been sitting on and offered Jaren a hand. "I`m Death. You`re probably pretty confused and I don`t have time to stick around, so here." Death dropped a thick book on his chest. "Gotta run, your assignment is in there. Good luck!" Death winked and disappeared.

The book was thick, with a hard, blank cover. Jaren, still in shock, propped himself up on his elbows and opened it. There was a sheet of paper tucked inside the cover. On it was printed New Sentient Jaren will report to Pine Hill Cemetery for Dead Watch. Still in shock, and having nowhere else to go, he stood up and began to walk to the cemetery, ignoring the bodies of his friends where they`d been laid on either side of him.

Over the next few weeks he learned everything about his new state, as well as his new duties. Those who died by violence had an annoying habit of not staying dead. Most became simple shades, living dead with no souls, just a desire to kill the living. A few, usually only one in a thousand, become sentient undead, dead but still in possession of their souls, whose task it is to put the shades back to rest. It was sometimes exciting, sometimes boring, but almost always lonely. For the first few decades he dreamed of a companion above all else, but eventually he resigned to his lot. That was, until a certain girl turned his afterlife around...