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RUN
I’m in a fresh level of Hell.
Two young reaper girls torture me with various forms of beautification, despite my every protest.
They were sent by the queen herself, tasked with making me presentable. I’m to be introduced to the whole of the kingdom, and Camille insists I look my absolute best.
Like she’d know what that even looks like.
I’ve hardly had more than fifteen minutes with my mother, and that didn’t exactly end well. I’m certainly not ready to meet her people.
The petite reaper with a black pixie cut curls one last piece of hair before stepping back and kissing her fingers like some chef at a human restaurant.
“You look incredible.”
Her Italian accent catches me off guard. This is the first time she’s spoken since she walked in the room.
I probably shouldn’t ask, but curiosity wins out. “What’s your story?”
“My story?” she asks, seeming startled at my having spoken.
“Yeah, you know... how did you come to be here?”
Her confusion melts into a smile. “The queen saved me. I had experienced a great level of trauma as a human, at the hands of my stepfather.” Her eyes lower. “I chose to take my own life to escape it.”
I wasn’t expecting that. Unsure what to say, I remain quiet and hope that doesn’t offend her.
“We reapers have a series of codes that determine where souls are to be taken.” My eyes meet hers through the mirror.
“The reapers choose where souls go? I thought that was God?”
“In the beginning, it was, but as the human population grew, souls needing reaping grew too. God entrusted us to make the determination,” she explains. “Based on our codes, suicide is automatic condemnation.”
I had no idea that was the case. In truth, I know little about what happens once a human dies, outside of that they go to either Heaven or Hell.
“The queen was transporting me, and due to my anxiety, I have a tendency to overshare.” She chuckles. “I was so nervous; I couldn’t stop talking. I blabbed my entire story to her, and that’s when she decided I wasn’t going to Heaven or Hell, but she was bringing me with her back to the kingdom of Solis.”
“Solis.”
The reaper kingdom was named Solis? Nobody had mentioned its name until now, and it hadn’t struck me as odd until now.
“Yes, this is Solis,” she says with furrowed brows. “Has nobody told you that?”
When naming the blade that would sit at my side, Solis had come to me like a whisper on the wind, and right now, I have a feeling it was no coincidence. But this isn’t the person to quiz on the matter.
I shake my head, eager to get back to the girl’s story. Something about it doesn’t sit right with me.
Not that I don’t trust the reapers. Every single one that I’ve met thus far has been great, but God is the all-knowing being. How can the last few minutes of a person’s life determine whether their soul should live in paradise or Hell?
The girl’s situation can’t be the only story out there like this. How many people were dragged to hell that truly didn’t deserve it? She did the only thing she knew to escape a terrible circumstance. She was let down by the people she loved on Earth. Someone should’ve known what they were dealing with.
The girl’s hand lands on my shoulder, and her smile turns sad. “It’s okay,” she says, likely seeing my distress at her story. “I harbored the pain, because I didn’t want my mother to feel it too. She was a good woman. A loving mother.” She sniffles before continuing. “She asked me many times if I was okay in the final days leading up to my suicide, but I shut her out. To this day, I don’t know why I didn’t tell her. She would’ve believed me.” She lowers her head to hide the tears that threaten to fall. “She carries a burden far greater than mine was in my short time on Earth. Survivor’s guilt has ruined her.”
My heart breaks for the strange girl and her family. More than anything, I see that some reform needs to be done here in Solis. There has to be something that can be done. Some better system has to exist, to ensure that only the truly detestable are taken underground.
She squeezes my shoulder. “You will be very good for the kingdom.”
I offer her a tight-lipped smile, and don’t tell her I have no intentions of being anything to the kingdom.
