Absolutely, Positively, 100% Normal

Chapter Seven

Teleporting felt weird, like I was being stretched and pulled rapidly by unseen hands to my destination. We appeared on the front porch of a two-storey, lavender painted house.

"Alright, first thing's first: gear up", Gray ordered. I blinked at him.

"What?"

"We're working now, which means we should put on our designated uniforms. Just pass the hand your license is stamped on lightly down your torso." He showed me his mark, on the inside of his wrist and thus hidden effectively from view. He proceeded to demonstrate, trailing a hand from his chest down to his mid-thigh area. My eyes couldn't help but follow his hand movement, and I found myself wondering things about how he looked - without a shirt on. Did he have abs? 

I mentally bombed the various images of what Gray's chest possibly looked like that my wayward mind was producing involuntarily. 

Gray now wore  a black ankle-length hooded cloak - a different one than the one I had seen before - to go with his usual get-up, a metal staff slightly taller than himself with a dark orb at its top in his now-gloved hands. He raised his hood over his face and was immediately anonymous.

"What? No scythe?" I asked mockingly. I mean, he already had the hooded cloak, why not the scythe too? Gray indicated.his staff with a jerk of his head.

"This is my scythe." I looked at him skeptically. With an exaggerated flourish, he swung the staff in a wide arc with both hands as if he were really cutting something and a dull, bluish glow came from the small orb, arching out to form what looked like the blade of a scythe. Well, I thought, at least they strove to live up to their stereotype. Somewhat.

"Come on." He nodded at me. "Just focus on your mark. It's easy." I glanced from the mark to him and back. Did I really wanna take another step into the world I had lived the majority of my teen years trying to avoid? Would I ever be able to revert my life back to the way it was before this enigmatic association decided I owed them something? 

No. I would not question that. I would bring my life back to its normal state on my own. I was determined. But, for now, I had to play along with Gray Immens' ordering about. I could begin my mission to bring normalcy back to my life after this seemingly mandatory lesson. Doing as instructed and demonstrated, I passed my hand down my body, shutting my eyes and visualizing the G.R.A.'s logo on my hand. 

I felt the soft caress of fabric floating down against my legs. I opened my eyes to see a lantern similar to the one on the logo suspended in front of me. It was as tall as my Pre-Calculus textbook, a few inches narrower, with a large ring on its top and a black frame.

"Take it", Gray urged, his voice coming from somewhere in the folds of his hood. Isn't he hot in there?? I hooked my fingers in the ring, and suddenly I was the one supporting its weight, though it wasn't as heavy as expected. I took note of what I was now wearing: a dark purple dress with a sweetheart neckline and a skirt that fell loosely to just above my knees, black elbow length gloves, knee high black heeled boots, and to top it all off, a cloak similar to Gray's, except my hood wasn't as deep and so left the bottom half of my face exposed. It was a nice outfit, really, but why so different? What sexist person created these so-called 'uniforms'? I felt like I was dressed as some perverted guy's wet dream fantasy.

"How come I'm not dressed as Reaper-like as you?" I asked out loud.

"You shouldn't pay so much attention to stereotypes, Raina." My unwanted partner motioned me forward. I raised my eyes in question. How did he expect me to enter a locked house? Through the windows, perhaps? Break their glass? Gray grabbed my hand - and again I felt that annoying shock-like feeling. WHERE HAD IT EVEN COME FROM? His touch hadn't shocked me before - all I'd felt from his skin touching mine was that weird 'neither-cold-nor-warm' body temperature he had. And then he was pulling me through the door.

Through it! Like it wasn't even there! Maybe to some people out there, walking through shut and locked, solid wooden doors sounds cool, but for me, it was freaky as hell. 

My life just kept on getting weirder and weirder. I was going to have a hard time putting things back to how they used to be after this, that's for sure. Gray tugged me along through door after door, up the stairs and finally into a bedroom. 

"I'll never get used to that", I grumbled when we finally stopped.

"You'll have to", was Gray's terse reply. "As Reapers we're like spirits. We're not completely tangible, but we're still here." Looking around the bedroom, I took in it's simple decor. The room had an abandoned air, like no one had truly lived in it. There were no belongings strewn about.

"Where is she?" I asked. Gray ventured further into the room, going into what I assumed was the door to a bathroom. He poked his head out the doorway.

"Come this way. She's in here - dying, but not quite dead yet."

'Not quite dead yet'? She was still alive? Was he seriously just gonna let her just die?! I rushed into the bathroom. It was a considerably large sized bathroom, with more personal effects in view than in the bedroom - probably because the continents of all the medicine cabinets were thrown out and spread over the sink counter. A woman was slumped on the floor against the wall between the sink counter and the toilet. Gray leaned against the opposite wall.

"Aren't you going to help her?" I asked. I knelt down next to Margaret, setting my lantern on the ground and reaching out to smooth tendrils of long black hair from her face. 

"We can't. Not now. It's too late. She overdosed herself with all these pills." Gray indicated the empty pill bottles on the counter top. "And then drank cleaning agents." Gray looked at Margaret aloofly. "She made sure no one could help her." I stared at the death mark - a circular black mark reminiscent of an ink splatter - on Magaret's forehead. It seemed to pulse in time with my heartbeat, slowly fading away with each beat. I wanted so badly to help her, but I couldn't. I could not understand what drove her to commit suicide, but it had to have been something bad enough to make her feel as though death was the only escape.

"Look, Raina", Gray commanded. I shook my head in refusal, clutching on tightly to Margaret's shirt as if that would help, even as I sensed the life leaving her body completely.

"Raina! Damn it, just look!" Gray tugged my head up by my hair, pulling on it along with my hood., forcing it to look at the area above myself and Margaret's lifeless body. There her soul hovered, looking curiously at us.

"Stand up, Raina. This reaping is yours", Gray said in a low voice. "She only needs guidance."

"I don't - I don't understand!" I felt confused and utterly helpless.

"There are two types of Reapers: some sever, and some guide. I sever, hence the scythe, and you guide souls to the other side with your lantern. Go on, show her the way." I don't know what got into me. I was usually a strong person. Perhaps it was the shock of being in close contact with death or the sudden pressure of being the one responsible for guiding souls to the other side.

"I can't!" I gasped out, and then bolted, unknowingly teleporting myself back to my house, my safe place. I rushed up to my room, throwing myself into my closet and curling up there amidst my clothing and shoes. Seconds later, I heard footsteps approach the closet door.

"Ray-Ray", Shay called out softly. He slowly inched the closet door open. I huddled into myself more, flinching as the light from my bedroom hit me. Shay folded himself down on the closet floor next to me, pulling the closet door closed. He said nothing, just sat there beside me.

And then he rubbed my back gently with a hand and I fell apart the way I hadn't allowed myself to since I'd gotten that phone call from my father.