The morning sun was rising and shining throw the window into Emily's room. She began to open her eyes raising her hand to shield herself from the rays hitting her face. Stretching she looked toward the clock and realized she was late for work. Emily was a great student throughout high school but she opted out of going to a university because she may have been smart enough for it, the school life just didn't treat her well in past.
Emily was talked about and made fun of for her hair because she loved dying it different colors. She was bullied for having gauges in her ears because no one else had them and they all thought they were creepy. She chose to stick to herself and focus on school but it all took a toll on her.
The kids would draw on her desk calling her names and sometimes went as far to do the same on her locker. They pushed her to tears but she would never let them see them, she could not let them know they were getting to her. She would go outside to get air and let it out and then return to her work. Emily was a very strong girl but everyone has their limits. She talked to her parents about it but the only thing they told her was to stand up for herself but she did not like violence, so she took it all throughout high school. She graduated and decided to take at least the first year off of college and get a job. She ended up not going back to school at all and her twenty first birthday was not great. She lost her job and her parents kicked her, all she thought of it was to keep pushing like always.
After realizing how late she was Emily jumped out of bed tripping over her shoes she kicked off the night before.
"I'm gonna be late, I'm gonna be late." she continued repeating to herself.
She got dressed and slid on her running shoes so she could jog to work and not worry about falling again. Her cat jumped onto the dresser as she reached for her keys to the apartment.
"Bye Fluffy, I'll be back tonight." She kissed her cat on the head and ran out the door.
Emily ran down the stairs of her apartment building making her way to the sidewalk. She took off running past the few people that were walking along the side walk.
"Excuse me! Pardon me!" she said to the others walking as she ran by.
Looking at her watch every few seconds she kept thinking that she was going to be late. Emily worked at a convenience store about a mile away from her apartment. She had to settle for something simple because of lack of experience she couldn't really go anywhere else. It paid the bills for her a small studio apartment and that's all that really mattered to her.
"Boom, I made it!!!" Emily yelled out of breath as she ran through the doors of the store.
"No, you're late... again... as always... why do you even try to run here all the time when you know you're going to be late anyways." Emily's manager and close friend Paulina said to her after her loud burst through the door.
"You're really lucky that we're friends Emily. Any other manager would have fired your butt for the amount of times you're late."
"I know... I know... I'm really sorry. I try so hard everyday but for some reason I just can't manage to make it here on time. Drinks on me after work tonight?'
"Deal, bitch. you're lucky we're not really busy right now. nobody likes coming in here in the mornings."
Emily and Paulina had become close friends when they met in a tattoo parlor. They hit it off instantly and Emily had told her that she was looking for work. Paulina let her know that she ran a convenience store not too far from there and that she was actually looking for someone to work with her. Emily quickly accepted the kind gesture, feeling relieved that she finally found work.
"Anyways Emms, can you front face everything and pull it forward."
"Yeah for sure!"
Emily started walking around fixing the shelves and rearranging things when two customers came in together. They were the regulars that came in to grab coffee before they headed in to work. She happened to overhear their conversation.
"Did you hear about the chain of break-ins and stuff going on in the area?" One of them said to the other.
"Yeah I did actually, they think it's gang related. Probably that gang Reign that they say has been stirring up trouble." The other replied.
Emily thought nothing of it, just that it was a conversation she overheard. "Good Morning guys! Just stopping in for you're coffee huh?"
"Yes ma'am!" they both said simultaneously.
"Well have a good day at work then!" Emily said as she went back to adjusting the shelves.
"Ugh the mornings drag and I hate it!" Paulina said as she jumped to sit on the counter behind the checkout.
"Yeah yeah at least you get free drinks tonight cause I'm horrible with time." Emily said pretending to be annoyed.
Laughing at her Paulina responded, "Yeah you're god awful with time and I couldn't be more lucky. I get so many drinks cause of you."
The store started to pick up business around lunch time when people rushed in to get food. The lunch rush came and went a the hours seemed to drag on but closing time was coming up. Emily cleaned the store, clocked out and bought some drinks for them. She waited for Paulina to lock up and grab her things so they could head to Emily's apartment. They were walking and talking about some of the customer's Emily thought were kind of cute.
"Emms I wanna tell you something. You know my boyfriend Alex?"
"Yeah I do he's a good guy why what's up?"
"Well... he asked me to marry him and I said Yes!"
"OH MY! Congratulations Paulina, That's awesome! So not only are we drinking because I was late... But now we can do it in celebration!"
"Hell Yeah we can! Also I want you to be the maid of honor."
Emily's face turned beet red and she yelled excitedly "of course i will be."
Paulina grabbed and hugged Emily, then the two continued walking, giggling with excitement.
They made it to Emily's apartment and saw the door cracked open. Emily thought about earlier when she was rushing to get to work, did she not lock the door?
"Shit, stay behind me." Emily said to Paulina.
The two creeped through the door and could see straight into the open room in front of them. There wasn't anyone in sight but the tv was knocked over and the drawers of her dresser were ripped out and thrown around. Her cat wasn't anywhere to be seen, she wondered if Fluffy had ran out when the door was opened. Paulina started calling the cops and the two walked further into the room past the bathroom that was in the hallway.
"Hello? Yes my friends apart-"
The bathroom door flew open behind Paulina and a man rushed out of the bathroom holding a knife in his hand. Emily yelled "Watch out." Throwing Paulina out of the way as the man lunged with the knife toward them and Emily tried to throw the drinks at him to stop him. In the blink of an eye the knife hit Emily in left side of her stomach. The man turned and ran out of the apartment getting away from the scene.
"No no no no no no please no." Paulina cried. "Hello are you still there yes my friend has been stabbed the address is..."
The last thing that Emily thought before passing from the wound was that she was finally at peace.
After what felt like a split moment of peace that lasted for seconds Emily heard the words "Change this place... Change this world of death."
A flash of white light occurred right after the words and Emily woke in a seemingly endless room of white. Maintaining her memory of what just happened Emily sat up, hugged her knees in and began crying. A floating man in a black robe, with a smiling skull face and a tiny scythe in his hand appeared.
The figure spoke "I am Servus and I- Wait, why are you crying?"
Emily wiping tears from her eyes and sniffling spoke to Servus. "I just died and have no idea where I am. Why would I not be crying?"
"You should have no recollection of your death, it was my job to come in here and inform you of that fact. Way to ruin one of my only jobs great I only get to do this at most one more time." Servus said seemingly upset.
"Well anyway, yes you are dead, in that world. The princess used her ritual to summon you in the last second as her reaper. You may have heard her voice beforehand. Hopefully I get to make all of it a surprise if she summons her last reaper. The princess is waiting for you in her office we'll go meet her and she will inform you of what this all means."
Sniffling Emily spoke, "Okay... I guess have nothing else to do here anyways. Where are we by the way? since I'm dead is this heaven or hell?"
"I'm glad you asked, this is basically the place in between the two. You may know it as Purgatory but here we're not so creative so we just call it the In between."
Emily just stared at him as they walked, "Well that's kind of dumb."
Servus slowly turned his head toward her and said, "Yeah kind of."
After walking for what felt like an eternity to Emily the two arrived in front of a giant door.
"Here we are, the princess's office."
Two normal sized doors opened near the bottom of the giant one and Emily laughed.
"The little doors on a huge one, I don't know why but that is funny."
"HA, I am glad you found it amusing because if you did not I was going to blame it on maintenance or act like the big doors never worked in the first place." Servus said with his creepy smiling skull face.
The two of them walked into the large office where a desk sat with a seat on both sides. One resembled a throne and the other was just your typical chair. There was a woman standing near the window looking out into nothin but white stretching endlessly. "It is beautiful isn't it?" The woman question Emily as she walked further into the room.
Emily seeing nothing but the white stretching forever, "Uh yeah sure.".
The woman turned around black wings came off of her back, she had long white hair and blue eyes. Her skin was as pale as snow and she wore a black mask over her eyes. "I am princess Elena Mortem, daughter of the king of the in between Pluto Mortem and you have already met my Grim Servus."
"You guys should really change the name from the In Between. How about you just call it afterlife?"
"I shall consider your proposal. Setting that aside I have one for you. I would like you to become my reaper in a future world modeled after the one you died in. It is not the exact world just a semi parallel world meaning you never existed here only the world is the same the people are not. You will be placed there at your current age and I need you to be a spy for me. I need you to figure out what my father is up to in this world. I cannot directly interact with it like he can because I am not the full ruler of the In between... I mean... Afterlife yet."
"So you want me to be your reincarnated spy in a future world neither of us know anything about?"
"Yes that about sums it up. The only thing I know is my father is stealing some kind of power from this world and I don't know what for. I summoned you from death as the first of my two summons I am allowed as a princess. You can choose how you live as long as you seek out reapers and find what they're up to. I've left your heart in you so you can maintain emotions and control over yourself. I will provide you with a Grim of your own to help you in your mission."
"Do these Grim's come with some kind of ability? And how am I supposed to just find reapers?"
"Yes a grim provides a unique ability to it's reaper, and you will find them by sensing their Grims."
Emily reached her arms behind her head and made a request, "Can my Grim generate a force field around me when it sense's danger?"
"I can make that very one for you right now if you are going to accept my proposal."
"I mean heck yeah I'll accept it under these conditions. WAIT! can you make me younger? Like fresh out of high school age don't change my looks or anything I like who I am. I just want to go to University if I'm allowed to do whatever I want as long as I Work."
Elena nodded, "Yes I guess I can do that for you since you're doing this for me. I will make you eighteen, also here is your Grim I had the one you requested already from testing other ones before." Elena walked over to Emily standing on the other side of the desk and put her hand to her forehead. Black smoke shot down her body and sent chills down her spine.
"It will awaken in due time. Now we don't have much time to spare. My father should be here any minute I will be dropping you into a future you will not know almost two hundred years from the time you were dead. Lotte city is the location and I don't know exactly where you will show up but here we go!"
"Wait... Lotte Ci-"