Valeria Brinstrone watched in amazement as smoke curled from the wound of the man after she dripped a drop of her own blood on his wound.
"What is this? Am I on some prank show?" she muttered. She looked around. The parking lot was deserted. No camera crew around. She turned back to the man-creature-thing.
Definitely not human, she thought.
A zombie maybe? She studied him. No rotting flesh was apparent and no putrid stench of rotting flesh, so maybe not.
An elf maybe? He is tall and quite fair looking, like one of those elves in fantasy movies.
She stared at his ears. No pointed tips. Okay, so maybe not an elf.
What is he? A monster that looks like a human? Then she gasped. Maybe he is a demon. That is why he needed human blood to heal.
Fishsticks! She just helped a demon and now he's going to recover and eat her soul or something.
This day could not have become much worse than this at this rate! Just then, the creature - no, the thing - no, the demon - stirred and opened his silvery eyes.
"Thanks for that, at least you understand simple instructions," he said sarcastically.
This is not a mere demon but a smart aleck, smart mouthed demon, she thought.
"I just saved your ass, you…you…demon!" she said. Fear is now filling her belly but she refused to give in to it.
The man-creature-thing-demon laughed and then gasped from the pain on his wound. He clutched it, grimacing in pain.
At least the wound has stopped oozing black goo. Her expensive leather seats are saved but the safety of her soul remains to be discussed.
"I'm not a demon, you ignorant fool," he finally said.
"You are oozing black goo, that's not human, so what are you?" she asked.
They sounded like they are having a normal every day conversation. What are you doing today? Oh nothing, stabbing a demon and feeding it my blood, just usual stuff.
"I'm a reaper and my name is Ari," he said.
"Well, that's a relief, yay, you at least have a name," she replied sarcastically. How is a reaper better than a demon? Aren't they one and the same?
"You are still a demon in my opinion," she told him categorically.
He shifted and slowly sat up and she shrank away from him in fear. Dammit. Why did she even give him that drop of blood? Now he's going to eat her soul.
"I'm not going to eat your soul, don't be a dramatic Karen," he said to her.
She gasped. Fishsticks! He can read her thoughts.
"My name is Valeria, not Karen, thank you and if you're not going to eat my soul, why did you try to stab me earlier?" she asked him indignantly.
The switch blade, still covered in black goo, is lying on the floor of the front passenger seat. She is not so stupid as to leave it in the back seat with him. She didn't want to be back stabbed. Literally.
"I told you I am a reaper and it is your time, I had to reap you," he said.
"Reap me? REAP ME? What the fish sticks in fish hell! Why???" she asked loudly, shocked.
"Did you not hear me lady?" he sounded annoyed. He pulled his mask off.
"IT"
"IS"
"YOUR"
"TIME"
He enunciated each word loudly and slowly as if she is either hard of hearing or too slow to catch up.
She was too enamoured by his face to even notice the sarcasm in his tone. He has a sculpted face, high aquiline nose, sharp cheekbones and a strong jawline. Coupled with his strange grey-silver eyes, he is one gorgeous specimen of a man, even though technically, he is not a man.
"Eh, hello lady? Are you having a fit? A stroke? Hello?" he waved at her when she didn't respond to him after a full minute.
He sat up carefully and leaned to the front. At his proximity, she suddenly came to her own awareness from gazing dreamily at his handsome face.
Get a hold of yourself Valeria Brinstrone! You are a married woman and that is a demon! She told herself.
"You were saying? My time for what?" she asked him.
He sighed, a long suffering sound.
"For the last time, I am a reaper, not a demon. You being married or not has no bearings at all in whether it is your time or not and it is your time to go," he said patiently.
"Go where?" she asked, puzzled.
Does he want her to go with him? He didn't even need to brandish a knife, she thought. All he should have done was show his face and she will gladly follow. She giggled at the thought and stifled it consciously.
She seemed to have missed the whole point of him being a reaper.
He sighed another long-suffering sigh.
"Time to go to the next life. Kick the bucket. Pass on. Expire. Cease to live. Bite the dust. Go belly up. DIE," he said.
Then realisation hit her. He's here to KILL her?
"Hey, I saved you! So now, what, you are going to kill me? That's the thanks I get for risking staining my car with your black goo, risk staining my clothes with your black goo, dragging your heavy ass to my car and pricking my finger to give you that one drop of blood?" she asked belligerently.
To think her in-laws are ungrateful annoying assholes but this demon here is an even bigger ungrateful asshole. Why does everyone thinks it is okay to bully her? Even if this bully here is so damn dreamily good looking.
He gritted his teeth in irritation.
"I said, I am not heavy. You have weak muscles. And I am not going to kill you, I was here to collect you and take you to the afterlife," he explained.
"Oh, that explains it. Taking my soul is definitely not killing me, thanks for making that clear," she shot back.
"Lady, honestly, you are such an annoying…"
"The name is Valeria, stop with this lady nonsense, you make me sound like an old grandmother," she interrupted him. He exhaled loudly.
"Look, Valeria Maeve Aurelaire Brinstrone, now that you've injured me, I can't reap your soul," he said.
Oh joy. At least there's some good news, she thought.
She's not even surprised that he knows her full name. If he is the soul reaper-demon thing, whatever you call that thing, he should know everything about her.
"And since you've injured me, I can't reap souls, and since I can't reap souls, you have to take my place to reap souls on my behalf," he continued.
Wait. WHAT?
Her eyes widened and she literally gave a short high pitched scream of surprise.
"Ugh. Do you need to do that?" the reaper/demon thing stuck his fingers in his ears and rubbed it.
"Again, I am NOT a demon, jeez, lady, get it right! Just REAPER. One word," he added.
Right. He can read minds.
She immediately stopped herself from thinking further thoughts but the more she tried to stop thinking the more her brain wanted to think of inappropriate things such as what does his hair looks like under that hoodie? How tall is he actually? Wonder if he has a shredded body underneath or is it literally shredded as in skeletal?
"Jeez…ugh…stop," he protested. "I am a reaper, get that in your head!"
"Wait, so I am supposed to reap souls for you? Like a slave to you? Is this how mass murderers are made? Do I go on some rampage and kill people? What weapons do I use? A gun? You should know, I am a coward, I can't even kill a cockroach," she told him.
"Ugh. Lady. Please," he raised his hand to stop her. "Let me explain."
"But wait, where's your scythe?" she asked. She didn't see him carrying one.
If he was carrying one, she would not have such a hard time figuring out what sort of creature-thing he is.
He pointed at the goo-covered switch blade lying innocently on the floor.
"There's my 'scythe'," he said.
She laughed.
"Haha. Very funny. That's a puny little switch blade, hardly a scythe, did all that blood goo loss affect your vision? Maybe your brains?" she asked.
"We are in the 21st century and in a cosmopolitan city, I would think a man in a black flowing robe holding a scythe would attract way too much attention isn't it?" he pointed out drily.
"You mean other people can see you too? I thought only those who are dying can see you?" she asked.
This time he looked sheepish.
"Well, sometimes, we can choose to be seen in the human world," he said. "We don't actually use the scythe anyway, it is mostly symbolic, we can use any object in any shape to reap a soul so I changed it to a switch blade," he explained.
"Now, back to business. You injured me and now I can't reap souls until I am fully healed and since you revived me with your blood, you are now bound to me so you will have to reap souls on my behalf until I am fully recovered," he said.
"Yes, you said that earlier but how? You didn't say how…at least give me a manual or a guide book or a game system or a YouTube tutorial at least," she said.
"Kiss me," he responded, gesturing to his lips.
She gaped at him.