Valeria is standing in front of the elevators thinking of ways to find the runaway soul of Lex Lindi while Mark had offered her a ride. Sophie is clinging on to Mark while he is looking at Valeria lasciviously when the elevator doors opened. Lex Lindi's soul was inside the elevator. Lex Lindi's soul stared at Sophie who is clinging on to Mark, then at Mark who was looking at Valeria.
"You are his lover too??? And you are here to take my soul??? NEVER!" Lex Lindi exclaimed. Her soul transformed into a red angry apparition and she rushed at Valeria with a loud shriek.
Valeria stumbled back to avoid her, forgetting that a new soul can never harm her and fell over but found Mark catching her.
"Oops…are you alright…Miss?" he asked, his hand gripping her waist firmly. "I never got your name,"
Lex Lindi is still shrieking in her face, her soul twisted into a red angry apparition. Valeria didn't know who to concentrate on at that moment. Does she grab the damn soul and shake it back to its senses or give her cheating husband a slap and a knee in the groin?
Instead, she chose the lamest way out of the situation, she sidled out of Mark's hand and jumped away from the angry shrieking Lex Lindi soul. Ignoring Mark, she ran back to Lex Lindi's room and the soul followed, still shrieking angrily at her.
Once inside the room, she closed the door and locked it. She doesn't need Mark to come in here at this moment. First, it would seem Lex Lindi knows Mark. Second, Mark seems interested in Valeria's new face and body, not knowing that she is actually his wife. Third, Lex Lindi is still shrieking at her. Fourth, annoying demon slacker Ari is waiting for them inside the room.
She turned to the shrieking soul and glared at it.
"Shuddup you spoilt shrieking banshee!" she told the angry soul. That seemed to work as it stopped shrieking and its face returned to a semblance of Lex Lindi's face.
"You! You stole Mark from me!" Lex Lindi accused.
Valeria rolled her eyes. "Honestly, he is the last man I want at this moment, I wish I can reap him too,"
"He was looking at you the way he used to look at me!" Lex Lindi continued.
"Yes, because he's a cheating horny asshole who goes after every single thing in a skirt…I can't believe it took me so long to realise that," she told the soul.
"Wow. Drama. I need me some popcorn," Ari interjected, strolling over to stand between them,
Both of them turned to him and glared at him.
"Shuddup!" they said in unison.
"Well, at least both of you agreed on one thing…you don't only share the same man, seems you think alike too!" Ari remarked, unperturbed by the furious glare from the two women (or should it be a woman and a soul?).
"Ignore the annoying smart aleck demon," Valeria told Lex Lindi.
"Ugh. Never realised demons are so annoying," Lex Lindi replied.
"Hey, stop it! I am not a demon, I am a reaper, a high ranking reaper if you must know," Ari protested.
"So said the high ranking reaper-demon who was stabbed by a housewife and now couldn't even reap souls," Valeria retorted.
"Ugh. Loser," Lex Lindi agreed.
"What is this? Gang up on the injured reaper day?" Ari asked, crossing his arms on his chest. "Just do your job Valeria, the longer the soul remains outside, the higher chance it might turn," he said.
"Turn into what?" both of them asked together.
"But I can't go, I need revenge!" Lex Lindi added firmly. She looked imploringly at Valeria.
"Please let me take my revenge on Mark. I shouldn't have given up my life for him," she pleaded.
Valeria accessed her soul information. It is true. Souls of dead humans must not remain too long outside, after seven days it will turn evil and it will be very hard to catch.
"Well, you have seven days to do it but you are in spirit form now, how do you plan to take your revenge? He won't be able to see you anyway," she told Lex Lindi.
"You will lose your points to increase your powers to float if you don't deliver her soul within the hour," Ari reminded her.
That's right. The reaper system that she was given. She supposed she could defer gaining the ability to float a bit more.
"I want to haunt Mark and make him regret playing with my emotions," Lex Lindi said. "He was my first, I gave him my virginity, he told me he will marry me and when I got pregnant, he told me to abort the baby and he left me," she said. If her soul could cry, she would be sobbing now. Instead, she glowed red with anger.
Ari snorted at that. They both glared at him again.
"Why do humans seem to think they can 'haunt' someone once they die? Such a misconception," he said.
"That's true Lex Lindi. He can't see or hear you. There's no way for you to haunt him or scare him," Valeria told the soul.
"Then tell me how to exact my revenge on him! I will not go with you until I've had my revenge!" she said.
Why does this soul have to be so difficult? Isn't soul reaping supposed to be a simple job of 'you're dead, come with me, lets go'? Earlier this morning the soul asked to pass a message and now this one wants revenge.
What next? A murder victim asking her to find the murderer? All she wanted to do is to reap the soul to meet her target and free her own soul from being sent down to hell. Is that so hard to do?
"This is all your fault!" Valeria spat at Ari. If he hadn't rush at her with that switch blade, she wouldn't have accidentally stabbed him and she wouldn't be in this situation now.
"I already told you, reapers do not fulfil the soul's wishes," Ari reminded her.
"If you don't go now, you will turn evil and ah…ahhh….cause bad luck to befall your family and they will die early," Valeria used a similar line as she used Jane McLean this morning.
Lex Lindi's soul laughed. "I don't have any family so it doesn't matter," she said. She pointed at her lifeless body.
"I killed the only family I have…" she said, looking at her body's belly.
Valeria realised the Lex Lindi is still pregnant with her Mark's baby. That hurt. It only proves that Valeria is really barren and that Mark could be sleeping around and impregnating countless women. Sowing his wild oats, so to speak.
"That asshole, I'm gonna kill him," Valeria muttered.
"So, are you one of his girlfriends too?" Lex Lindi asked.
"I am his wife but he has not touched me in years, we barely even talk anymore, I am more his mother's maid and errand girl," Valeria replied ruefully.
"His wife? You are not ugly at all! In fact you are gorgeous! He told me that you are so ugly he was repulsed by you, that was why he fell in love with me…he was lying all along," Lex Lindi said.
Valeria decided not to tell the soul that she looked different than her original face and body. There is no point revealing everything to one of her husband's many girlfriends.
"So, will you let me exact revenge on him? I won't leave unless I get my revenge!" Lex Lindi said.
Fish sticks in fish hell. Now what? She looked at Ari. He merely shrugged and smirked at her. She was tempted to punch his smug face and wipe that smirk off his face.
"Don't you dare," he said in response.
Lex Lindi looked at them.
"Are you guys dating?" she asked them.
"What are you crazy??" Valeria exclaimed at the same time as Ari exclaimed "Reapers do not date humans!"
"So, let me have my revenge please," Lex Lindi continued.
"Okay, so what do you have in mind?" Valeria relented. Lex Lindi's revenge will also sort of be her revenge. Mark had been cheating on her and she doesn't even know for how long. He didn't even care that his mother had kicked his wife out just like that. In the middle of winter too. She wanted revenge too!
"Really? You are going to ignore my advice and do this?" Ari interrupted them.
"Oh shuddup, there are no reaper rules that say I can't help the soul take revenge," Valeria told him.
"A will not like it," Ari said.
"Who cares what A likes or doesn't like? This won't deduct any points in my system anyway," Valeria said.
"Fine, go ahead, don't say I didn't warn you," Ari crossed his arms and stomped off to another side of the room.
Lex Lindi looked at Valeria for a long moment and she frowned.
"But why was he looking at you like he wanted you if you are his wife? He told me so many times that he no longer has any interest in you,"
"This is ah…my…reaper face and body," Valeria improvised.
Lex Lindi nodded, then her face lighted up. Her whole soul actually glowed white.
"I know! You can pretend to seduce him, take pictures, share those pictures with his other women and then dump his ass," she suggested.
Not a bad idea, Valeria thought.