"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to." I say after a long moment of silence between Aster and me. The machine is making a ton of noise now, and he's watching it closely.
He's quiet for another long moment, but then he finally talks.
"I don't really remember the specifics of what happened anymore, because it's been so long. But sometimes, I'll get these flashes of what I suspect to be the past. I see a human me, being hung over the edge of a cliff on a stormy night. My wrists and ankles are tied to wooden stakes that protrude from the earth and blood is pouring from my mouth. I can't talk, and my throat feels like it's filling up with hot acid. Lightning is flashing in the sky, and I'm terrified." He walks over to me and checks my IVs. "Because of the time I was born in, and the fact that this is the only thing I can remember now from my time as a human, I suspect my sacrifice wasn't as self-inflicted as the rest of you. Nonetheless." He steps back then and finally makes eye contact with me. "I was a sacrifice for the greater good. So, I guess it meant I qualified for the Reaper role." His smile is very sad, and for some reason I feel guilty.
"Do you still enjoy what you do?" I ask over offering a half assed apology for something I had nothing to do with.
He smiles again, but it's happy this time.
"Very much. I love getting to read rare books my brothers bring me and hearing the stories of their adventures. I enjoy it when I get the occasional break from this place, and I get to guide a soul to its next life. I find it to be very satisfying work."
The machine makes a noise, and Aster rushes over to it. He picks up the empty bag and starts untwisting it to replace it, I assume. I avoid looking at the bag on the other side of the machine that is now full of my human blood. I wonder what they'll do with it.
"I'm back, and with good news!" Banks comes crashing through the door then, a grin on his face. "Cole has arrived, and is getting cleaned up, then he'll come here."
"Finally!" Aster sounds very excited. He's moving more quickly now to finish what he was doing. "Will you watch this for a moment? I want to go and see him. He hasn't been by in far too long." I smirk a little at how such a creepy man can look so childishly excited. Banks nods and ushers him away from the machine. Aster backs away, his eyes still shooting all over it nervously. "I will be back shortly, I promise." He makes eye contact with me, and I nod a little at him in reassurance. Yes, I will still be here waiting if you walk away. I'm not just waiting for the perfect moment to slip away. He walks out the door, and I'm left alone in silence with Banks.
My body starts to tingle a little then, and I glance down at my IV.
"I feel weird." I tell Banks. He nods a little.
"I would lay down. The blood is being absorbed into your muscles and fibers. It's magical and foreign, so you will feel some discomfort, but nothing that requires strapping you down quite yet." He winks at the end, like it was supposed to be funny, but I just raise a brow at him. I still didn't find anything about this particularly awe inspiring or exciting.
I just wanted it done.
After almost half an hour of sitting there listening to Banks talk about why York could never wield his ax, but he could York's katana, all while my veins rubbed against each other like sandpaper, Aster and Cole finally appeared.
"Hello." Cole stands above me then, his eyes flicking over my face. It was like he was seeing past me, like I wasn't a living person he was looking at. Was that the impartial trait coming through again, I wonder? "I agree, the ears need to go, and I would suggest sharpening his first premolars, as well." He turns to talk to Banks and Aster. He's very conventionally attractive, short well-kept brown hair, thick brows and a square jaw. His eyes are creepy as hell, just like everyone else's. He has two red colored irises in each eye, and all four seem to stare into you at the same time. Maybe all black eyes weren't so bad after all. His ears were pointed as well. They made him look like an elf. I could see why Aster was worried it would just rile people up more. Whatever. I hadn't complained too much about anything they said they were going to change so far; I certainly wasn't going to make my ears the one thing I bitch about.
"Is there anything you would like us to change about you?" I'm still lying down on the metal table, so Cole is leaning over me, staring at me with his bug eyes. I feel like a gnat caught in a spider web for some reason.
I shake my head a little.
Cole smiles a little, like he's just figured out a secret, and straightens up.
"How much longer until his blood is done?" He asks.
"Another thirty minutes I'd say." Banks responds, walking closer to the machine to pointlessly tap at one of the gauges.
"Go get the parts, and then we'll get started." Cole looks down at me one final time before he turns away to talk to Banks and Aster leaves to get my new body.
It was almost time.
"I never did get to hear about who you saved." Banks says as he tightens the leather strap around my ankle.
My heart was pounding in my chest like it'd never pounded before. I've never been so nervous before. I felt like I was going to vomit. I swallowed a couple of times before I responded to Banks.
"I uh, I was a bartender. And I met this girl working, and I don't know why, but I got it in my head that she needed protecting."
"Ah, she must have been very pretty." Banks moves to stand over me for a second and grin, then returns to strapping down my other ankle. Aster and Cole were arranging the tables with tools and parts in a way that everything you needed for each procedure could be grabbed from close by. Aster says the long prep time is worth it in the end, because in less than an hour, I'll be a full-blooded Reaper.
"I guess she was, but that wasn't really why I saved her. I didn't have a crush on her or anything, and I didn't even do it to be heroic. I just… I saw her falling into traffic, and I couldn't stop myself. There was never another option apart from, save this girl."
The three Reapers are quiet for a long moment.
"So, you died, for someone you didn't even know?" Cole asks a little bitterly from beside my head.
I shrug. "I guess. I mean, I obviously ended up regretting it right away, otherwise I wouldn't be getting strapped down to a table so some creep can scoop my eyeballs out of my head." Banks roars with laughter, Aster chuckles softly, and even Cole cracks a small smile.
It was time to do this.