"He has to be wearing contacts, right?"
"He doesn't look like the type though…"
"He looks like my type, that's how he looks to me." I roll my eyes and push off the wall I'd been leaning on to move away from the chattering pair of girls a few feet away from me. They had stepped out of the casino they had been in to smoke, even though almost all casinos in Las Vegas let you smoke inside. Their cheeks look flushed though and they were swaying from side to side, so their drunk asses probably didn't realize every other person in the casino with them was puffing on something.
"Where are you going?" I hear one of the girls calling to me as I make my way to somewhere a little quieter.
I was here for a soul, one that hasn't been ripped from its body quite yet. Aster had told me this girl was in for a particularly awful death, and he didn't want her soul to have a chance to linger and get angry, so I was supposed to wait until exactly eleven fifty-seven pm, then go to the bathroom of room two fourteen in the Bellagio. He said it was very important that I don't go early. He has always looked out for me, so I usually listened.
I glance at the black watch that rests on my wrists. Still another twenty minutes to go.
I've reaped a lot of souls over these last few years.
I've learned a lot, I've seen a lot, and I've most definitely changed a lot.
In the beginning, I struggled a little, mentally with my new job. It was harder than I thought, to see someone falling to their knees and begging you not to take them away from their lives.
I just had to keep telling myself, I'm not the one killing them. The only thing "saving" a soul would do is screw me over, because mine would be destroyed in return. Aster told me that, after I had talked to him a little about what people said to me when I was reaping them.
He had looked at me very seriously and told me I was never to save a life, because it would cost me my own. Permanently. There would be no other vessel to put my soul into, because it would just be gone. The universe demands balance, apparently, and you just can't save an already dead soul for free. The prices must be equal, a life for a life.
And I definitely didn't feel like giving up my soul for any of the people I had met so far.
Some of them weren't bad.
A lot of them were just people. Those were the ones who asked the same kind of questions. "Am I going to heaven? Or hell?" "Is there an afterlife? What about God?" I told them the truth, because they wouldn't remember anyways. I told them that, too. Some had a hard time with the truth of reincarnation, especially the ones who were especially devoted to religion.
Those were the ones who called me a demon, the devil, death himself. It kind of irritated me at first, but then I realized they were just scared. They were just lashing out because they didn't know any better. The only reason I did know better was because I hadn't chosen to be put into another body when I died. These people didn't have that option.
There were also definitely a couple more interesting people. These were one's Aster sent me after specifically because he thought I'd be able to handle them best. A young woman who was convinced she was a witch and tried using her "powers" on me to steal mine stood out in my memories the most.
She was not, in fact, a witch, and her soul was reaped, just like everyone's is.
"Finally." I mutter to myself when I glance at my watch again and see I've only got five minutes left. It'll take me a second to get through the lobby and to the room, so I shouldn't be early if I start that way now.
I avoid looking at anyone in particular as I make my way through the crowded casino's lobby and to the elevators.
I had kind of leaned into the weird hot demon look I had going for me. I had learned a few years back from Grey, another reaper, that unless you have continued, daily contact with a human, they'll forget you. I had been wondering how they just strutted about looking the way they did without causing a fuss, and he had filled me in on the secret I feel Aster purposely withheld from me. Maybe he was trying to keep me from showboating. But Grey reassured me they had all been walking around in front of humans for literally thousands of years and nothing worse than a crazed stalker has occurred yet.
But because of that fact, I got a lot of attention when I walked around in public. I made a lot of people uncomfortable, I think, but a lot of other people couldn't keep their eyes off of me. I haven't gotten caught up with anything so far though.
Right now, was definitely one of those times I was getting looked at a little too much for my taste. I had worn a black button up that I tucked into a pair of black pleated dress pants that stopped above my ankle. I was so tall now; I'd had to pay some guy five hundred dollars for two specially made pairs of these. My shoes were black square toed dress shoes with silver lining on the toes, to match the shiny silver on the black belt I was wearing. It also went with the silver necklace I had on. I was in Vegas, so walking around in a hoodie with sunglasses on might make me look more suspicious. I didn't want the casino security to think I was cheating or something and give me a hard time.
"What floor do you need?" I glance at the older woman who chirps at me as she pushes the elevator's buttons.
"Three please." She turns to smile at me but visibly jumps when her eyes meet mine.
"Oh." She sort of taps her chest with her hand and turns back around to face the elevator doors. She was definitely one of the people I now made uncomfortable. My all black eyes and pointed ears were definitely not something you see every day.
She almost sprints off the elevator when it stops on the third level. I wait for her to disappear around the corner before I get off too.
Sorry lady, but we all have jobs to do.