I'd never come face to face with a submachine gun before, I won't lie. I mean, just its name alone is enough to force some visuals.
But I definitely hadn't realized how much area he could cover with his spray of bullets. Though those themselves wouldn't do too much damage on me, none that couldn't be healed anyways, I wasn't interested in finding out what that blue goo he's flinging around would do. I mean, I saw the door. No way I wasn't doing everything I could to avoid coming into contact with it.
I can hear the suicidal guy yelling, begging the masked man to stop. He still can't see me, since I was technically still there to reap his soul, so I'm sure he thinks he's the target of the man's shooting.
But I know better, the man's eyes are fixed on me and me alone, so I steer his bullets away from the other guy by running in the opposite direction.
When he ran out of bullets, I charge towards him, determined to take advantage of his moment of weakness.
But of course, he's prepared, and drops the gun, pulling out a pair of daggers, one from a scabbard on either side of his belt. He crouches down a little and points them right at me as I charge.
I'm forced to stop or run the risk of getting shanked. Judging by his shooting and determination, I had a feeling I didn't want to be in a knife fight with this guy. I could tell he was well prepared, if nothing else. And safe to say well trained too.
Still, I wasn't just going to sit back and let him take me.
I twirl my scythe a little in my hand, eyeing the guy up and down. "Who are you?" I ask, only half expecting an answer. If he was smart, he'd keep his mouth shut, give me as little information as possible. But I was hoping he was dumb and eager for a moment to boast about whatever twisted organization he was working for. I mean, I was already assuming he was with the Portal Hoppers, but I liked to be one hundred percent sure.
He scoffs and drops his guard a little. Lucky me, it looked like he was in fact an idiot.
"Why don't we talk about who you are instead?" He says. I can hear the suicidal guy freaking out and running away, crashing through the door to exit the roof. I make eye contact with him as he leaves, and I'm a little surprised. If he could see me, it was because his fate had changed, and he wasn't going to die. At least not tonight. I'd never actually seen that happen, but Aster had told me it was definitely a thing. Sometimes it was because of the Guardians, the ones who acted as sort of angels and saved a lucky soul here and there.
But sometimes, like tonight, shit just happened. Maybe an unexpected passerby saves a man who was supposed to die from choking. It really was rare, because like I said, this was the first time I'd seen it in my handful of years doing this so far. I made a mental note to ask the other Reapers how often they ran into it when I got done here.
"You're a Reaper, a bringer of death." He hisses angrily at me. I raise an eyebrow at his overly cinematic nickname for me. Bringer of death, really?
"You realize I don't actually kill people, right?" I ask evenly. His face looks offended and slightly disgusted, and it almost makes me want to laugh.
I mean, this was just a case of pure ignorance.
"You really think I'm evil, don't you?" I ask him, taking a step closer. "Have you ever even considered what would happen if Reapers stopped reaping souls?" I ask. My movements that brought me closer make him hold his knives up again, preparing for an attack.
"Then babies would stop dying, and our loved ones would stop being taken by sickness." He says angrily, reestablishing his stance. At this point it sounded more like he was trying to convince himself rather than me.
I scoff, and shake my head, looking away. "That's a really naive way of thinking. So, lets picture it okay? No one dies anymore, because you lot take all the Reapers out." I begin, nodding a little. "It's great. Until, babies keep being born, and since no one leaves this earth, no new room is made. Resources are sucked dry, plants die as buildings and streets take over every surface of the earth. And lets talk about the other side of that, the more realistic side. Because contray to your belief, we Reapers do not have any say in who dies. Let's think about where if people do die, like what happens if someone gets hit by a bus because the streets are now so clogged with traffic from overpopulation in this new magical fairy tale land you've created!" I exclaim, holding my arms out at my sides. "Where does the soul go then? I'll tell you where: nowhere! It hangs around, getting angry and bitter. Do you really want that for people? That's not fair, and you have to know that."
He stutters a little, and I tsk as he tightens his grip on his knives. It didn't matter what I said, or how much sense it made. This guy hated me, and he'd probably spent his whole life hating me.
"If you want to kill me, give it a go." I say, backing up and twirling my scythe around again. "I will warn you; I have no intentions of dying tonight though." And in one swift movement, I slash the blade across his throat, the razor-sharp blade cutting through his soft flash faster than he can even react. If he wanted to kill me, so be it. I had tried explaining myself, tried talking to him. I couldn't let him take me out because I felt bad for the guy.
Don't forget, I'm not human.
I can move faster than him, I'm stronger. Without his metal melting blue goo and fancy guns, he's just a person. I can take his blades; I can take his stabs.
But as he falls to his knees, grabbing desperately at his gushing wound, I can confirm, he definitely cannot withstand a slit throat.