A Very Different Reaper Chapter 6

6. An Unhappy Birthday

Mandy lounged in the backyard by the pool, incredibly bored.  It was her 13th birthday, and everyone had thrown her a surprise party...which she had found out about three weeks in advance, due to Billy's inability to keep a secret.  There were tons of presents, of course, and those boys not to wierded out by her attitude were attempting - pathetically - to flirt.  She admitted she looked good, but still, could they be anymore obvious?

Grim was the only point of interest at the party.  He simply stood, watching everything.  At other times, his presence would go unnoticed or uncommented on, but his gaze seemed to be more piercing today.  When she felt it pass over her, she felt a sudden delighted shiver pass over her.

What was wrong with her?  Had she developed a...a CRUSH on the Grim Reaper?  THat was totally ridiculous.  But then again...she had always felt drawn to power, and Grim represented the penultimate power, the great equalizer.  And at the same time, those breif flashes where he acted almost...human.

On recent adventures, he had been especially protective of her.  When that Nergal fellow had started showing an unhealthy interest in her, Grim had gotten right in his face and made him back off.  Then, well...

Flashback...

"Grim, think about this," Nergal said, grinning.  "You don't dare take my head, we both know that."

Grim jammed his scythe into the ground by the hilt, and cracked his knuckles.  "Come on, then, if you think you're hard enough."

End of Flashback...

Grim had beaten Nergal to a bloody, broken pulp with his bare hands and a few occult spells!  And, since as Grim had said, "No one dies without losing their head," he could pound mercilessly on the demon for as long as he pleased without fear of killing.  The sheer elegance and brutality of that fight...well, it was enlightening for Mandy to discover she had a bit of visophile in her.

Tired of these wandering thoughts, Mandy went to the kitchen to get something to drink other than the punch Billy had snorted some boogers into.  Walking into the kitchen she tripped over an empty bottle, stumbled...

A knife gashed her arm open all along the vein.

She stared at the wound.  Was this her end?  At the rate the blood was pouring out, there was no way she could survive this-

The blood flow slowed, stopped...and reversed.  The blood returned into her body, and the wound sealed itself  up.

She stared in shock.  Now, she'd been magically disfigured, destroyed, and suffered any number of mystical and supernatural things that should have killed her, but it made sense that Grim could and did prevent or undo those deaths.  This...this was a perfectly mundane death by natural events...that just undid itself.  She stared around the kitchen for an explanation.

Her eyes fell on the hourglass.  Walking up, she examined it.  THere wasn't much sand in the bottom, compared to most rundown hourglasses she'd seen, and the top was empty, meaning this was a dead person's glass.  She wondered why Grim had left it lying around like this, and why it seemed to sparkle.  She looked at the name.

MANDY

She fell back into the chair behind her.  This was...her hourglass?  But...if she had run out of the sands of time...why was she still alive?

"So you found it."

She spun.  Grim stood there, watching her carefully.  She slowly got herself under control.  "How long?" she stammered out.

"Two years," he said simply.

"And why haven't you taken my head yet?"

Grim shrugged.  She hated when he shrugged, it meant his answers would make no sense.  "I guess I'm being selfish."

This answer caught her completely off guard.  "What do you mean?"

"Mandy..."  His voice was so serious it scared her.  "I have been the Grim Reaper for a very long time.  It is...a thankless job.  No one likes you, few people respect you, and no one is ever happy to see you.  Doomed to eternal lonliness."

She stared at him.  She remembered the lonliness she had sensed in him when she had first met him...the lonliness that had prompted her to use friendship as the bait to make him want to lose the wager.  "You mean..."

"That's right Mandy.  You are the only true friend I have ever had.  And I refuse to lose you."

Mandy couldn't face him, not like this.  She turned away.  "Grim...get out."

"..."  Grim was silent.

"I mean it Grim.  You don't belong here.  You've wasted three years babysitting me and Billy.  It's time you went back to being who you were.  You're the Grim Reaper.  It's time you acted like it again."

Grim sighed sadly.  "As you wish," he said simply.  "Farewell, my friend.  If you need me, call."

She spun...but he was already gone.  She had thought he would put up a fight, argue...he'd never just given in to one of her whims like this before.

She'd never said anything deliberately hurtful to him, either.

She went and sat next to her hourglass.  She stared at it for a while...then tossed a towel over it.  She turned and went back to her life, burying the unexpected pain.