101: Karie Mulligan

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101: Karie Mulligan

CoD: Drug Overdose

ToD: 27.09.2014, 20:35

LoD:

The last thing Kazuo Takashima anticipated witnessing as a grim reaper was an Excel spreadsheet listing the names of all the souls he had to reap. 101 souls, to be exact. When he was accompanied by an elderly sage in a sheer black full-length robe, the destination he presumed to reach was a mystical cavern with ancient scrolls, not a Xerox shop. To make it even worse, it was the one he regularly visited when he was alive. A significant portion of his education loans was spent on fancy notes and scholarly references that never came to use-- Kazuo realised with a sigh.

20:32. Three more minutes. When Kazuo arranged the deal with the Council of Reapers to collect 101 souls as one of them, in return for being able to spend on Earth the time required for the task, he never thought the job would be as mundane as it turned out to be. All those movies and dramas had him worried about having to encounter snarly beasts and abominable monsters, or the least, a fierce spirit with no apprehension about tearing someone's head off, but the worst he ever came across was an aged woman who locked herself in her room, refusing to come out. Although, it did take him a great deal of persuasion for her to finally be convinced of what had to be done.

20:33. But none among the other hundred souls he reaped had put him in a difficult situation like the one he faced right then. Awkward, he lingered around the public ladies' washroom, reluctant to go in. With only two minutes left, he had to reach her before the aberrations from the Underworld sensed her death. Amassing all his courage, Kazuo took a deep breath, which he instantly regretted, before striding headfirst into the compartment she was in.

"What in the actual fu--" Maybe he had miscalculated the pacing of his little parade to the washroom, but it was infallible that Ms Karie Mulligan was not dead.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to--" Kazuo stepped out and shut the door loudly behind him. To say he was embarrassed would have been an underrepresentation of the circumstances that had befallen him.

20:35. She was supposed to be dead, but Kazuo could still hear her mumbling from the inside. Had he interfered with the universal balance of life and death? Was this bound to have consequences? However, before the introspection could lull him into a transient reassurance, the door clicked open, almost hurling him backwards into a fall.

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"I know you all love me, but barging into the toilet is really where I draw the line."