Karma's Grim Reaper

Sakina looked at the profiles as she got ready. The first was a heart attack casualty in a sixty-year-old man, one of many in the pile, and what Sakina had expected to be a standard profile. The second was not what she had expected—sepsis in an infant no older than five hours. There were profiles of deaths from old age, kidney failure, cancer, and other, lesser known illnesses.

The hopeful reaper decided to borrow a scythe this time, though she knew the accessory had little use. She just wanted to give it a try—that was part of the appeal, wasn't it? Like a doctor's white coat.

She didn't go with a black cloak, but rather a pink hi-lo dress. She didn't know if Karma was watching, but if she was, then Sakina wanted her to see how good she could look, too. The cloak was an identifier, like the scythe, but together they were a cliché. Karma would never be able to hack a cliché.

Sakina followed the other Reapers to the travel room. Five arches lined up against the back wall, each containing a different muddled image inside it. The Reapers each went through one, indiscriminately, and disappeared. Sakina cast a nervous look around, but all the Reapers had gone and N.C. was nowhere to be found. She thought for a moment, and then took a chance and went through the first portal that felt right.

On the other side Sakina found herself in a luxurious bedroom with a king size bed, a dresser, a bookshelf, and a desk. Behind her, the muddled portal still stood. Beside the desk stood a man who matched the picture in her first profile. He clutched his chest with one hand and his desk chair with the other, sputtering soft noises from his lips as he clung to life. There was no one else in the room, and no one else in the house.

N.C. had already designed this death.

Sakina heaved her scythe up and stepped lightly around the bed to face the man. He couldn't see her, but she hadn't thought he would. His breath came in spurts. It wasn't time yet. She waited, wondering what the sign would look like, wondering if there was a sign beyond her instincts. Was it a built-in intuition? Was it a learned skill?

Just when she started to doubt her ability to decipher it, a shadow of the man, unburdened by his physical appearance, pulled away from him. The shadow was quick, but she managed to snatch it before it got away from her. The body of the man collapsed on the floor as his soul struggled in Sakina's grasp. She pulled it, though it resisted, back toward the portal and they both evanesced through.

On the other side, three out of four reapers were already back, accompanied by four of the five Causes. Karma and Ryan were absent from the room.

Sakina held the wriggling shadow out to N.C., beaming with pride. Two of the reapers paid her no mind, but Kallie looked at her with amused disdain.

"It took you that long to get one soul?" Kallie said, and then laughed. "Forget it. You'll never be able to handle N.C.'s workload."

"Hey," N.C. snapped. "It was her first reaping. Think about your own souls." He turned back to Sakina. "You did fine. You'll pick up speed once you get the hang of it and get a rhythm going."

The pride she had felt upon coming back through the portal disappeared and gave a swift punch to her chest as it left. She brushed off the disappointment, turned back around, and went through the portal again. The next soul she brought back took roughly the same amount of time and was met with the same amount of scorn. After the next soul, Karma and her reaper were in the room and Sakina almost asked why Kallie didn't give Ryan a hard time. But she knew the answer: Ryan had to design a death first.

After the fifth soul, the rest of the reapers began departing. Their souls were collected, and their day was done, but Sakina had about ten more to go.

"Don't worry," N.C. said, "we're usually here after everyone else."

Sakina went back through the portal ten more times, collecting ten more souls. It didn't feel like a very long time, but time clearly passed differently for the Causes of Death than for a reaper.

With the final soul collected, N.C. nodded with finality. "I think you'll do fine. You're not the quickest yet, but you will be."

"Does that mean I've got the job?"

"You've got the job."

Sakina squealed excitedly, almost dropping her scythe as she jumped up and down.

"Be here at 8am for the morning reapings. I'll have a talk with Accident about Kallie before then."