I honestly believed that the worst was over.

That, after falling dozens of meters and covering I don't know how many kilometers of distance in a single fall, almost breaking his back when he landed despite being a ghost, he could disappear into the night without any problems.

Maybe even regroup with Plague. Empty-handed, again, but at least we could leave this cursed city behind and resume the search for my soul.

Of course, I was wrong. Life was basically a very long kick in the nuts. I must have gotten a fever to get so optimistic.

Ha. No, but seriously. I must not have been in my right mind.

The next kick in the nuts, as if I hadn't had enough lately, happened like this.

I rounded the corner and there it was. Death, literally and figuratively, because he could erase me like I was nothing but shit written on a blackboard and kill me for real. At least what happened to my arm was a strong indication and I didn't feel like putting it to the test.

But how had it gotten this far?

I started to take steps back, not taking my eyes off the creature. Death slowly approached me. It wasn't like it was playing with its food now that it had me cornered.

I mean, I couldn't read that creature's mind of course, but I suspected it was being cautious.

Because I had already escaped once. And it wanted to get it over with fast.

So fast, faster than me?

It couldn't have moved. I mean, not physically. Teleportation made a certain amount of sense. If he was, well, Death and took everyone with it when their time came, well, there was a lot of world to travel. Logically it had to be able to be anywhere, anytime.

I had hoped that wasn't true. That the grim reapers, its employees, were there for a reason.

It turned out that wasn't like that, of course. Of course it wasn't.

The kick in the balls always had to come.

Boy, did it hurt, this time. My balls were already swollen.

I had to fight, I had to keep going. But would my resistance do any good? Before I had at least hoped that it would lose sight of me. Yet it had appeared here. It was obvious that it knew where I was. That maybe it always would. Always.

Then I traced my sister's face in my mind's eye and forgot such nonsense.

Gathering my courage, I ran out against the wall of a building. I had to take advantage of any possible obstacle and assume I could do this.

If even I couldn't believe in my victory, then it was truly impossible.

I received some help from the heavens. It was about time, instead of just kicking me in the nuts. It's not that Plague came at the last moment.

Death stopped; a circle of blue flames had formed around him. But it wasn't just flames. The thing threw itself against something, an invisible wall, trying to tear it down. Apparently, it was a barrier it couldn't cross. Not without effort, at least.

-I've got you.

I recognized that voice. I lifted my head, seeing the masked man on top of the building I'd been heading for, though by now the mask only covered half of his face. Well. The other half was also covered, in part. He had a few broken pieces stuck deep under his eye and on his cheeks.

Still, he was grinning from ear to ear. Fucking lunatic.

The masked man launched himself downward, sliding down the front of the building to the ground. Not that I cared. Before disappearing into the wall, I heard the following.

-There is no need to complicate things. If you grant me immortality....

Oh, so that's what it was? The purpose of their little shitty group. The reason they had dragged me into their mess. The quest for immortality, of course, that's how he'd enlisted the help of so many people in his suicide mission. Could there be a sweeter promise?

But those people mattered little to the masked man.

Me, he had said, instead of us. Ha, right.

What idiots. But what a bunch of idiots.

At least at last, soon, I could put an end to this little detour.

Maybe there was a window open or my ears were better than I thought, but it wasn't the only thing I heard.

-...and I'll hand that ghost over so you can pass him on to the afterlife.

I froze.

Of course, the masked man didn't know the whole context. He couldn't know that my soul had been stolen and I needed to get it back to go anywhere. But... could that be true, could it really be that easy?

If I had lost or surrendered to the creature, would I already be in the afterlife, waiting for my sister?

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

It couldn't be that simple. But those words planted the roots of doubt deep in my heart. Partly because it was something I wanted to believe, but on the other hand there were things that had bothered me from the beginning.

For example, what was I doing walking around here in spirit form, if my soul had been stolen.

For instance, if that asshole wanted me to fix this, how come he hadn't given me a little help, not even a hint.

I didn't turn around or stop, though.

I ran out of there, out of town.

In the rain, because it started raining again on top of it. I didn't care, though. I hardly felt cold. I stretched out my arms in the rain, staring into the black sea of the skies. There he was.

Up there, somewhere. Looking over my shoulder. And laughing.

“Are you listening to me?” Maybe it wasn't a good idea to shout, at the risk of revealing my position. Right now I cared rather little, though. Above all I was angry. I felt cheated, humiliated. Taken for a fool. “Get down here! Get down here and give me some answers! Or you can forget about me being your plaything! You bastard! You owe me! You...”

You owe me. But I choked on my own words. Because there it was.

He had told me they couldn't interfere in this world and that was maybe the one thing he hadn't lied to me about. Because he wasn't exactly in this world. I saw him reflected in a puddle of water.

Or a creature like him, another reaper, it was possible, but it didn't matter.

I had gotten an answer and that was enough for me.

“Speak the fuck up! I'm not very patient.”

“If we had more information to give you, we would have done it before sending you here. You don't want to be our plaything? All right. If you want to disappear forever, you can stop searching for your soul. It's a job like any other. Sometimes there are losses, regrettable mistakes. But life goes on.”

I gritted my teeth.

I gritted them very hard.

“Don't give me that shit. Why is your boss after me, then?”

“My boss? What are you talking about?”

“Death with a capital “D”, asshole. That's what I'm talking about.”

“He wouldn't do that. If anything, you're being chased by Death from the other world.”

“There's more than one?”

“One for each world. For the system to work, there must be the necessary pieces. And no more. If it's chasing you for anything, that's why.”

“Huh?”

“You're a piece that shouldn't be in the system. I can't simplify it any further even if you ask me to.”

On top of that he was mocking me to my face. I spat on the puddle of water, even though I knew it wasn't going to reach him, that he wasn't even, in fact, going to reward me with a disgusted reaction. Not because he wasn't disgusted, but because I couldn't see his face.

Only that black cloak that the grim reapers and Death seemed to like so much.

A grim job, obviously, but they were trying too hard, if you ask me.

“Anything else, human?”

“If they stole my soul, what the hell am I? How can I walk around like a ghost?”

“You're like a spiritual footprint. Nothing but a trail of your soul. That's why your time is so limited.”

I couldn't judge whether that answer made sense or not. To me all this craziness didn't make any sense, so who knows. I also couldn't be sure if he was telling the truth or lying.

Of course, that didn't mean he wasn't lying. Just that he was good at hiding it.

Or that it was harder to recognize the signs in an inhuman creature.

“What if I don't believe you? What if I refuse to play by your rules?”

The thing was silent for a long time. To the point where I came to think it had cut the connection, or something like that. But then it spoke.

The worst kick in the nuts was reserved for the end of this day, as dark as its night.

“We can't do anything. Not now that you're in that world. Otherwise, we wouldn't need you to clean up our own mess. We can afford this failure up to a point, but order, the system, is important.... What if we kill your sister?”

I was left frozen...

“She's still here. Mourning your death” And breathless, god, I've never been punched so hard before “, but alive. Safe. And within our reach. You don't need to say anything. I see in your face that you understand.”

“Yes. I understand.”

But not like he thought I did.

At that moment I understood that they had to die. Why should I simply cooperate, trusting that they would keep their promise? That they wouldn't keep playing with me, no, with us?

That would be foolish. No, they had to die.

As long as there was a chance that they would kill Angela, I couldn't sleep easy, so I would have to exterminate every last one of them. The reapers and even Death itself.

I still had no idea how to do that, but I understood that I had to.

My path changed again. It wasn't enough to recover my soul, which could be anywhere. I had to mow down even Death itself.

“I understood it all perfectly.”

“I'm happy to hear it.”

And with a few last words of mockery, his reflection disappeared from the pool of water. I kicked the puddle. Another unimportant gesture, which only served to express my anger and frustration in some way, because otherwise I would fucking explode. For sure. Like a fucking piñata.

“You're happy, huh? You're happy. And I'd be happy to be at peace for the first time in my miserable life.”

I dropped to the ground, on the wet grass. As I said before, I barely noticed the cold (or anything, really) and that hadn't changed. Not even by getting heated up with this very... unfruitful conversation.

“Great. Great.”

After a while, I heard footsteps and thought that thing had come to finish what it had started. It turned out to be a different kind of thing, though.

Plague. It had managed to find me, after all.

“Where are we going now?” she asked.

And I...

I couldn't help but burst out laughing like someone who perhaps needed some downtime in a padded cell.

Ah, life.

“What does that mean?” Plague asked.

“It means I have no idea.” It was better to laugh than cry, so I kept laughing like a complete idiot. What am I saying? I was a complete idiot.

Plague frowned. And kicked me in the side.

“I'm hungry. Get a move on.”

I clicked my tongue, irritated, but in the end I decided to obey. I had enough problems and stuff on my hands. It wouldn't do for me to come to blows with my only ally. I was counting on them not stabbing me in the back until we found my soul, but that wasn't necessarily true.

Maybe their patience would run out long before I had a chance to satiate their hunger.

So, well, that was that. I reluctantly obeyed.

“I have no idea where to go, okay? Give me some ideas.”

Quiet.

“I can't do this alone. Give me some ideas.”

More of the same. It was like a wall. But really, it was my fault for expecting anything.

She had done enough finding me. I had been half convinced she wouldn't make it and I would have to continue the journey alone. I was grateful. If you really appreciate it, why don't you tell her? That's what I thought. It was a good point.

“Thank you for being here,” I said, putting a hand on her shoulder.

Plague looked back at me and I saw something like gratitude and companionship in her eyes.

“Get a move on.” But it turned out to be just hunger.

Anyway.

Laughing again, I resumed my journey, leaving that damned city and its crazy inhabitants behind me at last. I resumed the journey in the same manner as at the beginning: having no fucking idea where the fuck I was going, or what to do.

——

Where did the rest of the day go, you ask?

You see, it turns out ghosts do need sleep. Or something like that. Get their energy back, anyway. Before I knew it, everything went black. And when I woke up, Plague was on top of me, staring. Perhaps contemplating whether she should try to devour me, settle for the leftovers of my soul.

Oh, and the sun had risen. What I didn't know was that it had gone down and come back up.

“What do you mean I've been sleeping all day?”

My cry startled a flock of crows, causing them to fly away. I wished I could do the same.