A soul calls for me.
Well, many souls call me for me everyday, all the time, and at every hour of every day, year, or whatever method of counting time that the soul understands. I show up for everyone, but not all of them are memorable. Most of the time it’s something sad, painful, or just—well—not quite interesting.
In this case, however, I showed up to find a fellow dropped on the ground under a large tree. The trunk was like a pillar, nearly too wide for a normal human to get any grip around it, but it was just enough for someone with a desire to do so. Why would anyone want to grip such a thing? Well, it was always better to ask. I might know how things went down, but I don’t know just what kind of machinations are moving inside someone’s skull.
I inspected the body. A man, young, with broad shoulders, suntanned, strong—from the somewhat defined muscles. His legs were just as exposed as his torso, with a simple pair of leather slipped on his feet, and a white short piece of cloth that was… hanging down… allowing me to see what was underneath, which was, thankfully, another piece of cloth covering his male bits. The reason I could see all that was that his legs were hanging backwards, as if he was trying to look like a scorpion, one that was buried head first, since I couldn’t see his facial features, or even hair color, for all of that was underground.
With nothing else to see from the unmoving man, I walked past him and next to the tree. The view was nice. This tree was at the very top of a hill, surrounded by grass and some flowers, right by the edge of a drop that could kill anyone if they were to fall. A large forest spread ahead of me, and by the horizon, I could see a small shade of ocean blue glinting.
Some rustling came from behind me and I walked back to stand right behind the man who was now struggling to pop his head out of the ground after putting his legs down, making him look like someone who was rubbing his head on the dirt.
“Puah!” he let out once he freed himself, lifting dirt as he did. “That was dangerous! Thank the Gods for my training.”
After taking a deep breath, he looked down at himself, patting any dirt that he had on him and his light brown hair, before rearranging the small piece of cloth that covered his lower region. He looked up at the tree once more, sighed, and finally walked around it before plopping down on the ground to lean on it with his hands at the back of his head.
I walked closer to the tree and stood just slightly out of sight from him. “What was that about?”
“Hm?” he replied, slightly tilting his head to look this way but unable to find me, so he turned his eyes back to the wide view. “I was training. Y’see, my master told me that if I managed to get to the highest point I could find, that I could be considered the strongest warrior of the land. I fell right before getting to the top, but” —he smirked and flexed his muscles— “I’m already the strongest.”
“Is that so?” I asked, half-turning myself around to see snowy mountain peaks in the distance, before turning back. “Seems to me like you failed, buddy.”
“Hah!?” he angrily scoffed. “And who do you think you are to say that?! Do you want to die?!”
“Die? No, but you did.”
“What?!” he shouted, standing up from his spot while storming around to get to me. “Now listen here, ‘buddy’, if you’re going to—”
He stopped himself short with his mouth agape once he got to gaze at my amazing self. What kind of view was he enjoying? It was that of a tall figure, wearing jet-black robes that went from head to toe, with the head covered by a hood, under which one could only see complete darkness. And on the left hand, one handy self-defense tool: a large scythe, even taller than this figure.
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“W-what kind of clothing is this… A farmer…?” the man asked, looking me up and down, while squinting his eyes. “Also, it’s rude to talk to people while hiding your face…”
“Oh you don’t want to look at my face,” I replied, dismissively waving my scythe in the air. “And these are just coolest clothes you’ll ever lay your eyes upon, so don’t disrespect them!”
The man continued looking at the void of my hood for a while longer, seemingly confused, before shaking his head. “Whatever. What you said before still stands! I won’t be insulted like that! I didn’t fail! I got high enough to be the strongest man in the world—the proof is the fact that I’m completely unharmed after falling from such a height!”
“Unharmed?” I questioned, turning my head to look back at the base of the tree where I first found him. “That doesn’t seem to be the case.”
“What in the underworld are you…” he followed my gaze only for it to turn wider. “W-who is that!?”
“That’s you—obviously.”
Splayed on the ground was someone who looked exactly like him, only that this one had his neck turned in the wrong way, with one arm bent the wrong way, and a pool of blood being absorbed by the ground.
He took a step back. “No… no, it can’t be, that has got to be some random man sleeping.”
“You’re telling me you didn’t see this dead dude, in such a condition, just a couple of minutes ago?”
He hesitantly shook his head. “I-I didn’t see anything. B-besides, h-how could that be me if I’m standing right here? Ha-Hahahaha!”
“Oh, you’re right! Hahaha!” I laughed along for a couple of seconds, before snapping my head to look seriously at the man, who shut himself up right after. “Don’t be stupid, nobody falls on their head from such a height without at least breaking a few bones.”
“W-well, maybe if he’s the strongest man on the land, it might be—”
“No, and that’s enough. Come on, time to go,” I interrupted, taking a couple of steps closer to him.
“N-no, it’s not my time yet! I-I’ve got a lot of things left to do!” he argued, taking a couple of steps away from me. “You can’t take me yet!”
“Hey, don’t make things harder for me. I’ve got a couple of sacrificed goats to gather after this and then—”
“Whoa!” he exclaimed after reaching the edge, before falling down. “Ahhhh…!”
His voice faded as this dead soul fell down and into the forest below. I sighed and shook my head. This really wasn’t an issue, but I could already see what he was planning to do.
Down below, he realized that he didn’t suffer any injuries, just like when he fell from the tree. He looked up from where he was and saw me standing at the edge, looking down at him. After a second of contemplation, he ran off into the woods. The young man was faster than it seemed. Very athletic too, as he leaped over rocks and bushes, grabbed onto branches, and swung all over the place as he tried to get as far away from me as he could.
“Why do so many beings think they can get away from me if they just run, swim, fly, or teleport as far away as they can?” I pondered as I walked out from beside a tree, right in front of the man.
“Ah!” he shouted, tripping over a branch and landing face first by my feet.
“Come on.”
He looked up at me, tears swelling in his eyes. “Please, it’s not my time to go. Forgive me for running away, but I—I… There’s still so much for me to do!”
“And for me too,” I replied, lifting the scythe over my head, revealing my skeletal hands, and quickly dropping the thing right on his back.
The young man was stunned for a moment, but as it struck him, his body turned to a cloud of white particles that faded into the sky, somewhere where he belonged after death.
What could it be? I couldn’t be certain, but if I were to guess, this man was likely going to whatever place the Gods that ruled over this land had designated for him. In some places they claim to go to a heaven or a hell. In others, they come back in the shape of an animal or another of the same kind they were when they died, which is a pain, ‘cus that means I have to meet them once more after they die—which could be minutes. Though, sometimes, I get to do whatever I want, but that’s rare.
I picked up my scythe and looked up at the blue sky.
Many souls were calling me.