Grim Reaper • Chapter 2

by Megan W., 10

Continued from My Life As A Teenage Grim Reaper

The next morning my bird, rat, cat, and 3 dogs were chirping, squeaking, meowing, and barking at me to feed them, but I didn’t have energy to do anything other than lying in bed. My head still pounded from yesterday’s events. I had rushed myself out of the train station, and left the confused soul behind. I ran back to get it… But I tripped somewhere near the track, where the bewildered soul was still floating around. I was probably not that careful when getting up, so I tripped again and threw up. I threw up so many times during this process that I was basically sliding in all the vomit on the ground. I had dropped my scythe somewhere near the entrance, so I raced back to get it. I was near my scythe when I threw up again, and this time all over my scythe. At that point, I honestly DIDN’T CARE. I tried to pick up my scythe, but it slid out of my hands. I had my death grip on it when I finally was able to pick it up. Around me was literal chaos, for both me and the innocent bystanders, who couldn’t see me. I once again ran across the train station throwing up. I had just reached the soul and was halfway through swirling my scythe when I threw up again, this time falling through the portal. I felt myself be swallowed by the thick lavender smoke. I had just beckoned the soul to come with me when I blacked out.

    When I woke up, I had heard my mom yelling, “SHE’S AWAKE!” at everyone around the bed, who probably already knew I was waking up. There was mom, Quinn, Quinn’s boyfriend Jake, Quinn’s son Jasper, and DAD?! If that didn’t startle me enough, I saw the clock on my Viva Magenta bedside table displayed 5:18pm, FEBRUARY SEVENTH?! My first day had been the SIXTH! I had been unconscious for more than 24 hours. 

“Dad? Why aren’t you at work? Who’s taking the souls if we are both here?” He didn’t answer me, and instead asked me a lot of questions that a concerned parent would ask their child who had been unconscious for almost 26 hours. 

“Are you okay?”, “Do you need anything?”, “What happened?”, etc.

I felt around my pockets. There was still a rectangular object in my back pocket, which I assumed was my phone. I immediately flung off my gem-colored blankets onto the ground and bolted out of my bed, nearly knocking the ultraviolet glass vase of golden immortal primroses from Mark onto the ground. I dashed out the door of my bedroom, which I had painted a bright coral. I ran down the stairs, nearly falling off (and shattering) the glass railing because of how rushed I was. “Aw dang it, why does mom need the  house to look like this?!” I muttered under my breath as I zoomed around the corner into the bathroom. Safe.

    The bathroom walls were painted in two colors. One was a light, watery blue, which made me feel serene. The other was a light, rosy pink, which got my blood flowing again. I crouched in a corner, at the intersection between the sink and the dark chocolate brown door. I pulled out my phone and started scrolling through the millions of texts that my messages app had marked as unread and showed at the top of my notifications section. I didn’t even try to actually read them on in notifications. I went straight to my messages app and hovered my finger over four chat groups. First, there was my chat group marked “priority.” This was my grim reaper group, with all of the deities of death. Then there was “family” group. This was Mom, Dad, and also Quinn and Jake. Third, there was my “school friends” group. There were THREE HUNDRED unread texts and 45 missed calls. But that wasn’t the group I clicked on. I clicked on the fourth group, which only contained me and one other person. Mark. I didn’t know how he would have reacted that I didn’t show up. There was a whopping 5035 unread texts from him and NINETY EIGHT missed calls, so he must have cared a lot. Then, the screaming began.

Mom furiously banged on the door, shouting for me to come out. “NICO!! ARE YOU ALL RIGHT?!! COME OUT!!!!” 

Jake and dad put their hands on both of her shoulders. I could tell because I heard both of her hoop earrings jangle, loud and clear. 

“Daphne. Maybe she needs, ya know, some time?” 

“Yeah, I made that work with all of MY kids.” 

Jake and Quinn had 4 kids, Jasper, Whitney, Brittney, and baby Aaron. Jasper was already 25, and is pretty hype. He loves skateboarding, rap music, and Monster energy drinks. 

Whitney and Brittney are twins AND polar opposites. Whitney is the perfect combination of preppy and kawaii. She loves kawaii stationery and preppy skirts. Brittney, on the other hand, was a rough-and-tumble tomboy. She had almost no sense of aesthetics and was really athletic. They were both 16, and some of my closest and best friends. 

Baby Aaron is super cute. He’s only 1 year and 3 months old and stopped breastfeeding a few weeks ago. 

I diverted my attention away from the crowd and called Mark. 

“Mark?”

 “OMG GIRL YOU HAD MY SO WORRY” Mark started blurting a lot of stuff into my ear, and I told him to calm down. I told him about what had happened and he patiently listened. That's another thing that I love about Mark; he always listens and is a great communicator, unless he’s frustrated. Oh, did I not mention? Mark is my boyfriend.

Read the chapters in this series:

• Chapter 1: My Life As A Teenage Grim Reaper
• Chapter 2:
• Chapter 3: A Little Thing Called School
  

• Chapter 4: I Think We’ll Be Friends