It humored him to be the last one to see a human in their final seconds of life. Death wasn’t discriminatory and certainly had its fair share of embarrassing moments. It was a game of chance he and the other reapers played to pass the time. Who would they find next? Choked on a chicken bone? Tripped on their shoelaces? Ran out of gas on the highway? Of course, there were always the unfortunate and sad ones which didn’t make the job any less fun. Bonus points for artistic murders on the bingo card- double for eaten by a cannibal which was certainly more rare nowadays. 

That kind of twisted thinking was what got him the position in the first place and perhaps it was what convinced the Overseer to believe in repentance. It was a no brainer. He would take eternal servitude over eternal torture anyday.

11:54pm in the heart of Osaka, Japan, a woman still in the years of her prime had finished attaching the last strap of her black lingerie, about to turn in after a long day of ruthless teachings and leisure drinking. The Grim, classified number 66679, watched her from within the shadows of the large velvet curtains of her penthouse suite, counting down the seconds to the foretold demise on his platinum plated pocket watch bewitched by the Overseer himself.

Tonight it was death by steel wire. A lethal method performed by a man in a traditional Japanese Oni mask with a disturbing smile. The wire would wrap around her throat, her senses off due to the sake and kill her within seconds of piercing a vital artery. Scarlett Kingsley died on September 13th at 23 Kohma District on the 20th floor, her amber eyes rolling back as the soul carefully crawled out of the body. Time had stopped, the killer long gone. He was getting one punch on the astrological bingo card. Wire Crime Murder with a Movie Villain Murderer. 

The Grim moved out of the shadows of the room, patting down his absolutely obnoxious robing that always seemed to fly up for dramatic effect and waving a skeletal hand briefly to get the lady’s attention. Poor girl, she was perplexed... and in the scariest way. Damn, that gaze could kill. 

“Evening, I take it you know who I am,” he started in his mythical otherworldly voice. “Unfortunately you have indeed passed and it is now time for you to move on from this Earthly plane and voyage to the next. The outcome is entirely based on how you lived your life up to this point.” 

He manifested his scythe, moving it between hands as he waited out the emotions one had when experiencing and realizing their own death. He himself had been quite angry. “Is there anything you’d like to declare before we begin?” Empathy, he reminded himself. Be empathic. Do. Not. Laugh. 

The perfect end to a perfect night. Rain bid goodnight to her men and was ready for an exciting night of rough sex with her fiance, soon-to-be husband. She decided to slip into something more appropriate, even though she knew it wouldn't be on her for too long. Removing the hair tie allowed for her jet-black hair to caress her tattooed body. Feeling the effects of the booze-filled night, she stumbled back onto the bed as she attempted to attach the strap on her stockings, chuckling to herself.

However time seemed to stop, not slow down as you would expect but to completely black out, the last time something like this happened Rain was 10 and her mom knocked her on her ass for stealing a pack of cigarettes, not so much the stealing but the getting caught.

Rain opened her eyes and grabbed her throat where a sharp pain had now formed. “What the hell was in that whiskey?” Just as Rain went to reach for the bottle on the bedside table something caught her attention. Something waving in the corner of her eyes, to her surprise she was expecting her fiance, instead, she got some freak in a robe. “Hey, asshole you're a little late for Halloween”. Rain laughed to herself but winced at the pain in her throat. “Get the fuck outta here”.

Hearing the robed being speak infuriated her, for whoever was behind this fucked up joke, she took a step forward and something else caught her attention on the floor. Her body.

“What the fuck?”

Rain looked down at her hands, then at her body again. What the hell was in that bottle? Then reality set in. The pain in her throat was the same as the mark on her neck. She was dead… And this being in front of her was death.

“No no no no, you've got to be fucking kidding me? Dead? I'm fucking dead?! That's impossible, I didn't hear…”

Rain glanced at death and frowned, declare? Was this some kind of a joke? Storming over to him she reached for his cloak and almost fell through him. “FUCK!”

Composing herself she stood up straight, glaring at the being in front of which bought most men to their knees in fear. No one fucked with Rain and lived to tell the tale.

Rain smirked “When you have a job like mine the only place you're going is down” She leaned back and laughed. Then suddenly stopped “One thing you should know about me, unless I find out the coward that did this to me, I will fight you every step of the way, the fucker couldn't even face me”.

“I guess I'd better see the old man one last time, maybe give a sign my corpse is in the other room, I don't wanna start stinking up the place”.

“So how do you wanna do this, the easy way or the hard way?”

The Grim had expected a reaction like that coming from a woman of her history and caliber but he had not expected for her to dive out towards him like some half naked maniac. He grinned under the hood, holding back the laugh with the tight smile as she fumbled around having the balls to try and grab at his cloak. 

This time he did laugh as Scarlett shouted profanities, righting herself to regain some kind of composure (or dignity) to address Death with a surprisingly cocky attitude. He whipped around his weapon casually, tickled that even after her demise, she had the set mind to order him around when he could easily drag her into the underworld on the tip of his blade. Scarlett was so terribly unruly and she wasn’t even drunk anymore. He couldn’t even begin to fucking imagine. 

The Grim- Alec dropped the otherworldly voice, figuring the former crime boss was past any sort of decency to address him with even an ounce of respect, let alone fear him. “Okay love, dig the attitude but that’s not how this death thing works.” He tapped his scythe twice, transforming it down into a cane with a skull on the end. “You come with me. I either gently guide you into the other dimension or I impale your soul on the end of my scythe and drag you there kicking and screaming. Which, with your obvious pride issues, is not how you like to be paraded even on the river of Styx.” 

He gestured to the body on the floor. “This thing you’re holding onto, doesn’t matter anymore. You. Are. Dead. There is no going back or ‘letting some old man know.’” He mocked. “It’s going to rot. Someone’s going to find it in this ridiculous excuse for lingerie and your chest might just collapse on itself.” Alec shrugged playfully. Oh, it had been a while since he was able to argue with the dead. What an exciting day. “What’s it going to fucking be?” he jousted. 

Seeing the attitude appear on Death's face pissed her off but she couldn't help but smirk, after all, he had a job to do and Rain was causing him problems, if the shoe was on the other foot she would have already dragged his ass to hell. But still, she had unfinished business to attend to and some guy in a robe and a big scythe wasn't going to stop her, after all, she was already dead, what else could he possibly do apart from send her to the Devil?

Rain plopped herself down on her bed and smirked “Listen you specifically asked me if there was anything I wanted to declare. Well I am I'm declaring revenge on the asshole that did this to me and a final goodbye to my fiance”. She crossed her legs and leaned on her hand. “Let me ask you something, now correct me if I'm wrong as I don't know your history nor do I care to know. But if you were in a place where you're ‘supposed’ to be protected, with your lover in the next room and someone comes in and kills you, long before your years, would you go with someone without knowing who killed you? I'm guessing from your attitude that's a no”.

“So again without being a pain in the ass, I'm gonna be a pain in the ass, sure impale my soul, but where's the fun in that? Don't you ever get bored of showing the same sad old fuckers to the afterlife? Don't you want to you know experience a little excitement?”

Rain laughed at his comment and stood up closing the gap between them. “Mock me all you want, this chest has got me out of a lot of things, and I've heard no complaints, plus this poor excuse for lingerie wouldn't have been on me for too long”.

Rain looked the reaper up and down smirking.

His smile was tight again as he listened to her very flawed but valid argument from the bedside. How a woman could remain so dignified while sitting around half naked was beyond him but, then again, he never gave women much of a tongue to talk with when he was alive. Oh, how times have changed. 

“I... have to humbly agree with your point. I, on the other hand, was given the misfortune of knowing who my killers were and they say sometimes not knowing is the greater mercy.” The Grim chuckled lightly. “But where’s the fun in that? Obviously you’re going down under so why not make your eternal punishment worse by knowing? Love the sadism in you.” 

He stepped back and grabbed the front tip of his hood and pulled it forward, twirling it so that it disappeared in the palm of his hand and left him with a face, one he used in the afterlife when he wasn’t pretending to be a skeleton man to scare humans. That was the Overseer's personal touch. Made everything seem ‘final’ he said. 

Button downs and sunglasses were his go-to’s and even more so when the situation didn’t call for it. He always liked being different, eccentric and open in every way imaginable. And he liked it that way... even if the other person didn’t. That’s what made him dangerous. That’s why people like him wore the invisible shackles, heavy enough to bruise his wrists. 

The man tapped his cane. “And darling you don’t know boredom till you’ve sat with an old geezer on a boat for three days but you’re speaking my language. I’m always in the mood for excitement. As for that,” he gestured over her lingerie with a fine finger. “You’re right. It wouldn’t have been on long at all.” 

He grinned and gestured to the bedroom door, tapping his cane again. “After you. I have resumed time though you still cannot be seen. I’ll decide what liberties you can have if your body and personality serve to entertain me enough. And Scarlett,” he emphasized mockingly. “You can call me Alec.” 

Hearing Death agree with her made her smirk, she always had her ways and means of persuasion, and it worked like a charm. “Well that sounds pretty unfortunate for you, however, I wouldn't rest until I knew, it had to be someone from the inside I know that much. But I'm glad we have some common ground. I won't take up too much of your busy schedule". Rain stuck her tongue out and bit it playfully.

The skeletal being in front of her disappeared revealing something she wasn't expecting. “Wow, I wasn't expecting such a hottie to be hiding away under those robes, maybe if you'd appeared to me like that I would have came more willingly”. The pun was 100% intended.

At his comment, she threw her head back and laughed “God I couldn't think of anything worse and I've dealt with some old fucks in my time, if you know what I mean” She almost cringed at the thought but she didn't get to her position by sitting pretty, she had to screw some unfortunate lonely old men in her lifetime.

However, the lingerie comment made her smirk “You say it like you're curious to see what's underneath”.

Turning her attention to the door she slowly stood up listening to the so-called rules “Oh so you may grant me certain liberties? Interesting, such as?”

His next comment caused her to stop dead for a split second it had been so long since she'd heard that name and it rolled off his tongue like butter, she looked shocked but quickly composed herself and returned to Rain, “You're lucky you're hot Alec, I'll let someone else take the lead for once, don't want you staring at my ass” she smirked gesturing for the reaper to go first.

Alec scoffed at her tenacity, complimenting a body that wasn’t his original but what he felt to be the embodiment of his personality was almost like the beginning of a wet dream. Ah, to be alive again and not have to worry about the chains of eternal torture. It didn’t take much of his imagination to picture the gorgeous specimen underneath that lace and he let that image linger in his mind for a moment.

“The other liberties are my secret, love. Not many are brave enough to take on a Reaper but those who do aren’t exactly looked fondly on. Behave and we’ll see what the council may think of your case yet, plump ass or not.” Peach. It reminded him of a peach. 

The reaper opened the door with the tap of his cane, watching the world play out like a 3D movie. There were guards whispering in the connecting hall filled with various doors but otherwise it looked like one had heard or noticed the murder that had taken place almost- he looked at his watch- twenty-five minutes ago. “We’ve missed time standing ‘out of time’. You’ve been dead for about twenty-five minutes and no one noticed the murderer in the mask going in or out.” 

He frowned and turned back to her. “Oh, did I mention that earlier? He was wearing an Oni mask when I appeared to collect you. Does that ring any bells?” Another guard appeared from the elevator to change shifts.

Rain rolled her eyes at his comment “I'm not one for making rules, where's the fun in that? Plus you seem like someone who knows how to have a good time. Also I'm going to take that comment as a compliment” biting her lip trying to hold back a chuckle she followed behind the reaper.

His comment caused her to come to a standstill, it bothered her and her suspicions were true, which just pissed her off even more. “Well I had an idea it was someone on the inside, it's not exactly easy to just walk in here. However, there are only a certain handful of people that wear oni masks, usually the high-ranking hitmen. Tell me was the color of this mask red and black?” Rain really hoped the reaper would say no, there was only one person in this building with that color mask.

Seeing the guard step out of the elevator she hoped he would go check on her, the sooner her body was found the better, at least it would give them something at finding her. Rain was becoming impatient, luckily her fiancee's room was only a short walk, although she was starting to hope it was much further away.

Alec frowned slightly, knowing that the detail would probably spark a hint towards her killer and the mystery wouldn't remain one for long. He nodded his head to answer her question confirming her suspicions as she led the way from there at his gesture to proceed. 

The new guard did eventually adjust himself to peek in on the boss herself and the hallway was immediately in an uproar of panic. Alec didn’t move as he watched Scarlett- Rain walk down the carpet walkway to a room towards the far left. She had all the information she needed and despite his arrogant nature, he let her have the moment of revelation to himself. Wow, where did that sympathy come from? Years of training with the Overseer no doubt. 

It was only minutes as the building went into a frenzy and Rain had returned from her adventure into the left furthest room. “So what is the verdict this time?” he asked with a smile. “Found out anything I can scratch on my bingo card?”

The nod confirmed all of Rain's suspicions, but surely there must be some kind of mistake. Someone had stolen his mask, maybe a setup? There was only one way of knowing. She stormed down the corridor as she stood in front of his door, she took in a deep breath before walking through it. 

She stood wide-eyed as she saw her fiancee the man she loved in the arms of another woman. Impossible. There had to be some kind of mistake.

“Is it done? Is she dead?” The woman spoke wearing practically next to nothing and similar to the outfit she had on herself, something HE picked out. “It's done, the crazy bitch didn't even have time to react, the wire cut through her throat, she wouldn't have been alive for long, I just left her to bleed out on the floor as she told the men not to disturb her”.

The two of them smiled as Rain's glare became something demonic. She bit her lip in anger as blood trickled down her chin dripping onto her chest. The pain only fueled her anger more. She wanted to cut this motherfucker's dick off and kill his bitch. The two obviously unaware of her presence continued their conversation.

“I know we weren't married yet but the men will agree it's only right I take over the business, after all, I was her right-hand man, and then we can get married and we won't have to keep our affair a secret anymore”. Her fiancee smirked as he kissed his woman, feeling triumphant with himself.

Rain clenched her fists as the commotion grew louder on the news of her murder. Rain's fiancee smiled “Well I best play the part of a grieving fiancee”. He walked through Rain and made his way to her room to the grizzly discovery.

Clenching her fists in anger Rain turned to the reaper behind her “I've seen enough, please tell me you have something fucking good for me to unleash on this fucker”. Holding back the tears, she was hurt, but above all she was angry, she'd never experienced rage like this and she needed to unleash it on someone.

Evidently the revelation was not what she had hoped, completely ignoring his remarks and requesting vengeance for her murder. That was not in the cards for Rain. Unfortunately once you were dead, that was it. No more chances. Unless... 

Alec put a finger to his chin, observing the hard-ass leader holding back all murderous tendencies of her own. “Unleash? Hardly. You want a chance for revenge, you’d have to petition for time and perhaps resurrection, but the likelihood of that is quite slim. Only people like ‘Jesus’ get that special treatment.” He reached out and took hold of her jaw, pulling her slightly towards him as he studied her eyes, looking for- he didn’t really know- perhaps redemption that would grant Rain an audience with the Overseer. 

The reaper let her go when it looked like she might punch him and pulled out his platinum watch. Rain was nearly thirty minutes overdue for judgment and alarms would be pulling up his number in the system if he didn’t get back on schedule. 

He clicked the tiny button on the side of the watch, time slowly coming to a halt around them. “Okay,” Alec started, pulling off his sunglasses. “The only way for me to get unchained from reaper rules is if you can convince the board that you need a second chance for the greater good and that means you need to either have an entirely miraculous change of heart or become the best fucking liar in the universe to get us at least into the in between dimension. Rumor has it, there’s a back door and only one reaper has seen it with his charge. Think you can handle that?” If this all worked... it would benefit him as well.

All Rain could think of was that scene playing over and over again in her head, how could she have been so stupid, she let her guard down and it got her killed. Her mother would have beaten her to death if she had still been alive. Rain came from a line of strong women, but she thought with her heart instead of her head. She wouldn't make the same mistake again.

Barely catching what the reaper has said she needed to focus, if she was going to get what she wanted she needed to go along with whatever he said. “I'm not asking for resurrection, frankly it would be over too quickly. I want to mess with him, fuck with his head so it brings him to insanity, I want it to be a long and painful process, however killing his bitch would make me feel better for a short period of time”.

Before she could say anything else the reaper took her jaw in his hand, for a split second it stopped her in her tracks and ruined her train of thought, there were 2 reasons for her not punching him in the jaw as an automatic reaction, 1. Even if she did attempt to punch him her hand would have gone straight through and she would have looked like a fool for the 3rd time this evening, 2. He was hot and it would be a terrible shame to ruin such a pretty face.

Instead, she turned her head as he let go of her, but deep down a part of her enjoyed the spontaneous movement. But she wasn't about to let him know that and instead settled for a glare.

Hearing his comment Rain thought for a few moments “Well we both know from my appearance alone that there's no way a psychotic bitch with a long line of history with violence can suddenly have a change of heart. So it looks like it's being the best fucking liar on the planet” Rain smirked as she lightly ran her finger along his jawline.

“I know we both agree this attire is to our taste and hugs all the right places, however, if we're appearing in front of this board you speak of, I'm guessing we're going to need something more suitable than a bit of material don't you think?”