When the fire finally went out, Tao dropped the fire extinguisher down on the floor heavily, created a loud clank from the emptiness of the can. His gaze was fixed softly on the burnt stoves and counter. Tao couldn’t believe that he was that close to death. He turned to Kris and nagged at him angrily,

“You couldn’t just help?”

“I’m not supposed to ---at least, that’s what I learned.” Kris answered innocently

“Right, I forgot you’re a whatever.” Tao flailed his arm in the air, refused to say the word ‘reaper’. If he said the word, it would be equivalent to him admitting his ill fate. There was no way in hell he would do that, not in this lifetime at least.

Tao picked up the fire extinguisher that he just threw on the floor a minute ago, and put it back to where it was. He opened the main entrance of the apartment to evacuate the smoke from the inside. Kris followed him outside as both of them dropped themselves heavily on a bench in front of the apartment. Tao began to pout, again and again. A thousand thoughts were running through his mind right now, but he just couldn’t able to bring himself to convey the words. It had only been a very short period of time since Kris walked into his life, but Tao had question the existence of everything. He doubted, as if everything were just an extremely vivid dream, no scratch that, nightmare.

“But ‘I think therefore I am’ ” said Decartes

The philosophy that Decartes drew, about who knows how many hundred years ago, just proved that what was happening to Tao couldn’t get any more real than this, but that’s always debatable. He had never believed in those philosophies mumbo jumbo, but ever since this nuisance came into his life, Tao was thinking of reconsidering his “philosophy” on what was real and what was not. Sometimes he tried to pinch himself, just to test out if he was really awake or he was in some kind of LSD trip, not that he’d ever taken any.

"How could this I be dying? I'm too young to die, I still have so many things I haven't been able to do. I still have to take care of my mom..." Tao frown in the most pitiful way Kris could ever imagine. His heart gave a powerful tug. He brought his hand up to his chest and rubbed it ever so lightly. Kris felt pain for this human, something that a reaper could never be able to do for their purpose in life in to take human's soul. All of these feelings were new to him, he couldn't possibly explain how and why he was feeling like this, but he was content with it. That was the first time that Kris ever felt like he was alive in all of those thousands years that he had lived. He felt... human-like instead for a reaper with no soul. Kris shifted in his seat a little, tried to adjust to the newly developed feeling that he felt. 

"I'll um, I'll help you doing all the things that you need to do before you die." Kris stuttered a bit

Tao slowly turned his head to the side as he eyed Kris in disbelief. “Why would you do that?”

“I don’t know, I just feel like that’s a right thing to do.”

An idea flashed into Tao’s head as he imagined a way to avoid his misfortune by stretching his time. He didn’t want to admit that he was on the very edge between life and death. He tried to take his last attempt to convince Kris to find another victim so he could leave Tao alone.

“Could you just spare me though?” Tao clasped his hands together, pouted his lips.

“No can do. I’m sorry.” Kris wiped Tao’s beg aside like a puddle of spilled water on a table

“Why does it have to be meee?”

“Because I think you’re cute. I rather kiss a cute person than an ugly one.”

“Do you need me to light the altars? I’ll do it right now. I’ll ---I’ll even donate to charity right now if you please just go away!!”

“What?” Kris raised a question at Tao, squinted his eyes at the same time, “My time is up by tomorrow, looking for someone else at this time is a bit hectic don’t you think?”

“I don’t care okay? Just get out!” Tao finally lost his temper; he shouted. His voice echoed through the empty alley.

Despite the fact that Kris was still sitting there on the bench, flabbergasted and all, Tao stood up and stormed back inside his half burnt apartment. He went through his Gucci bag, whose he spent almost half of his salary on, to find his cell phone. He slid it open and dialed a series of numbers into it. He held the phone directly on his left ear, through his dark black hair that covered almost half of his profile. Kris stood by the door way; he observed Tao with every move he made. It’s not that Kris didn’t want to free him, finding another victim to him is easy as turn the palm of his hand over. But the problem was Kris didn’t want to leave for this was the very first time that he actually felt interested in anything in his life. Kris wasn’t ready to be apart from this epitome of perfection.

“Hello,” From the other side of the phone, a female voice answered

“Um, hello. I’m Tao, I had an appointment with you yesterday, do you remember?” Tao answered

“Yesterday, hm. What’s your name again?”

“Tao, Huang ZiTao.”

“Tao, Tao, Tao…” The female voice repeated his name for a couple of times, “Oh, yes, I remember, ZiTao. By the way you still owe me 30 dollars for yesterday’s session.”

“Right.” Tao said, “Um, listen, remember how you said I will have a devil led my way?”

“Uh huh.”

“I’m kinda having a problem with that right now.”

“Alright, come over, I’ll see what I could do about it.”

-o0o-

“Could you help me? I don’t want to be haunted anymore.” Tao clasped his hands together, begging the psychic pathetically

“I could, but it will cost you double.” The psychic calmly said

“Okay, sure, as long as you get him away from me.”

“Umkays. How does he look like? Does he have fangs?”

“Yeah, but I yanked them off.”

“Whoa,” The psychic widely stared back at Tao, “Does he have veins covering his face then?”

“No,” Tao paused momentarily to think about his response, “No. His friend does though. Well, he doesn’t look scary at all, handsome in fact, but kind of funny.”

The psychic woman gasped in disbelief, “Two of them? That’s not good.”

“Um, help me then?”

“Here,” The woman brought to the table a glass of an unknown substance. It looked as clear as water but the smell was undoubtedly vinegar, a sour, sour smell of vinegar. Tao picked the glass up and brought it to his nostrils. He took a deep breath in and immediately coughed out everything he had breathed in. He cringed before the smell and sat the glass back on its original position.

“Is that vinegar?” Tao glared at the psychic

“Excuse you, this is holy water!”

“But it smells like…”

“Nope! That is holy water. Drink it if you want to be cured.”

“Alright.” Tao shrugged his shoulders. Nothing could be worse than the news he was going to die, Tao thought, so he decided to drink the substance that the woman called “holy water” even thought he knew that it was a bad very idea to do so.

The moment the tip of his tongue touched the surface of the clear substance, his reflex made him put the glass back on the table and he almost spit out because of the taste. Tao crinkled his nose and threw the psychic a stare as she fiddled with the metal cross that was on the table earlier. The “holy water” definitely was vinegar, mixed with a bit of sugar, providing a bursting flavor of sweet and sour that made Tao wanted to vomit his guts out. Tao was never a big fan of salad, much less salad dressing, but by drinking the vinegar water, he felt like he had made up for all of those years that he didn’t even touched a piece of salad. By now Tao felt utterly stupid for he agreed to drink that without any opposition other than “is that vinegar?” Kris had really gotten into his head.

---------------------------------------

HI lol i realized i havent updated this fic in a long time. so herer you go :D