chapter twelve

   

S"

Grim Reaper Serena materializes in front of her assigned person while casually sitting atop the railing of the stairway of the man's home as she observed the older gentleman before speaking.

"You've summoned me so how may I assist you?"

The male sat still upon his couch before slowly turning his head to look behind him. He rubbed his eyes and blinked a few times to make sure he was actually seeing some weird person dressed up in a weird outfit in front of him. He just continued to look at Grim Reaper Serena with a blank expression as the bag of pork rinds he was holding tumbled to the floor.

"You're real?"

"No. I'm just a dream you're having." She answered nonchalantly as Grim Reaper Serena stared at the man in boredom while waiting for him to confirm his acknowledgement of her, but nothing.

"A dream? I know I would've remembered someone like you if I've dreamt of a pretty girl."

The male then pinched himself, but hissed when the pain was actually real.

"You lied to me."

"Did I though?"

The male's face shifted as he looked around him in almost a panicked state. She sighed before speaking again and repositioning herself on the railing to look at him better.

"You go by the username of BrispyDoe on the site called REAPER CORRESPONDENCE, correct?"

The male at first just stared at her like he had no idea what she was talking about.

"Laffer Ammer, correct?"

At first the male's face paled, but after he recovered a moment later he nodded before feeling something soft and slightly heavy moving about his lap. He looked down to spot a white cat with a golden halo above its head standing on its hind legs with its forelegs and paws resting on its hips like it was a human being.

"Say something, Stupid. We don't got all day."

The white cat spoke in annoyance as he found himself being flung across the room and crashing into the wall. The male did a double take of his own hand that had done the deed. Maofah raised a paw in the direction of the man as he spoke with his face still pressed to the floor.

"Let's kill him instead."

Maofah's paw then dropped after making his announcement with Grim Reaper Serena shaking her head with a small yet cynical smile. Nerok then zoomed around the older man with a curious gaze.

"You smell funny."

"I- what?"

Nerok ignored the male and continued to swirl around him while sniffing him and making a face.

"You smell funny. Like pig fat or something. You should smell like motor oil, but you don't."

"Why would I smell like a car or a mechanic? That's why I pay someone to do that for me."

Maofah also joined Nerok while making a face upon catching the male's scent.

"You smell disgusting."

Before the older man could reply Grim Reaper Serena was already by his side with a scary expression.

"W-w-what do you want?" The older man stuttered upon seeing how close she was and fear set in his eyes.

"What have you done to him?"

"I didn-"

"What. Have. You. Done. To. Him?" Grim Reaper Serena snarled each word in warning to the male before her.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Wrong answer."

She cast him a deadly smile before snapping her fingers.

"Ahhh!" The man screamed in place as darkness invaded his mind and took control.

The older man found himself where he had last bullied and murdered the actual client, Laffer Ammer, at his own car shop. Instead of watching it as a spector he was in place of where Ammer's body should've been and watching his own self causing the deed and re-living every moment.

"Please. Please. No. No. Don't." The male pleaded over and over as everything replayed itself.

The man watched as himself doing all the things to his own self like he had done to Ammer with a timing belt and lug nuts. Throwing the lug nuts and even beating him with the timing belt.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Please. Stop. Please. I'm sorry." He pleaded once again, but it falling on deaf ears.

All the while being called inferior, slow, and being a for not knowing how to install the items. Later pouring coolant and oil all over the defenseless body while throwing the empty bottles at him.

"You said you're gonna get revenge on me?"

The older man kicked the body with a laugh.

"That's a good joke right there when you can't even stand up to me."

Another kick and another laugh.

"A website that grants wishes. That's a riot."

Another kick. Another laugh. Another groan. Another plead to stop.

"How are you gonna ask something to do it when they don't even exist? Hurry up and change out the tires for the red 2005 Honda Accord. The client will be here tomorrow afternoon to pick it up."

The bruised body eventually got up to finish the job, but holding the lug wrench in his grasp he leapt towards the man to attack. The older man turned in time and caught a hold of the male's arm and took the item away from him instead.

"What do you think you're doing?"

Gripping the lug wrench firmly the older man instead attacked the body. The body slumped down with the one hit. With the last of his strength he whispered the words instilling fear into the older man's body despite what he had stated earlier.

"She will get you. Reaper V will know the truth. She'll come find you and take care of you herself if not me."

The older man instantly found himself back in Ammer's apartment wearing his clothes to deceive the entity that Ammer had mentioned. At first he looked about him haphazardly believing that he was just in some sort of nightmare and it wasn't real. Spinning around he didn't see any felines or the woman in black and so he let out a relieved breath. Just as he had turned around Grim Reaper Serena was in his face again with the same scary expression except this time she was wearing a black kimono with floral designs and her eyes were red.

"Do you atone for your sins?"

"I have no sins and you're not real."

He went to brush his hand through the grim reaper, but it instead made contact with her cheeks instead.

"Y-y-you're real?!"

"Yes and so is your punishment."

Grim Reaper Serena snapped her fingers again and flames surrounded the male. He let out screams of terror and pain, but she ignored him like he had ignored those of Ammer's. Soon enough the older man's body went lifeless and his soul stepped ouf of the body as he watched his listless body. His soul then whisked away and found itself on one end of a row boat with a blank expression. Charon and Grim Reaper Serena was on the other side to condemned the man's soul.

"Would you like me to take over?" Charon asked Grim Reaper Serena and she shook her head.

"I'll personally take care of this one, Charon. Thank you."

"My pleasure."

The Ferryman of Styx dissipated away in black smokes while Grim Reaper Serena recited the following rite that she had learned from Enma Ai almost five years ago to row the listless male soul to eternal damnation.

"Oh pitiful shadow lost in the darkness, bringing torment and pain to others. Oh damned soul wallowing in your sins, how would you like to see what death is like?"

Meanwhile Ammer's soul watched from the shore of Hell alongside Duhe who held out her hand in waiting. A small image of an entwined asphodel and a camellia appeared on the left side of Ammer's chest where his heart rests as a small smile grace his lips.  Once the boat's out of sight did his soul slowly turned to stone and was now held within Duhe's grasp a moment later.

That same day Cupid Serena poofed into another charge's home to work on another mission.

"Congratulations! I'm he-ow!"

Cupid Serena's greeting was interrupted as she got a textbook thrown at the left front side of her head.

"Who are you," A young woman asked backing away in fear while clutching onto another textbook as Cupid Serena was rubbing the sore spot with a narrowed look in the direction of her assigned person for the day, "And how did you get into my bedroom?"

"I'm a cupid of the CUPID CORRESPONDENCE and I was gonna help you, username Baitlynn, find your Fated One, but with that incident you pulled a while ago you can go find them yourself."

Serena poofed away in a cloud of pastel smoke.

"Wait! Please, wait! I'm sorry! Wait! Come back. Please." The young woman called out.

"I didn't know you were actually real. Please, come back."

She ran towards the dissipating puffs of smoke upon realizing what that could actually mean only to run into a floating black cat with bat wings when the air cleared of the pastel coloring.

"Ah!" They both screamed as they ducked for covered in the woman's bedroom.

Nerok popped his head from out of the female's pile of clothes and looking about him.

"Is she gone?"

He got a pillow thrown at him a second later.

"Nevermind. She's still around." He groaned as he slid back into the comforts of the clothes while a muffled response came a second later. "Let me know when it's safe to come back out."

The woman lifted the covers of the blanket off of her as she looked about the room.

"I thought cupids were fat kids in diapers."

"They're not." Maofah claimed as he appeared beside her.

The woman screamed again while smacking Maofah away and hiding beneath the covers again. Cupid Serena poofed back into the room, but instead she was wearing a long jade colored gown with stars and floral like patterns. She pulled the covers off of the woman as the female stared at Cupid Serena a bit terrified.

"Weren't you just wearing some pastel colored dress?"

"I was, but I just found out something and now the outfit's different."

"Why?"

"Because you lied."

The woman's brows furrowed at having no idea what Cupid Serena was saying until it finally clicked and let out a loud laugh while making up excuses and denying at having done anything.

"I thought it was just a joke and just did it for fun. Like one of those Plenty of Fish, OKCupid, Tinder, and eHarmony websites. I didn't think you would actually show up."

"That's not the lie I'm talking about."

Cupid Serena smiled at the woman, but the smile didn't reach her eyes nor did it set right in her face.

"Your smile's freaking me out."

"Where is the real Aoki Caitlynn?"

"Haha, you're joking, right? I know you're some supernatural being or whatever, but I am the real Caitlynn." The woman stated with an unease laugh while playing with the ends of her hair.

"You're her twin, Aoki Jenna."

With a twirl of her finger Cupid Serena summoned Jenna towards her while the felines disappeared upon the tense atmosphere in the room.

"You may be alike in all aspects, but in the end the two of you are still your own individuals."

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