“You know him? This is going to be great.” Karen was being her sarcastic self as usual.

“Whoops, did I miss anything? I fell asleep with my eyes open again.” Tiara was back with them but this time wearing another curtain. Hero was too busy with his thoughts to notice but nothing like this escaped Karen.

“You left in a crucial moment to go change?” Karen looked like she wanted to strangle someone.

Tiara shrugged.

“Ouch!” The ring gave Hero another shock. This time, more painful.

“What am I suppose to do?! This thing keeps on biting me when I least expect it.” Hero tried to pry the ring off his finger when Karen and Tiara both screamed “no.”

“Didn’t Death tell you not to take it off?” Karen showed him her own hand. Around her wrist was a black bracelet that looked very similar in design to his own ring. “We’re not supposed to take it off, you idiot.” Karen then quickly added a polite “boss” at the end. Nevermind, not very polite.

“What?” Tiara interrupted.  ”He’s our boss? What happened to-”

Karen silenced Tiara with a look, “I’ll tell you later.” Usually no one could stop Tiara from talking but these were one of those rare occasions.

The faint sound of a siren brought their attention back to the situation at hand. A crowd had gathered around.

“Let’s go end the poor soul’s earthly sufferings.” Karen dragged Hero into the throng of gasping people.

“Yeah! Whatever she said.” Tiara followed after them.

In the center lied a mangled body. Karen and Tiara had decades of experience under their belts so they didn’t even flinch at the sight. Hero, on the other hand, wanted to vomit.

“Hmm… crossed the road without looking, got hit, flew 20 meters in the air. What do you think?” Tiara asked Karen as if it was a guessing game.

“Sounds about right.” Karen replied.

“We need to get him to a hospital!” Hero shouted at them after he managed to keep his lunch down.

“Can’t you see he no longer needs a hospital? He’s been waiting for you all this time. Imagine how much pain he had to endure because of your ignorance.” Karen threw all her frustration at him.

“Umm… Mr. Boss. Just give him your hand. His soul will feel you near and it will leave the yucky body.” Tiara urged him.

“But Calvin’s not dead yet.” Hero protested.

“That’s because you’re not doing your job! You can’t pick and choose who lives or dies. We can’t do it for you either.”

“Yeah, our job is to forward them to Death.” Tiara added. She started to pat Karen’s arm hoping that it would calm her down a little.

“They can still save him. We just need to get him to the hospital and.. and…” Hero tried to reason as he looked down at Calvin’s torn face. Calvin probably couldn’t see a thing because the blood clogged up his eyes. He was still moving though.

“You want this person to suffer more than they have to?” Karen looked around as if she was looking for a heavy object to knock some sense into him. “What a sadist.” Karen added after she was unable to find what she was looking for.

“Just do it, Mr. Boss. Give him your hand.”

“Do it.”

Hero, in his whole immortal life, had never killed anyone before. Sure he watched the people around him die but never had he been the one to cause it. Now, he was asked to give death to his assistant?

“I’ll do everyone else. Just not him.” Hero walked away knowing that the ambulance was on its way.

“You can’t just leave like that! He’s supposed to die!” Karen yelled after him. She knew exactly what would happen if Calvin was allowed to live.

Disaster.

Hero fumbled with the ring. After a few twist and turns, he was able to open up the list.

“Okay, so next person is Chelsea Panichyangkoon. How do you get there… umm…” Hero thought back to when Karen moved them from one place to another. “SHIFT.” He felt a little silly when nothing happened. Besides science, he knew there was something else out there but this was ridiculous. Hero tried it again but this time in his head. It clicked and he was gone, leaving Karen and Tiara standing there without him.

“Oh my gosh… first we have missing Death forwarders and now the new Death skips a job? This is not grade school where you skip and nothing happens! What the hell are we supposed to do now?”

Karen turned to Tiara but like always she’s gone when needed most.