Win is a cupid. On his card are two names - New and Neen - and it is his job to connect the two people and have them fall in love with each other. Just as he was about to shoot the other arrow, Bright, the grim reaper, distracted him. It caused him...
A few minutes later and I can already sense the presence of someone near me and I didn't have to look to know who it is. Based on the sudden coldness in the air, I know who it is. I looked to my right and I saw my friend sitting beside me, with a stoic face as always, holding out the ice cream I asked him to buy.
"Thanks, Bright," I said as I received the ice cream with a full smile.
He rolled his eyes, "You owe me a lot already, you know? It's not like I have unlimited money to buy you sweets anytime you want."
"I don't know why you insist on spending money. You can just hypnotize the vendor and he'll give you his whole cart in a heartbeat," I told him as I was enjoying the ice cream in the middle of summer and beside my personal walking air conditioner.
"You very well know we can't just use our powers anytime, anywhere, right? Especially if it's not work-related."
I sighed, "I know. Still, I find it unfair. Why do grim reapers have extraordinary powers regardless of the rank but cupids don't?" I scowled.
---
- Bright's POV -
There goes Win again, complaining about how unfair the system is in Inania. It's not like he would need to hypnotize people in his line of job because it involves genuineness of the heart. I rolled my eyes with the thought.
Anyway, my name is Bright. Win gave me that name. He said that name fits me so well because of my 'bright' smile and personality. If you didn't get the sarcasm, then that's on you.
I am an Azrali or how you commonly know it, a Grim Reaper. I am from the Bureau of Mortemios, the department in charge of death.
Just like the Amosis, Azralis look just like humans. In my case, I was created in the form of a man.
If Cupids work with red threads, Grim Reapers work with golden threads.
Humans have a life thread tied around their necks. This thread is connected to a common source in Inania, the source of life called the Vitasos. Once the Atroposias decide that a human's time here on earth has already been lived out, they cut the golden thread connecting the human from the source of life resulting in his death.
Before the cutting of the thread, they first send cards to us through the Hermanis containing the names of souls we need to fetch with the exact location and mortal time on where and when they are going to die.
My job is to fetch the soul here on earth and guide it to the Anima Aula, the Court of the Souls, where the souls will be judged with how they lived their human lives. Once we brought them there, our job is done. We will go back here on earth to fetch another.
The gruesome part of my job is that I have to see a human die. Well, just gruesome for Win, really, because it's really nothing for me. Some nights when his love birds (which honestly still makes me gag but Win was adamant to call them that and he forced me to call them that, too) are asleep or apart, living their own lives that do not involve romance, Win comes with me when I work especially when he's already done planning for the execution of his job the day after.
What you should know is that Win cries every time a human dies that eventually, he decided to just close his eyes when it happens and only open them once the soul detaches from his or her human body. Death is a part of human life. What about it that makes him cry every time? I still don't understand.
I look at Win at my left and sees him radiating. We could differentiate humans from Inania beings based on light emission. Humans do not emit light from their bodies. Amosis like Win emit red light whereas Azralis emit blue. Hermanis, on the other hand, emit yellow light.
"What are you so happy about? You're radiating." I asked him.
Win smiled as he took a bite from his ice cream before speaking, "I'll have my new set of love birds anytime today." He's beaming.
"You're that excited to go to work?" I raised my left eyebrow, "I thought you're jealous of humans because they have a concept of rest days?"
"I thought about it just now and well, I don't exactly know what I want to do besides work so I don't really have a use for a rest day. I love this job and it's all I know. How about you? Do you have anything you'd like to do besides work?" He looked at me with curious eyes.
I never really thought about life outside soul reaping. As soon as I was created, I was sent here to do this job. That's the only thing in my mind. I even thought that I will be alone during my whole stay here on earth. Never did I ever expect to befriend a Cupid. Yet here I am sitting beside one.
It makes me think though, is there really another life that we can live out besides that for which we were created?
I was about to ask Win what he thinks about it when we felt someone's presence. We looked behind us and saw a woman in a college uniform with an ID card that hangs on her neck which read "Love Pattranite". She's emitting yellow light.
Hermanis, like us, were created in human form, too. However, they have the ability to shapeshift into different human forms.
"Amos 210299. Azra 271297," she said as soon as she approached us and stood at about three feet from us.
Win and I stood, too, and greeted her with a nod. Win smiled. I didn't.
"Hema 131097. Good to see you. Been a while." I said.
Win rolled his eyes, "Wow, Bright! She really felt the warm welcome."
Hema 13... - let's just call her Love - chuckled. "It still amazes me how the two of you became friends. Nobody has ever seen an Azrali associate with an Amos until the two of you. You were also the first to give each other human names." She shook her head in amusement, "Well, anyway, I have your new assignment Amos 210299."
Win scowled, "Ugh! Please just call me Win, okay? I don't have a name for you since you shift all the time and you get different human names every day. But when you're with us, you can just call us Win and Bright!"
I looked at him with my brows furrowed, "Why are you deciding for me?"
Win didn't even look at me when he responded, "Shush! Just go with it! Anyway," He looked at the messenger, "Can I have my awaited card now?" He laid out his hand as he waited for Love to conjure the card. The red envelope suddenly appeared in her right hand and she gave it to Win.
"Alright. My job here is done. I'm off to meet some Azralis, now. Goodbye, you two!" She turned around and walked away.
I looked to my right and Win is already gone. I turned around and saw him back at the bench, opening the envelope. I sat beside him as he read it. A smile formed on his face as he read the names. He looked at me and showed me the card.
Two names in golden letters were written:
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