Cheated out of Mortality

Cheated Out of Mortality (Chapter Eight)

"Is this your sister?" Haley asked me, looking at me with her big blue eyes.

"Yeah, Samantha.  She likes to be called Sam though," I told her.

Samantha raised her head and looked at me.  I realized too late that she had heard me and I quickly covered my mouth.

"Who are you talking to?" Samantha asked me.

I looked around, quickly trying to come up with an excuse.  "Uh, I, um, I was talking to, uh, the, um," I spotted the vacuum.  "vacuum!" I blurted out without thinking.

Samantha looked at me like I was insane.

"Yeah," I continued to play along.  "It really seemed to like you, so I thought I would tell it more about you."

She blinked, then slowly put her head back down and continued to watch her show.  I sighed, then walked up the stairs with the pesky annouance and the innocent troublemaker following me.  I opened the door and entered my room.

Haley spun around and applauded my room.  "It is so cool having your own room!" She announced.

"You didn't have one?" I asked her.

"Nu-ah.  I shared a room with my older sister."

"How did you die?" She stopped spinning and looked at me.  I felt her happiness decrease slightly.

"I was murdered," She sadly said, looking at the floor.  "My dad got in trouble with someone, so they punished him by killing me."

I wished I hadn't asked.  She didn't seem to feel comfortable talking about it.  Poor Haley.  I decided not to keep talking about that.  Instead, I asked another question.  "How does one become a reaper?"

She shrugged.  "It's kind of random.  There are only seven at the moment," she answered.  Only seven reapers.  One's Amanda and one's Haley.

"Who are the others?" I started my interrogation.  "What are they like?"

"We all reflect a different emotion on people.  You said that you met Amanda.  Amanda reflects fear and I reflect glee."  Seven different emotions for seven different people.  I guess that's why I fear Amanda so much.  "Does it really matter who they are?" Haley continued.  "You might meet others in the future, but do you really want to?"

I thought about that.  "No, I don't think I do actually.  No offence, but I'm a little scared to meet the others.  Amanda was bad enough."  I shivered at the thought of others like her.  Then I remembered something.  "Why is Amanda's hair so long?"

"I don't know, ask her."

"I'll pass on that one."

It was silent, then Fez flicked the back of my head.  I stumbled forward, caught by surprise.

"Did you forget I was here?" He asked.  He totally just read my mind.

"Pft, no," I lied, waving it away.  "You were just not included in the conversation."

He hung his head and his body and flew out the closed window.  That made me think up another question.  "How far away are we allowed to be from each other?"

"I'm pretty sure you have to be in the same city as each other, but don't go testing that because it's only a guess," she guessed.

 "Well," I brought up a similar question.  "What'll happen if we get too far from each other?"

Haley squinted her eyes, then opened them back up.  "I really have no idea.  Let's play a game!  C'mon!" She went over to my bed and started to bounce on it.