The Necrodancer

Prologue- Envied

Cicero envied mortals.

    They could come home from school, work, a trip, a gathering, or literally anything else, and simply be. They could be whatever they can't be outside of the comfort of their home, or they could just exist. They could live in the moment and live their lives how they wished and could control anything in their lives that wasn't predetermined by fate, meaning they could do so much to make their lives better or fuck things up for themselves. They could live.

    Cicero envied mortals because they were alive.

    Sure, they walked (with difficulty for reasons they'd rather not admit), talked (occasionally), ate (sometimes), thought (way too much), went to school (when they didn't have to), attended study groups (when they didn't need to), spent time with their two aunts (a little too much), and even had a few friends (shockingly).

    Cicero, just like their aunts, however, were not alive. Maybe once, long ago, they lived human lives. Tilde and Reyna had a little bit of a hard time remembering their human lives, being retired, but Cicero remembered it vividly, even if there were many things that had faded or left holes in their memories over the past nearly seven thousand years. They breathed once, but they haven't breathed in a long time.

    Cicero was a reaper.

    Not the Grim Reaper, though; they were to the Grim Reaper as demons were to Lucifer. There were thousands upon thousands of reapers who assisted the Grim Reaper in his eternal duties. Reyna and Tilde were retired reapers and were sisters in life ages ago. They had no blood relation to Cicero but took a liking to them and wanted to take care of something, as they didn't know what else to do with themselves. Like all reapers, they posed as humans in the mortal world.

Reyna, Tilde, and Cicero were somewhat sarcastic and liked to play with irony, because they lived in and ran a mortuary, Stemple Mortuary and Crematorium, with a cemetery in their backyard. They planned and hosted funerals and wakes, provided tombstones, caskets, urns, burial ground, and cremations. Exteriorly, it was a very eerie piece of land and a scary house; on the inside, however, it was quite pretty, with antique furniture and fixtures, forest green and plum purple striped wallpaper, stained glass windows, a grand staircase, old paintings, an ornate fireplace, hardwood floor, and velvet carpeting and curtains.

    Most of the time, Reyna and Tilde ran the mortuary alone since Cicero, despite their actual age, attended college to keep up appearances as an apparent sophomore in college. The two retired reapers didn't understand why the young one felt the need to do well in college, as they had all of the knowledge they could ever need, more knowledge in one form than any human could ever know, but Cicero really wanted their act to be convincing.

    They kept this in mind as their alarm clock went off at 6:45 on a Monday morning.

    "No." The reaper slapped a skeletal hand to the POWER button on the alarm clock, thus stopping the beeping. It wasn't as if Cicero slept, but they enjoyed the feeling of being buried under blankets on a mattress for an extended period of time; it felt like home. The young reaper kicked the blankets off and onto the hardwood floor. "Dead people have it so easy," they grumbled, their voice muffled by the pillow they had their face buried into. They rolled over onto their back. "They can just... rest their bones, buried forever," they sighed wistfully as they sat up and ran a hand through their short but tangled curls. They heard the patter of rain against the house and smiled. "Another glorious morning," they yawned before getting out of bed. They showered, got dressed, brushed their teeth, and put on their black, round, and wire-rimmed glasses before gathering up their school supplies for the day in their bag and heading downstairs.

    Reyna and Tilde were in the kitchen as they usually were at that time of morning, drinking coffee and reading the paper. Their bodies couldn't process caffeine since they didn't have any organs besides the external ones, like Cicero, but they claimed they still enjoyed it.

    "Good morning, Cicero," Tilde greeted cheerfully. Of the two retired reapers, she was much more cheerful, optimistic, and kind. She was stout and had bright blue eyes and short blonde hair. She wore a floral cardigan, a white blouse, and a long floral skirt that clashed with the cardigan.

    "Hello," Reyna grumbled moodily without looking up from her morning paper. She was the polar opposite of Tilde, tall, lean, and far more pessimistic and blunt, but she was caring in a different way. She had long, wavy strawberry blonde hair and fair skin, which was more wrinkled than that of Tilde, and hazel eyes.

    Being retired, they had permanent forms, with all of the nuts and bolts. They were human in every sense of the term except they were immortal and didn't have human souls.

    Cicero's body consisted of bones, joints, their spirit, tawny skin, and curly black hair, as well as everything else needed to appear human on the outside. They could eat or drink whatever and whenever they wanted, as they experienced hunger for food despite not having a digestive system because their spirit needed energy and human food was the most convenient, inconspicuous source of it.

    "What's up, whores?" Cicero sighed happily as they walked through the kitchen with their cane.

    "I swear, if I still had my scythe, you wouldn't talk to us like that... or at all," Reyna snapped.

    "Do we have any Coco Puffs?" Cicero asked as they looked into the breakfast cabinet, standing on the tips of toes and using the counter for support, ignoring Reyna's promise.

    The attitude leaked out of the older retired reaper. "No, I'm sorry. I forgot to put it on the grocery list."

    Cicero would've snapped if they weren't in such a good mood despite their fatigue. They were more tired than normal because they'd had to do a particularly tedious job the night before, but they were in a good mood because of the rain. Besides, they knew their aunts worked hard at the mortuary. "It's all right," they sighed as they scratched their nose and adjusted their silver reversed septum ring. "I'll be home for lunch." They walked out of the kitchen and towards the foyer, the cane thumping against the wooden floor, grabbed their bag, shoved on a pair of black leather combat boots at the door. "Later, sluts!"

    "Bye, Cicero!" Tilde responded jovially, chuckling at her nibling's humour.

    "Goodbye, fiend," Reyna chuckled. The two retired reapers listened to the front door open and close.