The Daughter of Death- *RAYOR*

Chapter 2: The First Reaping

THREE YEARS EARLIER

He was eight. Eight, I thought, was the age when you started differentiating between good versus bad, releasing the black-and-white thought of villains and heroes. Everyone has a villain and a hero inside of them, or else we wouldn't need the judges of the Underworld.

He carried his scythe clumsily. When I was his age, five years ago, I remembered this moment. The First Reaping. I'd had Death himself accompany me and tell me what to do. When I severed the soul of the child, who was suffering from a chronic illness, from the body, thereby releasing her from a lot of pain, I could see the pride in his face. That was what kept me going to rise in the ranks of reapers. However, Gabriel looked afraid. He was sweet and soft-spoken.

"Doesn't feel right," he said, his scythe swinging by his side and almost severing his leg. "I don't know what to do."

"I'll help you," I said. "It's very quick. One quick swipe." When I saw the look on his face, I continued in a softer voice, "Gabriel. It would happen anyway. Everyone dies." I only reserved that voice for him.

"We don't," he pointed out, looking up at me through his wild, curly hair.

I touched his wrist and brought it to his chest. "Do you feel anything?"

"No," he said.

"That's because we have no heartbeat. We're not alive."

He looked down at his reflection in the sharp blade.

"Gabriel..."

He looked up.

"I believe in you. You're not killing. You're reaping." I took his cold hand and his wings unfolded from behind his back, strong enough to carry both of us. If it were anyone else, I'd be green with envy. But not Gabriel.

We flew through the barrier, and fell, through time and space, stars shooting past us in a velvety-black sky, heat and light rushing past that was unfamiliar to me, and I landed in the street that contained the soul for Gabriel's first reaping.

For children, they usually assigned children, suffering from illnesses so that the young reapers wouldn't get uncomfortable. This was a girl suffering from some sort of lung disease.

"No one," I said, after looking around. We could turn invisible depending on whether or not there was anyone around at the time of reaping.

Gabriel pulled up his hood, closing his eyes. I could tell that, if he had one, his heart would be racing. If he had breaths, he'd be struggling for air.

"It's quick," I said again.

He gripped my hand in his small one and walked towards a house, opening the door with a wave of his hand.

We climbed up a floor quietly. A girl lay in a bed, her eyes closed, about six years of age. She had wispy, mouse-brown hair and looked so fragile, she seemed to be made out of porcelain. She seemed to be paler than her surroundings, less vibrant- until she opened her cornflower-blue eyes and looked at Gabriel.

"Who are you? Are you doctors?" she asked, her accent rolling her r's in a way that made me almost pity her. She looked like such a sweet little girl, like Gabriel.

He shuddered. We were as far from doctors as we could be. Gabriel's pasty-white hands lowered the hood, revealing his dark curls and eyes. Her eyes looked up and down from my horns to Gabriel's dark, dragonish wings.

Her face seemed to calm in understanding.

"I'm dreaming, aren't I?" she said. "It's time for me to go."

I looked at Gabriel. "Do it," I mouthed.

He lifted his scythe, and the blade swiped through the girl. Her body went limp, but her soul, in the shape of the little girl drifted up and landed on the ground. She was paler than in life and hazy. Gabriel took her hand and we flew up together, before landing on the other side of the barrier in the Underworld.

The girl shivered. It was colder now. He led her across to a large building, the court where the Judges of the Underworld deemed whether or not you should go to Elysium, for heroes, The Fields of Asphodel, for people who lived normal lives, and The Fields of Punishment, for those who needed disciplining. And the Underworld? It was somewhere in between.

"Wait here," said Gabriel softly. His voice was feather-like. "You'll be brought before the three Judges of the Underworld- Minos, Radamanthus, and Aeacus. You are young- you will certainly not get sent to the Fields of Punishment. Perhaps Asphodel."

"Stay with me," said the girl. "My name is Ashley."

Gabriel looked like he wanted to stay. Ashley did look terrified out of her wits. She didn't know, I knew, what Asphodel or the Fields of Punishment were. But Gabriel caught my eye and said, "I have to go," and we walked away from the frightened girl, towards the dark palace of the Grim Reaper.

I never saw Ashley again.