Even Death Needs A Vacation

You only went to the Wellspring if you had a damn good reason, and typically for Lily, there was really only 2 of those. You're dead, or you're a Death. The living can absolutely come to the Wellspring any time they wished, however most would be wise to avoid it. It's not dangerous, per se, it's just incredibly unnerving. A fountain full of ghostly spirits, a hooded girl wielding a scythe and a large soul orb wearing a pink flower, and a scent of ectoplasm was usually enough to drive people off. Not that Lily could harm anybody living, or that she would, it's just the thought of it actually happening.

Unfortunately for Kyle Longburrows, that's exactly where he was heading. He walked into the foggy plaza, looking around nervously. The sound of rushing water spilling into the fountain before him was the only sound around aside from a few pages being turned by the hooded girl, and the thick leather tome in her lap.

"Kyle Longburrows. Aged 23. Cause of Death: Blunt Force Trauma and Blood Loss as a result of a DUI accident," she stated professionally, never looking from her book.

"Wait, what? Cause of.." Kyle's face paled and his eyes shrank, panting heavily. "Wait wait wait no! I can't be... You can't be serious!!"

"I'm as serious as the accident that brought you here. You're dead Kyle. Maybe you should've paid attention to all those Drinking and Driving adverts." she frowned, turning another page in her book. "Then perhaps your parents would've been able to send you that letter telling you how much you mean to them. Instead, they have to read it as a eulogy."

"What the HELL?! A-ARE YOU SERIOUS?!" Kyle was getting belligerent. They always do.

A heavy sigh escaped Lily's lips as she finally looked up at him, the upper half of her face shrouded by her hood's shadow, only leaving two scarlet eyes blinking at him; the half-frown on her face seemingly engraved on her pale skin.

"Yes. I'm serious. Now can we get this going? I have a lot of souls I need to deal with today and you're #549." She closed the book, setting it beside her, before reaching into the pale blue waters of the Wellspring and produced a golden set of balance scales. She carefully stood it up on top of the book before standing up and deadpanning at the freak-out that Kyle was in the middle of.

"You can't be serious! I-I was going to go steady with Stacy! My parents were gonna buy me a car! You can't be serious! You-" He stood up straight, looking at her before quickly beginning to approach, pointing his finger at her accusingly. "You gotta send me back. You hear me you stupid little freak? You gotta send me back RIGHT NOW."

Lily's eyes looked down at his waggling finger before slowly looking way back up at the hunched over jock, his varsity jacket covered in blood and char marks, likely from the gas fire that consumed the car after the accident. Without missing a beat, she waved her hand toward the scales.

"These scales are going to show you the balance of good and-"

"Didn't you hear me, shrimp? I said SEND. ME. BACK," he interrupted, making the young girl grind her teeth. Her thick fluffy tail was starting to get antsy behind her as her ghostly orb danced around her. Ignoring the rude man, she cleared her throat and began again.

"These scales are going to-"

A look of surprise overtook the man's face before he raised his hand to backhand her. Swinging her other arm out, the scythe that was once leaning against the fountain flew into Lily's grasp and she pointed it at his face, scowling. The sheer speed at which she was able to do that made Kyle step back a few feet in surprise, lowering his hand slowly.

"I wouldn't do that again, if I were you. Now stop interrupting me while I'm trying to help you to the afterlife," she said, a low growl in her voice as the pointed ears under her hood were laid flat against her head, "I certainly didn't ask to be your Death but we're stuck with each other. So love it or lump it."

Kyle's face screwed up into a crooked frown as tears began to well up. He began to bawl, dropping to his knees in defeat. This gained no sympathy from Lily, however, and only seemed to annoy her further. Shaking her head, she turned around and put her weapon back where it was before sitting on the edge of the Wellspring, waiting patiently for the man to stop whimpering. It felt like an eternity, but then again, that's what eternity feels like. After he was finally composed enough to listen, she motioned back toward the scales.

"These scales are going to show you the balance of good and evil that resides in your soul. Depending on which way the scales tip is which afterlife you will be sent to."

"C'mon man, you can't just make an exception?" he managed to choke, "I was only 23! I had so much more of my life to live!"

The only thing that could get Lily so seething mad was a mention of how "young" a person was before their passing. Her eyes began to glow bright yellow as she grabbed up her scythe and stomped over to the curled up wayward soul, aiming the end of it right at his chest.

"You don't get to tell me what I do or don't do! I don't give a damn if you were 23 or 103! You were lucky enough to die in a drunk driving accident! Half of the people who come in here are murdered by loved ones, poisoned by nurses, or even suicide attempts that worked a little bit too well! I was only 12 when I died, you absolutely ignorant, ungrateful PATHETIC EXCUSE OF A MAN!"

Standing her scythe up beside her again, she lifted it and slammed the handle into the solid cobblestone below them, making a loud thunk that echoed throughout the plaza.

"Now you can either stand up and take your afterlife, or I could just whip my scythe through you and let you live the rest of eternity in Limbo!! DOES THAT SOUND LIKE A PLEASANT TRIP?!"

Kyle whimpered, wincing at every sharp word like he was getting struck by a whip. He shook his head nervously, tears streaming down his cheeks. Lily took a deep breath into her ancient lungs, before letting it out. Regaining her composure, she turned around and walked to the scales again, standing just beside them.

"I don't want to give my whole speech again, so get your sorry ass over here and touch the fulcrum."

He slowly got back up, approaching the golden scales and reaching out, grazing the tip of his finger against the pointed tip protruding from the center rod before quickly retracting his hand in surprise. Looking at his finger, he saw a bead of crimson slowly appear, then glanced at the scales again. A pair of blood drops slowly traveled down the precious metal, one along each arm of the scales before dropping into the cups affixed by chains to each end.

Before his eyes, a pair of fires appeared in each cup, one a bright bluish-white, the other a deep blackish-red. The scales teetered back and forth for a few moments before settling, the blue flame being heavier by the red flame by a clear margin. She looked up at him, one of her ears flicking a bit under her hood.

"Lucky you. Despite the fact that there was absolutely no luck involved. Just you being a decent person," Lily said flatly, standing up and walking to the other end of the plaza, waving for him to follow. At the other side, an ivory escalator slowly lowered itself from the inky black void outside, a bright glowing white light shimmering at the top, "Here you go. You're going to the celestial afterlife."

Kyle looked way up at the staircase, before looking to the girl beside him. "Well, if you can't send me back, can someone up there send me back?"

"Kyle.."

"I mean like, they're way more powerful, right? They must have a way to send me back to Earth."

"Kyle," she said, more forcefully this time as she clenched her fist around the handle of her scythe, her tail flicking up and down.

"What?! I just don't wanna go to some crummy afterlife when I was just fine where I was!!"

That was it. The spark that ignited the powder keg. If Lily's scythe were breakable, she would've just snapped it in two just from the sheer grip she was exerting against it. Kyle looked at her, backing up a few feet like before as the ivory staircase suddenly lifted back into the void, the shimmering light fading.

"Did... you.. just call... the celestial afterlife... CRUMMY?!" she roared, even her ghostly orb quickly darted behind her as if to avoid being scolded. "DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT SOMETHING LIKE THAT WOULD MEAN TO SOMEONE LIKE ME?! I'D FINALLY BE ABLE TO REST IN PEACE!" She began to advance, slamming her scythe's handle into the ground with each stomp while Kyle did his best to get away from her, but quickly stopped before he fell into the void below them.

"WELL IF YOU DON'T WANT IT, I'LL GLADLY SHOVE YOU INTO LIMBO!" she screamed, raising her scythe and bringing it down, making Kyle curl up in fear. There was a pause. Kyle uncovered his eyes, looking around in confusion. He expected to be in some foggy forest or a deep dungeon with no way out, but he was still at the Wellspring. He sat up and looked around, before his eyes caught Lily looking down at him in surprise and fear, her scythe's half-crescent blade hovering just above him in her hands.

But there was a third hand gripping the scythe, this one closer to the blade. One made entirely of bone. The two of them slowly looked up at who belonged to the skeletal appendage. A gigantic hooded figure was standing between them, having caught the weapon before it struck Kyle down. The figure's hood, unlike Lily's, completely shadowed his visage, if he even had one. Lily quickly retracted her scythe as the figure let go of it, standing before him and looking down at the ground shamefully.

The figure looked at Kyle, and his blood ran cold. Raising his arm, the figure pointed a bony finger towards the end of the plaza, the staircase returning from it's place in the sky. Not giving it a second thought, Kyle sprinted to the staircase and flew right up, the staircase quickly retracting after Kyle stepped on.

"Lily..." he began, his voice sounding like his lungs were full of dust and his throat was made of parchment, "I... am... disappointed in you. You... are a Reaper. You... are not... the one who... judges."

"I-I know, but-" Lily began but was quickly silenced as Death raised a finger to her.

"You... are... a passionate.... young... girl. You did... not choose this life," he said, his voice almost sounding sympathetic. But Lily knew better. Death made no room for emotions, and so she was in the wrong for reacting so harshly, "You are... being... reassigned."

Lily's ears perked up as she looked up at her mentor, giving him a questioning frown. "R-Reassigned? Where?"

Death pointed to the end of the plaza where Kyle had just made his exit, and a large ornate doorway emerged from the ground. The door creaked open, leading into what looked like an empty field just outside of a forest. She looked back at Death, silently begging him to reconsider. Death only stared back, never moving. She sighed, waving for her ghostly orb to follow her as she approached the door, looking through it cautiously.

"Where is this place...?" she said, frowning. She turned around to look at her higher-up, only to see that the Wellspring, the endless black expanse, and Death, was gone. It was nothing but more grassy fields and nature. She hadn't even needed to step through the door. Just one look and she was here.

She frowned, looking around unhappily. This was highly unusual... Normally, a Death's station has something for them to use as a conduit for bringing the souls to the afterlife... A fountain, a statue, a desk, an office.. She'd even take an old costume chest or something! But there wasn't anything. Just more grass, more forests, and an old dirt road that lead toward what looked like a village made of stone and thatched roofs, a gigantic tree-like crystal structure being the biggest landmark there.

She looked at her orb, sighing a bit. "Where are we, Spirit?" she asked. The shapeless apparition danced around her, as if frolicking in the grassy plains, completely ignorant of her question. With a shake of her head, she decided she'd settle in. If she was going to spend an eternity here, she might as well get comfortable. Pulling the old leather tome from her robes, she opened it up to check her assignments for the day. But there was nothing written. She flipped through the pages curiously, the old parchment flicking past her thumb as she gave it a concerned frown.

"That's... strange. The log usually has hundreds of souls for me to guide," she sighed, giving a slight eye roll. "Maybe he just needs to update my book... I'm sure it'll come around eventually."

But nothing came.

Weeks past, and Lily had done nothing much past laying in the field, staring at the sky and watching the day change to night, seeing some strangely shaped birds flying by, and the clouds drifting freely. Every hour she would check her log, and every hour, the pages seemed even more blank than the hour before it. She was beginning to grow anxious. Deaths needed souls to guide, and she was no different! She slowly sat up, looking around and shouting into the heavens.

"Boss? I know you can hear me... Where did you send me to?" she called out, but there was no reply, "Boss?" She called again, softer this time. She wasn't certain what this meant, but she was certainly going to find out. Standing up, she started down the dirt path towards the village. She was going to get to the bottom of this mess, even if it took a whole eternity.