13: Cursed One

DEARIL

I woke up feeling the heat from the human's body beside me. Masakit pa rin ang ulo ko pero kumpara kanina, hindi na iyon ganoon kasakit. Ilang beses akong kumurap at dinama ang kirot sa sintido ko. I know my body's vulnerable when I am in human form, but damn, the pain is new to me.

I'm familiar with pain. In fact, any kind of pain but this hangover just gave me a new kind of pain. Siguro dahil nasa anyong tao ako. When I am in my grim reaper state, the pain I feel is something I can endure. It's something that I am used to. It's something that my body can take even if other reapers cannot.

It makes me suffer so much... which is pity on my side. Not the best perk of being cursed. I envy some grim reapers who make divine mistakes and get death and rot to hell as punishment. I, on the other hand, cannot. I won't die but my soul will feel the agony of how it feels like to rot in hell... almost all the time.

I sighed and stared at the human curled beside me. Crazy as she may seem but she looks so peaceful in her sleep. She's like a leaf floating in a calm lake. Like a flower on the meadow. Like a song mermaids sing when they're triumphant.

I stood up from her white bed, picking up a loose strand of my red hair on her white pillow. Ah, this human likes my hair. She likes it because 1) she's crazy and she likes odd to the sight things like my vibrant red hair and 2) she doesn't know what it means. The pigmentation is too bright that it means I am someone whose morals degenerates. Unlike other hues of red, mine is the brightest color. Not ginger and not tawny. It was worse than crimson but as bright as a lava.

I took the liberty of using her bathroom to splash water on my face and gargle. Paglabas ko ng banyo ay tulog pa rin siya. I took one last glance at the sleeping woman before I snapped my fingers and disappeared. By the time the sound of my snap disappeared, I am at the realm where grim reapers are gathered.

Ah, nakalimutan kong may pagtitipon pala ngayon. A quarterly assembly.

The hall fell silent when they noticed my presence. Not new to me. They all flung their heads down as I walked towards the side kung saan sadyang bakante. Everyone knew how not to piss me off by taking my seat.

Well, except for Ajal.

"Go grab your own chair, Dearil man," he said and munched on his grapes.

Hindi na lamang ako nagsalita pa at kumuha ng upuan ko at inilagay iyon sa tapat niya. The place was back to its noisy state. It's filled with the grim reapers' chatters but I'm certain it isn't as loud and noisy before my presence. There were thousands of grim reapers today. Mula sa iba't ibang lugar ngunit lahat ay alam ang tungkol sa akin.

I was so busy playing human that I almost forgot about this quarterly meeting.

"Ajal, what's today's agenda?" tanong ko. It must be something important to make every psychopomps or guide of souls gather in this huge hall.

"Agendum. Apparently, thousands of grim reapers are gathered for a single agendum. Like man, the highers ranks are pyschos to make everyone attend para sa isa lamang na topic. Dude, they can send it through email, duh." He swallowed a grape before he gently punched my chest. "And fuck you man. You let me fix your shit there, you made me cook and you just slept?! Dude, spell 'sayang ang effort' ko!"

I glared at him and it scares him a little... but it scared the other grim reapers a lot.

Ajal raised two fingers and smiled. "Joke lang, man. Kapag nalasing ka, sige, tawagin mo lang ako... As if I have another choice."

"...okay, I will remember that."

Ajal frowned. "Huh, what a good friend you are."

"We're not friends."

He frowned. "Whatever, man."

I felt weird stares from my back kaya nilingon ko ang mga grim reapers sa likuran ko. They immediately looked away and lowered their heads. Tsk, they really believe the myth that if they looked at a red hair in the eyes, they will burn.

Nah, just a myth.

I'm not as shallow as that. If they offend me, I can make them burn in an instant.

If they stare at me in the eyes and that annoys me, I can burn them into ashes.

Pero kung gusto nilang paniwalaan ang sabi-sabi na kapag tinitingnan ako sa mata ay masusunog na sila, let them believe that.

Ajal knows my shit very well. He knows I have bad temper so if he gets on my bad side, he always escapes before he turns into ashes. Kaya na rin siguro siya lamang ang nagtangkang kumausap sa akin... I don't mind talking to anyone... it's them who minds that.

Ajal and I, in some ways, are alike. We are grim reapers who have special skills than other reapers and psychopomps. Others serve only as guide aided with black card, denoting the name and time of death of a human... while Ajal can identify a person's time of death. And he can see a human's remaining time... Like a newborn baby... Upon seeing a baby, he can see when will the baby die. Except when deities or someone like me intervene. Human's fate will change with another divine being or devil's intervention.

And I am the cursed one. Among all grim reapers, I am the only one capable of killing humans kahit na hindi pa niya panahon. Yup, I can do that to humans... and I can do that to grim reapers too who, supposedly, cannot die. It's one of my cursed abilities.

Ajal and I are special along with some other grim reapers in this room because unlike most grim reapers, we are not just psychopomps who may be animals, spirits, humans who greatly sinned and low deities. Ajal and I are angels... banished from heaven due to a great sin.

"Don't mind them," narinig kong wika ni Ajal.

"Them? For what?"

He blinked. "Their stares. It's not for you, it's because of my hotness."

I shook my head and disgustingly looked at him. "Your vanity is loathsome."

He just giggled and stopped when he saw my serious face. Of course, I'm a snap away from burning him alive right here, right now.

Muling naging tahimik ang paligid nang pumunta sa harap ang tatlo sa nakatataas na grim reapers. The spokesperson greeted us with a smile and the idiots in the room returned the smile.

"Today's agendum is about everyone's attitude towards work."

Naging maingay ang paligid. Cannot blame everyone. It's a subject they could pass towards us through mails but they chose to summon us here. It's one of the basics.

The grim reaper in front cleared his throat. "I know what you are a making fuss about. Akala ninyo ay maliit na bagay lamang ito but let me remind you, this is on the top of your responsibilities."

The place went still kaya nagpatuloy ang nasa harap.

"For the past quarters, there are so many reports of missing souls, escaping grim reapers, delayed soul guidance, etc. All of these root to your attitude in your job. Most of you have taken this for granted. Most enjoyed messing up, some were lazy and others are overly active."

The murmurs and noises around filled the place again ngunit saglit lamang.

"Please do you job well. Mukhang hindi na sapat ang parusang 500 pahinang report ang gagawin. Should the council raise it to 1000 pages?"

Growls filled the hall. Everyone was annoyed on such. Ako nga, naiinis na sa 200 pages, 1000 pa kaya? So I'll say no to it, too.

"See? Walang may gusto so please be serious with your job. Also, a lot of you has enjoyed having fun as human to the point na napababayaan n'yo na ang trabaho ninyo, especially you Ajal!"

When I looked around, a lot of grim reapers lowered their heads, probably guilty of such deed. And yea? Hindi na bago na palaging may pa-special mention kay Ajal. He's naughty most of the time.

Ajal flinched and looked at the higher grim reaper. "Uh?"

"Stop playing around!"

Ajal smiled sheepishly but he didn't give out a solid YES answer. Kahit pa siguro pagawain siya ng report na may isang milyong pahina, Ajal will be Ajal.

"I will expect improvement on you Ajal by next quarter, and to everyone," sabi ng nakatataas. "Dearil."

Oh it's me. He called me. I raised my head, my eyes meeting his and he immediately looked away. Tss.

"Dearil, stop killing grim reapers!" he said which made everyone inside the hall hiss and growl fearfully.

"Stupid ones must go," sagot ko. Yup. I burned grim reapers because of being stupid, some were cheeky. Ilang beses na ba akong nabigyan ng mali-maling trabaho? Knocking on the wrong door is so much of a hassle dahil iyon sa katangahan ng mga nakatalaga roon.

And this is the nth time that I've been given a wrong address. But it's the first time that the human behind the door where I wrongly knocked actually saw me. This is why I am amused by such crazy human's ability.

"We will have workforce shortage if you keep doing so!"

I snarled. "Then kill the stupid ones but keep the few efficient ones."

"You also killed humans before their specified time!"

I hummed a lazy yeah in response. Yeah, it's their fault for giving me the wrong information. Did that... like most of the time.

The grim reaper in front frustratingly looked at me before sighing. "Just don't keep doing so." His gaze was back to the other grim reapers on the hall. "That's all for today. Keep your work ethics with you and do your job on time. I expect improvement by the next quarterly assembly. Meeting adjourned!"

Nang umalis ang nakatataas na grim reaper sa harap, napuno ng bulong-bulungan ang paligid. Of course, some of the chatters and murmurs are about their jobs and their exploits but most of it were about my attitude towards other grim reapers.

And the deaths I caused to grim reapers and humans. Their murmurs started to annoy me. I cleared my throat and faced Ajal.

"Hey Ajal, this place is so noisy. What do you think about me setting this on fire?"

"Damn you, Dearil man. Let me go out first!" Ajal said and walked towards the door with me. Some are dying to run away also but they know better not to walk past me in a hurry. That's seriously annoying.

Muling natahimik ang paligid. Everyone is used to my behavior na kahit ang mga nakatataas na grim reaper ay natatakot sa akin.

Yea, I'm the cursed one remember?