My name is Death.

No, I am not using that in a metaphorical situation. Let me make this clear, I am NOT the afterlife. When you die, you don't end up in my world, so don't you dare even think to ask me where you end up when you die. That is more of  Thanatos's expertise. You have no idea how many times I'm muddled up with him.

I am more of the classical form of Death: a dark hooded figure that hovers in a pool of mist with a glowing, hooked axe: a scythe. Don't make fun, if I wanted to, I could come for you early and reap your soul in front of all of your loved ones.

So yeah, don't mock me.

It's an interesting job, collecting the near dead. Mostly, I manipulate the never disappearing mist that outlines my cloak to fade my existence from  mortal view. Then, I simply drift towards the victim, point my scythe at their chest, and pull out their life force effortlessly. Life force's are never identical, and are always intriguing to examine. Sure, I could tap the victim's shoulder and watch their life fly by me in the blink of an eye, but why'd I want to watch every single second of some pathetic mere mortal's life? Instead, the life force tell me the kind of person they were.

A mostly crimson force reflected pure evil and hatred. They were the easiest to take.
A mostly ice blue force represented cowardice and slyness. They were typically the crowd of copycats.
Then, there's the lime green force. That stood for boastfulness and jealousy. You know that horrid bully that pulled your hair when you were eight? Yeah- that type of person.
A yellow life force are public role models, eg: celebrities, royal family members etc... They were normally shallow and cold people; away from society, they were seriously mentally ill alcoholics, drug addicts, or just down right depressed.
Purple forces were your average Joe's who had the deepest and darkest of secrets. Surprisingly, they were normally the casual family mortals who lead a casual life.

Notice how all the types of life forces evolve around a mortal's worst characteristics? That's simply because in death, your bad deeds define you. They persuade Thanatos to send you to heaven, hell or limbo. That's his job. Mine however, is to simply part the soul from the corpse and send it to the afterlife.

Once I've taken the soul and shipped it off, I leave the mortal realm and float around my quarters. My quarters is stuck on the boundary that separates the four realms. Mortal. Heaven. Limbo. Hell. In time, I will go into each one in more depth.

But this is just my introduction.
My introduction about a girl.

I first met her the day she was born. Around fourteen years ago, I had just gotten back to my quarters after a particularly nasty bank robbery gone wrong, when another name popped up on my daily schedule. I have a schedule that hangs on my front wall. It refreshes each day with my victims names, and times. I prefer it like that because it's more organised. However, every now and then, there's always that stubborn mortal whose name has to appear at a moments notice, ruining all my plans.

Well, to be fair, I don't have plans.
I'm death after all.

There was nothing unusual about this particular name, it was almost too boring. Theresa Roberts: 10:43. Rolling my eyes, I tapped the name with the edge of my scythe and materialised into a maternity ward. Doctors and nurses rushed passed me, oblivious to the fact that their greatest enemy was standing right in front of them to take more of their patients. Mortals- so ignorant!

The cubical I was in was navy, with cracked cream walls. In the middle, lay a rickety, saggy bed. A midst all the sheets lay a young woman, in perhaps her late twenties. Her skin was the same shade as the wall, popping her veins out for the words to see. A ribbon of brown hair was stuck to her skin with sweat, as was the paper nightdress she wore. Her eyes were shut, but her mouth was pressed in a mid-groan. Theresa Roberts.

She wasn't the only mortal in the cubical. Two nurses, who were softly crying into each others shoulders, glowed with a mint green life force. A doctor at the side was dressed in a deep blue aura, and a young man, who appeared almost as bad as the corpse, was crumpled in the corner. Both his, and his wife's life force were a sickly purple. I drifted lifelessly over towards the dead mortal. My scythe easily hooked up her magenta soul, dragging it into Thanatos's cavern (also in the middle of the four realms) with a swish through the air. Piece of cake.

I turned to leave when another nurse entered, cradling a newborn baby girl nestled within a bundle of blankets. This baby girl was different. I understand how cliche this must sound, but it's the truth. Newborn babies are the only innocence within the world. They are never born with an aura, and only grow a life force when they receive a conscience. However, this baby had a life force as white as an angle's wings. It swallowed the baby whole, consuming her until she was just a ball of light. 

Never before had I seen that happen.
Never before have I payed an interest in another mortal.

Unfortunately, my inspecting time was scarce because my scythe began vibrating and glowing like an alarm for my next schedule- some car accident or something. I nodded at my weapon, and we disintegrated into darkness, but not without one last stolen glance at the newborn.

From that day on, I vowed to keep an eye on that child. Although I could not enter the mortal realm at desire, there was a chance I might visit a dying loved one of her's and meet once more. For I'd never seen a life force so clean. So pure. So innocent. So white. It could only mean one thing. But I am not telling you that one thing just yet, dear reader. You'll have to wait just a little while before you understand as I did then.

After that faithful day, I saw the girl twice more before we finally reunited in the present.

The next time was six years later, I'd almost forgotten about the girl. I arrived in a teenage boy's bedroom that was covered in the usual rubbish and hard rock posters. A sixteen-year-old boy was a ghost on his bed. An empty needle stuck out from his arm awkwardly. Overdose. I scythend his blue life force away from his corpse, and turned around just as the door opened. It revealed a six-year-old girl with long brown hair tied back into a silk ponytail. Her life force bled white. Moaning, she dragged her heels over towards her dead brother, before freezing on the spot. Terror spiked through her expression, and her body shook uncontrollably. An agonizing, blood curdling scream deafened my roaring ears. Within seconds, her Dad had charged into the room, dropped to his knees and sobbed. Not great parenting on his daughter's behalf, if I must add.

The next time, I was back in a hospital. Only this time, I was in a private room with an old woman lying on a comfy bed. Her mouth was shaped in an 'O' shape, and her eyes were wide open, but she wasn't moving. At her bedside, were a couple of doctors and nurses who were somberly continuing their duties, as well as a man and his daughter, who were finding comfort in each other. The girl was roughly ten, and wore her now bushy brown hair bouncing off her shoulders. Her whole body was a source of light, of white.

Then, quite recently, I got the usual call out and materialised in a bathroom. Suicide. The bath tub was frothing with scarlet blood, and a fourteen-year-old girl lay propped up. Her clothes were soaked through and her bushy hair dangled heavily. On either side of the tub, she had placed a wrist. Each one had a large bloody slit, that even after her death, was stilling leaking with metallic, crimson liquid. But that wasn't the most worrying detail. She illuminated white.

It was her.
She had killed herself.
The girl I had sworn to protect had slit her wrists.
My apprentice had committed suicide.

She was dead.

Then, the worst thing happened.
Her life force changed.
A crack of jet black darkness bleached a horizontal line across her perfect aura. I swallowed. No. I'd never seen that happen to a life force before, and I'd never even crossed paths with a black aura. What happened?

It took me a while until I plucked up the courage to go near her. And then, right on queue, the girl's father burst into the bathroom. "No, no, no!" He muttered, scrambling towards his daughter. He scooped her up in his arms, sobbing into her hair. Unfortunately, the mortal appeared a lot worse than when we last met. His skin was grey and wrinkly, his rapidly balding head remained the home of the occasional silver hair, and his chin was infested with stubble, as though he hadn't shaved for a decade. Large bags propped his eyes open, and even his lips were roughly chewed. Normally, the loved one mourning over a deceased never affected me. I could go to a blown up school bus surrounded by blubbering parents and not feel a thing. But... This man was broken. He had lost everything: his wife, his son, his mum, his job. He held the last reason to why he should live, dead in his arms. His light had been taken from him. Her light was now polluted with darkness.

At that moment, I became rather naughty.

I leaned over towards the girl, and rather than reap her soul, I placed my bony finger on her neck. Suddenly, I felt my energy shrivel, and my body weakened. Afterwards, I stumbled back in shock, processing what I had just done. That was when the dead girl exhaled a breath. Stopping dead, her Dad hesitated. Hope vibrated his popping veins. Cautiously, he placed his thumb across her neck, and felt a slight pulse that slowly grew.

Had I really just given that girl 10% of my life force? Of my power? To prove a point, my own aura sparked a furious white, matching what was once the girl's. I had once been a pathetic mortal, born as one of the first humans on Earth. Both myself and the girl are the only people ever to have white auras.

Now, it is time to tell you what white life forces equal as. It stands for defiance because we are the only people who can do what is needed to do to help humanity survive: to reap souls. This girl was going to become my apprentice. And now...

I never saw what happened next to the girl and her Dad. Thanatos had tugged at my shoulder, and within the blink of an eye, I was inside one of Thanatos's caverns. Thanatos stood in front of me, the faint glow of candlelight lightened his dark cloak. The two of us took down our hoods. Thanatos had never been mortal, unlike me, so under his hood was nothing but bone and mist. However, under my hood, was flesh and blood. My pale face reflected the death I'd witnessed, and my once scarlet styled hair had represented the blood of my victims, now however it was silver with age. A depressing factor of being immortal means you still age slightly. I wore shades to hide my eyes too, for my irises could poison mortals at a single stare.

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!?" Thanatos roared.  He snarled viciously, "NEVER BEFORE HAS ANYONE BEEN BROUGHT BACK." I shrugged, attempting to hide my vulnerability. "She's going to be my apprentice." I told him. Thanatos exploded with a sarcasm overload. "OH YES, A SUICIDAL GIRL IS THE PERFECT CANDIDATE TO BE DEATH'S APPRECIATE! SHE'S FRICKING DEAD! SHE'S MEANT TO BE IN MY JUDGEMENT CAVERN AT THIS MOMENT! WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?"

Flinching, I sighed. "She's my apprentice. I will make her my apprentice."
Thanatos grimaced. "Well, I hope you're happy! Because of your little reincarnation stunt, the Head Demon and Angel is visiting for a trial." I raised an eyebrow. "A trial? What for!?" Angrily, Thanatos stamped his foot, portraying a moody toddler. "To see if the reincarnation was necessary. Now, our actions are going to be assessed!"

I nodded. "Fair enough."

Ignoring Thanatos's whines, I travelled back to my quarters. I needed time to think; to process what I had just started.

So there you have it. I've given you a fair introduction. Without further ado, let me begin with my story. My story of a girl who will soon become Death's apprentice...

A/N: Thank you so much for reading this chapter! This is my first novel that I have published on Wattpad, so please bare with me. If there are any errors, I will go back and edit them later! I would love to read any comments and opinions you have on where the story is going. I will hopefully publish a chapter every week, maybe more if I feel like it. Thanks.