A/N -
I wrote this for Dasharoo for positivity week on the Spirit Animals Amino, hope you enjoy!
P.S. - I get some inspiration from 'The Book Thief' which is an amazing book and I would definitely recommend it!
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Karmo's PoV -

I walk with everyone, I will eventually get to know every person that has ever and will ever live. I know the day a new born baby will die from the moment it's born, and no, I'm not any kind of angel. I am a spirit of death. It is my job to take people's lives, of course I always wait till the day Fate tells me what to do.

Taking people's lives is an enormous job, I never have any free time. You probably are thinking bad of me, that I'm evil and heartless. None of that is true, I am very much like anyone else. I have a heart, though I have never loved anyone else but I do feel sympathy for the families of the people I take. I take nearly everyone's soul gently, just a simple touch of the heart and they walk beside me into the afterlife. There are a few souls I do have the pleasure of taking in a cruel way with the jab of a dagger but they always deserve it for the deeds they did in life. I drag these souls behind me as I take them to their final resting place, luckily there have only been a few of these.

Furthermore, it is sad to be like me, not only am I busy but I'm always sad, I witness so many tragic ends, drowning, shooting, heart attack, cancer, poison, and many more. I see the families weep over their loved ones but the souls themselves that I take never see this, they are always blind, mute, and deff when I take them. It is for their own good, I wouldn't want them to see their own body laying there lifeless with their loved ones hugging what is left after I have done my work.

Worst of all is, I'm not allowed to love another. There is no one in life or death who is like me, I am alone. Even if I did find someone to love, I couldn't have them. It would mean death for them and a condemning lingering life after death with no where to go, no heaven, no hell, or anywhere in between. They would stay with me and be stuck in the warm yet cold static that is my life. It would be even worse for me, not only would I be stuck here, in between life and death, heaven and hell, with no job to do, I would suffer each of my pacientes deaths twenty times each.

     Well that's enough about me, I think you get the jist of what I do so I'll get on with my story.

     I have just a few rules of my line of work:
1) Never look at the living
2) Never fall in love
3) Never kill before a soul's time is up

     These rules help to keep myself and my pacientes safe. When I walk to my next job I always keep my head down no matter what, don't look at the living. It was on a routine call like this that our story began and yes, I did say our...

     The sidewalk is the color of pale sand, a light yellow with bits of grey, the street is a black and grey with bright yellow highlighter that runs through the middle, the grass is a deep green in summer and a light yellow brown in winter unless it is covered in the pale white of snow. I know these things well, I stare at these things year after year. If you were to ask me the color of a living human's skin or eyes, I wouldn't know. I've never seen these, only heard of them.

     As I walked to my next call I seen these things, first light yellow with grey, then a black and grey mix, then a yellow-brown with bits of green, finally my patient. I allowed myself to observe my patient, they were always different than the living though, always pale, always with fearful eyes and hearts. This was an young boy, normal height, blue eyes and brown hair, he was fairly skinny. Most noticeable of all was the knife dug deep in his chest and the bright sticky crimson that pooled around him. I usually don't know my patience names but in this case I assumed it was Dawson. A voice from a living person sitting beside the body of my patient stated his name between sobs while gently shaking my patients shoulders to wake him. It was of course to no avail, Dawson was too far gone, his eyes stated wide and the knife barely moved up and down between heart beats, Dawson was going to die at my hand. I knelt next to Dawson and gently place a hand on his heart, I was capable of passing through skin, bone, and muscles with just the will of my mind. Instantly Dawson's spirit appeared next to me. His eyes were open wide but was glazed over with temporary blindness, he opened his mouth in a scream but he was silent. I wrapped and arm around him, he jumped a little in fear but nestled closer to me, very few souls did that, they always tried to run from me.

     The boy next to Dawson's body sobbed louder, "Dawson, why did you have to die, death should have taken me first," he sobbed louder, "I hate death, he's always wrong, so many of the people I love have died but I never thought I'd have to see you die too, it was supposed to be me!" the boy seemed angry, angry at me, I had never seen anything like this before.

     Then I lifted my head, before me was a boy that look very much like what I would assume to be his brother. He was shorter but had the same brown hair and blue eyes. I liked him in a way I couldn't explain, I felt bad for him as I did with all the families of people I have taken but this was somehow different. My heart speed up as I gazed at him, maybe this was because he was the first living person I had ever seen but I even doubted that. I couldn't bring myself to admit it but I think I loved him, he was cute and kinda sexy. He obviously had a gentle heart as he sobbed over his brother's death. Most of all though, he hated me and I kinda liked that. It felt good to be hated, mostly I was called scary or cruel but no one ever had the guts to hate me. Not like this boy did. If my soul was human I would guess myself to be around his age. I knelt next to the boy with Dawson still clinging to me. I led Dawson to him and Dawson immediately clung on to the sobbing boy, Dawson still couldn't speak but he mouthed 'Devin'. So that was this boy's name, Devin, I kinda liked that name.

     Devin seemed to feel Dawson next to him. He ran a finger down Dawson's face, "You're safe," Devin mumbled.

     I figured it was my turn to show myself to Devin, I knelt on his other side and rubbed his back gently, trying to show sympathy. "Death?" Devin asked.

     "Indeed but I'd rather you call me Karmo," I spoke in his mind.

     Devin appeared to tense, "You killed my brother!" Devin practically growled.

     "I had to, it was his time to go, I didn't make that gang kill Dawson I only took him out of his misery after they stabbed him, Dawson is safely beside you right now even though you can't see him," I replied.

     Devin looked over to wear Dawson was. "Can he hear me?" Devin asked.

     "No, he can't hear me either, he can't see and he can't talk either, he can only feel, this is temporary though, give him a day and he'll be himself again, he won't hurt, he will only have the scar of the knife that killed him, we should probably be going," I replied in thought to Devin.

     Dawson found his way so that he was touching both of us, he wanted to feel as secure as possible. Devin leaned into me, "Karmo, please take care of him," Devin stated and kissed Dawson's forehead one last time.

     "Of course I will, he will be safe with me," I replied and stood as I lead Dawson with me, "Devin, one last thing, do you still hate me?"

     Devin almost laughed, "Not really."

     "Good enough for me," I replied and pulled away from Dawson for a quick moment as I bent over and gave Devin a quick but passionate kiss on the lips.

     I chuckled as Devin looked at where I was with extreme confusion, before he could say anything I grabbed Dawson and pulled him into a portal that would lead us to the afterlife.

     I made sure Dawson was safe and then continued my day, taking calls from Fate and delivering my customers souls to their final resting place. I kept thinking about that living boy, Devin. Later in the day I decided to take a small break, maybe my customers would be happy to live another hour or two till I got back, I wanted to see Devin so I teleported to his home. I found the poor boy laying on his stomach in bed with a picture of Dawson in front of him, he was talking on his cell phone. I snuck up on him and listened in on his conversation. He was on some app called Amino and talking to someone named 'Ya gay mom, Devin' I found that confusing since Devin was talking to another Devin but whatever. It helped that Devin referred to the girl on the other side of the phone as Dash. Regardless, Devin was crying and telling Dash about what had happened to his younger brother. He also mentioned me, he seemed confused, almost like I was all in his head an made up, obviously some weird psychologist theory. I was obviously real.

I sat down next to Devin, the bed didn't so much as shift, I was invisible to the outside world but I was always there, just not seen. Devin kept crying, while Dash, who's eyes might have also been sweating, kept trying to calm Devin down. "I just wish I could be with him again, wherever he is, he's my only truly loving family.

I could help with that, I wrapped my arms around Devin so that my hands brushed his chest. Then I gently reached inside of his chest and dragged out his soul. Devin's head collapsed face first onto his phone with the girl on the other side asking what had happened and slightly starting to panic. She had no idea what had just happened and I was pretty sure I felt the same way, what had I just done?! I broke all three of my rules!

Devin cried as his soul wondered around his own room pathetically blind, mute, and deff.

I wrapped my arms protectively around him again and brought his head to my chest, he was safe with me, I wouldn't hurt him. With that we left through the portal that was always created after a death. I practically carried Devin in my arms. When we had reached the other side though my breathing hitched and I felt weak. Then the pain struck and a ghostly arrow was shot through my chest. It was happening, because I broke the rules. Every patient I have ever had, I would feel their killing blow twenty times as worse. An arrow through the heart, my first call, over 18,000 years ago. Devin cuddled next to me as I withered in pain, it was all worth it for him but would he even like me after what I had done to him?

A few hours later and I was crouched as small as I could practically rolling in pain as death after death hit me. I had coughed up blood, been shot in multiple ways, felt the sensation of fire consuming me or my head being loped off, or felt the ache of a fatal illness. They were all terrible and I began to feel bad for every human out there, they would all one day have to face some sort of horrible death but the only thing that would change would be me. I wouldn't be there to greet them and help them into the afterlife. Instead Devin and I are doomed to stay eternity in this black zone. On one side life is visible but not reachable. On the other side is the kingdoms of heaven and hell and their residence, also just as unreachable.

Finally, as the clock tower struck midnight in the living world all my pain stopped. I could scarcely move, everything hurt. Devin was laying beside me and had been since this all started. He seemed to know my pain was over. Devin gently brushed his fingertips against my cheek. He cuddled closer so I was now resting on his chest. I looked at him with sympathetic eyes, I had Devin beside me now, we could make this work. We could find happiness, even here!