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Jamie would have walked too if he could have. But he couldn’t. Not right now. He was far to afraid he’d be eaten up by some soul-hunting creature. Jamie really didn’t want that. He didn’t want to die for good…
Tis a private RP my dudes amd dudets
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Ember could see the town coming into sight. Thankfully Jamie would reach it before her, and she wouldn't have to worry about him anymore.
She took a moment to stop and scan her surroundings, her eyes landing on a crawler that was heading straight for Jamie. She cursed.
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Jamie stumbled, feeling light headed as he struggled to keep up his pace. He could see the city ahead, and it brought hope in his chest.
He clutched tightly to the weapon he was given, biting his lip as he grinned at the Gates.
Ember cupped her hands around her mouth, shouting at him to run faster and not look back. But crawlers where fast, especially with the promise of food.
(I'm gonna leave this in your hands whether he gets caught or not.)
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(Ah! Okay!)
Jamie had nearly reached the entrance to the city before the creature caught up. He yelped as it attacked, diving out of the way. A his face paled at the sight of the Crawler, struggling to swing the scythe in its direction.
He caught the corner of its head.
Jamie didn’t wait to see if it ran away. He barreled towards the city, and felt relief as he made it in.
Ember didn't even check to see if the crawler was alive by the time she reached the gates. By the looks of it, Jamie had taken it down. But for how long she didn't.
She practically stumbled through the gates, her adrenaline wearing off slowly. Leaving her shaky, and in pain.
Her fight with the other crawlers earlier wasn't as clean as she'd thought.
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Jamie was sitting on the ground, leaned up against whatever solid object he first spotted, which happened to be a building. He was breathing heavily, eyes closed and mouth agape.
Maybe he would just stay here in the city… he didn’t want to risk another attack because he sure as hell was afraid of whatever those creatures were out there.
Yes.
He was admitting he was a coward
"Jamie," Ember hadn't seen where he went once entering the gates. She was worried that something had happened to him. Just because the towns where safe from Crawlers, didn't mean they where completely safe.
Her side throbed from where a Crawlers claws had dug into her side, there wasn't much blood. But it was still worrisome.
"Rough day?" He stuffed his hands in his hoodie pockets, eyeing the soul curiously. Of course he had seen everything. He was the one that had sent the crawlers on them after all.
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Jamie’s head shot up to look at the one who had spoke, his eyes widening. “Ah… yeah… I think the day someone dies would be considered more than ‘rough’ but you could put it that way.”
He clutched his weapon closer, still weary and paranoid. He had been attacked twice today already. He wasn’t looking for a third time.
“Are you like me, too? Or are you like the reapers?”
The stranger chuckled, "no my boy, I'm afraid I'm neither Soul nor Reaper." He didn't offer any thing as to what he was.
"You're a soul? I wouldn't have guessed," he mentioned to the scythe Jamie was holding. "Did a reaper give you that then, or did you steal it?" He narrowed his eyes but there was still an unmistakable grin on his lips.
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Jamie felt cold panic spread through his chest. Who was the stranger? What was the stranger?
"Ah, it was given to me. I haven't stolen it. Those things out there were after us, so she told me to run and gave me this to protect myself." He explained hurriedly, scrambling to stand. He didn't like the way the stranger was looking at him, it was starting to stress him out.
Jamie usually wasn't an anxious person but this set of circumstances was different. "Who are you?"
The stranger held his hands up, and took a few steps back. Getting a scythe swung at him wasn't in the plans today. "A friend if you ever need it. Now if I where you I'd find that Reaper. Can't you hear her calling for you?" There was shimmer in the air around them, and when it was gone Embers voice could clearly be head. "Run along now," and with that the stranger left. Walking in the opposite direction.
Her worry had only grown in the past few minuets. What if he hadn't made it, she would have to go back out the gates and look for him. But how could she have missed it, she'd have seen if a crawler dragged him off, right?
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"A friend…?" He echoed, his eyebrows furrowing. He didn't get much time to think on it, Ember's voice drawing him back to the situation he had just been through. "O-Oh! I do need to find her!" He turned his head back to the stranger, only to find him walking away. He shivered softly, stepping back out into the streets to look for the reaper that saved his life.
"I-I'm over here!" He called out, biting his lip and narrowing his eyes as he looked around. A friend… That didn't sound ominous at all. Or maybe they were a friend, and that's how the afterworld worked. He could ask Ember about it.
Ember sighed in relief at the sound of his voice, and quickly made her way to where it'd come from. "Are you okay?" She quickly looked him over for any visible wounds.
The black of her outfit made the blood hard to see, but the tang of it still filled the air. Ember quickly snatched her scythe from Jamie, using it to prop herself up so he wouldn't notice The slight limp she had.
Reapers couldn't die in this realm unless they where quite literally ripped apart. So she would heal, but it would still probably knock her out of commission for a few days.
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"I'm alright." He promised, looking over her own face for any signs of pain. "Are you alright? You didn't get too hurt, did you?"
Jamie narrowed his eyes at her, glancing back in the direction the stranger had disappeared off to. "I… uh… I also have another question for you. Are there more than just souls and reapers? I mean like, being wise? I know the creatures but, is it possible to have a soul who's not a reaper or just a normal soul?"
"What?" Embers brows knit together, her confusion obvious. "There's shadows, but they don't usually hang out in the city's." She glanced around them looking for any signs of anyone else.
She decided that someone had just been playing a joke on him. A rogue Soul, or a Reaper just looking to have some fun.
"Come on, we have to get to a motel." She waved him along. Using her scythe kind of like a walking stick, and trying to discreetly hold her hand to her side.
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"Shadows?" He brushed it off, sighing softly. "Alright. I met another soul then. They were strange." He admitted, following her slowly. His eyes scanned the city, a soft sigh leaving his lips. "Do some souls never go to the afterlife? Is that why there are cities here?"
He offered his arm to help her walk, noticing how much she was leaning on her scythe. It was hard to hide that.
Ember reluctantly excepted Jamie's help. Just because she would heal, didn't mean it didn't hurt like Heck. "Sometimes. Most of the time its a sentence. Some souls aren't wicked enough for Hell, so they stay in places like this untill they prove themselves."
It didn't take long to get to a motel. The worker there didn't even seem to notice their arrival, untill she handed them a key card.
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“I didn’t know there was an in between.” He murmured softly. “There’s so much I don’t know and understand about this place.”
The soul fell silent as they entered the motel, nodding his thanks to the worker before he helped his Reaper to their room. “How many souls do you reap per day?”
"A few. As a Reapers time slowly comes to an end, their reaping territory gets smaller." She slid the key card into the door. "Newer Reapers are in charge of hospitals, and places where death is common."
Ember practically collapsed on one of the beds, discarding her scythe on the floor. Her side had already started to heal. "Where a older Reaper like me has a few allies to reap from."
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Jamie nodded, sitting down on the other bed and sighing. “You’re almost done then? With reaping?” He flopped onto his back and groaned.
He suspected by now someone had probably found his body. He only hoped his mother wouldn’t grieve for too long.
"Hopefully." Ember had always dreamed of the day she'd be done with reaping. Getting to enjoy the after life was starting to seem like a far off dream. "Some Reapers choose to continue."
She turned her head, eyeing him curiously. "You okay?" She wasn't just talking about the crawler attack, or his run in with a strange soul. She was wondering if he was okay being dead.
In her eyes most deaths weren't fair. The day she'd carried a baby to the after life coming to mind. Of course along with reaping, she also had to watch them die. Interfering wasn't aloud, but that was the day she almost broke that rule.
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“I don’t know how you could continue to do it willingly… watching people die…” Jamie pushed his palms into his eyes, gritting his teeth. “You’d have to be broken to do that willingly.”
The silence that followed her question was heavy. It pressed dow on Jamie’s chest, drawing every breath he had out.
“Not really.” He admitted, his voice broken. “I just need to suck it up. I’m already dead… my life is over regardless of the things I didn’t get to do or the things I didn’t get to see. There’s no use mourning over it… I just wish I would have called my parents one last time, told them I loved them.” There was another silence, this one shorter and broken by a strangled sob that escaped Jamie’s teeth.
“I have a little brother… he’s young, just barely in middleschool. I-“ Jamie rolled over, his back facing the reaper so she couldn’t see the tears. He wasn’t going to be ‘weak’ in front of her. “I worry about him the most. He’s going into highschool without help. He’s an only child now. I only wish I could have guided him through his freshman year at least… I wish I could lived for even just two more years.”
Being a reaper wasn't by choice, she'd sternly have never picked it if it had.
"I'm sorry." They where the only words Ember could get out. She could have helped in some way, could have interfered. She had the stopwatch, had watched it run out of time. But instead she had smiled.
Smiled because she was one more soul closer to freedom. Was almost done serving the dead.
She let the silence fall again, listening to Jamie cry. She'd seen so many cry for their lost life before, so why did this one bother her so much? Had she finally snapped?
After a while Ember spoke again, "you can always visit your loved ones dreams." She propped her head up on one hand, still watching Jamie. "Once you make it to the gates tomorrow its the first thing you can do."
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Jamie rubbed at his wet eyes, cursing under his breath. He wasn’t supposed to cry anymore. He promised himself he wouldn’t. At least, not in front of anyone.
“I’ll do that. It’ll be the first thing I do.” He pulled the sheets over his body, not bothering to even take off his shoes. “I’m going to visit him once a week if I can. Help him through things.”
He slowly turned back to face the Reaper, looking awfully tired for someone who was dead already. “I really hope I’ve done enough good to make it. Maybe then I’ll find a way to be happy about all this.”
(I know this is meant to be a serious moment, but the glitch is killing me. 😂)
"I'm sure you have." Ember offered a soft smile. Granted mist never remembered their dreams, she hoped for Jamie and his brothers sake that the younger would.
She pushed herself up from the bed, checking her side to see how healed it was. "Well I should take a shower. Most of this blood isn't even mine, and I'd like to get rid of it. But you should sleep. Tomorrow will be the last stretch."
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(Me to! I think it’s Andrews doing. The mastermind has created a late April fools for us 😂)
“Alright… I’ll be here…” he murmured, already starting to drift off. The soul had gone through a lot already but besides the tired eyes and sad expression, he was still himself. He still had his personality, his physical traits, his memories.
He vowed he wouldn’t let himself forget who he was. Jamie was going to get through this just like he had with any other challenge in his lifespan. He was still here, as a soul. He still had a little life left.
(Ngl, been pretty depressed lately and this is just making my night. 😂
also heads up this ones gonna be long.)
For the longest time Ember let the hot water pound on her back. Not bothering to try and scrub the blood away. The days events had worn her out.
She thought of ways to help the soul cheer up. Perhaps she could drag him to some pancake place. Even though they where dead and didn't need to eat, didn't mean they couldn't. Just like how sleep wasn't necessary, but it was still refreshing.
Ember couldn't really remember the last time she'd allowed herself to sleep, most of the time she dreamt of her death. And even if she couldn't remember it when she woke, it still left her afraid to close her eyes. But perhaps that would change tonight.
Once done with her shower Ember quickly towel dried herself and dressed back in her clothes. She'd have to get a new shirt in the morning.
Ember claimed the bed across from Jamie, and soon feel asleep. But tonight was no different than any other, and her nightmares somehow seemed worse then ever.
Ember spun in her wedding dress, admiring the layers and layers of ruffles that fanned out around her. She complemented the seemstrist, and gidily turned to her husband-to-be. Except when she turned to him she was no longer wearing the wonderful dress, and he was no longer there.
she desperately called out his name, but her words only echoed back at her from the waste land. Trees twisted groutasishly, and holes seemed to for the land scape. She desperately tried not to fall in them as she ran. But what was she running from?
the snarl of a crawler followed her trail, and she could hear them close behind. If only she could just reach the river ahead, then maybe she could escape.
Ember plunged into the river, desperately struggling to cross it. But something- no someone was holding her. Pushing her under the waters surface as she trashed, trying to escape.
She awoke in a cold sweat, her breathing heavy. The memory of the dream seeming to float away with her breaths. But she could remember one thing, the face of the man.
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(It’s so funny seeing the serious rp’s get interrupted by the friends 😂 😂 I’m dying over here too)
Jamie heard the Reaper startle awake from his place at the bathroom mirror. He had slept for as long he could, but found he didn’t quite like the sound of gunshots in his dreams.
Guess he did get some trauma from his death. He thought it was too quick to have anything really stick.
Jamie wandered back into the main room, looking at her in concern. “Are you alright?” He asked softly, sitting down on his bed and crossing his legs.
Ember rubbed at her face, trying to dismiss the nightmare. "Yeah," she muttered. But she was really anything but okay. The fact that she couldn't remember her dreams or her death bothered her. But the slight blue color to her lips gave her a few ideas.
"Did I wake you?" She sat up and pulled a blanket around herself, feeling guilty. It felt strange being apologetic towards a Soul. But in its own little way it was nice.