‘You and I are now connected,’ Garovel said. ‘I am what sustains your life, now. Biologically, your body is alive again, but I am the only thing that keeps you attached to your body. Your soul, your consciousness, your sense of self, whatever you want to call the thing, I’m the one who maintains its connection with this world, now.’ The reaper paused a moment, considerate perhaps. ‘I suppose that might sound like a bad thing. Having your soul controlled by someone else, that is, but there are actually some pretty fantastic advantages to this whole scenario. The first is, of course, the ability to restore your body, but I already talked about that. And I believe you’ve already glimpsed the second major advantage. That is, the ability to continue moving, even after your body is technically dead.’
He blinked.
‘It has to do with your brain.’ Garovel tapped a long phalanx bone against his bare skull. ‘Rather than having to rely on blood and flesh for all of its energy, your brain now relies entirely upon me, largely because I now inhabit your brain, so to speak. But, in terms of this physical world, your brain is now self-sustaining. Even if, say, you bleed to death or your heart stops beating or you even stop breathing, your brain will continue to work just fine.’ The reaper paused again. ‘Of course, it’s not quite as simplistic as it sounds, since the brain is a pretty complicated piece of a equipment. I did have to numb all sorts of signals that might otherwise fool your brain into thinking it needs to shut down due to a lack of blood or glucose or what have you, but you don’t really need to worry about all that. I’ve got everything covered.’
Hector tried to say something but found he didn’t have the words, so he just kind of stared with a raised brow.
The reaper tilted its head at him. ‘Did that make sense?’
He merely nodded.
‘Alright, then. The third advantage is, obviously, having my shining personality around whenever you need me.’
He couldn’t help smirking just a little.
‘Though, it’s more than just my personality,’ Garovel went on. ‘As a reaper of death, I have the ability to sense whenever someone is on the verge of it. The verge of death, that is. Simply put, I perceive an aura of impending doom about a person’s soul. It’s very dramatic. Especially because I can’t do anything to help them. You, on the other hand, can. So whenever I sense that aura around someone, I want you to try and save them. Understood?’
“Er, yeah...” He nodded again.
‘You should know, however, that I will always require this of you. My entire purpose in reviving you is so that you can help me save lives. So no matter how your life may change--be it a new job, getting married, having children, or anything else--if you ever become unable to help me, then I will have to release your soul and find someone else.’
“O-okay...” He squinted. “But... how could I ever become ‘unable’ to help you? I mean... I doubt I’ll ever be too busy to go save a person’s life...”
‘That’s good of you to say, but it may not always be your decision. For instance, if your brain ended up in a jar, you wouldn’t be able to save anyone. And I wouldn’t be able to get you out. Well. Maybe if it was a weak jar. I mean, a REALLY weak jar. I’m not too sure.’
He blinked a couple times. “Uh... what? Why would my brain end up in a jar?”
‘I dunno. I was just giving an example.’
That example was far too specific, Hector felt. “Are... are you gonna ask me to fight a mad scientist or something?”
‘Oh, um. I wasn’t planning on it, but I can’t say it’s an impossibility, either. Who knows what the future will bring, right?’
“Er... right...” Hector’s gaze drifted toward the ground for a moment, then to the unbroken skin on his arms again. "I do have a question, though...”
‘What is it?’
“If... if you can... resurrect people like this... then... why don’t you... you know... do it... for everyone?”
Garovel hesitated. ‘Uh. What? I can’t understand you. Stop pausing so much when you talk.’
“Agh...” He tried again. “If you can resurrect people, then... why don’t you just... resurrect everyone?”
‘You’re still pausing. I told you to stop that.’
“Dammit, I’m... trying...”
‘Ah well. I understood you the second time, anyway.’
“Then answer my question, already!”
‘Hey, you didn’t pause that time. Good job.’
“I wish you had a body so I could strangle you...”
‘That’s an important question, though. Obviously, if I could keep more people alive, I would. I don’t know about everyone, but yes. The problem is, I can only maintain a stable connection with one soul at a time. If I tried to maintain it with a second person, then my energy would begin to dissipate, which would end up exhausting or destroying me. And if either of those two things happen to me, then the people I’m connected to would have their souls ripped from their still-living bodies, which would result in either brain death or a psychotic break. And a body with a broken consciousness can become rather monstrous, to say the least.’
He cocked his head back. “You mean, they’d... like... start killing random people?”
‘Among other gruesome things, yeah.’
“Wow... okay.” He folded his slender arms, and his face distorted a little. “But if that’s the case, then... why’d you pick me for this job?”
‘Well, I had to pick someone. I needed a servant, and there you were.’
“That’s it...? It was just coincidence that you picked me...?”
‘Mostly.’
Hector eyed the reaper. “And what does that mean? ‘Mostly’?”
‘I try not to petition murderers and the like for this job, so yes, there is some judgment involved, on my part. What’s more, I didn’t pick you. I asked you. You’re the one who agreed.’
“But... a second chance like this... who the hell would turn down your offer?”
‘Someone who just wants to die.’
At that, Hector hesitated. For a time, he merely sat there, letting his gaze fall from Garovel to the floor. “But,” he finally said, “I killed myself...”
‘I know. I watched you do it.’
“Then... then why didn’t you ask someone else? Someone who died by accident or something?” He breathed a curt breath. “Someone who actually deserves a chance like this...”
‘If you’d really wanted to die like that, then you wouldn’t have agreed to help me when I asked you.’
As he sat there, his head eased down between his hands. “But...” He sighed.
‘Before you died, I had been watching you for quite a while.’
He looked up. “What...?”
‘From the moment you decided to commit suicide, I could sense the aura of death around you.’ The shadows of Garovel’s missing eyes seemed abruptly more intent upon him. ‘That’s how it works. I sense death when the soul becomes directly imperiled. If you were about to get hit by a bus, I wouldn’t sense your death until you walked in front of the thing. Situations like that really suck. But for people like you, people who intend to commit suicide, I sense death when the decision is finalized in your mind.’
He blinked. “Then... you must’ve been...”
‘Yes. I was waiting for nearly seven months. That’s how long it took you to do it.’ Garovel gave a small shrug. ‘Not the longest I’ve ever seen, but definitely up there. I’d check on you from time to time, maybe two or three times a week. Eventually, I started to wonder why you were letting things drag out so much, why you didn’t just get it over with. And then I figured it out.’
His gaze returned to the floor, and his eyes eased shut as he listened.
‘The last couple weeks, I watched you quite a lot. That’s when I noticed. You were always alone.’ Garovel paused. ‘At school, you almost never speak to any of your classmates. Maybe it’s because you have such trouble communicating. Even here, in your own house, you’re very distant from your parents. I don’t think I ever saw you say more than a few words to them at a time.’
He squinted hard, feeling the sudden tension behind his eyes, trying to keep it away.
‘The reason you waited so long to kill yourself, it was because you were waiting for someone to stop you, wasn’t it?’
He covered his eyes with his hand, as if to make some vain attempt at hiding himself. “But... no one did...”
‘No. No one did.’
The tears were there in full now, streaming down his face, and he couldn’t make them go away, much as he wanted to.
‘And then, after you died, when I asked you if you would help me, you agreed. That was all the confirmation I needed. Because like I said, if you had really wanted to die, then you wouldn’t have said yes to me.’
He tried to say something else, uncertain what, but found his breath too choked to form words.
‘So now you’ve got another chance. And this time, you’ll try to help me, just like I’ll try to help you.’
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