A Life Unlived

I made my way to my chair around the giant circle table that was surrounded by my twenty-four other Reaper brothers. I was glad they were all already talking to each other, because none of them really even noticed me, spare for a couple of the Reapers I haven't met yet, who looked at me a bit curiously. 

I glance up and see Aster standing up once I've sat down. As soon as he does, everyone quiets down in seconds. It's easy to tell he has a lot of respect from his brothers. 

"As I'm sure you all know by this rare gathering, we have something very important to discuss today." Aster says, looking around. "You may have already been told by one of your brothers, but Henry has been taken, by a group who label themselves as Portal Hoppers." There are a few whispers between Reapers, most irritated and confused sounding. How could someone take one of us? What's a Portal Hopper? How did we not notice he was gone? 

"I know." Aster says grimly, holding his hands up for quiet. Everyone stops talking and looks back at him. "We have a little bit of information, because of two human girls who have gotten themselves mixed up in this." 

"I'm sorry, what the fuck happened? I feel like we're missing a lot of details." A guy with a thick Russian accent stands up, holding his arms out at his sides. He had bleach blonde shaved hair, pale skin, and incredibly blue eyes. Like, bright icy blue, with white lashes around them. I find myself narrowing my eyes on him a little at the snotty and confrontational tone he takes towards Aster. 

"Oh, settle down Lip. Let him finish talking. You're just looking for a reason to get worked up, aren't you?" York nags at the guy, throwing a teddy bear shaped eraser he'd been messing with at his head. I always appreciated that even though York seemed like a sociopathic, tatted up man child, he still seemed to have the same soft spot for Aster as I did.

"Fuck off." Lip growls, swatting at the already gone eraser. "I mean come on; we're all thinking it. We're never called together like this for an updated family Christmas card." I bristled a little at his implied mockery of the family-like structure of our brotherhood. I had come to really enjoy it, with Aster's guidance, York pestering me like a little brother. It had come to feel comfortable, as much as I hate to admit it. 

 "I can explain if you'd like." I find myself saying to Aster, who looks at me, a little surprised. We had spent plenty of time together and had talked tons, and I think he had picked up on the fact that I preferred to do the listening, and didn't enjoy drawing attention to myself. It was a rare occurrence for me to offer to speak out in front of a crowd like this.

But, as I kept reminding myself, I had maybe hundreds of years to go with these guys. It would be nice to be comfortable with as many of them as possible. Besides, more and more of this was feeling like it was my fault, so I think I almost had to take a little accountability. 

"Sure. Go ahead." Aster says, waving his hand and sitting back down. I glance at Lip, who kind of narrows his eyes at me, but ultimately sits back down. 

I glance around at the other Reapers for a second before finally talking. "Right after I was made into a Reaper, I was given the opportunity to attend my own funeral, so I took it, and I went. I made the mistake of going back to my old apartment, where someone must have seen me and told my sister there was someone in her supposed to be dead brother's place. She came in, recognized me. I left quickly and without having a conversation with her, but she had still seen me, and I had started something I didn't know about at the time."

I can see a couple of the Reapers shaking their heads, giving me a disapproving look but I don't stop talking. "She took it upon herself to team up with the girl whose life I saved to become a Reaper and start trying to track me down. Their search led them to find a group called Portal Hoppers, who I'll be honest I don't really know that much about." I shrug a little. 

"I'll go over what I know about them once you're done." Aster interjects, and I nod gratefully. He wasn't glaring at me like some of the others were, just listening attentively, like he was taking mental notes. 

"Anyways, they ended up killing people to try and get to me because of what they learned from the Portal Hoppers,"

"I call them Portal Chodes!" York quips, and I roll my eyes.

"They used the information they learned from the Portal Chodes to start killing humans in an attempt to get me as the Reaper of their victim's soul. I have no idea how many lives they've taken, I'm too scared to ask quite frankly. But it seemed to work eventually because the last life they took, I went to reap her soul."

"Fucking crazy." I hear Finnegan muttering. I nod a little at him. 

"When I went, they showed up, and so did the Portal Chodes. I found out they had already taken one of us, Henry, and they tried taking me too, but I escaped and brought both my sister and the girl I saved with me." I think about if there's anything I missed, absorbing the disapproving looks I was getting. 

Off to a great start, I guess.