Possessed By Death

“Do you ever let any human escape death?”The ruler of the underworld looked over at the person who had asked the question with a disdainful look and scoffed at him. It was a ridiculous question to ask.“I would never do something like that. The rules are simple, if their name is on the list, I take their soul to the underworld to be judged. There is nothing else to it.”Today was a quiet day in the underworld. For once he had enough spare time to sit by the windows in his throne room and drink some tea. The endless night view wasn’t much to look at, but it was all his. It was a shame the ruler of hell had come to visit him.“Nocturne, some of your predecessors broke the rules and allowed humans to keep their lives,” the ruler of hell pointed out. “None of us are heartless despite our origins.”The ruler of the underworld changed over time. There was a mandatory 50 year minimum time period and then the ruler could choose to continue or put their souls up for reincarnation so they could

The last six months had been a wild ride for Leo. Everything had been strange since the day of his car accident.He had spent some time in hospital recovering from his injuries and had missed the date with his crush. For some reason he hadn’t been too bothered about it despite looking forward to it with all his heart before the car accident.The car accident had been odd too. There had been a video of it caught on a traffic camera nearby and the car should have hit him head on judging by his position and the natural trajectory of the car. He was lucky that somehow it had caught his side instead.There were more things as well. Even though he had been looking forward to meeting new people at university and having the chance to find romance, he had turned down everyone who had asked him on a date so far.What was wrong with him?Leo groaned and massaged his stiff shoulder. His fingers accidentally probed the raised scar on his shoulder from the car accident. That accident had cursed his

Leo elected to ignore the resemblance between the man in front of him and Grim Reaper from his dream. There was something more important to focus on here. The man had asked to sit at his table, but there were two other empty tables outside the coffee shop. There was no need to try to sit next to him. Unless the man was trying to flirt with him. He might as well double check if his dating curse was still in operation. Leo held out his hand in the direction of the chair.“You can if you like,” he said.The man was dressed in a sharp blue suit, but something felt a little out of place. He looked to be around the same age as him so it was odd to see someone like that wearing such a nice suit. It was also too hot to be wearing a suit comfortably. This man should be showing signs of sweating, but he couldn’t see any.Unlike the man in his dream, this one was definitely a human and didn’t look translucent like he was going to fade away at any second. His gray hair was also short with bangs

Nocturne waited patiently outside the coffee shop for Leo to return with an umbrella. This time he had remembered to dress in summer fashion, but he had fallen short when considering the daily variations of weather in the human world.The idea of walking around in the rain underneath an umbrella with Leo sounded very romantic though. He was excited to try it.He watched humans rush through the rain past him. Eventually someone with a large yellow umbrella came to a stop in front of him. The umbrella lifted slightly and he saw Leo’s face underneath.“Let’s go,” his date said and held out his hand.The ruler of the underworld took Leo’s hand. It was pleasantly warm and then the human promptly dropped his hand before he could fully revel in the moment. Nocturne’s brow furrowed. Was his hand horrible to hold?“What’s wrong?” he asked softly.“I tend to get sweaty. Let’s not hold hands,” Leo explained and moved so they were underneath the umbrella. He tilted the umbrella up so they could s

As the month progressed Nocturne started to become accustomed to his double life. The list of the dead would decide how much time he had to spend with Leo a day. If it was an expansive list, there would only be time for texts and if it was medium sized or smaller, it was an actual date.Contacting Leo by phone had its difficulties. He only had the phone when he was in the human world so he could only use it in the short window of time he had before collecting a soul and bringing it back to the underworld. Typing on a phone was also a challenge that he had been forced to overcome.If the soul was difficult to bring back because the human refused to accept their mortal coil had come to an end, there was no chance to use his phone.Despite all the difficulties, he was glad that there was the option to use a phone. If he was trying to date Leo 100 years ago or even 30 years ago, it wouldn’t have been an option.Then came the challenge of trying to do his best impression of a human. Celeste