Shortly before the events detailed in The Dispatch, Alan was send out on alone on a mission to review an retrieve a soul. A young woman due to die from blood loss after a mugging.
Alan arrived early and kept an eye on her, taking notes of his findings. There was nothing really remarkable about her. Young mid-twenties, with a child also due to die a few days after the mother. There was no reason to spare her, nothing amazing she could really provide the world so Alan was prepared to reap her.
Things went mostly to plan but after she was stabbed and nearing the time of her death she saw him and started to panic and plead. Alan, in an effort to ease her distress about leaving her baby all alone in the world told her that they wouldn't be separated for long.
Which was the wrong thing to do.
The woman became absolutely incensed. Rather than crying and pleading in her finally moments, she launched herself at him in a vicious attack. While her body might have been dying, her soul was still very much a living thing; even as her body crumpled and her heart ceased its beating, her soul and record lashed out.
It wasn't in the normal way, not like a soul that simply didn't want to die because of some selfish reason. No. This was the soul of a mother fueled by her frantic desire to save her child. A soul that seemed to have gained strength and overpowered the young reaper - winding and coiling itself around him but not just him but his very soul. Imprinting her anger, her sense of injustice onto him - into his very being in a way that could not be purged or seen; excruciating its painfulness, bringing tears to his eyes. He gasped and writhed feeling as if his entire being were being flayed and burned before he wrestled that now weakened soul from his own and collected it.
Alan was left horribly shaken and in pain. It didn't help that he could hear the wailing screaming of the child. When he didn't return when he was expected, William as keeping of the master To Die List when to go find him and found him perched high out of sight curled into himself gasping, panting, tear tracks on his cheeks.
After a bit, Alan did eventually confide in William what had happened - not that he had to because he reviewed the soul's record to see it for himself. It was a painfully familiar experience that William remembered and yet it was different than his own. Alan admitted that he didn't feel the same as when he had before he tried to collect her and was escorted to the infirmary.
There was a careful examination and Alan recounted the incident; the record reviewed. One of the older and Senior most members of the health staff was called and the process repeated. With a grim face, he dismissed most of the staff and told William and Alan what was wrong.
The Thorns of Death.
A fatal illness even for a Reaper.
The diagnosis was kept as a need to know secret. Only a few members of the infirmary staff were told - all sworn to silence. Alan and William have yet to tell any of the others; Alan truly would rather never tell anyone else if he were to have the choice.
Alan Stuff
Shortly before the events detailed in The Dispatch, Alan was send out on alone on a mission to review an retrieve a soul. A young woman due to die from blood loss after a mugging.
Alan arrived early and kept an eye on her, taking notes of his findings. There was nothing really remarkable about her. Young mid-twenties, with a child also due to die a few days after the mother. There was no reason to spare her, nothing amazing she could really provide the world so Alan was prepared to reap her.
Things went mostly to plan but after she was stabbed and nearing the time of her death she saw him and started to panic and plead. Alan, in an effort to ease her distress about leaving her baby all alone in the world told her that they wouldn't be separated for long.
Which was the wrong thing to do.
The woman became absolutely incensed. Rather than crying and pleading in her finally moments, she launched herself at him in a vicious attack. While her body might have been dying, her soul was still very much a living thing; even as her body crumpled and her heart ceased its beating, her soul and record lashed out.
It wasn't in the normal way, not like a soul that simply didn't want to die because of some selfish reason. No. This was the soul of a mother fueled by her frantic desire to save her child. A soul that seemed to have gained strength and overpowered the young reaper - winding and coiling itself around him but not just him but his very soul. Imprinting her anger, her sense of injustice onto him - into his very being in a way that could not be purged or seen; excruciating its painfulness, bringing tears to his eyes. He gasped and writhed feeling as if his entire being were being flayed and burned before he wrestled that now weakened soul from his own and collected it.
Alan was left horribly shaken and in pain. It didn't help that he could hear the wailing screaming of the child. When he didn't return when he was expected, William as keeping of the master To Die List when to go find him and found him perched high out of sight curled into himself gasping, panting, tear tracks on his cheeks.
After a bit, Alan did eventually confide in William what had happened - not that he had to because he reviewed the soul's record to see it for himself. It was a painfully familiar experience that William remembered and yet it was different than his own. Alan admitted that he didn't feel the same as when he had before he tried to collect her and was escorted to the infirmary.
There was a careful examination and Alan recounted the incident; the record reviewed. One of the older and Senior most members of the health staff was called and the process repeated. With a grim face, he dismissed most of the staff and told William and Alan what was wrong.
The Thorns of Death.
A fatal illness even for a Reaper.
The diagnosis was kept as a need to know secret. Only a few members of the infirmary staff were told - all sworn to silence. Alan and William have yet to tell any of the others; Alan truly would rather never tell anyone else if he were to have the choice.