What Happens Next

Syn

R

I do not own these characters.

Summary: Rube tries to help Roxy move on.

Notes: Written for girlfromsouth for my Holiday Ficathon Project.

 

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"That fucking bitch."

 

"A keen observation," Rube intoned, lighting his pipe and glancing at the woman standing next to him on the fire escape.  She was staring into the window of what had been only moments before her apartment.  Her eyes blazed with anger.

 

"Legwarmers," the woman spat, handsome features twisted.

 

Rube frowned, bluish smoke wreathing around his head as he expelled it into the air. "What's a legwarmer?"

 

"Toeless socks," the woman said, not looking at him.  She was pressing her face to the window, staring at the woman now rushing through her apartment, pulling open drawers and stuffing the toeless socks into a duffel bag. "I invented them.  And that stupid bitch is stealing them.  Ain't that some shit?"

 

"I have to agree," Rube said, leaning in toward the window as far as he dared.  The murderer spun on her heel, duffel bag over her shoulder and marched out of the woman's apartment, leaving her strangled corpse on the bed.  The woman's soul turned around to face Rube, glaring at him expectantly.

 

"So who are you?" she demanded as he calmly leant back on the fire escape railing and took another long pull off his pipe.  The pleasant smell of tobacco filled the air. 

 

"Name is Rube," he said. "I'll be your Grim Reaper tonight."

 

"Reaper, huh?" she said cautiously, eyeing him. "You aren't here to go get that bitch and make her pay?"

 

"Nope," Rube said. "That's a job for the police.  I'm just here for your soul."

 

"You took my soul?" she asked, eyebrows rising to her hairline. 

 

"No," he said with a shake of his head, "You remember that woman who asked for your name in the hall?"

 

"The woman who had my mail by mistake?" she said, frowning.

 

"Wasn't a mistake," Rube explained in a clipped voice. "She was your Reaper."

 

The woman nodded her head. "And where is she at?  I'd like to tell her a thing or two."

 

"She's gone," he said.

 

"Gone?" said the woman. "Gone where?"

 

"Who knows?  You were her last reap.  She's filled her quota and now she's moved on to the next level," Rube explained. "Which is why I'm here."

 

"To send me onward?"

 

"'Fraid not Brown Eyes," Rube said, smiling slightly. "You see, she left an opening and by whatever powers that be, you've been chosen to fill it."

 

"Me?" the woman said, glaring at him. "Become a..."

 

"Grim Reaper."

 

"You've got to be fucking with me," she said, rolling her eyes and turning back to the window of her apartment.  She reached for the sash to throw it up, but her hands went through it, white smoke billowing as she passed through the surface.  She withdrew quickly, eyes wide. "What the hell?"

 

"You're undead.  No body." He took one last puff off his pipe and blew smoke into the air.

 

"Oh my God..." she said, whirling on him again. "This is real, isn't it?  I really am dead.  I'm really laying in there dead!  And that bitch really did kill me!"

 

"I'm afraid so," he said, tapping his pipe on the railing to clear it. "Hell of a thing, isn't it?"

 

The woman's brown eyes glowed with rage as she approached him. "Do you think this is funny?"

 

"Not even remotely," he said calmly.

 

"I'm dead!" she said, eyes glistening with tears. "I've been fucking MURDERED and you're standing here telling me I'm going to be a...a Grim Reaper!"

 

"It happens to the best of us," Rube said, putting his empty pipe back in his coat pocket. "I know this is hard...Roxanne, was it?"

 

"Roxy," she corrected him. "So what?  I float around, taking souls or something?"

 

"Well, not so much float as walk.  You're in transition right now.  Someone's going to send you a body soon."

 

"Someone?"

 

Rube shrugged. "Whoever is in charge up there."

 

"You don't know?"

 

"Sad to say, no."

 

"Do you know anything?" Roxy asked him in disgust, turning back around to face the window again.  Tears creeped down her dark cheeks as she stared at her body on the bed, the legwarmer wrapped around her neck.  Her swollen tongue protruded from her mouth and her face was purple.  Her bulging eyes were reddened from the capillaries that had burst as she'd struggled for air.

 

"I know you're upset..."

 

"No shit?" Roxy shot back at him. "How could you tell?"

 

He stepped close, hands closing on her shoulders.  She seemed startled that he could touch her and she looked at him, her expression hurt. "That is just a body.  A shell, Roxy.  You aren't in there anymore and when you went, you didn't feel any pain.  Your Reaper made sure of that."

 

"I didn't feel any fucking pain?" she said, her voice dripping with venom. "Look at that and tell me I didn't feel any pain.  I felt every single bit of that.  I felt myself dying.  I felt everything."

 

Rube didn't know what to say.  Hands on her shoulders, he bowed his head. "There's nothing I can say to make it better."

 

"Damn right."

 

"But it was your time to go.  No getting out of it, no going back."

 

"It's not fair."

 

"It never is."

 

Roxy stared at her corpse, tears tracking down her cheeks.  They stood there for several minutes, cold wind whipping at them on the fire escape, the sound of the city traffic whooshing by on the street far below them. 

 

Finally, she spoke. "Is there anything we can do?"

 

"About what?"

 

"That bitch."

 

Rube didn't have to ask whom she meant. "It's not our job."

 

"So she's going to get away with it?"

 

"Maybe."

 

"Do you always stand back, even when you know who did it?"

 

"Sometimes it's not always a murder, but when it is, we do stand back.  We're undead.  We can interact with the living, touch them, talk to them, but we're not a part of life.  We can't interfere."

 

"That's bullshit.  You're letting murderers get away with killing."

 

"That's how it works, Roxy."

 

"That's a fucked up system."

 

"It's worked for quite a while," Rube said wryly.

 

Roxy shook her head and then turned away from the sight of her corpse. "So what now?"

 

"Good question," Rube said, taking her hand. "Come on, Roxanne.  Time to see what happens next."

 

Roxy smiled slightly and let him lead her away.

 

(end)

 

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