“Thank you, thank you! You have…”

“Yeah, yeah, get lost already. The afterlife is awaiting.”

Joe used his trusty shove to wave away the shimmering soul then, smelling like a bucket of French fries straight from not so fresh oil, he collapsed onto the soft moss.

“Anyone else left?!”

He howled into the empty forest.

“Because you have five minutes before I faint and after that I won’t be doing any service for the next month!”

“I THINK YOU GOT EVERYONE. AT LEAST THOSE THAT STILL COULD BE SAVED.”

Rustling with black pages, death crossed out name after name in her notebook. The sound of her black pencil made Joe’s skin crawl every time he heard that. It just felt wrong. Like eating a soup but tasting a crunchy apple.

“Groovy.”

He sighed and tried extremely hard not to look at the curious view above him. Death’s robe did not cover much from this angle.

“You’re doing it on purpose, aren’t you?”

“DOING WHAT?”

She moved one step closer to stand just above him. Moaning, Joe used the least of his strength to cover his eyes.

“Doing this! Come on, I know you are just messing with me, searching for a way to force me into another game! I already said I’m sorry! How should I know that ding-ding would add the binding stats to that equipment I made? It wasn’t on purpose, I swear! I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’m soo soroooory! I…”

He looked.

Death has been squatting above him this whole time, her face just above his face. Her hand resting just above his head.

*DOOOOOOOOM!*

Without a word, she flicked his forehead, punching his head under six feet of dirt. When the dust settled, only his twitching feet protruded above the ground.

“APOLOGIES… ACCEPTED.”

She pat out her robe and walked away.

***

*DING.*

*DING.*

*DING.*

*DING.*

*DING.*

*DING.*

*DING.*

*DING.*

*DING.*

*DING.*

…

*DING.* After *DING.* something annoying happened at the edge of her consciousness. Aidane tossed her pillow at the annoying thing. The wine they sent her as an offering last night turned out to be a pleasant surprise. She wouldn’t mind more of it but instead of wine all she got were those annoying dings and doings ringing out through her godly domain.

Infuriated, she groaned then caught one of her high heels and tossed it at the defenseless screen.

“Shut the hell up or I’ll silence you for good! Can’t you see I’m trying to sleep here?!”

The goddess screamed, too tired to do anything more. Blessing new clerics was such a tiresome job. Although, she wouldn’t mind blessing that brown eyed cutie some more. Much more.

Laughing to herself, she ignored the now silent screen and went back to sleep. Perhaps that was a good thing.

The little screen swallowed and shook as an invisible tentacle released its grip around it. Just when that golden shoe almost impaled it, that tentacle appeared out of nowhere and pulled it out of the way then pressed on its mute button.

Technically it wasn’t allowed for others to mess with a screen not meant for them but… The tiny screen happily ignored it and hid in a corner while a repeating message printed out in silence.

*(MUTE: Please enable notifications to hear the chime)*

Your curse was broken! A soul was set free!

Number of condemned souls remaining [8723641…]

The number was too big to fit in its entirety on the screen so only first eight numbers were displayed but the screen knew that with each ding that number dropped by one.