Day 7: 07:30PM

"...May God remember our dear one, Jason, who has gone onto eternal rest. May his soul be blessed and be at one who is eternal as the beauty of his life shines even more after his death..."

A group of old women continued to mutter their prayers along with Jason's family and neighbors in front of his white coffin lit with a few thick white candles standing tall around him as though they were torches. They kept their hands firmly placed together, housing a rosary between their wrinkled palms with the tone of their voices sounding monotonous, broken only by a moment of shallow breaths from time to time. To him, it ended up being too long and boring to the point that their words shared the buzz of a mosquito flying around his ear, but looking at their faces that were stressed, earnest and dripping with sweat, he couldn't help but flash them a relieved smile.

"So, I didn't want to be rude but, I really do think that I've been a good boy these past three days," he said, still cushioned by the floor as he turned his neck to face the reaper behind him. "W-would you care to let me go, please?"

"Why? I thought you told me yesterday that you liked being a carpet because of its viewing privileges?" Mary scoffed as she leaned forward and tilted her head.

"I'm trying to enjoy their prayers here and really, could you just let me go? I've been behaving quite well since then." Jason heaved a sigh of protest and rested his chin over the cold floor once more. "It's not like I would transform into a monster and kill everyone here. I didn't even know what happened."

"You just…"

"All I had in my brain is me hitting the floor. I spent these three days thinking about what could've happened but I'm amazing and in fact, a very good boy, so all that's left is just you bullying me," he added with a proud tone. "I mean, there could've been a chance that I've defeated you in a verbal exchange, perhaps, and you must've knocked me down for my insolence but that's still on you!"

"Well isn't that interesting?" Mary jumped off from her seat and walked towards him. She sat on the floor and their eyes met, with his gaze peering into the dark holes of her white mask and there, she pinched his cheek.

"You look like you're having fun," he said, throwing her an awkward smile.

"Hey, tell me…"

"Am I single? No-I mean yes, and ready to mingle too if that's your next—"

"Mind telling me what's your mom's favorite color?" She continued, answering his eagerness with her words carrying a sense of playfulness in it.

Both of them met a moment of silence until it was broken by Jason's confident chuckle. "I mean, I don't know what kind of personality test is that but that shit is easy. My mom's favorite color is… is..."

"Your sister's, dad's, anyone?" She followed with the same voice, ushering another moment of stagnation that troubled Jason's heart.

"I-I don't understand. Why are you asking me this?" Jason knitted his brows and looked away. "You didn't even try talking to me for days even though I tried my best to initiate a talk every single time. You're really bad at flirting, do you know that? What were you doing back there anyway?"

"Practicing my introduction," she answered.

"What? An introduction?"

"While watching you..." she continued, slowly tugging his cheeks from the rest of his face.

Jason smiled, hiding his embarrassment as he turned his head to face the group of old women who were about to finish their prayers inside their home. Then, with yet another confident tone, he followed, "Now, you're getting it, you think I'm amazing, aren't I? You know I've been hiding it for some time now, but I think I have some special powers. Wanna see it?"

"Cool, but doesn't it suck to be this amazing while still not knowing about your mom's favorite color?" She replied, putting her hand over his head to caress his hair.

"What? Who cares about that, it doesn't matter anymore, right? It's not like I can give her gifts like…" He gritted his teeth, feeling this little burn his chest as if he had forgotten something. Then, while hurrying his words, he looked at her and babbled, "A-anyway, how about I show you my powers? I think that it's pretty neat!"

"It does matter, it's a test after all," she replied, sending him a shock that made him attempt to jerk his body away from her despite her tone being the same as always. Seeing this, Mary added, "Ah, now you're reacting the way I want you to."

Jason blurted out an awkward laugh as if he saw a twisted smile behind her white weeping mask. He felt his blood rush throughout his body after remaining seemingly stagnant over these past few days and thinking that he could do it, he took his eyes off of her and tried to push himself up from the ground. He widened his eyes after a deep breath as he clenched his teeth to the point that he thought that he was going to bite through it. After getting his chest an inch off of the floor, Mary tapped his shoulder and he fell back with a snap.

"You-you're into some kind of weird shit huh, M-Mary?" Jason mumbled with his voice quivering under his breath. Everything from the entirety of his shoulders up until his elbows went numb. He soon realized that he couldn't feel the rest of his arms along with his fingers, but he now lacked the courage to move or at least open his eyes.

"Hmmm, not necessarily, can't say that you're my type too but as you can see…" Mary held her breath as she moved in to brush the back of her hand across his face, using her nail to draw a line starting from the corner of his left eye up until his ear.

"You're… I say that you're going too… Why are you making… Isn't this a bit too much for someone who couldn't answer his mother's favorite color?" Jason squirmed in panic, drawing a shallow breath through his teeth while tightening his cheeks soon after he felt a touch of a finger running from his right elbow that stopped at his shoulder. "Why are you asking me this?"

"Well you see, people… tend to forget a few things once they're turned to spirits. It starts from the little ones such as colors to the things that are a little bit personal such as favorite foods and the like till we get onto names..."

"I-I don't know what you mean…"

"It is a little trick that we reapers use," she replied quickly with an endearing tone, placing the mouth of her mask close to his ear to the point that he could feel her cold breath licking throughout the back of his head. "We, as the overworked ants that we are, don't like to go on the extra miles to just finish our jobs, so we ask these simple questions that would us help determine what needs to be done and with your answers, seems like I had to put in some extra effort, after all, and I don't like that. Do you want to know why?

With his eyes still closed, he swallowed his saliva. "Why?"

"Because it needs me to do something like this."

Just then, he felt as if his right arm disappeared even before he could let out a breath. He didn't feel anything except for the sudden loss of weight but it sent his heart beating. It made him turn his neck so he could look at the reaper beside him by instinct and there, with his tightened jaws, he met the reaper's weeping glare, still carrying that same looming feeling that behind her mask, she was still smiling.

"Okay, so once again, let's talk about colors."