Chapter 8

~~ Scythe ~~

I had started to approach the barn-like house when Lily suddenly burst out of one of the doors and ran across the grass crying until she collapsed behind a tree. I started walking towards her, curious as to what had made her cry, but then a dark haired boy ran after her and reached her first. I moved closer but out of her sight, and watched as he comforted her. But then he kissed her and I froze, there was a sharp pain in my chest, feeling almost like something within me had broken. I had only left her here for one day and she had already started making out with some boy she had just met. Watching this angered me, but I wasn't even sure why I cared, it's not like I liked her in the slightest.

"But is that really how you feel?" A small voice said in my head.

"Of course it is." I thought to myself, trying to crush the small voice.

"Are you sure that brokenness you're feeling isn't jealousy, or maybe even betrayal?" It whispered back.

"Why would I be jealous of a stupid human, and like I said I don't even like her."

"Oh but you do have feelings for her, she's the one that you want, and you're jealous because he has her."

"That's bullshit! Why would I be in love with a stupid human!"

"Because she has charmed you, and she is no ordinary human, she is special."

"Shut up!" I shouted into the air.

Why the hell was I arguing with myself, this was so stupid! She could be with whoever the hell she wanted to be with, it was none of my concern and I didn't care. I turned and stormed back towards the portal, but then I stopped short when I saw two translucent figures appear.

Envy appeared before me with someone that I had never seen before standing by her side. The woman had long pink hair that floated around her in waves, and a band of golden leaves was wrapped around her forehead. Her eyes were an enchanting green that seemed to be able to see into the very core of one's soul, and she wore a toga that seemed to float in sync with her hair. She had a very heavenly air about her, and that could only mean one thing. She was a goddess, and from the looks of it she was the goddess of love.

"I never expected that it would be you of all people that we'd be visiting today, little cupcake." Envy said.

"Don't call me that." I said, glaring at her.

"Sister, he keeps denying his feelings for that girl." The goddess said to Envy, ignoring me completely.

"Yes dear sister, he is indeed, he's also denying that he's jealous of the boy she's with right now." Envy said.

"Why do you continue to deny your true feelings?" They said in unison.

"Oh hell no, we ain't doing this crazy twin shit. I don't know why you're here but I'm leaving." I said, trying to push past them but they blocked my path.

"Oh no you're not, if you leave now we're just going to keep following you until we've finished our job, isn't that right Liv." Envy said.

"Yes sister, our job is to help people acknowledge their true feelings of love and jealousy that they have." Liv said.

"And Liv and I usually come as a pair." Envy said.

"Because were there is love." Liv said.

"There is jealousy." Envy said, finishing Liv's sentence.

"Okay, this finishing each other's sentences thing is just weird and creepy, so I'm gonna leave. I don't need nor want your "help", so just leave me alone."

"You don't get a choice in what we do until you accept that you're in love with the human girl named Lily Celestia." Envy said.

"Great, then I guess you two will be following me around for all of eternity then, because that will never happen, ever." I said.

"Oh it will happen, your future has already been set in stone, and your future is with her, for eternity." Envy said.

"Death Scythe the sooner you accept that you're falling for her the less hardship she'll have to face in the future. If you continue to ignore her the more she will suffer in the future, all alone." Liv said.

"What are you, a prophet, and why the hell should I care if she suffers." I said, starting to get more agitated with the two.

"Trust me, you will care eventually, and soon." Envy said.

"No, I won't." I huffed.

"But how could you want this cute little face to suffer?" Liv said, floating over to Lily's sleeping form. She picked up a strand of Lily's hair, sliding it through her fingers before letting it fall back against her face.

"Leave her alone Liv." I said, not willing to admit to them that she was kind of cute, but that was as far as it went and I would never tell them that. I turned back to look at Envy but she was gone, and when I looked back at Liv she had vanished too.

The boy began to stir as he awoke. He rolled over and looked at Lily, he smiled as he sat up, taking off his jacket and laying it over her like a blanket. He then stood up and walked back into the house. Once he was inside I walked over and sat down next to her, staring at the house, trying to calm myself down. It was a rather large farm house, and it appeared to have three stories if you counted the attic. It was painted a mint green with white accents, and it was the kind of house that most people would consider cute.

My phone buzzed and when I went to check it I saw that it was a message from Envy. I wondered how she had gotten my number as I opened up the text. It was a copy of the bio for the boy who had been kissing Lily, and a text that read "Here's a little fuel for the fire." with a winky face emoji at the end.

Name: Frederick D. Fletcher

Age: twenty-one

Ugh, what kind of name was that. I continued to skim through all of the boring stuff about him and his family until I reached something very intriguing.

Sin: Upon death Frederick D. Fletcher will be sentenced to the Circle of Violence, the seventh circle, for the sin of murdering his late father, David C. Fletcher.

He was a sinner, now that was very interesting. But wow, what kind of sicko kills his own father, on purpose. Not to mention that it seems like he's pretending like he doesn't know what happened to their father to cause his death, he must be highly cold blooded to pull off a charade like that. I'm not very close with my dad, and sometimes I do wish that he would off himself if he could die. But I would never kill him, he's still my dad, even if he was never a good father. From the file this looked like a happy family, so I wondered what could have possessed him to suddenly kill his father and make it look like an accident.

I looked down at Lily, she was still sleeping soundly in the grass, flecks of sunlight dancing across her delicate features. She looked even more innocent when she was asleep, one could never guess the horrors that she had been through. She tossed and turned a bit in her sleep, rolling over onto her back. The more I stared at her the more she started to look like the kimono woman from the strange dream I had last night. I felt myself leaning in closer, brushing stray strands of hair away from her face. I stared at her, studying her closely. Her long hair lay in a pool around her, her expression relaxed and carefree as she slept. And then I felt myself leaning in even closer until my lips met hers.

I quickly pulled away, what the hell was I doing. This was wrong, not just kissing her without her consent, but kissing her at all. It wasn't like I liked her, maybe I thought she was a little cute, but more like a sad puppy you took pity on. But I've never… I would never do something like that. The idea of me having a crush on a human is preposterous, immortals can't be attached to humans, it's a horrible idea. Gods, why the fuck is my face so flushed right now!

Her eyes began to flutter open and I froze. Shit, I must have woken her up with that stupid kiss. But by the time she opened her eyes I was gone.

~~ One month later ~~

"Argh!"

"What's the matter this time?" Jack said, as he leafed through his manga in the top bunk.

"The same thing it's been for the last month!" I groaned into my pillow.

"So then what we tried last night didn't help then." He said.

"Nope, not even a little bit."

"And nothing else we've tried has worked either. I really thought that the sexy porn would work, or even those smoking hot chicks, I really liked those ones."

"Those ones especially did not work."

"Well damn. I have never seen you this worked up over a girl before. And come to think of it, I don't think that you've ever been interested in anyone, like ever."

"That's because I don't need a woman in my life, and nor do I want one either! All they'll do is distract me from my work!" I said, slamming my fist against the wall.

"Ah the worst kind of betrayal, one's heart betraying the wishes of their mind." He said, a hint of sarcasm in his voice.

"I haven't even seen her in over a month, and by now she's probably fallen head over heels for that father killer. And yet I can't get the thought of her stupid face out my head."

"You sound kinda sad about the fact that she may have fallen for him. Also remind me why you didn't tell her that he killed his dad. If you had told her it would have given you a significant advantage over him."

"I didn't tell her because I didn't want her to know that I was there in the first place." I said, staring up at the lump where Jack lay

"Oh I get it, you want to wait until she's closer to him to tell her, so that way she'll lose faith in him once you tell her."

"That's ridiculous, and not what I meant at all." I said, punching the lump.

"Ouch! What was that for?" He whined.

"Because you're being an annoying idiot."

"You wouldn't have gotten mad if it wasn't so close to the truth."

I don't like the idea of it, but I think that he might be right. Not that I would admit that to him though.

"You know, there is one more thing that we haven't tried yet." He said.

"And that would be…?"

"Going on a date with someone you already know and have a good connection with, like Spirit." He said.

"That isn't a bad idea, but I can't date Spirit, it would have to be someone else. But that also defeats the point of not wanting to be in love in the first place."

"Well you can't control being in love, or who you're in love with. But why can't you go out with Spirit, I mean you like her right?"

"I do like her, but not in that way, she's like a little sister to me."

"Well it doesn't hurt to try, and I'm pretty sure she's already in love with you, and not as a big brother."

"It does hurt to try, especially if she has feelings for me. I'm not going to give her false hopes of me returning her feelings, only to break her heart if it doesn't work out. I don't want to ask her out when I'm not serious about dating her, it would only hurt her and I never want to see her cry."

"You don't want to make her cry, and yet you don't care about what happens to the girl that you're actually in love with. And you left her with a murderer, man you need to get your priorities straight."

"You know what, you aren't helping, I think I'll go talk to Spirit instead and see what she thinks." I said, getting up off the bed.

"That's only going to make things worse. If she finds out that you might be in love with someone else, then it will cause the thing that you don't want to happen."

"That's what you think, but I can be way more discreet than you." I said, flipping him off with both hands. He repeated the action back to me as I walked out the door.

I made my way to the council's chambers, thankfully Spirit's room was the first in the row. Meaning I wouldn't have to worry about risking running into any of the other council members. Each door had a sign with the council members name on it. Spirit had her name written in big swirly letters, with cute ghost stickers on either side of her name. I grabbed the large door knocker, that was held by yet another cute ghost, and knocked three times.

"Who is it?" Spirit said.

"It's me, your friendly neighborhood soul reaper." I said.

"Scythe!" She cried excitedly, quickly opening the door. "Come on in!" She beamed at me.

The second I saw what she was wearing I quickly looked away, my face flushing slightly.

"What's the matter?" She said, confused.

"You uh… you might want to put something else on… or at least put a skirt on… please."

She had on a loose shirt that was a bit too big for her, and the top few buttons were undone so the shirt barely covered her undergarments. She was too exposed, and I hated the thought of what if it had been someone else at the door and they had seen her like this.

She looked down at what she was wearing. "Does this bother you?" She said.

"Of course it does, you're like my little sister and I don't want to see you like that. Does it not bother you?"

"Of course it doesn't bother me, and it shouldn't bother you either if I'm just your little sister." She huffed, going back into her room.

It seemed that I had upset her, maybe Jack was right and she did have feelings for me.

I followed her into the room and she flopped down onto a large canopy bed in the center of the back wall. Her bed was surrounded by piles of stuffed animals and they were even piled up against the wall, many of them I could remember giving to her as presents. Everything in her room was a different shade of turquoise, and the lights were turned down low, giving her room an eerie feel to it.

"So what did you want to talk to me about?" She said, pulling out a book.

"What makes you think that I came here to talk about something specific?" I said, going over and sitting on the edge of her bed.

"Because you've never come to my room before today. Whenever you want to hangout or just chat we go somewhere else, you never want to risk coming here and running into one of the others."

"Alright, you caught me. I came to ask you for some advice."

"Okay, although I'm not really sure how much help I can be to you depending on the subject, but shoot."

I made a little finger gun, pointed it at her, and said bang.

"Goofball, I didn't mean it literally." She said, laughing.

"Ya I know, but it got you to laugh didn't it."

"Ya, it did." She said, giving me a smile.

"So now for the advice. So uh… there's this girl, and Jack thinks I like her, but I'm not convinced."

"Oh really, that's quite interesting. So why does Jack think that you have a crush on her?"

"Well I haven't been able to get her off my mind for the last month, no matter how hard I've tried."

"And why do you want to get her out of your head?"

"Because… well it's distracting, and that's exactly why I want to be in a relationship."

"Are you sure that it's less that you don't want to be in a relationship, and more that you're worried that you might end up like your father?"

I had never really thought about that before, maybe she was right. I was always scared of becoming like my father, a cruel cold hearted man who cared for no one but himself. And I didn't want to fall in love with anyone, especially not a human, for fear of the great despair that it had caused my father when mother died. I didn't want to attach myself to a non-imortal for fear of losing them.

"When did you get so wise?" I said, ruffling her hair.

"So was I right?"

"I think so…" I said, staring at the floor.

She leaned over and hugged me, burying her face in my chest and squeezing me tightly.

"You don't have to let your fear of losing someone keep you from loving anyone at all. Yes someone might leave, and they might even hurt you, but that comes with the territory. But you're brave, I know you are, and you'll always have me. I promise you that I won't go anywhere."

"Thanks Spirit." I said, petting her head. "But it's not just that I'm scared of putting myself out there. It's just that well… if I really did have feelings for her… well I would be kind of ashamed of them…"

"W-why would you be ashamed?" She said, looking nervous.

Damnit! She thought I was talking about her. As much as I didn't want to hurt her, but I couldn't lie to her either. I had to tell her the truth… and finally tell her the truth that I had been trying to deny myself.

"Well you see it's because, well I think I… I think I might have feelings for a… a human."

"What!?" She said, shoving me away from her. "How could I have been so stupid, how could I have possibly thoguht that you might have been talking about me!" She shouted, glaring at me. "And you! How could you tell ME that you love someone else, let alone some stupid human, right after I just confessed my feelings for you!"

Wait what, is that what she meant when she said "You'll always have me, and I promise that I won't go anywhere."

"I… I'm sorry, I didn't realize that you had confessed your feelings… I didn't even know that you felt that way."

"Of course you didn't! Because you're always so oblivious! I've tried to subtly tell you in a million different ways, but you never even noticed!"

"Spirit I'm sorry, I-"

"Just save your breath, Scythe, I don't want to hear it! GET OUT!" She screamed at me.

I quickly made my way off the bed and towards the door as she started throwing manga at me. And when I opened the door she shoved me through it, slamming it shut behind me. I turned and stared at the shut door, sad that I had hurt her so much. And her muffled sobs from inside caused a pang in my heart.

"Sounds like you've finally admitted to your feelings for Lily." I jumped a little at the sound of envy's voice, she had startled me sneaking up like that. "Now the question is, do you also accept that you're envious of Fredrick, or are you still denying that you want her for yourself."

"I don't know what you're talking about." I said, walking past her.

"You can't hide it from me lover boy, my sister and I can see what your heart truly desires."

"So? That doesn't mean that that's what my mind wants. I don't lead with my heart, and you damn well know that."

"I know that you've been trying so hard to ignore her and kill those feelings you have. But if I were you I would go to her, for a very important event is about to begin, one that could change the fate of the whole game. And if you don't hurry she may be gone forever."

"What the hell does that mean?" I said, turning to look at her, but she was gone again.