Sam Walker and the Grim Reaper Services (ONC 2021)

3 - The Figure in Black

Selena glanced up from Jake's body at the sound of the door opening and met Sam's eyes. Instead of looking startled, though, she just looked...bored. "Why are you here?"

"What are you doing?" Sam demanded, horror-stricken. "Why'd you kill my roommate?"

Selena glanced down at Jake and nudged him with her foot. "I didn't kill him. He's dead, but I didn't do it."

Sam was finding it difficult to breathe, all of a sudden. He wasn't sure if it was the shock or the stench of the body, mingling with the smell of coffee radiating off of Selena. "Oh, damn. Oh, damn."

"It's just a body," Selena shrugged, taking a sip of the iced coffee in her hand, her tongue fiddling with the straw as she finished her sip. She examined Jake like he was a customer, her expression just as bored as if they were still at Caffeinated, taking orders and making drinks. Black headphones hung around her neck, the emo music he had heard issuing from the speakers. That definitely didn't help the nausea rising up in Sam. He hated emo music.

Sam staggered back, panting, his gaze fixed on Jake. Jake's eyes were wide open, staring at the ceiling above. His throat had been slit open, blood staining the front of his dark T-shirt and pooling on the floor under his head. A black gag was in his mouth, his wrists slit open and drenched with blood.

Selena glanced at Sam as he panted for breath. "What's wrong?"

"He's dead!" Sam managed to exclaim. "J-J-Jake's dead!"

Selena nodded, taking another sip. "Yep." She stepped away from Jake's body and walked toward Sam. He tried to propel himself up, to run away from this screwed-up girl, but his legs didn't work and he fell, still struggling to breathe.

Selena crouched down in front of him, her eyes meeting his for a brief moment before she slapped him in the face, hard.

Sam stared at her. "What the –?"

"You're welcome," Selena deadpanned. "Look, he's dead. Freaking out doesn't do anything about it. It doesn't change anything."

"How are you so calm?" Sam demanded, catching his breath. The panic had subsided slightly with the force of Selena's slap, much as he hated to admit it.

Selena shrugged. "I really just don't care. That helps."

"You're a monster," Sam hissed, his eyes straying past her to look at Jake again.

Selena just shrugged again and took a sip of her drink, her eyes not leaving Sam's face. "Looks that way."

"You killed him," Sam declared again, glaring at her.

"Nope," Selena said, sounded bored. "I don't kill people. I watch them die, but I don't kill them. Heard your roommate and you talking, this morning. Thought I'd follow up a hunch." She gestured to Jake. "Found him here, shortly before you showed up."

Sam stared at her. Nothing she had said made any sense. "What?"

"I didn't kill him," Selena repeated clearly. She sucked on the straw, still watching Sam with almost dead eyes. "I see death. So I saw him." She gestured to Jake, rattling the ice in her iced coffee.

"What happened?" Sam whispered, looking past her to Jake. He couldn't bear to look in her eyes anymore. There was something so...wrong about her expression, so lifeless. Jake himself, lying stiff and still, could be more alive than the moving and breathing Selena.

Selena glanced back at Jake. "Don't know. Someone slit his throat, but it...I don't know. I didn't see much."

But you looked right at him.