The Scary Man


John pov~

"Where are you taking me?" I asked, following the red-haired... demon (?).

"Shush." He snapped. I shushed. "Thank you."

We walked in silence for a while, the scenery shifting from a rainforest to rivers to fields to an office hallway to mountainous terrain to a desert to an office hallway (again).

"Seriously though, where are we going?" I asked after the fifth time we passed an office hallway. "And why are there so many office hallways. What's up with that?"

"Please shut up."

I huffed and crossed my arms, but shut up, because the scythe hanging at his belt seemed dangerously sharp and I didn't want it getting anywhere close to me if the holder was an annoyed... yeah I'm still not sure what Alexander is.

"Mk. We're here." Alexander stopped in front of an oak door. "Here's the main rule; don't talk. Please."

"Why not?"

"Because this is my boss and if I show up with an impertinent ghost it won't reflect well onto me." He sighed.

"Ok. No talking." I mimicked zipping my mouth and he let out a breath, that could be a sigh or a laugh.

He knocked on the door, which opened smoothly. He grabbed my hand and walked into an office room that looked like a pretty standard office room. There were no trees or cacti or anything of the sort. I shrugged and looked around. There was a basic desk with two chairs in front of it and almost as many papers as Alexander had stacked up on they desk. There was a man sitting behind a desk, looking at some papers. Alexander walked over to the desk and shot me a look. I gave him two thumbs up and pursed my lips, indicating that I wouldn't speak.

"Sir?" Alexander called for the attention of the man behind the desk.

"Hmm?" The man looked up from the papers he'd been focused on, they he smiled. "Alexander! Take a seat, son."

"I'm not your son." Alexander muttered, but sat down, beckoning for me to join him.

I sat in the chair next to him a little nervously, because the man looked like the mega evolution of Alexander. He had a semi-military outfit on under his black cloak, which didn't have ink stains, which is probably why it looked much more formal. He had his scythe hanging at his side at it just looked more uniform then Alexander's. He was also bald as an egg, and he looked scary.

"I need Laurens' stuff." Alexander said casually, somehow not intimidated by the man sitting on the other side of the desk. "Please." He added, as an afterthought.

"You get it tomorrow."

"Ok. Can you tell me where we're staying then?"

"Here, for now." Alexander frowned at that. "I'm sorry son—"

"Im not your son." Alexander interrupted.

Oh I see. That's probably why he wasn't intimidated. They had a father son relationship. Granted, a reluctant one, but there was still definitely the right type of back and forth going on between the two.

The Scary Man sighed. "We're pretty full right now."

"Why?"

"I'm not sure, it's somewhere in these papers."

"Humans are stupid." Alexander muttered and I shot him a friendly glare. "I can help with the papers. I'm sure there's a reason for the death increase."

"Alexander, I can't let you take more work."

He scoffed and stood up, grabbing a little bit of the pile of papers. "Yes you can."

"Alex—"

"Wait hold up!" I sat up, putting two and two together.

"Laurens." Alexander gave me a hard glare.

"Yeah yeah, I know, just hear me out." I told him.

He sighed then looked at The Scary Man.

"You should listen to him." Alexander said almost reluctantly.

"You want me to listen to the human?" The Scary Human raised an eyebrow.

"He might have something useful to say."

The Scary Man was silent for a moment then gestured at me to speak.

"Coronavirus."

"What?" Alexander frowned.

"There's this highly contagious virus thing in China."

Alexander and The Scary Man shared a look and The Scary Man nodded slowly.

"That is plausible..."

"Do you seriously do that little paperwork? Evan in the US we were all aware of it, and it's still over in Asia."

Alexander pursed his lips and shot me a warning look, but I shrugged.

"I'll look into it, thank you Alexander and...?"

"John Laurens." I let Alexander do the talking again.

"While we wait for a spot to be available you're just gonna have to stay here." The Scary Man said.

"Ok. Thank you sir." Alexander nodded, still holding the stack of papers.

"Goodbye son."

"Don't—" He sighed. "Goodbye sir."

He walked over to the door and I followed him out of the room and into the hallway.

"Who was he and what was that all about?" I asked.

"That's Washington, he's in charge of this whole place. That was me trying to get us a Room so we don't have to sleep in my office."

"A room..?"

"Yeah. There are Rooms all over Earth, it's where Reapers stay to teach their ghosts about... being ghosts." Alexander sighed. "You humans really are pretty dumb."

"You Reapers sure think highly of yourselves." I retorted.

He looked at me and I was worried he'd turn the ground around me to magma. Then Alexander did something I was not expecting. He laughed. I blinked, surprised.

His laugh was surprisingly nice to listen to, for a Grim Reaper understudy.

Alexander stopped laughing and smiled up at me, checking his watch then walking in the direction of his office.

"Hurry up." He called. "If we're not back by 7:32:24 the other dogs'll get us and I don't think you want your first introduction to them be one of them chewing on your skull."

Worried, I trotted up to him and we walked along the shifting scenery of the hallway. I'd pieced together that this was a very strange office building.

Alexander stopped in front of a door that I assumed was his office and opened it, leading me in (it was, indeed, his office) and checking the clock.

"7:51:45." He closed the door. "No mauling today."

"What are 'the dogs'?"

"Oh it's the hellhound puppies." Alexander walked over to his desk, sitting down. "They get free rein if the halls around 8."

"Oh, so we just made it."

"Yeah." Alexander made an unhappy face. "Of course, the kennel keepers can't seem to stay on time so it can vary between 7:56 and 8:10. Extremely annoying."

"What is it with you and time?"

"No clue, no one ever seemed to care enough to think I was worth looking at twice so..." Alexander shrugged.

"Well I care." I smiled.

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