The End of The Day

With the lights turned off the office had taken on a gloomy air. It was as if someone had made a cut in one of the walls and allowed the space’s usual warmth to trickle downwards to the floor. Kole inspected the area as if it would yield something they didn’t already know.

Sherah folded her arms and sighed. “ I think they…” her mouth snapped shut as the other reaper signaled her to be silent with an outstretched finger.

They stood that way for a moment. The dragoness seeming stunned with Kole quieting her like a parent would a child disrupting a phone conversation.

The muscles in his lip twitched slightly as he finally faced her.

“ They’ve left.”

The purple one shook her head and trudged to her desk in irritation.

“ I suppose that makes us done for the day.” The man continued nonchalantly. “Where ever they went we obviously were not needed.”

The dragon nodded picking up a pile of papers from her desk. She tilted the stack of documents vertically before tapping the end closest to the desk against it. Once they were arranged to her liking she set the stack down and grabbed the stapler and quickly punched a staple into the right hand side of the paper.

She was all nerves. The mutinous organ formally known as stomach seemed to be succeeding from the rest of her body in a firestorm of acid spewing madness. Matao, a reaper and her former teacher, had just been killed by the creature that she had failed to eradicate.

“Move your ass you waste of dragon’s blood.” The hulk of a man screamed as his fists flew at her. “ Your enemies will not be as forgiving as I.”

Sherah was seven years old. As her small body ducked and weaved around the impending ham-fists she stared up into the glittering helmet of her attacker. His green eyes narrowed as they connected with hers. The next thing that flew at her was not a fist but an open palm. The small dragoness gave a squeak as it closed around her mid section. She was then lifted from the ground to a position over the large man’s head and brought, in a swift ark of motion, to the ground face first.

If there were two things she had observed in that and many similar future situations involving her late teacher they were that when he grabbed her that way he could, at his leisure, break her ribs, and that every blow he landed was equivalent to the strike of a rogue freight train. The thing that killed him would have needed to be unfathomably strong.

Her thought process was disturbed by a ferocious growl from her stomach. Looking up just in time to see Kole’s gaze flick her way the dragoness was able to justify the noise.

“ I’m starved.” She shrugged standing up and walking toward the door. “ I’ll see you tomorrow Kole.”

He grunted in response. It was clear her leaving did not effect whatever workday ending rituals the man was performing.

The moment the she was in the hall she took off like a shot. Ghosting through the building on soundless feet, Sherah nearly screamed in rapture the moment the outside air hit her face. Then it was down the street to her favorite little teashop. The handle on the door was warm. She happily threw it open and sauntered inside immediately seeking out her favorite, over used, fluffy armchair. There was no need for her to order anything. The woman behind the counter knew her usual drink as she was in rather often after work.

She curled up into a ball and allowed her eyelids to sink. A dissonant and horrid gagging noise sounded from the pavement outside. There was no real need to look; it was a street performer, most likely drunk. By the sound of things he was playing some sort of wind instrument. Porcelain made a high-pitched purr as it graced the table before her. She smiled fully opening her eyes as she reached for her cup. It was time, for at least the moment, to set the world aside and relax.