Zeth would never have imagined the plague of corporate culture infecting the Heavens, yet here he was, sitting on the rim of a fountain in the divine city, bathed in ethereal moonlight.
The fireflies, long extinct on Earth, danced in the skies, while the fairies he had only read of in myths played hide-and-seek in milky rays.
Truly, heaven.
Everything gleamed with happiness except Zeth, who radiated a gloomy aura, almost scaring the fairies away. Sweat ran down his forehead, and his legs trembled violently.
"What in Heavens is happening to me?"
He was alone, free from the gazes of souls who had all gotten jobs. The city was empty, and the calmness felt like drowning.
'At this rate...will I die? Me? Die?'
Zeth clutched his chest in an attempt to suppress his increasingly rapid heartbeat. If he didn't do something quickly, it would burst out of his chest.
In a desperate attempt, Zeth submerged his head in the fountain's cold water. The numbness in his face helped a little, but it wasn't enough, so he kept submerging himself again and again until he could breathe normally.
His death had been gruesome. Killed by a monster, he had faced confusion, questions, and hope… Hope that came after reaching heaven.
The hope to revive on earth, in his old body. And all he needed to do was secure a job from any of the gods.
'Shit, this is not going well. You have to think of something, Zeth.'
'Think.'
'Think.'
'Think.'
He had tried every temple in Heaven for an interview. He acted obediently, lied, bargained, and attempted to bribe, but in the end, every door was closed to him.
Bewildered in his thoughts, he looked at his reflection in the surface of the water when he felt a hand grip his shoulder. Turning around to face the unexpected visitor, he saw a skeleton dressed in a hooded cloak made of shadows.
He almost jumped, startled.
"Zeth, your time has run out!" the skeleton calmly said.
This wasn't his first meeting with the entity responsible for bringing dead souls into the cycle of reincarnation, and the same entity that had brought him to heaven.
"Death, you can't do this to me. Please give me one more chance, ten more minutes. I promise I'll land a job."
But the skeleton simply sighed. "It's meaningless even if you stay for ten hours or even years."
The skeleton pointed to the nearest temple. "Can't you see? All the doors of heaven have been closed to you!"
Zeth's brows furrowed, and his eyes teared up. The whole idea of a job was foreign to him. Why did he, a man who had never needed to lift a spoon, have to struggle with mediocre souls for one?
Shouldn't he be treated as special?
Where was the exclusive line for billionaires?
Death looked at him with pity. Though his skeletal face could not show it, Zeth felt it in those hollow eyes.
"What... is going to happen... to me?" The poor soul asked with trembling lips.
Death sighed. "You will have to enter the cycle of reincarnation, and you will simply forget all the memories of your-"
"NOO!" Zeth clutched tighter onto the skeleton's legs.
"YOU CAN'T DO THIS TO ME! My beautiful life as a rich bum!"
Death shook his head and patted Zeth gently. "Child, this is the cycle of reincarnation. Every soul must pass through it."
"No, I am not every soul; I am special!"
"What if I get reincarnated as some poor commoner and have to climb back to the top?"
"Or what if I get reincarnated as a slave and have to go through nightmares?"
"Even worse, what if I don't get reincarnated as a human at all?"
Zeth stood up, his hands shaking in disbelief. "What if... what if... I get reincarnated as a mosquito or something?"
Death scratched his mandible. "From what I have read... It's not that bad."
"Please just consider it once. One more chance, I swear on your bones." Zeth continued to beg, but the skeleton didn't listen.
"Zeth, we all have duties as gods. My duty is to make sure every soul reaches the cycle of reincarnation."
"If gods don't show mercy, who will? You are the God of death. " Zeth proudly stole Fryer's line, still clinging to the skeleton's legs.
'Wait...god of death! God?'
"Wait, you're a god? I thought you were the Grim Reaper," Zeth said, dumbfounded.
"It's one of my names. Like Shinigami, Yamraja... I go by different names in different cultures."
"But you are a god?" Zeth's eyes lit up. "So...where is your temple?"
The skeleton froze. He avoided Zeth's gaze as he struggled to speak. "Well... I... ahh... actually don't have one."
"Why?"
"Well... You see... I'm kind of broke."
Zeth's expression dropped. The God of Death, responsible for reincarnation and the management of souls…was broke?
A thought lit up in his head as his anxiety slowly faded, replaced by a subtle smile.
He knew what he needed to do and what he was best at: selling poor people's dreams of getting rich so he could get richer.
Zeth slowly stood up, a confused expression forming on his face. "Why, though? Aren't you a God?"
The skeleton sighed. "Well, you see... a god's salary low-key depends on followers... and I don't have any, so... yeah..."
"No. Wait. Wait. Wait." Zeth raised his palm. "You are telling me the God of Death is broke... because he doesn't have followers?"
Though the skeleton still avoided his gaze, he answered, "Well, none of it matters. I am Death anyway, free from materialistic attachments."
"No, you can't say that!"
Death hesitated. "But it's the truth, my child."
"You are lying!"
"No, I am not!"
"Yes, you are."
"Tsk, how would you know?"
Zeth knelt close. "Because you are not looking into my eyes!"
"I...I don't have a reason to!"
Zeth grabbed the skeleton by its scapula.
"Death, look into my eyes."
The skeleton turned. Zeth stared into the sockets where his eyes should have been. "Don't you ever feel that you deserve better than this?"
Death stood silent.
"A god who guides souls to the cycle of reincarnation... Wait, how many hours do you work?"
"I... ah... I don't take breaks..."
"Tsk, tsk, tsk..." Zeth gasped as if those words hurt him. "You work twenty-four hours a day, nonstop, since god knows how long, and you don't get paid?"
'It's working, it's working.'
The skeleton spoke again, pain visible in his voice. "I... I... I am Death... I should be free from materialistic-"
"You are lying!" Zeth pinched the bridge of his nose. "Look at you. Who do you think you are lying to? Yourself!"
"Death, in my past hours in heaven, I have never seen a god as hardworking as you, and yet look at those bastards in their shrines... while you are broke and homeless. Do you know what Odin was doing when I asked for an interview? Drowning in wine. The God of War was playing with his apostles, and don't even ask about Hermes."
As if fate were mocking him, the distant neighing of horses rang out as the ground rumbled. A golden chariot, pulled by seven white horses, rolled down the road. The Sun God stood upon it, casting a light that made the night feel like day.
As the chariot passed next to them, the Sun God barely glanced at Death with a slightly confused expression, while the skeleton watched with his jaw dropped.
"Damn, that's a cool vehicle..." Zeth said in awe, then he glanced at the skeleton. "Where is your vehicle, by the way? Haven't seen it yet."
The skeleton turned around, sobbing. It burst into tears, even though there were no tears on its skeletal face; Zeth could feel the emotions behind the words.
"My buffalo... Pundarakh... I miss him so much..." The skeleton collapsed to his knees, his cries intensifying as Zeth's smile widened. The mortal stepped closer and hugged him.
"They took him from me... I wasn't able to pay last month's EMI... Who does that to a god? They don't even give me Employee of the Millennium."
Zeth consoled him, and the skeleton vented the trauma of the last million years. Night turned to day. His words were so overwhelming that Zeth almost forgot his goal.
But as they say, patience is the jewelry of salesmen, and Zeth was specially endowed with it. He listened until the skeleton had nothing more to say.
"It's alright, Death. You have suffered enough." Zeth stood up with conviction. "Your days of suffering are over!"
Death's hollow eyes glimmered in the sunlight.
"It's about time you got back what you deserve." He pointed at the tallest building in the center. "Right there will be the Tower of Death, the tallest building in heaven! It's only a matter of time before you start gaining followers."
Death lowered his skull. "But... how will I do that? My schedule is so busy I barely get time to nap."
"Well, then why not trust one of your employees?" Zeth asked curiously.
Death sighed, his face turning down again. "I don't have one. I don't even have enough money to pay one salary."
"Then you just need to find one. Someone who is good-looking, talented, has influence in the real world, and doesn't need any payment from you!"
Death thought for a moment, "But... where am I going to find that kind of person?"
Zeth had never smiled so widely. He knelt and grabbed Death's hands, with a genuine sparkle in his eyes.
"What do you know? Maybe someone like that is standing right before you?"