The fourth soul delivery

Valeria successfully reaped her sister-in-law's soul without any incident. After the soul was carefully encased in her scarf, she stuffed it in her pocket and tiptoed back to her room on the other wing, hoping that she doesn't bump into anyone. When she reached her room, she closed the door and turned the lock, leaning on it and exhaling.

"What are you doing?" Ari asked and she startled. She turned to his voice and he was leaning on the wall next to her.

"Having a barbecue," she replied drily. "Hiding of course, what else do you think I am doing?"

"You really need to deliver the souls back to the headquarters within an hour if you really want to power up," Ari said.

Right. As if she could forget the two souls in her pockets. She rolled her eyes and walked away from him. She went over to the window and looked out. The media circus is still very much present in front of the gate.

"Go out the back way like how you came in, duh," Ari said behind her.

"I know that!" she hissed. However, she will need to get past Erin and Mark and possibly Sophie in the living room.

"Don't worry…there will be a diversion pretty soon," Ari said confidently.

Sure enough, there was a sudden commotion downstairs. She could hear loud voices and Erin's voice wailing in despair.

"Of course, they would be so distracted by Neshi's death, they wouldn't pay attention to me at all," Valeria said more to herself than to Ari.

She unlocked her door and crept outside although it was highly unnecessary. Erin was wailing loudly along with Nesquai. No one could hear a thing outside of their combined acoustics. She heard heavy footsteps coming up the staircase and froze. It sounded like Mark. She peeked around the corner and saw him striding purposely towards Neshi's room. Close behind him is the family driver, Carl.

Suddenly everything clicked in her mind. But of course. Neshi and Nesquai had always had a thing for the driver from when they were teenagers. When Carl first started working as the family driver, he was a handsome young man and the twins had deep crushes on him. At that time, Valeria thought Carl was a hardworking upstanding young man who worked hard to support his wife with a baby on the way.

Valeria never expected the twins to actually seduce him and even share him between them. They must have been having the affair with Carl for a long time. This explains the long hours the twins would be gone almost daily, purportedly to go 'shopping' when they took the driver with them. Valeria has met Carl's nice and pretty wife and his three children, now teenagers. She could never understand how he could cheat on his wife and with the people he worked for too.

Knowing Mark will be preoccupied after he finds Neshi's body, Valeria quickly made her way downstairs. Erin and Nesquai were hugging each other, sobbing together. They didn't even notice her. She quickly grabbed her coat and hurried to the kitchens. It was empty. She slid out the back door and made her way to the back lane.

Once she is safely outside and had snuck past the media grouped at the gates, she hurriedly walked as fast and as far as she could from the mansion. Once she reached the main road, she flagged down a taxi and gave the driver the address to the Soul Zen Headquarters.

Valeria let out a long sigh the moment she stepped inside the headquarters. The tension knotting her shoulders fell away and she felt lighter. She quickly headed inside to deliver the souls. The moment she opened the door, she came face to face with A, making her stumble backwards.

A glared at her with her golden eyes.

"Heard you caught an evil spirit," she said in a neutral tone.

"That's right. I am aiming for a power up," Valeria replied proudly. "Ari didn't even help much," she added for good measure.

A eyed her for a moment but did not show any other expression. "He is not supposed to help," she said finally.

She turned away from Valeria and walked out of the office. Valeria watched her go, slightly miffed. What is her deal anyway? Why does she have to behave as if Valeria had single-handedly murdered her whole family and her pet dog?

"That's just how A is, I thought I told you that," Ari said behind her, making her jump. He was not with her on the taxi ride back and she was sniggering happily in the taxi, thinking she had left him behind.

"I can now appear everywhere, I am so much better you see," Ari told her. "There is no need to travel the mortal way,"

Right. So a reaper has teleportation powers while she, the substitute, still has to use the old fashioned human way. Talk about unequal rights. Maybe she should form a union for mortal substitute reapers.

"HAHAHAHA! Are you insane?" Ari laughed. "You are literally the ONLY mortal substitute reaper, so what, you are going to form a union for yourself?"

Valeria glowered at him. "Fish hell. Why not? One-person union, easier to make decisions and demand for equal rights," she retorted.

She turned towards the cubby holes and dug out the scarves. One was glowing a sickly greenish grey while the other was glowing the usual whitish glow.

"Good bye evil spirit and evil ex-human," she said and dropped both scarves inside. Both were gone in a second. She brushed her hands and turned to walk back outside. Ari was no where in sight. Not really caring where he had disappeared to, she headed back to her room. As she walked, she called up her system to check it.

Powers:

1. Unhindered access to souls

2. Strength - 4% (reap more natural death souls to increase)

3. Float - 3% (deliver souls within an hour to increase)

4. Healing rate - 3% (reap more violent death souls to increase)

5. Special eyesight - 5% (increases at every soul reaped)

6. Immortality - 0% (reap more than 1000 souls in 3 months)

Functions: 1. Ripley Rose identity appearance & voice Duration: 36 hours

Reaping instrument: 96 nos.

Soul counter: 5

Warnings: 1

(10 warnings will deduct 10 reaped souls from soul counter)

"Yessss!" Valeria exclaimed. Now she can be Ripley Rose for longer than 24 hours.

She needs to keep catching those bonus souls to increase the duration of her Ripley Rose identity. She realised her eyesight is now slightly different. It is at only 5% but she can see quite far and the details of the things she can see are amazing.

Valeria is so happy, she skipped all the way back up to her room, humming a happy tune. Things are looking up. She has reaped 5 souls in a few days, she has increased her powers and Mark is giving her money and a divorce. Eventually.

She pulled open the door and the sight of Ari lounging in the corner of the sitting area did not even dampen her mood. Although his smug face annoyed her.

"Oh for fishes' sake, get your own room," she said as she kicked off her shoes, removed her coat and flung herself on her bed, sinking into it gratefully.

"This is my room," Ari insisted. He took out a phone, put on earphones and promptly ignored her.

"Hey! You have a phone!" she exclaimed. Why didn't he give her his number?

"Because it's private and I don't give my number just to anyone," Ari replied without looking up from his phone. He held it horizontally and appeared to be playing a game of some sort.

Curious, Valeria went over to stare at his screen and caught a glimpse of zombies before he shifted to hide the screen from her. Valeria already saw it.

"Zombies? Really? You do see the irony of a reaper shooting at zombies right?" Valeria said.

Ari ignored her. She rolled her eyes. Fine. Whatever. Slacker reaper, she added for good measure. Ari paused and looked like he wanted to retort but he didn't.

It is late afternoon now and Valeria realised she is hungry. She had skipped lunch after all. Sighing, she wondered if she could order food delivery. She hates going out in the cold again. She shoot an icy glare at Ari. He could have teleported and gotten her some food.

"I am not your servant so no, I will not get you food," he said without looking up from his phone.

"Fine, whatever!" she decided to go out and get whatever she can find in the convenience store. She pulled on her coat and grabbed her bag. Just as she walked out the door, her phone rang.

It was Mark. Again.

"Why can't I just reap this asshole?" she mumbled as she cancelled the call. Whatever. She's not in the mood to talk to him.