{"id":65948,"date":"2025-03-05T00:05:07","date_gmt":"2025-03-05T00:05:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/?p=65948"},"modified":"2025-03-05T23:36:35","modified_gmt":"2025-03-05T23:36:35","slug":"damn-if-you-doby-r-s-nelson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/damn-if-you-doby-r-s-nelson\/","title":{"rendered":"Damn if You Do\u2026by R.S. Nelson"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Damn
\nDamn if You Do\u2026<\/span><\/h2>\n

by R.S. Nelson<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Grim Reaper # 17,000 (GR for his friends) hears the ping on his phone and pauses his video game. The photo and instructions for his next assignment are shown on his screen. He can almost read \u2018Don\u2019t screw this one up,\u2019 between the lines. He removes his black sweatshirt and drops it on the floor, feeling the autumn\u2019s chill in his bones. He slips into his ironed black cloak and looks at himself in the mirror. Scythe, check. Cloak, check. Drip look, check. He adjusts the cloak\u2019s hoodie over his shiny skull and gives himself a toothless smile before leaving.<\/span><\/p>\n

The sun is about to set when GR gets behind the steering wheel, turns on the ignition, and Googles the directions. \u201cCrap,\u201d he says when he realizes the long drive ahead, surely part of the punishment his boss, Death, has been planning for him ever since he fucked up the last assignment. \u201cBreak one more rule and you\u2019re out,\u201d Death warned him.<\/span><\/p>\n

The blasting music distracts him from his thoughts.<\/span><\/p>\n

The road ahead looks unusually empty for a Friday night and GR\u2014sure he will be on time\u2014takes the highway while singing the song\u2019s lyrics.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

He\u2019s not even five minutes on his way when the light on the car\u2019s dashboard blinks, showing an empty gas tank. <\/span>Shit. Not tonight.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

He should keep driving but he\u2019s still far from his destination. <\/span>If only Death weren\u2019t so petty<\/span><\/i>, he thinks. It wasn\u2019t enough that his boss placed him on an improvement plan, or that he had to report to HR and watch a video titled \u201cHow to be an Efficient Employee,\u201d where a cheery Grim Reaper explained the rules the employees had to follow, #1 being \u201cAlways bring your scythe to work.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Death didn\u2019t care that GR accidentally forgot his scythe. Or that he took care of the situation by driving to his apartment to retrieve his tool, after promising the guy whose soul he was supposed to collect, that he would be right back.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not my fault,\u201d GR told Death. \u201cI was going to fix it if you hadn\u2019t sent the crew to clean up before I could.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Death left, mumbling something about \u2018Damn Gen Z\u2019s.\u2019 After that, GR wanted to quit daily, but the pay and the benefits convinced him otherwise.<\/span><\/p>\n

GR tracks the nearest gas station on his phone and sighs, relieved, when he finds one a few exits ahead. When he arrives at the station\u2019s office, he\u2019s prepared for the clerk’s terrified reaction; but the dark-skinned man has already seen worse in his twenty-something years of life. He nods at the Reaper from behind the glass window, grabs the cash, and continues browsing Tinder on his phone.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

While GR is filling the gas tank, two cars arrive. A red Tesla, and a black Mercedes. The Tesla driver, an older woman wearing yoga clothes, pumps the gas without looking in GR\u2019s direction. The driver from the Mercedes\u2014a tall, handsome man wearing a fancy suit\u2014opens his door and walks toward the office.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The tall guy hasn\u2019t returned to his car when GR turns on his ignition, so he has to go around the Mercedes. When he drives by the passenger\u2019s side, the window slowly rolls down and GR is face to face with a long-haired, olive-skinned woman. Her gold dangling earrings shake with the wind, like ornaments on a Christmas tree. Her eyes, contoured with black eyeliner and mascara, accentuate her deep green eyes, making them stand out like a lighthouse in the ocean.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Dazed by her, GR doesn\u2019t notice the tall guy coming out of the office, holding a bathroom key. When he finally sees him, GR presses hard on the brakes, the tall man\u2019s hands already imprinted on the car\u2019s hood.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Reaper has seen fear in the faces of the souls he collects, but none like this guy\u2019s. After his eyes pop up cartoonishly, he drops the bathroom key, runs to his car, and leaves skid marks on the ground in his haste to leave the station.<\/span><\/p>\n

He\u2019s gonna pee his pants<\/span><\/i>, thinks GR, shaking his head.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

GR drives slowly away, remembering that whenever any Reaper meets his assignment in any other place than the \u2018Designated Place of Death,\u2019 protocol dictates that he or she must notify their boss. GR grabs the phone, ready to call, but then stops. How can he explain that he stopped at the gas station\u2014and crossed paths with tonight\u2019s assignment\u2014because he forgot to fill out his gas tank sooner? After all, \u2018Go directly to your assignment\u2019 is Rule #2 for a reason.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSHIT.\u201d GR hits the steering wheel with his fist. He vaguely remembers the other rules. \u2018Always arrive on time,\u2019 and \u2018No talking to anyone during an assignment.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

He thinks about his previous job. The one that went wrong. He didn\u2019t tell his boss that the man, lying down on the ground after being half-eaten by the mountain lion\u2014his guts spread on the dirt\u2014had stretched his hand toward him, his eyes begging GR to release him from his anguish. GR told him he would return soon, fully aware that the man would stay in agony\u2014not alive but not quite dead either\u2014until his return. But there was nothing that GR could do. Not without his scythe. He also failed to mention that he ran to his car filled with embarrassment, or that he dropped the keys on the ground a few times before he could finally drive away, and that he then imagined what would happen if he didn\u2019t return, and kept driving forever and ever instead.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Now he thinks that maybe he should confess and ask for forgiveness, but he knows damn well that Death doesn\u2019t forgive anyone, so instead he presses hard on the accelerator.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

When he arrives at the address\u2014tires screeching against the pavement\u2014he parks across the street, turns off the ignition, and looks at the tidy house across from him.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The black Mercedes is already parked in the driveway, and the couple is in the living room, fully in sight thanks to the bay windows. The man\u2019s suit and well-trimmed hair are now in disarray. His eyes are red and bulging as if he\u2019s going to have a heart attack. The beautiful woman stretches her olive arms to him, rubbing his back, trying to make him sit.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

GR averts his eyes, suddenly wishing he had driven away.<\/span><\/p>\n

The woman offers the tall man a glass of water. The man\u2014whose features don\u2019t look handsome anymore\u2014, pushes the woman away from him, and she, trying to keep the water from spilling, loses her balance and falls backward, hitting her head on the edge of the marble table.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A puddle quickly forms on the white rug, around her head, framing her long, dark hair with a reddish halo.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The tall man tries in vain to get her up, while GR slowly walks out of the car and into the house. He stops in front of the woman\u2019s body and sighs. Her beautiful green eyes are open, and a tear rolls down her left cheek.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

GR wants to leave, run out the door, push the accelerator in his car, and text his boss saying, \u2018I quit.\u2019\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But the woman stares at him and he knows he won\u2019t.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

GR sighs and steadies his hands. Then, he gently pushes the tall guy away, wields his scythe, and lets it go down swiftly. The beautiful woman\u2019s chest opens up and her soul flies away in a cloud of light, ready to move on to wherever beautiful souls go.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

GR stares until the light is gone. He then bends down and closes the empty eyes. The tall guy sits on the floor next to her body, pulling his hair; his mind slowly slipping into madness.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sorry,\u201d GR tells him, fully aware that he\u2019s breaking one more rule. \u201cI didn\u2019t mean to scare you. I was just surprised to see her at the gas station when I knew I would have to meet her here.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Grim Reaper #17,000 leaves the house, walks to his car, and turns on the ignition. The music blasts away while GR thinks about his job, wondering how much they\u2019re paying at fast food restaurants nowadays.<\/span><\/p>\n

R. S. Nelson (she\/her) is a Hispanic writer. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Spillwords, Afterimages, and Flash Fiction Magazine, among others. When she’s not juggling her many hats as a working mother, she is literally learning how to juggle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A young Grim Reaper on probation accidentally encounters his next assignment at a gas station, breaking protocol.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":65952,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[425,88,273],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-65948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-contemporary","category-horror","category-short-short"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65948"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65948\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65954,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65948\/revisions\/65954"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}