The New Assistant (Part 1)

Hi all, I just want to start by saying this story isn't finished yet and it won't be for a while as I've got college exams coming up this August and I hope you enjoy what I've written here. If you have any suggestions for finishing the story, please send me a message --

It was a normal day for Death, he sat at his fine oak desk and just sat back in the chair but he knew that he was scheduled to arrive at the scene of a horrific car crash where three people would be killed… sometimes he felt Fate was just so cruel in his motivations but it wasn’t like he had the ability to change destiny, it was something that just is. The phone rang, Death picked up the receiver, ‘Hello?’ he asked.
‘Death… God here,’ God replied, ‘I need to see you as soon as possible’
‘Right away boss,’ he put the receiver back on the hook. He got up and left the catalogue and index room, he walked down the stairs, grabbed his scythe and left his house. Soon, he arrived at God’s office, he knocked on the door. ‘God,’ he announced, ‘its Death.’
‘Come in,’ God said. Death opened the door, hung his scythe on nearby hook and sat down on a chair in front of God’s desk, it was cluttered by paperwork. ‘Now, Death,’ he started, ‘it has come to my attention that you are now starting to find it difficult to keep up with your workload.’
‘Yes I am.’
‘Well I have decided to give you an assistant, to help ease the workload.’
‘Oh that’s fantastic news!’ Death said with a smile. If, however, you’re one of those readers who like to point out inaccuracies in stories, I’ll rephrase that. ‘Oh that’s fantastic news!’ Death said, his eyes lit up; there… happy now?!
‘But here’s the thing,’ God stumbled as he revealed the catch, ‘your assistant… is going to be… a soul your going to reap tonight.’
‘Huh?’
‘Fate tells me you’re scheduled to appear at a car accident this evening, yes?’
‘Yes, that’s right,’ Death answered, ‘Fate told me that three people would die tonight.’
‘Well, Fate actually changed his mind. He’s going to have one person die in that car crash and her name is…’ God began typing furiously on his computer, ‘Martina Hix.’
‘Is she a young girl?’ Death asked, he was still repulsed by the idea of having to reap souls of the young, especially kids. God had pulled up the file on Martina Hix, ‘Unfortunately yes,’ He said, ‘she’s only 20.’
‘Damn it.’
‘I know how you feel about this but it can’t be changed,’ God sympathised, ‘apparently, she was a never-mean-to-be sort.’
‘I see,’ Death kind of groaned at this, ‘so I’m correcting mistakes again?’
‘Looks like it,’ God replied. Death got up from the chair, grabbed the scythe and stormed out of the office. Meanwhile back in our reality, Martina Hix was in her car and had set in motion the event leading to her demise. She was at a crossroads, the light was green but she checked both sides for any unexpected dangers. As she pulled out, a speeding car rammed into the side of hers; the collision was so devastating that it toppled Martina’s car onto the side. She lay in heap with a broken neck and she felt her heart coming to a stop as she slowly closed her eyes.
‘Er… Martina?’ boomed a deep voice. Martina opened her eyes but could see nothing only darkness, ‘Agh!’ she screamed, ‘I can’t see!’ However, she could feel that she was lying down.  ‘Here,’ the voice boomed, ‘take my hand.’ The mysterious stranger helped her to feet; it felt weird though, his hand felt unusually… thin.
‘Thank you,’ she said, ‘but I still can’t see.’
‘Hang on…’ the deep-voiced stranger seemed to do something, ‘there… how about now?’
‘Yeah, thank…’ Martina said but it instantly turned to a stammer when saw who was in front of her, ‘you. What the…?’
‘I know what you’re thinking, all new souls think that. Let me introduce myself,’ he said, ‘I’m Death.’
‘Okay, so I must be dead then,’ Martina was trying to come to terms with what was happening. She then looked around her surroundings and looked at herself, she was now a skeleton. ‘Agh!’ she screamed, ‘what’s going on here, why am I a skeleton?’
‘Well,’ Death was trying calm her down, ‘let’s just go to my house and I’ll explain it all over coffee, you do like coffee?’ He asked that question quite calmly but could still sense Martina’s reserve. Within moments they were standing outside Death’s house… well, mansion really. ‘Woah,’ Martina exclaimed.
‘I know,’ Death said smugly. He fished a key from his pocket and opened the door; they stepped into the giant hallway and Martina gazed in awe at the sheer fantastic beauty of the main hall, ‘C’mon into the kitchen,’ Death urged her so she followed.
‘Nice,’ she said as she walked into the kitchen. Death made two coffees and placed them on the table, they sat down and Death tried to explain the situation to her. ‘Well…’ she said sternly, ‘I’m listening.’
Death took a long sip from his coffee, ‘Alrighty then,’ he started, ‘the situation is that you’re my new assistant.’
‘Assistant!?’ she exclaimed.
‘Yes,’ Death tried to calm her down again, ‘apparently, this was meant to be. This is all down to administration.’
‘I find this cruelly unfair! My life comes to an end, and a violent end I might add… just so you can have an assistant!?’
‘Look… if it was up to me, you would have gone on living but Fate made his decision.’
‘But why me, I never believed in you or Fate!’
Death couldn’t answer that question; he even wanted to come up with a guess to make her feel better but was left lost for words. Martina got up from her chair, ‘Can’t you even say anything to make me feel better?’
Death stared downwards. ‘Right,’ Martina said and left the room, Death then followed her into the living room. Martina had crashed down the sofa holding her head in her hands; she was still trying to absorb what happened. Death sat beside her and one of Martina’s eyes fell on the floor. The dislodged eye was like a wake up call for her.
‘Okay then,’ Martina picked up her eye and screwed it back in her eye socket, ‘how will this assistant job work?’
Death became slightly happy when he heard that question; he knew that Martina had finally accepted the situation. ‘Well,’ he answered, ‘we’ve got to get you a robe, c’mon’
‘Like what you have on?’
‘That’s the one.’
‘Right then,’ she said, ‘let’s go.’ Minutes later, they were in the bedroom and Death went into his walk in closet where he found a robe for Martina. He later came out with a robe, ‘Here try this one on,’ he said and Martina took it. She pulled it on over her head and admired herself in the mirror; she kinda liked what she saw. ‘Mmmm… I like it,’ Martina voice had become deeper, ‘hey, what’s the deal with my voice?’
‘Don’t worry about it,’ Death answered, ‘it’s like when a teenage male’s voice breaks when he gets to thirteen plus it’s also a requirement.’
‘God’s request?’
‘Yep… He said it brings more “authenticity”,’ he said that in quotation fingers, ‘to the job as does this.’
Death handed her a scythe and as she took it, she was feeling more like Death’s assistant than ever. ‘Okay,’ she said confidently, ‘I think I’m ready to start reaping now.’ Death looked her up and down, he could see that was ready to take on the challenge as she looked exactly like, if not more so. Several days passed and Martina had now fit in to her new capacity as Death’s assistant and even come to enjoy it.