A reprieve
by Harbinger of
Death
You did what?" Easter Bunny was incredulous.
"I fell asleep." The Harbinger was groggy. His eye sockets
were barely visible; it was almost as if they were just little puffy
slits instead of the big creepy holes that had always gaped in his
skully face.
"I can't believe this, man." There were voices then, and a
stream of ghostly Debs came in the back door.
"Hey, Harbinger, why are we still dead?"
"Yeah, we were supposed to be reanimated by now! What's going
on?"
"Take it easy, everybody," HoD said. "I've applied at the
office for a one-day delay. I have a few more people to kill off, and
then you can all go back to your bodies."
"This is such a rip-off!"
"Yeah, I have homework to do!"
At that last comment there was silence as it dawned on them that as long
as they were ghosts in the guest house, they were excused from homework
and other tedious tasks.
"Hey, take your time, Harbinger."
"Really, there's no rush."
"We'll be in the guest house. See you later."
With a quick shuffle of phantom feet they were gone. Bunny sighed in
relief. "That was a close one. You'd better get back to work. I
can't believe you.....Hey, Harbinger?"
"ZZzzzzzzz."
"Wake up!!!"
"Hrm? Huh?? I'm sorry, I did it again, didn't I? I'm telling you,
these last few days have been so hectic, I just can't clear my skull at
all. Do we have any Mountain Dew?"
"Forget it," said EB. "Gimme your cloak."
"Why?"
"I'm taking over. You're in no condition to carry on." He was
stern. Well, as stern as a towering fluffy bunny with a cute little pink
nose can possibly be.
Harbinger started to protest, both out of a feeling of obligation to
complete his duties and a worry that the post-rehab rabbit would be
untrustworthy with such a job. But as he looked up into those pink eyes,
he saw a sober, responsible person who had garnered quite a bit of
useful experience during this Halloween season.
"All right," said Harbinger, and took off his cloak.
Immediately he was changed back into his human self, and as the bunny
put it on, he transformed into the bony reaper.
"Don't worry," assured EB from within the cowl. "I'll
take care of everything." He took the scythe in hand and with a
shadowy shimmer disappeared.
'You know, I believe he will,' thought the very-recently-Harbinger, and
curled up on the sofa to fall fast asleep.
November 01 2000
|