Cursed by Death

Chapter 6

        I sit on my Aunt Martha's couch, knees drawn to my chest.
        Aunt Martha sits next to me.
        "Oh, honey," she says, rubbing my back.
        She pulls something out of her purse and shows it to me. It's a notebook.
        I take it. "Go away. I'm cursed."
        Aunt Martha sighs and hugs me. "Sweetheart, I know you're grieving. Losing people is hard, I know. But you're not cursed. Your mom got sick, your friend was sad, and your father was protecting you."
        "No. Please." I pull away from her. "Get away from me. It's not safe."
        She gives me one last pat on the back before standing up. "Well... all right. I can see you need some alone time. I'll be in my bedroom, okay, honey?" She walks into her bedroom and closes the door.
        I pick up the notebook and inspect it. Its cover is pale red, with a gold outline of a maple leaf. An orange pen is attached. I take off the pen and open the journal up.
        On the first page, I write a list of people I'm close to:
1. Mom
2. Dad
3. Amber
4. Aunt Martha
5. Uncle Ted
6. Grandma
7. Grandpa
8. Suzie
9. Penny
        I cross out the first 3 names.
        Now, I just have to wait for Aunt Martha, Uncle Ted, Grandma, Grandpa, and my cousins Suzie and Penny to die.
        I close the notebook and stick the pen in the spiral binding. Then I make my way to the guest room.
        My suitcase is on the bed. I take out my laptop and open it up. I search up "family dying cursed by grim reaper" and scroll through pages of results. Most of them lead to scary stories or ads for video games. But one catches my eye. I click on it.
        It leads to a blog called "Taylor's World." The posts are all cheesy stuff about weddings and trips to the mall. It hasn't been updated in, like, 4 months. But an entry from a few months ago is titled "Sad News." The author - Taylor - says that her husband was hit by a car. The next post is called "Weird Dream." Taylor describes a dream she had about the Grim Reaper. She says that the Reaper cursed her. The next posts all talk about the deaths of people she's close to - her son, best friend, and parents.
        My heart speeds up. Taylor went through the same thing I'm going through. Maybe... maybe she can help. I click the link at the top of the blog that says "Contact Me!" and type in my message:
        "Hey Taylor, my name is Callista. I recently had the Reaper dream, too. My parents have both died, and so has my best friend. I really need help." I click submit.
        Then I remember the other thing the Reaper said to me: That I would be the "Fairy of Death." I go to Google and search up "fairy of death."
        The first result leads to an article on some website about the paranormal. It says:
        "The Fairies of Death are the Grim Reaper's assistants. He summons them to the side of people who are dying, and the Fairies soothe the dying person and escort them to the afterlife."
        I scroll down and stop when I come to a paragraph entitled "Origins of Fairies of Death."
        "A person becomes a Fairy of Death when their family - and everyone they are closest to - dies. It is said that the Grim Reaper chooses his Fairies of Death based on if they pass or fail a test he gives them. The test is usually a situation that requires them to make an often life-saving decision."