1 99th Death

"Brae, you okay babe?"

Opening my eyes, I looked straight into a pair of concerned bright blue eyes, those eyes belong to a cute cherub, with curly black hair that surrounded an adorable face with red cheeks and cute bow shaped pink lips. The two-foot body hovered above me, and if you looked carefully you could just make out the shimmery semi-translucent wings fluttering behind keeping him afloat.

"Yeah, I'm okay Jax" I quickly assured him, Jax was the guardian angel assigned to me. The grass I was lying on was ticklish, feeling slightly uncomfortable, I gently pushed Jax away and sat up.

"You sure you okay Brae, that last one was a doozy?" Jax flew around me anxiously, I knew that he was concerned, but right now I was feeling kinda fragile and was still trying to assimilate everything.

"Brae, Brae?"

Jax's childlike voice called out anxiously, adding to the chaos already going on in my mind.

"Please Jax, give me a minute."

Jax must have heard the pleading in my voice, as the next thing he flew down and sat next to me, offering me silent comfort, while I adjusted to my transition.

But he was right, my last death had been a doozy. You would have thought that with the number of times that I had died, that I would have been used to it by now, but let me tell you, you never get used to dying, and the more horrible the death is, the more afraid you become of dying.

Hugging my knees, my head turned to the side, I looked at Jax sitting next to me.

"Jax I don't know how much longer I can do this" I confessed to him softly.

Blue eye's flashing with panic, Jax patted my thigh, as he tried to console me.

"Brae you can't give up, I swear we will find a way out of this."

Despair filled me, as I smiled bitterly at him.

"It has been fifteen hundred years, and we haven't found a solution, that bitch is never going to let me go."

Leaning closer to me, Jax whispered urgently.

"Brae, I swear I got a lead, and this time I am sure it's gonna pan out, just give me some time, promise me you won't do anything stupid."

Another lead, how many leads had we followed in the past couple of hundred years, all of them had led to dead ends, this one most likely will just be another waste of time.

"Jax, I..."

"No, Brae" Jax interrupted me "this time I managed to find an Ifrit, and he's the real deal."

"An Ifrit!" I couldn't help my voice raising slightly, looking around quickly, I was happy to see no one was around.

"Are you f*cking insane?"

I wanted to grab Jax and shake him, dealing with an Ifrit was a banishable offense.

"By the Bright Lady Jax, how the hell did you even meet an Ifrit?"

"In the lower bounds, at the Sinner's Den" Jax mumbled embarrassed, he knew Brae hated his gambling.

"By the gods, Jax you didn't go there again."

Shaking my head, I couldn't believe how stupid this guardian angel of mine was, he had already been demoted from the upper bounds to Purgatory and punished by being made my guardian angel, all because of his love of gambling.

"Brae it was only this one time, I swear" Jax swore, holding his hand up to swear.

Sighing deeply, I looked at the little guy, as much as I wanted to scold him I really didn't have the energy too, this last death had drained me. Well being hacked to pieces would have drained anyone I thought macabrely to myself.

"Jax, forget about it, any way you know Ifrits can't be trusted."

"Ah but this time its a debt, and as you know Ifrits have to pay back a debt, its that whole honor code that they live by," Jax said, smiling at me smugly.

While it was annoying, Jax was right — Ifrits always honored their debts, and if anyone would know a way around my death curse it would be an Ifrit, they were death spirits after all.

I couldn't help feeling a little bit excited, even though there had been so many disappointments in the past, that I had all but lost hope of ever getting out of the predicament that I was in, well if you could call being cursed to die in the most horrible imaginative ways possible a predicament — it was more like a catastrophic disaster.

I was really worried about the little guy though, if he was caught in the lower bounds again he would lose his wings, and if the bosses upstairs found out that he was associating with demons like Ifrits, he would be banished.

I tried to convince Jax to let me meet with the Ifrit instead, at least if I got caught it I didn't think the punishment of banishment could be any worse than what I was going through now.

"Brae he won't deal with you, he's never met you so he won't trust you."

"Then let me come with you Jax, you taking all the risks, and it is my problem anyway" I tried to convince him.

"No, you too big," Jax said firmly

"What!!" I yelled, "You little twerp did you just call me fat?"

Jax started to shake his head frantically "No, no — big as too tall."

I started at him suspiciously, then trying to look over my shoulder I tried to check out my ass to see if it might have gotten bigger.