Graves

*knock knock knock knock knock knock*

"Wake up! Come on, we gotta go!"

*knock knock knock knock knock knock*

Blood aggressively shook Emile's door as he pounded into it over and over. Emile jumped out of bed and stumbled to his dresser.

"Okay! I'm up!" Emile shouted back.

Emile pulled out a plain white button down shirt and black slacks from his dresser, it was the only outfit there besides his military uniform.

Emile swung his door open and immediately noticed the door across the hall was open and Blood was in the room tossing clothes around, struggling to pull his button down over his head.

'I had to be roommates with this idiot'

"I thought you were ready!" Emile shouted across the hallway.

"I forgot it was my job to get you!" Blood shouted back.

Blood finally pushed his head through the shirt, ripping the top button in the process. He also sprinted out of his room and slid down the railing of the stairs. Emile quickly followed.

They continued past the middle floor and descended further, two floors down to ground zero. Jumper was already there, standing outside of the only door on the bottom floor, wearing the same outfit as them.

Noticing their arrival, Jumper quit leaning on the wall and opened the door. Blood bolted inside. Meanwhile, Emile slowed to a walk and cautiously approached the door.

The room ahead of him almost exactly resembled the dining room upstairs. A long table occupied the room, sixteen seats, although this table was made of a dark silver and its base was covered in strange runes.

The room itself had black walls and no windows, four candles at each corner lit the room subtly. Emile entered the room and Jumper followed.

Both Blood and Jumper sat down on opposite sides of the table. Emile approached and grabbed a seat, but Jumper stopped him.

The seats were apparently assigned, so Emile waited until the Collector arrived. She took the seat right next to the head of the table and instructed Emile to sit across from Blood.

"Good morning everyone." Collector said.

"Good morning." Blood and Jumper responded in unison.

"Today we are welcoming a new member of our family!" The Collector's smile somehow grew to new heights, "I know you two have already met him, but he is going to be our family's healer!"

"I'm sorry—" Emile cut in, "but where is everybody else?"

"The rest of our home is sadly out on a mission right now—" grief momentarily washed over the Collector's face, "our home actually isn't whole yet, but that's why your arrival is so special!" She stood up and leaned onto the table towards Emile.

"You are the ninth and you bring us one step closer to a complete, whole family! Now, before we officially begin let me give you a little rundown of who we are!"

Collector sprung up and traced her fingers across the surface of the table. The areas she touched glowed blue in response until full and complete symbols were formed.

Collector finished and stepped back and the glowing symbols started to resonate, slowly blinking in unison. Then, the symbols all radiated an intense white light, Emile closed his eyes but the light penetrated his eyelids.

Suddenly, new voices appeared around Emile, and it sounded like a lot of people. Emile tried to focus on any of the words, but he was struggling to concentrate.

The light died and Emile struggled to adjust to the now comparably black room. Once his eyes did adjust, Emile looked around and noticed nothing had changed.

'Was I hallucinating? What were those voices?'

"We are Graves—" Collector continued just as the light dimmed, "because we kill people. You see, we believe the world is running out of essence. That's why it's impossible to find life around, like trees and plants, the world simply doesn't have enough essence to facilitate them. All living things are inherently born from and with essence, so when something dies its essence returns to the world and restarts the cycle."

Collector's demeanor changed as she crossed her hands and lost her upbeat tone of voice.

"We do the work the rest of the world doesn't want to do. We kill so that others may live. A lot of people find this unacceptable, they believe it would be better for all of us to die together, that we are demons who prolong the inevitable end. But what people think of us does not matter, what matters is that we do our job and we need a good healer to keep doing our job."

The Collector stood up and walked behind Emile. She pulled a loosely compiled packet of papers from her bag and tossed it onto the table in front of Emile.

"Here are the details, if you look at the top you'll notice the first clause addresses your free will; the blood you gave me yesterday, I can stop your heart at a moment's notice and you couldn't do a thing. The rules are simple, don't do anything that goes against the interests of the group, I shouldn't have to spell out what that means. You're paid well and get lots of time off, just do your job and keep us alive." The Collector returned to her seat, the same smile she wore earlier once again glued to her face.

"Anyway, thanks for joining us, it really means a lot! I'm sure you'll learn to love it here like the rest of us do! And now for the fun part–what should we call you?"