Vanessa stood in the breakroom of the FCO Department, nursing a cup of stale tea that tasted like regret and printer ink. It had been weeks since she'd uncovered the swapped soul tags and the duplicated identities that quietly festered in the system.
Paper trails were scrubbed or looped endlessly in bureaucracy. Names vanished mid-record. Even with her clearance, the deeper she dug, the more red tape wrapped around her like a noose.
But today, hmm, something is wrong here.
Vanessa's eyes flicked to the back corner of the department lounge where Grim, the shy, hoodie-clad reaper hovered near the vending machine, hands stuffed into the sleeves of his oversized black hoodie. His skeletal fingers tapped nervously on the machine's glass, trying to decide between expired pumpkin chips or whatever 'Ectoplasm Lite' was.
She narrowed her eyes. 'You don't hang around the Fate Coordination Department for no reason, Grim. You avoid eye contact like it's tax season.' She thought to herself, feeling suspicious of what is he doing here in Fate Coordination Department.
Over the past week, Grim had been too present. Not just in the office, but conveniently near wherever Vanessa happened to be. The Shadow Filing Wing? He "accidentally" wandered in to retrieve a haunted stapler.
The hallway to the Archive of Undone Deeds? He claimed to be lost. Once, he tripped and fell face-first into a restricted file cabinet… and vanished for thirty-seven minutes.
Vanessa had brushed it off until this morning when she found a soul report flagged "ineligible for reroute" with his initials scribbled at the bottom. That report listed a name eerily similar to hers.
So now she followed him.
Grim glanced over his shoulder, saw Vanessa watching, and nearly dropped his bag of expired pumpkin chips.
"Aarrghhh!!," he squeaked like a scared little mouse. Turning to look behind him, he was shocked to see Vanessa, scrutinizing him. Grim laughed awkwardly and shuffling toward her. "You look… investigative today."
Vanessa raised a brow. "You always say that when I'm wearing pants."
Grim let out a breathy chuckle that sounded like a panicked ghost sighing into a flute. "Ha… yeah. I guess."
Vanessa cut the small talk. "You've been spending a lot of time in FCO recently. Anything you want to share, Grim?"
He rubbed the back of his neck. His eyes darted around, "Filing stuff. Totally boring. Mostly death audit forms. Also the occasional lost soul hamster." He said hoping she would believe him and stop asking him anything, fearing he might spill everything out if she keep on asking.
"You're a Reaper. Not an Auditor. And definitely not in Hamster Recovery." She stepped closer, bringing her face closed to him, lowering her voice. "I know you've been pulling files behind people's backs. Yours are tagged with yellow glyphs."
Grim paled. A feat though, considering he had no skin. "Y-you know that?" He stuttered, inwardly panicking on how much she know things.
"Yes," she said, eyes narrowing. "And I also know someone's been covering and deleted soul entries. That's not beginner-level hacking, Grim."
He fidgeted with his hoodie string. "I didn't delete them. I just… unarchived some. Technically. A little bit. Like… ethically."
"Ethically?" Vanessa echoed.
Grim finally glanced up, his eyes unusually serious beneath his messy bangs. Sighing to himself, "Vanessa. You're not the only one being hunted."
The words hit like a ghost slap.
Vanessa leaned in. "Explain."
Grim hesitated, then motioned for her to follow him. They exited the breakroom and slipped into the poorly lit hallway near the Forgotten Elevator—the one that groaned like a tortured organ whenever anyone pressed its button. Grim tapped a bone-shaped badge against the wall panel, and a hidden door clicked open.
"I wasn't supposed to show this to anyone," he muttered. "But you'll keep snooping until you break into it yourself. And honestly, the alarms are annoying."
Vanessa stepped inside. The hidden room was smaller than she expected. It's more like a narrow vault stacked with scrolls, memory jars, and soul shards floating in containment runes. A single lantern hung from the ceiling, flickering with greenish light.
"What is this?" she asked. Referring to the old looking book.
"The Red Ledger," Grim said quietly. "It's a record of erased deaths. Souls who died… but weren't supposed to."
Vanessa spun toward him. "You mean people like me?"
He nodded. "When I got reassigned here, I thought it was because I messed up a grim harvest. But turns out, they wanted me close to this room. Because I—well—sometimes feel it when someone dies wrong. Like… like a glitch in the fabric."
Vanessa was stunned. "You sense tampered deaths?"
"I thought it was indigestion for the first few years," Grim said sheepishly. "Then I realized it only happened when a soul was either forged or… purposefully rerouted."
Vanessa's pulse quickened. "So you've been collecting them?"
Grim pulled a scroll from the rack. "I only mark the ones I feel. But I'm not the only one. There are rumors that back in the old era, before the FCO started digitizing everything, a secret faction used this room to track system tampering. They called themselves the Hollow Registry."
"Hollow Registry…" Vanessa repeated. "Is that connected to the blackout files I found? The ones with corrupted tags?"
"Could be. But if it is, it means whoever's messing with the soul records isn't just some rogue reaper." Grim lowered his voice. "It's someone high up. Probably in Fate Coordination. Maybe even one of the Elders."
Vanessa tried to steady her breath. "I saw my name in the list. Twice. Scheduled for death."
"You weren't the only one," Grim said. "I found two other names rerouted into the same fate pool. Different times. Same location. Same outcome."
Vanessa's blood ran cold. "What location?"
Grim held out a marked soul tag. "Old Cavern Sector. Northwest Mortal Border. Looks like an accident, but it's too clean. A classic reaper reroute."
Her mind reeled. That was the place she visited during the Ashfall mission…
The pieces were snapping into place. Vanessa wasn't just a pawn in a mistaken death. She had walked into a trap. One built years in advance.
"Grim," she whispered, "do you know who ordered the reroute?"
He looked away. "Not exactly. But… I do know one of the faked soul tags came from Elder Nox's sector."
Vanessa blinked. "Elder Nox?"
Grim's voice dropped lower. "The Elder was retired decades ago. That's what the official record says. But he's not dead. He's hiding. Maybe somewhere in the Weeping Vaults."
Vanessa exhaled sharply. "And the FCO just acts like nothing's wrong."
Grim nodded. "Because if the system's cracked open, everything unravels."
The lantern above them flickered again, casting a shadow that briefly morphed into the shape of a hooded figure.
Vanessa stepped back, mind spinning with possibilities.
If what Grim said was true, then there was more than corruption at play. Someone was designing fates. Killing off specific souls, rewriting destinies, hiding traces under bureaucratic garbage.
And unfortunately, she was on the list.
Grim held out the scroll to her. "I can't dig deeper. But you can. You're not marked by them yet."
Vanessa stared at the scroll. "But I'm already on their death list."
Grim gave a small, nervous smile. "Yeah… but you're still alive. That's gotta count for something."
She tucked the scroll under her cloak. "Grim, I want going to find out who's behind this… And I need you with me."
He groaned. "Can I at least finish my chips first?"
Vanessa grinned. "Fine. But after that, no more hiding behind vending machines."