Mateo adjusts his black leather gloves on his slim hands, slowly patting his suit to ensure his weapon is in its place as he makes his way down the street of New York. Ugh, rush hour, sweaty people everywhere, how disgusting. Mateo slips between the crowds, careful to not make contact with anyone. He turns into a dark alleyway; After confirming nobody is following, he takes the glove off his right hand then proceeds to press onto the cold brick wall. Crispy sparks fly around him as the brick wall turns black, revealing a mysterious red room. He slides his leather glove back on his hand and steps in while the wall warps back together.

“Mateo!” a man happily shouts from where he is sitting in a chair with stains on his suit with his arms thrown up in the air. “Pleased to see you! Have a seat, I'll give you your Death List.” The man scoots his chair back to open the drawer. Mateo slowly made his way over, falling into the chair, then crossing his legs and hands. The man lifts out some liquor and two shot glasses. “This is to celebrate your last death list,” he pops the cork and carelessly spills the liquor into the glasses. “And the freedom that comes after it,” smirks the man while pushing the shot glass towards Mateo. 

“No thank you, sir. I kindly reject your offer,” Mateo looks at the shot glasses in displeasure. 

“Oh just call me Silas, I’ve known you long enough Mateo, how long has it been? 20? 30? 40 years?” Silas questioned.

“It has been 85 years sir,” stated Mateo

“Oh what a short time Mateo, I'm going to miss you when you leave,” smirked Silas.

“Well the deal was after 85 years, you'll release me after my last Death List.” Mateo stared into Silas’s dark gray eyes.

Silas reached his hand out, rolling up his sleeve, placing his hand on the table in front of Mateo. A red flare begins to spin in the palm of his hand. Whoosh. A rough, brown stained paper floats above his hand. Mateo slowly reaches out for the paper, until Silas snatches it back, “Be careful with the last person on this list, don't be foolish.” Silas stared into Mateo. 

“Yes sir.” Meato held his hand out. Silas placed the Death List into Mateos hand, Silas holding his drunk eye contact with Mateos mysterious dark brown eyes hiding behind long brown curls. Mateo gets up and politely excuses himself out of the room. He takes his glove off, spins crispy flames out of his hand, and vanishes behind the wall. 

Chris, Ace, Linda, Nikita and-. Mateo pauses before the fifth name, he stares at the 4 letters. Alia. The name seems familiar, too familiar, as if he knew this person, but he doesn’t, at least he thinks he doesn’t. Mateo shakes off the thoughts and starts to track down his first victim. 

Chris, who is 23, lives all the way in Arizona. Mateo folds the Death List and places it in his pocket. He takes his glove off and yet again, he places his hand onto the brick wall, but instead of revealing a dimly lit red room with Silas, blue walls slowly appear, then a desk, chair, and carpet. Mateo stepped inside with caution as he scanned the room, watching out for anything sketchy or out of the ordinary. What the. Other than the fact that there is a life size Kool-Aid Man cut-out in the corner of the room, everything seems pretty normal. Mateo stared in disbelief, shutting his eyes and looking away. He walks over to the desk, sliding his finger across the top of the table, collecting gray fuzz on his fingertips. Dusty. He walked around the room, stepping on a pillow which was 5 feet away from a blanket, which was slipping off the bed. Mateo sighed as he picked up the pillow and threw it up towards the bed, knocking a frame off the wall. He walked over and glanced at the picture frame, it was Chris, who was in a cap and gown with a woman and man beside him. He hangs the frame back up next to the other picture frames seeing the captured memories of a complete stranger. Memories of a picnic under a tree, another in a car filled with laughter, another with white fluffy snow falling onto Chris’s nose. Mateo blankly stares at the pictures until he is disturbed with a creek from outside the room. He reaches his hand slowly into his suit and whips out a scythe. 

“Yeah man, the movie was awesome!” Chris’s voice echoed through the halls and into a cracked door connected to blue rooms. “You should have been there, too bad your exam was on the same day of the movie. Well I’m home now, I'll see you around sometime. Bye man.” Chris hangs up the phone while shutting the front door. He kicked off his shoes and threw his keys on the stand next to the door, making his way through the hallway to his room. He opens the door and finds a complete stranger standing in his room.

“Hello Chris.” Mateo stared blankly at Chris.

“Woah there man!” Chris throws his hands up and backs away slowly. “Who are you and what are you doing in my house!? What is that in your hand!?”

“This will be short Chris.” Mateo steps towards Chris who was turning towards the front door. Mateo swings his scythe back and slashes it across Chris’s back causing him to slam into the floor screaming in pain.

“You'll be fine Chris,” Mateo said, “hopefully,” He touched the floor with his bare hand as Chris tried crawling towards the front door. 

“HELP!” Chris screams as the floor slowly swallows his body. “NO! STOP! WHAT IS HAPPENING?!” The hallway lights start buzzing and the floor merges back to normal. Mateo takes his Death List out and Chris’s name has been crossed out in red. Four more to go. Mateo scans the list till he reaches the bottom. Alia. He gently rubs the name with his thumb pushing his brows together. Why do you seem familiar?

The names on the Death List cross out in red one by one, till the name Alia falls under Mateos eyes. His hand on a wall which warps into beige painted walls, the smell of vanilla enters his nose, he steps inside onto a pile of clothes spilled all over the floors. I definitely don't know who this is. How can one person be so messy? Mateo looks over the room and sees a girl on a bed, laying on her back with her foot swinging in the air, humming to the song she is listening to through her headphones. The girl turns over and in confusion she hops on her feet.

“Mateo?” She looks concerned and confused. She has dark silky hair and a light brown freckle right next to her eye. She looks familiar, like Mateo has seen her somewhere, maybe she had a twin sister? A twin sister who ended up on the Death List? Mateo backs away from the strange girl.

“How do you know my name?” says Mateo as he glares at Alia with a stern glare.

“It’s me, Alia,” she slowly walks over to him, slowly reaching for his hand. Mateo pulls away as he reaches into his suit and pulls out his scythe which makes Alia retreat, “come on Mateo, remember me?” Alia looks at him with concerned eyes.

“Be careful with the last person on this list, don't be foolish,” Silas’s words repeat in Mateos head, he draws back his arms and runs his blade into the wall, missing Alia. She backs up into the corner of her room, placing her hand on the wall as it turns into a portal, and right before she vanishes she looks back at Mateo and whispers. 

“Don't trust him Mateo,”

Mateos heart races, what was that, WHO was that. But he knows who has that information, he puts his hand on the wall opening his own portal to a dimly red room.

“That was fast Mateo, like always.” Silas looks up at Mateo from his paperwork. Mateo stomps towards Silas, grabbing his collar and pulling him up to his face.

“Who is Alia to me, why can't I remember!” 

“Woah Mateo” Silas grabs Mateos arm and pulls away. “You can't ask me those types of questions, first of all. Second of all, don't be foolish. Just, kill her alright?” Silas opens his liquor drawer, pouring a drink for himself.

“She seems familiar to me Silas, and I need to know.”

SLAM. The bottle of liquor smashes through the table. 

“Listen Mateo, I'm giving you one job and you're going to finish it.” Silas’s eyes and nose flare up. “Get your ass out there.”

He opens the portal back open to Alia's room, walks over to her bed and waits. He tries to remember, but Reaper's memories get erased before the job. There is a hint of her floating in his memory but it's not clear enough. Alias door creaks open, and its those same eyes and mole. 

“Can we talk Mateo?” Alia whispers.

“Who are you to me?” Mateo says as he shuts his eyes.

“Well,” Alia walks over and sits on the corner of the bed, “after you and me were murdered, we got the chance to become reapers and take our life back,” Alia goes on, “I didn’t like the idea but as persistent you are and your way of always making the people get what they deserved you convinced me to also become one.”

“That doesn’t explain to me who you are”

“I'm your girlfriend Mateo, after we became reapers I turned on Silas, because after he took your memories and the way you didn't remember me, or us, I got scared so,” Alia digs her head into her knees, “I ran away.”

Mateo felt a warmth in his chest, something in him believes her. But why? He scoots over to Alia and holds her. 

“Listen Mateo, we can get your memories back, I don't know if you believe me but I've been studying their agency for years, and I can make you trust me. I just have to get into Silas’s office.”

“I can get you in there, but we will have to wait till midnight for him to leave his office. He likes to go out to bars. Alcoholic.” Alia giggles and Mateo gets red in the face. 

“Okay but we need to find your soul orb, it should have all your memories, we just have to shatter it.” 

“Soul orb?” Mateo questioned

“It's a crystal orb that Silas uses to collect memories, which is why you can't remember me. If we shatter it, the memories will go back to their rightful owner.” 

“Well then let's hurry and find it.” 

Mateo places his hand on the beige painted walls of Alias' room, carefully peeking inside the portal for any signs of Sila’s. They carefully crept inside and started rummaging through his room. They open drawer after drawer, to reveal more alcohol and more alcohol. Alia sees a shiny silver box placed under Silas’s desk. She ducks down and grabs the cold metal box, lifting the heavy lid. 

“Your soul orb,” Alia whispered, mesmerized by the beautiful golden glow. “Look see, that's us!” Alia pushes the orb towards Mateo as they both watch the memory of them both playing pillow fight in Alia's room. 

“You're such a neat freak but you always let loose around me, look at the mess we made!” Alia laughed, staring at Mateo. 

Alia gently rolls the orb into Mateos soft hands, giving him the sign to break it. He lifts up both of his arms and smashes it against the ground. The golden lights swirl around Mateo and the memories flow back into his mind, while his eyes fall onto Alia. The golden eyes who he has made many memories with, from the field of flowers they ran through as kids, making flower crowns. Going to arcades to compete to see who can collect the most tickets. Going on late night car rides enjoying the shiny specs in the sky. To the simple memories of them relaxing on Alias messy bed. Alia and Mateo embrace in a tight warm hug.

“We have to get out of here, if Silas finds out what we did he will for sure kill us,” Mateo grabs Alias hand and opens the red walls to reveal Alias room. “We can hide out here while we figure out our next steps. If I could survive all these years alone, then I know we can.” Mateo smiles as he takes his jacket and leather clothes off and throws it onto the pile of messy clothes.

“Let's start planning.” Mateo says as Alia smiles big.