Their robes weren't tattered or terrifying. They were clean, dark gray, with tiny embroidered stars along the hems. Each carried a scythe no bigger than a pair of scissors—blunt, almost adorable, like a Halloween prop left behind by a generous ghost.
The second reaper was having trouble with a dead moth on the windowsill. It poked the tiny body with the tip of its scythe, waited, then tilted its head. Nothing happened. So it picked up the moth, cradled it like a broken toy, and placed it gently into a folded leaf from my spider plant. A small, dark wisp curled upward—not smoke, but something quieter. A finished breath. The moth's wing crumbled to dust, and the reaper dusted its tiny hands together, satisfied.
Sometimes, late at night, I hear them argue softly over whose turn it is to snip a frayed thread on my blanket. The scythes make the tiniest snip —like scissors through paper, like a whisper at the end of a lullaby. cute reapers in my room
It shrugged—a surprisingly human gesture for a creature of finality—and went back to swinging its legs.
I've learned their rules now. They don't take souls. Not big ones. They just collect the small deaths: the last crumb of a cookie forgotten under the bed, the final second of a candle's flame, the quiet end of a sigh. They tidy up endings too tiny for angels to notice. Their robes weren't tattered or terrifying
In return, they leave little things. A button I'd lost. A dried flower that looks like it's smiling. One morning, I found a note on my mirror in wobbly handwriting: "You're not due yet. But we like your socks."
I shook my head. Not yet.
At first, I thought the soft thump was a book falling. Then a whisper of velvet against wood. When I turned on my bedside lamp, there they were: three small reapers, none taller than a coffee mug, perched on my bookshelf between a wilting succulent and a half-read novel.