A Heavy Burden

“Apophis, I want to give it all up and move to another realm,” Death told his raven.

“Boss, you always say the same thing as Samhan nears,” replied Apophis.

The Grim Reaper was feeling rough around the edges lately. A recent surge in hurricanes and typhoons did not help matters.

“It’s not as if I don’t work hard, you know. Show me another Angel of Death that brings more souls to judgment than I,” cried Grim.

“You’re the only Angel of Death,” said Apophis.

Grimm poured himself a tonic and sat down at his desk to review some challenging cases.

“I swear this Billy Smith case has got me tossing and turning. Sure, he stabbed his professor four hundred times. She did taunt him for years,” remarked Death.

“What kind of person tells their doctoral student to conduct one more experiment for ten years? If it were up to me, I would let him go with a warning,” said Apophis.

“Yes, I see your point,” said Grim.

Human society has grown larger and more complex. The Angel of Death was instructed to perform triage to hurry the movement of souls.

“It was so much easier in the old days when I was the deliveryman. Deciding where someone should go is not my cup of tea,” remarked Grim.

“Too bad we don’t have AI. You could let it do the work.” The bird suggested, “We could slip off to the islands for a bit.”

“Why Apophis, what an excellent suggestion. I’ll talk to Methuselah straight away. Why don’t you book us into that posh resort in St. Kitts?” said Death.

After a bit of arguing, Methuselah agreed to install ChatGPT 5.0. Grim promised to bring him back a snow globe and dried mangos.

Upstairs, they noticed an increase in case resolutions. The staff figured Grimm had taken a more positive interest in his work.

Overall, everyone was happy.

Everyone except for Lucifer. He noticed a large influx of professional types, other than lawyers.

“What am I to do with all these dental hygienists, engineers, and plastic surgeons?” Lucifer mumbled daily.

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