Procrastination Passing

“Loriel, Loriel!” A low shriek sounded as a pen dropped from the desk. A pale woman lies on her side in bed, her hands firmly placed on her phone. The voice continued demanding attention, “Loriel?”

She continues scrolling mindlessly, her eyes scrambling across the stimulating neon screen. “Loriel?” Once again, the entity spoke, with more hesitation. Loriel shakes her head and clenches her fists. Whoever is talking better shut up.

“Loriel-”

“What?” She screams as she flings up, her body heated, looking around the dark room. Her curtains flew up and waved around while blue-ish moonlight set into the room, highlighting her desk with many papers scattered around it and the floor. An ethereal purple-ish figure, taller than the tallest basketball athlete with nails reaching the floor, stood in front of her.

Loriel calmed down, “You again?” The figure stood, staring at her like a puppy waiting.

“Who else would it be?”

“Don’t know,” She shrugged as she sat cross-legged on the bed, “These past few months I’ve been a social recluse…” She stands up and begins pacing in her pyjamas, “…It seems like life throws random cosmic creatures, or entities, or… Whatever you are.” She shouted the last line, before sitting back down, “Please, leave me and my phone alone.

“Loriel, I’ve been watching-”

“I’ve told you many times already, whoever you are.” Loriel rolls her eyes, “I’m not doing what you say, thank you. I’m satisfied as is.” She waves it off, but the voice continues, “You say you have control over yourself. You say you have everything you need. But haven’t you thought…” The figure paused, looking at Loriel - its facial expression unclear and body transparent - before getting no response and continuing to speak, “Haven’t you thought that everything you supposedly need,” The figure uses its fingers to reenact quotation marks, “Everything you claim you need is controlling you.”

Loriel lost interest in the being. The windows shut. Loudly. Her body becomes jittery as the room darkens dramatically. She goes back to bed, a stench starting to become apparent. Shrugging it off, she opens her phone. Blue LED lights were brighter than they seemed before. Then she hears a whisper. “Loriel, Loriel, I’m warning you.” Her heart felt a thud. Sighing, she turns off her phone and falls asleep.

Clouds of dark energy with miniature lightning protruding from them formed as Loriel awoke in a dark room. She’s standing in ankle-level water with a man in front of her. The man is in a dark suit with a white outline and a scythe in hand.

Unimpressed, Loriel closed her eyes again but flinched at the sound of the man’s voice. “Loriel, listen to me-”

“Oh God, not you in my dreams again,” She screamed, “Can’t you just shut up and let me be?” She waved her arm in a slashing motion as the man started walking forward.

There’s a sense of urgency in his voice, “Don’t you understand what you are doing? Do you know who I am?”

Loriel smiled with her lips as her teeth clenched, through a shut mouth, she says, “Do you think I give a damn? What does a random entity like you benefit from this? Coming into a girl’s room during a…” She started pointing her finger, “A rather… Tough time.” Her eyes start tearing up. “What are you here for?”

“To help-”

“You ain’t helping shit!” She attempted to lunge forward, but her body refused to move.

“Look…” The man sighed; his scythe raised from the waters and swung in a crescent motion, “I’m working for the entity. I’m NOT the entity, alright?”

Loriel is still trembling. The man continued, “The entity you are referring to does NOT like their creations-”

“Who said I was created by-”

“You don’t decide that, Loriel.”

“Well, neither do you!”

The man punched the air in defeat, “I’m just trying to help you, girl, why don’t you actually listen!” He screamed, an ache deep in his voice.

Loriel felt life was unfair. As soon as she tried to take a break from life, it kept coming back, reeling her into more pain, the deeper depths of hell. She felt like she was in hell. And that whatever is talking to her. Whoever is talking to her. They desire to do her harm.

She looked down, and minutes of silence passed. The only sound heard was droplets of water. “I’m all ears.”

“The entity asked me to kill-”

“Huh?”

“Kill you if you don’t do anything,” The man looked at his scythe, then looked back at Loriel, “I don’t want anything bad happening to you.”

“What, why?”

“The divine assembly has been eliminating less-than-efficient vessels, Loriel.” The man clicked his tongue, “They throw the souls of the sloth down into purgatory. And they’ve decided that you, while you have potential, aren’t using it.”

Loriel’s heart jumped at the thought of death. The glint of the metal scythe that the man seemed to command with ease. The thought of that piercing her, creating an irreversible scar on her physical body. Slicing her up into bits and pieces. The thought shook her to her core.

“Shit.”

The man stared with certainty.

“What do I do?”

“Get up.”

“Get up?”

“Get up. Now. Loriel. Time is ticking, and you'd better do something productive before the entity decides to begin a countdown till your inevitable death. I see huge potential in a beauty like you, so get working, dear.”

Loriel scoffed, whispering to herself, “Dear? Don’t call me dear…”

As she wakes up to the golden tint sliding into her room, highlighting the many different papers that line the floor and desk. The many sketches that are pinned onto the walls. She gets up, determined. Walking to her desk, she skipped her phone, which lay face down on the nightstand. Hands scrambling towards her desk for a pencil. Perhaps hidden under the pile of books. Come on. Come on. She pleaded to herself, praying that she would find something.

But a thought occurred. Maybe a cosmic joke. Maybe it doesn’t matter. Maybe. Just maybe, small time on the phone won’t hurt. So she went back to bed and grabbed her phone. Scrolling until the golden light eventually transitions to a deep purple.

“Timer starts, Loriel.” It’s the man again, he’s frowning deeply. Behind him, a wall comes falling down - once pitch black - it’s now a giant hourglass, with sand pouring from the nearly empty top.

Loriel stared, unimpressed. “Seriously?” She began sweating profusely, and her body generated immense heat from nowhere as her breathing became sporadic. She then hears sounds, a symphony of death: a heart monitor, chatter in the background, and her breath, slowly thinning and disappearing.

Her eyes began tearing, “What… What is going on with me?” She then looked at the scythe the man is holding, now patterned with a red dragon in the centre. She started to tremble as she pointed to the scythe, “What-What. What about that?”

The man looked sorrowfully into her eyes, his lips pursing, “You already know.”