Isn't it just like humans to be so egotistical to claim to know what a God thinks, feels, and how that God judges? 

As I look upon the scene before me, I try to recall how many times I've seen similar scenarios among these creatures. Lying flat on a human-sized cross was a female in late adolescence with tears gliding down her cheeks as she begged the sister to understand. The girl's words fell on deaf ears as she was lowered yet again into several feet of holy water, while the robed woman offered prayers to God with no regard for the time she kept the girl underwater.

Once finished with her prayer the nun pushed the button next to her, the clanking of iron echoed in the room as the chains ran through chambers pulling the submerged girl from the water. Her contact with air caused the girl to cough violently as she struggled to breathe and dispel the water in her lungs at the same time.

The nun moved swiftly, placing her hand on the girl's forehead she recited verses from the black book she held dearly, "now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God."

The trapped girl began to cry, her mind in disarray as she stared up at the chanting woman. There wasn't anything wrong with what she had done. The girl had merely expressed her love for her significant other with her body. Being raised as an orphan inside the church, she knew the rules, read and recited the scriptures every day, she was taught never to doubt or question her religion, religion was never wrong and the consequences of those who challenged it were dire.

However, she also came to realize that religion and everything she read in the bible was contradictory and so she began to question them. She wondered why human beings had multiple religions for one God, why people criticized other religions yet were so certain theirs was right.

How can they be sure God was white, blonde, and blue-eyed when they had never once seen him, assuming that said God was male? How do people know that God wasn't an imaginary figure that had been thought up centuries ago to control the masses? Could they have all been wrong?

The girl was a skeptic, her curiosity and questions were all indeed valid. Only her journey through life would give her the answers to her questions but that journey was now a pipe dream because the sister had caught her and the girl she loved asleep in the room that they shared. Her bright, love-filled world had turned bleak in a matter of seconds.

For hours, the sister held them in the private "alter" room, preaching to them the sins that they committed before proceeding to "cleanse" them of such sins.

"Why?" the girl whispered as looked across to her left, she could no longer see her love, the redness of the water had completely hidden her from view as she lied submerged in water, dead. "We love each other, there isn't anything wrong with that" her throat was raw from repeated screaming, coughing, and expulsion of water causing the hoarseness that could be heard in her voice.

"You have walked with the devil, child, lied in his bed, and took pleasure in sin. I am trying to save your soul from eternal damnation" the nun hissed vehemently at the girl "the impure should be cleansed before meeting the Father."

The girl laughed mockingly, "Do you think you're pure sister?"

"I am of the purest, one of God's angels sent to spread his teachings and carry out his work in His name" the sister retorted curtly.

Both, the girl and I laughed, the human mind was truly a powerful thing, what one feeds it can affect them in outstanding ways. The nun took held the knife tightly in her hand as she scrutinized the girl, with narrow eyes she came to stand beside the girl like she had done earlier with the other.

"I see now child, that, you cannot be saved. The devil has taken your heart and soul, just like he had taken Jemima's."

The girl's eyes flickered toward the pool of blood where her love lied, "yes sister. You certainly have."

"May the Father who is in heaven forgive you for your trespasses, Anna" with those final words, the nun raised the knife and pierced the girl's abdomen. Anna's scream of agony echoed in the room just like Jemima's had, tears continuously from her eyes as she was once again lowered in the pool of holy water.

Instinctively she held her breath, with each passing second Anna struggled to survive even though her brain felt like it'd explode. But she could only hold on for so long, her body demanded oxygen and in the second that she could no longer hold her breath, blood and water quickly crept into her lungs.

Death came for her painfully, robbing her of air and choking her with her own blood. Soon the rhythm in her chest slowed before it came to a full stop. The last thing she saw was red and the last thing she heard was the muffled voice of the nun above her, praying for her God to show mercy to her and Jemima for their sins.

A shadow of smoke suddenly appeared beside me, from it emerged a specimen dressed in black. Garbed in a hooded trench coat, pants that hugged those long legs just right, and steel soled boots.

Another reaper and one of my fellow colleagues.

As he inspected his surroundings, the evidence gave him the conclusion he needed. His lip curled in disgust as he looked at the sister. "Fucking religious freaks" he mumbled, I giggled causing him to shoot me a glare. There were many angels who were divided into categories and assigned specific tasks, my friend here collected the souls of the pure and guided them to the afterlife.

With a finger, my colleague summoned the souls of his intended, light shone from the pools, indicating the rising of the two souls. In a few minutes, Anna and Jemima's souls slowly rose from their corpses and stood facing the angel responsible for them. "Come, it's time for us to go" Enoch stated, his stoic expression didn't give the two girls any comfort.

"Where? Will we be going to hell?" Anna asked, her voice shook as she held her girlfriend's hand, their eyes traveled from Enoch to me, unsure of the fate in store for them.

"No" Enoch simply replied. He didn't give them any further information, instead, the stoic angel summoned the gate before sending the girls through and disappearing with a lingering look at me. I knew that look all too well, Enoch and I shared the same sentiments about religious extremists and religion itself.

The human-made concept along with their man-made little black book has been an excuse so humans can commit genocide, terrorize, rape, abuse, steal, blackmail, and sacrifice others "in the name of God" just so they could spread "His" message. In the time that I've been collecting souls, there hasn't been a more corrupt group of people than those that force their religion down others' throats.

Conjuring my scythe I stand behind the sister, I made a swift horizontal swing, my long blade cut through her. A death scythe did no damage to the physical bodies of the creatures it reaped, however, it did sever the connection of the soul from the body and the process was quite excruciating.

I watched as the nun fell to the ground clutching her chest, upon being severed, a piece of divine energy that a death scythe holds causes the soul to forcefully exit the body and while the process is slow, it is said to be akin to being burnt alive from the inside.

Collectors were never to interfere with living souls, but the rules bent for certain individuals who could tip the delicate equilibrium of a world. Even though her time hadn't "ran out", I so badly wanted to drag this bible thumping fanatic to the pits of hell.

Moments after the nun seemingly died from heart failure, her soul stood in front of me. "Who are you child?" she asked, I snorted, I was much older than this woman yet she stood here assuming I was a child because of my appearance.

"The angel of death, soul collector, La Muerte, Psychopomp, Shinigami, humans have many names for me" I responded.

The sister's eyes brightened and she clasped her hands, "you are one of God's angels! It is an honor, chosen one" she gushed "so the Lord has sent for me, I accept my fate."

I smiled broadly, "you don't really have a choice in the matter, sister."

With a flick of my hand, I collared her and opened the gates of the underworld. I immediately dove in, pulling the nun along, spirits of the damned had a strong sense of smell and they immediately recognized one of their own. They pulled at her, hissed, and howled in agony, pleading for their new playmate.

I reveled in the yelps and small screams that came from her as she tried her best to fend off their grasp. Her confident persona had cracked a little at her look of the damned souls, where she believed Anna and Jemima now were. A short while later the nun and I arrived in the middle of a circular platform with celestial writings engraved in the stone floor, I anchored the nun's collar to the platform before stepping away to watch from the shadows.

"This is quite the rare occurrence, Freyja" the voice behind the curtain spoke, the ruler of this place hardly showed their face, it is unknown whether they are male or female because their voice was so ethereal. Their name was unknown to all except the other deities, they had many names from many species so the angels just called the Gods and Goddesses 'Great One.'

"Yes, I figured, I'd sit in on this one" I explained,

"I do not mind, it's always a pleasure to have you" the Great One stated, "and you've brought me a gift after all."

The nun didn't try to contain her glee, "Oh, Father, Holy One, I've been carrying out your work as you've instructed. I need no reward, please allow me to continue serving you."

The woman was insufferable.

"Exactly, how did you serve me?" the Great One asked, the deity already knew but the confession of the woman only added to her damnation and the show for me. the circle that she sat in the middle of immediately recorded her life and those records are transferred to the Great One.

"I've been ridding your house of the impure" the nun boasted, "the wicked, the cheats, the whores, the abominations, the confused...I've delivered them all to you, hoping you would grant them mercy. I know you are mighty and forgiving, but some of them have already lost their souls to sins."

The atmosphere became dense with divine energy, humans often blame the ruler of the underworld for their choices and actions and perceive "him" with contempt. In actuality, it's been their own doings for the consequences that befell them.

"You follow a book of laws, do you not?" the Great One demanded,

"Are you referring to the bible? Yes, I do."

"Where in that book did it say that you were allowed to judge others on behalf of a God?" a trick question the deity asked. People of the church are hypocrites, they preach and have yet to follow their own teachings, one of the most important being 'judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.'

Silence fell upon the room and the nun looked confused, she believed she had done nothing wrong. Her world-view too narrow to see the error in her ways, many humans who did not follow religion had the particular problem of religion itself being old and unchanging. In a constantly evolving world, this was not something that could be accepted lightly, especially with the restrictions that are supposedly "freeing" and the history surrounding religion.

The Great One, continued, "it is time for you to pay for the sins you have committed."

The dumbfounded nun stared wide-eyed at the dark curtain before her eyes found mine "sins?" she asked, "I've been merely doing as instructed."

"Human, besides this very moment, I have never once conversed with you. You do not seem to have a lick of sense about you, what you've been doing is merely killing under the guise of your beliefs. Therefore, as many lives as you have taken, you will spend in millenniums in the divine flame."

I whistled with raised eyebrows, the nun Ruth Abbot had murdered two hundred and seventy-nine people. She was going to burn for eternity. The little taste she had from my death scythe will pale in comparison to what she's about to suffer.

"N-no! You should be sending me to heaven! Who are you? You're not God" she screeched at the Great One, she turned toward me in a fit of rage "you! Demon of the devil, you won't get away with this! I am a child of God, he will come for me and you will regret this."

I smiled sweetly at the worthless creature, "don't you get it? Your God doesn't exist."

Her face morphed into the expression that I wanted to see, shivers went up my back as I could no longer contain my laughter.

As the divine flames ignited under Ruth, her screams of denial as she despaired were music to my ears.

Serves her right.