Reaper

by Laura Greenwood

  The snake lashed at me, hmm. I was going to have to give it a name, calling it “the snake” was kind of freaking me out, even if it was in my own brain. Camille sounded like a good snake name. Yes, it looked like a Camille.

  Wait, why on earth was I wasting time naming a sodding snake? Was that defeating it? No. Was it helping me not freak out? No, not really. All it was doing was wasting precious time.

  It lunged again, and I jumped out of the way, withdrawing my daggers and hoping it didn’t have super tough skin or something like that. Instead of waiting for Camille to attack again, I lunged forward and scraped one of my daggers along its neck, pleasantly surprised when it let out a shriek of pain. Well, not pleasantly, it sounded like a dying cat. It was just a nice surprise that my puny daggers had actually managed to cause some damage. Whose clever idea was it for me to visit Hell without a proper weapon again? Oh wait, yes mine. Well kind of. In my defence, I hadn’t exactly planned the trip beyond that I was coming.

  Damn, I really needed to stop being so impulsive, it was going to get me killed one of these days, and that was certainly not on my agenda, no matter what Chesca wanted.

  Camille lashed out with her tail, and this time I stayed put, trying to drive my dagger into it. I just wanted to cause it enough pain so it left me alone long enough for me to discover how to get out of this damn room. Alas, it was annoyingly nimble, and retracted its tail before I could even hit it. Damn, when I got back, I was going to up my training. I wasn’t out of shape, or out of practice, yet I was struggling. That was never a good sign.

  Maybe Than would spar with me. His body drenched in sweat. Shirtless, naturally, his swirling black tattoos standing out in the stark light of the workout room. If we found a private one, then we could use it in other ways too. Cardio was always good right?

  The snake lashed out again, this time managing to knock one of my daggers from my hand. Shit. That was not good. What was I going to do now? Well, use the other one, obviously, what I really meant, was how was I going to find my dagger again? I only had one spare, and I didn’t exactly want to be using that unless I had to.

  It lashed out again and I threw my hand out, coming into contact with the soft scales of Camille’s neck. Okay, that didn’t feel quite as bad as I expected. It wasn’t going to make me start liking snakes. Realistically, after this I was going to fear them even more, but I also wouldn’t be thinking of them as slimy. Now it’d just be the eyes and teeth that freaked me the fuck out.

  A weird tugging sensation started, and my arm began to glow through the fabric of my shirt. Oh damn, the glow was back. It could be useful for all I knew, but considering I knew nothing, they weren’t particularly helpful. Maybe I should just try listening to the tugging. It couldn’t hurt right? It wasn’t like I had very many other options, and facing off a massive snake with just a single dagger didn’t seem like that great of a plan. I could have got my spare from my boot, but that was effort.

  The tugging increased as I focused on it, almost feeling like what I thought moving a soul to Heaven or Hell would feel like, if I’d been able to do that anyway. Except there weren’t two destinations. At one end there was Heaven, I could recognise the feel of it, but at the other was what felt like Oblivion. Maybe I was wrong, maybe that was what Hell really felt like, but somehow, I doubted it. What I really needed was Than. He’d be able to tell me for sure.

  I tugged harder, and it felt like something came from the snake into me. It was a bit icky really. Not like the black soul icky, more like, there was something travelling through me that didn’t belong. Huh. Travelling through me? Wait, was I reaping? I looked at Camille, who I’d studiously been avoiding, not wanting to meet the beady black gaze. I didn’t want to be freaked out by it. Its tail thrashed from side to side as if it was in pain, and I could swear its scales were fading fast colour wise. They’d been a dark green before, and now they were starting to look a bit sickly.

  Hmm. Interesting. I continued the tug, feeling a little sad I seemed to be causing the death of something. On the other hand, it had been trying to kill me, and it probably was a Demon just playing on my fears. Hell, it could not even be real at all, and just a figment of my imagination that came about because of some magic or something like that. Though whatever it was travelling through me right now, begged to differ on that front.

  The snake’s thrashing grew weaker still, and it kind of collapsed on itself. I could feel what I figured was its essence or soul, or something like that, inside me, warring between which was to go. Or was it warring? There was a chance it was just waiting for me to actually direct it.

  The body twitched one last time, before starting to disintegrate, along with the rest of the snakes in the room. Right, okay, so real but not completely? That sounded about right. Being out of danger, I focused on the thing that was within me, and gave it a metaphorical prod. Sluggishly, it tipped towards the side of the path that led to Oblivion. I gave it another prod, and this time, it began to feel like it was falling that way.

  A slight shriek sounded inside me as it fell and I shuddered. That was not a nice feeling. I hoped not all reapings were like that. But at least the snakes were gone. Without them about, I could finally focus on getting out of the room and going on to find Than. My boot knocked against something, sending it clattering, and I looked down to see my lost dagger lying on the floor. Yay for me! I hadn’t lost it. Bending down, I picked it up and slipped it back into my pocket, along with the other one. Maybe I should invest in some holsters. It’d make moments like this a lot smoother. Otherwise, at some point, I was going to need a dagger, and it was going to get stuck on the fabric of whatever trouser or jackets I was wearing.

  I stepped towards the doorway that had appeared on the wall opposite me, each step filling me with dread. Something told me this was going to be one long series of nightmares, whether I was okay with that or not. Great. Just what I needed.

  Fourteen

  My back slid down the wall, and I braced myself against the floor. What the fuck had just happened? I just couldn’t process it.

  At least the snakes had gone right? Though that was little consolation seeing as I just seemed to have sent a living creature to its inevitable destruction. How had that even happened? It was almost like what I’d imagined proper reaping felt like. But that wasn’t right. I couldn’t reap. It was just part of who I was.

  And yet...I couldn’t just ignore the glowing marks on my arms. In fact, they were still glowing. And moving, now that I took some time to actually look at them. Almost like Than’s had when he’d reaped the woman. Damn, now I really needed to get him back, then he could answer some of the questions that had formed in my mind. Because if what I was thinking was right, and I suspected it was, then I could reap. Just not human souls. Oh no. That wasn’t enough for Anima apparently. I had to be the one Reaper with the ability to reap non-human souls. I wondered if it would work on Angels and Reapers too, or if Demons were it for me. Guess it’d be interesting to find out, though when I’d have a chance to test that, I wasn’t really sure. None of us could die like humans did. It was a perk. Or a curse. Guess it depended on who you asked. Personally, I though I fell down on the curse side of the fence. Living forever and never dying? Sounded kind of infinite and a little boring. Even more so when I was me. It was hard knowing you were going to be an outcast for the rest of your life. Oh well, at least I seemed to have Than now. So long as he didn’t end up dead, that was. That’d be just my luck, finding someone that actually wanted me, then having him ripped away almost straight away.

  That’d just be unfair. We hadn’t had nearly enough shower sex for that to happen. Snap out of it, Nim. That wasn’t the way to think about someone I cared for dying. But the alternative was sort of overwhelming. I didn’t want to think about never seeing Than again, never seeing the twinkle in his eye as he called me Nim, which was even starting to grow on me now. Or the feel of his firm hands against my skin and the press of his lips against mine as he claimed m
e as his own, and as I claimed him.

  And that was without even considering the other Reapers’ reactions. Than was pretty much a poster child of theirs. The perfect Reaper. Well, maybe less so now he’d started something with me, but they’d blame me if he didn’t come back from Hell.

  Never mind them though. I’d blame me. It was my fault he was here. I shouldn’t have let him kiss me while I knew a Demon Queen was after me. It wasn’t fair to him, and it wasn’t fair to my fucking heart.

  Wow. I really needed to calm down, especially as the marks on my arms seemed to be glowing even brighter with my heightened emotions. It was like having Christmas lights shining from my arms. Shit. Not good at all. What if a Demon spotted me? I’d be toast, especially if they found a nice hot flame to stick me over. Or maybe I’d get one of the Demons that preferred their meals sushi style, and completely raw, the insides dripping down their chins...

  Wait, why the fuck was I thinking about this? It wasn’t exactly conducive to saving myself or saving Than. And no matter what, I was going to save us. I hoped.

  Hard to hope when it all seemed so hopeless.

  No, Nim, don’t let it stop you.

  But everything just seemed so beyond me. What did I really have? Weird reaping powers and some basic self-defence skills. And a dash of determination. Least I had that. Better than nothing right?

  I mean, I got to Hell, I was here, I had to finish what I started.

  A small drop of water dropped onto my arms, and hissed as it evaporated. Odd, that’d never happened before. I didn’t run overly hot. And where had the water come from? I hadn’t seen any since I’d got here, something I’d been trying not to think about considering I needed to drink at some point and no way of doing so. Dehydration, here I come.

  Raising my hand to my face, I was surprised to discover the source of the water was my own eyes. I was crying? That never happened. Or at least, not since I was about six years old and I realised tears weren’t going to get me anywhere even if I wanted them to. It had been a little bit of a turning point for me actually. The start of me accepting who I was. The start of Than accepting me for who I was, if he was to be believed.

  Than…

  The tears started to fall faster. Oh, for fucks sake, I really needed to pull myself together, this was getting ridiculous. I was never this weepy.

  Unless…

  I looked around, trying to work out if this corridor was a bit like the snake room. I wasn’t expecting it to be covered in slimy things though. And yes, I still knew snakes weren’t slimy. Maybe it was accessing some of my darker thoughts and bringing them to the forefront, because what was going on in my head at that moment, wasn’t pretty. Probably added to by the images of Than being tortured a few rooms back.

  I shivered. Hell really was a nightmare.

  Let it throw what it wanted at me though. I’d take it. I’d beat it. Even if that did mean facing my worst nightmares. Snakes, and losing love I’d only just found, it couldn’t get all that much worse...right?

  Fifteen

  I walked into the next room, already dreading to think what I’d find. Since leaving the corridor, my emotions had definitely evened out, which was a good sign. Or a not so good one, if I thought about how much I’d let Hell actually affect me. I’d have said I was a strong person up until now. But after the events of the day, well, safe to say, I wasn’t quite so sure anymore.

  To my surprise the room was empty, yet that didn’t stop me stubbing my toes on the door frame on my way in. Stupid thing. Who had door frames in Hell? What happened to open plan living and why hadn’t they heard of it? That would make my life so much less accident prone. Not to mention easier. Then I could just see where Chesca was and make my way to her. No winding through weird labyrinths of horrors, and certainly no fighting fucking snakes. I shivered. Eurgh, snakes.

  Cursing to myself, I hobbled into the room, looking around it as I did. Well, this was...different. The glass were shiny, almost like a mirror, save for the fact I couldn’t see my reflection. Unless I’d turned into the wrong kind of vampire in the past thirty seconds, that seemed far from likely. Especially considering vampirism didn’t actually work like that from what I’d seen. It was hard to know for sure without interrogating one though, and I wasn’t about to jump up and down to volunteer myself. And not just because I couldn’t interact with vampires either. They, like all the other paranormal beings, weren’t able to see and interact with Reapers. It was a weird quirk in our magic they just didn’t seem to have. Or at least, I guessed it was. Vampires, and other paranormals, couldn’t see us at all. In fact, I could jump up and down in one of their faces, dancing and singing the anthem of a rival coven, tribe or pack, and they wouldn’t even notice. Not that I was inclined to ever do that. Nor was I planning to. Knowing my luck, I’d end up with the one paranormal that could sense us, and then I was well and truly screwed. And not in the good fun way I could get from Than.

  Pushing my thoughts aside, I studied the room again. It wasn’t quite circular, which only added to the weirdness that was the mirror walls. But then, what was new there. In all likelihood, I was about to be faced with a hoard of angry spiders or something. The flesh-eating kind that only really existed in horror movies and Hell.

  Yes. That would just about round out my day nicely.

  A cracking sound from my left made me jump, and I spun around the face the direction it’d come from. There, in what appeared to be the centre of the room, was a tall stone basin. Huh, that hadn’t been there before. I took a step closer, intent on studying it and hoping that it would yield some kind of answers.

  I took another step forward. Okay, so no answers, but this basin sure was fascinating. There was a pull towards it, a call I just couldn’t ignore, and before I truly knew what I was doing, I’d placed my hands on either side of the stone and looked downwards. Seriously!? That was all there was to it?

  I really didn’t know what to make of the clear, still water that was sat in the basin doing nothing other than sitting. With its lack of smell, and the perfect clarity, there was no way this was anything other than water. But what was it doing here? And why was it appearing to me of all people? Okay, so I could answer that last one. Lost Reaper looking for a Demon Queen sounded a little ominous for my tastes though. Not to mention a little out of my depth. What kind of idiot moved towards the Demon instead of running as fast as fuck in the other direction. Oh right, yes. The kind of idiot that just found the man she thought she might love, and then managed to lose him to kidnapping.

  Well that sounded like me, alright.

  The water called my attention again, and I paid more attention to it. Or at least, I did until the waters began to swirl and turned into an odd shade of greyish blue.

  Oh fuck. I had no idea what was about to happen, but I had a sinking feeling I wasn’t going to like it. Again.

  Sixteen

  “Oh, Anima.” My Mother’s voice filled the room, dread filled my stomach. Not because my Mother was here, I could tell from the image in front of me that this was nothing more than a memory. But because I knew which memory this was.

  “I’m sorry, there’s not much more we can do.” It was the headmaster of Reaper School speaking. Not that we even called it anything other than school. For us, it was just where we went to learn. About human life, about reaping, and about maths. Eurgh. Maths. I hated the subject. It was worse than being forced to eat slugs for sport.

  “You must be able to do something, she has to be able to reap,” my Mother begged. Adult-Me cringed. Child-Me, who was stood trying to get my Mother to hold onto her hand, and being ignored, just had a confused expression on her face. I remembered this conversation pretty well anyway. What child could forget the day they were told they were useless? Well, okay, maybe not useless, but certainly not normal.

  “So far, she’s shown none of the signs we’d normally expect, and when we tried to do a reap...” he trailed off, just like he had in real life. I shivered. This was not nor
mal. Then again, what part of Hell had been normal so far? It seemed really out to get me. If I thought about it, this kind of thing was definitely the way to break me. Well this, and watching Than being harmed. Guess I just had to hope that was fake too and not what he was actually going through. If he was really hurt by his time down here, then I didn’t know what I’d do...

  Alright, I did know. I’d kill the person that hurt him in the most violently inhumane way I could think of. Preferably with them still alive to witness some of it. Maybe then they’d get the message not to mess with the people I loved.

  “Could she just be a late bloomer?” my Mother whined. How had I not noticed that she was like this when I was younger? This wasn’t right, surely? How could she be so...needy? No. Not the right word. But she definitely seemed to need more reassurance than Child-Me did.

  The door over on the left swung slightly ajar, and a young boy the same age as Child-Me waved. It took me a moment, but when I realised it was Than, I smiled. He really had been looking at me my whole life. Unfortunately, Child-Me had missed it, and while I longed to prod her and point out the boy that’d become the man she loved, I knew she wouldn’t listen.

  Okay, hold on a second. The boy that’d become the man she loved? That was wrong. Liked a lot. Yes. The man she liked a lot. But not loved. It was far too early for that.

  “Reapers don’t bloom late. You know as well as I do that four is the oldest any child has gotten without showing an affinity for reaping, and even then, they caught up within the blink of an eye,” the headmaster said without much emotion. Yet another thing I hadn’t noticed as a child. Or maybe something that was just being a bit warped by Adult-Me. Or by Hell. It hadn’t exactly been plain sailing here, and there was very little I wouldn’t put past the mind-bendy ways of Hell.