The Reaper (S E Rise's The Fade series Book 1)

by S E Rise

  “I don’t need you to care for me. I don’t need anyone.”

  We made the rest of the trip in silence. Why he stayed with me I had no idea. Why I continued taking him to the orphanage I cannot explain. Maybe because some part of me still wanted to hold onto my humanity.

  The Orphanage was run by a kind middle aged woman by the name of Joanna Crabtree. She had a touch of magic within her bloodline and it had allowed her to see me and not be enchanted by the Forget Me spell. She agreed to take the boy in and I offered to make a yearly donation to cover the costs of caring for the boy. It was another gesture that I did not need to do but it really wasn’t for him. It was to help her run the place.

  Honestly, I could not put my finger on what bothered me about the boy but something was there that annoyed the hell out of me. I think maybe it had to do with his self proclaimed ownership of me. I don’t know, maybe it was because he was just so damn plain and homely. See now that makes me sound like a bad person. But I’m not and I am sure that others have experienced the same feelings. Sometimes you just don’t like people.

  Chapter Fifteen

  “Lose the Boy.”

  I kept myself from spitting out the first words that came to mind. That was my rebellious side talking not my logical thinking side. I knew it would only be a matter of time before someone said something. News doesn’t travel as fast as you think it would in Hell but when they do find out they are pretty quick to respond.

  I hated the Hellions and especially mine. He looked ridiculous in his three piece suit. Hell had gone through a restructuring and remodel over the years and the powers that be decided they wanted a more corporate image.

  Idiots.

  “Why?” I asked but there really wasn’t a need to. I already knew the answer. The Hellions toothy fifty cent smile faltered and the entire corporate image twitched. Beneath that twitch I saw the true hostility of the demon before me. Though terrifying to behold something about his loss of control pleased me.

  I wasn’t a glutton for punishment though and I knew almost exactly how far I could push before I crossed the line. That twitch told me I was getting rather close.

  The Hellion took the moment to insure that he was under control, cleared his throat and proceeded as if nothing had happened.

  “Besides the fact that I told you to, the Boy has brought unwanted attention to himself. Not in the good way either.”

  “Ok.”

  “Your interaction with him has led him down a path that others find undesirable.”

  I could understand why they would see it that way. They had looked like idiots during the Crowley Incident and they were not about to let that happen again.

  Aleister Crowley, the only man in modern history to be immortalized as a sorcerer, a magician and or a Magicker of the Black arts. If you think about it that actually says a lot considering what this quasi Scientific/ Religious world has become.

  “Are there any specifications on how I am to do that?”

  “Use your own discretion, the primary objective is to get him as far away from you as possible.”

  Wow they really are pissed.

  “Why not just kill him?”

  “That is not an option at this time.” He responded and that meant it wasn’t the boy’s time to die. Interesting. I guess they aren’t as worried about him as they were pretending to be. There was a moment of awkward silence and the hellion cut it short before it went too long.

  “You were advised to stay to the shadows. You were warned to stay away from the intricacies of the mortal realm.” He said and he was right.

  You do not love them, you do not hate them. You do not Judge them. Your job is to Reap. Plain and simple.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Lose the boy he had said.

  He is no longer a boy. He is fifteen years old. A young man. Stop calling him a boy.

  I stepped from the shadows and my nose twitched at the scent of dirt, mold and mildew of the basement. It had remained unfinished after all these years and a sizable collection of antiques, beds, cradles and dressers had accumulated. Though nearly pitch black I didn’t need a flashlight to see the stairs leading up and out. A scuttling to my left made me pause in my stride.

  Damn rats…or mice. Whatever.

  The compulsion was leading me to the stairs, on the third floor a young girl was dying. The hairs on the back of my neck rose on end as I heard the soft whisper of words being spoken. I took another step to finish my stride and as my foot hit the solid ancient floor the words became louder and clearer.

  “Demon you have been Summoned.” The young man’s voice said and I had no doubt that it was Marley’s.

  Ok you little bastard, you’re just making this easier.

  The ring of enchantment sealed around me and a blue light blazed into being and threatened to rob me of my night vision. This was exactly why I was told to lose the boy. I should have left him in the house to die. Being caught in a summoning circle was not a pleasant experience and to compound it, I felt the girl upstairs die. The pains of hell start at your feet and quickly begin to travel up your legs like veins of orange molten lava. The longer a reaper takes to reap the assigned soul the greater the pain.

  “Oh My God, it worked! I can see it. Holy Shit!” the woman’s ecstatic voice came from my left and except for my head I tried to remain perfectly still. I slowly rotated it to assess my situation. I noted the position of Marley, a young man and two adolescent girls that could easily be sisters. Closest to me, taking her position on the five pointed star was the new teacher at the orphanage Ms.Henry. The light of the blue fire made her pale skin and red hair look bleached and sickly. But the smile she cast towards the boy was one of fanaticism.

  “I told you it would work.” He said and I didn’t bother looking at him. The other three looked too terrified to run away and I wondered if it was because of the display of magic or of the crazy light shining from Ms.Henry’s eyes.

  “You have done well, the master will be proud of you.” She intoned and nodded her head towards him to begin to recite the spell of Binding. That, if I could help it, was not going to happen. I brought my hand up, pointed it directly at Marley’s face and used my best command voice.

  “SILENCE!” To my surprise it seemed to actually work. There were a few tricks I had up my sleeve but this wasn’t one of them. This was being accomplished by my will power and his fear alone. The pains of Hell screamed up my thighs. They had done one thing correctly though; my feet were firmly rooted in place. Without looking at Marley, I turned my head to focus on Ms.Henry. The blue light reflected in her glassy eyes and I saw her lower lip quiver in excitement. I tried not to react to what I saw next. How I had missed it the first glance around is beyond me. The black leather bound tome she held clenched to her chest upped the stakes of the situation considerably. Up until that moment I had remained relatively calm. The black leather tome changed that.

  I tore my eyes from the book but it was too late, she had seen the interest I paid the book and I hoped she had not noticed my concern. Marley remained silent, pinned by my will and as Ms.Henry knowingly smiled she told him to continue. She had noticed my concern and it strengthen her confidence.

  There were thirteen copies of Aleister Crowley’s Necronomicon and I’ll be damned if she wasn’t holding one of them.

  And she knew it…and she knew I knew it.

  I almost cried out in pain. They had to assume the discomfort I was experiencing was from the ring of Summoning. It was in fact from not being able to reap the dead girl’s soul waiting for me in a timely manner.

  “I am going to give you one chance. This is your moment to take it.” I guided my pointing finger and turned it into an open faced palm. A gesture for him to stop this and join me. I saw a glimpse of hope in his eyes and then watched it vanish as his brow furrowed in concentration.

  Okay then you evil little shit head you asked for it. I was told not to kill him and I didn’t plan to… but there was little to no way th
is was going to end well. I dropped the hand and turned my attention back to Ms.Henry.

  “You might want to have them leave now. “

  The suggestion fell on deaf ears. So I continued with a different tactic.

  “I see you are a student of the infamous Sorcerer Aleister Crowley.” I said to steer the conversation in the direction I wanted. Behind me I could hear Marley’s voice once again begin to recite the Rite of Binding.

  Aleister Crowley was the only mortal in the modern age to earn the title of Sorcerer. The Black soul’d Bastard had been a twisted genius and had actually done it. A mortal sorcerer of both the dark and light side of magic. It hadn’t been done in at least a half a century. Sure there were sorcerers within the Fade but not out in the mortal realm.

  Unfortunately for him though, he spent too much time in the shadow. It drove him insane and completely corrupted his soul. But not, of course, before he had completed the Thirteen, hand written in his own blood, copies of the Necronomicon. Ten of which were reportedly secured throughout the Fade in secret locations.

  She took the bait.

  “I am to be a bride to the dark lord. You would do well to remember that demon.” She said and I heard him begin the second stanza of the spell. I was lucky, the spell needed to be said precisely. The words perfectly annunciated; though so far he hadn’t made any mistakes. The pain was roaring through me now and it gave the strength I needed to end this.

  “I guess this might come as a disappointment to you then. “ I threw in a dramatic pause just to see the look of confusion register in her eyes. The others had heard my words and were motivated enough to take a hesitant step back from the ring. I wasn’t sure this would actually work but I had to try.

  “I’m not a Demon. I am a Reaper…and do you want to know something else?” I finished and waited for it to sink in.

  “Speak demon, tell me your lies.” She taunted but I could see that my words had taken hold in her.

  “The reason this is important is because…your Ring of Protection only protects you from Demon kind. And, as I believe I said before…I’m not a Demon.” I said and brought forth in all its glory my Reaper’s Scythe. The white light of its ethereal blade blazed, it felt good to bring it all out in the open. It had been a long time. Without hesitation or pausing for grand effect, I brought the blade down and across the electric blue barrier of fire.

  Two things happened then.

  The tip of the blade pierced the barrier with ease and plunged into the open mouth of Ms.Henry. It happened without her fully knowing what had happened. Her soul was instantly severed and her ugly soul watched as her mortal flesh began to fall to the ground. The blue ring of protection exploded, no more like it detonated at the breach and took its price with the outward force of destruction.

  Marley got lucky for the moment and the force of the blast launched him backwards across the room into the concrete wall. His limp form hung in place a second longer than it should have and then crumpled to the ground in a sick pile.

  The others had not gotten as lucky. The other young man lost both of his arms and the top of his head was nearly severed. It flapped against the back of his head and I got a good glance at his slippery looking brain. Unfortunately for him the injuries were immediately cauterized and not severe enough to kill him. He would be relatively useless the rest of his life.

  The older sister of the two, stood above the writhing one on the ground and tried to comfort her; tried to tell her that everything was going to be okay; though in truth, it was she that needed the comforting. A giant hole had been punched through the girl’s chest and I could see the slippery wet walls of her heart as they valiantly pumped their last beats. She collapsed onto the screaming sister, the blue burning fire of the summoning ring brilliantly raged from her eyes, ears and mouth.

  Lose the boy he had said, you could bet your ass I was going to lose the boy but first…I had a job to do.

  The price I paid for reaping an unsanctioned soul was steadily growing but it was nothing compared to the pain I felt for an overdue reaping. I was nearly crippled by it. I didn’t think about the boy, the book or writhing girl on the ground.

  On the third floor I found the little girl standing next to her own body; staring at it in disbelief. She wore the same set of pajamas she had died in, though they lacked the stain of blood. Marley had cut her wrists so that she would bleed out slowly. So I would have time to get there.

  She looked up at me with the saddest eyes.

  “I’m sorry this happened to you.” I said and what she said next made me hate the boy even more.

  “I trusted him. He said he was my friend.” I let her say the words and I reaped her soul. The release from the pain I was enduring was immediate and I cried out in joy as the last of it lifted from me. The girl waited and watched. I hoped she didn’t have more to say.

  “I will make him pay for it I promise.” She smiled at my words and skipped away into the darkness.

  Chapter Seventeen

  I wasted no time getting back to the basement.

  Marley had killed that little girl on the chance that he could summon me. He used me to prove that he could command the spell that she had taught him. He had been showing off. Though she had been a self proclaimed student of Aleister Crowley I seriously doubted if she could have commanded any type of magic. It had all been the boy. The boy…I would no longer think of him as the boy. How many others had he killed over the years to get my attention?

  Marley lay crumpled in the pile I had left him in, the other boy sat slack mouthed and drooling on himself. His severed arms lay beside him. I could see the moisture of steam coming from his exposed brain. The summoning fire had burned itself out within the surviving girl. I felt the compulsion to reap the sister’s soul; I did and set her free. Her innocent soul looked down upon her sister with pity and then back across to where Ms.Henry lie.

  “It was her fault this happened; she wasn’t supposed to be teaching us these kinds of things.”

  “I know.”

  “It was him though. He cut Jenny’s wrists. He told her everything was going to be okay. There is something wrong with him inside. We didn’t know.”

  “I know, don’t worry Darlin, I’ll take care of it.”

  Her soul gave her sister one more glance and ascended the stairs. The soul of Ms.Henry was haggard and ugly. It scampered away in a crablike walk and tried to hide from me. I grabbed up the fallen tome from her dead clutching fingers, her tortured soul screeched at me in a wail of displeasure.

  “Guess you should have read the fine print.” I said to her and let her image slip from my mind. I no longer wanted to hear her or see her. She would gain no power from me.

  I left the brainy armless boy where he was and hovered over the surviving girl in indecision. Though I had seen the raging blue fires of the summoning ring burning within her, her haunted young face seemed untouched. I wasn’t stupid though and I crossed the room to Marley, found a length of nylon rope and hogtied him; ankles to wrists. I gagged him with strips of Ms.Henry’s blouse and dragged him to where the summoning ring had been.

  There was nothing I could do for the one boy, but the girl I might be able to save. I hefted her limp body over my shoulder, grabbed up the book once again and ascended the stairs. I kicked the Head Mistress’ door open and she screamed as she shot up out of the bed. She was a very low level hedge witch therefore my Forget Me spell had no power over her. It was one of the reasons I had chosen this orphanage.

  “I am going to assume that you were not privy to what just happened in your basement.” I said and crossed the room. She backed away from me and pressed her back against the wall.

  “What? What the hell happened?” she said with a little more control to herself. I ignored her and placed the girl’s still form across the bed.

  “Take care of the girl. Take her to a hospital. Get her checked, I’ll cover the bill.”

  “What’s wrong with her?”

  “Listen,
you have a hell of a mess to clean up. So just shut up and listen.” I ordered and saw her eyes fall upon the book. Her eyes widened and I saw true fear in her eyes. If she could have pressed herself through the wall she would have.

  “Where the hell did that come from?”

  “Ms.Henry.”

  “Oh My God.”

  “Ok listen up. You have one dead upstairs, two dead in the basement and another permanently damaged as well.”

  Her eyes widened in disbelief and her mouth opened and closed like a big mouth bass. She needed a second to process this. Orphanage’s had kids die all the time. They had their own way of doing things. I had no doubt that this would all be made to go away and smoothed over.

  “I will be taking Marley with me. He is too dangerous to leave here and he will not be returning.” I left the statement open ended, she could read what she wanted from it.

  The girl on the bed moaned.

  “Take care of the girl. I don’t want to have to come back here for her dead body.” I wasn’t sure how long this would take but I did not want to be interrupted by having to come back here and reap her soul. With a burlap sack tied over Marley’s head I gathered him up along with the book and stepped onto the forgotten path.

  I entered the Fade.

  Chapter Eighteen

  I stepped through, gauged my surroundings and location and unceremoniously dropped him to the ground. I heard the air rush from his lungs when he hit the ground, I leaned down and pulled the burlap sack from his head. His mouth was still gagged and I had no plans on taking it out. His eyes squinted against the light, his head turned to take in the scenery and his eyes went wide.

  “You wanted to know where I go. This is where I go.” I said and his eyes focused in on my words. “I want you to listen very clearly to what I am about to say.” His eyes were filled with a hate that I did not particularly deserve. Somewhere over the past eight years a darkness had grown within him. It was not my doing but it did not surprise me that it had happened. I remembered the look he had in his eyes when he had killed his father in cold blood.