Reapers

by Kim Richardson

Even from a distance, Kara could feel it radiating death. She could still hear the cries of souls, like the howling of wind before a great storm. The reaper grasped its scythe with both its rotten bone-thin hands and waited.

  Jenny opened and closed her mouth at the sight of the reaper’s scythe. She tried to speak, “Are those…?” she began, but she choked on her own words.

  She tried to speak again, “Oh my god, are those…?”

  “They’re souls.” Kara’s voice didn’t seem her own.

  Her heart ached at the trapped, anguished faces who pushed and slipped like blisters along the gleaming red blade. It was a horrible sight, and she wanted nothing more than to kill this creature before it captured any more souls.

  She could see that the souls in the blade were still alive. She realized that the reaper didn’t kill the souls it captured. It trapped them and kept them close, like a serial killer who kept trophies from his victims. Reapers kept their souls.

  “This is so wrong.” Peter’s face paled when he saw the faces in the creature’s scythe. If he weren’t a supernatural entity himself, Kara was sure he would have thrown up. They all would have.

  The reaper cocked its head to the side, measuring them one by one, as if deciding whom to kill first. Kara was sure that it took pleasure in their terror and fed on their fears.

  The reaper turned back toward her. Its red eyes were barely visible under its heavy hood, but she could feel it watching her.

  “What’s it waiting for?” Jenny nocked another arrow in her bow and aimed it at the reaper.

  “Maybe it’s full,” suggested David.

  As if in response to Jenny’s question, the reaper struck the ground with its scythe. A piercing cry rose from the demon as if all the souls trapped in its body and scythe cried out together. Its robe billowed around it like coils of smoke in the wind until it was completely hidden in a tornado of black.

  And then it vanished.

  Kara squinted as her eyes adjusted to the dust and debris and waited for the winds to die down.

  She blinked. The reaper was gone. Only the cold, lingering feeling of death remained.

  “You think we scared it off?” asked Peter as he wiped his glasses on his shirt.

  “I doubt that.” Kara moved toward the spot where the reaper had been last. The only sign that anything had actually been there was droplets of black blood. Strangely, she felt that it hadn’t been afraid of them, but that it was curious.

  David looked disgusted. “Well, I’m glad it’s gone. It smelled like death.”

  “You all right, Kara?” he said as he noticed the dead girl near Kara’s feet.

  “I’ve been better.”

  Kara smeared the black liquid on the ground with her shoe. It began to bubble and sizzle. Then it smoked like burnt toast, and with a last pop it evaporated.

  David moved carefully toward the spot where the blood had been. “Never seen that before. Usually when demons bleed, their bloods stays here. But this just—”

  “Evaporated,” said Peter as he leaned over to search for any last remains of the creature’s blood.

  “This is no mere demon. These reapers…these creatures are something else entirely. It’s like their essence can’t stay for very long in this world. Not even a single drop can stay.”

  He stood up. “Maybe they can’t either. We might not know much about them, but at least now we know that they’re like other Netherworld creatures. I mean, they can’t stay in the mortal world for too long. My guess is that the reaper left suddenly because it had to. Like it had already stayed too long and was beginning to weaken.”

  “So it took off,” said Jenny hopefully. “If that’s true, then we can use it against them. We need to trick them into staying longer so that we can finish them off once and for all.”

  Kara watched the optimistic looks on her friends’ faces. But deep down, she knew these creatures were different and more complicated than any demons they’d faced before. They were powerful, much more powerful. But she didn’t know how to word it properly.

  David stood next to Kara. “I saw what it did. I saw what it was doing to you, but then it stopped. How did you make it stop?”

  Kara had been wondering the same thing. She had felt the creature’s indecision, as though it had sensed something within her that it didn’t want to kill. What? Why did it spare her?

  “I don’t know,” said Kara quietly after a few moments, and then she added under her breath, “I have no idea, but I’m going to find out.”

  She was beginning to fear that her return as a guardian was in some way connected with the way that the creature had pulled away from her. How could she be connected to that soul-eating demon?

  “Let’s find a source of water and get out of this godforsaken town,” said Jenny suddenly. “It’s giving me the creeps.”

  “Same here,” agreed Peter. “Ubercreeps.”

  “Let’s check the nearest hotel for an indoor swimming pool,” said Kara.

  The four of them began their trek back up the street. Kara knew that David was still watching her carefully, but she ignored him and kept quiet. The pain in her back acted up again, but she forced herself to stay calm and pretended that it didn’t burn. She pretended that she didn’t feel the panic that was slowly overwhelming her. What was going on? What was happening to her?

  The smell in the air suddenly changed, and Kara recognized the cloying warm scent of death. She sensed the wailing screams of thousands of captive souls again. She halted.

  And then she saw them.

  Four reapers stood in the street.

  Chapter 10

  A Losing Battle

  The reapers materialized at the head of the street as if they had sprouted up from the ground. Identical in size and choice of weapon, they were a black impenetrable wall of evil and death.

  “You’ve got to be kidding me,” David rubbed his hands on top of his head.

  “Four reapers! What do we do now? Our weapons have zero effect on these soul-suckers.” He looked nervously at Kara and then back at the reapers.

  “Any great ideas, people? How do we kill these things?”

  “They bleed gross black stuff,” suggested Peter. “If they bleed, then maybe we can kill them?” he added hopefully.

  “Not with anything we have on us,” said Jenny, pointing her arrows at them anyway. “Didn’t you say that we might have a chance if they lingered in the mortal world too long?”

  She looked at Peter but he didn’t answer.

  “Although it looks to me like these guys just got here.”

  “If we get back—and I’m really, really hoping that we do—I’m asking Ariel for a raise.” David laughed nervously.

  “Well, at least now we’re even. Gotta love these odds.”

  “I wouldn’t call this even.” Kara didn’t like the odds. These creatures were practically unknown to the legion. She shifted her weapon nervously in her hand, but she was sure it wouldn’t do much damage.

  “I say that they can’t hurt or kill us as easily as they did the mortals,” said David. He sounded determined.

  “Think about it, they steal mortal souls, not angel souls. We can beat them.”

  Kara hoped silently that David was right.

  The reapers moved apart with a ghostly shudder. They screeched as they went, tearing and ripping the hot, smoky air. Their long black robes curled like mist.

  Kara felt a sting in her chest. If only she still had her elemental abilities, perhaps she could be more useful. She felt powerless, and useless.

  The reapers began to circle around them. But soon they were moving so fast that they became a black blur. They became a circle of black smoke that kept rising and rising until it formed a moving, circular wall.

  They were trapped.

  Piercing shrieks reverberated around them, and Kara felt the screaming from inside her own head, as though the voices from the lost souls were calling out to her. Like a giant migraine, the screams were relentless an
d horrible. She felt their sadness and agony again, and it pained her. Her knees began to buckle, but she struggled to stand. She knew that if she fell and let herself be taken, she would die. The reapers would take her soul as well. They were the bringers of death.

  The wind smelled of rotten flesh, and the shrill, echoing cries of the trapped souls rose all around like a thunderstorm.

  “Make it stop! I can’t take this anymore,” cried Peter. He covered his ears.

  Kara shuddered at the fear in his voice. She felt it too.

  “You have to stay together!” cried David over the loud screeching.

  “Back to back! Get ready. We can do this.”

  They all obediently pressed their backs against one another, until they formed a tight circle of their own, weapons drawn.

  Suddenly, a reaper broke from the ring and materialized like a puff of smoke right in front of Jenny. In a flash, it hacked its great scythe at her.

  Jenny dodged and rolled just as the tip of the blade sliced through her M-5 suit and into her flesh. She came up behind the creature, and faster than a blink of an eye she shot an arrow at the back of the reaper’s head.

  But just as the arrow was about to hit, the creature spun and deflected the arrow away with its scythe. It had anticipated Jenny’s shot as though it had eyes in the back of its head.

  Then as quickly as it had appeared, it disappeared in a puff of black smoke.

  Jenny cursed as she armed her bow with two more arrows.

  “It saw me!” she said through gritted teeth. “How could it see me?”

  Peter pulled Jenny back next to him in their protective circle.

  Kara could see that David also had the uneasy feeling that the reaper had some sort of sixth sense that anticipated danger.

  While the black, ghostly circle continued to spin around them, individual reapers prodded their scythes at them with quick jabs, teasing them. Their bodies twisted and writhed. They screeched in delight.

  Kara knew that if by some miracle they were to survive this, they needed to get out of the reaper’s circle and run.

  Suddenly the reapers stopped. The black smoke circle evaporated into the air. Their hooded heads all turned and looked behind Kara.

  David frowned. “What? What are they looking at?”

  “Die, demons!” cried a voice from behind them.

  Kara recognized the voice and tried to call out to stop her. But it was too late.

  Mousy little Sasha came hurtling toward the reapers heroically. She threw a moonstone at the foot of one of the reapers and smiled triumphantly at her perfect aim. The moonstone exploded, and Sasha’s forward momentum carried her closer to the reaper. In one fluid movement, the reaper swung its scythe at the guardian angel, cutting her as easily as if she had been a leaf.

  Her severed body fell to the ground. Millions of glowing particles rose in the air like tiny fireflies and migrated to the reaper’s scythe. In a moment Sasha’s angel soul was completely sucked into the weapon. The red blade shone as though it were welcoming its new soul.

  Her M-5 suit withered and blackened, until there was nothing left but a pile of gray ashes.

  Kara watched, transfixed and horrified at how easily a guardian could die with the sweep of a reaper’s scythe. Reapers could kill angels and ensnare their souls, too. Her friend’s screams became disconnected and muffled, like in a dream. And then she heard more shouting.

  Raymond and Ling tore toward the reapers with soul blades wielded in each of their hands. They were oblivious to the gray ashes on the ground, oblivious to what remained of their teammate. They hadn’t seen what had happened to Sasha.

  “STOP! WAIT!” Kara yelled.

  They kept running.

  “No!” Kara moved forward, but David pulled her back, his face tight.

  “It’s too late for them.”

  Kara watched in horror as two reapers moved toward Raymond and Ling. The reapers moved as one and swung their scythes with such force and speed that Raymond and Ling didn’t even flinch or stop.

  Kara head a gurgle, a gag, and then they were split in half from head to toe. Their M-5 suits peeled away and fell over to their sides like banana peels. And then, just as had happened with Sasha, their angel souls floated into the air and drifted into the reapers’ scythes. Their M-5 suits became ashes blowing in the wind.

  While Kara had never cared for these three guardians, she knew they didn’t deserve to die like this. Were their souls truly dead, or somehow still alive and imprisoned within the reapers’ scythes?

  “This is our chance,” said David. “They seem to have temporarily forgotten about us, like they’re still enjoying their recent kills. It’s time for us to say bye bye.”

  “He’s right,” agreed Jenny bravely. But Kara could see her angel essence was spilling out of her side, and her skin was pale.

  “Let’s get out of here before they get greedy and put angel soul back on their menu.”

  As they turned and raced back up the street, Kara looked over her shoulder. The reapers still hadn’t moved. And then something struck her as odd. Where was Ashley? It wasn’t like Ashley to leave her team behind. She was the team leader; where could she be?

  “We need to find water!” yelled Peter.

  “We’re in a giant desert!” cried David. “There is no water!”

  “Shut up you two,” howled Jenny. “There are like a million hotels here.”

  David turned to her, “Sorry to rain on your parade, Jen, but it’s not like we have time to play the tourist.”

  “Not that, you idiot,” argued Jenny.

  “She means we’ll find water in the hotel pools,” interrupted Kara as she ran.

  “Thank Horizon! We’re saved!” David made his way toward the nearest hotel, a giant, pink building with two huge palm trees on either side of the front entrance, and a sign that read PINK DUNES HOTEL, SPA AND POOL.

  Suddenly Ashley came tearing down the street back toward the reapers. She was weeping furiously.

  “No!” she cried between sobs. “I’ll kill you all! Demons!”

  With her soul blade in her hand, Ashley ran toward the four reapers, ready to die to avenge her friends.

  Kara knew it was crazy. She hated the girl, and the girl hated her back. But somehow she spun around, and in two great strides, she grabbed hold of Ashley’s jacket.

  “Ashley, they’re gone!” Kara pulled the girl around to face her. “There’s nothing we can do to help them. You’re going to get killed.”

  “Let go of me—you freak!” Ashley kicked and punched at Kara desperately.

  Her voice cracked. “My—my team—my friends. I have to help them. There’s still a chance!”

  Kara slapped Ashley in the face hard, harder than she had intended. It worked. Ashley stopped fighting her.

  “Ashley, listen to me,” said Kara urgently. “They’re gone, they’re all gone. And we’ll be joining them soon if you don’t come with me right now. Ashley? Are you listening to me?”

  Ashley staggered, dazed. She looked like a lost, frightened puppy, not at all like the headstrong young guardian Kara remembered.

  “I…I told them to wait…I told them to wait for me…” mumbled Ashley. Her lips trembled, and her eyes were unfocused.

  Kara looked over Ashley’s shoulder.

  The four reapers were coming up the street toward them.

  “Come on!” Kara grabbed Ashley’s hand and pulled her into a run. She could see David, Jenny, and Peter waiting for her at the hotel’s door.

  Jenny moved forward and drew four arrows, one for each reaper.

  As the arrows whipped past Kara, she stole a look behind her.

  The reapers were so close now that she could smell the rotten warmth of death again.

  The reapers screeched in frustration, angered that their next meals had run away from them. They had tasted angel souls, and now they would stop at nothing to get more.

  A black tendril flashed past Kara and was gone. Something
tangled around her legs, and she and Ashley both fell. Kara whirled around and shot her weapon straight into the face of the first reaper. It shrieked and danced away, but there were still three others, coming in fast.

  Kara pulled Ashley to her feet.

  “Come on! We’re almost there!”

  The two girls ran in desperation. If they fell now, they would join Sasha and the others.

  Jenny continued to fire at the reapers, and while it didn’t slow them down, it did distract them, which was better than nothing.

  And just when Kara thought her M-5 suit was going to explode, she and Ashley reached the hotel doors and rushed inside. David pushed them out of the way and bolted the doors shut.

  “You think that’ll hold them?”

  David shook his head. “Not for long, it won’t.”

  “Hurry, this way!” called Peter from somewhere inside the hotel lobby.

  Under different circumstances, Kara would have taken the time to explore the grandeur of the great hotel and to marvel at its marble floors, grand crystal chandeliers, giant staircases, and majestic rugs. But this time, she only concentrated on pulling the distraught Ashley along with her and putting as much distance as she could between herself and the reapers.

  Even before she saw it, the smell of chlorine filled her nostrils.

  They arrived at an Olympic-sized indoor pool. Its pure blue waters were calm, and the soft murmur of a pump sounded from below the water like the beating of a heart. No one said much. They just wanted to leave the horrific place and get back to Horizon a.s.a.p.

  A blast thundered outside the pool chamber, and the waters rippled.

  “That was the front door,” said David. “Everyone in! Now!”

  He stood by the edge of the pool and watched the door.

  Without a moment’s hesitation, Peter hurtled himself in the pool, shouting, “See you guys later!” And with a brilliant splash, he was gone. Jenny jumped in after him.

  “Do you think they’ll spot us here?” Ashley sounded as though all her happiest feelings had been stolen. It was as though she had already lost her soul.

  Kara watched her but said nothing. Although she still clung to her hand, Kara didn’t know what to say to comfort her.