Rocks bounced with each step she took closer. I remained in my spot, captured by the wild beauty that twisted her face with every psychotic roar. Long thin claws, a mix of human and canine tore at the rocks as her large padded feet stomped on the heads of the lingering spirits.
A strong force was holding me to her, inhaling my strength and mentality as another force was pulling at my arm in desperation. I tipped backwards by Teresa’s hand and felt my gaze break with Wrath’s before the flood of my conscious erupted from my otherwise seemingly numb thoughts.
“Help me!” Teresa was screaming, motioning downwards as she tried to drag Elliot up from the dirt.
I curled my hands around his torso and lifted him onto my shoulders, already breaking out into a run. In the madness of our dash I could hear every single vibration of Wrath’s foot hitting the earth and I could smell every inch of blood pop like a pimple as Wrath stomped her way through the bodies. Teresa was beside me, trying her best to throw dark magic into Wrath’s oncoming path but it did very little to slow the demon. She was on top of us just as the crack of light appeared from the entrance. Walls were rattled, disturbed and shattering to pebbles by our feet. Each roar that exploded from her throat was just another hook in my back, dragging me downwards.
Every step was horrendously painful; every whisper of breath filled my lungs with stones. With two arms Teresa shoved me forward and into the snap of auburn sunlight. I barely had time to glance over my shoulder before I felt a burst of heat lift me upwards and throw me down the volcanic side. Wrath tore through the cave that caged her, arching her shoulders back so her neck reached into the skies, letting her howl hit every ear within radius of her. Elliot toppled off me as we were flung off our feet, tumbling head over heels down the rock before hitting a stone ledge not too far down.
I leapt on Elliot’s body before he could continue the plummet down just as Teresa skidded into view and fell into me. Whatever rage was boiling up within me like over cooked rice had diminished as fast as every gulp of fresh air filled my lungs. She was torn up pretty bad, the skin along her arm was bleeding heavily and her nose looked broken and swollen.
“Run! Run!” She snagged my cloak and hauled me up, helping as I lifted Elliot up with us. The dance of madness was a sight I’ll never forget. The creatures that roamed the barren earth all rejoiced in their Queen’s freedom, throwing their heads forward in their own howls and stomping the ground. By the time we touched our shoes back on ground level, the chaos of war had overturned the wasteland. It was like a switch had been flicked on; the clashes of their bodies were so similar to aggressive dancing that I wasn’t sure if I was watching a brawl or a party.
“Mother!” Teresa shouted outwards as we sprinted back to the place Mother had first brought us. Time ticked on at a pace that matched a snail. It slowed down to a point that every whiff of dust and every clash of bodies felt in tune.
A dark shadow snapped into view ahead of us, the outline of Mother with her seven arms beckoned us to her. Within meters two monsters crossed our paths during their dual and accidently clipped Teresa on the shoulder. She fell instantly at impact and cowered as their crawled feet stumbled around and on top of her. I dropped Elliot immediately and threw myself over Teresa and into a tumble that rolled us both out of danger, just as the claw hit the ground. Moving without giving ourselves a moment to catch our breath, I scooped Elliot back up and continued our escape to Mother. I was faster than Teresa as I reached Mother first and as soon as she got to my side we both leapt into the smoke of Mother’s form. The world spined and twirled within a patch of darkness, leaving me disorientated before dropping us back within the forest of Mother’s home.
Mother pulled the mask away from her soaked face before disappearing back into the forest. Within our panting, I rolled Elliot over onto his back to make it easier for him to breath.
“Let…him… rest…and stay…low.” Teresa said.
“Thank you…” I grinned at her before I let myself collapse onto my back, “You’re not… all that bad.”
“Humph!” Teresa puffed but I could almost feel her bite into her smile.
***
We returned back to Elliot’s apartment, but elected not to stay for too long. Teresa took me to one of her own hideouts, a secret place she had kept to herself if she ever felt threatened by the Hunters.
“Just make sure you stay away from the sunlight, I’ll go and find where First is. He’ll need a few weeks at least to heal properly.”
The place she led us to was an old barn style inn, where the outside was painted with crusty red paint with white panel frames around the wide barn door and two upper floor windows. Inside the interior had been gutted of any stables or hay stacks and housed a couple of rooms, a bathroom, kitchen and a simple lounge. There wasn’t a television installed or electricity connected, but I was thankful there was at least some plumbing for the toilet. As Elliot recovered he went through bursts of personality changes. I slept in the room next to him, the slim mattress barely keeping my body away from the springs under the bed when I would hear him tossing and turning and talking aloud to himself. It was muttered incoherent gibberish, but the more the days passed the more he thrashed and fought whatever nightmare was plaguing him.
At times, I could catch the word of a girl’s name between each of his curses, a girl he called Melissa. I tried to wake him on the fourth day, fearing that his body would crash if he didn’t eat or drink anything soon but I ended up getting a fist straight to my eye. I noted it down to Wrath’s influence, and that the toxic smoke was still festering within his blood stream. With a hot bath to clean the gunk that had accumulated on him between Wrath’s sand filled home, the sweat that drenched him and now the open air of an abandoned inn, he smelt and looked disgusting. Once I rinsed him with water, at least he glanced up at me with a flicker of recognition before slipping back to his sailor cursing.
Teresa only visited twice and near the beginning of his recovery, she had figured it was safe considering Elliot was literally in a nightmare coma and he wouldn’t remember anything during his sleep. But the more he recovered the less he thrashed and bit me, and the less he fought the faster I started to recognise the old Elliot coming back to the surface. When First finally returned he bounded onto Elliot and immediately evaporated into the wooden planes within Elliot’s shadow. The giant hyena was the final piece to perk Elliot out of his depression as he fell into undisturbed sleep.
It was midnight when I heard the springs on Elliot’s bed move and his calmed voice raise above the quiet, “Where am I?” I was up already, tending to the small bon fire that was the only thing keeping the hands of winter out of our shack.
“Elliot! I am so glad to see you’re finally awake! How are you feeling?”
“Not too good… It’s like I’ve been dropped on my head continuously.”
I pursed my lips remembering how many times I had thrown Elliot to the floor during our escape; I elected not to tell him. “At least you’re safe.”
“What on earth happened? Where am I?”
“You were taken to the Realm of Wrath; you’ve been in a type of ‘aggressive coma’ for about a week and a half.”
“I was in the Sin Realm… wait… I remember…” Elliot slouched over and rested his head in to his palms, “It’s like a flicker only, a smudge of red and a bright, bright white exploding right in front of me, like someone had taken a photo.”
“I think it was a Hunter you are remembering…”
“A Hunter… yes, yes that’s right. They charged in, dosed me with a type of smoke and took First away. I can’t remember much after that, just hitting the floor as if I had been drugged. They took me to Wrath. They chained me to the rocks… I was screaming for so long.” He paused for a moment, before glancing up, his eyes still glazed over as if he were still trapped in a dream. “How did I get out?”
“A search and rescue team got you. Don’t worry, you’re save now.”
“You saved me? All
by yourself?”
“I had help.”
“Who?”
“I’ve been sworn to secrecy, sorry.” I collected some canned beans and pried open the lid, passing the food over to Elliot with a spoon. “Eat. You need your strength.”
“Is this your place?”
“For the time being we’ll say yes. I’m sorry for everything that has happened to you, if I hadn’t been so careless than Mark wouldn’t have died and you wouldn’t have been sent to the Sin Realm.”
Elliot was too busy digging into the can to pay me much attention, and as I spoke I got another can ready knowing he’ll want seconds. “They’ll notice that I’m missing once they go back to fetch me…”
“They’ll notice a few new things too while they are there. We accidently let Wrath out of her chains.”
“You’re kidding! You had to deal with Wrath without any security. Without her being restrained?”
“It’s not as impressive as you think, we just ran like our backsides were on fire. Which wasn’t too far from being true, that place was like an inferno. I was too scared to even fart in case I caused an explosion.”
Elliot snickered at my crude joke; it was refreshing to see him at ease after watching him squirm in agony for so long.
“Who’s Melissa?” I asked.
“What?”
“Melissa. While in your coma, you kept screaming out her name among other things that I won’t repeat.”
“I said her name? Oh…” Elliot lowered his head that his face was cast into shadow and the blonde tint of his hair caught the glow from the bonfire.
“She’s the girl that I loved and my best friend. Back in high school every guy wanted her. God, she was so beautiful, but something happened and she just changed. There were some really nasty rumours going around at the time, and me being a big coward, I never stood up for her when even her best girlfriends started to bully her too. I kept telling myself over and over again, tomorrow I’ll do something. Tomorrow I’ll make sure that no one can every hurt her every again. That night I was taken to be a Reaper. It was Christopher who came to collect me; I was out on a late night jog and was struck down by a car. It was a hit and run, so my family never found out what happened to my body. A day later she took her own life in her bedroom. I know because I was the one that dragged her in to Mother.”
“Why did you do that?”
“I had to… I was a fresh Reaper; I didn’t know what I was doing, of where I was taking her. I had thought that she was going to be with me from now on in the spirit realm. I’m such an idiot. I’ll never forgive myself for doing that to her. I’ve tried to save her countless of times, but I can never find her among the other damned souls. Maybe she isn’t even there anymore and she’s been melted down to dust for Miira to use.”
“Who is Miira?”
“A Royal, the ghost in charge and created this system of Banished souls and tied us Reapers to the earth with our ‘pets’. She sits on the throne in Heaven and controls everything. As long as the Banished is fuelling her, Miira stays in charge. It’s her power supply.”
“And we can’t rebel because they have a pieces of our souls stored away in the lanterns. Hunters control Reapers…” I muttered to myself when Elliot perked up.
“That’s right. How do you know about that?”
“My accomplice told me. Can’t say any more than that.”
“Yeah, yeah you’ll have to slip up some day. Thanks for… rescuing me.” With that Elliot rolled back over and continued to sleep.
Chapter Thirteen:
Avoiding sunlight was difficult. It was at least a month before I felt comfortable with teleporting back into the spirit realm. Both Raix and First had a bad case of cabin fever, both Goons getting restless from their indoor reaping-free lifestyle. I stayed with Elliot for most of my time, and I was glad to see he no longer cringed at my company. I only saw Christophe once since our last encounter. He was still as blank as a zombie, moving from job to job in a mindless haze. I was thankful I could save Elliot from that fate, but I felt guilt squeeze at me for condemning Christophe to it.
We tried our best to remain hidden from the Hunters, but reaping only at night was a lot harder than I thought. We didn’t stay at the Drop Off for long, only darting in and out to dispose of the spirits in case Hunters were lingering about. I had encountered another few banished since then, and being wary of their power I always ensured Elliot was with me and Raix would pounce before the spirit had a chance to attach to a host. Their stink would burn up my nose with every whiff; it was easy to pick them out. After a few days of not hearing anything we had presumed the Hunters weren’t looking for Elliot, and started to work from dawn to dusk.
I didn’t see Teresa for a long time either; she was hiding as well trying to keep a low key in case the Hunters found out that she stole Elliot ’s soul vial. After some time though we started to catch word of Hunters realising about Elliot’s disappearance and put out a search warrant for him. Weary of their attention Elliot and I both returned to reaping only at night.
Life had become a repetitive cycle of collecting spirits; we wondered the streets travelling from town to town collecting the dead when a group of Reapers closing in on a lone spirit caught our attention. It struck me as strange because Reapers usually worked alone, and it’s very rare to see them form a type of group, unless of course there is a multi-pile up on the freeway or an aeroplane plummets to the earth killing hundreds, so I couldn’t help but stop and watch. We were just outside a large park called Promise Yard a few towns over when we accidently spotted them.
“What’s going on over there?” I motioned as Elliot glanced over and shrugged. They were yelling about something to each other, but by their slack shoulders and high laughs made it sound like they were actually enjoying themselves.
“Doesn’t hurt to check it out I guess.”
As we approached within ear shot a spark of red hair was bright amongst the blonde Reapers and I instantly stopped my foot from stepping closer. The Reapers had surrounded a lone Hunter, and it appeared they were shoving him between each other and serving fast blows to his stomach and back. The lone Hunter was fighting back with whatever strength he could master, but with six against one he couldn’t cover all areas and often fell to the floor. Even with teleportation, the Goons were fast to snatch his spirit and drag him back to the earth, caging him in like a rat on a leash.
“It’s the half Hunter.” Elliot also abruptly stopped before spinning on his heel, “Let’s just leave. I want nothing to do with this.”
“What on earth are they doing?”
“Pay back I would guess, venting some anger. There are a few spirits out there that are hybrids, half one class and half another. This Spirit is a hybrid between Banished and Hunter, because of his unclean blood he is usually picked on by the Reapers. They know that he is looked down upon by the full blood Hunters, so there usually aren’t any repercussions for picking him. As a badge of dishonour the Hunters gave him a banished name of Gargoyle.”
“This happens often?”
“If they catch him and he is alone… yes. Though I’m surprised, he is usually with two other Hunters like himself. But let’s just get out of here; I don’t want to watch this.”
I turned and followed Elliot off the grass patch; but I couldn’t ignore the sound of their fists colliding with Gargoyle’s chest. Every blow drew the breath from him causing the Hunter to cough and crash to his knees. The cowardice of it all had me spinning back to face them, my mind reeling back to those times Evan had been caught as the victim in a group attack and I was never around to defend him. Before Elliot could stop me I had walked head on into the Reaper’s pack. They welcomed me thinking I was going to join in with the beating, but when I shoved one of the Reaper’s off of Gargoyle they all tightened their scowls.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” One of the male Reapers took me by the shoulder and tried to steer me out of the circle but I shook him off me.
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“Doing what’s right.”
“He is a Hunter, who cares?”
“Someone with some decency” I stepped around the Hunter like a circling hawk before summoning Raix out of the shadows. The wolf held its head high and its ears pointed upwards, absorbing my threaten nerves into its body.
“You’re sticking up for this Halfling? He’s not even a full Hunter, he’s half banished.” Another Reaper moved forward confused.
Elliot quickly stepped through the circle and stood alongside me, glancing around his shoulders to the circling Reapers, “We don’t have to fight, let’s just walk away-”
“Hunter or not, six against one is just cowardly and pathetic.” I spoke above them.
“Wait I know you, you’re that Reaper that attacked Teresa and sent Christophe to the Sins. Now you’re sticking up for this Hunter scum, are you a traitor or something?” They all grumbled to one another not impressed with me.
“I don’t care what you call me but at least I’m not a sick coward who takes pleasure in picking on people weaker than them. Now I’m warning you this one time, back off before I force you to back off.”
They glanced about each other in arrogance, “Fine newbie, if you want to be with your little Hunter so bad than you can lay in the dirt with him.”
As soon as they made a move towards me Raix attacked them ferociously, springing forwards like a cornered desperate tiger. He snapped his jaws in incessant actions, snapping and snarling and spitting smoke out at them. Every Reaper quickly cowered back at the aggressive display. Even as they went to send their own Goons in to fend Raix off, it was like a feral instinct within him had been flicked on causing Raix to lurch forward with a rabid thirst. He caught one of their Goons’ on the foot and had the creature screeching and wailing; kicking at Raix to let him go and reluctantly Raix dropped his hold. He was begging for a fight, lips curled and his barking cracked with the boiling electricity within him.
My Demonic Ghost Book two (The Reapers 2) Page 12