Ruin's Legacy

by ID Johnson

  Nat screamed in fury, ducking around an angel and sending a bolt of black into a charging Keeper, sending the woman careening into the ground. He began to make his way toward Ru, though with each step, another Keeper or angel slowed his progress. She knew it wouldn’t last, however. She needed to move. Hopefully, the magnetic attraction he had toward her wouldn’t reveal her location. Keeping an eye on him, she shot off across a small gap in the trees and found another place to conceal herself as two Keepers and an angel began to combat Nat.

  A hand on her shoulder startled her, but Ru was relieved when she turned to see it was Cutter. She clasped his hand with hers and answered his question before he could ask it. “I’m okay. Where’s Ivy?”

  “She went back to Lyric and Rider,” he replied. “That was… I don’t ever want to do that again.”

  “I know. Me neither,” Ru said, forcing thoughts of what had almost happened out of her mind.

  They watched as Nat sent both Keepers sprawling in opposite directions and the angel’s wings literally ignited. The woman began to scream as flames shot up from her back, catching her hair on fire as well. A breeze from a nearby Keeper of the Wind put the fire out, but by then Nat was on the move again.

  “I need to face him,” Cutter said. “And you need to get to the portal.”

  Ru craned her neck around the tree. While there were still some Reapers near the entryway, for the most part, the Keepers were able to set up a perimeter around the portal. If she was going to go, now was the time. “Okay. Be careful,” she said. Realizing that Cutter was about to take on one of her assignments made Ru feel uncomfortable, particularly since she knew what the end result would be, and despite the bargain she’d almost just made with the devil, she still didn’t want to see Nat destroyed. But she had to push those thoughts out of her head. She quickly kissed Cutter’s cheek and scurried off to the next tree closest to the portal.

  Nat saw her now, and he began to move in her direction, using his scythe to cut down an attacking Keeper as if he were nothing. Ru swallowed hard and steeled herself, looking for the next place to hide. If she used her powers on Nat, there was a chance she wouldn’t have enough left for the portal, and besides, she’d agreed to let Cutter handle him.

  Cutter stepped into the clearing a few feet away from Nat. She saw the shoulders of the man dressed in black fall, as if he realized he had one more obstacle to face before he could get to her. If words were exchanged, Ru couldn’t hear them, and she watched as Cutter raised his hands and sent streaks of blue into the air, aimed at Nat’s face.

  Raising his scythe, Nat reflected the light, sending it harmlessly into the tops of the trees. Cutter recoiled and tried again, shooting short bursts this time. Nat reflected each of them, moving his scythe from one target to the next, blocking the bolt aimed for his shoulder, then his knee and his opposite side. Twirling his scythe in front of him, he swung it at Cutter, who jumped out of the way just in time. Ru watched, fascinated, as Cutter used his light to form an equally long weapon, this one a glowing blue, and the two locked in arms against each other. Like two swordsmen, they came at each other, stepping between the trees in a macabre waltz as one attempted to get a blow in on the other. At one point, the scythe made contact with Cutter’s shoulder and he shouted in pain before using the opposite end of his weapon to tip Nat off balance. The Reaper stumbled backward, only just getting his scythe up in time to block Cutter’s attack.

  “Ru! Go!” Cutter shouted, and she realized she’d been so entranced at watching the battle between them unfold, she’d momentarily forgotten about the portal. Her path was clear, so she took off, dodging the single bolt of black Nat had time to send her direction before he had to return his full attention to Cutter.

  Ru weaved between the trees, closing in on the portal. Her path was clear, though there were still engagements on either side of the opening. She looked both ways to mitigate her threats and then took a deep breath, stepping into the clearing.

  Immediately, a bolt of black hit her directly in the head, and Ru went flying backward again, this time landing hard on exposed lava rock. A sharp pain went searing through her left hand, and she grabbed it with her right. Glancing down at it, she saw her hand was split open down the outside edge where she’d caught it on the rock. The pain in her head from the dark smoke stung but not nearly as much as her hand.

  Looking up, Ru saw a black-clad figure sauntering toward her. Her hood was down around her shoulders, revealing her face, but Ru would’ve recognized her anywhere. “Raven,” she muttered, stumbling to her feet. The woman was battered and bruised from the last battle for certain, her right eye rimmed with dark purple, one arm bent as if it had healed without being set, and she had a slight limp. Ru knew she could take her under any circumstances, but there was no doubt in her mind the Reaper would crumple at only half her strength.

  Nevertheless, she still had a cocky mouth. “Don’t you know you should always look up before you step out?” she asked snidely.

  “Raven,” Ru said, squaring her shoulders. “I’m going to enjoy this.”

  “Not half as much as I am,” the other woman replied. “I know Nat wants to kill you himself, but since he’s a little tied up right now, I guess I’ll have to do it for him.”

  Shaking her head, Ru raised her hands. Blood dripped down her arm to her elbow, but that didn’t stop her. Ru shot out a steady stream of blue light with her left hand, waiting for Raven to counter, which she did with both hands, leaving her open to attack as Ru brought up her right hand, hitting her in her injured leg. Raven let out a shriek, which sounded like the caw of the bird she was named for, and crumpled to the ground, clutching at her leg. This made Ru’s power even more overwhelming now that the Reaper only had one hand to contend with.

  Ru took a step forward, thinking she would end her now and concentrate on the portal. However, a look at the grimace on Raven’s face caught her off guard. For a moment, she wasn’t Raven the Reaper; she was Jess, a young woman with her first teaching job, sitting across from Ru in a booth at the diner, eating french fries and asking questions about setting up her classroom. Sending her to Hell would be more difficult than she thought.

  The memories caused Ru to turn her head away from Raven momentarily, though she didn’t let up the steady stream of light powering down on the Reaper. Across the forest, Ru could see Cutter had the upper hand on Nat as well. Her boyfriend had a look in his eyes she’d never seen before as he moved in on the Reaper with resolve. Cutter no longer held his weapon, and neither did Nat. As Cutter sent another bolt of blue into Nat, the black powder that shot back missed, and Nat stumbled backward, his shoulder igniting in flames where Cutter hit him.

  “Ru, I’ve got her!” She turned to see Ivy at her side, long green shoots already protruding from her hands, wrapping around the broken Reaper on the ground. “Go! Close the portal!”

  “Right!” Ru shouted, letting her blue lights dissolve. “Ivy—just capture her, okay?” she asked as she took a step away.

  Ivy raised an eyebrow but then she nodded, and Ru trusted that Raven wouldn’t be destroyed, though she’d still wind up in Hell. Just another location where she’d spend the rest of her life as a captive of the Keepers.

  Ru could see the path to the portal was clear. There weren’t even any engagements near it now as the angels and Keepers had control of the battlefield. She could easily close it off before any more demons or Reapers could come through. She began to jog in that direction when she looked over to see Cutter had Nat on his knees, blue light wrapped all around him.

  She froze. Nat wasn’t looking at Cutter, his executioner; he was looking at her. In all the time that she’d known him, not once had she ever seen him look so defeated, so broken. In his eyes, she saw emotions she knew only too well. Overwhelming sadness, loneliness, heartbreak. Her breath caught in her chest as she realized why she knew that expression so intimately. She’d seen it each and every time she’d looked in a mirror for the majority of her life. Th
at solemn look of hopelessness, of not belonging, of never having a choice of her own circumstances, of being punished because of who she was even though it was utterly and completely out of her own hands. If Nat had been given a choice, would he have chosen to be a Reaper, a villain, or if he’d been allowed to write his own story, would he have chosen another life for himself?

  Without a doubt, Ru knew exactly what she needed to do. Cutter’s mouth was already moving, and she was certain the incantation he had chosen was not the one that would allow Nat to linger as a captive in Hell. He would be destroyed; after all, that’s what Raphael had ordered her to do—to end him. To kill the Reaper that had been wreaking such havoc for so long. It wasn’t Cutter’s burden to do so, however. It was hers.

  Sprinting across the distance between them, Ru began to scream. “Wait! Cutter! Wait!”

  He looked up, and she could read his lips well enough to know he was on the last words of the incantation. Without thinking, Ru sent a bolt of blue in their direction, not aiming at Nat or Cutter but in between, into his stream of light. She watched as Cutter’s powers were knocked free. Immediately, before Nat had a chance to react, Ru shifted her mark so that he was now encapsulated in her own power. Nat still couldn’t break free, but he swiveled his head to face her.

  “Ru? What are you doing?” Cutter asked. “I’ve got him. Go close the portal.”

  “I will,” Ru assured him. “But… this was my task, too. And I can’t let you do it for me.”

  Cutter opened his mouth as if he would argue, but one sharp look from her, and he closed it, her determination clearly written on her face.

  Turning her attention back to Nat, she saw tears in the corners of his eyes. Unlike the ones she’d seen him shed before, there was no doubt these were real. But he was also smiling. “Come to do it yourself then?” he asked, his speech labored by the restriction of the light around him. “Just as well. I’d rather die at your hand. Seems fitting.”

  Ru swallowed hard. “I take no pleasure in what I’m about to do,” she said, her voice even despite the emotions that were beginning to well up inside of her. “You have been a worthy advocate all along. But more than that, in a way, you’ve been my friend.” She remembered the conversation they’d had when last they met. “I do believe that, given the right circumstances, perhaps we could’ve been true friends. Or more.” A single tear streamed down his handsome face. For a moment, Ru didn’t see Thanatos, Death Incarnate, before her on the forest floor. He was Kyle, a man she’d once thought she could love. He hadn’t really existed; she knew that. But in her heart, she felt he might’ve lived once, given different conditions.

  “Go ahead, Ru. Do it,” he urged, his teeth bared. “I’d just as soon die here in the forest than return to my father and confess I was unable to do his bidding again.”

  With a nod, Ru said, “I will end your reign once and for all, Thanatos. But please know that I do this because you were once my friend. I hope, someday, you’ll be able to forgive me.”

  “Rune, if you plan to send me to one of your dungeons to rot for a hundred years, please have mercy on me and send me straight to fire and brimstone. I’d rather burn in oblivion than spend decades thinking of what might’ve been if only I’d made better choices.”

  Ru inhaled deeply. Fighting the tears, she intensified her powers until Nat’s eyes closed. She couldn’t bear to do what she had to do next with him staring at her. This way, he’d transition to his next existence never knowing what hit him. Ru recited the words she’d learned by heart and watched as Nat’s body crumpled to the ground before she released him from her power. Turning to Cutter, she shouted, “Finish it!”

  He looked dumbfounded, but nodded in agreement, and Ru turned her back to the situation, heading back toward the portal.

  She didn’t run this time. All around her, the sounds of battle waged on, though the distance was greater now. Her eyes focused in on the portal. With each footfall, her confidence grew. Despite the vibration she felt deep within the portal, the one that told her something else was coming, it seemed far away, and she knew her task was almost complete.

  Ru stopped ten feet from the portal. Her last task lay before her, and she was ready. What had started as a mission to find her mother had resulted in the reunion of her parents, the closing of two subsequent portals, the regicide of an evil king, and the creation of four new friendships nothing could ever extinguish. Somewhere along the way, she’d even managed to fall in love. Closing the remaining portal might be her legacy, but Ru knew that it certainly wasn’t the most profound accomplishment of this journey. Somehow, in the span of a few months, she’d transformed herself from a lonely, melancholy young lady who truly believed she was cursed, to a powerful woman who could handle anything thrown at her by Heaven or Earth.

  With more confidence than she’d ever had at any time in her life, Ru raised both hands and repeated what she hoped was the last incantation she’d ever have to say. “In nomine domini, ut claudere infernum est effi- cimur, omnium aeternum!”

  The moment the words left her lips, the portal exploded. Ru braced herself as a burst of hot air blasted her in the face, knocking her backward onto the ground. The familiar ringing filled her ears, but as her mind began to slip away, a smile spread across her face, and she let out a deep breath resounding with accomplishment. The last portal was finally closed, and her tasks were complete.

  Epilogue

  One year later…

  “All right, boys and girls. That is enough for today. We will pick up with Ramona’s story tomorrow afternoon. For now, go ahead and get your backpacks on, and let’s line up at the door.”

  Groans filled the air as twenty-two fourth graders followed their teacher’s directions despite wanting to hear what happened next in the story. They stood and walked to the cubbies where their backpacks were hung and politely took turns getting their belongings before making an orderly line at the door.

  Ru took a deep breath and looked lovingly at her students. Even though she’d made the same prediction every year since she started teaching, she had had a feeling about this group of kids from the very beginning. And she was right. They were the best group of fourth graders she’d ever taught.

  The bell rang and she wished them all a good weekend, gathering up the four students who went to daycare and walking with them down the hallway. It was her duty to make sure all of the fourth-grade daycare students got in the right buses or vans. She met up with a few from the other fourth grade classes and headed down the hallway.

  On the way, she saw a familiar face. “Hey, Ira!” she called out to the fifth grader who also rode a daycare bus. “How was your day?”

  “Great! You should see the project I’m working on in science class. It’s awesome.”

  Ru couldn’t help but smile. He was doing so much better interacting with other people. “I’ll have to stop by and see it.”

  “Did you have a good day today?”

  “I did, thank you for asking.”

  Ira beamed, and Ru was so happy to see the social skills lessons were working. Even a year ago, it never would’ve crossed his mind to ask her how her day was. Ira’s daycare bus was waiting outside of the double doors at the end of the hallway. “Have a nice weekend, Ira,” she called, holding up her hand. He gave her a high-five and headed out the door. Ru wished all of the rest of the daycare riders a good weekend by name and then headed back down the hallway.

  The population of Reaper’s Hollow was growing quickly enough that she’d been able to take a position at Thomas Elementary without Cindy Lewis, the teacher who had taken her class over the year before when she’d gone to look for her mother, having to find a new position. Cindy had become a great friend, and Ru really enjoyed working with her and the woman who’d taken over for Cutter last year. Of course, it was great to get to work with Candace again. They were back to their old ways, squaring off against Jane Owen whenever they had the chance, though she seemed a lot nicer now than she had before
. Either that or she didn’t bother to pick on Ru anymore since she clearly wasn’t the fragile flower she’d been a year ago.

  Because of the increase in student numbers, fifth grade had needed another teacher, too, and Ru was happy to recommend a friend of hers for the job, one that was familiar to Mrs. Long. He had made the perfect fifth grade science teacher, and the principal was pleased with his performance. Ira and the rest of the students clearly agreed that his class was the best. Though it was a little awkward for Ru at first to see him every day, considering their past, she soon got used to it. Despite the fact that their relationship hadn’t turned out the way either of them had expected, she definitely counted him as a friend now, and it had turned out to be much better than the alternative.

  On her way back to her classroom, Ru decided to swing by the fifth-grade hallway to check out Ira’s project and check in on her new friend. So far, he’d done a good job of fooling everyone into thinking he had some know-how at this even though his teaching experience was incredibly limited, despite what his resume said.

  Finding his door open, Ru popped her head in. He had his back to her, studying something on his desk, and Ru couldn’t help but smile. Even though things hadn’t worked out, there was no doubt he was an attractive man.

  He turned and their eyes met. A slow smile spread across his face. “Hey, Ru. How are you?”

  “Good,” she said, stepping inside. “Glad it’s Friday. Did you have a good week?”

  “Yeah, you know, I think I’m really starting to get the hang of this.”

  She giggled at the merriment that danced in his eyes. He really did look truly happy. A year ago, she wouldn’t have thought that was possible. “I just stopped by to see if I could check out Ira’s project.”

  “Oh, yeah. It’s right over there.” He gestured at a table in the back of the room and Ru headed in that direction. “Be quick though. I’ve gotta go.”