The Reaper's Apprentices #1: Awakened

by CS Patra

  “I take it that you aren’t doing any modeling anytime soon?” Yuka asked with a smile. “What about that Givenchy campaign that you’ve been talking about? ?”

  “I didn’t get the Givenchy campaign,” she explained with a sigh. “They thought I looked too young. Oh well, I guess there’s always next season. By then, I’ll be fifteen and hopefully more up to standards. For now, I just want to be young and happy. What better way to do that than to go out for a while and eat some junk food?”

  “Well, let’s celebrate being young then,” Tessa suggested. “After all, we’re going to end up being immortal by the time we’re in our forties. Let’s enjoy the time that we have now.”

  “That’s the first great idea you’ve had in a while,” Kaska said. “Let’s celebrate being young! And to Paris. Things are going to be great, girls. As long as we don’t think too much about being Guardians, we will be good.”

  They were back to being Debra, Rosemary, Tiffany, and Suzanne for the night.

  Dinner turned out to be two large pizzas that they happily devoured. It had been weeks since they had eaten out, and each bite was more delicious than the last. It was nice to see people around and to be talking in a crowded restaurant. All the time in Tartarus Sanctum had made them forget how nice the outside world could be.

  “Best decision we have made in our lives!” Suzanne exclaimed, taking another slice. “I know my agency is going to kill me, but I can’t help it. There’s always next season and the gym-.”

  “Maybe we should slow down a little bit,” Rosemary suggested, as people were staring as they walked by. “We’re the only ones eating like animals here.”

  “Well, they kinda consider us animals,” Debra said. “They shouldn’t be that surprised.”

  “But we’re in human form,” Tiffany whispered. “At the very least, we should try to act like humans. Let’s look at what’s on the TV.” She pointed to one of them. “Hey, it’s a football game! I wonder who’s winning.”

  “Who cares? Look at that explosion!” Rosemary was looking at another TV where something had blown up. “Wow, those are some amazing special effects!”

  “Special effects? They’ve got Brady Bunch reruns on this screen.” Debra turned to another one. “Man, I like a place that doesn’t just have sports on the tube. We did make a good decision to stop by here, especially since it’s not too far away from home. I forgot how fun being a human can be. It’s all the little things people take for granted.”

  “For sure. Check out the news!” Suzanne turned to the next TV, and her smile faded when she saw the airport. “More airport news? Don’t these demons know when to stop?”

  “What are they even doing there?” Tiffany asked. “You’d think that with all the media and police around, they would try to hide.”

  “Maybe they don’t want to hide,” Rosemary said. “Maybe they want people to see them, because they’re planning something. Maybe it’s such a big plan that they want everyone to know they exist. Now what they could be planning, I don’t know.”

  “Well, they have to stop.” Debra frowned at the TV screen. “If they keep terrorizing people, they’re going to give the rest of us a bad reputation.”

  “What if they aren’t terrorizing people?” Suzanne asked. “What if they’re trying to do something else, and it just looks like they’re terrorizing people.”

  “You’re giving them too much credit. Not all the demons are like us,” Tiffany whispered. “Most of them don’t have what we’ve got. A lot of them have simply lost their direction in life.”

  Chapter 7

  As they left the restaurant, they were surprised to see what was stuck to the buildings and poles outside. They certainly didn’t like the idea of demons in the airport, but it was the fliers that truly shocked them. Someone had stuck fliers on every possible surface. Unfortunately, the only thing anyone was able to read on them was: ‘ANTI-DEMON! BE RID OF THESE PESTS TODAY!’

  “Would you look at that?” Kaska said, as she picked up one of the papers that had fallen on the ground. “Now there are anti-demon groups. This is just what we need.”

  “I wonder if these flyers weren’t here all the time, and we just never noticed until now,” Tessa said, staring at a telephone pole covered with the anti-demon propaganda. “Maybe people are a lot more aware of us than we think. Maybe demons have been causing problems well before this airport incident."

  "You’re full of a lot of ‘maybes’ today,” Yuka noted, looking at a building covered with the fliers. “I swear there isn’t a single place on this block that doesn’t have this crap on it.”

  “I had no idea the airport stuff was so bad,” Avani said, as they walked down the streets. “Now people can’t travel anywhere. And a bunch of people can’t come home. I wonder what’s making all the demons go berserk.”

  “Maybe they aren’t going berserk. Maybe they’re just as scared as the humans, but can’t really let anyone know,” Tessa pointed out. “I mean, there’s no one willing to talk to them. Everyone’s running in the other direction.”

  They each thought about what she had said, watching as some people headed toward an old building. No one knew why, but they were being drawn to it. It didn’t seem like a club or a restaurant, yet people were flocking to it. Kaska motioned to her friends to go into hiding so no one on the street would notice them.

  “Maybe we should go back to Tartarus Sanctum,” Yuka suggested. “We still have time before our masters come back. I mean, we’ve had our fun. Maybe we should go.”

  “But we have time!” Kaska pointed out. “That’s the thing! For the first time in a long time, we have time to enjoy ourselves! We’re running around at night and feeling like we belong in this world! It’s like we’ve been released from prison!”

  “No, I think we can go and explore the old building for a little bit,” she said. “If there’s nothing interesting, we’ll turn back. We won’t bother the humans, and we won’t say a word about it to the masters. Agreed?”

  “Do you know what this is?” she asked, pointing to the hole in the wall.

  “No, what?” Tessa asked, as she looked through the hole. “It just looks like a boring meeting.”

  “It’s a bunch of demon slayers!” Yuka exclaimed, after peeking into the hole herself. “It can’t be boring if it’s demon slayers! The ones Master Sebastian keeps talking about, you know? Let’s find out what they’re doing!” she said, as she started in the building.

  Kaska’s jaw dropped at that. She grabbed Yuka’s arm. “Yuka, are you crazy? When I said we should have a good time, I meant we should do fun things, not get ourselves killed! Those are demon slayers! We are demons! Guys like that kill girls like us!”

  “Yeah, I don’t feel good about this either,” Tessa responded, as she held in a gulp. “We’re trespassing and eavesdropping and who knows what else. I have no idea if any of those things are illegal, but it doesn’t matter. I don’t think we should be here. We should turn back. We’ll find other fun things to do.”

  Avani peered into the room and didn’t understand why Kaska and Tessa were so scared. The room looked harmless with all those men in there. They looked serious, but it was nothing horrible. Those two were overreacting as usual. Their masters had all told them not to provoke these types of guys. And they weren’t doing that. They were just listening in. No harm, no foul.

  “I think we should stay,” Avani said, settling in.

  “What? Why?” Kaska asked. “Are you crazy? We need to get out of here! We need to go back!”

  “And do what? We’re stuck at home until tomorrow. Our masters are out and finally, after all these years, we’re getting some excitement,” Yuka declared, then frowned, giving in. “Look, we’ll stay here for ten minutes, and see what they’re talking about. Then we’ll leave. If it sucks, we’ll leave sooner. Are you fine with that?”

  “I don’t…” Tessa started, but Avani stepped in and cut her off.

  “Ten minutes isn’t that long, guy
s. It’ll go by so fast that they won’t even know we are here. So far, it looks boring enough that we might end up leaving early,” she pointed out.

  Tessa started to speak again, but Yuka cut her off this time, whispering, “As long as we stay quiet, things will be fine. Come on.”

  Kaska and Tessa knew they were in the middle of a pointless battle. Yuka and Avani had already parked themselves close to the door, listening eagerly to what would happen. Giving up, the girls sat by the door, waiting to hear something exciting, hoping it would be boring so the other two would want to leave. As it turns out, demon slayers in a meeting aren’t exciting to watch. They all listened in.

  “As you know, demonic activity has hit an all-time high,” the apparent leader announced. “The footage at the airport hasn’t been changed in any means. They are running around for some reason, and we need to stop them.”

  “But what are we going to do?” someone asked. “They move so fast and are gone before we get there! How are we going to stop something we can’t see?”

  “A very good question. Luckily I have the answer: we move faster. We overtake them and put fear in their hearts. Demons are under the impression that they are the most powerful creatures in the world. Well, we need to remind them just who really rules the world. This is our planet, and we are not letting those monsters trample all over it.”

  “Monsters?” Avani whispered, offended. “We’re not trampling anything. What is this guy talking about?”

  “Shhh!” Kaska silenced her. Suddenly, she was intrigued by this harmless meeting. “I want to hear more.”

  “Oh, now you’re interested.” Yuka rolled her eyes. “Come on. These guys are up to something. I can smell it from behind this door.”

  Tessa sniffed the air. “All I smell is the wood in this building.”

  “Now we have come up with the ultimate plan to pacify these beasts,” the leader went on. “I’m using the term lightly, as they aren’t friendly creatures. We have to put them where all animals go: in cages. We’ll stuff them in cages!”

  “Cages? What the hell does he want? To send us to a zoo?” Kaska asked.

  The leader continued, “But even cages can’t hold these menaces. So we’re going to have to take it one step further.”

  “What does he mean by that?” Tessa asked angrily. .

  They heard something being rolled down but continued to listen to the leader. “Now we know where a lot of them like to hide. Some are getting a little bold by coming out into the daylight, but demons love their shadows; they crave the darkness. They will do whatever they can to get away from light.”

  “But what about the ones running around in the airport? They’re doing it in broad daylight,” someone countered. “How can we stop them while they’re running around in crowds? We don’t want to hurt innocent people.”

  “Of course not,” the leader agreed. “Our job is to protect our own. But we have to get them out of the airport and back into the darkness where they belong. If they don’t want to come quietly, we’ll force them out, using whatever means necessary.”

  “These guys mean business,” Yuka whispered. “I don’t think we should hang around here anymore. We know too much. Plus there’s nothing we can do to stop them now.”

  “I want to see!” Tessa hissed, leaning against Yuka to peek through the hole. Yuka tried to push her away, but it was hard. Kaska and Avani were also trying to look through the hole and their combined weight was too much for the wooden wall. It quickly cracked and the four of them fell forward with the wall, screaming as they landed in a pile right in front of the demon slayers.

  “What the hell?!” someone exclaimed, looking down at the pile of the four girls. A cloud of dust hung in the air, and they coughed as they sat up. Staring back at them were demon slayers, confused and annoyed that their meeting had been interrupted in such a manner.

  “Oh crud,” Kaska muttered, looking up at the group of demon slayers — none of them happy to see the girls on the floor. . Kaska’s eyes darted toward the door, wondering how they could get out of this one alive.

  “Well, this is very awkward,” Tessa said. “I’m sure you’re wondering what we’re doing here. Rest assured that…I was…I was looking for…the bathroom, and I stumbled in here! The one in McDonald’s was dirty and broken. Yeah, I know, how can a fast food restaurant have a dirty and broken bathroom? But…_”

  “Shut up!” someone yelled at her and she stopped talking.

  “Thank you, random demon slayer,” Yuka whispered out loud. She tried to calm everyone down. “Look, we don’t know what you’re planning. We barely understood anything, so it’s not like we can spill it to anyone. We don’t want to hurt you. All we want is to get out of here.” Her words weren’t convincing them as she saw no changes in their facial expressions . “Well, I can see you’re a very serious bunch. So are we! Now can we go? We won’t reveal anything. Pinkie swear and all that good stuff.”

  “I don’t think this is working,” Kaska whispered to her. “We’ve got to get out of here!”

  The demon slayers just stared at the girls.

  “Hi!” Avani greeted them, trying to play it cool. As they advanced closer, she started to move back. “I’m not going to loop around and give you some bullshit reason. You deserve the truth. We are just…in the wrong place at the wrong time. But we didn’t hear anything, and we don’t know anything so…we’re just gonna go home!”

  “She’s right! Ciao!” Kaska threw in, inching toward the door. She felt the door knob under her palm and slowly turned it. “It’s been fun, but we gotta run! We’ve got a curfew!”

  “We just wandered in here by mistake. It’s no big deal,” Tessa sang, slowly walking backwards as the demon slayers got up. “I take it you don’t care?”

  “Get them!” someone yelled from the back.

  “Run, girls!” Yuka yelled, pushing them out the door. In what felt like seconds, the whole room erupted in chaos and noise. They had gotten a head start, but the demon slayers were starting to catch up. Whatever these humans were yelling, the girls couldn’t make it out. All they cared about was getting to the portal. Once they found that, they could get home. No human could use those portals. They’d be safe for the time being.

  “Where is it?!” Kaska yelled, dodging arrows, rocks, and other things that were being thrown at them. An arrow whizzed past her ear, and she gasped. “Someone find the portal fast!”

  “Maybe we should split up!” Yuka exclaimed, turning around to see about twenty demon slayers on their trail. “Oh hell…” She looked ahead and saw more demon slayers. “We’re trapped! What do we do now?!”

  “I don’t think we’ve got time for splitting up! Let’s go through here!” Tessa exclaimed, opening a door in the side as the demon slayers neared them. She screamed and pushed past them, running down the hall. More things were flying around now, and she kept hoping that none of them would get her.

  “This is the worst night of my life!” Avani yelled. “Why am I wearing these shoes?! I didn’t expect to run tonight!”

  “That’s great, Avani! Shoes! Tell you what: let’s complain about our shoes once we get back to Tartarus Sanctum!” Yuka shot back, finding another door that revealed another hallway. “What is this, the house of hallways?! All I want is a damn exit!”

  “Maybe we should have listened to our masters!” Tessa pulled open another door. “Oh God, it’s another hallway! Don’t these people have any rooms?!”

  “My side is killing me,” Yuka moaned, doubling over in pain. “We should not have eaten those two large pizzas! I don’t think I can make it!”

  “But you have to make it! We need to get out or we’re history!” Avani reminded her as they ran straight into a wall.

  “Oh no! What are we going to do now?!”

  “It’s a dead end!” Kaska yelled as they tried to claw at the wall. She looked up at the ceiling and didn’t see any means of escape there either. “Holy crap, we’re trapped! What do we do now?!”r />
  Yuka fell to the ground and turned around, expecting to see a demon slayer. But instead something moved in front of her, blocking her from harm. Slowly, she got back to her feet and tried to grab the wall as the shadowed figure moved in front of her. A familiar feeling fell over her, and she knew who it was. They were going to be safe.

  “Master!” Yuka exclaimed, as Sebastian got between her and the demon slayers. He didn’t bother to look at her, but rather focused on blocking the attacks. She noticed how swift he was, pushing the slayers aside with ease and tossing them to the ground like they were rag dolls. For being young, he was stronger than her. It was clear why he was close to being a Grim Reaper. He stood with the same confidence Grim Reaper Linn had. It was a confidence Yuka was still trying to gain and currently failing at.

  “I’m so glad to see you,” she began, even though she knew he didn’t want to hear it.