The Reaping

by M. Leighton

  “Found out what about Grey?”

  “She made a deal of her own. She had gotten quite dangerous and I think that living in this world, by this world’s rules, was too restrictive for her. So she found another place and another way to satisfy her…appetites.”

  “She did this on her own?”

  “Yes.”

  “What about my skin?”

  “What about it?”

  “Underneath, it’s white. Pearly white.”

  Janine looked thoughtful, but troubled. “You must’ve come back different, too, brought something back from the other side.”

  “That’s it? It’s just some fluke of being dead? I was never doomed, because we are twins?”

  “What do you mean, Carson?” She looked genuinely puzzled.

  That was answer enough.

  “Did you tell Grey about the deal you made?”

  “No. I was afraid—,” she began, stopping suddenly, as if catching herself. “No, I didn’t.”

  “Then how did she know what to do? That it was even possible?”

  “She met someone. A boy. He filled her head with all sorts of lies and deceptions, I think. It wasn’t long after that when she told me she was leaving, that she’d gotten a ‘job’ with a man named Fahl. That’s when I knew.”

  She met a boy? I thought of Derek. And my blood ran cold at where my thoughts were headed.

  “I just didn’t want you to make the same mistake, fall for the same lies and trickery,” she continued.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I wanted you to know what a disaster it is to make any kind of arrangements with someone like that. It never ends well. Ever.”

  I bowed my head, knowing without a doubt that I’d been duped. And, unless I found a way out—a loophole, a way to thwart him—I’d pay for it with my life, my very soul.

  “It’s too late,” I whispered.

  Janine scooted to the edge of her seat. “Carson, what have you done?”

  Doubts assailed me and the room dipped and swayed under my feet. Had I really seen my father and Derek trapped in the Darkness or was it some kind of trick? Had Derek been planted in my life rather than just sent to find me? Was it all just lies? Had I agreed to the ultimate demise of my soul for nothing?

  I doubled over in my chair, a terrible pain seizing my stomach, my guts. I squeezed my eyes shut, unwilling to consider the possibility that I’d given it all away for …nothing. “No, no, no, no, no,” I chanted, rocking back and forth.

  I felt a hand on my back and opened my eyes to two loafer-shod feet on the floor in front of me.

  “Carson, tell me what happened,” Janine whispered urgently, rubbing soothing circles on my back.

  “Oh my God, what have I done?”

  I sat back suddenly and for a moment, I thought I saw Leah smiling where she sat in an armchair to my right, but an instant later, her expression was carefully blank. Then my mother was blocking my vision as she squatted in front of me and took my face in her hands.

  When I saw her expression, I recognized it immediately. I’d seen it a thousand times with Dad. It shone from her face like the light of a million bulbs and it warmed me just the same. It was love. So when she drew me into her arms, I went willingly. And then I crumbled.

  Weeping bitterly, I let her soothe me, just like a mother should, just like I’d imagined it all my life. And it felt wonderful. Bittersweet, but wonderful. She whispered quiet, calming things into my ear. I didn’t pay attention to the words, just the tone. It was like a salve to a raw wound.

  She held me like that for quite a while before she leaned back and looked into my face.

  “Tell me what happened. From the beginning. We’ll figure something out,” she said with a smile. It was intended to be a confident smile, I’m sure, but it was more worried than I think she realized.

  So I told her everything, everything from my skin changing all the way to Nathan’s new condition. I omitted nothing—not my feelings for Derek or what had happened with Leah, though when I got to that part, my mother looked back at Leah with a hint of concern on her pretty face. She said nothing, though, just returned her attention to me.

  “Well, that gives us a lot to think about,” she said, rising to a standing position. She reached down and took my hands, pulling me to my feet. “Why don’t you go get some sleep? You’re bound to be exhausted,” she surmised, tucking my hair behind my left ear in a distinctly motherly gesture. “We might have a long night and you’ll need your rest. We’ll start in the woods, alright?”

  What her look and her tone implied was that she would take care of everything and, though I didn’t see how, it was enough to appease me for the moment. I was tired of being an adult; I wanted to be a carefree kid again, letting my parents take care of everything. And right now, all I wanted was my bed.

  ********

  A nagging feeling of dread and urgency woke me. I’d been dreaming of my mother. She was walking through a midnight forest, the tiny sliver of moon that hung low in the sky barely enough to light her way. I’d glimpsed a symbol on the inside of her right wrist as she pushed a branch back and held it for Leah, who trailed behind her.

  I sat up and looked around. My room was dark, as was the night outside my window. I’d fallen into a deep, numb sleep and awakened to a quite house. I listened for sounds of movement or voices, but there were none. That couldn’t be right. Where was everybody?

  Pushing the comforter off my legs, I rushed out of the bedroom to the living room. It was empty, as was the kitchen. Where would Leah and my mother have gone? At night? Without me?

  The first answer that came to mind was disturbing enough. The second was downright terrifying. I’d left Leah alone with my mother.

  I ran to the kitchen door and pushed my feet into my tennis shoes. I grabbed the car keys from the hook mounted to the wall and reached for my coat, only it wasn’t there. I looked to the coat that hung next to it. It was a yellow parka. I figured it was my mother’s. The cold chill of destiny washed over me as I grabbed the coat and ran out the door.

  My heart and my mind raced all the way to the forks, where I pulled off the road and parked on the shoulder. I leapt out and headed for the woods.

  As I quickly picked my way across the uneven terrain, I went back over my dream, trying to remember as much detail as possible, hoping it was just a dream and nothing more. Something in my gut, however, told me that it was much, much more than that.

  I rounded a tree and nearly tripped over my own feet when I saw my mother pinned up against a tree just ahead of me. My heart stopped for an instant before restarting at a breakneck pace. I haven’t had her long enough. I haven’t had enough time! I thought frantically. And then Leah tore into her throat.

  I raced forward, ready to tear my friend limb from limb, but I ran right through them. They evaporated like mist. It was only a vision. I turned back and the image solidified again, but it was like I’d hit the rewind button.

  My mother was saying something, shaking her head and taking slow, careful steps backward, until she ran into a tree. At first, I couldn’t see who she was talking to. Then Leah entered the picture. Only she didn’t look entirely like Leah.

  Framed by her trademark springy, dark curls, Leah’s face was a mottled gray color. Her eyes were wide and feral. They looked like burnt, obsidian holes in her head with a smoky ring of soot around each one. Her lips were curled back viciously, baring dozens of sharp, elongated teeth that chattered in anticipation. Thin black veins crept out from around her mouth, across her cheeks and down her chin, like inky spider web.

  She tilted her head to one side, as if she were trying to understand what my mother was saying. And then, in a movement so fast I couldn’t track it with my eyes, she was pinning my mother to the tree. This time, I could see the filmy presence of Grey by her side. She stood to Leah’s left, her head bent toward Leah’s ear. I could see her mouth moving as if she were speaking and then, like she’d said something to enrage Le
ah, Leah bent her head and tore violently into my mother’s throat.

  I had to look away. Even though it wasn’t real (hopefully it hadn’t even happened yet), I couldn’t bear to watch Leah feed from her.

  Then the sound of voices—raised voices—reached my ears. I turned back toward the clearing and took off at a dead run. When I came upon them, they were in the woods right at the edge of the clearing. Leah was shouting, though I couldn’t make out the words, and my mother’s soothing voice was all but drowned out by it. She was backing up and I could see the tree that she would eventually be pinned to.

  Pushing my legs as fast as they would go, I bent at the waist and aimed my shoulder right for Leah’s middle. When I hit her, I heard the air whoosh out as it was forced from her lungs in a grunt.

  Once Leah was on the ground, I turned back toward my mother. I grabbed her hand and pulled her into the clearing. I was going to take her to the one place I knew Leah couldn’t follow us.

  “Close your eyes,” I commanded. Without question, she did as I asked. Satisfied, I grabbed her hand, pulling her arm in tight under mine, closed my eyes and pictured the black house, hoping my concentration would hold long enough to get us there before Leah reached us.

  When I started to get that dizzy feeling again, I opened my eyes. We were in the charred yard of the black house, the one place I didn’t think I’d ever be pleased to see. I breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that we’d escaped Leah.

  When I turned to face her, I saw movement behind her. My heart lurched as I saw the dead, clumsily making their way across the crispy lawn toward us. And they looked ravenous.

  Regrettably, I hadn’t had time to think my plan all the way through. I didn’t know how to get us back.

  There was nothing I could do about that now, though, so I scanned our surroundings, looking for a place to take my mother—a safe place. But there was nothing around for miles it seemed, nothing but the house, the field and the dense forest on every side.

  “Come on,” I said, pulling her along behind me. We ran toward the black house. I had no idea what I thought we might do once we got there, but it appeared to be the only viable option for shelter and safety.

  It wasn’t that far, which was good, but that also meant that it didn’t give me much time to think before the dead reached us.

  We climbed the steps and stopped on the stoop. I looked down at the doorknob, knowing what was coming if I touched it. But what choice did I have?

  Gritting my teeth, I curled my fingers around the silver knob. And, as I expected, the pain arrived almost instantaneously. Gasping, I bit my lip to keep from crying out and, just like before, I was temporarily immobilized by agony.

  Focusing on my fingers, I waited for the worst of it to pass so I could grip and twist the doorknob and get my mother to safety.

  And then I heard her scream.

  Fighting against the pain, I was able to turn my head just enough to see what she’d screamed about. It was the dead. They were all around us, many even up on the steps. They were grabbing and snapping at my mother. She had flattened herself against the door as much as possible, but they were quickly closing in on us.

  I called my reluctant muscles into action, using every ounce of strength I could summon. I tightened my grip on the doorknob and twisted. Inch by excruciating inch, it turned and, as it released, I all but fell through the door. Just like last time.

  Landing on my back knocked the breath out of me, but other than that, I was feeling much better. The pain was subsiding much more quickly than it had the previous time. Gingerly, I turned my head and looked around. My mother was neither to my left or my right.

  I pushed myself into a sitting position and, through the invisible barrier that covered the doorway, I saw my mother’s back pressed up against it. She was trapped outside.

  “No!” I screamed, finding my feet and launching myself toward the door. I grabbed my mother by the shoulders and tried to pull her through into the house, but I couldn’t so I walked back through the doorway and tried to push her inside. That didn’t work either; it was like trying to stuff a doll through the cracks in a brick wall.

  I turned my back to her, pressing my body against hers, effectively shielding her from all the hungry mouths and greedy hands that were reaching for us. I kicked at them, forgetting that it was useless, like raising my leg into thin air.

  My mother squealed at my back, jerking her leg away from something. I looked down and saw that several staggering dead had found their way around to the sides of the steps where they could just reach our feet with their greedy fingers.

  Time was running out. I had to act quickly.

  My father’s words, you’re truly a light in the darkness, mingled with something Derek had said about my skin and melted into understanding.

  Looking down at my arm, I pushed my sleeve up and dug my fingernails into the tender flesh of my wrist, exposing the pearly white layer beneath. Immediately, I could feel something crackle in the air around me, a power I’d not felt before.

  Just then, a woman I’d seen previously, the nearly-beheaded one, lunged at me, bearing her blunt teeth as if she intended to take a bite. I raised my bent arm and slammed my elbow into her face, knocking her backward into the throng. I wondered briefly if I’d detached her head, but when she stood back up, it was still in place atop her shoulders.

  Blood was in the water, though (or, in this case, in the air). My actions seemed to enrage and innervate the dead. They became frantic and desperate, more so than usual. I kicked and punched, clearing out a spot from which to defend us.

  When I looked out at the sea of bodies in front of me, it seemed to be ever-growing, like they were multiplying right before my eyes, sprouting from the ground or crawling out of the trees. Seeing them begin to close in on us again so quickly, I realized that I couldn’t fight them all. We wouldn’t stand a chance. I needed something…bigger.

  I was afraid to close my eyes, but I knew that if my plan was to be successful, I needed to focus. I scanned the mangled faces on the steps then quickly closed my eyes. I brought the faces to mind, one by one, and then pictured them all on fire.

  The screams were muffled at first. Then they became loud wails of agony. I opened my eyes and watched as the torn and broken bodies of the dead stumbled down the steps and into the yard, flailing blindly, their voices crying out from among the flames.

  Satisfied, I pictured the crowd to the left of us next, the ones on the ground that were reaching for our feet. In seconds, they were on fire as well. I repeated the process with another section of the group, then another. It seemed I’d dispatched hundreds of the dead, but each time I looked out there was more rather than less.

  Trying to get ahead of the endless ocean of snapping teeth, I shook the earth and opened up a huge crack that swallowed dozens and dozens of the unsuspecting dead, catching them unawares.

  That worked so well, I was deciding where else I could put such a crevasse when it began to sprinkle. Faster and faster, fat drops flew past my face, rising from the ground in a torrential rain that quickly extinguished the writhing, burning bodies scattered about the yard. I watched, mouth agape, as many began to make their way to their feet.

  Looking wildly around for the location of my next chasm, I stopped when I saw bodies floating to the surface in the one I’d just created. The upside down rain was flooding the gorge, pushing the dead up and spitting them out onto the wet ground, where they quickly found their legs and started toward us once more. My confidence faltered, quickly succumbing to the panic that was blossoming in my gut.

  Then I saw Grey.

  She came strolling out of the woods, as carefree as if it were a sunny afternoon in the country. She stopped at the edge of the horde and smiled.

  “Not so easy when you have a capable opponent, huh, Sis?”

  A wind arose so quickly, so strongly, it almost knocked me off the porch. I was nearly horizontal as I held on to the door frame. My mother seemed unaffected b
y it. It was as if I alone was in a wind tunnel.

  I turned my face away from the wind and tucked it into my arm. I opened my eyes just a crack and saw my mother. A frown came over her face then a look of surprise as she fanned her hand in front of her face. As I watched, her eyes grew round and her mouth opened up as if she was taking a deep breath. Only she didn’t. Her chest didn’t rise at all. She started shaking her head and squeezed her eyes shut. When she opened them again, they were watering and her face was turning red. Engorged in her strain, the veins in her neck and forehead stood out as she began to claw desperately at her throat. Her mouth opened and closed several times like she was trying to speak or breathe, but nothing was happening. That’s when I realized she was suffocating.