Lost Reaper

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

I opened my eyes and found myself somewhere else, looking through a window at my body on the service station floor. Blood coated the front of my T-shirt, darkening the cloth. My caramel-coloured skin was pale, heart-shaped face slack, long black hair matted with blood.

I put a hand on my chest. My heart beat faster and faster. It should have reassured me, but I couldn’t ignore the evidence of my own eyes.

I was dead.

I clutched my stomach and found my ruined clothes had been replaced by a long white gown, the silken fabric soft and cool against my body. My feet were bare but I could feel nothing beneath my toes. Around me was a dark void, the only light coming from the room where a horrible scene was playing out.

Behind the counter, the owner had pulled himself to his feet and was frantically pushing buttons on an ancient telephone, gnarled hands shaking, horror etched on his face when his call wouldn’t connect.

To the left of my body, the man who’d tried to give me a chance to escape slumped at the end of the aisle closest to the counter. He struggled to his knees, oblivious of the monster standing over him.

I heard the knife thud home and wanted to turn away but my body seized up. Helpless, I watched the owner scramble out from behind the counter, making for a door marked ‘Staff Only’. The monster got to his feet and stalked after him, whistling as he prepared to kill again.

I sobbed, hands covering my mouth, tears streaming down my face.

‘It doesn’t have to end this way, Tyler.’

I dropped my hands and spun around.

A man shrouded in mist appeared out of the darkness, the light from the service station creating shadows that cloaked his features as he glided towards me.

The mist flowed around him like a living thing, keeping his shape indistinct until he stood in front of me. Then it parted. He was tall, gaunt, dressed in a stylish black suit and a long cape, the angles of his face so sharp they would cut any who dared touch him. His eyes were black and cold, and I shivered as he stared at me.

‘What… who are you?’ Tendrils of mist crept towards me and wrapped around my feet, twining their way up my body and pinning my arms to my sides.

My breathing came in gasps as I struggled against the mist but it only tightened its grip. Wispy fingers touched my face, tasting me, tasting my fear. Then the man waved his hand and the mist retreated.

‘My name is Jonathon Grimm, and I have a proposition for you.’

‘A proposition?’ My gaze darted around the void, seeking something, anything, to explain what was happening to me. The black expanse ridiculed my hopes, reflecting back an empty nothingness as goose pimples skittered across my body.

‘Agree to work for me and I will bring you back to life.’

‘You can do that?’ I drew in a shaky breath. ‘Why me?’

Grimm stared at me, no expression on his face. ‘I have my reasons.’

I heard muffled screams coming from the service station’s staffroom. My stomach heaved, and I struggled to comprehend what he was offering me. ‘What kind of work are you talking about?’

Jonathon Grimm waved his hand and the disturbing noises cut off. ‘One of my reapers has become lost, entangled in the body of a soul due to be reaped. I need you to find him and bring him home.’

‘Reapers?’ I stared at him. He’d said his name was Jonathon Grimm. ‘You’re the Grim Reaper?’

‘You sound doubtful, but I assure you I am who I say I am.’

‘I don’t understand,’ I said, stumbling over my words. ‘I thought the Grim Reaper was a skeletal figure in a hooded cloak.’ I waved a shaking hand at his clothes. ‘You look like an undertaker in one of those old British movies.’

His wintry gaze focused on me. ‘That is one of my aspects, but I thought you would be more comfortable with this.’ He waved a hand over his body. ‘It seems I was mistaken.’

The mist burst into movement, rushing towards me, thickening, choking me. I waved my hands in front of my face, desperate to keep the damp, cold tendrils away. The mist resisted, but for a brief second I caught a glimpse of what lurked behind the unnatural fog.

I opened my mouth to scream and the blackness surrounding us swallowed the sound. I couldn’t stop screaming and if the mist hadn’t ensnared me, holding me upright, I would have dropped to my knees and cowered before his terrible figure.

Abnormally tall, stretched past anything resembling human, he loomed over me, his cloak billowing around him revealing the skeletal frame hidden within the voluminous cloth. One hand held his scythe, and the other stretched towards me bringing a cold so intense it burned my nose. Tears streamed down my face.

I gasped for air but the mist had become like a blanket, suffocating me, ramming its way down my throat. I clawed at my neck, desperate to clear my airway. I was going to die, but I was already dead so that wasn’t possible.

Was there something worse than being dead?

The mist swirled before my eyes, making it impossible to see. Then it released me and I slumped to my knees. And there stood Jonathon Grimm, in his creepy undertaker outfit. He leaned over me and I flinched. Those thin lips formed a tight smile and his glacial eyes glowed.

The cold retreated. I sucked air into my lungs as fast as I could in case he stole my breath away again. I scrambled to my feet, hoping that would be the last time I ever got to see him change into his other form.

‘Do you accept my offer?’

I nodded, and kept nodding, despite the effort my hands were putting in to keep my head still. The cold fire burning in his gaze made me think there were worse things than dying and maybe I’d find out what those were if I turned him down.

‘What do I have to do?’ I asked, anxious to get as far away from Grimm as possible. At the same time, what he offered drew me in.

‘After your… resurrection, you will begin searching for my lost reaper.’

Resurrection. The way he said it made me squirm, like a dirty word that should never be spoken in polite company. But I pushed aside my unease. ‘How am I supposed to find this guy? You said he got tangled up in someone else’s body. Do you have any idea what he even looks like?’

‘Looks are immaterial. You will be drawn to him, and he to you. Each reaper is given an assigned reaping ground and Easton belonged to Ash. That is where the body he has been caught up in will be found. Find it and release him. That’s all you have to do, other than acting as his replacement.’

I gave a start. ‘As in… you want me to be a reaper?’ A shiver swept over me at the thought of being around dead bodies on a regular basis. ‘I don’t even know what a reaper does.’

‘They act as a conduit between life and death, drawing the soul out of the dying body and allowing it to come here, to the Underworld, where the souls remain until it is time for them to be reborn.’

‘But how am I supposed—’

He glared at me. ‘If you want to be resurrected it needs to be done now, before rigour sets in and your body is irreparably damaged.’

I wanted to say I’d rather stay dead than work for him. But I’d barely begun to live my life, taking the first steps towards getting everything I ever wanted. As for the questions crowding my brain, there’d be time to find answers once he’d resurrected me.

‘I’ll do it.’ Easton wasn’t a big city. If I got lucky I wouldn’t have to do any reaping. As soon as I found Ash, he could have his job back.

‘When you find Ash,’ said Grimm, ‘you will reap his soul immediately. Then you will be free to resume your life, as long as you have fulfilled your obligation as novice reaper for this town.’

‘I said I’d do it, be a reaper. Tell me what I have to do, zap me back to life or whatever you plan on doing, and I’ll get to work,’ I said, the words tumbling out, hoping he didn’t notice the way my lips trembled.

He waved his hand and the mist thickened, encasing us in a cocoon. Then he moved forward, hands outstretched. Only these were the skeletal hands of a reaper, reaching for my neck. I backed away, desperate to avoid his grasp. But the mist snapped around me, a gossamer prison trapping me as effectively as steel bars.

Grimm touched me with deathly cold fingers, my skin cringing as he gripped my neck with both hands. I froze as he scoured my body with a cold so extreme it stopped my heart beating. I screamed; every molecule of my being shattered into a thousand pieces. My vision went black.

Surely this was hell.