The Last Guardian

Chapter_21: The Grim Reaper

Raven saw thermal images through her sniper scope- several men were gathering around the guys but they were moving incredibly fast. One moment they're here, another moment they're over there- they were closing in on them but were keeping a safe distance. She knew these were not ordinary demons- they were something more nasty- BETA DEMONS- ones who were not from hell but turned by injecting demon blood into regular humans. The blood would slowly take over the person's mind and body like a Virus and soon they would turn into obedient zombie like slaves- ready to die for their master. They were very strong and fast and it was hard to get one at gunpoint. The only way to kill them was to kill the Alpha- whose blood was running through their veins.

She observed carefully- five demons towards the east waiting to attack- two at the front- three towards the west side. She counted- ten...no...twelve... fifteen....now twenty altogether!

"My God... this is gonna be a massacre...the guys are seriously outnumbered-" she thought.

She searched for the Alpha- he was nowhere on the ground- wait- he's high up on a pile of crates! His heat signature was massive- like a raging fire inside a human body.

She seriously doubted Billy and Johnathan could handle them alone- even with her assistance. Johnathan could fight but he still didn't know how to invoke them at the right time- it was more like a spontaneous thing for him.

The winds began to howl - Johnathan could feel multiple supernatural presence all around them- something he had never felt before. He looked at Billy who was pointing his gun everywhere, trying to find a target.

"Oooh... I can smell the sweet taste of blood running through your body..." said Grim-his voice echoing in the dark of the night.

"I think we are surrounded-" said Johnathan.

"What?" yelled Billy- the wind was getting louder.

"I said- we are surround-" Johnathan shouted at him.

But before he could complete his sentence- Grim jumped right in front of him and landed with one knee on the ground- his head stooped.

Both of them froze at the devilish look of the demon. He was wearing a long black coat which was torn at the edges- his long glowing hair fell on his shoulder and he had masked his face with black cloth. But there was something else that Johnathan had never seen before- steam of black smoke emanating from his entire body- that reeked of dead corpse.

Grim stood up and raised his head and that's when Johnathan saw his eyes- those fiery red eyes- like pits of hell! He took of his mask and showed his pale white face full of scars.

"Who are you-" asked Billy.

Grim laughed at the question-

"They call me Grim- the reaper- prince of darkness-" he announced.

"Bastard!!" yelled Billy and shot three bullets at him.

The bullets went right through him but he appeared unbothered-

"Oh you poor piece of junk! Didn't they teach you- those bullets can do me no harm?" he said dusting his coat.

"Well I had to try-" scoffed Billy.

"You do realise you're not leaving this place alive- not even your dead bodies will be spared by my minions-" said Grim.

"Well so this was all a sham? For what- to get us here?" asked Billy.

"Not you- him!" replied Grim pointing at Johnathan.

"The master is very much interested in your little 'Guardian' over here- so I just spread some rumours- gave out some false information and 'Voila!' - you're here!" he added.

"Well two things- One! You're just another slave demon and I've excorcised a lot of demons- Two! You don't realise that you've invited your own death-"said Billy.

"Who? This loser?" laughed Grim.

Johnathan clenched his fist in anger.

"Ok! Enough of this-" said Billy and took off his hat and threw it on the ground.

Far away on the roof, Raven saw this and understood the signal- this meant a shot to the head! And so she fired at Grim's head- again the bullet went right through the back of his head and out if his forehead.

Grim froze for a moment but shook his head like it was nothing.

"God! Don't you ever die?" Billy was astonished.

Grim has had enough now and he yelled-

"Kill them!!"

Suddenly hordes of Beta Demons came crawling out of the dark and jumped at them.

Johnathan took out his sword and swung violently at the savages while Billy ran off firing trying to split them off.

Grim turned towards the roof and he knew exactly where Raven was hiding. She saw him grin at her through the rifle's scope and knew it was time for her to escape! But Grim sent one of his minions after her-

"Go get her-" he said.

Johnathan was finding it hard to keep up with the minions- he was barely able to keep himself from getting hurt - let alone atrack. When one of them tried to punch him- he ducked and swung his sword but the demon was to quick and escaped. Grim was enjoying this- he liked to play with his prey.

Raven saw two demons rushing at her from the docks and she immediately fired at them- luckily she hit one but the other one was still approaching her. She immediately put down her gun and jumped off the roof and onto her motorcycle and took off towards the street. Suddenly a steel rod hit her helmet from behind and she was knocked off her bike. She fell off and rolled down on the street while her bike slid a few metres away...

Billy shot two demons after firing two rounds but he had no more ammo left. So he took out his trusty long knife and began to fight them as fiercely as he could.

Grim stood watching as Johnathan kept fighting- the demons were surrounding him- and he was finding it difficult to fight them all at once.

"Where are my powers now?" he thought.

"You thought you could take me down? Me? The Reaper? Just look at you- a cripple! A sorry sad excuse for a Guardian! This us why your girl left you- because you're scared- you're scared of losing- you're scared of death- " Grim taunted him as he was getting hit.

Johnathan's sword fell off and now he was pinned against the woiden crates as the demons took turns to punch and kick him.

"Don't listen to him Johnny... remember..

remember... what I said... believe..." Billy shouted from the far end of the dock as he kept fighting.

A day after that curious incident,Henry was flipping through old books and newspaper trying to figure out the meaning of that peculiar phrase he found in the painting.The missing policemen were found unconscious and tied up inside a hidden room and the curator merely survived his injuries.But why did he point at that painting?What was so important in an old painting and how did it related to this case?What was with the flying men stories and that shady figure who spoke in German?...All these questions cluttered in his head and he could hardly find any answers after all he wasn't any detective.

After a nap of an hour and some light lunch he decided to call upon his old friend - Charlie- an retired american professor of archaeology,who stayed a few streets ahead of his house."If anyone can find meaning in these mysterious writings and shed some light upon this case,it is Prof.Charles Houston.",thought Henry ...

"From one source",said Charlie looking at Henry's notebook."It is a Norwegian phrase...But the painting that you found this phrase written upon has nothing to do with the phrase!". "And what does this masked clan has to do with it?"asked Henry. "Ah!Yes, the man...that hooded figure you saw that said those words to you was obviously a German and if I am right then this must be the work of that notorious masked thieve gang that had created a lot of nuisance all over Europe last summer..." said Charlie. "I do remember reading something about them in the papers...So this gang has been stealing all over europe and now they have stolen a Van Gogh from London..That's bad news.."said Henry as he lit a cigar. "It's a good thing you understand German...Here is the butler with the tea...Put it down on that table Jose ...Thank you..", said Charlie. Henry sat down thinking - "a gang of thieves,a stolen painting,a torn piece of paper..Yes but where is it? ...I thought I had brought it with me ...maybe it had fallen on the way here..."

After struggling through the dense sss forest for an hour me and my three local guides and Alicia arrived at the fabled-"city of the dead" built by the ancient aztecs. Huge ruins of pyramids, broken stones, pillars and pathways lay ahead of us in a clearing. Alicia was awestruck, "We did it - we finally found it!", she said,her eyes shining through her glasses. Our Incan friends too seemed relieved at the thought of finally getting the job done and returning home,but I for one was sceptical. 'Was it really supposed to be so-easy?',I thought staring at the vast ruined pyramid which was now covered with algae and wild plants.The lost city of the dead was supposed to be filled with immeasurable treasures and hence most difficult to find.Nevertheless I asked Paco one of our guides to lead the way.

We struggled to keep up with him as he climbed up the stairs swiftly. "Slow down!", I shouted, as he kept climbing ahead. He seemed to be in some kind of frenzy as if he were possessed. "Paco! slow down !", I yelled again, fearing we might lose him in the ruins. Paco looked back at me and I could swear I saw his face had gone grey and his eyes were green...a chill ran down my spine as I stared at that little boy running madly to the top of the ruined pyramid. "My friend", said Sergio one of the elder guides, trembling with fear as he placed his hand on my shoulder "the king has finally returned home".

A chill ran down my spine and I could feel beads of sweat dripping from my forehead.

I froze for a moment as I looked at the sheer madness ahead of me.Paco was relentlessly moving forward towards the top of what was once a pyramid like monument,which during the old days was most probably used for human sacrifices.He raged on like a mad bull, mumbling gibberish, occasionally slipping down,barely able to hold on to the flimsy rocks. The four of us hurried to stop him but the boulders of algae ridden rocks made it very hard for us even to step foot on them.

"The King-the lord-of Mictlan-has returned?",I wondered trying to remember the history of the place-which wasn't depicted in any map.It was once used as a temple dedicated to the God of the underworld -Mictlantecuhtli.Human sacrifices were performed by great priests of the temple who wore large skull like hats and painted their faces red as they carried out brutal acts of murder on top of the pyramid platform and hundreds of spectators would watch from below as they hoped that these inhuman acts would somehow please the deity.What a dreadful sight it would have been!

Paco had almost reached the top by now and as he laid his feet on the platform he let out a horrific scream and fell into some kind of hole.We could only observe helplessly from below."What on earth!- cried out Alicia-did you see that- he got swallowed in- he-", words failed to come out- we were all dumbfounded,but we had to reach the top.The old stairs were broken and we were holding on to crumbling rocks as we scaled the hundred metres tall ruin.Our hands and feet got covered in a strange slime like substance which seemed to ooze out from the cracks,and wild grass and climber plants wrapped round the stones made it harder to climb-still we had to move on.Sergio almost fell trying to hold on to a block of stone.Alicia was the one who reached the top first and we all stood there not knowing what to do.

A huge hole was in the middle of what was supposed to be a flat platform.We stared down into the dark abyss and shone our torches yelling out Paco's name.Strangely our lights couldn't even reach the bottom and all we saw was a slime and moss covered wall and an endless dark pit below.At this point I vaguely remembered some line I read in an obscure book -"He shall feast upon blood on a moonless night,he shall dance upon the bones of the dead...he shall rise..."I couldn't remember much but I knew it was a prophecy related to this place - Mictlan!

It was almost sunset and darkness would soon fall,we had to return to our camps,but we also had to look for the lost boy.Sergio and the other local guide weren't much keen on finding him as they only kneeled down and offered their prayers.I was furious at this behaviour at first but Sergio explained to me that he was taken as a sacrifice by the deity and that we could have done nothing to help him.Their superstitious beliefs saddened me-surely everything had to have a logical explanation, but I thought it would be more reasonable for us to go back to our camps now and look for the boy tomorrow.We all agreed to head back but as I stood there holding my satchel,I looked at the majestic scenery of the jungle.It would be dark soon and the dense forest was eerily getting silent.I could no longer hear the howling monkeys or the occasional roar of the jaguar nor the majestic birds of paradise,who are known to be notoriously loud with their shrilling annoying voices trying to impress their mates.It seemed as though nature was shying away creepily into sleep and the only thing that could be heard was the monotonous shrilling of crickets and cicadas.

The sun had now crept behind the mountains as the four of us tried to find a way down this dreaded place.Sergio was the first to climb down,Alicia and I were going next.As he made his way down,Alicia drew a sharp breath and pointed towards the ruins that lay below.A thick fog was engulfing around the pyramid.It was strange and unnatural as winter was months away.The other guide started to tremble in fear and hurried to climb down the slope.I tried to stop him but something must have spooked him,for he wouldn't listen and was determined to leave the place. Suddenly the pyramid began to rumble as though it was hit by an earthquake.The whole thing was falling apart brick by brick.Alicia screamed and grabbed my arm as I called out to Sergio-"Come back up!Its not safe...grab the other guy!".Sergio quickly held out his hand to his friend who was a few feet away from him holding on to a broken piece of boulder which would likely give away at any moment.But before he could reach him the boulder broke away and fell down taking the poor local with it.We could only hear a fading scream and a dull thud as he was quickly swallowed by the strange fog below.Sergio knowing that he couldn't do anything else had now quickly climbed up.The three of us were barely able to hold on to each other as the rumbling continued and the fog was getting thicker.Behind us was the dark abyssmal pit and the way back home was engulfed in the ever growing sinister fog.All we could do was to hold on to our dear lives.But then the rumbling stopped.

We were shaken with fear and awe.Alicia was still holding on to my arm and Sergio was trying to catch his breath.I for one was trying to get a hold of the bizzare events that had just occurred and I couldn't make any heads or tails of it.We were stranded in the middle of nowhere with no help from the outside world and this horrible place wouldn't let us leave. Somehow my scientific beliefs were completely shadowed by the paranormal.

It was completely dark now and we decided we had to make another attempt to leave.I shone my torch at the pit behind us -it was dark,but I noticed that the walls of the pit were now completely covered with slime and it was moving as though it were alive! It moved slowly but steadily-outwards and upwards towards the edges-through the cracks- towards me-my heart began to race and my ears were filled with the screams of our dead companions. Impossible! - I murmured.But then I heard Alicia calling out to me which broke my trance.She and Sergio had found another way down ,through the broken stairs-parts of the stairs that broke off had now piled up below us making a crude platform towards the ground,but we had to jump.We shone our lights and jumped one by one,onto the platform and a few moments later onto the ground which was still surrounded by the fog.We held each other's hand and moved ahead carefully as we could barely see and the light from our torches reflected back from the thick fog.Still we moved on,the ground below us cracked and I felt as if I was stepping on bones and empty skulls.Alicia kept repeating that the place was cursed and once we were out of here we would never come back.

Almost half an hour later, after struggling through the fog,we saw some lights ahead of us.Apparently some of our local friends had come looking for us for knew the dangers of this place. We finally felt safe,and God knows how grateful I felt to see them.They wrapped us up in blankets,gave us some water and took us back to the camp.I looked back at the doomed place,there was no fog,and the pyramid was now clearly visible under the moonlight.I held Alicia's hand as we walked back tired and hungry. I said to myself- "some secrets are better left buried."