Reaper

The hand of fate

David did not know what a wendigo was, but he did know there was not a moment to be lost. The monster looked hungry, with its long red tongue slithering out of its bloodstained mouth. He aimed the flamethrower at it and pressed the trigger.  His sweaty finger kept pushing the button but nothing happened.

“The fuel tanks are empty! Get behind me!” Vanessa shouted from behind. But it was too late. The wendigo howled like a crazed cannibal and rushed at David. With a swift whack of its bony right arm, it flung David away like a ragdoll. He landed on top of the car, breaking both the windshield and his back in the process.

As the wendigo was about to pounce on its helpless prey, Vanessa pulled out her silver Beretta and shot it in its eyes. The monster screamed and lashed out blindly all around it in a fit of mad rage. She was about to shoot the wendigo in the head when it leaped over her and ran off into the nearby woods.  There was no point in chasing the monster back into its lair all alone at night. Especially with David lying there injured. And so Vanessa grudgingly put her gun away and headed towards the car.

“Don’t try to move too much. You might injure yourself even more.” Vanessa put her left arm around David and helped him off the car.

“Damn it. My back is killing me!” David cried and spat out a blob of blood from his mouth. His injuries were severe.

Vanessa fished out a corked test tube from her pocket and tried to calm him. “You are going to be okay. Drink this.” She slowly poured a sour orange liquid down his throat.

David coughed fitfully for a few seconds. When the coughing had ceased, he enquired, “What did you give me?”

“It is a bone broth.”

“What?”

“It’s a special brew which helps to rejoin broken bones. But I am afraid it takes a long time if the injury is too severe.”

Though David still had difficulty in bending his back, the pain was bearable now and he could walk with her support. She helped him get into the back seat of the car and advised him to lie down flat on his stomach.

She sent a text to Ryder before getting back into the driver’s seat. Though David’s bones would heal over time, his other injuries needed immediate attention.

When they returned to Ryder’s house, the servants rushed to help David inside. While he was being taken to a nursing room, Vanessa went to look for Ryder. She ran up the stairs and knocked on the second door.

“Come in,” came the reply from within.

She pushed the door open and barged inside. “David is gravely injured.”

“What? Ms. Chase how could you not handle a simple ghoul hunt?” Ryder bawled in surprise.

“It wasn’t a simple ghoul hunt! A wendigo attacked us on the road!”

“A wendigo? That’s not possible. You know wendigos don’t venture outside the woods!”

“Things are changing fast, Mr. Ryder. It attacked us right in front of our car. It was as if it had been waiting for us to let our guard down.”

For the first time in many months, Ryder looked aggravated. He furrowed his eyes and bit down hard on his lower lip. “We must attend to Mr. David. All other things can wait for the present.” With that he rose from his leather chair and together they rushed out of the room and headed for the stairs.

David was lying on a bed, propped up with the help of soft white pillows. His back felt better now as the bones were slowly healing but he was still spitting blood. When Ryder and Vanessa entered the room, he looked delirious and in extreme agony.

Just one look at David was enough for Ryder to diagnose his condition.

“He has suffered severe concussion and is bleeding internally. Marianne, fetch my box of curatives.”

The old woman hobbled out of the room and returned a few minutes later with a rectangular wooden box with a golden wing painted on top. Ryder took the box from her and placed it on the bedside table. With a flick of his thumbs, he clicked the metal locks and opened the lid of the box. Inside it lay 4 rows of vials all stacked one beside the other in an orderly fashion. Some of the vials had liquids inside them, while the others contained some kind of powder. There were no labels on any of them, but he knew what he was looking for. Running his fingers through the third row, he picked up a vial with a viscous red solution inside it, which looked almost like a slimy red jelly.

“Mr. David, this might feel a bit chewy and sticky but don’t spit it out,” saying this, Ryder forced open David’s mouth with his left hand and poured the contents of the vial into his reluctant mouth.

David felt like puking as the slimy solution made him feel nauseous. It was tasteless and sticky and had a strange metallic odor. He almost choked while trying to swallow it and so Marianne quickly handed him a glass of water to wash it down.

“I think you should get me to a hospital,” he whispered.

Ryder placed his hand on David’s shoulder and assured with a smile, “You will be just fine. I just gave you a dose of Scarlett Vitalis. It will stop your internal bleeding and repair your injuries. You did good Mr. David. Sleep now and don’t dwell on what you saw.”

“How can I sleep after what just...atta...” David was trying to demand an explanation from Ryder but his speech suddenly became slurry and he started feeling drowsy. And before he knew what was going on, he fell unconscious.

“Did you ask Marianne to mix something in his drink?” Vanessa asked fretfully.

“That I did, Ms. Chase. There was no other way to get him to sleep. I don’t want Mr. David to be plagued by his thoughts as that would delay the healing process.”

“Why did you choose him? I don’t want more people to die around me.”

“I understand your concerns, having known you so closely for the past few years. But this is bigger than us all. Much greater things are at stake than the lives of our friends and...family.”

Vanessa looked deeply stressed and her keen penetrating eyes were livid with a burning hate. Yet she pursed her lips tightly and did not speak another word.

“We should leave him for now.” Ryder shut the wooden box and handed it back to Marianne. He was about to leave the room, when he stopped and took off his hat. Instead of going out, he looked back at Vanessa. He spoke in a calm mellow voice. “Mr. David’s parents died in a car crash when he was just a toddler. I never should have interfered, but I couldn’t just leave an innocent babe to die in front of my eyes. And so I did what I shouldn’t have. From that moment on, his soul has been bound to me and his destiny tied to mine. I was foolish back then and so I sent him to an orphanage, thinking that would be the end of all his troubles. But I had forgotten that no man can fool fate. 23 years later, I find him lying in an alley, with a ghoul chewing on his heart. I knew then, no matter how hard you try, you can never protect those you love. So it is best to teach them how to face the shadows.”

Vanessa softened up a bit and whispered, “You know you already have his soul bound to you twice now. There is no way you can bring him back if he dies again. And if that happens—”

“I know he will be trapped in purgatory forever and forced to roam the nothingness aimlessly till eternity. But I see a promise in his eyes, Ms. Chase. This is his true calling and I know he will realize it soon. He was always destined to become a Reaper.” Ryder wiped his face with his silk kerchief and put his hat back on. “Come, we have much to discuss and too little time.”