The Grim Reaper's Mate

Chapter 18

Death is the gateway to rebirth, and at someone beloved passes through, we both mourn and celebrate. We feel their loss in our life and community, yet we celebrate all that they achieved in their lifetime for goodness, for love, for the natural world, for humanity. It is a time when we are most aware of how sacred living is and to appreciate the gift all the more.

But what of the creatures who had been damned from the very beginning into an existence of darkness? Not just demons, there were several other creatures which belonged to hell but yet they roamed on earth trying to maintain the balance of life and death.

“Are you certain that making a deal with a reaper is something that will lead you to the quest of knowing the demon who impregnated your mother?” asked the sorceress as Luna looked at the grimoire which lay open before her.

“My brother is powerful. My mother had expected a daughter, the one who was going to carry the legacy of the dark witch’s blood ahead but instead of me it was my brother who stole that for me. And for that, to get back what is mine I am going to go to any lengths necessary. I might have a dark witch’s soul and also a succubus but I hardly know how to initiate the powers that have been laying dormant inside me for all these centuries.”

“But a reaper?”

“Do you have any idea how powerful a reaper can be?”

“I understand that you have lost all sense of function but what happened to the demon that we saw taking a human back to hell? Summoning and controlling that demon should be easy enough. I mean, you know that the woman named Diana who summoned the demon and she did not have the power to control the demon but that is not true in your case. You are aware of the fact that you have dark powers flowing in your blood which is the reason that your brother seeks to end you, but no here you are saying that you wish to strike a deal with the Reaper. Have you completely gone insane?”

“Have you ever lived in obscurity for so many years that the entire world forgets your existence? Have you ever lived in perpetual darkness because the moor where your body was buried was in such a place that not even the sunlight could enter? Have you lived in utter silence for so many years because of the curse placed on the land that nothing could grow there? And that too, by your own brother whom my mother did not even wish….everything that he has…everything that he has taken was all supposed to be mine. It was not his, he stole everything away from me. And yes, I am insane. I can do anything. I don’t care. After all I have been dead for more than a few centuries, what does a few more matter if I die again?” asked Luna. Her eyes were burning like two pieces of coal and Anna knew that whatever she had tolerated for all these years was something that people would not even dream in their worst nightmares.

“I am guessing that if you have already decided what you wish to do then you might also know the process of doing it? I have never seen you do anything which is a half c****d plan,” said Anna and Luna nodded.

“I know. It is not something that I would prefer to do but there is no choice. I don’t have any choice rather than this.”

“What is it?”

“I have to sacrifice a human being, most probably a sinner to a demon. When the reaper arrives to take his soul for judgement then I will have to piggy back him and talk to the Reaper. That is the only possible way to do this because until you are dead or have inhabited a dead or are attached to the soul of a dead then you would not be seen or you cannot even see the Reaper. Let alone converse with him.”

“Then you already have plan. What more do you want?”

“Select a clueless human being I suppose?”

“I will tell you a story. This is the story of a community where women were considered to be good enough to be raised as cattle to be just sacrifice. But this was stopped and then young girls were purchased from outside and then they were treated as sacrificial lambs.

Two maidens were sacrificed each year in the community. They were slaves, taken as war captives when they were young or bought from pirates across the sea, and raised by the druids in the mountains until their eighteenth year.

Then they would be brought down from the mountains and chained naked inside a special hut built on the edge of the community. All who had reached manhood in the community were then free to deflower the maiden and fertilize her with their seed. This could take several months. When she had become pregnant and her menstrual cycle ceased, she would then be taken to the sacrificial mound outside the community, surrounded by the assembled community in the fields, and there sacrificed, and her blood drained into buckets which were then carried out across the planting fields and to water them, thereby fertilizing and re-fertilizing the earth.

The first sacrifice took place at the start of the spring planting season. This was called the May Day sacrifice. The second sacrifice took place in the autumn as the harvest ended. This was called the Samhain or Summer's End sacrifice.

The sacrifices did not always go as planned. Sometimes the maiden would not become pregnant, or sometimes other complications would get in the way. When they did, social strife and famine would sometimes result in the community, as that was a bad omen. Now this community still exists today, but there are only men in this community now. They have been cursed so that no other girl is ever born to them so they take women captive, breed them, take the sons and then kill them today. I think that you will find the perfect candidate from that community,” said Anna.

“And how do you know about this?” asked Luna. Even though she was very interested in choosing the sacrifice she still needed to know where from Anna had heard this.

“Because I was the one who had put the curse on them and made their lands barren forever in their hands,” said Anna with such a gleeful smile that it could be said that it bordered on psychotic.

“Then I am entirely certain that you told me this so that you can get me to end this entire community for whatever the purpose might be, right?”

“See this is the reason we are best friends. You entirely understand me. You know, now that you are a leggy blonde it will be far easier for you to make sure that they are lured by you. It is just like being the spider, you know?”

“Yes I know darling. I am thoroughly aware. I am only sad that George is now just a tattoo on my shoulder. I really want him to be wrapping and writhing on me in reality. This place in the city and their cultures and all other nonsense, simply sucks.”

“So you are going to have your male version of your brother’s hotline to hell? Is it?”

“I was thinking of getting one, you know, instead of sacrificing every time and talking and bartering with demons, I think that I will have one such line directly to the netherworlds so that I can know what is going on in there.”

“Your brother will know that it is you, Luna. All I am saying is that do not play your cards until you know that the time is right.”

“Oh don’t worry, Anna. I am not going to.”