Grim Life: A reaper's tale (Reaper Files Book 2)

by Nicky Graves

  “We have to wait here,” Lawson said. “Go on.”

  I gave him one last glance. His expression was hard.

  This was more serious than I had originally thought.

  With trepidation, I walked to the platform and then stepped on. The light that shined on me nearly blinded me from the elders, who were seated in a circle around me.

  “State your name,” a voice said.

  “Riley Graves.”

  “You were in pursuit of a soul today. Is that correct?”

  “Yes.”

  “You then were unable to transition the soul, correct?”

  “Yes, but—”

  “The soul morphed into a poltergeist, which is in violation of the Reaper Code. In accordance with the code, we have no choice but to sentence you.”

  “For a missed transition?” Lawson interrupted from beyond the lights.

  Lawson was a rule follower. If he was interrupting the council, which was a huge no-no, then I must be in serious trouble.

  “The council does not recognize the speaker at this time. If further interrupted, the council will find the speaker in contempt.”

  “She’s still in training,” Lawson continued, his voice filled with anger. “This is absurd. We haven’t had a judgement for a code violation in over four hundred years, and that was for a blank reaper.”

  “Remove him.”

  I couldn’t see anything, but I heard a scuffle.

  “Boomer, get Ranger!” Lawson yelled.

  “Silence him!”

  There was a zapping sound and then nothing.

  Not only was I in serious trouble, but now so was Lawson.

  “Riley Graves, you are hereby sentenced to one thousand years of confinement, beginning immediately.”

  “A thousand years?” I questioned. This couldn’t be happening. Maybe my ears were drunk. “But this isn’t my fault. The house was a portal.”

  The blinding light flicked off of me, and I found that everyone had left except two reapers in black robes. They each held a glass orb.

  I looked for Boomer, but he was gone too.

  Where had they taken Lawson?

  The orbs glowed, and I couldn’t move. They somehow paralyzed me, similar to what Azrael had done. The only difference was that Azrael didn’t need the orbs. He had simply used his mind.

  When the men began to move, I was tugged along with the orbs.

  The guards propelled me down a back hallway that looked as though it hadn't been used in hundreds of years. They flicked away thick stretches of cobwebs with their free hands while their footsteps kicked up dust. Beyond the cobwebs and dirt, the walls were made of chiseled stone.

  A sound of dripping water echoed in the empty space, making me realize I had a full bladder from the drinks at Charlie’s and seriously had to go to the bathroom. Why was I always trapped when I had to go to the bathroom?

  “Guys, before this thousand-year thing happens, can I go to the bathroom?”

  They didn’t answer. Perhaps there’d be a bathroom wherever they were taking me. But judging by the centuries-abandoned hallway, I didn’t think plumbing existed here.

  That did not make me feel better.

  “Guys, please. It’s an emergency.”

  Again, no answer.

  They opened a wooden door, snapping the cobwebs that covered it and pulled me inside. A short pedestal stood in the center of the small stone room, nothing more. Certainly not a bathroom.

  They maneuvered me onto the pedestal.

  Were they seriously going to lock me away in here for a thousand years?

  No, this was a nightmare. This wasn’t my fate.

  And yet, I knew this was real.

  “Let’s talk about this,” I said. “I won’t screw up again. I promise. Please!”

  They let go of the orbs, and I thought that meant my pleading had worked, but the orbs held their place in the air, keeping me in my spot.

  One of the reapers patted me down, taking a little bit too long as he slipped my phone from my pocket.

  “Watch it,” I snapped.

  He then backed away with my confiscated phone.

  “No, wait!” I shouted as they deserted me. “You can’t leave me standing in one spot for a thousand years.”

  And then they closed the door and abandoned me. For a thousand years. With a full bladder.

  11

  After a full panic and freak-out session as I was abandoned in the jail cell, I remembered Treble. We were bonded. He’d have to find me eventually. Sure, I was in a different realm, but he was a capable life stone.

  Until then, I just had to be patient and wait.

  I groaned as my bladder reminded me waiting wasn’t a good thing.

  I could do this. I could wait and not pee my pants. I just had to think about something else.

  Glancing around my cell, I could tell it hadn’t been used in ages. The giant cobwebs and thick layer of dust confirmed that. And where there were cobwebs, there were spiders. I shivered as I tried to see where they might be lurking.

  And why did the council sentence me to a thousand years? For one missed soul, it made no sense. Sure, this world was still new to me. But it was obvious that they didn’t use these jail cells often, and I couldn’t be the only one who had ever missed a transition.

  Something wasn’t adding up.

  Not only was I set up by MacLean to discover Treble’s weakness, but then I was sentenced for a minor infringement. It was like the two had been planned together. But why?

  And if MacLean was a demon, did Ranger know him? Would Ranger be able to help me?

  Once again, I found I had too many questions and not enough answers.

  I vowed to clobber Vance and MacLean when or if I ever saw them again. Until then, I had to wait.

  And wait.

  And wait.

  I was sure a thousand years had passed as I stood on the platform with my legs crossed tightly.

  In reality, I couldn’t tell time. There were no windows to indicate day or night. The only light source was from the orbs. But since my feet were killing me and my legs were shaking, I had to have been here for a few hours at minimum.

  But I had thought I’d see Treble within a few minutes. An hour at the most. Shouldn’t a life stone have a better tolerance for alcohol?

  “Treble, can you hear me?” I didn’t feel a stirring that indicated he was listening. “If you can hear me, give me a sign.”

  I waited.

  “Treble, we’re stuck here for a thousand years if you don’t help me.”

  At this point, I didn’t think he could hear me, but I didn’t want to give up. I also didn’t like the silence that plagued me in the cell.

  “It would be in both of our best interests to escape.”

  Perhaps my cell had some sort of barrier that he couldn’t penetrate. But Treble was powerful. Surely he could get past anything the reapers put in his way.

  So, I waited some more, trying not to succumb to hysteria as I pondered if I truly would be stuck here for a thousand years.

  “It will be okay,” I said to myself. “Even if Treble doesn’t come, Lawson will. Unless he’s in a jail cell too.”

  Stop talking, I told myself.

  A movement in the dark corner caught my attention. I glanced over to find something there. But the orbs’ light didn’t travel far enough to make out what or who it was.

  “Hello?” I said, trying to be brave, but my voice came out as a squeak.

  It moved. I heard a scratching on the stone floor. And then clicking.

  What the hell was it?

  I fought against the paralysis of the orbs, cursing when I couldn’t budge an inch.

  The thing in the corner moved again. Slowly, a black, hairy leg appeared and then another. Emerging from the darkness was a spider. And not an ordinary household spider, but a giant, scary one with a furry body and black glistening eyes. Its legs were the size of my arms. I stared at it, willing it to stay in the corner.<
br />
  It did not.

  “Don’t come closer,” I said in my most threatening voice, which turned into a squeal when the spider didn’t obey.

  It eyed me as its meaty snack.

  Crawling closer, I felt his leg on mine. I tried to kick him away, but it was no use. I was still stuck in my spot, and I couldn’t tilt my head down far enough to see what it was doing, but I could feel it crawling around me in circles.

  It wasn’t until it reached my torso that I realized what it was doing.

  “I’m not food!” I yelled as it proceeded to wrap me with its silk. “Treble! We are both going to be eaten alive if you don’t help me! Treble!”

  When it reached my neck, my body shook hard in fear, defying even the orbs’ grip on me.

  And just as the spider wrapped its sticky web around my mouth and I was about to pass out from fear, that was when I felt it. The life stone woke inside of me. I could tell Treble wasn’t there, but the stone somehow activated without him.

  The spider scurried away as my body pulsed with an energy that blasted away the web confinement. The orbs that had held me dropped to the stone floor, shattering.

  Ripping off the remains of the sticky webs, I hurried to the door to find it locked.

  The life stone that had aided me reverted back to dormant. I glanced at the spider that scurried to the corner. For now, I was safe. But for how long?

  I wondered how I had been able to use the stone. I had thought Treble and the stone were one and the same. But maybe that wasn’t the case after all. Which meant I should be able to access the stone’s power anytime I wanted. Fear seemed to be one of the ways to get it to work. But it shouldn’t require it.

  So how did I tap into its power? I had attempted before with no results.

  I put my hand against the lock on the door and willed it to open. It took a few tries, but the stone finally kicked in. In fact, getting it to cooperate seemed easy once I was able to do it. Too easy. Was it because Treble wasn’t here to stop me?

  Opening the door, I listened for sounds, but I knew I had been abandoned and left to rot. No one would want to stay in the foul dungeon if they didn’t need to.

  I sprinted down the hallway, batting away cobwebs to keep from running into them face-first. I reached a door that I thought led to the council room.

  Opening it, I peered into the council room, which was dark except for a small bit of light coming from three moons peeking through the high windows.

  I attempted to shift, but I was blocked. Maybe spells or charms on the building blocked shifting. I guess that made sense. They wouldn’t want a prisoner or someone on trial to be able to shift away. Or for others to shift inside so they could aid a prisoner. Maybe that’s why Treble never came.

  Opening the door to the outer hallway, I listened for sounds. When I thought it was safe, I hurried out and jogged from one marble column to the other. Eventually I made it to the front doors, only to find them guarded by two men in black robes.

  I could probably use the life stone on them should they try to stop me, but I didn’t want them to sound any alarms or tell anyone I had escaped. Hiding behind a column, I watched them for a while. They didn’t seem too worried about a break-in or break-out. They mostly just chatted with each other.

  “Did you hear the rumors?” one man asked.

  “There are so many,” the other said with a shrug. “Which one?”

  “The girl reaper they locked away is Azrael’s daughter.”

  “That’s stupid. She’s not Azrael’s daughter.”

  “She’s the only female reaper. How else could she be a reaper if not for being Azrael’s heir?”

  The guy shrugged again. “We were bound to get a female reaper eventually.”

  “Even if that’s true, we aren’t supposed to have a new reaper for another twenty-five years.”

  “We need a new one every ten years just to keep up with the population explosion.”

  “So you don’t think any of this is weird?”

  “Maybe a little.”

  “But what if she is Azrael’s daughter? That’d mean she’s the heir.”

  “So?”

  “So, she’s locked up and she’ll be pissed when she gets out. If she’s the heir, she could kill us all.”

  “She’d have to kill Azrael first to become the ruler. Can you seriously see that little girl taking down Azrael?” He laughed. “Don’t worry about it. It’ll never happen.”

  “No one’s heard from him. Maybe she already killed him.”

  The guy laughed again. “She killed Azrael and then allowed the elders to lock her up in prison? If she had enough power to take down Azrael, then she wouldn’t be locked up.”

  “I guess. But I don’t like this. Something feels off. We never sentence anyone for missing a transition. And the council is especially lenient on reapers who are still training. Anyone else would have gotten a lecture and nothing more.”

  “Not our problem.”

  “No, but it’s not right either. I’ve missed several transitions. What if they start locking everyone up?”

  “They won’t. They need all the reapers working.”

  “Then why lock up the girl?”

  The guy sighed. “I don’t know. Just leave it alone. You don’t want to get in the middle of the elders and Azrael. This might just be a power struggle between them.”

  “You think?”

  He shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe, in a twisted way, they’re trying to save the girl from Azrael.”

  “Never thought about it like that. But why lock her in jail? There are other methods they could have used.”

  He sighed. “You’re giving me a headache. I’m taking a break. I’ll be back in ten.”

  “Yeah, okay.”

  And now I was down to just one guard. He didn’t seem like someone who wanted me in jail, but he also had to do his job. I could have pleaded with him to open the door and let me out, but I didn’t want his conflicted conscience to stand in my way of freedom.

  Closing my eyes, I searched for the stone within myself to reactivate it. The thing liked to go dormant as quickly as it activated. With the thought of creating a distraction, I aimed my hand toward a window at the end of the corridor and pulled. A blue wispy cloud shattered the glass, the shards falling into splinters on the stone floor.

  I stared dumbfounded at the broken window. Was it really this easy to control the stone without Treble? What else could I do with it?

  The guard turned swiftly. As he moved just beyond my column, I quietly ran toward the door. The blue cloud opened it for me and then closed it behind me. As soon as I was outside, I shifted to my bedroom and then raced to the bathroom.

  I tried not to let the guards’ conversation bother me. For the most part, they surmised what I already knew. But it was the fact that this wasn’t over with that worried me. I may have escaped, but either the elders or Azrael would hunt me down. And that meant I wasn’t safe here, nor was I safe in the dead zone.

  As soon as I was finished in the bathroom, I packed a backpack with clothes and anything I could think of that I might need. I wanted to raid the kitchen for snacks, but I heard voices downstairs and I wasn’t sure how long I had been gone. Questions might be asked.

  Snatching a book off my shelf, I extracted my emergency money from it. I shoved the cash into my pocket, knowing it was hardly enough to keep me going for a week. But maybe I’d only need a week.

  Taking one last glance around my room, I debated whether to leave a note for Mom. If she wasn’t already worried, she would be soon enough. But what could I say that would make this better for her?

  Nothing.

  But maybe I could leave a note, hoping Ranger would find it. As it was, I had no phone to reach out to either Ranger or Lawson.

  I slung my backpack on my shoulder and shifted to outside Larue’s house. As my feet sunk into freshly fallen snow, I realized I should have packed heavier clothes.

  I listened outside h
er window that was bathed in a warm glow. Not one to waste electricity, she had to be in her room since the light was on.

  When I didn’t hear anything, I tapped on her window.

  The curtains parted a crack, and Larue peered through.

  I waved. “It’s me.”

  She opened the curtains farther and slid open the window. “Where have you been?”

  “How long have I been gone?”

  “Two days. Are you okay?”

  “Is anyone in your room?”

  “No.”

  I shifted to her room. With a gasp, she whipped around. “Warn me before you do that next time.”

  “Sorry,” I said. “I can’t stay long. I was hoping you could get word to Ranger for me.”

  “Ranger?”

  “The half demon drooling over my mom.”

  She stared at me. “You’ve been MIA for two days. You need to go home.”

  “I can’t. Listen, it’s a long story. But the short version is that I was sentenced to a thousand years in reaper prison for not transitioning a soul.”

  “A thousand years?” she gasped.

  “I was set up, and the elders are looking for a way to get rid of me.”

  “What is going on?” She sat down on her bed. I thought about sitting with her, like how we used to. But those times were over. While I longed for life to go back to the way it was, it wasn’t going to.

  “At this point, I have no idea what’s going on,” I said. “But I’m not going to jail for a thousand years.”

  “They’ll look for you.”

  “I know. That’s why I can’t go home. Tell Ranger to take care of my mom and reach out to Lawson. He’s in trouble too, but we were separated. I don’t know where I’m going, but I’ll try to contact him later. Right now, I need to find Treble.”

  “The blue guy stuck in you?”

  “Yeah, I have the stone, but Treble’s gone.”

  “Isn’t that a good thing?”

  “If you had asked me that a couple of days ago, I would have said yes. But I have a feeling someone planned to separate us. I need him back to figure this out.”

  “He didn’t seem too helpful.”

  “He’s not. But maybe he will be now.” I shifted the backpack on my shoulder. “I should go. I don’t want reapers dropping in on you.”