Don't Fear the Reaper

by J. E. Taylor

  “I can go with you to your house to get your school books and clothes for tomorrow if you want.”

  She raised her head and her gaze fell on the knife attached to my hip and she nodded, dropping her gaze again. The fact that she didn’t say anything beyond two sentences since I found the knife worried me. “Is everything okay?”

  This time she looked directly at me and raised an eyebrow. “Have you looked in the mirror since you got a hold of that thing?”

  A bite of shock traversed over my skin and for a moment I wasn’t looking at her, but looking through her eyes and what I saw sent me running to the bathroom. I stared at my reflection. My normal reflection with my hair in bed-head mode, my shirt still hanging unbuttoned and none of what I saw through her eyes.

  Even Halloween wouldn’t explain the red and black face painting that looked like tiger stripes and add the bizarre ninja suit and you could mistake me as an extra from The Phantom Menace. The only thing remotely familiar was the sheath on my hip.

  I started laughing and my mother pushed open the door. She did a double take and her lips pressed together. “Why are you dressed like Superman?”

  “I’m not.”

  She huffed at me and then blinked, the crease between her eyes becoming more pronounced as she studied me. She did a quick shake of her head and then laughed. “I could have sworn...”

  “Yeah, well you should have seen me through Julia’s eyes,” I said and took another quick look in the mirror. I was still the same me I expected to see and I shrugged, offering my mother a smile as I squeaked by her.

  “You need to get ready for church,” she said as I stepped away.

  I stopped and turned toward her. “Julia doesn’t want to go and I don’t want to leave her alone.”

  She scowled and looked toward the kitchen. I could tell she was weighing her options, leaving us alone in the house together wasn’t something she was used to doing, but she needed to go to the church and talk with Father Michael about funeral arrangements. I could see the decision coming and I headed her off.

  “Julia doesn’t want to go to her house alone. I told her I’d go with her while she checks the answering machine and gets her school stuff.” I knew it was a slim chance, but I had to try.

  “I don’t know, Nick.”

  “I promise, we’ll be good. We’ll just go to her house and come back, okay?”

  She sighed and closed her eyes. Not usually a good sign but this time, she just nodded and walked away.

  “Mom?”

  She turned and waited.

  “Are you okay?”

  She sent me a smile, but the sudden gloss over her eyes told me more than words could. I crossed and gave her a hug and she held me tight, giving me one final squeeze before she turned and slipped into her room, closing the door. The wood barrier didn’t silence that first sob, but the rest remained unvoiced and I turned away before the tears burning my throat surfaced.

  Don’t Fear the Reaper

  Chapter 22

  I sat in the family room surfing the channels on the television while Julia cleaned up. There were no messages on the answering machine or the cell phone and I wondered if we should call the police and report her parents missing, but Julia shot down the suggestion. I think she was hoping for a miracle – one we both knew was impossible.

  The burning on my hip stepped up a notch and I glanced at the knife. A red hue flowed from the sheath and I stood, unsnapping the leather strap holding it in place. Wrapping my fingers around the hilt sent hot shivers up my arm like a subliminal warning and I bolted for the stairs, taking them two at a time with my heart pulsing in my throat.

  I burst into Julia’s bedroom with the knife in hand, my eyes darting from her half-dressed form to the far corner where a reaper stood. Julia couldn’t see it, but his sinister smile told me more than words could, this wasn’t a friendly reaper and it was here for my girlfriend.

  “Nick!” Julia covered her exposed bra with a shirt and I hardly noticed, instead I moved, intercepting its path and blocking it from getting to Julia.

  “You think you can stop me boy?” the reaper snarled.

  “Try me,” I said and tightened my grip on the knife and shifted so my body turned to the side. I brought the blade to my waist, ready to strike if the thing moved toward us. I just hoped like hell I knew where to hit the thing to destroy it, because, otherwise, all it would do is piss it off.

  “What are you doing?” Julia said from behind me.

  “Just stay behind me,” I said without taking my eyes off the advancing reaper. Judging distance was never my strong suit in martial arts class, and I took a deep breath, waiting until I was sure it was within the kill zone.

  The reaper hesitated and I narrowed my eyes, waving it in with a smile of my own. “Looks like I’m not the one who’s chicken,” I taunted.

  That did the trick. The thing launched toward me and I stepped forward in a lunge thrust, jabbing the blade through the black cloak where I thought the human heart would be. A scream shattered the room and ice flowed up my arm into my shoulder. I twisted the knife and winced at the high-pitched wail, but I didn’t pull away. Instead, I let the anger boiling in my blood, take control and I twisted and slashed until the reaper exploded in a cloud of dust.

  I stood in the maelstrom of mist with my chest heaving and a dull ache in the muscles of my right arm. When the wind surrounding me died down, I glanced at the knife in my hand. It no longer glowed or vibrated in warning and I slipped it back into the sheath. I took a deep breath, aware of Julia’s raspy wheeze behind me and turned to meet her wide-eyed gaze.

  “You okay?” I asked and stepped toward her.

  She backed into the wall, answering my question without as much as a peep.

  The fear radiated from her like gamma waves, prickling my nerves and for a moment, I saw through her eyes and I wasn’t a ninja like earlier. This time what she saw me as sent a shiver of revulsion down my spine.

  A cloaked skeleton with sharp shark’s teeth reached for her.

  I pulled my hand back, knowing it would do no good to reach out to her. Not with her seeing me like that, so I stepped back, putting distance between us. “Julia, it’s okay. It’s me, Nick,” I said and took another stride backward.

  Her face reddened. “I saw it kill you!”

  “Close your eyes, Julia. Concentrate on my voice,” I said, taming the panic throbbing in my temples but she just shook her head, her gaze tracking me like a frightened child. “Please. I promise I won’t hurt you.” I put my palms facing her and prayed she’d listen. I needed her to clear her mind, to concentrate on me. “Please,” I whispered.

  She must have heard the plea in my voice because she closed her eyes, squeezing tears out of the corners and I watched the slow track down her cheeks and focused on her quivering chin, swallowing the lump in my own throat before I spoke. “Can you hear me?”

  She nodded.

  “Do you believe it’s really me?”

  Hesitation and my heart sank.

  “It’s me, Julia. There was a reaper in your room when I came in and I got it, not the other way around.” I ran my hand through my hair. “Isabel was right - the knife can kill a reaper.”

  Her eyelids popped open and she stared at me, her chin quivering before she flew across the space. I wrapped my arms around her trembling form and held her, thanking God for small favors.

  “I thought it killed you,” she said against my shoulder.

  “Nah, not even a scratch,” I said and kissed her cheek.

  She pulled away from my grasp and ran her fingers down my cheek. “Why am I seeing these things?”

  “I don’t know.” I met her gaze. “I think the knife feeds off your imagination somehow.”

  Her exposed skin puckered into a landscape of bumps and she rubbed her arms. “That’s just freaky.”

  I let out a laugh and she smacked my arm.

  “Don’t laugh at me.”

  “I’m not laughing a
t you. I’m just laughing at the whole situation. I’ve got the strongest weapon on earth and when I take it out of its sheath, people around me start seeing things.”

  “Kind of like the glamour spells in Harry Potter.”

  I raised an eyebrow at the thought. “I wonder if you’re creating images based on my emotions.”

  A crease appeared between her pretty, brown eyes. “What do you mean?”

  “I’m not sure. All I know is I was scared out of my wits when I first ran in here, and earlier when I first held the knife, I felt invincible.”

  “And so you think you projected those images?”

  “I doubt it. I think it’s more you than me. My mom had a different vision of invincible than you did.” I smiled and shrugged. “For a moment there, I thought you’d project a supermodel.”

  Her cheeks bloomed and she grinned. “If you had come in a minute earlier, you would have gotten an eyeful.”

  “Yeah, well, the pink lace is a nice touch.” I couldn’t help but smirk.

  Don’t Fear the Reaper

  Chapter 23

  My mother sat, pale and silent, as I relayed the account of today’s events and I knew she wasn’t pleased. The thin lips pressed together, the hard stare, the pale skin marred by pink blotches were all signs of her discontent but this time I didn’t know if the anger was directed at me or just at the world in general.

  “I knew I should have insisted that you come to church with me.”

  “You really think being in church would have made a difference?”

  “Yes, then you wouldn’t have gone through that.”

  “Come on, Mom. If we had gone to church with you and that reaper showed up there, it would have been a disaster. Besides, if anyone else dies that isn’t on the list, Fate’s going to be looking for me and I really don’t want to see her again.”

  “What do you mean, see her again?” The sharpness in her tone rang through the room and I bit my lip. I hadn’t told her about Fate’s little visit.

  “Fate delivered an ultimatum last night. She wasn’t very happy that all those people died, and she blames me.” The words rushed out like the air out of a cut balloon.

  Her eyes narrowed. “You sure you weren’t dreaming?”

  “Yes, I’m sure.” I glanced at Julia and nodded, returning my gaze to my mother. If she knew Julia was in my room in the middle of the night, I’d be in a boatload more trouble than I was right now. She’d eventually forgive me for not telling her about the visit with the elusive deity, but my girlfriend in my bedroom – that would warrant being grounded until summertime and I wanted to avoid that like the plague.

  “Fate can’t hurt you,” Mom said.

  “Yes she can, Mom. She can wipe out entire civilizations, and if I can’t stop the reapers, that’s exactly what she’s going to do.”

  “She wouldn’t dare.”

  “Who’s going to stop her?”

  “Your fa...” she stopped and snapped her mouth closed, glancing away from me.

  “He’s not around to stop her. Besides, he works for her. It’s her list he’s reaping.”

  The mood in the room shifted from dismal to downright dark and I sighed. “Everything is going to be fine, Mom. Once I fix the mess I got us into, I’ll go get my father.”

  Her gaze snapped to mine and I knew what she was thinking. I knew from the paleness of her cheeks that she had already lost enough. If she lost me that would throw her into a downward spiral that she was afraid she’d never recover from, which was just as undesirable as letting the rogue reapers declare all out war.

  “Julia didn’t have any messages,” I said, changing the subject. “Should we call the police?”

  Mom blinked and turned her attention to Julia. “That’s not a bad idea. Did you want me to call for you?”

  Julia nodded. “Thank you, Mrs. Ramsay.”

  My mother stood and left the room, leaving me alone with Julia again. “Thanks for not saying anything about last night,” I whispered.

  “I didn’t want to get in trouble,” she whispered back, watching the kitchen entrance for any sign of my mother.

  “I have to figure out what to do with the knife tomorrow – I have a feeling I’m going to need it in school and I doubt my mother’s going to let me bring it. I know if the school finds out I’m carrying a weapon, I’ll get suspended.” I ran my hand through my hair. “But I can’t leave it here.”

  “Why not?”

  “What if they know I have it? Wouldn’t this be the first place you’d look?”

  Julia glanced out the window toward her house and raised an eyebrow.

  “I don’t know. What if we can’t get back into your house?”

  “Well, what other option do you have?”

  I had a lot of options, like attaching it to my ankle and wearing army boots and jeans to cover it up, or taping it to my stomach and wearing a sweatshirt, but I didn’t think either would fly if my mother found out. “I’ll figure it out,” I said, not wanting to drag Julia into this further just in case I got caught.

  “You’ll figure what out?” my mother asked as she came back in the room.

  I stared at her, my mind going blank and my palms breaking out in sweat. No answer came and I turned toward Julia, silently pleading for her to intervene with something plausible and unsuspecting.

  “We were trying to figure out what’s going to happen with school this week,” she said.

  “We have Nick’s grandmother’s funeral, so I was going to keep him home for the wake and funeral.”

  With all the crazy things happening, I hadn’t had time to deal with my grandmother’s death and the mention of the funeral yanked the air out of my lungs like a sucker punch. And I sank into the chair.

  “And we have to help plan Julia’s parents’ funeral, so she’ll be here for the majority of the week, as well.”

  “What did the police say?” Julia asked, pulling me out of my own somber misery and I took her hand, giving it a little squeeze before my mother answered.

  “They identified the license plate, but until we called, they didn’t know if anyone in the family survived. Now that they have the information, they can add your parents to the list of the missing people identified. They’ll want to take a DNA sample from you to validate against the DNA samples they have to confirm your parents were indeed killed.” She paused and glanced in my direction. “As far as what will happen from here, they’ll send over a representative from social services and I’m not sure where it will go from there.”

  “Does that mean I’ll have to leave York?” Julia said and her hand clamped down on mine like a vice.

  “I don’t know. It depends on your family and what they want.”

  “Can I stay here?”

  “We’ll see what happens. I can’t promise you anything right now, honey.”

  Julia’s eyes filled with tears and the pressure on my chest increased. The burn of my own tears blurred my vision and I pulled her into my arms so she wouldn’t see me lose it. Silently, I cursed God and everything in between heaven and hell.

  Don’t Fear the Reaper

  Chapter 24

  My alarm went off at six in the morning and I slammed my palm on the snooze button, unwilling to acknowledge another day. I wanted to go back a week, to before the floor fell out from beneath me. I wanted the carefree days of walking with Julia to catch the school bus and stealing a kiss in the hall. I wanted to know nothing of Fate and reapers and Death.

  The knife vibrated under my pillow, prompting my eyes to fly open like shutters in a raging storm and I wrapped my hand around the hilt, rolling off the mattress and facing the shadows.

  I slid into the hallway and looked at the two doors, sensing which door the danger lay beyond. Again, my attention snapped to Julia’s room and I swung the door open, narrowing my eyes to adjust to the dark. She slept unaware of the figure crossing the distance between the window and the bed.

  “Don’t even think about it,” I said and t
he cloak stopped, turning in my direction. “She’s not on the list.”

  The reaper tossed a piece of paper in my direction and I caught the ancient papyrus in my hand, glancing at the directive scribed in the thin material. My heart thundered and I slowly raised my gaze from the paper, crumpling it into dust. “I order you to leave her alone,” I said, my voice a powerful growl, “or I’ll end you.” I lifted the glowing knife, pointing the tip in his direction. I didn’t care what the paper said, Julia was not on the list and there was no way I was letting this or any other reaper take her away on bogus orders. “I’ll end anyone that comes after her, you understand?”

  I swear the thing scowled, but it backed off, disappearing in a swirl of shadows.

  I stared at Julia and my legs went numb. I sat hard, and the knife clattered to the floor in front of me, leaving a blackened mark where the hot steel scarred the floor. According to that paper, Julia was supposed to be in the car with her parents when the explosion went off on the highway.

  I knew better. That highway accident was caused by the rogue reapers and now they were handing out bogus directives? I needed someone on my side and I turned, heading back to my room.

  I stood in the middle of the room, closing my eyes and concentrating. “Fate?” I whispered, conjuring up the image in my head.

  “What do you want?”

  I spun, facing her. “Was Julia supposed to be in that car?”

  A crease appeared between Fate’s eyes and she shook her head. “No, why?”

  “They’re handing out fake orders. Orders that have your seal.”

  I’ve seen my mother lose it before and I used to joke about her having a conniption – but it was nothing like Fate standing before me transforming from beauty into rage.

  Her rage turned the sky outside my window black with angry clouds and continuous bolts of lightning and rumbling thunder. The wind picked up and I glanced from the window to Fate.