Ruin's Lot

by ID Johnson

  Ru froze, looking him dead in the eyes. “How do you know about… those things?” She couldn’t even voice them. Sure, he’d figured out the electricity part, but he couldn’t know about the dreams or the scars.

  “Because I have them, too. All of them.”

  Feeling goosebumps rise up on her arms and the hairs stand up on the back of her neck, Ru stared at him for a long moment. She could tell by his eyes that he was telling the truth. Still, letting him take her to his house after the conversation they’d just had, where he’d essentially confessed to being her stalker, seemed risky. “How can I trust you after what you just said?”

  “How can you not trust me?” he countered. “Ru, I’m here to help you. There are forces out there, things you don’t understand, concepts you will have trouble comprehending, and it could be… dangerous.”

  Once again, she felt chills invade her body. The dream she’d had the night before came back to her. Before she could even think, she whispered his name. “Thanatos.”

  Cutter’s grip on her arm strengthened. “What did you say?” he asked, his voice just shy of panic.

  Ru raised her eyes to meet his, wondering why he’d had that reaction. “Thanatos,” she repeated, just a little louder.

  “You… you’ve seen him? You know about him? What? How?”

  Cutter’s questions were coming so quickly, Ru wasn’t sure what to say. “It… was a dream,” she stuttered. “Last night. I… I saw a picture of him online. And then I dreamt about him. It was nothing.”

  His eyes still skittish, Cutter insisted, “We need to go. I’ve got to get you back to Angel Grove so we can talk about this. You need to tell me everything.”

  “Angel Grove?” Ru repeated, watching him pull out his wallet and drop enough cash on the table to more than cover the bill and leave a generous tip.

  “Yeah, you might know it as the Van Tassel House.”

  “The Van Tassel House?” Ru repeated. “That’s where you’re living?”

  “Come on, Ru, let’s go.” He was out of the booth and offering her his hand. She looked at it and knew she needed to go with him, no matter how dangerous the situation felt in her gut. Either Cutter was nuts, she was, or they both were, but Ru had to find out what was going on.

  It took Cutter a while to say anything at all as they drove back toward Reaper’s Hollow, though she knew he wouldn’t go through town, taking an alternate route out into the woods where the old house stood. She’d never been there, as rumor had it the dilapidated building was difficult to find, though in high school a few of her friends claimed to have gone there and been chased off by the ghost of Katrina Van Tassel.

  “What do you know about the history of Reaper’s Hollow?” Cutter asked once he’d settled down a little bit.

  “I have an idea. Why don’t you tell me what you know, and I’ll let you know if it’s the same?” She knew her response sounded harsh, but his technique of asking her to explain everything she’d ever learned was getting old.

  “Ru, it’s important that I understand things from your perspective so I can determine how best to tell you what you need to know.”

  “Why don’t you just tell me everything, and then it won’t matter?”

  He looked at her, and even though it was dark, she could tell by his expression, illuminated in the eerie light of the dashboard, he wasn’t joking around.

  With a deep breath, Ru recited Reaper’s Hollow History 101. “Reaper’s Hollow was founded by Thomas Reaper in 1789. It’s named for the founder and his family, who lived there and started a trading post with local native tribes. Our school, Thomas Elementary, was named for Reaper. Even though he had an unusual last name, children need not be frightened because Reaper was a good, church going man. He had twelve children with three wives, and some of his descendants still live in the area. Is that what you wanted to hear?” She had recited it as if she were giving a lesson to her class.

  “That’s what I assumed you’d say, but it’s all wrong.”

  Ru chuckled; she couldn’t help it. “All wrong?” she repeated. “How do you figure?”

  “There was no Thomas Reaper. He was a façade, invented by the church in the early 1800s to cover up the town’s true history. And the part about Reaper being a good, church going man—the part that’s supposed to prevent kids from being frightened? Obviously, the first part is a lie because there was no Thomas Reaper, and the second part isn’t true because there’s plenty to fear.”

  Crossing her arms, Ru looked at him skeptically, even though she was aware he was concentrating on driving and couldn’t see her. “Okay, then who is Reaper’s Hollow named after? Bob Reaper?”

  Cutter narrowed his eyes at her briefly before focusing on the road. “No, it’s named after the evil things that lurk in the area, the ones that allegedly come out of the woods nearby, though we’ve never been able to track down an entry point—a centuries old problem. Even before Henry Hudson ‘discovered’ this part of the world, Native Americans had legends about them. Their word for them translates as ‘ones without faces,’ because of the thick, black cloaks they wear that obscure that part of their anatomy.”

  Ru couldn’t help but stare at him in disbelief. He glanced at her briefly and then turned back to the road as she attempted to formulate a response. “Are you saying that you really believe all of that, Cutter? Have you lost your mind? I suppose these Reapers are also where the legend of the Headless Horseman comes from then?”

  His response was quick. “Yes, they are. It was a bad translation of the original native terminology.”

  Running a hand through her hair, Ru took a deep breath. She was beginning to wonder what in the world she’d gotten herself into. “I think maybe you should just take me home, Cutter.”

  “What? Why?” he asked, looking at her again for a moment. “No, listen, Ru once we get to the house, I’ll be able to show you, and then you’ll know I’m telling the truth.”

  “Show me?” she echoed. “Show me what?”

  “More than I can tell you right now while I’m driving,” he said, his voice sounding a bit exasperated.

  Despite the circumstances, Ru did not have a feeling in her gut that she needed to flee the area immediately, which she took as a good sign. Intuitively, she felt like she could trust Cutter not to hurt her or put her in harm’s way, despite the fact that he was talking like a crazy person. While she was tempted to ask him more questions about the Reapers and how that all fit in with the legend—in his disturbed mind—she decided to just wait. Perhaps it really would all be revealed to her once they got to the Van Tassel House. Of course, she was also thinking there was a distinct possibility she might pull up outside of a dilapidated old dwelling the likes of the house in It’s A Wonderful Life where George and Mary make wishes breaking the windows.

  “Cutter,” she said quietly as they began to drive deeper into the woods, “do you think it’s possible that the stress of the first few weeks of school is getting to you?”

  He raised an eyebrow and glanced at her before he began to laugh. “That’s funny, Ru. No, I almost wish that were the case, though.”

  She resolved herself to stay quiet, and even though they were traveling farther and farther away from civilization, she still didn’t think she was in any real danger—until Cutter turned right where there appeared to be no road. “What are you doing?” she asked grabbing the oh-shit bar above the window.

  “I’m going home,” he said quietly.

  “There’s no road!”

  “Yes, there is. It’s just not well-traveled.”

  Peering into the distance, Ru could see a narrow lane illuminated by the headlights of Cutter’s truck, but she never would’ve guessed this was a road. She relaxed a little bit, thinking at least they weren’t going to drive into the trees, but she was on high alert now. Could he be taking her deep into the woods to do something unthinkable to her?

  After about ten minutes, and an even further narrowing of the road, they came int
o a clearing, and off in the distance, a large Colonial-style house loomed. There were a few lights on here and there and at least two vehicles parked out front, though she wasn’t sure there weren’t more in the garage on down the drive.

  “Here we are,” Cutter said, turning the truck off and facing her. “Listen, the others didn’t know for sure if I was going to bring you here tonight or not. I actually wasn’t planning to, but when you said you’d seen Thanatos, I knew I had to.”

  “I said I had a dream,” Ru reminded him. “I didn’t see him. He’s not real.”

  Cutter pursed his lips for a moment before saying, “Shall we then?”

  Without a word, Ru opened her door and dropped out before he could even come around to help her, not that she needed it. She wished it were daylight so she could better see her surroundings, but she had the idea that she was in the middle of a thick wooded area and that it had begun to encroach on the house, though once she reached the porch, she could see they’d done some work on the building.

  Before they reached the door, it opened, and standing before her was a tall, broad man who looked a lot like Cutter—if Cutter was the “after” picture on one of those weight loss commercials, though this guy looked to be pretty solid. “You must be Rider,” she said as he stood grinning at her.

  “You must be Ru,” he replied, still smiling. “Come on in. It’s great to meet you.”

  Hesitantly, Ru stepped inside a foyer onto pristine parquet floors. “Wow, you have been working hard at restoring this place,” she muttered, taking Rider’s offered hand.

  “Well, you know, no one wants to live in a dump.” He clapped Cutter hard on the shoulder and shook him a little, which Ru thought was unusual, but he still had that broad grin on his face so she assumed he was happy about something.

  Noise on the stairs caught her attention and she turned to see two beautiful women making their way down. One had short pinkish-blonde hair and the other had long hair the same platinum color as the other girl’s likely would’ve been if it weren’t for the dye—the same color as Ru’s own hair. They were both tall, fit, and beautiful. A pang of jealousy hit as she realized Cutter actually lived with these women.

  “Ru, this is Lyric Gabriels and this is Ivy Uriahs,” Cutter said as they both came over to shake her hand.

  “It’s nice to meet you,” Lyric—the pink girl—said.

  “We’ve been waiting a long time for this.” As the words came out of Ivy’s mouth, Cutter made a small noise, almost like he didn’t want her to say that. Ru thought it was a little strange, since she’d only known Cutter a few weeks, but she only smiled and said it was nice to meet them as well.

  “If you guys will give us a few moments alone, Ru and I haven’t had a chance to talk about too much. I’d like to catch her up in private, and then I’ll let you know when we’re done.”

  The girls looked complacent but Rider groaned. “Come on, man. Why can’t we stay?”

  “Seriously?” Cutter asked. “You know why. Get out of here.”

  Feeling like a bug under a magnifying glass, Ru watched them all turn and go back up the stairs, Rider moping, and turned to face Cutter. “Well?” she said, glad that his housemates at least seemed fairly normal, though she was also thinking there was no way she could take all four of them in a fight or outrun them all. She probably should’ve brought her mace.

  “Why don’t we go into the parlor?” Cutter suggested, leading the way. The room was large with a nice seating area consisting of a brown leather couch and two recliners, as well as an oak coffee table and matching end stands. The walls were a soft gray color. “Have a seat,” Cutter directed. “Can I get you anything to drink.”

  “No, thank you. Just some answers.”

  “Right.” Cutter dropped down on the sofa about a cushion’s width away from her. “Well, I’ve never had to explain any of this before, so I’m afraid I’m not going to be very good at it, but I’ll give it a try.”

  “Great.” Ru was feeling more accommodating than she expected herself to be. She leaned back into the cushion and crossed her legs, wondering what in the world he would say next.

  “Okay, well, what I was telling you earlier about the Reapers is all true. They are essentially demons commanded by Azrael. They have a role to play in society, to gather the souls of the dead when their time has come, but unfortunately, not all of them abide by the rules they’ve been given anymore. Some of them… take people they aren’t supposed to, unmarked souls.”

  Ru nodded her head, listening, understanding, but not believing. “That sounds like it could be a problem.”

  “It is a problem,” he agreed, “and it has been since the very first murder—when Cain slew Abel.”

  “So Cain was a Reaper?”

  “No, of course not,” Cutter replied, as if the comment was ridiculous. “But he was influenced by one. And the Reaper took Abel’s soul when he could’ve been healed.”

  Ru continued to nod. “So… Reapers are running around the world killing people that aren’t supposed to die.”

  “Yes, and that’s where we come in.”

  “Okay—and who are we?”

  “The Keepers.”

  “Yes, of course. That’s catchy. Reapers and Keepers.”

  “Ru, this isn’t a joke.” He turned his body more so that he was looking at her. “I know you don’t believe any of it yet, but you will. I’ll prove it to you.”

  He was right; she didn’t believe a word of it. But she didn’t have to be so cynical. “I’m sorry. Okay, so Keepers do what—chase down Reapers?”

  “Yes. We are descendants of the original Nephilim, charged with keeping order in the spirit world as it involves the human race.”

  That word caught her attention. She’d seen it the night before during her research. “Nephilim?” she repeated. “The offspring of God’s angels and the daughters of man?”

  “Precisely.”

  She looked at him out of the side of her eye. “I thought all of that was just made up.”

  “It’s in the Bible. You do believe the Bible, don’t you?”

  It seemed like an easy enough question, but Ru wasn’t sure. She’d never been particularly religious, despite her mother’s insistence that she never miss a day of church growing up. Ignoring the question, she went further down the rabbit hole. “So… Keepers are descendants of Nephilim. Do they marry within their own group then or can they still cross-breed?”

  “There are only about a hundred of us now, so, yes, a Nephilim—a Keeper—can marry a human, but most of us live lives of solitude.”

  “So how do you multiply?”

  Cutter sighed. “Carefully. We have to be very cautious about family lines. And a child born of a Keeper and a human is also a Keeper.”

  “So… there are about a hundred people in this world running around trying to kill off evil Reapers. And how many of them are there?”

  “Legions,” Cutter answered. “More than we can count.”

  Ru wasn’t exactly sure how much a legion was. “That sounds daunting.”

  “It is. Luckily, most of them have been banished to Hell, and we can keep them there for the most part, but there are still portals, ways for them to escape, and there is one in Reaper’s Hollow, one we thought was dormant, even though it was used for centuries. It’s one we could never find. But after the situation right after the Revolutionary War, activity in the area seemed to die down, and we thought it was gone.”

  “The portal? To Hell?”

  “Yes.”

  “And by situation, do you mean the whole Ichabod Crane, Headless Horseman fiasco?”

  “Precisely. It wasn’t a Headless Horseman doing the killing, it was a Reaper. And the school teacher’s name wasn’t really Ichabod Crane. Washington Irving just borrowed that name from a Revolutionary War hero.”

  “I see.”

  “None of that is really important right now,” Cutter said, his arms flailing out in front of him almost in exasperation. �
�What is important is how you fit into all of this.”

  “Right,” Ru agreed. “Because you knew some things about me that you shouldn’t know.”

  “Yeah, I mean the vivid dreams and the scars were just a guess, because, like I said, we all have them. But the rest, I need to tell you about because, like I also said, right now, you don’t even know your own name.”

  Ru ran her hand through her hair. The comment seemed so absurd, but she was willing to hear him out. “Okay… what’s my name?”

  “I’ll be right back.” Cutter stood and left the room.

  Following him with her eyes for a few moments, Ru watched him disappear down the hallway and pulled her phone out of her clutch. She had three texts from Candice who wanted to know how it was going and was clearly intoxicated. She thought about sending her a message that Cutter had lost his mind, but she fought the urge. He was back in a few minutes, and she slipped her phone back into her bag.

  He presented her with a piece of paper. Staring solidly into his eyes as she took it out of his hand, Ru scoffed, skeptically, before she dropped her gaze to the form. It was a birth certificate. She looked it over quickly, but then paused and studied it more carefully. “Rune Serephina Raphaels Ronobes, April 8, 1993. Place of birth: New York City, NY. Mother’s name: Seraphina Raphaels Ronobes. Father’s name: Larkin Ronobes.” She was barely whispering as she read it over, but once she’d finished, she looked up at Cutter expectantly. “What is this? What does this mean?”

  Placing his hand gently on her shoulder, he said quietly, “Ru, it means everything you think you know about your past is a lie.”

  Chapter 11

  Nat liked the dark. Even though this lair was fully equipped with every modern technological feature available, he didn’t turn any of them on. He preferred candlelight, and this evening he sat in a plush velvet chair, sipping red wine by the light of one solitary candle.

  He’d missed his opportunity, and he knew it. She’d been so close, only a hand’s breadth away. Why hadn’t she trusted him? There was no reason for her to think he would harm her, none at all.