Death Among Us

by Jack Crosby

  Chapter 12 – An Axe to be Proud of

  “Well Khloros we made it to Virginia!”

  He snorted, “This place is even more backwoods than Pennsylvania if that is possible.”

  “Come now, we are exploring!”

  “You are exploring, I am suffering.”

  I couldn’t help but laugh. “At least admit this is better than the boat we were on.”

  We continued to ride until we hit a small town named Pope’s Creek. Or I thought it was a town, you could never quite tell with these little settlements in the Colonies. Most of the people milling around paid no attention to us, except for one young man that is.

  “Do you see the small redheaded child looking at us? His eyes might be a little too keen.”

  “I see him Khloros. Pay him no heed and he will eventually go away.”

  But over the next few days, he didn’t. Every time I left the inn, the redheaded child was watching close by. His eyes never left me until I rode out of sight.

  “Do you think the young mortal suspects what we truly are?”

  “Nonsense Death, he is merely curious about strangers in a small town. The others are too, but just too scared to say anything.”

  He was probably right, but I figured maybe a little intervention might shed some light. The next morning when I left the inn, I saw the boy standing in front of the General Store. He turned away when I made eye contact, but looked back pretty quickly. I gave a wave to come over and after a moment of consideration, came over.

  Judging by his looks, I guessed him to be six or seven years old. “Hello there young one. I seem to notice you keeping watch every day.”

  His eyes darted to the ground. “Forgive me Master, I meant no ill will. I was just keeping watch to make sure you meant no harm to the settlement at first. We do not get many visitors and my curiosity took over.”

  I smiled. “No harm done young sir. That is very honorable of you.”

  He looked up, his eyes beaming. “Thank you for understanding!”

  “Yes, of course. Now why do we not introduce each other? You may call me Parson Weems.”

  “It is a pleasure to meet you Master Weems. My name is George, George Washington.”

  **Present**

  “You are the famous historian Parson Weems? But how is that possible? He, err you, wrote his biography after Washington passed away! Martha would have known who you were!”

  Oh Maggie, sweet Maggie. “It should be easy to piece together. Someone who wrote as extensively as I did about Washington would almost have had to been there for most of the major life events, right?”

  “It makes sense, but at the same time it doesn’t. You see my dilemma here, don’t you?”

  “I do.” Mortals were so fickle with facts. “But you are forgetting the basis for everything. Mortals only see and comprehend that which they can understand. Martha would have seen what her brain told her made sense. She would not have seen the younger man from earlier who her husband looked up to greatly.”

  “But since you enlightened me, I see things for how they truly are?”

  “Yep, your brain now understands the greater forces in the universe. It still wants to question everything because it has been conditioned to, but that will fade.”

  “If you two are done talking about the boring stuff, can we get back to the story?”

  I gave Roxanne a pat on the leg. “Of course dear. Now where were we?”

  **Past**

  Young Washington and I became fast friends. Even that stick in the mud Khloros took to him. The young man was full of energy and spirit.

  “Master Weems, I have meant to ask, but where did you get such a fine horse from?”

  “You mean this old thing?” Khloros wacked me in the head with his nose. George found our antics highly amusing. “Him and I have been partners for as long as I know. I guess you can say he came from the family garden.”

  “He is a beautiful horse. I hope one day to have one just like him!”

  “I bet you will George. If you put your heart and mind into everything with the passion you do, you could rule the world.”

  The settlement bell started to ring. Sunset was closing in. “It looks like it is time for you to head home young man.”

  “Yeah, father will not like it if I am home after sunset.”

  We got up and I led him to the door on the inn. Looking down, I could see he was upset at something. “Is there something wrong?” He shook his head no, but I didn’t believe him. “Come now Master Washington, you can tell your friend.”

  “My brother Lawrence just received his first pistol. I know I am much too young for one, but…” His words trailed off.

  “I understand the feeling, of others having something you desire. Fear not Master Washington, fortune lies with you I think.”

  With a last wave, he ran off towards his estate at the far end of the settlement. I made my way over to Khloros, who had been giving me the “we need to talk” look.

  “What did I do now?”

  “Do not get me wrong, I enjoy the child’s company, Parson,” he added heavy sarcasm to my alias, “but what is your interest in the child? Do we not have better things to do?”

  “Call it intuition old friend, but I think young George is destined for great things.”

  “Since when is premonition is your range of power?”

  I looked off into the distance. “I am truly shocked that you do not see it.”

  “What am I supposed to be seeing exactly?”

  I can’t believe I picked up something he didn’t. “His eyes, every so often they glow with the soft light of Heaven. He has been touched by the folks upstairs.”

  Khloros breathed out hard, kicking up the dust from the street and getting it into my eyes. “If that is true, the young man could be in danger if downstairs hears of this!”

  Coughing and rubbing my eyes, “I know! Why do you think I have been keeping watch?”

  “He needs a weapon.”

  “Apparently he has eyes for those pistols. Talk about the downfall of civilization. Whatever happened to gold old fashioned blades and skill?”

  It was dark out now and most of the settlement was in for the night. I took untied Khloros and hopped on.

  “Let us go to the forest, I have an idea.”

  We traveled in quite a ways until I was sure no one would stumble upon us. Removing Leviathan from its resting place, I fully formed the scythe.

  “You are not going to make the boy anything that dangerous are you?”

  I twirled Leviathan around for a minute; it had been a few months since it had seen any action. “While I am partial to this sort of weapon, I highly doubt he parents would approve. We need something that comes across as practical.”

  “I saw some of the men in the settlement carrying axes. That would probably good for the area with the amount of trees so close by.”

  “That is an excellent suggestion. Let me see what I can do here.”

  I found a solid limb on a nearby tree and removed it. It was tedious work, but I molded the limb into a very nice handle. Next up was the head of the axe and for that we would need metal.

  Raising Leviathan high, I sheared into the ground and split the earth open. I continued to allow the ground to split until I found what I was looking for, an iron vein. Taking what I needed, I came back to the surface and closed the gap I had created.

  It took another few hours, but as the moon was high in the night sky, I had finished shaping the axe head. Putting it on the handle and sealing it with my magic, the weapon glowed for a moment before returning to normal.

  “It is done. Let us go back to the inn.”

  The following morning, when the sun just peaked above the horizon, I made my way to the Washington estate. George had introduced his father to me in passing on the second day after our initial meeting. A pleasant man, I hadn’t really spoken to him since.

  He saw me approach and waved! “Master Parson, what do I owe this earl
y morning visit?”

  “I hope I am not overstepping my bounds Master Augustine, but I am here to give George this.” I opened the cloth I wrapped the axe in to show him. “But only if you approve.”

  His eyes were big as he took the axe in. “That is a finely crafted piece sir. I am humbled by your offer of generosity to my son. Are you sure you want to part with something so valuable?”

  “Your son has shown me more kindness than I have seen in quite some time. This is just a token to show my appreciation. Trinkets come and go, but friendships last a lifetime.”

  He reached out to shake my hand. “Well said Master Parson. Let me go get George, as he will be very excited to see this.”

  As Augustine left to fetch his son, I looked up and towards the tree at the edge of his estate. Sure enough an angel was watching me. I winked in his direction and he gave me a look before he disappeared. Shortly after, Augustine returned with George.

  “Hello George, a fine morning is it not?”

  “Yes it is! Father said you came here to see me?”

  “I did. I have something for you.” I unwrapped the axe again and the light behind his eyes flashed brightly, albeit just for a second.

  “This is for me?” I nodded and handed it to him. “I do not know what to say besides thank you!”

  The young man came forward and gave me a hug. I didn’t know how to react, so I just went with it. “You are welcome of course. Take care of this as it is a one of a kind item, okay?”

  “I will guard it with my life! This is an axe to be proud of!”

  Chapter 13 – Family Matters

  “So there you have it. I don’t regret what I did, but it is very important that we locate that axe first.” I finished my beer. The evening brew of choice was a light ale called the Piranha Pale Ale. Much like the name, it had a nasty bite which I rather enjoyed.

  “You truly are Parson Weems?” It still seemed we were on that fact. “You don’t know what it means to be sitting here with you.”

  “Death is a pretty powerful being. It is actually quite the turn on.” Roxanne’s hand slipped up my leg under the table. She was such a naughty minx.

  But Maggie was in total disagreement. “Not because he is Death, but because he influenced an entire period of history that I have studied over and over again. I read your memoirs more times than I care to count!”

  “You read that?”

  “Millions of people read that! It’s kind of a big deal in the historical world!”

  I started to chuckle. “I just wanted to give everyone an accurate picture of the man I befriended and came to greatly respect.”

  “I have a question about your story.” Roxanne’s hand had left my leg, a shame really. “You said Washington had been touched by the Light of Heaven. Do you know who or why gifted him with that?”

  After meeting George and making the discovery, I had tried my best to find out who had gifted the Light to him, but to no avail. With the folks upstairs, if they didn’t want you to have information, that did a great job of hiding it. “Unfortunately I never found out. It’s bothered me greatly, but it is much too late now to make that discovery.”

  I got up to get another beer. “Derrick, is the story about the cherry tree true?”

  “Ha! It was and old Augustine was so pissed! That was his prized cherry tree and George hacked that thing down in three chops. Thank the Almighty he told him the truth. The tough bastard let him off with a warning but later that day came down and punched me in the face.”

  Maggie covered her mouth with her hand, trying to stop from laughing. “He punched you?!”

  “Oh yeah, caught me unprepared too. Knocked me right down on my ass and started ranting and raving at me.”

  Neither one of the girls knew what to say. I’m sure they were waiting for the other shoe to drop where I went into a story how I scared the shit out of him and threatened everyone in the community.

  “When I started laughing at the entire scene, Augustine was mortified about what he did. He helped me back up and invited me over for dinner that evening. The man apologized to me almost every day for a month straight.”

  “You old softy!” Roxanne was pointing at me, “You let a mortal off the hook and didn’t reap his soul for such an affront?”

  “There was no reason to. I’ve done enough terrible things over the years where I didn’t need to screw the pooch on this one.”

  I’ll be the first to tell you, when I came to Earth from Eden so long ago, I was a total fuck up. I’m not proud of a lot choices I made, but I considered myself above the mortals. I did things that would make your stomach turn.

  “I respect you for not doing your ‘reaping’ thing. It still creeps me out to no end.”

  “I hate to change the subject here, but we do have some more pressing matters to attend. Roxanne, are we all packed up?”

  “Yes, I have the suitcases already to be loaded up. Is our new friend going to be coming along?”

  That was the question. “Well Maggie, you are more than welcome to stay here or go where ever you want. Obviously, the closer you are to where I am, the better job I can do protecting you should the need arise.”

  “No, I want to come to Washington with you. I doubt I can be of any assistance in fighting demons or whatever else comes our way, but I want to learn more about you and your life.”

  “Ahh so the historian in you comes out. Well, I have seen a lot of major events.”

  “It is a long drive to the city; I expect to hear some of those tales.”

  “It is a long drive and I think we should soon call it a night. Roxanne, does your magic allow you to take someone with you?”

  “Of course!” To prove her point, she grabbed my arm and teleported us to the living room. “See, easy peasy!”

  “Perfect. Would you take Maggie back to her place and get her stuff together?”

  She gave me an exaggerated bow. “Of course my Master. I am but your humble servant.”

  I walked by and gave her a firm slap on the ass. “Humble isn’t the word I would use. If you get into any trouble call me.”

  “My my Derrick, foreplay and concern for my wellbeing all at the same time? I would say my magic is really working on you.”

  I didn’t respond, choosing to stand there and just look at her. She waltzed back into the kitchen.

  “Maggie dear, you are coming with me. See you real soon Derrick!”

  And with that, both women were gone. I could’ve gone if I wanted to, but I needed some quiet time. Or at least that was the plan up until thirty seconds after they left.

  “Hello War. What do I owe this unexpected pleasure?”

  A large man walked out of my bedroom. Heavens knows how he got there, but his presence immediately was picked up as soon as he entered my home. As always, he was dressed like some biker gang member and probably carrying more than his fair share of weapons.

  “Are you not going to offer me a beer Death?”

  I had no idea what he was up to, so I decided to be pleasant and get him one. “What brings you to this side of the universe? It’s been years since you ventured out of Eden.”

  He twisted the cap off and took a seat in my recliner. “Word is you are involved in some plot to save this country’s President from being assassinated. Seeing as how incidents like that could trigger a military response depending on how it went down, I figured I should know a little.”

  “Of course, we wouldn’t want to stop World War Three if we could help it.” Little did he know the threat was internal.

  “I am just here to make sure you do not violate anymore of the rules. It is bad enough you allowed that mortal to cheat death. You broke your own damned rule brother!”

  “I thank you for reminding me of what I did as I have already forgotten the potential ramifications. If you are here to lecture me, then I suggest you go back to our home.”

  “It is no longer your home! You betrayed the Horsemen and left!”

  And ther
e it was. Sour grapes over the fact I left. “We all have made choices we do not agree with. Only visiting Earth whenever I needed to reap a soul was no way to live. Famine even agreed with me until you bullied him into going back.”

  He drank his beer, but his eyes never left mine. “We will always agree to disagree on this topic.”

  “Yes we will. And how I choose to enforce my rules and my domain over death is my business. Now in terms of how my current situation affects your domain, I will explain.”

  He let me talk. I went over everything, from both the angels and what Roxanne told me. Horsemen, no matter how enraged we got at each other, always kept our business to ourselves. I had no worries that War would tell anyone what he heard today.

  When I finished, he looked surprisingly concerned. “With a pawn so close to the President, it would seem Beelzebub has the upper hand. Have you thought of a way to stop him yet?”

  “Not yet. When I get to Washington, my contact Veronica is supposed to have a safe house set up. Hopefully they will have learned more. You know me; I’m more of a fly by the seat of your pants guy.”

  He gave a short rough laugh. “It is a miracle you are still the strongest of us all. How you do it I will never understand.”

  “I think it is a combination of luck, skill, and Khloros. Don’t tell him I ever admitted that though, I will deny it until judgment day.”

  “I would never admit the same of Pyrrha as well, so your secret is safe with me.” He reached over and we clinked beer bottles.

  When he finished his, he stood back up. “I was only granted a limited amount of time to come and see you. I must return home to receive my next task. If I hear anything in regards to yours, I will do what I can to tell you.”

  “Thank you brother.”

  “Thank Famine the next time you see him. He is the one who talked me into coming to see you. He and Conquest really want us to be united again.”

  I gave my brother a hug. “One day, either tomorrow or millennia from now, we will be. When the seals are broken and the Almighty wishes us to start the Last Judgment, we shall ride together.”