Grim Reaper

I was back in chains. Tears flowed silently down my face, but I stayed still. I felt utterly powerless, there was no hope. This nightmare would keep repeating, and I'd never know why.

'What makes you think that?' My head jerked up. It wasn't Amanda. More like an echo that resonated throughout the room. I searched aimlessly in the dark for the speaker but to no avail.

Finally, I asked as a last resort, 'Who said that?'

The voice chuckled, 'So curious..' It continued laughing.

I frowned and ground out, barely concealing my anger, 'What do you want?'

'What I want..' The booming voice started slowly, '..is your soul.'

It laughed again. The voice was so loud, I was about to break out of my chains to block my ears but the chains wouldn't budge. I pulled once, twice but nothing happened.

'What the..'

'Ah, my apologies.' I looked around the room again as the voice said, 'Couldn't have you running around and getting yourself killed again.'

I screamed in anger, 'What is that supposed to mean? Who are you? What do you want?'

Just then, the lights turned on. It was the same blinding brightness that had me squinting my eyes shut. But I caught a glimpse of a large black cloak.

'Annoying humans.. hate him for giving me this.. kill him!' The voice kept murmuring, I strained to hear what they were saying but I vaguely made out a few words.

Forcing myself to open my eyes, I squinted through the brightness and saw a floating cloak in the middle of the room. It was so tall I wasn't sure how it even fit in the small box-shaped room. I had to strain my neck to catch a glimpse of a skull peaking out of the cloak.

My eyes widened, 'Are.. Are you the.. grim reaper?'

Two black holes where the eyes should've been but were only a neverending path to darkness shot towards me. Immediately, I gasped and looked away. It was like someone had sucked the oxygen out of me when those dark depths had met my brown gaze.

'Interesting. Not that stupid then.' A whoosh of white lightning struck the room. It was gone in the blink of an eye, but instead, I found the grim reaper standing in front of me with the height of an average human.

I panicked and backed away into the wall, hoping it would swallow me whole.

He rolled his eyes, or more like rotated his entire skill. I wasn't sure. 'Oh, calm down. I just want your soul then I'll be gone.'

'But..' I frowned, what if I made him angry? I wasn't sure if it was a good decision to anger him, but I still continued slowly. My voice had dropped down to a whisper, I wasn't even sure if he heard me. 'But I'm not dead yet.'

Oh, he heard me alright. Those endless depths narrowed at me, as if they would glare the soul out of me. If that was even a thing. I tried shrinking into the wall further, maybe even turn into air and fly away. It was as if the room got darker and I wanted nothing more than to get away from here. The air in the room suddenly felt a lot depressing.

'Yes, not yet.' He started walking around the room, or more like floating around the room with his cloak and everything. I suddenly had the thought to ask if he had legs.

He suddenly stopped and was standing in my personal space in the blink of an eye. I gasped again, feeling like a fish out of real. Seems like that was the only thing I could do now. 'So now I'll have to wait until you're dead.'

I laughed. I didn't even bother hiding my misery, for once I didn't care about dying. In fact, I would've gladly welcomed it. But the problem was that I wouldn't die. I had been subjected to being cut in half, stabbed nine time like I was Jesus, and literally soared through the car after crashing into a car. It seemed unreal that death was actually here to claim my soul.

'What is wrong with you?' I looked up halfway through my laughing fit, and saw him looking down at me in disgust. Immediately I sobered and raised my chin. It's not my fault I was kidnapped and no one had the decency to bathe me.

'You'll be waiting a long time.' I said in a level voice. It was the truth anyway. I had no idea what sort of twisted reality I was stuck in, and I had no idea how to escape from it. Until then, all of this will keep on repeating.

Which makes me wonder if this grim reaper was just another element in my nightmare. Was I stuck in some horrific game that had glitches and kept repeating over and over again with? Well, I was never any good with escape games so I'll need a hint.

'Are you also apart of my nightmare?' I raised an eyebrow at him. I desperately hoped he wasn't, maybe I'd finally die and live in peace.

It was his turn to laugh, 'You think you're dreaming, child?'

'Child?!' I exploded. 'What are you? A grandpa?'

He genuinely shook his head, I wasn't sure if I should be surprised or scared, 'Too young.'

I raised my eyebrows, 'Too young?'

He nodded, as if that was supposed to explain everything. I wanted to ask more questions but I was also scared. So I asked one question that I was extremely curious about.

'What do you want?' My tone was serious that left no room for excuses. I stared at him straight, for some reason I suddenly felt a lot confident then before. I wasn't sure why, but I liked it.

He was looking down at me as if one looks at an annoying fly. Perhaps he was considering if he should kill me or not. If that really was the case, then that would mean he was hiding something. The sooner I knew what, the better.

But my thoughts were interrupted by lightning bursting from his eyes. I blinked in surprise and backed away. 'What are you doing?'

'I'm answering your question.' He closed those dark depths, and I felt a shiver pass through me. I hoped he would keep them closed. It was a meaningless hope but still.

The lightning was a mix of blue and purple. It spread all around his form, and I tried backing away. I wasn't sure if I wanted to burn to death.

But none of them seemed to matter as the grim reaper's endless depths suddenly opened. There were no orbs but I could feel the anger radiating off of him. I tried not to flinch but it was proving to be really hard to maintain a casual composure. Especially when when he raised a finger to the middle of my forehead.

I gasped when the ice, cold hand touched my warm skin. It felt like death itself, which kind of made sense. But the coldness wasn't what really surprised me. It was in fact the images that flashed through my mind at the touch that made me fall to my knees.

Skull and bones. A cemetery. A storm. Wolves. Shadows and mist. Cloak. Ancient words. Hebrew. C'elast vie ei. Fire. A curse.

I blinked, and struggled to get to my knees. My breathing was heavy, I felt scared. My wide eyed gaze landed on his face, 'Maybe it was too soon.'

I growled and reached for him. I felt so angry. All I wanted to do was to slash through that cloaked skull.

'How dare you, Nymphus? THIS GIRL IS MINE!' I roared. It didn't sound like me. It felt like an out of body experience, I wasn't sure who was speaking through me. But the voice sounded like a hundred voices at once. It was scary and it echoed throughout the room. It was like thunder and ruin.

'Ah, Silos. Long time, no see. Off you go now.' He reached for my forehead but I pulled back, trying to scramble away. I didn't know why, but my mind felt like it was going to burst.

'NOOOOO.' I screamed, I didn't want to but I still did. I didn't why. Just then, I felt a cool sensation on my forehead, and the booming voice was gone. I felt like myself again.

I was curled up into a ball on the floor. Tears flowed down my face freely. 'W-what was that?' I hiccupped.

Something cool touched my shoulders and I shivered, curling into a ball further. I was hyperventilating. Waves of hot and cold washed over me, but I still didn't feel at ease. I wanted to throw up. It felt like someone was twisting my insides with a knife. Even worse than a stab wound because I was burning from the inside out.

Foreign words washed over me in a wave of relief. They cut through my panic cut and entered my mind. It was similar to the language I had heard when the grim reaper- no, Nymphus had touched my forehead.

I raised my eyes to his, I felt the iron will slowly building up again. 'Who are you?'

'Nymphus.' He answered straight away. Weirdly, that made me even more suspicious of him.

I narrowed my eyes and asked again, 'What do you want from me?'

'Your power.'

I spluttered, I hadn't expected that, 'M-my power?'

He laughed, 'What? You thought god was nice enough to just bless you with these abilities?'

That confused me even more. I thought back to the first time I had realised that I could control things with my mind. Telekinesis, it was called. According to the book I had found in my middle school library. It was all just the musings of a crazy person, that was what I had thought at the time. But then I started thinking, maybe it wasn't all wrong when I started breaking light bulbs accidentally.

The first accident happened when I was only a month old. My mom had told me about this before disowning me in a fit of anger. Witch, she called me. Like my grandmother. But I've always considered myself a psychic, because my telekinetic abilities were all that I could do.

'So you're here to steal my power?' I asked slowly, trying to decide if I should try to make an escape. Amanda hadn't shown up so maybe, just maybe I had a chance this time.

'Steal?' He looked horrified, I couldn't tell if it was genuine or an act, 'God, no. I'm here to train you.'

'Train me?' I asked in confusion. At this point, I felt like maybe Amanda would've been better company.

'Yes, as the last guardian of Earth. Your powers were given to you for this very purpose.' He looked serious and.. somewhat proud.

Honestly, I wanted to do nothing but laugh out loud and call it a day. This sounded like a joke. Surely, he was joking because none of this made any sense.

'Uh huh.' I accidentally laugh, well, I could only hold it back for long.

He glanced at me in surprise, 'You think this is a joke?'

I raised my eyebrows as if to agree. Any sane person would. I mean, I never really was same but this just sounded a little too over the moon. I always I might've been a weird genetic mutation or something similar.

This was definitely not what I expected. And so did he, it seems.

He brushed off his cloak. 'The man speaking from you earlier was a demon. I wanted you to get in touch with your memories, but, unfortunately, I awakened one of your inner demons cursed to live within you for eternity.'

'Uh, cool?' I felt awkward but looked so proud I figured I should say something. But I realized later that I should've just kept my mouth shut.

He glared at me, it was like I could see hellfire burning within those depths. 'Cool? You're one of the most powerful beings on earth, housing some of the worst demons in hell and all you can say is cool?'

'Uhh..' I looked around trying to come with something that probebly gave the impression that I was very much interested in this conversation, 'Am I going to give birth to those demons?'

He smacked his head, actually, smacked his head. I bit my lip, I was pretty sure that wasn't a good sign. 'You're hopeless. I'm out.'

He turned away, about to disappear but I tried to reach for him, forgetting that I was still in chains. 'Wait! Stop, please. Come back, I'm sorry. I promise I'll be serious.' I showed him my pearly whites at the last bit hoping that would make him stop.

It did. He turned around with narrowed eyes. 'You're going to listen to whatever I say and not say a word.'

'Yes Sir.' I stomped my feet to make a point, which probably wasn't a good decision for my sore feet. I winced.

I heard a snap and my arms were free. I blinked up at him in confusion, 'Why the sudden generosity?'

'Because.' He left it at that then walked to the opposite end of the room and sat down, crossed legs. My legs were hurting as well, so I sat down while cradling my arms.

'It started with the demise of the demon kind..

A long time ago, the demons rose up against our master in a rebellion. They argued that our master was unworthy of the throne because he'd gotten lazy. It was true to some extent, plus our master was getting old.

There was a sort of makeshift leader among the demons who spread malice amongst all demons. There had been talks of killing all the humans before, but our master was against it.