‘Reaper’ Chapter 7: Taker of Souls
Lina breathed out and noticed she was now sitting. The light was dim as the glow of a fire danced on the dirt floor. In her hands was a small shirt with a needle and thread coming out of it.
“What’s the matter?”, said a hushed voice.
Lina looked up to find a dark haired Rae on their back in bed. On their chest was a small boy sleeping with flushed cheeks. Rae’s arm was behind their head with the other around the toddler.
“I just… felt strange for a moment,” she heard herself replying as if in a dream.
“You are not allowed to get sick as well. I need help in the temple tomorrow and I have a feeling this whiney brat will be strapped to my back all day.”
“He has a fever, he is not a brat,” said Lina as she returned her eyes to her sewing.
“I suppose last week when he screamed because I wouldn’t let him piss on Delta he had a fever then too?”
Both adults laughed quietly as Lina stole a glance at the two on the bed. Rae’s typically cold stare had softened as they looked down at the boys brown hair. The child breathed in deeply and nestled his face into the crook of Rae’s neck.
“His breathing sounds so much better. You have a gift with herbs. I have neither the talent nor the patience to find them.”
“You’re much more valuable than I. I’ve been studying under our mistress as long as you, but I could never wield magic like you did yesterday.”
“Praise me when it’s a human.”
“You brought a horse back to life!”, exclaimed Lina as she put her sewing down.
Rae’s forehead creased and eyes widened as they spoke, “If you wake this child up, I’ll sleep on the street. Then who will be left to pace with him all night?”
“You,” replied Lina in a whisper.
“Absolutely not. You took this boy in.”
“And yet anytime he makes the slightest sound of discomfort in my arms you suddenly appear and snatch him from me.”
“He’s loud and you don’t know what you’re doing.”
“I was the eldest in the orphanage for a very long time. I’ve been raising children since I was one. Sometimes they fuss. If he’s behaving like a brat it’s not his fault and certainly not mine.”
“What are you-”
“I just think if someone weren’t catering to his every whim then someone wouldn’t have a reason to complain about his behavior.”
Rae studied his round cheeks and thick black eyelashes. They leaned forward and placed their nose on the top of the boy’s head and breathed deeply. At that moment the boy let out a ragged cough and gasped for breath. Rae didn’t move yet their whole body tensed. Lina watched his back for the rhythmic rise and fall of his breath to return to normal. Then her eyes caught Rae’s.
Rae was staring back at Lina in silent terror. Lina kneeled beside the bed.
“My love, he is fine. He is improving. I swear to you we have done everything to make him well again. It’s just a lingering cough.”
“I have to get better at spell work,” said Rae.
“You are amazing. You brought back an animal. That is an advanced spell.”
“I tried to bring back a human… before the horse.”
“You idiot. You didn’t,” said a stunned Lina.
“I have to…”
“No you don’t. You could have died. Let me guess, Morta was right and you failed. You brazen fool, you can’t fix everything by being bull headed,” Lina began to notice Rae’s eyes were distant and watery now.
“He was so sick,” Rae’s face began trembling, “and I was useless. I couldn’t take another night of listening to him slowly suffocate. I just thought… if the worst happened I could fix it.”
“Well, what happened before the horse?”
“It was a man. He cut his leg tilling his land and it rotted. He didn’t tell anyone till he collapsed. His family depends on him. So I did the spell… they were devastated. Again. Once when he died and again when I failed. I was so angry with myself I couldn’t leave without doing something. So I tried to bring back the horse. It died the day after the man did. It worked, but I nearly used all my energy. I made it to their orchard before I lost consciousness and that’s where I stayed till this morning.
“I was so worried about you, Rae.”
“Morta has been here too long. It’s not a coincidence. The earthquakes are not a coincidence. I have to gain more power.”
“We can get through another earthquake.”
“She knows,” Rae said with quiet fear. “She knows what I did. She will take everything when she gets the chance.”
BANG… BANG… BANG
“What was that?”, jumped Lina.
Tears were rolling down Rae’s cheeks and they did not react to the sound.
Lina heard her pulse in her ears and stood up, “Rae, get up. Something isn’t right.”
Rae did not respond. Reality began to crumble around her into black ash. Even Rae and the boy faded away into dust. Lina was left in the nothing. Nothingness wasn’t terrible. It was the feeling that she was trapped in nothing with someone else.
“Wake up…,” said Lina quietly to herself.
“Wake up,” it was moving closer.
“Wake up!”, the feeling that an apex predator was tracking her caused Lina to shiver uncontrollably.
“WAKE UP NOW!”
No time had passed in the bright office of the afterlife. Lina released her breath when she saw silver haired Rae and Morta. Her fingertip had just left the edge of the book, causing her trance to break. She smiled at the other two till she realized they were looking at something just past her. Lina turned to look and felt her body quake.
A shadow stood beside her. It wasn’t black, it was the absence of color. As if it were made of nothing. It’s outline was vaguely person shaped yet jagged and ever changing like colorless fire. No details except orange orbs where eyes should be could be seen.
It reached out its hand for Lina. A wordless language began chanting inside her head making her nauseated. She froze and watched the orange eyes get closer and closer.
A tug on her arm and she was 5 feet back and standing beside Morta. Rae was in front of them now. The reaper touched their palms together and as they pulled apart, a clear wall divided the room in seconds, Morta and Lina on one side, Rae and the creature on the other.
“That’s a spiritual barrier. You’re going to be fine,” said Morta.
“But Rae is stuck with that thing! Can’t you help!?,” pleaded Lina.
“I told you nothing would harm you. Watch them work.”
Rae stood up straight with both feet planted squarely on the floor. A clear blue substance began rolling off their body like waves. The faceless creature began twitching as it walked forward. Rae moved one leg back, readying themselves.
The shadow burst forward with erratic movements directly at Rae. The blue waves around the reaper intensified as they braced for impact, but the hit never landed. At the last second, the shadow jerked to the right and threw itself at the barrier.
What had looked like fingers became 10 individual claws digging furiously at the translucent wall. The orange circles it had for eyes burned intensely as it tilted its head back and screeched. Lina grabbed her head and fell to the floor. Morta knelt down with her and looked back at the ghoulish figure with wide eyed uncertainty.
The blue aura around Rae was now being pulled to their left hand. It grew to a long point with a triangular tip in a matter of seconds and Rae wielded it like a sword. The shadow seemed entirely occupied with cracking the barrier, so Rae approached from behind.
The claws on the terrible entity were now folding together to create one large curved scythe, stabbing repeatedly. It screamed wildly again and slammed the scythe down, taking one small chip out of the spiritual wall.
“FUCK,” Rae said as they drew back their sword.
“Rae?!”, yelled Morta never taking her eyes off the creature.
“Shut up! I got this!”
The reaper was nearly close enough to strike the shadow when it’s long curved claw elongated and reached back, opening a huge gash along Rae’s abdomen.
Lina let out a cry and covered her mouth in horror.
“Do you need mommy to come out there and clean up this mess for you, child?”
Rae remained standing, sword in hand, while holding the wound with the other.
“Ew. Jesus, Morta. Don’t call yourself my-
Rae took a blow to the head that sent the silver haired reaper flying into a wall. It crumbled upon impact sending up a cloud of dust.
The creature immediately returned to its task of chipping away at the barrier. The tip of its claw made it through to the other side. Morta rose and took a defensive stance in front of Lina. The creature began slamming its head down on the small hole while screaming wildly. Lina tried to see through the dust to find Rae, but she couldn’t see a thing on the other side.
The hole became a crack that grew with every blow. Finally it was big enough for the shadow to begin squeezing through.
“Shit,” muttered Morta under her breath.
As if it were made of liquid, the thing pushed its head through the small crack till it emerged on the other side with a low growl. White light began glowing from Death’s hands as she prepared herself to fight.
The shadow screeched and lunged forward, but a flash of blue light on the other side of the wall cut off its battle cry. It’s head and body fell to the ground on opposite sides.
Lina stared at the severed head and it’s now blank orange eyes looking back at her. The wall began melting like an ice sculpture and the cloud of dust fell all around them. The blue light behind the body faded and Rae’s outline stood with their head held low.
Lina ran to the outline. The first thing she saw was the dark red blood pouring down the side of Rae’s face. White dust coated the reaper’s body, with more of the dark red blood on the floor. Rae’s bloody boot prints dotted the rubble.
Lina immediately lifted up Rae’s torn black shirt, exposing their muscular, pale stomach. The blood was still wet, but the gash had disappeared. She ran her fingers over where a near fatal wound should have been.
“Trying to take my shirt off on the first date?”
Lina jumped back, “I’m sorry… I didn’t know you healed like that. It’s remarkable. And your head injury is closing up. Does anything hurt?”
“Not really. The pain is almost gone now. Did you get hurt at all?”, asked Rae as they placed a hand on Lina’s shoulder.
“No. I’m ok. You were… just… amazing.”
“I was caught off guard and got my ass handed to me. I’m just so relieved it didn’t get to you.”
“We’re also ok. You know, just in case you were wondering,” yelled Andy.
The large man stood amongst a group of other reapers surrounding Morta. Rae rolled their eyes and made their way over to the circle of light still hovering in the room.
“How the fuck did it get here?”, said Rae as they wiped the blood from their eye.
“What the fuck was it?”, said Lina staying close to Rae’s side.
“A taker of souls. When I was alive I called them Chaus. They did our job before humans. They are powerful, mindless entities that only know how to take from this world. At some point they became too hard to control and they were banished to the only place that could hold them,” Rae gestured to The Void.
“So this thing is a demon prison.”
The Void is everything. To a soul taker it contains their enclosure. To a human soul it’s the waiting room before their next life.”
“What are they waiting on?”
“Some souls need time to heal before they move on, but most are waiting on the people they loved. Some families cross over together and end up related all over again next time. Gladys’s children are waiting. Andy’s mom. Trey’s grandparents. Your dad.”
Lina snapped her head to look at Rae. Her body froze.
“Oh shit… I’m so sorry. I thought that might comfort you. That was so stupid and unkind. Please accept my apology,” Rae placed a hand over their heart.
Lina’s eyes were unfocused and strange.
Rae parted her lips to say more and hesitated. Lina’s face revealed no emotion.
“It’s here,” whispered Lina.
“What-,” out of the corner of their eye they saw it. A jagged colorless shadow.
In less then a second, Rae’s blue aura was burning brightly as the reaper landed a kick in the center of the Chaus. The force would have moved a car, however the entity was only pushed back several feet. Its arm stretched and snatched Lina by the neck with insane speed. Rae’s sword was drawn in the same instant, but as the reaper lunged, Lina was in front of the Chaus. It began to walk backwards to The Void, dragging Lina along thrashing. Morta and the other reapers had taken notice and quickly flanked Rae.
“It’s dragging her into The Void. You’ll never find her soul again if it succeeds,” said Morta.
The Chaus froze with Lina still fighting and gasping in its hand. It held her up, feet dangling above the floor, and focused its burning orange eyes on her face. It looked back at Morta and Rae then let out a gleeful shriek.
“Hey! Right here! Come fight me you fucking coward!”, commanded Rae.
It’s eyes narrowed as if it were smiling. The blue aura surrounding Rae dimmed till it disappeared. They took a step closer to the shadow, causing the Chaus to lean in to The Void.
“Take me. She has no power. But I do. The only thing better than me is a god. You understand power don’t you?”, said Rae while slowly inching closer.
Lina was turning purple and her movements were slow and clumsy. Rae held her hand out to the Chaus.
“We need to make a move. She’s going to suffocate,” whispered Andy.
“It’s surrounded and outnumbered. If we move, it snaps her neck and takes her soul. If it jumps into The Void, her body stays here and it still takes her soul,” said Morta.
“What if it does take Rae instead? We know that’s not the only Chaus on the other side of the portal.”
“Then I will retrieve them myself.”
Andy stared at Morta in awe till he returned his focus to Rae, still inching closer to the creature.
“Put her down. She’s weak. Useless.”
Blue waves began rolling off Rae’s arm and hand, causing the shadow to shrink back further.
“This is what you need. I have the power of a dying sun in my soul. Take me and the Chaus will be free.”
It slowly lowered Lina, but did not release her. It turned its head to the side as if considering the offer, and slowly reached its hand out to Rae.
Without warning, a green aura came into contact with the Chaus causing it to flinch in pain. Rae stepped back but it was too late. It snatched the reaper by the arm and dove into The Void still clutching Lina.
Morta and the other reapers stood in silent horror. The goddess turned to Andy with wide eyes.
“She entered The Void,” she flatly spoke.
Andy was still staring at the portal with his arms hanging limply at his side.
“A human is in the land of the dead… and the Chaus.
