Reaper

“Get back!” Saphira screeched, shrill and piercing in the shocked silence that had fallen.

Before I knew what was happening, she had leapt up off the couch and slammed the door in the face of whoever stood behind it. Frantically, she pushed me aside, deeper into the house, away from the door and what it was protecting us from. I could see the paralyzing fear in her eyes as they began to glow, to flicker to life. Her body was taught, ready to strike.

Meanwhile, I blinked stupidly at the door where the eyes had been only a second before.

“What the hell-“

“I know you have her.”

I froze before another word could fall out of my mouth. I recognized that voice, I was confident I could recognize it anywhere. It was the one from my dream, the same nightmare that I had been woken up from not an hour earlier. But that was just a figment of my imagination. That voice couldn’t actually belong to someone, right?

But then I remembered. Sawyer had said that Isis was willing to do anything to get her hands on me, to study me, to find out what made me different than every other human being on the planet.

Shit.

I heard footsteps behind me. I whirled around, dizzily trying to see what was going on in the pitch black, only to see a figure stumbling around in the hallway. I was slightly relieved to realize it was Jesse, propping himself up against a doorframe and cradling his head, clearly in pain.

“God, Red, what did I have to drink last night?”

“Give her to me.”

Jesse looked up from his hand, clearly acting as confused as I was. “The fuck-“

Saphira peeled herself away from the door, her eyes still glowing. I felt my heart race as I saw lights flicker outside the cabin’s windows, clearly the same type of light that was pouring from hers. They were the eyes that had been on the other side of that door. And, I had no doubt in my mind, they belonged to Isis. And they were moving.

I somehow managed to move from where I had been rooted to the spot, following the lights as they made their way around the building. They flickered in an out of existence, like a deadly firefly, keeping us contained to the little structure.

“Jesse, now is not the time to worry about your damn hangover,” Saphira hissed, crossing the room in two strides. I had to blink to make sure I had seen correctly, but I had. She moved impossibly fast, so fast that I wasn’t sure I’d even seen it. She stood in front of him and slapped him hard across the face, the sound echoing through the room.

He howled in pain. “What was that for?!” Jesse blinked in surprise, then narrowed his eyes at Saphira, who stood facing him with an outstretched hand, as though she hadn’t realized she slapped him. I saw a flash of recognition cross is expressive face. All at once, the pieces seemed to fall into place.

Jesse looked to me, terrified. “It’s her, Charlie!” He hissed, bolting over to where I was standing.

Saphira’s eyes were still illuminated, I could see why he was so scared. He hadn’t seen a Reaper since the subway attack. It was completely likely that he had nightmares about them. Saphira tried to shush him, and took a step closer to me to try to calm him down, but Jesse stepped in front of me before she got the chance. He puffed up his chest and balled his fists at his sides, a fighting stance.

I shook my head. “Jess, no, you don’t understand-“

“That freak is here to kill us! She didn’t finish the job last time, so she tracked us down to-“ He paused, suddenly aware of his surroundings. “Where the hell are we?”

I pushed him away from me so that I could face him. “That’s what I’m trying to tell you.” I nodded to Saphira, who was following the eyes outside with her own, keeping track of them. “We’re in the forest. Sawyer and Saphira brought us here so that we could be under their protection, away from-“

I broke off just as I heard music begin to waft through the house, tinny and airy and innocent. It sounded very much like a music box or something like that playing “Pop Goes the Weasel.” I looked to Saphira for some kind of explanation. Her eyes just widened and she shook her head, clearly at a loss as to what was going on.

Jesse grabbed my shoulders and shook them, forcing me to look back at him. His blue eyes were wide with fear and uncertainty. I suddenly felt guilt was over me like none I had ever felt before – it was bad enough that I had gotten Sawyer involved in this mess, but now Jesse, who had done nothing wrong but try to comfort me, was in the thick of it as well.

“Away from what?” he breathed, barely audible above the tinny music. “Tell me what’s going on!”

Suddenly, a giggle ripped through the air. It sounded like a young girl, but the timing and the tone sounded absolutely unquestionably evil. I knew it had come from Isis.

“Tell him, Charlotte!”

Saphira’s eyes began to dim, along with any of the color still left in her face. I had never believed that a Reaper could be that afraid, but the image of Saphira’s face at that moment would haunt me for months to come. We all stood in the living room, surrounded by silence and music and the voice of one of the most powerful creatures ever known to man, and all we could do was stare at each other.

Saphira ran a hand through her hair. “Sawyer and I are Reapers, okay?”

I took a shaky breath, gathering up the will I had left. The confused look on Jesse’s face nearly broke my heart as I tried to think of the words to explain what had happened to me in the last few weeks. I felt hot tears prick the sides of my eyes and I wiped them away furiously.

“Sawyer is the guy I told you about,” I choked out, suddenly feeling a lump in my throat. “He saved us from the subway that night. He and Saphira aren’t human, Jess. They’re Reapers, and they Feed on people’s feelings, their souls.” I looked down at the ground. Everything was so much more difficult to admit out loud.

Jesse stared at me. “Then why are we alive?”

The voice outside giggled again. This time, however, as a new verse of the music began, I heard the voice begin to sing with it. The sound was grating to the ear like nails on a chalkboard. I slapped my hands over my ears to try to block out the sound, but it was of little use. I could still make out the words she was singing.

“Wipe your tears, silence your cheers,
Let your sadness get no deeper,
But retain the fright to go out at night
Or soon you’ll meet the Reaper!”

“What the hell?” Saphira snarled, running to the window to see if she could make out anything. When she couldn’t, she turned back to me, bewildered.

I looked back to Jesse, who was still waiting for an answer.

But how could I tell him that he wasn’t safe? He knew there was danger, but the only real danger was his. He was at risk of losing everything. Because of stupid decisions that I had made. I had dragged Jesse into the fray when he had only ever been kind to me. I felt a knot form in the pit of my stomach.

It wasn’t just Jesse I had betrayed.

The voice continued to sing louder and louder, repeating the same verse over and over again. The girl was getting braver, more confident, and it was clear by their faces that Jesse and Saphira were getting more and more on edge. I knew that Saphira could sense my fear, my agitation, but there was nothing I or she could do about it. We were sitting ducks.

No, I had betrayed everyone.

It had started with Sawyer, that very first day of the subway fiasco. If I hadn’t have disregarded his note, then I wouldn’t have forced him to botch the plan. If he hadn’t saved me, he wouldn’t have put himself in harm’s way of his pack. He wouldn’t have alienated his leader, and his friend wouldn’t have gotten beat up because of me. Sawyer himself wouldn’t have been attacked. And he sure wouldn’t have put his heart out on the line for me.

Then there was Jesse. If he hadn’t gone with me on the way home that night, he would have gotten home safe, sound, and unscathed. He wouldn’t have known about all this Reaper nonsense. And, right now, he wouldn’t be standing on the brink of life and death, surrounded by two creatures who could extinguish his life in the blink of an eye.

And then Saphira. She had no reason whatsoever to care about my safety except that Sawyer was her friend and companion. I couldn’t blame her if she hated me for dragging her into this when she had no tie to me at all. How could I live with myself knowing that I had caused her so much trouble?

I looked back at Jesse, realizing what I had to do. I stood up a little straighter, pulling my shoulders back, and facing the door.

The light now stopped behind the door, filling up the cracks that surrounded it. Purple light flowed in like little tendrils from the cracks in the doorframe and the floor, silhouetting the door in front of me. With a shaky breath, I took a step towards it, my mind made up.

“The reason we’re still alive-“

“Wipe your tears, silence your cheers-“

“Is because Isis, the Reaper outside, doesn’t want anything to do with you,” I said shakily, talking another step toward the door.

“Let your sadness get no deeper-“

“She’s interested in the person who can block the most powerful Reaper from her mind. The only person that she can’t feed from. She is so angry that someone has undermined her power, she’s willing to do anything to get to them.” Another step.

“But retain the fright to go out at night-“

“But what does that have to do with you?” Jesse hissed, trying to grab my shirt and pull me back toward him. I wrenched out of his grasp.

“Or soon you’ll meet the Reaper.”

I turned back to him, one hand on the doorknob. I felt the tears stream down my face as I looked into the shocked ones of Jesse and Saphira, both of whom were watching my every move.

“Because the person Isis wants is me.”

And with that, I yanked the door open, coming face to face with the figure outside.

There was a terrible screech, and a flash of blinding white. I shielded my eyes from the burst of light and shrunk away from it, blinking rapidly to adjust my eyes back to the darkness.

I was shocked to see a muscled chest in front of me. I looked up to see an angry Sawyer, staring me down with the most furious face I had ever seen. His mouth was contorted into a snarl and his normally beautiful eyes were cast in a dull green, clearly disappointed and upset. I took in his tensed body and balled-up fists, and realized that he was prepared, more than anything, for battle.

I took a step back in shock as Sawyer yanked me outside by the arm, roughly. “We don’t have time for martyrs, Charlotte,” he hissed, scooping me up and over his shoulder. “Saphira! In the car! We have to go now!”

Saphira nodded quickly and grabbed Jesse by the arm, dragging him outside along with Sawyer and I.

The world was spinning as he dumped me in the backseat of the huge, beat-up truck, throwing me violently onto the leather seat. In a flash, I was joined by Jesse, who looked equally as confused as I did. We blinked at each other for a moment as Sawyer and Saphira got into the front seats, hastily slamming the doors and pulling away.

As I looked behind me, I saw the figure of a woman standing on the front porch of the house, staring at me intently. Her white hair flowed in the wind behind her, as if it weighed nothing at all. Her red eyes pierced the darkness as she stared at me, her face contorted into a howl. She raised her arms and turned her head toward the sky.

Another flash of light came down from the sky. I screamed as lightning struck the old cabin as we drove away, lighting the wood on fire.

Just as we drove out of sight, I heard the voice, like an echo on the wind:

“Or soon you’ll meet the Reaper.”