Reaper

I couldn’t bear to look away from the man’s eyes.

It was as though there was a light inside his head, and the only exit point was through his eyes, glowing from the inside out – but that was impossible. I couldn’t be seeing such a ridiculous thing.

But then I looked over at Jesse, who had pulled me under the subway seat. The blood had completely drained from his face. I knew then that I wasn’t hallucinating. These creatures, whatever they were… they weren’t human.

I had no choice but to believe my eyes.

I could feel the fear running tangibly though my veins. My blood was lead, solid and heavy. It weighed down my limbs to the floor, like someone had switched gravity into overdrive. I could hear the screams as people had come to the realization that we were in trouble – we were all in trouble.

None of us knew just how much trouble until we saw the first creature – there were at least a dozen of them, all with glowing eyes – grabbed the homeless man I had seen earlier. With tremendous ease and inhuman strength, the creature grabbed the man by the throat and held him up to its face, opening its mouth as if it was going to bite him. Instead, the creature’s mouth lit up – a black hole in the darkness. A faint, glowing mist rose from the homeless man and his body went limp in the creature’s grasp. The creature breathed deeply, audibly, and inhaled the mist that was appearing. The man made a dreadful noise, a broken cry in pain, and the creature’s breathing was a monstrous wail that would haunt even the bravest souls.

Its eyes burned brighter as the mist it had created faded, the man clearly dead. He tossed the used body aside like it was trash, where it fell in a crumpled heap with a sickening thud.

The sounds of panic rose as more creatures claimed victims, echoing throughout the tunnel, as though they were encouraged by it. The more the people panicked, the more energy they seemed to have. They looked very much like humans, but that was the only thing human about them – they tore through the outside of the car, they threw victims around like dolls, they emitted a noise that would haunt me for a long time.

What were they?

Debris crashed to the ground as more and more struggles began to take place. The creatures were far outnumbered, but they were so strong that they ripped bars out of the ground and slammed
them into the wall, making it cave in. The fluorescent lights shattered and the metal panels on the ceiling began to cave in, making it all the more perilous to be the victim in this situation.

I let out a scream as one of them grabbed my ankle, yanking me out from under the seat.

With a quick change of grip, the creature grabbed me by the neck and yanked me up to its face. I scrabbled at its hands, trying to claw my way free, but it was no use – it was a steel grip versus a limp noodle. I cursed and kicked and screamed as much as I could, but it was of no avail.

That is, until I locked eyes with my assailant.

My heart stopped. On the other side of the vice-like grip was the man from the bar – the man who had written me the note.

His eyes were glowing like the others. He had no doubt already attacked someone else. I couldn't be completely sure in the dim light, but something in me knew it was him. I can’t explain how, but his jaw, his nose, his body – they were all incredibly him. The expression on his features was one of primal, animalistic hunger, a face that something sees before it becomes prey. And it was directed at me. I was the prey.

“No! Charlie!” Jesse bellowed, attempting to crawl out from under the seat. He was blocked by a piece of the ceiling falling on the ground on his leg, and he let out a howl of pain.

Suddenly, the man’s eyes were no longer lit up.

Staring back at me were two human eyes, two bright, green, guilt-ridden eyes. “Charlotte?” he hissed, confused.

I opened my mouth and my eyes widened, but it was all I could do to pathetically gasp for air. I continued to scratch at his hands as he held me a foot off the ground. Noticing this, he put me down, pushing me against the wall behind me roughly. He pinned me down by the elbows, looking me straight in the face.

I gasped, allowing my starved lungs to breathe. “It’s you,” I croaked, my eyes wide.

He was obviously angry. “I told you not to take the subway!”

Another creature came up behind him and tried to grab my arm. It was female, tall, and muscular, with glowing eyes and inky black hair. She, like the man, was inhumanly beautiful, and inherently deadly. She seized my wrist with a strong grip, but she felt like she was on fire. I winced in pain at the strength of her grip as well as her apparent temperature.

The man swatted her away, grunting. “Get away, Saphira!” he bellowed, wrenching her grasp away from my hand.

I stood there, mouth agape, as the woman’s eyes faded to normal, dark blue ones. “Sawyer, what the hell?” she demanded, cradling her hand.

I felt the irony in her voice because, well, that was exactly what I wanted to know.

As suddenly as he had pulled me out from under the bench, the man – Sawyer, apparently – threw me over his shoulder, gripping onto the backs of my knees. I felt the wind rush from my lungs as I steadied myself on his back, trying to remove my face from his backside, to no avail. He began to carry me through the subway car and out into the darkened tunnel, lit only by the eyes of the creatures and the few lights that had been installed into the tunnel.

“Jesse!” I screamed and pounded the man’s back as we walked, the image of Jesse trapped under the bench still fresh in my mind. “Let me go! That’s my friend back there!”

The man continued to walk. As soon as we were far enough away, he found a maintenance stairwell and shoved me onto it, looking me in the face again.

“Listen to me, Charlotte,” he growled. “I will go retrieve your friend, but you need to Stay. Here. Am I clear?”

I nodded.

He began to run back to the train, but he paused to turn back and look at me. “Please, this time, do as I ask.”

I sat on the stairs in shock as I watched him leave. So any thoughts whirled around in my head as my eyes tried to adjust to the darkness of the tunnel. How could this possibly be happening? What were those creatures? And why was the mystery man – Sawyer – helping me? That thought sent a shiver through me. He could just as easily have attacked me as he had all the others, but he stopped. He had warned me. He protected me, and he went to go save Jesse for me. Why would he do that?

It was then that I realized that I was incredibly alone.

With all the strength I could muster, I pushed my torso off of the ground, propping myself onto my elbow and inspecting myself. I was covered in dirt, in grime, and I was still wet from my trip through the rain that seemed like ages ago. I winced as I flexed my leg in a vain attempt to get up, but it was no use. I had no way of escaping. I was doomed to wait until the man came back with my coworker.

I could still hear the screams coming from the train. I felt guilt rush through me. It wasn’t fair for me to survive and some of them wouldn’t. It hadn’t fully sunken in yet that these creatures, whatever they were, were killing people right before my eyes – it was too terrifying to be real. Impossible, illogical.

But it was real.

Two shadows approached me, one with a limp. I felt myself relax a little (if that was even possible) at the sight of Jesse, relieved that he was relatively unharmed. Once I was in sight, Jesse took off from under Sawyer’s arm and bolted toward me, gathering me up in his arms.

“Charlie,” he breathed, tangling his hand in my hair. “Oh my God, you’re okay.”

Then, I did something that I hardly ever did in my life – I started to cry.

All the fear, all the adrenaline, all the terror I had felt in the last few minutes was poured into those tears. Jesse clutched me tightly to his chest, whispering to me softly that it was going to be alright. I grabbed fistfuls of his dirty shirt, clinging desperately to something tangible as the world began to spin around me. I was getting increasingly dizzy.

Before I knew what was going on, my world went black.



I don’t know what it was that woke me up the next morning, only that I was in my own bed when I woke up. Light streamed through the window and it looked as though it was late morning, even afternoon. I stared up at my ceiling blankly, wondering why my body felt like I had been hit by a car.

I moved my arm slightly, only to be completely surprised that there was another body next to me.

I sat up sharply and covered my chest, then realizing that I had on only a bra. I looked over at the mop of blonde hair on the pillow next to me, a mop who wasn’t wearing a shirt. Was I drunk last night? No, I would’ve felt the hangover. Then why the hell was Jesse in my bed half-naked?

Then the memory of the previous night hit me.

My movements had stirred Jesse from his sleep. He rolled over onto his back groggily and stretched his arms above his head, making all of the muscles on his chest flex with the effort. “Charlie? What…?” His voice was hoarse and quiet.

I shook my head. “Was that… was that real?” I asked, more to myself than to him.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw something on my nightstand that I didn’t recognize at first, but after a few seconds of thought, I don’t know how I didn’t see it. There was a red bar napkin from work, exactly like the one that the man had snuck into his pay only a few hours earlier as a warning.

This one, however, said something different.

Charlotte – Next time, do as I tell you. Sawyer.