Curse of an Era

"I love sunsets! Especially sunsets over bridges.." Nepsa adored watching the sun settling down passed the scenic bridge in front of her bedroom window. Erik Kelter watched as the young beautiful lady poured him another glass of wine, admiring her inner beauty for awhile now.

"Oh, I see. Which bridge is this?" Erik asked, keeping the conversation flow from not turning awkward. Nepsa giggled before answering, "It's the Hazel bridge. It has an interesting story while the bridge was being built." Her emerald green eyes sparkled, it made Erik smile. "Oh, really? Do tell." More than eager he was to hear her voice.
"Well there was once a village that stood here over fifty years ago. The villagers were told, the king, Ay-Henry II, wanted to build a bridge right here. For many decades the villagers were comfortable to just use boats to get across the DeNile River. The king's orders are absolute, they had to obey. They packed their bags, and waved goodbye to their homes..."

"But, where did the name 'Hazel' came from?" Erik asked curiously.
"The king's eldest daughter dies as a child, after years of battling a deadly illness. Heartbroken, like any other parent, he honors her by naming the new bridge after her, "The Hazel-Katherine Bridge". However, since after the bridge was completed, travelers and tourists have witnessed seeing a young girl at weird hours at night. They claim she's a dead princess that skips up and down the bridge passed midnight. I hope you sleep alright tonight, Lord Kelter. I know I wouldn't after hearing the famous legend." They both giggled, obviously from drinking too much wine.

"Maybe you're right, Lady Aloiv. However I do believe I will sleep just fine. Good night, Lady Aloiv." He smiled while leaving her to get ready for bed.
"Good night, Doctor Kelter." She winked before Erik closed the door behind him.

---

The next day brought more of a concern for any noble family in PI-Setra's capital. Every morning, Kana Aloiv, Nepsa's mother, wakes up to have her tea and read the capital's newspaper. What seems like an ordinary morning, actually makes any mother worry about their own child's safety. She sighs, reading the front page of the newspaper. Left side, breaking news. Right side, a grimsley photo of a corpse.

"What is it, mother?" asks the only child of this terrified noble woman. Nepsa pulls out her seat, before sitting directly across from her mother. Looking at her with her emerald eyes, full of concern.
"Nepsa, it seems everyday we live in danger. Another killing happened yesterday.." Her mother tries to hold back any tears of fear for her own child.
"Another killing?"
"A serial killer, that targets young female nobles has struck again. There are now twelve victims. I could only imagine how their parents must feel. Losing a daughter or a son from a sick psycho! The pain must be unbearable. Oh, Nepsa, I'm scared. Your father and I would be in so much pain, if anything ever happened to you."
"Mom, I am scared too."

---

"Doctor Kelter?" Erik waves his hand, for Kana Aloiv to enter into the study. A bunch of folders are spread out on a messy desk, one in particular is in question.
"You wanted to ask me something before Nepsa and I went out?" She asked before sitting down beside him.

"It seems you have lied to me."
"I have lied to you? About what?" She asked confused.
"About Nepsa's medical records. It seems I can't even find the name of the doctor or hospital, that Nepsa was born at? It seems that when I dig more into her family history, the more you couldn't give me any detail, and I see in your wedding portrait, you were married to Mr. Aloiv nineteen years ago. Are you aware Nepsa is nineteen years old? I don't see a baby bump in this picture, or in any the other photos around that time. Which means she is..."
"Adopted.." She looked to her feet.
"Why lie to me then? Your daughter was dying from an illness nine months ago. I needed to have every information that there was about her, in order to treat her."
"You have cured her, Doctor Kelter. No need to dwell on the past, she is healthy again." She said springing to her feet.
"Even so, an illness can strike twice."

'Its still a miracle! I don't deserve the credit. It still baffles me, how did she overcome a nine-month-illness?'

"Please understand. Nepsa is all we have. My husband and I cant have children, so adopting her was our only option. I don't ever want to lose her, so now that you know the truth, you can never tell her. Promise me, Kelter! You will not tell Nepsa she is adopted."
"I am not sure if that's the right thing to do. She is an adult, she has a right to know the truth."
"My husband hired you to help her overcome her illness. Your job is complete, you shall leave now."
"At least allow me to say goodbye to Nepsa."

'At least let me hear her sweet voice, and see those gorgeous emerald eyes, one last time.'

---
Meanwhile, at the king of PI-Setra's palace, King Nazwadjat Zachariah, has stumbled upon a little coincidence in the recent deaths. His younger sister, princess Zimara Zachariah III, overheard a phone call of her brother's plan.

"You hired the Army of Darkness? Are you sure that's wise? Didn't father say to hire them as a last resort?" Zima, as she is nicknamed, is questioning her brother's decision.
"Sis, there's a serial killer out to torment and kill my people. As their king, I must protect them." Nazwadjat says clutching his ankh pendant around his neck. The ankh is a symbol of life, but also is the secret key to access the underworld.
"But, brother, our people are reapers, not humans! Why bother to protect them?"
"Of course, you would say that.." He giggled.
"What is that suppose to mean?"
"To answer your question, little sister, after you were born a tragic struck PI-Setra and the universe of Maat. Without Maat, there will be no life without death, no death without bringing new life. There will be no rain, without rain nothing can grow. There will be no day, there will no night.."
"I get the point!!" Zima interrupted.
"Without this concept, we wouldn't have to worry about the existence of humans and non-humans going into extinction. Second of all, I haven't experienced something like this since..."
"Since?"
"Don't you remember, when you were five, you always wanted to visit the west wing of the palace? Well you snuck into father's room once to see a portrait of a little girl, and you dragged one of our nannies into his room..."
"Yeah? Father told me it was of mother. Your point is?"
"That's right. You were not even a year old yet, when mother died. Zima, mother was killed with the same bullets that were used on those girls. Mother was a reaper. Which means, someone invented a weapon that can actually kill a reaper!"
"Wait, are you saying those victims were reapers not humans??"
"Zima, those young reapiresses were potential arranged brides for my son. The killer is killing any available reapiresses that could carry the royal bloodline for him. Without any descendants for the royal reaper bloodline, there wont be a king to keep a balance between humans and reapers, without a balance is only chaos. With only chaos, goes extinction and the concept of Maat will be erased from the universe. This is no longer just twelve victims, it just became something larger. That's why I hired them, the Army of Darkness.."

---

The ancient word for underworld, is Du-at. It is also the name of the underworld's civilized capital for reapers. The largest reaper military, to protect humans and non-humans within the scales of balance, the Army of Darkness headquarters sits in the middle. Each squad is made up with six members, with a lieutenant as their leader. There are a total of thirteen squads, and the highest number of an assigned squad, shows the best officers on the job. Currently squad number thirteen, has not been busy lately. Their last big mission was nineteen years ago, but a few weeks ago was able to receive a rookie to train.

The squad members have a very interesting background. In fact, since their last successful mission, they were welcomed to the thirteenth level of headquarters and became squad thirteen. Before that, they were nobodies.

Lieutenant Benji Ardeth, was the son and grandson of legendary lieutenants in the history of the Army of Darkness. Unfortunately, since the last mission nineteen years ago, Ardeth lost his right eye in a battle, wears an eye patch to cover the visible eye socket.

Memare and Gurmaine Carlo, older sister and younger brother on the team. Unfortunately, being separated from their family and village as children, the young brother believes its his duty to protect his big sister from any harm and danger. Both siblings are natural scull unit operators, that they have their own scull unit robots: Moko and Sally.

Zara Lacey, is the best ancient decoder on the team. She can decode curses, spells, ancient artifacts and use them against enemies.

Zeke Powers, the top computer expert and knows how to get information from anywhere.

Yukel Adams, the rookie. Unfortunately, this narrator doesn't have enough knowledge on him.

It seems after nineteen years, this squad has finally got another mission. In order to receive the mission and its many details, they need to see the reaper in charge of them and the founding of having an Army of Darkness, Osirah Zachariah.

---

The birth of reapers started when the universal god made minor gods and goddesses under him, to keep humans in line and to believe in Maat. There were five big gods that stood for the biggest things in life:
Maat- Goddess of Order, Balance, Judgement, Truth, and just being a good person.
Ra- God of the sun, so there's natural light in day time. However Ra, did share equal co-regency with the moon god, Khonsu.
Anubis- God of death, but don't look at it like that. Look at it like, without any death, there wont be any newborn babies. Without life, there wont be any deaths, so its a balance thing.
Bastet- Goddess of protecting animals, without any animals there wont be a food chain, or any protein.
Set- God of Chaos. To keep the balance scales working, there should be at least a 5 % chaos rate going on, so order can vanquish it.

However each of these "deities" became extremely lazy. They decide to come up with their own kind of non-human species to keep balance in the universe for them. In order to do that, they had to give birth to a royal family to keep their species on good behavior. One of these non-human species were reapers, made by Anubis. The idea was reapers would have to assist deceased humans to judgement and their right after lives. A reaper would be assigned to a human, as soon as the human was born. Just to keep all reapers on the same page, Anubis and a beautiful goddess, gave birth to twin sons, Osirah and Iset.

Where these twins should of been raised to be equals, Anubis picked one son to be the king of reapers. Iset, was blessed with the power to predict the universe and earth's future a year ahead. His job, besides being a king, was to document on a wall with paint every little prediction from deaths to natural disasters. Until that year was over, the wall would magically erase.

Osirah, however was cursed with the power of jealousy and anger. That power, would eventually destroy and kill him, if he couldn't control it. He decided if he couldn't be a king, he would still have a say on the reapers as their leader. He created the Army of Darkness, so any reaper who joins will listen to him first.

---

While waiting impatiently in the lobby, the squad waits for Ardeth to return with details on their new mission. Meanwhile, Ardeth is feeling nervous. This isn't the first time he felt nervous over a mission, it seems like Deja vu.

" I see you have cut your hair.." Says Osirah while getting a file folder out.
"You told me I should cut it, Sir."
"Ah, I remember now. Ardeth, are you aware of the recent killings in PI-Setra?"
"No, Sir."
"Twelve female reapiresses are dead. They were suppose to marry the king's son. My great-nephew begged me to have this case solved immediately. I am giving this case to your squad because, it might seem very familiar.."
"Familiar, Sir?"
"What weapons do you need? Money is a bit tight in organization, but we could negotiate payments after this is taken care of..."
"Sir, we just need parts."
"Parts? For what?"
"For Memare and Gurmaine's scull units."
"Scull units? So antique-ish. Are you sure that is wise? Scull units are so rarely used investigations anymore, their parts will be very expensive!"
"Sir, I am positive."
"I guess we wont be able to afford your eye surgery then. You know, your father and grandfather would held their heads in shame after picking a stupid request like that."
"I know, Sir."
"I am truly disappointed. I do hope you know what risks you put your team and your people at, I'll grant your request. I do hope to see some improvement strategies you'll make."
"Thank you, Sir."

---

"So did we get approved?" Gurmaine asked.
"Yes, but there's some details we need to gather first. Now listen very carefully, this may seem like a familiar case. Carlos', you are in charge to view the victims. They are at the morgue department at Resting Valley. Also there's a man named Kiye Michaels. He is an expert on repairing scull units." Ardeth handed the siblings a poorly drawn map.

---

As the Carlo siblings walked around the morgue, they couldn't find one person to help them. They needed to find this 'Kiye Michaels' fella, but there was no one to ask.

"Resting Valley, the largest cemetery still in use for over 3,000 years! Be buried here today!" read the biggest sign in the morgue.

"That's a creepy advertisement?" Said Memare.
"Sis, we are here to get answers not to goof around."
"Gumi, relax. You seem too serious lately. Is it because Zara slept with the rookie?" giggled Memare.
"Zara...and...Yukel....had....inter....co.." Gurmaine said in shock.
"They had sex! yes they did. come on, she wasn't your type."
"You're not funny!"
While the two were bickering, the golden coffin in front of them creaked open.
"Hello! Can I give you a free coffin fitting, today?" said the unidentified woman inside the coffin.
"Uh. No thanks?" said Memare.
"...Creepy..." thought Gurmaine.
"So uh, Miss..."
"Zianni." Said the woman.
"Well at least that sign made sense!" Gurmaine pointed to another odd sign at this morgue:

'Morticians,
Please wash hands before and after touching a corpse!
Zianni, this INCLUDES you!
-Thank You!'

"Well, miss Zianni, we are here to see Mr. Michaels?" Memare asked again.
Zianni wasn't even paying attention, instead she was throwing comic books, pillows, and blankets out of the coffin she was still laying in.
"WAIT!?! WHERE IS HE?!?" She screamed.
"Who? Mr. Michaels?" Memare asked confused.
"NOT Mr. Michaels! K-E-N-N-E-T-H!!!"
"Kenneth?" Gurmaine asked after solving the spelled out letters.
"His little sister will be lonely.." she muttered.
Backing away, both siblings are questioning who this is and how the hell did she get in here?
"Let's just find the mortician, and leave. okay?" Memare says to Gurmaine.
"Idiots! I am the mortician! What the hell do you want?" Zianni snapped.
"You are the mortician? Then where are all the bodies?" Gurmaine asked frustrated.
"Are you the Army of Darkness?" Zianni asks.
"How do you know about the Army of Darkness?"
"Duh! I work at a morgue and reapers come in and out to protect the deceased humans. I caught on very early. Besides, the king said you were coming. This way, reapers." Zianni said leading them.
"But, where is Mr. Michaels?" Gurmaine asked.
"He took the day off."
"WHAT THE FUCK?!?" both siblings yelled.
"He was suppose to repair Moko and Sally!"
"What's a Moko and Sally?" Zianni asked.
"What's a Kenneth?" Gurmaine shot back.
"Touche'." Zianni led them to another room where twelve reapers are frozen in time.

---

A river divides Resting Valley from a tourist town. throughout the streets are shops and restaurants. A non-human specimen is in disguise, searching for others like him. Lost, scared, and not aware how far away from home he was.

---

"Are you sure?" Doctor Kelter is being forced to leave, in order to protect Nepsa from a secret.
"Certainly, Kelter, Don't worry about me. I am healthy again, and I can take care of myself. Besides, mother told me your family wants you to return home. They really need you more than I. I heard that their bar is losing customers since your father died. I am truly grateful for curing me, Doctor." Nepsa smiled.

'No matter what, It's still a miracle...Her illness only lasted for nine months...she couldn't even leave her bed for nine months..Did I really cure her?'

---

'Oh Nepsa, I didnt just stay because your adopted parents hired me to care for you. I stayed because I have fallen in love with a human. If you knew the truth, If I told you that you were adopted, it wouldn't even matter. We are too different, you being a mortal, me being immortal. I shouldn't be thinking about you now, I have to clean these beer mugs. I will always love yo...'

"Hello! Darling, Give me a martini and make it snappy!!" giggled a busty blonde walking into Kelter's bar.
"No, Darling. We are closed." Kelter said still polishing a beer mug.
"Ah. Oh well, I'll be back during business hours. Ta-ta!" She leaves.

'Oh Nepsa..'

---
To Be Continued.....