Reapers

Chapter 58: Get the Evidence and Run!

CW: blood, impaling (with an arrow!)

"Promise me you'll stay safe?" Janus asked.

"Dude, it's me," Sal told him, handing over her phone. "I got this! Don't worry about it."

"Hold on, I want you to keep your phone on you. I found out a way to turn off your location."

"I thought that we couldn't do that." Sal frowned, slightly confused as she unlocked her phone.

"We normally can't, however..." Janus took the phone from her again, taking off her case. "I learned that we can take the tracker out of the phone."

"I taught him how!" Remus cheerfully said, clearly proud of himself. He summoned a screwdriver and gave it to Janus.

"And how did you learn how to do this?" Sal asked.

"I got really bored and took my phone apart. I did it a lot when I was alive too!"

"As long as it doesn't break my phone. Just make sure you don't break the tracker so it can go back in."

"I won't." Janus stuck out his tongue as he took out a small chip. "There we go. I'll hold onto this for you."

"Yes! Now I can go a-spying!" Sal summoned the dagger Roman gave her and threw it into the air.

Janus's phone buzzed and he looked at it to see he got an email, the subject being a meeting with Death. "Finally, I can talk to Death."

"Oh! When?" Both Sal and Remus said in unison.

"It's been so hard lately, we really need another reaper!" Sal added.

"Hold on," Janus opened it and started reading. His shoulders slumped, "It's today. You're not going to be able to tail Ren today, Sal."

"What?" the pink reaper deflated. "But what if she does something?"

"I don't feel comfortable being gone while you're doing something so dangerous and reckless. If you see something, I want it reported to me immediately."

"If something happens today then I need to be there to see it! What if she does something today, and not tomorrow or the next day! I'll record it on my phone, and then I'll find Virgil! And if I get in trouble, I'll call him!"

"I'm still not comfortable with you doing this."

Sal put her hands together and gave Janus her best puppy dog face. "Please? I'll be careful! Do you not trust me?"

Janus scowled at her, crossing his arms. "Don't try to gaslight me."

"Remus! Tell him I'll be okay!"

"You're acting like a child."

"You should have a little more faith in her," Remus agreed. "Besides, you'll only be gone for an hour or two, what harm will come of that?"

Sal brightened up and smiled wide. "Yeah!"

"Fine! You can go, just be careful and don't get caught."

"Thank you! You're the best!" Sal hugged Janus tight. She let go and hugged Remus as well. "And thank you!"

"You can make it up to me by catching whoever is summoning these phantoms," Remus said, rubbing her head.

"You can count on me!"

~~~

Sal jumped from building to building, following Ren from as far as possible without losing her from her sight. Several times already she had to jump down because Ren looked her way, but she was able to catch up easily after that.

So far, everything seemed normal. Ren destroyed phantoms, brought souls to the afterlife, and destroyed some more phantoms. Sal had to fight some phantoms herself, but they were quick and quiet fights.

The day had been... long for Sal, and it was barely even the afternoon. At first, she had thought it would be fun to tail Ren, but it was so boring. The white reaper was being boring!

Of course, she couldn't just give up since she was the best one to tail Ren. Even if Virgil took a video for proof, his weapon now had a chain on it and it was noisy so it couldn't be him.

Sal sighed when she saw Ren jump down into an alleyway, summoning her bow. There was probably another phantom there, though... it was strange that she didn't just shoot it from above.

The pink reaper jumped down into the street, coming closer to the alleyway that Ren jumped down into. She pulled out her phone when she didn't hear any signs of fighting and started recording. She let her phone peek into the alleyway and saw Ren standing there with her bow hanging on her shoulder.

Sal's eyes widened when Ren pulled out a piece of paper, biting her thumb. She watched as the other reaper smeared golden blood onto the piece of paper, and suddenly several phantoms came out of the paper as Ren jumped back. The phantoms were class three, but it still explained what caused the increase.

Ren turned to leave, but spotted Sal in the corner. The pink reaper jumped away as Ren pulled out her bow, leaving the alleyway full of phantoms.

"What are you doing, Ren?" Sal shouted as the white reaper pointed an arrow at her.

"I'm sorry you had to see that, you weren't my intended target," Ren told her. Then she smiled. "But I could make this work."

The phantoms screeched from the alleyway and Ren jumped out of the way as they came out to attack her. They were following the scent of her blood. Well, if it was an injured reaper they wanted...

Sal pulled out her guns and started shooting at the phantoms. Ren jumped on top of the building she was next to, pulling out more summoning papers. She bit her thumb again to reopen the wound that was quickly healing, spreading the blood on the sheets. She dropped them down into the streets as more phantoms appeared from them, pulling back the string on her bow again.

Sal looked up just in time to see Ren point the arrow at her again. She jumped back as the white reaper let go of her bowstring, and the next thing she knew an arrow sprouted from her leg.

She shouted in pain and fell against the wall for support, looking up at the phantoms as they all swarmed towards her, too many to count. She shot the closest ones, looking up to see Ren was already gone. There was no way she was going to get away with that, but first Sal needed to survive.

She promised Janus to call Virgil if she was in trouble, so she pulled out her phone as she turned to run on her injured leg. She just had to get away until Virgil could come help her, she had to be okay, she had to get the evidence to someone. There was no way she was going to become phantom food.