The Reaper's Successor

Coincidence or Not?

Ding Dong.

The doorbell just went off and Scott ran to the doorbell to answer and at the door was his adorable nephew Ryan and his sister-in-law Laura.

"Hi Laura, how are you? Is everything going well with Jimmy?" Behind Laura, was little boy Ryan looking shy as Scott could remember the last time they visited.

Laura ushered Ryan to boy Ryan and he looked shy to see his uncle Scott.

"It's been going good so far, just quite busy in the city. Thanks again for agreeing to take care of my boy Ryan on such short notice."

"Come on Ryan, go say hi to your uncle,Scott." Laura turned and ushered Ryan and Ryan walked nervously to his uncle Scott. Of course had prepared for this outcome as he had not seen Ryan in about 5 years since he was born and now he had grown up. Scott decided to go get something that he had prepared for Ryan.

When he came back, Ryan saw what was in Scott's hand and rushed towards him. It was a cute little stuffed bear he had bought just for him. It seems that Ryan loved it. Warren had coincidentally walked out of his room and saw Scott's family.

"Hey there Laura, long time no see." Warren said as he proceeded to the fridge to scavenge for leftovers to eat. "Oh and who is this little guy over here?"

"Hey, I'm not little! My name is Ryan!" Ryan actually responded to Warren quicker than Scott expected. He was kind of jealous that Warren managed to get Ryan to warm up to him before he could. Whatever. Scott had planned multiple exciting things in preparation for his nephew Ryan and he was sure that Ryan would love them.

"Well it is time for me to go. Thank you again Scott for agreeing to take care of Ryan. And you little boy, don't make things difficult for uncle Scott okay?" Laura had departed for the airport afterwards.

A few days passed and it was finally Christmas! Scott had planned to take Ryan out to the mall to see the Santa exhibit and get some additional gifts and treats for Ryan and Warren.The mall,as expected, was crowded during Christmas but that still would not stop Scott from letting him treat his nephew.

Ryan was by his side with Scott holding his hand tight so he would not lose him. It was late afternoon right now and it seemed that the Santa exhibition had not been opened yet. He looked through the windows and he noticed that the man dressed up as Santa was already inside sitting on the big chair where all the kids would visit and ask for gifts.

Something was off though. Santa was not moving. Like at all. He looked almost as if he were. Dead. Then chaos had slowly emerged. Starting from the whispers.

It had seemed that Scott was not the only one who noticed the dead Santa that was sitting on the chair and as expected screamed in fear and shouted out loud announcing to basically the whole mall that someone had been killed yet again. Which leads to panic and mayhem in this town of Youthville. Where there was supposedly 30 years clean of any crimes.

Everyone had started running away trying to escape the mall from the possibility of the killer still being in the mall. People were bumping into one another and knocking down everything along their way trying to run. Some people have fallen to the ground and people were trampling over them without even batting an eye. It was every man or woman for themselves.

Scott had quickly picked up Ryan from the floor and carried him on his shoulder. He was trying very hard to avoid bumping into any people and keeping Ryan safe from injury. He would not be able to forgive himself if he got his own nephew injured after promising his older brother that he would take good care of him. Scott had managed to get to an exit of the mall mostly unscathed with just one or two shoves from other people trying to escape the scene of the crime.