Kiss Me Ones

Chapter 9

I swallowed, resisting the urge to panic. He leaned forward, filling my nose with his acrid stench. His voice was only a whisper but it felt like hundred of ants were crawling over me.

"I am Lucas and I'm a reaper,"

"Wh..why are you here? You're not..." my voice quivered as I spoke. There was no ounce of courage left inside of me. The foreboding figure had sapped it all out and was on the verge of sapping out whatever form of life was left in me.

He looked dead in my soul again, shaking his head slightly. "I'm not supposed to be here and neither are you. But you set off the reckoning cause and now the realms between the living and the afterlife are intricately connected. I will have to move through these connections to put a stop to your foolishness."

I swallowed, rubbing my sweaty palms on my thigh. My heart pounded loudly against my ribcage. Curiosity rose from a corner inside of me. What did he mean by foolishness?

This was a chance to save William's life and hopefully mine as well. How was any of this foolish?

Ignoring the trepidation I felt, I allowed my curiosity to win, "I...I don't understand. How can you say that? I'm trying to save a life!"

He chuckled and it sent shivers down my spine. Every time he chuckled, he would stare deep into my soul, drawing out a low groan from within me. His voice was eerily calm; a spectral murmur that had my teeth slightly shattering.

"An accused soul, Lana. An accused soul. Who do you think accused that soul? I presented him before the council of celestial judges and reapers. I am the balance and the harbinger of fate," he said, his voice echoing like the ring of a gong, "William had a choice and he made that choice. This ability to choose is what guides the cosmic order. People like you try to twist that and I am here to ensure that the threads of destiny remain unaltered."

A sense of dread covered me like a blanket. I staggered backward, shaking my head. This was against everything Victor had told me. My brain spun in a million circles trying to understand where was it all wrong. I tried not to stare at him wide-eyed and spiral into a mirage of questions but it was hard. He was saying just too much at once.

"But William could have been stopped. His death was unjust, that's why the Celestials are giving me a chance to save him," I said.

He scoffed. His words carved through the silence of the locker room and I was almost worried that the boys would soon leave the field and find me here.

"Perhaps. But he had long made his choice and the natural course of events took place. You do not have the right to challenge a predetermined fate. I did not vote for William to be given a second chance."

My hands trembled and the locker room suddenly felt a little too small as though this was a nightmarish realm and the walls were closing in on me. Reality and the terror were starting to blur in my mind.

"S...so what do you want? I can't stop now. I've already activated it and I have thirty days left," I wrung my palms.

He nodded, "I can see you foolishly did that but I am here to stop you and ensure that you fail. Everything that has to go wrong will go wrong. I will not allow you to alter the order of destiny."

I felt my breathing gradually become shallow, the weight of his words felt like they were pressing down against my chest. The realization that I was going to be battling against an entity that I couldn't comprehend was difficult to grapple with.

Why hadn't Victor told me that I was defying fate?

"But... I can't afford to fail," I said slowly, "If I do, I and William will die. My mother and brother will be in pain. Plus, Victor said there are other consequences for invoking the reckoning clause and failing."