The Grim

4. Scarlet

Tick... Tick... Tick... The sound of my clock. I was in my house... but how was this possible? My eyes opened, and there I was, sitting on my couch. It seemed even darker outside now. As I reached for my phone, I quickly realized my hands and legs were tied up with rope.

"You're awake!" I heard from the kitchen as I saw the woman walk out with a cup of coffee and sit down opposite me.

"I'm going to untie you, and don't worry, you are unharmed. But first, I want to explain some things so that you don't try to kill me when I let you free," she said, smiling at me.

"I'm Scarlet, and I was sent here to train you. You're going to tell your sister and friend that we have been dating for a while and you finally wanted me to move into this crap shack with you, to make it less suspicious why I'm truly here." She placed her cup down and awaited my response.

"What the fuck do you mean 'move in with me'? Why would I ever trust you? How am I even alive right now?" I was confused, my blood boiling and sweat dripping down my face.

"Well, you see—and trust me, this will make a lot more sense over time—you are special. Or not really, depending on how you think about it," she said, batting her eyes with a crazy glance towards me.

"Have you been seeing things, imagining things that aren't actually there? Getting a feeling of euphoria about the thought of killing someone, dragging them under?" The ropes around my wrists and feet finally unbound, yet I stood there, shocked that she knew exactly what was happening to me.

"You see, I... Sorry, I guess 'WE' work for a man. He's known as the Reaper, and every so often when one of our ranks gets killed off, or dies, or simply just pisses the main man off, we recruit. And that, buddy, is where you come in." Suddenly, she was behind me, grazing my hair with her fingertips. She smelled like burning wood.

"How the fu—" I stuttered.

"How what? How did I teleport magically behind you? Do you not fucking get it yet? The name alone is pretty fucking stupid—that he calls himself 'The Reaper'. We are death itself, and no one can cheat or escape death. That is why we are here: to make sure that it doesn't happen... And get this, the fucker calls us the Grim... it's almost comical." As she finished, she grabbed herself a glass of water, still chuckling away to herself.

But you know... I believed her. Everything she said was true, and there wasn't a chance she would have known about the things I'd been seeing otherwise.

"The reason you are still alive is because you cannot die by normal means. No one in this world can kill you, especially not just a little knife to the stomach. With this being said, how about we step outside, and I'll explain how you CAN die." She got up, reached her hand towards me, and smiled.

As we stepped outside in the moonlight, my phone began to buzz. It was Oliver trying to reach me. "DO NOT pick that up, not yet." She swatted the phone right out of my hands, caught it herself in a quick motion, and put it into her pocket.

"Your reflexes... They're amazing, how did you..." I said, dumbfounded.

"All in time. Now, as I was saying, there are three ways you can die. Number one: simply not doing your task as one of us now. We are expected to follow through and kill those who must be killed. This is all instinctual—you've already encountered that instinct with the girl you hit. If you resist this urge, he WILL know, and you will be punished. Number two: the only direct way to kill one of us is by ripping out the heart and setting it on fire. This doesn't sound like a big deal, but you will have enemies, the Holy is what they go by, I'll explain more at a different time. They will come, and you must be ready when they do. As you can assume, by our job, there is also a greater force that comes from above that dislikes when we take matters into our own hands. For this reason, you must learn to fight and be prepared. And this leads me to show you this."