Reaper's Girl

Beginning of the nightmare (rewritten)

Hey dear reader,

hope you got hooked by the name... I don't want to scare you, but if you want to complete this story to the last page, you'll have to have some spine. The story will creep you out of your skin and you'll be freaking unable to make the head or toes out of it. The only question is : Are you affraid of the dark?

You should....

              It was getting late and she knew she'll get scolded again. Every Friday was the same: she went to school, then to her aikido class and then to the library. That was what got her into trouble each time – books. Alice Steel was more than addicted to them, she needed them and to her library was like heaven on earth. So, naturally, when she got in her little paradise time lost all meaning to her. She sighed angrily. Her parents should calm down a notch or two, it's not as if she was dating or doing other things that most of the young people of her age did these days. Alice was not even really sure if she'll be interested in anything the opposite sex could propose to her any time soon. 'Parents!'- she thought to herself sighing heavily again and picking up her pace. -' they will scream again at how foolish and egoistic I am to come back at such hours. I should better hurry.'

The street she was on looked devoid of any living spirit and only lights coming from the windows of a few, largely spaced, cottages Alice passed by, showed that there were still people around. Her solitary, rapid footsteps carried and echoed in the silence of the street, and only the sound of rustling leaves on the old, gnarled trees behind a large fence that lounged the length of the street accompanied her lone figure. She didn't feel reassured, and kept glancing towards the darkness that dwelled on the other side of the crumbling stone wall. On some deep, instinctive level she was persuaded that the echo of her footsteps wasn't one, but that of another person, but every time she glanced over her shoulder there was no one behind her, nor there was anyone on her left hand side, where the large houses hid behind dormant flower bushes and well kempt gardens.

She glanced at her hand-watch. 9:30 PM. Shit. It was still far to her parents' home if she went through main, well-lit road. If she wanted to get back home before 10 PM Alice will have to cut short through the old city park. Shivers went down her back and Alice swallowed hard. She hated to go through that desolate abandoned place even when it was nice and hot summer midday, which was most definitely not the case at this moment. The cold late autumn wind blew under her uniform skirt, chilling her legs and making her shiver uncomfortably again. Alice huddled deeper in her wool waistcoat, settled her bag more comfortably on back and squared her shoulders. She knew that even if she didn't love the idea, she'll have to do it, she will have to go through that desolate and abandoned place, where nature took back what was hers for far longer than humans and civilization existed.

- Screw it, - she said trying to sound more sure of herself than she felt like. - I'm not some simple stupid and helpless 14-year-old chick, I'm a smart and well trained 14 years old kick-ass, - at that she faced the fence separating the darkness of the old park from the well-lit street. It was really old and falling apart, rocks and pebbles covered the ground in front of a big hole of the fence. There was more than enough place for her to get through it and into the park itself. Alice hesitated just for one short moment and then squeezed through it and entered the place that was haunting her worst nightmares.

The moment she entered the park, the impenetrable darkness, that seemed to resist any light from the lamp posts on the other side of the fence, enveloped her and the only sound that was left was the soft shuffling of dead leaves on the ground and the scrambling of thick net of gnarled branches in the wind and undergrowth. The only living noises was those of her rapid unequal steps on the carpet of old dried leaves and her heavy breathing. Alice's heart was beating hundred miles per hour and all of her instincts screamed that she was being watched and followed. Her stomach shrank to a tight ball of fear and she picked up her pace, trying to avoid the low branches and spiky bushes. She stumbled over gnarled roots protruding from ground and camouflaged by dead foliage, barely able to not fall, by desperate last minute reaction and fast grab of the low branches of the surrounding trees.