Death's Reaper

First Contact

I looked down at the small rectangle through my shades, feeling a frown crease my eyebrows at the strange tiny box that appeared on the screen.

Joker: get to April asap- she's in trouble

I unlocked the phone and the message appeared in a conversation with some strange person by the name of 'Joker'.

I typed back, careful not to misspell the words. The keys were ridiculously tiny and I could only use my thumbs to type when my fingers were so much slimmer. I sighed in frustration. Why would anyone want to torture themselves with being so meticulous and precise on such a tiny screen when a phone call or email sent from the computer would suffice?

Me: Who are you?

Joker: that doesn't matter, April needs u to help her before its too late

Me: How do I know this is not a trap?

Joker: u don't, but do u really want t risk that?

I hesitated and glared at the screen. If the girl had actually trained herself in sorcery so well, she would be able to save herself. I griped the phone tighter. I could see her idiocy getting her killed in so many ways, and it would be annoying to have her death on my conscious.

Me: Where is she?

Joker: so u do have a heart after all. ill send u a map with her location, do u know ur way around yet?

The screen shook as I read the message. How dare this person treat me like this? He was the one begging for my help, not the other way around. He had no right to say something so ridiculous, as if I did not have a heart. Instead of screaming profanity at the small device, I sent him a response.

Me: Of course.

Joker: here u go, best of luck! don't get urself killed

-Image attached

I pressed down on the small blue link and something similar to a fluid flowed out from it, stretching and smoothing its creases to form a map, with a black dot marking where I am and red dashed lines weaving through streets to a park with a big red cross.

According to the history books I browsed through in the library back home, this image beared the same appearance as a pirate treasure map. I stared at it, fascinated by format of the map. The apartment I currently resided in was marked by a blue square and the streets were draw with two grey parallel lines, mapping out intersections and almost perpendicular streets. The red dash closest to my current location was blinking, appearing one moment and disappearing the next.

My admiration was rudely interrupted by a message notification appearing at the very top of the screen.

Joker: hurry up, theres not much time

I blinked and called for a mouth covering from my bag. One most certainly needed some filter from the harsh air in this foul city. Fortunately the air in her apartment was purer than the air outside, which may have been contributed by its geographical location, the angle of sunlight streaming in, the surrounding buildings as well as other factors.

I tucked each strap over my ear and proceeded to her balcony, closing the door with my protection gloves on. With one hand on the railing, I pulled myself up and leapt over the edge, calling for the air spirits in the vicinity to aid me. Once I was gently bobbing in the air, I glanced at the phone and noticed the first red dash had disappeared, my black dot taking its place. The next red dash was now blinking.

(>'o')>

I pried Tommy's hand off his leg to see how much damage he had taken, only to see the cut slowly close up. His small, cold hand gripped my wrist tightly as he slowly put his other hand out towards my chest. Panicked, I whacked his hand away and tried to escape his grasp but he had a far stronger grip than I had imagined.

While struggling, I actually lifted my arm up and the Tommy-lookalike came up with my arm. It was as if he had lost most of his weight between the time we climbed the tree and just now, which should have not been possible unless he was accelerating upward at almost 9.8m/s². Of all the times knowledge from physics lessons could have kicked in, why did it have to pick now?

I swung the thing around wildly while its skin began to turn rough and strangely hard, similar to tree bark. Then I realized his skin was turning into tree bark! With glowing green eyes and a small tree knot that no longer resembled Tommy, it reached out a branch with five smaller branches towards my chest again.

Letting out a small yelp, I swung him around wildly again and managed to keep its weird branches away from my body except for my wrist. Something in its strange fiery eyes changed, as if it had gotten stronger and weaker at the same time. It grasped my wrist with both hand-like branches and began to climb, despite my desperate efforts to get the disturbing creature off of me. I whacked it against the swing and its grip faltered for a bit but then it kept climbing again, slowly but surely getting closer to my face.

I could feel my heart beating wildly, barely contained by my chest as I kept shaking my arm and hitting it against the playground to try to get it off, but that no longer had an effect on the creature- whatever it was. If only I had my scythe; I could get this creature off me somehow!

It was almost to my face when it started reaching for my chest. In a last effort, I used my right hand to meet its hand-like branches and mist drifted from my fingertips, snapping and crackling with jumpy light inside. I watched in horror as the mist drifted into the branches that met my right hand and disappeared, completely useless and possibly worsened my situation, if that was possible.

I just fed this crazy creature magic.

The green light in its eyes brightened as its bark softened, becoming a weird mixture of rough bark and the soft human skin of a child.

In my panic, I almost forgot about the ring on my finger, the skull with diamond eyes, which was currently glowing blue.

The creature grew increasingly frustrated and agitated with one branch on my left wrist and the other meeting my right hand. The fiery light in its eyes had not dimmed, but it hardened.

Then it reached for my ring, releasing my left wrist in the process. It was targeting the symbol of my contract with Zukros. The very ring keeping me bound to him. It occurred to me that this ring always shone when I was in the most danger. I always came through with my own wit and weapons, but I never really thought about why it glowed before. Now I sort of understood.

Zukros was protecting me from the other side of the ring. I didn't know how or from where, but he was. Intuition told me. Intuition also told me I should not let the creature touch my ring.

Before its smooth wooden claws could touch my ring, I smashed the creature against the playground again, using its grip on my right hand as an advantage. It loosened its hold on my hand and I hit it against the playground again and again. Finally its grip was loose enough for me to escape; I pried the branches off my hands and backed up as quickly as I could. The tree-person thing dropped to the ground.

When I was at least seven feet away, the creature stirred and reached out a trembling hand- the one it tried to use to touch my ring- with a desperate plea in its glowing, green eyes.

A brilliant gold light beamed down from the sky, enveloping the strange creature until it dissipated into the air. I stared, wide eyed, at the spot where the creature had been- where it seemed to beg me for help- and then whipped my head to stare at the sky to see if the light would attack me next. Instead I saw Brady in his dark sunglasses, white mask, white gloves, and horribly hideous turtleneck glide down casually as if he was on an invisible escalator.

"What was that obscure creature?" Curiosity tinged his muffled voice as he approached me.

I opened my mouth and closed it again, unsure of how to answer him. "I- I don't know. Isn't this more your area of expertise? I've only had to deal with dead humans attacking me- until today."

He slowly shook his head. "I know practically every creature in the records, and something like that has never been recorded- at least not with a violent nature."

I stared at him for a moment before replying. "Then what the heck was that?"

"What did you mean by dead humans attacking you?"

I shrugged, "haven't you heard? I'm a soul reaper."