They call me Grim (COMPLETED)

Chapter 17: Be afraid, very afraid

"How long ago?" Grim asked the death reaper.

"Around an hour," she replied, looking down at her parchment.

Grim looked at the damage and shook her head. "Why'd he do this?"

"Because he's a demon reaper and this is what they do," the reaper replied rolling up her list and sending it away with a flick of her hand. She turned her black eyes to Grim. "If I was you I'd hurry up, because the council won't take him away until death is working again."

Then the reaper was gone, leaving Grim standing amongst the dozen or so bodies. She could feel the heat of the flames from the cars and had to watch where she stepped to avoid body parts.

She was standing on the highway that led out of the airport. Where there had once been one smooth stretch of road there was now a crack as wide and long as a lamp post. Three cars were half fallen into the crack. She heard the police officers taking statements and they all said the same thing.

"The road just split open. People got out of their cars and that's when it started raining fire."

"The gates of hell opened here today."

"I can tell you everything. This man was there, just appeared in the middle of the road and stopped this shuttle. People were beeping their horns and he didn't like it so he stomped his foot, and my god the road split open like it was glass. People were screaming and crying and falling in. The man then did something and suddenly everything was on fire, it was coming from the ground and raining from the sky. He laughed and then got in the shuttle and it just drove off. Honest to god that's what happened," a man was shouting incoherently, a gash on his forehead weeping blood as he struggled against paramedics.

Grim turned away and stared at the carnage one last time before she was gone in a swirl of smoke. She appeared in the graveyard and she had to stop to cough, hacking up specks of black blood. She growled to herself, sick of this. She couldn't have any delays.

Grim set off towards the mayor's mausoleum which Kenneth had gestured to. She kept an eye out for the tuxedo ghost but he was nowhere to be found. There were other ghost trailing around but as Grim approached the mausoleum they all steadily faded until she was alone.

She touched the chain and padlock on the doors, frowning. She'd didn't know if it would work but it was worth a shot, her scythe appeared in hand and she sliced downwards, watching as the chain disintegrated and the padlock feel onto the grass. Grim allowed one small triumphant grin.

The scythe disappeared and Grim shoved her shoulder against the door. It took several shoves for the door to let out a large grating and for it to move a few inches. She tried again and again until she had enough space to slip through the crack. She'd come prepared, bringing a small torch that she'd stolen.

The first thing she noticed was the smell, it made her recoil, strong and acrid and nose burning. Trying not to focus too much on what she was breathing in, Grim stepped forward.

The mausoleum was large and separated into three sections. The middle section smelled the worst. Piled in the corners were bones, still with flesh hanging on in parts. Grim turned away. In another corner were piles of books, old and crumbling. In the centre was a cauldron. Grim stepped forward and shined the light in.

"My god," she whispered. The bottom was filled with what looked like old blood, and a very human looking skull sat in the middle of it. Grim turned away and to another section. This was where the necromancer had slept, and if she hadn't been sure if it was a child at first she was now. A sleeping bag was on the floor, with a fairy design printed on it. In another corner were a few small dolls and a teddy bear, all old and ratty looking. Grim suddenly knew the toys had been taken off gravestones.