Reapers

Chapter Twelve: Who They Are

Darcie pulled her curtains together as to cover her window.  She looked back at Era who wore a pair of her skinny jeans, a baby blue tank top, and one of the two pairs of winter boots that Darcie owned.  Her hair had been pulled back into a wet ponytail while any blood on her skin had been washed away and any wound disinfected and wrapped in bandages.  

She sat on Darcie’s bed looking through her seventh grade yearbook.  “Do braces hurt?” she asked absently.

“I wouldn’t know” she said nervously looking out her window at the driveway; the police must left the house a few hours before they got there, Darcie thought, but that didn’t mean Carol wasn’t suddenly going to appear.

“Relax” Era said closing the yearbook, she lifted it in her hand and waved it around.  “I’d know if something were coming that threatened us” she said confidently laying the yearbook back on Darcie’s bed.  “You had short hair, you know that?  And cute homemade sweaters” Era laughed.

Darcie grabbed her yearbook from her bed and shoved it into her bookshelf with little care, “Enough, you owe me answers” she demanded, “If we finally are safe”

Era nodded, “I thought we answered everything already, but alright.  Your questions?”

Darcie stood quiet for a moment, she had had so many questions that now when she could get answers she couldn’t think of what to ask first.

“Your parents are Grim Reapers?” Darcie asked.

“Correct” Era answered mildly.

“And your other parents?  Your father?”

“A mortal man by the name of Thomas Wright.  The boys have mortal mothers” she said, a tinge of anger could be found in her voice.

“Where does your last name come from then?” Darcie asked trying to get away from the topic of her father.

“My mother” Era said, she laid back and put her head on Darcie’s pillow.  “They may be Reapers but they have...well, not last names but aliases, sort of.  My mother’s mortal name is Elvira Shade, though people who know who she actually is refer to her as Reaper Elvira” a sad tone had seemed into her voice.

Darcie thought back to what she had said in Thane’s car, that their parents were gone, disappeared into thin air.  They needed to find them as only they could tell them why Darcie was so important and why the Canadian, Alaskan Reapers wanted her.

Darcie looked passed Era at her partially open door, “Why am I having these visions?” she asked.

Era sat up, looked at her, and sighed.  “I’ve never heard of something like this, honestly, I’m just as curious as you are about why it’s happening.  A girl with no Reaper blood in her or any other type of blood, you should be mortal...just mortal” Era mumbled absently, “But instead you’re having...vision, so you keep calling them, of my mother in the middle of the Vlade Bellum.  It’s unheard of” Era said.

Darcie sat down at the foot of her bedroom, “I don’t get it.  What are Dark Angels?  I’ve heard of Fallen Angels, and then just Angels, but Dark Angels?”

Era laid back down and closed her eyes placing both of her hands behind her head, “Dark Angels weren’t really part of our curriculum, but what I do know about them is that while they were few in numbers, they were great in strength.  So powerful even full fledged Angels were known to fall to their power, but they were not destructive and neither are Reapers.  Both...uh...races had a position in serving Death, Reapers reaped souls from their bodies and then Dark Angels were their personal escorts to where they were to go.  You see Angels stay in Heaven and very rarely visit little ol’ Earth, but even then, they are forbidden to enter Hell’s gates.  So it was simple, Reapers reaped souls and after they found out where they were going it was either a white winged Angel up or a dark winged Angel down.  So I’ve been told”