The night air blew, cold and relentless, through the open cathedral, snuffing out some of the candles and wrapping its icy fingers around the two figures standing at the altar. But the two were too wrapped up in the ceremony to pay attention to the cold, or to the dark creatures that danced about in the shadows.
"Quickly," the boy, who was no older than fourteen, said pulling the girls arm and pricking her finger.
"Demetrius, what if this doesn't work?" the girl asked quietly, afraid to talk louder than a whisper in the childish fear that speaking too loud about negative things would jinx the entire operation.
"It will," he mumbled reassuringly, and softer to himself he said, "It has to."
"B-but what I'm not the one?" she said again, desperation coloring her whimsical voice.
Suddenly the boy wrapped her up in his arms, "Don't talk like that, Amelia, you're the one, I know it."
The girl looked up at him and slowly nodded. With a sigh the young Demetrius went back to her finger squeezing her blood into a golden chalice before doing the same to himself.
"I call the spirits of La and Rah, and ask that they accept this Lost Queen. Grace her with her ancient powers and let her remember her deity," the boy chanted in a language long forgotten.
The girl began to whimper as the dark creatures descended from the rafters and swirled about them. Demetrius paid no attention, having no doubt that his Amelia was the Lost One, his Lost Queen, the one that would complete him. The night stilled as the ancient forms of La and Rah descended into the hallowed sanctuary. The spirits rushed about Amelia, examining her closely and digging into her soul. The little girl trembled in fear, holding tight to Demetrius' hand. Finally, with an inhuman hiss the two spirits pulled back abruptly and vanished. Demetrius, dumbfounded, shook his head, knowing that the two had just rejected her as the Lost One. She would die now. And it was his fault.
Moving faster than light, Demetrius snatched up Amelia and ran, hoping beyond hope that he could evade the Reapers. His feet pounded down the aisles of the church, Amelia crying in his arms asking frantically what was happening and crying harder when he didn't answer. Her wide violet eyes shedding tears in a way that should be criminal. She was thinking that she was too young to die because she knew in her heart that that is what would happen to her. She was going to die. And it was his entire fault. Hatred, so great, welled up inside her for Demetrius and she pounded her small fists against his chest exclaiming how much she hated him.
He kept running though, determined to save her. But in the end, it was no use. The dark creatures wrapped their slimy tendrils around the boy's ankle and pulled causing him to fall. They scratched at his back eager to get to the young girl he was so desperately shielding. But she was mad now, beyond reasoning, and she pushed him off and ran, though she was human and slow.
But the Reapers reveled in the thought of a chase and took off after her, forgetting the boy. Thump, the noise reached the girl's ears and she shrieked. Thump. Thump. The sound was ominous, like the sound a body makes when it hits hollow wood. Creaaak. This one sounded like the opening off a rusty door. The two sounds melded as the creatures enveloped the young girl in darkness, and then with one awful shriek they devoured her.
Demetrius fell to his knees, tears streaming down his cheeks and vowed that never again would he love another. The Reapers slinked off, happy and sated as the boy crawled to the spot where Amelia's clothes lay. His fingers came across a bracelet with the name Amelia inscribed in gold. He slipped it into his pocket and with one last glance ran off into the night, promising that tomorrow he would once again begin his search.
