Twilight Shadows

Chapter 24

My heart hammering, I sped up to Noah and roughly shook him.

"Noah!" I cried. "There's a Grim Reaper!"

Noah turned around. "What are you talking about?" He inclined his head, and his flesh fell away, revealing another Grim Reaper. He smiled devilishly, and his fingers turned long, bony and white. He stretched out his arms to strangle me.

I screamed and ran the other way, only to find myself in front of another ghoulish skeleton.

I breathed heavily, thinking about what to do. The mortals around me didn't notice anything strange. 

Where's the real Noah? I wondered. I'll first get back to Joshua then...

I pushed past the skeleton in front of me and sprinted towards to front lobby. Joshua was still sitting at the table, picking at his utensils.

"Joshua!" I screamed. "Help!"

Joshua looked my way, and stood up immediately. Wings sprouted from his back, and a black flaming ball of fire erupted from his hand. He threw it at something behind me. 

He's buying me time... I reminded myself. I should make use of it.

I ran to where Joshua was, and summoned my wings. I felt the familiar sensation of something growing behind me, and sprung to the air, beside Joshua. 

I heard him mutter, "He never told me about this..." and summoned another fire orb, glowing a fiery blue. Joshua hurled it at the oncoming Reapers as hard as he could. I looked around me, but the mortals didn't seem to notice anything unusual.

Just then, the worker working in the front lobby yelled, "HEY YOU TWO! NO JET PACKS IN THE HOTEL PLEASE! OR GUNS!" The worker looked at the skeletons, and said, "Please, stay away from them while we call 911..."

The mortals around us started panicking and running out of the hotel. The worker dialed the police on his phone, and the Reapers chattered and pointed at Joshua and I with their bony white fingers.

Flames erupted from my hand, and I launched it at the Reapers. The Reapers staggered back - just a bit. Joshua grabbed my wrist and hissed, "We have to get out of here!"

"Okay, okay..." I yanked my wrist free and looked at a set of huge windows in the lobby. "There," I pointed. "We just have to blast the glass."

Joshua flew over right away, and broke the glass with just his fist. He motioned for me to come over.

Quickly, I flew to Joshua and out the broken window. The Reapers were right behind us, but somehow Joshua levitated the broken pieces back to where it was. The Reapers were trapped inside.

Joshua and I flew high up into the air so that not many people could reach us. In the broad morning daylight, I doubted anyone would notice us either.

"Wh-where's N-Noah?" I asked, shaken. "He... he was just th-there!"

Joshua shook his head grimly. "I'm afraid not. Things are much more confusing now. The real Noah would suggest to go the ocean, I'm sure. But treat himself to a nice five star hotel? I don't think so. He wouldn't be the kind of person to do that." Joshua said.

"So..." I trailed off, lost in thought. "When did we lose him?"

"One of the possible theories was during the Puppet Master attack..." Joshua noted thoughtfully. "Someone could've just whisked him away when we were summoning our defenses. After all, our shields are opaque."

"But... how could a Grim Reaper... talk? And act so much like the real Noah?" I asked.

"Grim Reapers are truly a special thing in the Overworld... The Overworld is the place where dead people go to after they perish." Joshua added, when he saw the look on my face. "Grim Reapers are classified as... the Mystery Class. The Mystery Class includes the Puppet Master too and a few other ghoulish demons. The metal Minotaur that we encountered was part of the Tracker Class."