Death and Darkness

Chapter 3

The sun was setting, casting rays of orange and peach and pink upon the world. I leapt silently past houses, lamps, fences, and outside pets and strays.

My body no longer held the appearance of a teenage girl of brown hair and honey-brown eyes. Instead of my usual gray hoodie and blue jeans, I was a dark mass of a being. Although I had impeccable hearing in my humanoid form, my senses more easily picked up frequencies of sight and sound. Of course, this was heightened to the point where I could see supernatural frequencies such as souls.

I just finished checking up on a soul when a frequency wave rippled through my senses. It was too strong to be another soul but too weak to be a Wanderer, or as humans call it: a Lost Soul. I followed the frequency until it led me to a hole in the ground, not literally. More of a vortex. In actuality, it was something I knew all too well.

"Portal to the Underworld," someone said through frequency. It was another Reaper.

"But why? And from who?" I said back.

"Those are the questions we've been asking," he replied, frequency dipping with dread.

I carelessly copied the notes down from my teacher's lecture, mind following a trail that led to a worrying question.

"Everything okay?" someone asked me telepathically.

I jumped a little, surprised by the sudden sense of frequency. "Just death happening," I sent back.

"Hades?" Delta inquired.

"The Reapers are getting worried. We can't properly collect souls because the Underworld is shut tight. There's a terrifying increase of Wanderers as of yesterday."

"KIARA!" my teacher screeched.

I looked up unflinchingly in question.

"Can you repeat anything I just said?"

I silently sighed. "No, not really."

"Not really? Well, stay after class and we'll make sure you can."

A couple students snickered. I ignored them.

"What do you think's going on?" Delta asked worriedly.

I glanced at her. "I found a portal last night while collecting —well, checking up on more like— a soul. Its energy told me that it led to the Underworld. No Reaper could enter it for some odd reason."

"Do you think maybe Hades caused the earthquakes yesterday?"

"Could've been Hades, could've been Lucifer. It might have even been a normal earthquake. We can't know for sure." I looked down at my desk, glaring in frustration.

At lunch, I tried to block out the frequencies I kept getting. They weren't from Reapers or my Shadow friend. They were from Wanderers and scared souls yet to turn.

"Meaningless... Meaningless," a Wanderer chanted like a zombie.

"Can anybody hear me?" a soul asked timidly. "Hello?"

I groaned, scowling.

"Yeah, I agree. I wish they would just shut up," Delta said, sitting down next to me.

"Humans mistake Reapers to harvest souls when really, we just take them to Hades. If we harvested souls, we would've just let them be for now. Unfortunately, the souls detach themselves from their bodies on their own.

While we're on the subject, the Underworld isn't a place of torture for souls. It's like a network of sorting souls into Heaven, Hell, or Purgatory."