The Doomsday Book

Chapter 1

"...and in those final moments, in those final words, he rose his blade and—"

"Kiara! Lunchtime!"

I sighed and closed my book. "Coming." I slung my backpack over my shoulder and walked out with Delta, my friend for almost two years. She was a Shadow Knight, a terrifying hybrid, and I, a Reaper.

Now, stop right there. Before we go on, let me get my point into your human noggin (assuming you're a human). I do not have an overgrown wheat-collector, although that'd be really cool at the same time useless in my Reaper form, and I am not a skeleton wearing a cloak, nor do I ride a pale horse. I merely take the form of a human and look different when I reveal myself (not that humans will see much; they're quite blind creatures, really).

"You're spacing out again. Want me to leave you to your brooding thoughts?" Delta joked.

"And where would you go?" I replied smugly.

"You're not my only friend, you know!" she said indignantly. "I happen to know a cool psychic who understands Spanish."

I scoffed in amusement. "I'll bet you two can't understand Cantonese."

She pursed her lips and huffed. "No, I don't," Delta muttered in defeat.

I mumbled something under my breath.

"What was that?"

I repeated it in a higher volume, not that she'd understand. After all, we just established our communicative skills.

"Kiara!" someone called from behind.

I groaned, pinching my nose bridge. "Aw, man, why?"

Delta snickered.

"Shut your glob," I grumbled, turning around. "Yes, Keith?"

"I just wanted to say that the new fast-food place opened up today. It'd be cool if you came with me," he told me.

With a brief pleading glance to Delta, I rubbed my arm in discomfort. "Look, Keith, you're cool and all, but I don't have the time. Sorry," I decided to add.

"Okay. Maybe next time?"

I shrugged and walked off, Delta following close.

"Dude, he's really into you!" she teased.

"And I'm really into the idea of throwing both of you off a bridge."

"That wouldn't kill me. Shadow Knight, remember?"

I snorted. "No, but it'd hurt like Lucifer caned your ribcage."

"Ah, you bitch."

"I'm not a dog."

"You might as well be."

I rolled my eyes but couldn't help the small smile twitching on my lips. A sudden burst of light temporarily blinded me. I instinctively unsheathed my silver blades from inside my wrists (my "Death Scythes" if you so wish to call them that).

"Holy fuck, that was the brightest fart I've ever seen," said Delta as she lowered her arms from their protective station.

I scoffed again, giving a grin as I retracted the blades away. "What a visual."

"Indeed," a powerful voice said.

"Not this again," Delta whined. "That war with Lucifer made my arms sore! I mean, my saber isn't all that light, you know."

"Because it's a Shadow-saber," I added.

"Oh, fuck you!"

"What an odd pairing," the voice mused. "A Half-Shadow and a Reaper. How amusing."

"Not stalker-creepy at all," I muttered. "Care to tell us who you are, or are you gonna just skip to a cliched monologue?"

"Don't speak to me in such a tone, Reaper!" it hissed, making me flinch. "I'm only here to play errand boy. Or in this case, errand scribe. Now, listen carefully. There's an escapee from Tartarus and—"

"Let me guess. You want us to fetch him for you?" Delta cut with crossed arms and a bored expression.

"Don't interrupt me, abomination!"

"You want to fight?!" I shouted angrily. "Come down here, and I'll whoop your buttcheeks harder than your mama ever did!"

"I hope you're joking or terribly slow-witted because you did not just challenge the Scribe of God to a fight!" he snarled at me.

"Oh... shit. Didn't think of that," I said sheepishly. "Sorry, Delta, you're on your own on this one."

"It's cool," she replied. "The 'Scribe of God' is just a really good author with bad breath."

"Watch your mouth, abomination!"

"What do you want, Scribe?" I intercepted, ticked off.

He cleared his throat. "As I was saying, there's an escapee from Tartarus. Now, before you start bitching about capturing said escapee, the Angels have already performed the apprehension and are escorting our 'genius' back down to Tartarus, aka the Grand Canyon. However, recently, we've discovered something. A prophecy."

"It's always a prophecy," Delta mumbled.

"Your task is to undo the prophecy."

"I'm sorry, I thought you just said that we have to undo the prophecy. That's impossible, since that'd be rewriting fate, and it's not just a book I can scratch out and replace words with," I said.

"That is where you are wrong. The prophecy was devised in a book. Our escapee had convinced the Fates to write down the path of the world. It's called the Doomsday Book."

"Not ominous at all," I said sarcastically.

"What're we destined to do?" Delta asked.

"As the name stipulates, the world will end... in approximately a month."

"A month?" I questioned.

"A month," he repeated firmly, irritated.

Before Delta could speak, another flash of light blinded us. We were back in school when I opened my eyes.

"Rude," I murmured.

"Soooo, what?"

I shrugged.

"He literally just told us about a book and how it's bad. He didn't even tell us if we need to destroy it or bring it to someone or something."

"Okay, how about this. Let's go to the Reaper Realm and read about the Fates. We should have scroll-documentation on them," I suggested. "Then we can move from there."

"But I can't just enter the Reaper Realm," Delta told me. "I'd be stabbed into next Sunday by your spit roasts."

"Better than your glow-in-the-dark stick," I bantered, smiling.

"I have the Force and the ability to summon a Shadow Beast. What's your power?"

"The manipulation of souls and their energy field," I answered casually.

"Well, damn, alright."

"I'll get you past the Reapers. They won't touch you; I'll make sure of it," I said, reaching into my pocket and retrieving a small vial attached to a chain necklace. "This is the ashes of souls, each from the Nine Layers of Hell. The chain's also enchanted by a Necromancer, and the vial is made from Angel feathers. This'll mask your strong stench of power from the Void, as long as you have it on."

Delta accepted the necklace and threw it past her head, letting the vial swing like a pendulum on her neck before settling. My body shifted and contorted until it was but a mass of black that looked slightly humanoid. My friend melted into the ground and hid in the darkness of my shadow. I drew a long vertical line from the height of my head to my hip in the air. A portal opened, not unlike the pupils of a cat.

"Stay very close to me, Delta," I said one last time before stepping into the darkness. The portal closed swiftly behind me as I stepped onto a marbled flooring, holding hundreds of thousands of Reapers bustling about. There was no turning back now.