Dissecting The Reaper

Chapter 8

I'm startled by the clicking of heels from behind the stall door, breaking me from the prison of my panic. Black shoes appear under the doorway, that clicking so distinct I recognise it immediately. She's here. "Are you here to mock me?" I ask the woman behind the door, a ghostly face appearing in my puff of smoke. I open the stall door to reveal the slender form of Medusa standing on the other side. Her eyes, half-lidded tease me with their golden glow. Power seems to radiate from her, how I would love to dissect her slowly while listening to a symphony of screams.

"What do you want?" I demand.

"Come now, Stein. Aren't you feeling nostalgic today?"

"I don't have time for this," I push past her to the sinks, rinsing my hands under the piping hot water from which steam rises.

"You don't have time? I suppose you don't want this to all go away. I suppose you want to face the wrath of lord Death..." I hear her serpent tongue slither against her lips, a hissing broiling from within her very core. Medusa, the manifestation of deceit and hatred. I can't listen to her.

But I want to listen. I want her mouth on my own to tell me all her dirty secrets. Although now I have Death the Kid, my disappointing experiment. Who would be a more interesting subject for me? I wonder how she knows about this, though debating it in my head at this point is foolish.

"You have two minutes," I acquiesce.

"Well, if we return to your apartment now and give him a little.. nudge in the direction of madness this can all be blamed on him,"

"Give Kid madness?" I wonder aloud. My mind screams yes, I want to see him under the influence of the Kishin. I want to watch him succumb to the madness as I did long ago. But then we'd blame it on Kid, and I'd lose him...

It would be too much work to keep him as my own forever, to keep him around. And the payoff is nothing compared to the opportunity to see my little experiment in action under madness. "And how do you propose that I get to him, I can't exactly leave without causing suspicion from lord death," I turn to leave the bathroom.

Medusa grips my arm. I turn back to face her, infuriated by her smirk. "Don't worry about Death. Just go, but are you capable of giving him the madness? You are a teacher after all, and I'm sensing you have something close to love for the boy..."

I slap her hand away and reach for the door handle. "Do not underestimate me," and leave the bathroom, fleeing from the MHA and Death City, just hoping they've been disorganised enough not to have meisters already swarming my laboratory. It's my territory, my laboratory they may not encroach on. This entire thing feels like a creeping violation. The least I can do is make them feel stupid by removing Kid before they get there.

*

Medusa smirks as she opens the vent above her small nurse's office on the ground floor. This leads to the piping system for every room in the school. She has always had a talent for summoning. Her soul wavelength naturally desires to create life and it does, from her black heart seeps the means to form masses of any creature she likes.

Hundreds of snakes with arrowed bodies and black, arrow-shaped tongues sprout from her dark fingernails in a burst of magical flame. They slither through the vents. In less than a minute, the distant, frightened screams of students can be heard as her creatures take over the school. What fun she is having, what a perfect distraction for the faculty!

Meanwhile

I return to my laboratory in a panicked state of exhaustion. I pant to catch my breath, having sprinted most of the way. Worth it though, as there are thankfully no agents waiting for me already having discovered my secret. I still have time. Kid appears from the living room, dressed in his sleek apparel of a black 3-piece and signature grim reaper emblem by his collar. His hair is done perfectly, not a single strand out of place. Seeing my fascinating specimen once again makes me wonder if we could just... leave. I could take him away from here and forget this whole mess.

But I can't do that and resign myself to this fate. Kid will be ensnared in the Kishin's madness. I stand over him, reaching down to cup his chin in my hand. I lift up his head, forcing him to look me in the eyes. "My perfect experiment..." I slide my other hand down the front of his body, swaying his hips alongside mine.

"Tch," he flinches at my touch. "What are you doing?"

I can see his soul, frightened and confused. But more of the other, foreign feeling it's experiencing than of me. His soul blushes a red tinge on the powerful orb of a reaper. If only Lord Death could see him now. Aroused underneath my palm.

My soul wavelength infects him with the virus of madness. It corrupts his soul which jitters for a brief second before turning a deep shade of purple, the lines of the eyes lilac. It morphs into something warped and dangerous. When I let go of him, he collapses to the floor. "My Kishin," I address. Never once have I been able to resonate souls so harmoniously with someone, we really must be soulmate's.

Alas, I pick him up and carry him downstairs, ready to discard him in some part of Death city.

I place Kid in a empty alley and gaze at him one more time, so sad it is to lose such an interesting test subject. "Goodbye, My Kishin," I place a single kiss on his forehead before stealing into the night. I'll enjoy watching the fruits of my experiment.