Facing The Reaper

XVIII

Terra messaged me around 11 that day to say that her parents had left for Bristol and that she would be ready to meet around 1. As I was getting ready to leave, the twins decided it would be a good idea to start a food fight around the table at lunch. The casualties in that room included my mum and myself, yet the twins came out of it surprisingly clean considering they were the culprits.

It took us a good 15 minutes to clean up after them and by the time I finished cleaning myself up after, I only had 20 minutes before I was meant to be meeting Terra.

Messaging her that I was going to be late, I ran out the door calling a goodbye to my mum over my shoulder. As I reached the village centre, the scares crowds making it easier to manoeuvre through the streets, I noticed a figure in my peripheral vision that made me freeze. A girl stood with her back to me, deathly still among the wavering crowd, nothing but her long black hair and the pale skin of her arms on view. I stood there for a minute just assessing my options, if this were Kia, I had the chance to intercept her, but that would mean making Terra wait for me even longer.

It seemed like an unfair argument, but who knew how long this conversation would last and if I would even make it to Terra once it began. Deciding on a slip second choice that I didn't have much opportunity to waste in helping her, I crossed the street to whom I had hoped would be Kia. However, at that moment a crowed passed between us and by the time they had dispersed and were gone, so was she. I only lost sight of her for a moment before she reappeared again, her back still towards me as she headed towards the village church. I started after her, trying to keep up with her fast-paced movements as she approached closer to the building. I started moving at a slow jog to try and extinguished the space between us faster, almost being run over by a buggy in the process as I failed to check my surroundings first.

Mumbling a quick apology to the man pushing the buggy, I looked up to see the girl at the entrance of the church. She pushed open the front door and had started to walk through before I had even reached the bottom step leading up to the building. I was almost next to her when the door started to close between us, casting a small shadow upon the already dimly lit corridor that lead to the seating area of the church.

Reaching forwards to grab the handle of the door and push it open again, I stepped inside to find that the building was empty except for an old couple sat near the front in silent prayer. There was nowhere else in the room that the girl could have gone to and vanished out of sight in, at least not that quickly. Only confirming my thoughts that it had in fact been Kia, I had just missed her and let yet another opportunity slips away as she was swallowed again by the shadows.

Skulking silently out of the church, I let out a frustrated sigh as I reached outside. Looking at the time on my phone I saw that I was already over half an hour late to meet Terra. Cursing at myself I ran the rest of the way to the arcade finding Terra sitting on a bench outside with headphones in her ears. She looked up as I approached, raising an eyebrow in question at my flushed appearance but also not commenting on it.

"Sorry I'm late." I said reaching forward to give her a quick hug before taking her hand on mind and steering her into the building.

"It's not a problem." She replied. Using her free hand to remove the headphones from her ears. As we got inside, she gestured to the air hockey table with a sly smile on her face.

We played to rounds, to which I lost both, by the end of the games I gestured towards the same booth we had been in earlier this week and there we spent our time much as we did before. Terra's presence helped to pull my mind away from my earlier almost encounter with the reaper, and for the rest of the day, my mind didn't drift back there once.