A Reapers Story

Chapter 1

Ary

"Come in," His voice was deep as he unlocked the door with the number twelve on it and walked inside, he paused mid-step realizing that I wasn't following, and looked back at me expectantly. I swallowed hard, putting a single foot over the threshold. My entire body was jittery, and my senses were all on high alert as my actions scared me. I felt as though what I was doing was wrong, I should not have allowed this man to drag me from the battlefield and bring me here. However, in the same breath, I was thankful, feeling as though my body had been led here for a reason that I had yet to understand.

The man's chocolate eyes never left me, his face holding patience as he simply watched me as I took yet another small step into the apartment. Once I was inside the man stopped observing me and pointed down a darkened hallway that was to my right.

"Down the hallway, last door on the left is where the bathroom is. Go ahead and take a shower. Leave your clothing in the connecting room and I'll wash them for you." My feet back peddled back out of the apartment faster than I'd ever moved, holding my thick, blood and mud soaked, cloak tighter around my shoulders as if it were a life line and seeing as I'd lost just about everything else I owned, it was.

"Maybe... Maybe, I should just head home," I spoke softly looking around the empty hallway as I decided on the best possible way to get out of this situation in the quickest way. The man was not holding me against my will, however knowing the space that one was in was never something that should be dismissed.

"Hey," The single word from his deep voice had my attention snapping to him without another thought. He looked at me as he ran his hands through his dark brown hair that was almost the same color has his eyes and closely trimmed beard. "I'm not going to peek on you if that's what your worried about." I squirmed under his gaze, twitching nervously as I tried to pull my long sleeve shirt further down my hands to hide the markings that were already covered by my gloves. When I didn't respond he seemed to lose a little of his ongoing patience that he'd been showing me. "You are covered in blood, mud, and whatever else was on the ground when you feel. You need a shower."

My mouth popped open to protest, to say that blood wasn't something that bothered me. After all of the years of me following my grandmother and other members of our clan around to cart souls. I'd seen more than enough blood to stop caring. However, before I could open my mouth he continued.

"At least come inside before the neighbors start getting nosey." He crossed his arms, a stern look taking over the patient one that had been there since I'd met him. I took one more look up and down the hallway before I let out a small breath and crossed the threshold. As if passing through a sheet of water, my skin prickled to the barrier that I crossed and felt it solidify as it allowed me access. It confused me, yes, this man was a supernatural, however, I wasn't familiar enough with their species to know if having a barrier around their living quarters was something that was normal or not.

With a soft click, he reached behind me and closed the door. Then turned to me, looking down from his impressive height, onto my much, much smaller frame, crossed his arms and let one long breath out and his face relaxed.

"Now, go clean up. You don't have to shower but at least let me wash your clothing. I will find something for you to wear until the wash is done." I shook my head.

"That is unnecessary. I don't want to wear someone else's clothing." I huffed giving him a look, not understanding why he wanted to wash my clothing so bad.

"But gods know what you're covered with." He said with a look that seemed to match mine only in the exact opposite. He didn't seem to understand what the issue was and could not understand why someone would rather keep their dirty items on instead of wearing something else. I realized this and took a deep calming breath to clear not only my mind but also my restless soul that felt like I'd injected caffeine directly into it as it buzzed and jittered in my chest.