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Chapter 34
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2021-04-08 23:31:12Ru sat on her couch, her legs crisscrossed, her hands up, her eyes closed. She was doing her best to concentrate. If what Cutter said was true, and she really did have the same powers flowing within her, then she should be able to do what he had done. A little more research online, including the pages she’d found earlier where the kids were experimenting with powers like these, and she thought maybe now was the time to try it.
Attempting to clear her mind, she concentrated on feeling her own energy flow freely through her body, visualizing a spark at her fingertips. Occasionally, she would think she felt something and opened her eyes to see—nothing. After a few hours, she collapsed onto the sofa, frustrated. “Gee, Ru, I wonder why you can’t make fire with your fingers? Maybe because everything Cutter said was made-up bullshit?”
Her phone rang, and she sighed, hoping she hadn’t somehow just summoned hi
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Reaper's Hollow Chapter 35
Ru stood on the top of a mountain, barren of any sort of life except for a few scraggly bushes in the distance. She felt the wind pick up, blowing the long white dress she wore out behind her. She was looking down into a rocky cavern illuminated by the moonlight, but she felt a presence behind her. Turning slowly, she wasn’t at all surprised to see the man standing there. Dressed in his black cloak, with his hood down around his shoulders, he stared at her. Even from twenty feet away, his green eyes seemed to penetrate her very soul.“How are you, Rune?” he asked, his melodic voice ringing out into the open air and dancing on the breeze. This time, his mouth moved. It was as if they were old friends.“Thanatos,” she said, acknowledging him. “What are we doing here?”“I wanted to speak to you,” he replied, no
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Cutter opened his eyes and blinked a few times as his spirit form completely reunited with his body. It was a skill that had taken a while for him to learn at the age of five, but now, over twenty years later, he definitely had it down. The room was dark and a glance at the clock said it was about 3:30 in the morning.He was sitting on his bed in what one might call a lotus position, as he had been hours ago when he’d left his body to stay with Ru. He’d tried not to spy on her; the last thing he needed was for her to think he was invading her privacy, but he’d been certain for the last few weeks that Nat was stalking her. He’d showed up a time or two while Cutter was nearby but hadn’t attempted to manipulate her again. Until tonight.Jumping into Ru’s vision was a last resort, but it had been necessary. Nat’s promises were compelling, and he could tell from the moment he began to fill Ru’s
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Rider had been hopping from one subconscious to another, attempting to pinpoint the location of the Reaper. He knew there was one nearby, but hunting in NYC was never easy. So many minds in such a compact area made it tough to find anyone.He’d just left a small boy dreaming about a day at the zoo with his parents when he got the sense a Reaper was in the same building. Jumping out of the dream, but staying in his spirit form, Rider felt with his mind. She was definitely close by, and she was no stranger.Following his instinct, Rider propelled himself into the mind of a woman on the third floor. Her sleep was not purely natural, as the empty bottles next to the bed would confess, and once he wound his way through thick layers of black, inky tendrils of depression and alcohol induced stupor, he landed in a dream that looked very much like the room she slept in.The woman, an African American lady who appeared to
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Nat stood before a wide window, staring out at a rocky mountain range illuminated by a red and orange sky. In the distance, two dragons chased each other through the air, bursts of fire punctuating their attempts to char each other beyond recognition. Occasionally, one of the lumbering beasts would collide with the mountainside, sending a boulder or two tumbling into the valley below. While the red dragon seemed to have the upper hand at the moment, its elongated neck and sharp, black talons formidable, the smaller, more agile black dragon was able to thwart his foe by darting around behind him. Nat was secretly cheering for the black dragon as he could identify with its underdog position, but he also wouldn’t have cared if they both turned each other into piles of ash.None of it was real, of course. He could visualize whatever he liked out of this window since, in this realm, he could control matter much more easily than in the human world. Somet
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Ru awoke to the sound of her cell phone ringing. She glanced at the clock and saw it was past 10:00. Wiping sleep from her eyes, she picked up the annoying device and saw Candice’s face smiling up at her. With a deep breath, she answered. “Hello?”“Hey there, sunshine! Whatcha up to?”Ru wondered how someone who likely drank half her weight in tequila shots the night before could sound so chipper. “Nothing,” she replied, pulling herself up into a half-sitting, half-slouched position. “What are you up to?”“Did I wake you?” Candice exclaimed. “You’re almost always up with the rooster. What’s going on?”“Nothing. I just… had a rough night.” Thoughts of her dream, and the aftermath, filled her mind, and Ru looked down at her free hand. Had she really created a glowing blue light there a few hours
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Cutter found a table toward the front of the coffee shop. He’d left a few minutes after he’d gotten off the phone with Ru. Having stayed up most of the night after leaving her, he was exhausted, so the coffee house didn’t come as a suggestion just as a neutral place to meet but also as a place where he might find a reboot. He sipped the strong java and felt a little more alive as he stared out the window, waiting for her to arrive.He’d been hoping she’d call all morning. Surely, a situation like the one the night before would give her a little bit more of a clue that his story wasn’t fictional. She’d have to have some idea that it wasn’t just an ordinary dream. He wondered what information Liddy had shared with her about Seraphina, and if it was also helping her see the truth in his claims.. Still, finding Seraphina would be even more of a challenge than finding Ru.He saw her walk in and
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“What about Larkin’s ancestor. Ronobe? Where is he?” Ru asked“Same place as Larkin,” Cutter replied. “Although he has managed to escape many times, which is how Larkin came to be.”“And Thanatos mentioned his father. Azrael?”Once again, Cutter nodded. “He was sent to Hell a long time ago, but like Ronobe, he occasionally escapes, and one of us has to catch him. Azrael is one of the few original Archangels who have fallen that continues to operate on this side of eternal damnation from time to time.”“Why is that?”“Because, originally, he was sanctioned by God with the duty of collecting names and recording them in the book. But once we realized he was allowing Reapers to collect unmarked souls without ramifications, he too was damned.”Ru took another sip and then puzz
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Ru sat on her sofa in lotus pose, attempting to connect with her inner-self. She’d always made fun of her sister, Danielle, when she talked about her yoga, but after she’d returned from the coffee shop, she’d begun to contemplate everything Cutter had said. As she graded stacks of papers and lesson planned for the next few weeks, the back of her mind was running through the possibilities of everything he had disclosed. If Cutter and Nat were able to take on a spirit form and somehow jump into her dreams, shouldn’t she be able to do the same thing? Of course, thinking that she could would mean she bought into Cutter’s fanciful stories about her origins, and even though she wasn’t quite sure she accepted any of it, how else could she explain the fact that he knew what she’d dreamt the night before? She hadn’t called him and recounted the vivid dream, after all.So, with the lights dimmed, and the sun setting,
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One year later… “All right, boys and girls. That is enough for today. We will pick up with Ramona’s story tomorrow afternoon. For now, go ahead and get your backpacks on, and let’s line up at the door.” Groans filled the air as twenty-two fourth graders followed their teacher’s directions despite wanting to hear what happened next in the story. They stood and walked to the cubbies where their backpacks were hung and politely took turns getting their belongings before making an orderly line at the door. Ru took a deep breath and looked lovingly at her students. Even though she’d made the same prediction every year since she started teaching, she had had a feeling about this group of kids from the very beginning. And she was right. They were the best group of fourth graders she’d ever taught. The bell rang and she wished them all a good weekend, gathering up the four students who went to daycare and walking with th
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“I need to face him,” Cutter said. “And you need to get to the portal.” Ru craned her neck around the tree. While there were still some Reapers near the entryway, for the most part, the Keepers were able to set up a perimeter around the portal. If she was going to go, now was the time. “Okay. Be careful,” she said. Realizing that Cutter was about to take on one of her assignments made Ru feel uncomfortable, particularly since she knew what the end result would be, and despite the bargain she’d almost just made with the devil, she still didn’t want to see Nat destroyed. But she had to push those thoughts out of her head. She quickly kissed Cutter’s cheek and scurried off to the next tree closest to the portal. Nat saw her now, and he began to move in her direction, using his scythe to cut down an attacking Keeper as if he were nothing. Ru swallowed hard and steeled herself, looking for the next place to hide. If she used her powers on Nat, there was a chance she would
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A Reaper stepped through the portal opening. Tall, with ebony hair, he wore the long black cloak she expected to see, a scythe in his hand. The man quickly ran to the left of the portal, and then another Reaper appeared on his heels. Dressed identically, with the same weapon, he ran to the right. Then, another sprang forth, and another. Ru watched, her eyes wide as the Reapers continued to pour out of the portal, as if Hell had spilled an inkwell and the thick, black substance was covering the entire earth. “Holy Hell.” It was hard to pull her eyes off of the sight, but she turned to see Cutter standing next to her. “We’ll never be able to take all of them.” It was Ivy, and Ru glimpsed a look of defeat on her face as she came to a stop behind Cutter. “We have to try,” he said. Ru could see the resolve in his face and noticed his hands clenched into fists at his sides. “Ivy and I will hold them off while you concentrate on the portal.” There ha
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The demons were up again, too, and the battles picked up where they had left off. Everyone else was engaged, which left Ru to face this Goliath all by herself. “Kill it! Kill it!” Rider shouted at her as streaks of blue wrapped around the snake’s midsection. He seemed to be closing in on his prey, and Ru tried not to let the sight distract her. He was right. It would be best to take out the giant before he was fully formed. With a deep breath, Ru drew upon all of the strength she had inside of her and aimed her blue light at the giant. It was difficult to figure out where to aim since he was only out of the portal up to his shins. Still, she hoped it would be enough. Perhaps it was because of his size, but she felt the need to shout even louder this time as she recited the incantation almost word for word along with Rider who was also sending the snake into oblivion. “Infernus et perdere faciam te in nomine Domini!” This time, Ru didn’t feel as confi
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There it was, right in front of her, the portal. The final one. And all she had to do was raise her hands and say the incantation. All of this would be over. If Thanatos wasn’t here, she couldn’t kill him. Surely, Raphael would understand that. She’d just close the portal and sneak away, leaving that confrontation for another day. Except she knew it wasn’t that easy. Just because she didn’t see him didn’t mean he wasn’t there. And even before she could raise her hands, the pull from inside of her became overwhelming, causing Ru to double over. The air between the edges of the portal continued to ripple and wave, and Ru recognized the sensation from both of the previous portals. Something was coming. She looked at Cutter and for the first time she could remember, she saw fear in his eyes. “They’re coming,” she whispered. He opened his mouth to say something, but before anything came out, a rush of heat shot out of the portal opening. Both of them instinctively
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“Well, that doesn’t even make sense.” Lyric rolled her eyes. “If you’re in charge, then why do you have to do what someone else told you?” Flint launched into a defense of his decision, but Ru shouted over him. “Flint! Look, the reason their numbers were so low at the beginning of the battle is obvious, isn’t it? It’s not because this portal doesn’t mean anything to them—it’s because it means everything to them. They’re not on the battlefield yet. They will come through the portal!” She had him by the shoulders, which caused him to jump backward, shaking himself free, and once Ru finished her statement she took a step back as well. “What? No,” Flint argued. “They’re not going to send them through the portal. That would be suicide. They’d have to come through a small opening into enemy controlled territory.” “Yeah, into a stream of five whole enemy fighters who cannot possibly hold them all off,” Rider reminded him. “You have to close in behind us.” Ru
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Aokigahara sprawled in front of her like the untamed wild it was, trees encroaching into the neighboring farmlands and open spaces as if the forest insisted on reclaiming what used to be hers. From this direction, it was difficult to tell where the forest began and civilization ended, though Ru thought for certain she’d know when she crossed the line. She stifled a yawn and kept moving forward, one boot at a time, toward what might be her very last mission, if she had her way. Though she had fallen asleep for a few hours, for the most part, she’d gotten her wish and was able to stay up most of the night, with Cutter’s help, and the activity he’d chosen to occupy her certainly didn’t make her feel less worn out. The few hours she had spent in oblivion had been dreamless, as far as she knew. At least, if there had been dreams, they had been unmemorable. Her friends surrounded her as they made their way into the forest. Cutter was in front of her, Rider b
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Navigating airports was hard enough for Ru when she was in countries where most everyone spoke English. Flying to Japan would’ve been completely overwhelming if Ivy wasn’t fluent in Japanese and Mandarin, especially when they had to switch planes in Shanghai. Luckily, the gentle-natured Keeper had managed to keep all of them in line and they’d made their way to Shizuoka Airport with little incident, though Rider complained about the lack of legroom on the commuter jet nearly the whole flight. Thank goodness for headphones, Ru had thought to herself. The entire van ride from the airport to their hotel, a place Ru hadn’t even attempted to try to pronounce for fear she’d embarrass herself, her eyes were glued out the window. From the buildings, to the natural surroundings off in the distance, to the smiling faces of those they passed along the streets, Ru was fascinated. By the looks she was getting, so were the people staring back at her. Five tall blondes with blue e
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Cutter squeezed her leg, and Ru realized it must be apparent she wasn’t paying attention. She tuned back in to hear Sky say, “Now, the team we are meant to protect so that they can get in and close the portal will be given the code name Alfred. This will allow us to be briefer in our communications about the team.” Sky continued to talk, and she knew it was important that she listen, since Ru would be involved in whatever the blue-haired Keeper was discussing presently, but curiosity got the better of her. “Why Alfred?” she whispered to Cutter. Without turning his head, he replied, “Alfred Nobel.” “Huh?” Ru was still confused. “The inventor of dynamite.” “Oh.” Shaking her head, she turned her attention back to Sky, who was giving her the same look Ru might give a student who wasn’t paying attention. Ru swallowed hard and made herself concentrate. “Alfred will be dispatched from here, a break in the forest away from the typical entrance
