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Chapter 78
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2021-04-26 23:27:40The house was white and small, even by Los Angeles standards. It sat back off of the road quite a ways, and several tall trees dotted the ample yard. It even looked like there might be an orchard in the back. Ru stood in the driveway for quite some time, her feet rooted in place despite the chilly November breeze. Cutter hung back by the car, giving her time.
Ru imagined what it might’ve been like skipping up this driveway as a little girl, possibly bringing her grandmother a bouquet of fresh flowers, maybe staying long enough to bake cookies or learn to sew. She could envision herself as a small child in a long, flowing dress, bows in her hair, lovingly placed there by her mother, who told her to have fun and be back before dinner. Of course, those things had never happened. And now, she would walk into the home of this stranger and try to figure out how they were alike… and how they were different.
She turned her head sli
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Reaper's Hollow Chapter 79
Nana made her way to the first doorway, which wasn’t too far away. She took a moment to collect herself before she pushed it open. The door creaked, as if it wasn’t used to being called upon to reverse its stance, but it let go of the jamb and revealed a tiny bedroom still decorated as if a teenage girl would be returning to her early ‘90s abode in a few minutes.Ru stepped in and took it all in. It was as if Sera had just hung the Johnny Depp poster by the bed this morning. A book was open on the nightstand, and upon closer inspection, Ru saw that it was a Sweet Valley High book. There were several others in the series on the shelf across the room, next to the worn white dresser with little yellow flowers topped by a handful of stuffed animals. Though not all of the books were as innocent as the one her mother had been reading; some of them were the books about magic her grandmother had mentioned before when the team had been investiga
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“You know, she was born in the middle of a thunderstorm.” Ru looked up to find her grandmother staring out at nothing through the thin white curtains that hung in front of the only window across the room from them. “I took one look at that little mite’s back and knew she was going to be a spitfire. She came out that way, scratching at the world like she was going to tear a new opening in the veil. So, having the markings of fiery wings on her back was no surprise to me.”Ru was confused; this didn’t sound anything like the happy little cherub her grandmother had described before, and she wasn’t sure of the connection between the markings and the name.“I was mighty surprised when she was such a carefree little one, never a trouble, never a problem. I thought I might’ve named her wrong. Then, when trouble struck, it hit all at once. And I knew Seraphina was the perfect name for her. I
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Ru went straight upstairs as soon as they returned to Cutter’s parents’ house, and he couldn’t blame her. She hadn’t said a word the entire ride home, and he couldn’t imagine what it must be like to have so much of her past dumped in her lap all of a sudden when she’d been searching for even a whisper of a memory for most of her life. While he wished she hadn’t taken the picture of Larkin, it did open his eyes just a bit to the possibility that he had yet to completely convince Ru that her Keeper side was more important than her father’s family.Thoughts of where to go with that problem were interrupted by laughter coming from the kitchen, and Cutter realized his mother’s voice wasn’t the only one he heard. He quickly rushed into the back room, delighted to see his sister Cinder innocently tossing handfuls of flour at his mother. Windy was not one to go down without a fight, and Cinder’s hair was even whiter th
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“What is this?”“We found it in Sera’s room,” he explained as his sister pulled the phone out of his hand and closer to her face. “As soon as I saw it, I knew I recognized it, but I didn’t know why. It must be because of the runes engraved at the top.”“This is a Celtic cross,” Cinder explained. “You should be able to decipher the writing now that you know the origin.”Without losing any time, Cutter sent a picture of the cross and Cinder’s sketch to Lyric, along with a message indicating where he thought she should look. “Thanks, Sis,” he said, hitting send. “I think you may’ve done more in the last few minutes to decipher this riddle than we have in weeks.”“Nah,” Cinder replied, waving him off and sliding back on the sofa away from her sketch. “You would’ve figured it out. Eventually.”“The only problem
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“Lindisfarne.” Lyric pointed at the map spread out on Cutter’s parents’ dining room table, an air of confidence about her that made Ru almost believe she was right.“Gesundheit,” Rider replied. He was sitting at the opposite end of the table from Lyric, so Ru supposed he couldn’t actually see the name written on the map, though he likely would’ve had a similar response even if he’d been the one to come up with the foreign word in the first place.“And how did we come to this conclusion, exactly?” Cutter asked. He was sitting next to Ru, his knee bumping into her leg underneath the table, which somehow seemed to calm her otherwise turbulent tummy.“Well,” Lyric began, sitting back in her chair and looking at each of them. “Once Cinder told us we were looking at things wrong, I was able to find the answer pretty quickly.”Cinder was in the room, but she was sitting off
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Ru went over her remarks in her head, unsure what she’d said to get that sort of reaction out of him. Did Cutter not want to be her friend for some reason? That didn’t make any sense. He’d been nothing but helpful since the first time they’d met, back at Thomas Elementary, when he’d fixed the copy machine after she’d unwittingly used her powers to fry the electrical components. Confused, Ru swiveled in her chair and propped her elbows up on the table. For the life of her, she couldn’t figure out what she’d said wrong.Footsteps entering the room caused her to look up. It was Ivy. “Oh, I thought you’d left,” Ru said, forcing a smile.“I forgot my coat,” the blonde explained, gesturing at the back of the chair she’d been sitting in. “I didn’t get very far in this weather without it.” She let out a small giggle and slipped her arms in the sleeves. “Hey, is everythin
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Ru recognized her location immediately. She was standing in the same garden where she’d met Thanatos not too long ago, a hundred years ago. This time, the bench where he’d sat crying, mourning the loss of a family killed by a woman his Reapers had attempted to claim the day before she stole a car and drove the wrong way down the freeway, losing her own life in the process. Thanatos’s tears had overwhelmed and confused her. Cutter insisted he was a monster, but at the time, he’d seemed anything but.The petals cascaded from the trees as she walked along, making her way with bare feet down a row of flowered trees which rained an endless volume of red, pink, and white flowers down upon her. She glanced down to see she was wearing a long, flowing black dress and wondered who, exactly, was picking her wardrobe for these forays.It didn’t take her long to find him. He was a beacon, after all, much like the portal openings.
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The burning sensation Ru had felt in her stomach when she was in the woods looking for the portal returned. “What do you mean?” she asked, one hand pressing down on her abdomen. “They won’t hurt her.”He scoffed. “What do you mean they won’t hurt her? Rune, you know what she did. They have to punish her for that. They will punish her for that. Be certain.”She was shaking her head wildly. “No, they won’t. No one is angry at my mother. It wasn’t her fault. She was a… a child. They’ve assured me she’ll come back home to Los Angeles, to her mother.” She realized she may have said too much, that perhaps she shouldn’t have given away their plan, but she was fairly certain the Reapers couldn’t do anything to the citizens of the village, and he would probably assume that her mother would return there anyway.“It’s very sad th
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Reaper's Hollow Chapter 158: Epilogue
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
Reaper's Hollow Chapter 156
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
Reaper's Hollow Chapter 153
“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
Reaper's Hollow Chapter 152
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
Reaper's Hollow Chapter 151
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
