“Ashes to ashes, dust to dust…” the priest
stood in the rain holding his umbrella over his head, as he
read from the well-worn bible with the other.
Andrew was my best friend, my lover… my
husband. And now he was gone. His whole family was taken by what was known
as a myth in my family: The Reaper’s Thunderhead. A thunderstorm where a Reaper visits you
while the power’s out for a moment and takes your soul from you… it’s freaking
scary as all shit when you’ve been told two different stories about it – one where
it’s true, and other where it’s crap.
Exactly who do you believe when this has
happened to your inlaws and the person you’ve devoted the last twenty years to?
I had attended every service of Andrew’s
family and watched their numbers dwindle as he did. Each time, a year had passed and each time
there had been a storm on the night of their passing… just as there had been on
the night of Andrew’s passing.
And he wasn’t old either.
My dear sweet Andrew – Andy – Swinston was
only thirty-three years old when he was in Vegas on a business meeting with
some clients at the Desert Rose Hotel.
He decided to skip going to the casino (he wasn’t much of a gambler) and
head straight for his room. Besides, a
storm was brewing and he didn’t want to get caught between the casino and his
room. In between the power failing and
the generator kicking in – which was only about twenty seconds – my wonderful
love of my life lost his life.
He was in his room by the time the lights
went out.
He had locked the door and windows – as the
rain was coming in.
So, how the Reaper had come in was a huge
mystery to everyone.
But the M.E. said the same thing about how
he died that was on the other medical reports:
heart attack.
This was bullshit. My husband worked out, ate healthy, hated
junk food and wouldn’t even tolerate it in the house. So, I wanted to know what the hell happened
to him!
I went in search of people who dealt with
Reapers professionally.
Now, call me nutsie-Malone, but when I
looked around between the cracks of what we called ‘society’, I found people
who dealt with the underground of what we called ‘normal humanity’… and they
had been watching Andrew’s family closely for over a decade.
I sat down on the end of the bed in the
no-star hotel as the two guys watched me carefully, “What do you mean, you’ve
watched his family?”
“Well,” the fatherly one referred to his
hand-written notes, “Andrew and his whole family were cursed to die – even his
offspring – to be handed over to a certain Reaper.” He glanced over his reading
glasses as he went on, “And it was a deal Andrew’s Great-Great-Great
Grandfather made with a demon that has you in this crap.”
“I’m not in any crap.” I said, “My husband
died, and he’s the youngest of his family.”
The young man sitting near me sighed, “Not
quite. You’re pregnant, aren’t you?”
I protectively folded an arm across my
stomach, “No… yes.”
“The Reaper will want your young one… and he
will destroy you to get at him or her.” The older one said removing his glasses
and watching me, “Now, you either terminate your pregnancy, which would piss
off the Reaper and he’ll kill you simply on principle. Or you ride out the next storm – which will
come in a few days.”
“And he’ll kill me just for my baby.” I
whispered rubbing my stomach, “Okay, there is a way out of this… I came to you
two to fix this.”
“Right… there is a solution, but it’s not
going to be nice.” The young guy said.
“If it ends the curse, I’m happy… because I’m
not going to freak out every time there’s a storm just in case my child is
killed by something my family doesn’t believe in.”
I found out their names. The older one was Roger, the younger guy
Benny; they were father and son and had lived what they called ‘The Life’ since
Benny’s mother was killed by a Crossroads Demon who screwed them over about
fifteen years ago. Seeing Benny was only
around twenty years old, he doesn’t know any other life… but he has
street-smarts and this is good.
They inspected my home which Andrew
inherited and spotted a few things around the place which were marks of The
Reaper which gave us absolutely no protection.
“Your husband’s family had tried to protect
you, but The Reaper easily destroyed the marks to get to you once you and
Andrew had a child.” Roger shook his head, “And …” he looked down at the garden
where he spotted a patch of dirt which wouldn’t grow, “Have you been able to
grow anything here?”
“No.
I’ve been trying, but…”
Both Benny and Roger exchanged a worried
look and Benny sprinkled some water over the area and it sizzled as though it
was hot, sending up steam, “Crap. It’s
been here … as recent as last night or early this morning. Just watching you.”
My gut cooled, “When is the storm due?”
Roger looked over at the horizon as the wind
picked up, temperature suddenly dropped a few degrees and we heard a grumble of
thunder, “Ten minutes.”
I looked at them both: “Let’s do this.”
The lights went out as the skies darkened
quickly.
I felt a horrible cold presence behind me as
I stood at the window, and I knew it was almost time to either die or fight for
my life.
I knew Roger was at the door, and Benny
couldn’t be far behind him as I heard their steps stop.
Looking up, I smelled the dreadful…
…cold…
…scent… of death…
A white hand swiped at me in the gloom as
lightning flashed outside… it was then I saw the skeletal face of Death
standing in front of me.
Fear stilled me…
…Courage made me break the bastard’s curse
by using his scythe against him!
The power came back on and there was a black
smouldering robe on the floor and I held a sizzling white hot scythe in my
hands.
