Chapter 1- A Reaper to be
My name is van, I'm 15 years old and it's my freshmen year at Charles high school. This is my story of how I became a grim reaper. I was never the popular gut at school; actually I was hated by nearly everyone except for the few people who hung out with me out of pity. My life sucked at home as well my mother was dead and my step dad could care less about me. I would come home with bruises and cuts because the school bullies beat me daily. I was scared to go buy my step dad would force me, I think he knew what was going to happen to me that day. For protection I brought my old Swiss army knife, I wasn't planning on using it I just wanted to scare them away from me. Our teacher let us have lunch outside that day and right on time the bullies showed up all around me.
"Hey van" said the leader of them "what you eating?"
I had a sandwich in my hand and my lunch bag next to me. They took my lunch bad and I reached in my backpack, pulled my knife out, it worked they left me alone for the rest of the day. I stayed after school that day, it was getting dark when I left it was good I knew a shortcut home. It was down an ally and around a corner. I saw a man at the end of the ally so I held my knife in case I needed it. The man stopped me and asked me a strange question.
"Are you scared to die?" he said.
I drew my knife trying to make him afraid of me. I saw his face showed no emotion. My next thought was to stab him, I went to attack but he moved knocking my knife away.
"Why?" the man asked me. "Why do you fight?"
This man was very confusing but I answered him. "To protect myself" I responded.
"Will you protect others" the man asked me as he looked right at me.
"If I must then yes!" I said bravely that time.
"Very well" the man said and moved towards me faster than anything I've ever seen before, he was in front of me before I knew it. I felt a pain in my stomach, the man had stabbed me.
"Tell grim I have a new recruit for him" he said as I fell to the ground.
I laid there for what felt like hours I felt where the man stabbed me; I felt my blood pouring out of my body, slowly my vision faded to black. When I woke up I was flouting around wondering why I was alive, I was sure I had died. I then fell very quickly to the ground and landed on my back with a thud.
"Who turned the gravity back on?" I said as I sat up rubbing my back.
"Hello Van" said a hooded man.
"Where am I?!" I shouted.
"You're in hell Van" the man said and sounded calm about it.
"What!" I screamed and laid back on my back
"Not what you wanted to hear I'm guessing from your reaction." Said the hooded man with a grin I saw.
"Well if I'm here then who are you?" I asked and stood up
"Me, my dear boy I am Grim, the grim reaper". He said as he took his hood off. He looked human like any other person in the world. I would have thought he would be like a skeleton.
"So I'm dead… really dead and in hell" I said with a frown.
"You don't have to stay Van, if you promise me something" Grim said.
"What really, ok just name it and its done" I said with excitement
"You become a reaper like me, a reaper of the demon souls" Grim explained.
"Demon souls? What is a demon soul?" I asked with confusion on my face. I thought a soul was just a soul.
"Well Van", Grim said "A demon soul is a normal human soul like yours but has been infused with dark magic from the demon summoners".
"Why don't you just kill the demon summoners? Then no demons right?" I asked.
"It's not that simple van, they are strong, and they kill humans trying to turn the soul into a demon". Grim said. "Once a demon is made it must devour other human souls to live which make more demons".
"So it's impossible to stop demons from spreading?" I asked as we walked down a hall way.
"Well if you kill the original demon summoner the rest will die to, even a demon summoner was once a demon." Grim said. "Anyway, enough history, here" he pointed to a case which opened when he pointed to it. "Chose one of these to be the weapon you will reap with"
I saw a good amount of them; I saw swords, daggers, hammers, guns and a single scythe. I chose the classic scythe and started to swing it around to get a feel for it.
"Good choice Van. Hand it to me" Grim said. He threw the scythe into a blue flame and the flames grew higher as a body emerged from the flames
"So I'm alive again Grim" said the mystery man. He looked about my age; he wore a jacket and jeans with a beanie cap that had an angel on the front of it. He walked up to me and looked at my face. "So this guy's my new partner grim?" he asked.
"Yes Ryder this is Van" Grim said. "Van I would like for you to grab Ryder's arm please"
I grabbed Ryder's arm and when I did he glowed bright and he turned into the scythe I just had but the blade had the same angel that was on his beanie. I freaked out and dropped him and backed up.
"Ow! Carful damn it, I still can feel things like that" Ryder shouted at me. He transformed back to his human form and punched me in the face so hard I fell to the ground.
"Ok now. When there's a demon in your area I'll tell you ok?" Grim said then snapped his fingers, a light flashed and I woke up in my bed like the night before never happened. I began to think it might have all been a dream till Ryder walked into my room.
"You ready to leave partner?" Ryder asked in a grumpy voice.
"My wound is gone, why?" I asked as I looked at my stomach.
"Grim brought you back to life remember?. Since the wound kill you, it's gone. Now let's go". Ryder said with an attitude.
We left my house and started to walk to my school. I tried to find out more about Ryder as we walked down the road.
"So what are you Ryder" I asked.
"I'm your soul weapon; my soul is bound to yours so if you die so do I, I can only be seen by you and other reapers while I'm in weapon form but when I'm in this form I'm seen by everyone." Ryder explained "I'm guessing Grim didn't tell you but when you hold me you see what I see so you can see the demons but only when your holding me" he added
"Wow so hey do you see any demons now?" I asked
"No, Grim will tell us when a demon shows up in our area, most demons stay hidden because of the job we reapers have" Ryder said and placed his hands in his pockets of his jacket
We had arrived at my schools front gate I kept walking towards the building when I noticed that Ryder stopped following me.
"Hey umm Ryder we're here" I said as he stared at me with a blank look on his face "you coming?" I asked
"No, you dumbass I'm dead remember ill see what the living world has now that I'm back" Ryder said and started to walk away
"No reason to be such a jerk" I said to myself as I walked into the building and to my first class was math. I sat by the window just staring out of it thinking to myself about what if we do fight a demon, then what happens? Ryder seemed sure there was nothing to be scared of. So much was running through my head like what if I die again will I become a demon? One thing came to mind more often than anything else, it was the man who killed me. Did he work for grim? That thing he told to tell him, was grim using me? Or was that guy a demon summoner?
Once school got out, I realized the bullies didn't attack me today. At the gate was Ryder waiting for me on the pillar of the gate.
"Took you long enough." He said as he jumped down.
"Well that's school for ya." I said. It was 5 pm when I got out of school. I guess Ryder, when he was alive, had shorter school days. We started to head home when I started to talk to him again
"So hey do you know why Grim doesn't hunt demons?" I asked
"That old timer isn't fit enough to fight demons anymore. He use to reap but we do still age." Ryder replied.
"So do you know when we will get to hunt?" I asked
"Right about now!" Ryder said with a huge smile on his face as he looked at one of the roofs of a house. "Grab my arm!" he ordered. When I grabbed his arm, he glowed again and morphed into the scythe.
"Hope your ready new guy, go after him all ready it's going to get away" Ryder shouted at me.
"Right, but I can't jump that high Ryder" I replied
"Dam it I forgot, while you hold me your physical power is times 10" Ryder explained "Now jump!" I believed Ryder and took a jump off the ground and it felt like I was flying through the sky and landed on one of the buildings roofs not the house we saw the demon at but when I looked around there it was, the demon. It was staring at me with its bright red eyes and drool coming from its mouth; it had long sharp claws and looked like it was humanoid.
"Well don't stare at it, go and kill it dam it" Ryder ordered.
"Oh right lets go" I said ready to fight. I charged at the demon before I swung the scythe I heard it giggled and jumped into the air and landed behind me. Before I had any time to react it kicked me forward, as I flew through the air it kicked me again just hard enough to fall off the roof of the 50 ft. building I had landed on.
"NOOOOOOOO!" I shouted fearing that this was the end of me
The demon jumped down after me we were both falling to the ground and the demon had made itself fall faster by coming down at a diving form and landed on top of me when we crashed into the ground blood shot out of my mouth and it leapt off of me and started to dance around like some insane person.
"Dam it partner stop fucking around, if you die we are both going to just sit in hell and rot!" Ryder yelled
"I can't get…" before I finished the demon rushed and sliced my arm with its claws making a three claw gash across my forearm I had made it to one knee thinking to myself. Is this it? I get to die twice? NO! I thought. I stood up; the demon looked confused and stopped dancing. I saw my body had a feint blue flame, I felt powerful. Without thinking I ran towards the demon that was now off guard and with one slice across the torso I sliced it in half.
"My name is Van and I'm a grim reaper and I will not lose to anyone!" I shouted but after the flame went away I passed out the last thing I remember was Ryder asking if I was ok.