Nobody would think that it was a room. The darkness was so intense that it seemed to emanate from the very walls. The only light in the room came from two large circles in the floor where blinding white light shot up to embrace the ceiling. In the middle of one circle was a long and high table, sitting on four equally high thrones were four hooded figures waiting ever so patiently.
"The deadline is past." Said the one closest to the end of the table on the far left.
"What do you want us to do, wage war?" another chuckled, "don't act as if you weren't expecting it."
"I will not be taken for a fool-."
A small rectangle of light appeared where someone had opened the door, though the light obscured any hint of where the door might lead.
"I was summoned?"
It was hard to believe that such a powerful voice came from one so young. Raina Rosetti was sixteen years old, just over five feet tall with the most intense purple eyes you'd ever seen. Her dark purple hair was cut in levels with the longest strands at the forefront and getting shorter as you got to the back. Raina was a reaper and she had broken the rules.
"Do you know why you're here?"
"If I did I wouldn't have bothered showing up." Raina grunted.
She knew that insulting the Guild was not going to put her in a very good position when they were delivering her punishment. She looked up at the four horsemen of the apocalypse also known as the Guild. They were the judges who kept the balance between good and evil stable and decided who went to what the ignorant called heaven and hell. The reapers were their messengers and executers in the world. Their job was to maintain the balance by keeping the supernatural in check, not by destroying them but by protecting them. Raina had done what no reaper should do, protecting a supernatural for profit. War, with his red hood seemed to be looking down at her with malice but she wasn't surprised. It was War after all. She looked at the other horsemen, Conquest in white, Justice in black with his scales of truth and judgement resting on the table and finally Death with her pale face and gown looking down at the proceedings with uninterest and she wondered which one would be her judge.
"Raina Rosetti, Reaper number 49 you have violated the laws of the Guild and the covenant to which you are bound and you shall be tried by Death as befits our customs." Conquest's pompous voice boomed out all over the room which wasn't a room and Raina could almost see the large sneer of contempt on his face.
Death rose to take her place in the relative centre of the desk.
Ahh the women's angle Raina thought, clever.
"You convinced Lawrence Strait one of the vampire lords that you would protect him on the condition that he pay you a fee for every threat to his life that you terminated. Are these facts correct?"
Death spoke in such a bored tone that Raina actually started to feel just the tiniest bit ashamed of herself. She nodded her head slowly, and then raised her chin to glare defiantly at Death. With her wispy blond her falling about her small face, she almost looked beautiful, in a waify anorexic way.
"Why?" This question came as a soft whisper, almost like a scorning endearment from mother to daughter.
This threw Raina momentarily off balance but she soon regained herself.
Pull yourself together it's a trick.
"A girl's gotta eat." She smirked.
"Why you little-." War growled.
"Raina." Death intervened, "you are a Reaper, you are sworn to protect not to profit and to only destroy when the need arises." She paused here and looked at Raina straight in the eye, making her squirm. "Therefore to control the wanton that you have created, you must erase Lawrence for he is as much in the wrong as you are for agreeing with your plans."
That's it? Raina thought though she didn't say it. That would be pushing luck I bit too far.
"You are dismissed number 49."
Conquest voiced Raina's thoughts as soon as she had slammed the door behind her.
"That's it?" he asked, "we finally get her in here for judgement and that is the punishment you give her?"
Death merely smiled.
The first thing Raina thought of when she left the Guild Hall was that she needed a drink. So she headed straight for her favourite haunt. The bar was old style classic, a semi-circular bar, stools that were bolted into the floor just in case anyone got some smart ideas, a pool table, and lots of couches with tables and bowls of nuts and a permanent haze of cigarette smoke. Raina's kinda place.
"The usual." She said to the barman before she shrugged off the jacket and threw herself on a couch like she owned the place. She leaned her head back on the arm rest and tried to sort out what had happened with the Guild. Death had given her such a light sentence. By tomorrow tongues would be wagging.
"This seat taken?" someone asked.
"Fuck off." Raina growled grabbing a handful of peanuts and throwing them at the person. She opened one eye and grinned at her best friend since eternity began.
Misaki Makihara dusted the peanuts off his body and tried his best not to give Raina the satisfaction of grinning back which was her way of saying sorry. His green hair came over in a fringe that covered most of his sky blue eyes, the people in the room that weren't used to this spectacle were looking daggers at Raina, after all it wasn't every day that you saw someone pelt a boy in a wheelchair with peanuts. Or anything for that matter.
"Nice to see you too." He said wheeling himself close to the couch, "I heard about the hearing."
Raina popped another peanut into her mouth and waited for him to continue.
"They let you off pretty easy."
"You say it like you're disappointed."
She could feel him shrink away emotionally from her whiplash.
"I didn't mean that, I just..." his voice trailed away.
"I know." She said, trying her best to infuse into those words that she hadn't meant to be so harsh, "I was surprised too."
He seemed to relax more after that, perhaps he had been reluctant to voice what was being whispered so often nowadays. How much favouritism could one take before they really landed themselves in trouble?
"You look like trailer trash." Misaki said as an even trashier looking waitress placed a cold beer in front of Raina, "as usual."
"What are you talking about?" Raina frowned looking down at her torn jeans and grunge t-shirt, "for me this is downright classy."
Misaki rolled his eyes.
"So that's all you need to do then, off this guy?" he grabbed a bunch of peanuts and stuffed them in his mouth.
"Yup." She took another gulp of her beer.
"Need any help?"
"I think I can handle it." She smiled, "do you need a ride home because if I don't get there soon, father is gonna have a cow."
"I can imagine but I think I'd rather take my chances in soviet Russia than get a ride in your beat up pickup."
"Hey don't insult Chuck." Raina smirked; she got to her feet and kissed Misaki on the cheek, "I'll see you in school."
The Rosetti household was like something out of Beverly Hills 90210. The ten bed roomed, five and a half bathroom mansion stood on about five acres of land enclosed within an orchard. Dr. Rosetti was the world's top geneticist and the Rosetti family was one of the elite families of reapers.
"Dad I'm home and I think something blew up inside Chuck so-." She found her father in the kitchen obviously in the middle of a very romantic dinner with the psychologist that he'd been seeing for a while now, "what is she doing here?"
"Raina." Her dad smiled flashing her his most charming grin; he ran his hand through his hair and sighed. "I thought you weren't coming home until later."
"Well I'm sorry for spoiling your plans!" she growled and walked away from their candlelit evening and made her way across the atria to the spiral stairs that led to the upper floors.
She could have taken the elevator but there was too much anger and adrenaline pulsing through her to allow herself to stay still for too long.
"Raina!" it was her father calling her even though his voice seemed far off, "Raina stop, you didn't even say hello to Erica."
"I don't give a shit about Erica and I can see that you don't give a shit about me. I went before the Guild today, I was terrified dad and all I thought as I looked up at the dark and soulless eyes of the horsemen was that I still have my dad." She hadn't realised that she had been shouting and she was sure that she was panting loud enough to wake the dead, "but while I was suffering on my own, my loving father was trying to get himself laid!"
"Raina of course I didn't forget about the hearing."
"David?" Erica had appeared at the bottom of the stairs and was looking up curiously at the father and daughter that were red in the face," I think I better leave."
"Thank goodness." Raina scowled.
"Raina!" her father warned.
"What dad? I'm sure she knows by now that I don't like her and I never will so you can go and stuff that up your-."
"We're getting married."
It was like someone had pressed the 'mute' button. Her ears filled with a silence so strong that she seemed to go into a state of hyper-reality where she could pick out the most minute and inconsequential details. She hadn't realised just how bare the atrium that served as the entrance to their house really was. It was a perfect circle with rich brown wood panelled floors and a ceiling made to resemble the Sistine chapel. The chandelier hanging from it was one of the old-age types, large candelabra that the help extinguished in the morning and relit in the evening, it consumed about twenty candles a week. The light that it threw over the room was a soft goldish glow. The staircase that she was standing on was at the far side of the room and was made out of the same wood as the floors that it seemed to blend in, like a beautiful vine growing out of a chocolate river. The only other things in the room was a square table on top of which stood a vase of flowers and a phone, a large family portrait that was placed above the silver metal elevator doors and a large screen monitor that was over the front door. It showed all the happenings at the front door and with the flip of a switch the front gate as well.
She was staring mesmerised at the front door now, thinking of an escape route. She could easily just knock daddy dearest to the floor and race for the door, maybe knock Erica down along the way? But it would only take her father a second to call security. She focused on Erica now who looked just as surprised that her father had imparted such information. She looked flustered and her dark hair had come loose from its clasps, her eyes kept on moving sporadically from Raina to her father.
"Raina." Her father said gently, "are you all right?"
She turned to him now with a lucid gleam in her eye.
"I'm sorry for shouting." She said with a smile that was a bit too calm, dangerously calm. "I'm tired, goodnight."
And with that she turned her back on their shocked faces and made her way up to her room.