Colder Thorns

Chapter One

Superbowl Night

"And another touchdown for the Ravens! I tell you what, they're sure doing good in this game!"

"Yes they are, but you can't count the 49er's out yet! They've been playing pretty well, too!"

The small group of teenagers grunted and shouted as the screen suddenly froze. It took them a moment to realize that someone had paused it. One of them, a short blonde girl with olive green eyes, glared at the person holding the remote.

"Mark, turn the game back on! My team's winning!" she complained loudly.

"Calm down, Valerie. I just need to take the trash out to the dumpster really fast, and I don't wanna miss the game. Will one of you line the garbage can while I take this out?" the boy holding the remote asked, looking over the group seated around his television.

There was Valerie, who was rolling her eyes and turning her attention back to the food on the table in front of them. Then there was Abel, a tall exchange student from Japan with sandy brown hair and eyes. He was typing busily on his phone, apparently talking to someone from back home on Facebook. Then there was Gabe, a squat, slightly chubby boy who was a major sports enthusiast. Mark was a boy of medium height with brown hair and hazel eyes.

The group had gathered at Mark's dorm on the college campus to watch the 2013 Superbowl. Only Valerie and Gabe were really interested in the game. Mark watched for the commercials; being a marketing major, he was interested in seeing the different marketing techniques they used. Abel was completely ignoring it, preferring to chat on his iphone.

The four college juniors were the most unlikely group of friends on campus, but they were held tightly together by one thing; their love for the paranormal. They loved to go out to places looking for ghosts and the like together, and prided themselves on having experienced a few strange, unexplainable things during their short careers as paranormal investigators. They were merely amateurs, but why do it if it wasn't fun, right?

"Mark, I'll line the garbage. Just hurry up on the way back, alright? I don't wanna wait on you." Gabe said quickly, climbing to his feet and going to the kitchen for a trash bag.

Mark grinned and jogged out the door, carrying a garbage bag full of chicken bones, pizza boxes, and paper cups over his shoulder. His dorm was on the second story, so he walked carefully down the stairs before running out past the large parking lot next to the building. A large gray dumpster stood next to the road, and Mark quickly hefted the garbage bag into it. He smiled and dusted his hands off against his pants legs, looking out over the college campus with a small smile.

He had been a student here for two years and he never quite got over the beauty of it. It was nearly silent out; most people were inside watching the Superbowl. There were a lot of parties going on now. It was no mystery that several would be busted by campus police tonight. Mark gave a satisfied sigh, watching his breath float into the air in a thin cloud, before turning to walk back to his dorm.

He walked slowly back, whistling to himself and looking around at all of the apartment buildings around him. He turned the corner to his building and nearly froze at what he saw.

There was a man walking toward him. The man was a few inches taller than him, and wore a black business suit. He had short, scruffy brown hair that framed a rather beautiful face. He carried what looked like a tree lopper in one hand, balancing the object over his shoulder nonchalantly. Mark couldn't see any hint of breath coming from the man as he approached him, and he felt a heavy uneasiness fall into the pit of his stomach. He couldn't see the strange person's eyes, for he had his head held down and his bangs shaded his eyes from view.

Mark cleared his throat and kept walking, keeping his eyes glued to the approaching stranger. As he passed, he made sure to bump into the man's side; just to make sure he wasn't seeing some sort of sugar-induced illusion. Not only did he bump into something solid. He bumped into something solid that apparently didn't appreciate being touched. The man stopped and turned slightly, then his legs wobbled a bit and he coughed harshly. Mark froze as the man barked loud, agonized coughs. He was about to offer help when the coughing fit stopped and the man stood up, looking up into Mark's eyes. Mark went numb with fear.

The man's eyes were the most vibrant green he had ever seen, with goldish-yellow around the pupils. They glowed like fireflies in the cold night, and the man narrowed them at him and snorted angrily.

"Shōjiki ni." the man muttered impatiently before striding up the sidewalk briskly. (I tried to get the translation for "honestly" in Japanese. If this is wrong, I'm really sorry!~Silver)

Mark stared after him in stunned silence for a moment before running to catch up to him. The man heard him and stopped, looking over his shoulder at the somewhat terrified college student. His vibrant green eyes pierced Mark with a cold glare, and Mark stopped a few feet away from him and stared at him.

"What...what are you?" Mark asked in a light voice.

He was certain from the moment that he saw those haunting green eyes that this wasn't a human man he had bumped into. He was terrified of this man, but curious and drawn to him all at the same time. This was what he and his friends had been looking for for the past two years! A real, definitely real, paranormal entity of some sort, and it had wandered purposefully onto the college campus! It had to be fate of some sort!

The man watched him for a moment and adjusted the strange bladed instrument he carried over his shoulder before answering.

"Shinigami." he muttered quietly before turning and continuing up the sidewalk.

Mark watched him in confused silence. He had clearly heard what the man had said, but had not understood. He had never heard the term "Shinigami" before, but he had a feeling that both of the things the man had said to him were Japanese. He rushed back to his apartment, eager to talk to his friends and ask Abel about the words.

The others looked up quickly when Mark burst through the door, his face pale and panting heavily.

"It's about time! We were starting to think you had been picked up by some creepy pervert or something." Gabe joked, not noticing how shaky their friend was.

"From the look on his face, he might have narrowly escaped one. What happened?" Valerie asked, concerned.

The group got up and walked to their friend as he closed the door behind him and sat down at the table next to it. He sighed and shook his head before speaking.

"I saw something you guys. Not just saw it. Bumped into it, spoke to it, heard it make intelligent replies. I think. It was speaking what I think was Japanese, so I didn't really understand..." Mark babbled quickly.

"Wait, slow down. Right now you're not making any sense. What happened?" Gabe asked, his eyes wide and excited.

"I was walking back from the dumpster and I saw this man walking toward me. He was taller than me, with dark brown hair, and was wearing a really nice black business suit. H was carrying this weird blade thing with him, it looked like a blade on a pole. Like a tree lopper used to cut off tree branches or something. I bumped into him to make sure I wasn't seeing things, and he went into this horrible coughing fit. I thought he was gonna die right there. Then he glared at me with these freaky vibrant green-gold eyes and said something that sounded like Japanese, in an angry tone." Mark explained, and the others listened with fascinated excitement and fear.

"What did he say?" Abel asked curiously.

"Shōjiki ni or something like that."

"Shōjiki ni? That means honestly. He was scolding you for bumping into him!" Abel grinned, "What else did he say?"

The whole group was getting jittery with excitement and fear. They knew that if this really was something supernatural, it probably wasn't wise to go after it. However, they weren't exactly wise in themselves. They were curious, which could prove to be very dangerous.

"I asked him what he was, since it was clear he wasn't human. He said "Shinigami" before hurrying away." Mark replied.

Abel blinked a few times and went pale, pulling a horrified face.

"Mark...Shinigami means Death God. You...met a grim reaper."

Dun Dun Dunnn! A Shinigami wandering through a college campus? What the Hell is going on? We shall see! And no, I'm not gonna connect this to any of my other stories. This is for fun. Allons-y!

~Silver