Death Is Always Around
Disclaimer: I Don't Own Grim Tales. If I did, this would be on the SNAFU website.
Summary: Death comes in many forms. Mandy has only ever known one of them. Perhaps its time she meets the rest of her husband, and her son for that matter, and find out there is more to Death than what one might first see? Grim Senior and Junior both as lead characters. GrimXMandy. JuniorXMinnie.
Regular speak
Thoughts and Emotions talking to person outside mind
Demonic or Animalistic Speak
Demonic or Animalistic Thoughts
AN I'd like to inform you all that I have taken first steps into the world of published works. Yes, I have a short story, first in a series, published on Amazon Kindle called Red Ravtor.
The Reaper-Beast loomed over Halloween Town, ready to devour all those within and striking fear into all its citizens, save the Brother of Death himself, Jack Skellington. Of course, The Royal Couple, Mandy and Grim, along with Lord Pain were far from afraid. The royal army might be a bit worried about fighting this monster, but their loyalty kept them steadfast and ready to fight and die for their rulers.
And as one might guess, the Ultimate Ghost and the Master of Time were likewise unafraid of this entity as they arrived into the Underworld. However, unknown and unseen by most, there was another presence entering that town. One that didn't even know fear...
Unknown POV
I creep and crawl along the walls, taking in the lovely tastes in the air. I had never been up in this world and it is truly riveting; No wonder Father retired here. But I didn't come for the treats. I came here to see what was nibbling at my tails.
I hold up my hands and open my eyes, grinning as I see what I spy. What is this, is this, this!? It looks like a demon, but it tastes like Me. How can that be? What do my eyes fail to see? Or does my tongue simply not agree with what I perceive? Ohhh, now I see!
As the Not-Me is struck with a green light and falls from its height, I unfurl my wings to take flight into the night. I am quite in delight as my tails become alight, so that I might smite this benighted blight of great height from my sight.
I calm myself as I leap towards its mouth, dodging its sprawling bladed tentacles with ease, never even noticing me. Still so blind? Or perhaps that demon really is in control. I cackle to myself as I enter the opened mouth, flying into the darkness...
Regular POV
The Nergal-Beast groaned as it, the main part of it at least, awoke within the Belly of the Beast. The ghostly new enemy had packed quite the punch, more than it had been expecting at that moment. It grinned as it felt the soul of Grim Reaper Junior still in its mouth. Or rather, the demonic and fanged mouth of MiniMandy's possessed corpse.
It loved its new housing arrangement; With this reaper-boy so distraught and crushed by despair, they could easily use his power to reap and eat all the souls they wanted for as long as they kept him. And the more they ate, the stronger they became. Soon, they would devour everything! "To think that the powers of Death are so easy to steal and take control of." The Beast said to itself, almost sadistically as it waited for the numbness in its giant form to dissipate.
[Sis...sy?] The Nergal blinked as it looked around, both with its regular eye and with its many Nergal-eyes within the Belly of the Beast, searching for that faint voice…it growled in suspicion. A soul it had devoured, perhaps, calling out in a scared or delusional state? Possibly.
[Sissy?] The voice came again, but much closer, almost right next to it. The demonic parasite growled again as it tossed and turned in the abyss, swinging the young soul in its mouth like a sack of potatoes as it searched for the voice. Then, its eyes widened as it saw four small yellow lights...right in front of it
[You're not Sissy...]
Outside the Reaper-Beast
Mandy raised an eyebrow as the unconscious abomination that had been devouring her royal guard, and that Grim and Clockwork were about to enter, suddenly screamed in agony, its metal and flesh parts creaking and thrashing respectively for a second before falling limp.
Clockwork, in his child form, raised an eyebrow as well before turning to Grim, "I take it that this is your doing?" He asked curiously.
"Ta be hones, no. Sorry ya came here fer noding," Grim apologized carelessly as Mandy approached them. In the back, Jack just held his hand in his face, shaking his head with a groan.
"Well, that was anticlimactic," She commented evenly, wondering what just happened, "So, is this thing going to rot away or do we have to tear this thing apart?" She asked, looking up at the Beast, wondering how long it would take to dismantle and dismember it.
"Jus give him a minute," Grim said calmly, watching the entire thing with an uninterested gaze, getting Mandy's attention as she took in his body language. He was standing with a very relaxed posture, seemingly unphased, as if he was expecting this.
"Him?" Mandy asked with a raised eyebrow...
Sceeeeeeeeahhhhh!
...as an ungodly screech rang through the air. The demonic flesh bulged out of the top of the pumpkin-armored behemoth, breaking through the metal before it popped, almost like a pimple. The insides exploded into a small whirlwind of green blood, black demon-flesh, and robot parts. Something rocketed out of the mess, covered in Nergal flesh and blood that obscured anyone's view of it.
"Him," Clockwork answered in his elderly form as whatever it was flew in the air, flying in circles.
"I can't believe ya be lettin him come down here," Grim commented idly as he watched the creature gliding along.
"What are you babbling about?" Mandy asked in annoyance, "I don't even know who this is," She admitted, drawing her guns while glaring up at their apparent rescuer. Not that she would ever need rescuing. She was just wondering if she had to shoot this thing down or not.
"I wasn't talkin ta ya, Woman," Grim retorted as the creature suddenly stopped and nose-dived to them. Mandy gave the smallest of grunts as she caught the skeleton form of her son in her arms, unconscious but looking fine.
As it landed, not ten feet from them and standing at just over three feet tall, Mandy finally realized something about the creature. It was holding the tentacle-covered corpse of MiniMandy in what had to be its mouth. In the next instant, Mandy had pointed a gun to its head while still holding Junior in her other arm.
While that was alarming, that wasn't what had Mandy's primary attention. This...thing didn't seem to be there. Or to more exact, it was invisible. The green blood dripping from its form showed its shape, a bird or bat-like creature, but it didn't give much in terms of details.
"Easy, Mandy," Grim said, placing a boney hand on the barrel of her firearm and gently pushing it downwards, "He be no threat ta ya. Dat ding in its mouth is jus wha's left of Minnie's corpse," He assured.
The Bitch Queen gave an annoyed hum of thought, coming off more like a growl than anything else, as she kept staring at this unknown creature, "Grim, what is this thing?" Mandy asked with a raised eyebrow as she kept her eyes on it.
"I'll explain in a moment," Grim answered, looking intently at the creature, "Ya, ya, Minnie be headin fer Heaven," He answered to the creature. Mandy wasn't sure, but it looked like it was grinning.
Clockwork looked surprised at that, "You're going to let him steal her back?" He asked in surprise.
"Ya wanta try an stop him, Mon? Be my fooking guest," Grim answered with an annoyed glare.
The Master of Time glanced back at the unseen beast before glaring at Grim, "No thanks. I learned my lesson the last time," He answered bluntly.
"Am I the only one that can't hear this thing?" Mandy questioned with a glare.
"I can't either Mistress," Pain answered, looking at it oddly.
"I wish I couldn't, but I'm too old not too," Clockwork answered with a sigh.
"I can understand most of it," Jack answered with a shrug, glaring at the invisible beast, "You're an annoying pest, you know that?"
"Jack, be nice ta de boy," Grim said in a scolding tone.
Jack glared at his brother and pointed to Junior in Mandy's arms, still sleeping, "I'm nice to this one, and I like this one. That one? No, just no. He sent me to the Moon last time we met," He said in annoyance.
"...Grim, you are explaining this, in detail, soon," Mandy stated blankly, annoyed yet almost amused now.
Grim rolled his eye-sockets at that, "Well, off wid ya boy, we gotta clean up dis mess of yer's," Grim ordered dismissively. The creature seemed to grin as it swallowed the body of MiniMandy in one gulp and shook off the blood, vanishing from sight.
"So, what exactly, was that all about?" Mandy asked, clearly still annoyed at being out of the loop.
"Hey, Clockwork, what gives?!" Dan yelled as he flew down behind the group, "I thought you said that this thing was supposed to be tough? I hit it with one Ghostly Wail and it pops!" He complained, glaring at the Time Ghost...
And that was when one of the Tentacles of the Reaper-Beast sprung out and sent Dan flying backwards briefly, "You were saying?" Clockwork asked loudly with a smirk before disappearing, not getting involved in what would be an outright fight.
"That thing still isn't dead?" Mandy asked with a glare.
"Na, Little Rav jus ripped it up a bit. Should be a lot easier ta kill now," Grim answered as the abomination rose and shredded its own pumpkin armor to reveal a large amount of flesh with many, many eyes and just as many teeth, "Ya, tis an ugly one," Grim murmured, apparently to himself.
"Grim, we are having a long talk after this," Mandy said bluntly as she handed Junior to Pain, "Get him back and away from this thing or it might try to reclaim him," She ordered, cocking her guns.
Elsewhere
The Redeemer and Minnie continued their vertical flight to the gates of heaven, unobstructed by anything. It was a bit slower than usual for the angel, but bringing a soul from all the way out of the underworld wasn't something that normally happened, so of course it took a bit longer than most heaven-bound journeys.
Minnie continued to sadly gaze downwards to the Underworld, what had always been her home and where all the family she ever had was. It was ironic, really; She was a demon being taken to paradise, but the fact that she would likely never see her loved ones again made her heart wrench.
The pearly gates were in sight now, in all their shimmering glory, "It won't be long now." the Redeemer murmured softly to himself, relaxing a bit now that they were so close to Heaven...
The angelic warrior screamed in pain as something zoomed up from behind them, slashing his right wing and ripping Minnie from his grasp. Minnie gasped as she suddenly found her arms in the grasps of two strong talons...
Minnie had never seen a creature quite like this, looking to be just over three feet tall. Its wings were like a crow's, black and feathered, but its body was covered in greasy black fur while its head was round and its neck was at least a foot long. The talons were more like a bat's than a bird's, and each had two claws in the back to accompany the three in the front. There was no feathered tail; instead, four long and featherless appendages that were almost as thin as a finger extended behind it. On each tail was a glowing pale-yellow tip. The long and boney wings remained outstretch, slowly and silently flapping, and every feather seemed to be unnaturally stiff. Lastly, it had no visible ears, nose, or eyes on its fur-covered head. Its mouth, though, was a whole other story. It was grinning wide, from one side of the head to the other, showing off its white teeth. Half of the fangs were razor sharp while every other one was flat; giving off a potentially more frightening sight than if the teeth were all sharp.
The creature suddenly craned its neck downward to Minnie, as if it could see her. Its grin turned into a scowl, though that still looked like a grin to Minnie from her vantage point, "Heeeello, Sissy!" He greeted in a twisted, gleeful, and clearly male voice.
"Foul beast! Release the child now and return to the pits you came from or face my wrath!" The Redeemer called, drawing his holy sword and pointing it at the creature, which turned its head back up to 'face' the angel, its 'scowl' turning into a grin again.
The black beast cackled insanely, "Return to your own pit, your own pit, pit!" He retorted, "You shouldn't come up to the underworld. You're better off down here, down here, here!" He added, its grin widening even more as its long and thick tongue reached out to lick the entirety of his own head.
"Up? Down here?" Minnie repeated in confusion, 'The mind of this beast must be quite lost in insanity to so utterly confuse his perception of directions,' She thought, more than a bit fearful of this being.
"You, creature, have clearly lost all sense of sanity," The Redeemer commented solemnly as he readied his sword.
"So have you, have you, you! You stole this one from me, naughty angel, naughty!" The entity responded in kind before turning its gaze up to the pearly gates, "Yahweh! You can't have this one! Not this one, this one, one! She goes Home, goes Home, Home!" It called into the heavens.
"You would dare to challenge the might of Heaven?!" The Holy Soldier yelled at the blasphemy. In response, the eyeless beast gave a single and powerful flap of its wings, speeding forward in a blur. Before the Redeemer ever even moved, the creature was passing right by him and flicked him with the glowing tips of the four tails, sending him flying to the gates. He grunted and tried to move, but his body was held against the gate by some unseen force, almost crushingly so.
"What might!?" The creature asked mockingly before looking down at Minnie again, who had remained silent until now while struggling to get her arms free to no avail.
"Who...who art thee, Winged One?" Minnie asked cautiously.
The cackling almost sounded like a wheezing noise at that question, "Who am I? I ma ohW!" He retorted, laughing madly to his own answer, "Time to go home, Sissy..." He said as he angled himself downwards, narrowing his wings to soar down faster and faster, back to the underworld...
End of Chapter
Well, that's that. I hope you all enjoyed this piece while being a bit confused by what the hell just happened. Others have already put everything together and have a good idea who and what Rav is, the creature that was talking to Grim and took Minnie from the Redeemer.
Any way, yes, as you can all clearly tell, Rav is very much insane by our standards and is literalyl fearless. And he has a thing for Minnie, it seems. And Jack really doesn't like him from prior meetings.
Also, about Rav's speech partern, he has two quirks. The heavy rhyming won't come up too often, but what I call the Triple Repeat will be a common. Hope you all liked his character deisgn, by the way.
Not much else to discuss yet, so I'll put up the QTP. Most of these will be answered in chapter 2 or 3:
Who and what is Little Rav? Why was he invisible at first and why did he eat Minnie's corpse? Who was Grim talking to? Why couldn't Mandy hear Rav at all, and Jack only partly? Why is Rav so interested in Minnie? What is Grim hiding from his wife and why? Why does Rav keep saying Heaven is Down and the Underworld is Up? What did he do to the Redeemer? Does Junior know about Rav? What, if anything, did "I ma ohW!" mean? And what did Clockwork mean by "I learned my lesson last time" and "I'm too old not too."?