Disclaimer: I do not own Soul Eater

-Chapter Three-

Lyle Noah died of a heart attack that night. The following morning, Father Law found the poor boy sprawled out across the church floor. Holy relics littered the area around him, with the altar itself having fallen over from what the priest assumed was Lyle's desperate throws for help. No wounds appeared on his person. Nothing out of the ordinary at all about his body. With a heavy heart, it was announced a few hours later to the citizens of Loew that he had wandered into the church at night, looking for the sleeping Father's help, and died alone when it never came. Everyone was shocked at the news, and everyone of course mourned his passing a few days later during his funeral.

Maka Albarn, however, was the only one who didn't attend the ceremony.

She was the only one who knew the truth.

It nagged at her as she hunched over the assortment of books in front of her, the young woman having spent the entire day searching the library in which she worked for certain texts that would help her. Light was fading outside as Maka's neighbors filed out of their houses, all making their way towards the church in a grim, well thought out processional. The sounds of heavy feet echoed from the hole filled streets, but the librarian simply ignored them. Too much was on her mind to care about what others were doing. Especially if it involved Lyle Noah.

"I can't believe he lied to me." she hissed under her breath, bringing a book up towards the light of a candelabra above her.

Truth was, the stranger didn't actually lie to her. Rather, he simply weaseled his way out of his promise. Maka bitterly recalled the parting words he gave her after having finished his grisly work with Gopher, the way in which he said them still causing her chest to swell with anger. The creature having fallen to his scythe in one smooth stroke, Maka was left standing there in shock and awe. At the time there was no way for her to react, so after watching for a moment as the stranger approached and eventually walked by her, she couldn't protest as that sharp grin marred his otherwise attractive face.

"I'll tell you everything you want to know. But first you have to find me."

And just like that, he was gone. Out the double doors of the modest church, leaving her alone with the man who not even a few seconds before tried to eat her. For just a moment she panicked, thinking somehow that Gopher would awaken and continue on his rampage. But quickly she realized that somehow, Lyle had returned to his normal, despicable self. Only one key detail had changed of course; the absence of his soul, and hence his life. Knowing full well of course that she couldn't stay for long, Maka merely gave one bitter glance at the corpse on the ground. A moment later and she was on the outside, scrambling to make it home under cover of night in order to avoid any night owl's eyes.

Maka slammed the book she held in her hands to the floor, cursing it for not being the one she was looking for. It was the fifth time in two days that she could've sworn it was the right piece of literature, though in all honesty the woman didn't know exactly what she was trying to find. A tired heave escaped her as she leaned backwards against the bookshelf, legs falling asleep due to being crossed for so long.

"I know one of these has to help me." Maka grumbled, stretching her arms up in the air. "Every book in Loew is in this room, and I'm going to find it."

What she was looking for was any sort of information, any kind of map or clue as to where she could find him. The stranger. The Reaper. Whoever he was, Maka needed answers, and she wasn't going to lay down and accept the fact that he had walked out on her with not so much as a single explanation. Granted, Lyle Noah was a boar and brute that she gave little attention to, but that didn't mean she wanted him dead. And now that he was, Maka wasn't even sure if she should feel sorry for his passing. After all, all those thing's the stranger said...

Eating the souls of corpses? Isn't that what he accused him of? And what exactly was a Grigori? Maka was sure she had heard of one before, or maybe read it in a book at the very least. Still though, with the stranger not being there with her, any thoughts to herself would go unanswered until she found him. And by the looks of things, that time wouldn't come for quite a while.

Her lips pursed in annoyance. "When I get a hold of him, I'm gonna-"

The jingle of bells from the front door cut her off. She leaned her head into the aisle and looked towards the source of the noise, finding Mr. Sid standing near the front desk. He wore dark trousers, with a simple dress shirt covered by a black coat jacket. Obviously he was on his way to the funeral like everyone else. Or maybe he had just returned?...What time was it exactly?

"Ah, Maka. I was wondering where you were at." he said softly, probably thinking she was upset.

"Hi, Mr. Sid." she replied rather calmly, not quite sure if he was upset. "Sorry I couldn't make it to the funeral. Something came up, and I've been rather busy."

The man straightened himself a bit. "Everyone was asking for you. They all assumed your were grief stricken."

Maka shook her head. "I guess it just hasn't hit me yet."

Deep down she knew that it never would. Either that, or it had already come and gone. A slight amount of guilt pulled at her for not being affected by the death of another human being. The only thing was, she wasn't sure if Lyle was even human. Perhaps it all boiled down to uncertainty, or maybe the thought of finding the one man with answers to all her questions. No matter the answer however, it didn't stop the scene between Mr. Sid and Maka from growing slightly awkward. Neither knew quite what to say.

On a whim, the librarian gathered her books off the floor and stacked them in her arms. She then got up and walked back to the front desk, placing the batch of texts on the counter as she politely offered the shop keeper a seat. Without a word he took it, and Maka followed right after. The moment lasted only so long, and soon the atmosphere became strange again.

Mr. Sid shifted in his seat. "Who would've thought one so young could die of a heart attack?"

"He must not have eaten well." Maka replied rather quickly. For some reason, she found herself trying to cover up for that night.

"Well, it's not like anyone took care of him." the grocer seemed to sigh to himself. "I think we're all guilty of that."

A scowl registered in Maka's mind, but didn't make it to her lips. The only one who was guilty of anything was Lyle. She didn't know who the stranger was or what he was talking about, but she did know that he saved her, plain and simple. He was the only thing that stood between her and death, with Gopher being the reason he had to in the first place. There was no way she could sympathize with his passing, but then again, Mr. Sid would have no way of understanding why. Maka merely kept her thoughts to herself, and carried on absently with the conversation.

"You know..." Mr. Sid smiled, as if remembering a fond old memory. "...he had quite the crush on you, if I recall."

Maka shuddered at the thought, mouth agape in disgust. "Ugh! Please, that was years ago!"

"Oh come off it, Maka. He did till the day he died. Why else was he so mean to you?"

"Maybe because he had the brain of a five year old?" she replied rather bitterly.

Mr. Sid chuckled at her defensiveness. "Well, that certainly would have made sense. After all, you two used to be such good friends when you were younger."

Maka reeled. She had forgotten that tiny detail in the years since they'd grown apart. It wasn't just him she was friends with of course, there were others in town whom she had grown up with. But Loew was a tiny place, and everyone knew everyone during their youth. Lyle was no exception. From the time she was five till the day his grandparents died when she was twelve and he was nine, the two were inseparable. But with his guardians passing, the boy was sent to live with Father Law in the shack behind the church. After that, he became bitter and distant. One thing led to another, and by the time they were both teenagers, Maka and Lyle hated each other's guts. Or at least she did, what with Sid telling her something completely different.

"Yes, you two were quite the pair." Mr. Sid sighed, shaking his head at Lyle's wasted life.

Maka's scorn slowly resigned, leaving her feeling slightly ashamed. "Yeah, I suppose we were. A long time ago."

"All the games and stories you two would come up with!" the grocer snorted as he fell back against his chair.

"What kind of stories?" Maka asked, now showing interest in their conversation.

Sid leaned in his chair as he looked to the ceiling for answers. "Well, silly ones of course! Like the time you two broke Ms. Nygus' potted plants and blamed it on the Reaper! You said that he flew out of the sky, swooped down with a slingshot, broke them, then threw it in Lyle's hands and disappeared! She would've hit you if she wasn't laughing so hard!"

A rarely seen grin found its way on Maka's face, the girl smiling at the joy she saw in Mr. Sid's eyes as he talked about their childhood. He continued on with his conversation, telling her tales of her and Lyle's antics, mostly involving getting themselves into trouble with the older residents in town. Like the time she brought a kitty with a white stripe down its back inside the grocery store, only to find out the hard way that it was actually a skunk. And the time that Lyle told his grandparents he was playing doctor with the neighborhood girls, earning him a smack across the face when in actuality, he really was just playing doctor. Sid's tales seemed to go on forever, but Maka didn't mind. They were memories she'd long since forgotten, and now that she was rediscovering them, she didn't want it to end.

But even as she listened intently, the young woman couldn't help but to notice something. As Sid went on with his stories, she found that at least half of them involved the Reaper in one form or another. That in itself wasn't unusual of course, because all children fooled with the concept of the Reaper, but what struck her was the feeling that she should know all of this. Like in the back of her mind, there was something important she was missing from her past as Sid recalled it. Almost as if every time he said Reaper, a picture kept entering her mind, but it was just barely too foggy to see.

"Mr. Sid?" Maka interjected for a moment, hushing the man's recollection immediately. "Do you know where we got all those stories from?"

He turned and looked at her queerly. "I would assume from your imaginations of course. You had plenty of it at the time."

"But was there ever anything that encouraged us? Like a poem or something? she asked eagerly, with what she wanted to say being on the tip of her tongue.

"You mean the rhyme?" he replied in bewilderment.

"No, not the rhyme! Something else like that?"

"Can't say that I remember, Maka."

The librarian sunk back in her seat, cursing under her breath yet again for not finding what she was looking for. It was already dark outside, and if she didn't any sleep that night, she'd never have enough strength to continue looking for books. But the futility of it all started to weigh in on her; there was little she could do at this point. Almost every book in her library had been checked, and none of them had the slightest bit of information that could help her. For a moment, she actually contemplated giving up and cutting her losses. The minute she did however, a sudden gasp out of Sid shook her attention back to him.

He stroked his chin as if trying hard to recollect. "Now that you mention it, you did carry around a book when you were really little."

Maka's heart skipped at least three beats. "Really? Do you know what it was called?"

"It didn't have a name, if I remember correctly." Sid scrunched his eyes, focusing on empty space. "It was real plain too, with only an author on the front."

"What was the author's name?" she asked, almost hushed in her tone.

A single word came made it through his lips. "Eibon."

Suddenly, that clouded picture in Maka's head became all too clear. A name she hadn't heard in years was now rushing through her senses, jogging a single memory that sent shivers down her spine. The young woman couldn't help but to jump up from her seat, causing Sid to nearly fall back in his own. In her mind, she smacked herself for not realizing it sooner. Out of all the books in Loew, the one that could've helped her all along was tucked away in the most secluded of places. And she knew exactly where it was.

"Maka!" Mr. Sid yelped, surprised by her sudden outburst. "What the hell's gotten into-?"

"-I can't talk now, sir!"

There was so little time for the grocer to respond to her before she ran past him. In a clamor he threw himself around, catching only Maka's back as she flung open the door to her library and rushed outside into the pitch-dark night. For the second time in three days, the man was left alone and speechless as his young friend left him all by himself, wondering where exactly she had to be in such a hurry.

Maka had no time for pondering, however. She was too focused on avoiding potholes as she ran across the antiquated streets of her tiny town, the entire time keeping the location of Eibon's book at the forefront of her mind. Despite not having seen it in years, Maka knew exactly where to find it. Her heart raced in excitement as she rounded the corner of her street, merely steps away from the modest home in which she lived. The image of the stranger's face crossed her mind as she made her way to the front door, unlocking it in a hurry as she swung it open.

By the light of a single lantern that she had left lit for when she was to arrive home, Maka scrambled towards the closet door at the opposite end of the hallway. She caused a ruckus as her feet slammed against the hard wooden floors, but she paid no mind to it. Instead, she focused all of her attention at the contents of the closet as she opened the door. A small chest in the corner caught her eye, and immediately she took it in her arms and placed it on the floor in front of her. A lock was on it, but by the looks of things it hadn't been used in ages.

"All this time, I've been looking in the wrong place!" she gasped, sucking in air out of work and excitement.

With no need for a key, the young woman lifted open the lid of the chest and gazed at the contents inside. Not much lay inside of it. A pair of scrunchies for the pig-tails she used to wear in her youth, and a lone picture of her parents when they were still together before she turned eighteen. Some poems she had written after reading her first true novel, with a few books in the very bottom of the chest. Everything in there had once meant a great deal to her, but with age came ignorance, and soon all those once important things in her life had disappeared.

But, for the moment, Maka's true intentions laid with the books on the bottom of the chest. She carefully sifted through the assortment of memories and pulled out a few small bindings. There was a poetry book and a children's story among the bunch, but what caught her attention was the one without a title. The only writing in front was placed directly in the center of the cover. 'Eibon,' was all it said.

Maka tossed the cover open to reveal simple words and large text inside. "I've got your book now, Reaper."

She thumbed through the pages. It was full of old wive's tales, all of them involving the evil eyed man from the stories. In her youth, she and Lyle would read through the kid-friendly information in the book and play around with concepts, though it was all just harmless fun. But as Maka continued flipping through pages and noticed one particular tale that peaked her interest, the young woman began to wonder if it really was all harmless.

"...in order to enter the the House of Death," she read aloud, unable to contain her enthusiasm. "Write the code, and say it under your breath."

For a moment, she scanned deeply into the text. Letting up only to blink, the full set of instructions soon became ingrained in every fiber of her being. Emotions swelled within her as she immediately closed the book and placed it gently back in the chest. Taking a deep breath, Maka knew full well what she was about to do. Every possible scenario ran through her mind as to what could happen, but no matter the outcome, the woman knew that there was no going back. She straightened herself and, with solid fists by her side, made her way to he mirror centered in the hallway.

After having read the full text of the page, Maka knew exactly what to do. She sucked in air and blew it hoarsely into the glass, causing fog to wipe across every possible square inch of it. Before it had time to dissipate, she took her finger and drew in little figures into the smudged mirror. Incoherent at first, they soon came to focus as the last lines were drawn. Three numbers that could barely fit in that tiny pane of glass, but she had made it work somehow. 42-42-564.

"-Whenever you want to knock on Death's door." Maka whispered.

At first, nothing. Sounds were nonexistent. Shadows were the only thing that moved anywhere in her house. A minute passed, and soon Maka was beginning to wonder if she had done something wrong. Perhaps the mirror was too small? Or maybe it really was just a wive's tale-?

A knocking at her door, however, interrupted her thoughts.

She couldn't have spun around faster.

Despite the obvious emotion of dread she should have been feeling, Maka was experiencing the exact opposite. For too long she had been wasting time searching for the Reaper, and now, finally, he was within her grasp. The young woman wasn't about to let him go, and instead seized the opportunity with confidence in her heart. Without missing a beat, she walked up to the door and immediately flung it open with wild eyes. It was time to let him have it. To let him know that she was angry at him for disappearing the way he did. Anger fueled her actions. Passion fueled her heart.

That is, until she caught sight of him. The thought of the man she had sought after for days. The bitterness she had felt towards him for leaving her by herself. All the confusion surrounding Noah's death. It all evaporated from her the moment she saw him. Red eyes she remembered so vividly stared back at her, with a sharpened grin cut deeply into his face. His clothes remained the same as the day she'd met him. One thing, however, was different. His cloak was gone, revealing empty colored hair sticking out from every angle.

His response to her wide eyes was almost predictable. "Mind if I come in?"

With a heavy heart, Maka found that words couldn't escape past her lips. Nor could she move from her spot. The only thing that did shift were her eyes as they focused on his moonlit locks, and even then they seemed frozen in place. The stranger noticed immediately and gave a deep chuckle, putting his hand on her shoulder as he walked right by her and into the tiny home. She couldn't stop him, and very quickly Maka realized that the tables had turned. The only thing she could do was clutch the doorknob and mutter aloud another verse of the rhyme that had plagued her mind all week.

"Beware the man whose hair is white..." Maka said painfully, letting go of the handle as a gust of wind picked up outside.

The air caught the door, sending it creaking to a close in front of her.

A.N.

It's four o'clock in the morning. 'Nuff said.

The chapter itself is longer than I thought it'd be, but it worked out in the end I think.

In a slightly interesting twist, I conceived the ending of this chapter at exactly 3:33. Anyone else getting chills? If so, then I've done my job for the next four days!