CHAPTER 12: REAPETTES

Within the ice caverns of the underworld, Medusa's cackles echoed through the chambers. She laughed, "Run; run; run; a run; you better run."

Over the frost covered floors, Toodles fluttered its angelic wings just out of the reaper's reach. The sickle smashed into the floor time after time from the reaper as it climbed after Toodles.

The reaper crept as quickly along the frost covered floor just as quickly as Toodles could fly. Its bony hands grasped the frozen floors as the reaper practically crawled on all fours to chase after the small angel. Its black cloak grew in proportion as it absorbed Toodle's light and covered everything behind it in a cloud of darkness.

Each time the sickle would slam down, the reaper would use it to climb further up to chase after the blinded angel.

Medusa was able to watch the chase through stone statues littered throughout the frozen caverns. Giant faces carved into the ice that had icicles for teeth and eerie hollowed out eyes.

Toodles flew higher, with the reaper closely following as the chase quickened. The small angel huffed and puffed exhausted as its light began to flicker.

Following the reaper were its reapettes that giggled and shrieked as they followed their mother. Clouds of smoke bellowed from each of them to maintain their flight and they even twirled around one another with joy of the hunt.

Medusa's voice hissed from the nearest icy face, "You better hide your bright face from the black gaze of my reaper."

Toodles huffed and puffed, "This isn't happening, this isn't happening. I'm having a nightmare right now, and any second I'm going to wake up." The angel looked behind it to see the dark cloak of the reaper that was faceless.

To the angel, it could only see the reaper as a blurry dark spot. Then when the angel's light flickered, it showed the grim face of the reaper in brief flashes, just before the sickle crashed into the wall next to the angel.

Toodles felt the breeze from the sickle muttered, "Oh that's right, angels don't have nightmares, because we don't sleep. That's a mortal thing." The angel flew upward as the reaper's bony hand tried to grab the angel's feet.

A child's voice bellowed, "Reaper!" The reaper remained clung to the icy wall with its sickle as a climbing tool as it turned over to its left and peered down the cavern.

Down below was a small flame flickering, but the reaper wasn't interested as it turned back and grabbed the wall again. In the glow of the small flame was Pit, and while the reaper wasn't interested, the reapettes were interested.

The small reapettes hurled themselves through the icy cavern and were hidden by the unseen darkness. Pit could see streams of smoke in the light of the flame. He knew they were around him and circling for the right moment.

Toodles squealed, "Oh Icarus! You came back for me!"

Icarus yelled out, "Didn't I find you and the reaper before? I'm thinking you two are hiding your love from me."

The reapettes continued to cross into the red glow of the flame that Pit carried with him. He had carried a flaming piece of wood with him from Zeus's eternal flames.

Toodles screamed out, "Oh I must have the blessing of Zeus to be saved!"

Pit yelled up to the angel, "Don't count on that blessing, Zeus isn't as nice as you think. He made me work to earn my bronze arrow, but he forgot one thing."

Toodles fluttered out of the reach of the reaper and yelled, "What's that?"

Medusa cackled with joy from a nearby face of ice that was carved out of misery. She hissed, "Father forgot to find him a bow!" With hearty laughter from Medusa, it was revealed that Pit was notably missing his bow, even if he had a pair of arrows in his quiver.

The boy held onto a flaming chunk of wood and readied it for the reapette's attack. The first reapette tore out of the darkness and into the read light headed for Pit's face.

A reflex made Pit duck to the side and club the tiny reapette to the ground where it tumbled across the frozen floor. The next reapette entered the light after Pit's back. He simply did a summersault and flipped end over end as the reapette flew over him.

When Pit rose from the floor he quickly smashed the reapette to the ground. The reapette winced and coughed as Pit looked for where the two others had gone.

There was a twinkling light far above his head that became blotted out with a shadow dark as the night sky. With a rush of might, Pit bolted from the area like one of his arrows. He leapt from platform to platform on his journey up.

His flaming log from the eternal fire lit his way. Pit could hear them giggling from the shadows before their smoky bodies streamed across the light.

The two remaining reapettes were smarter to stay away from Pit and his flaming log. Pit remained focused on the light at the end of the tunnel so to speak and continued climbing.

Eventually the two reapettes giggled amongst themselves from above Pit. In the darkness they cringed their body with smoky laughter. It was Medusa speaking to them telepathically and they were overjoyed that the goddess would speak with such meek elementals. The two reapettes cloaked in black were tickled pink.

They readied their ambush a few platforms up from Pit as he continued his climb. At the top was still a twinkle from Toodles before the midnight shadow that is the reaper made the light disappear once more.

Pit was undaunted, dodging falling icicles and rolling across frozen platforms to avoid other creatures like Commyloose. Each Commyloose that the boy avoided he either clubbed to the side with his flaming log afterward or their own momentum took them plummeting off of the icy platforms into the abyss below.

The reapettes giggled closer to Pit, so close that the boy was cautious of them. Pit stood next to an icy wall that gleamed red and yellow with the flame. From within the sheet of ice came the cold empty stare of both reapettes watching him.

One of the two dark nymphs clawed the ice as Pit looked to everywhere but the frozen wall. When Pit did bother to turn to the wall, the reapettes scattered further into the darkness of the chamber behind the wall of ice.

Pit felt the ice to discover, "It's melting." He looked up and saw that it was not just a wall, but a very long icicle. The entire section of chamber that he was in had walls of ice with water running down them.

The walls of ice were tall and Pit was in a hallway that he could either get to the end with an icy staircase or get shot out the other end that he had just come from.

He looked forward to the icy staircase and one reapette hovered down from above. It looked at him and giggled for a moment. Then it charged forward toward the boy with a trail of black smoke behind.

Pit readied his flaming log as if the reapette was a pitch straight for him. With his focus on that reapette, the other came from behind and magically latched onto the boy's head. His soul was being torn from his body in a struggle of black magic.

An image of Pit was being torn from his living body by the tiny reapette behind him. The boy turned around and swung at the reapette but missed.

The other reapette that had come hurtling down the hallway still approached and came to Pit with the same dark magic the other had. Pit's image was being sucked from his body by the other dark trickster.

There were giggles in the air as both reapettes took turns trying to pull Pit's soul from his body. One would yank Pit's image to the left and then the other would yank it to the right as if they were twin hair dressers.

Stuck in a hallway of icy walls there was no escape for Pit. He was weak and unable to swing the log. At some point he dropped the log all together.

Water trickled down the icy walls and streamed down the icy hallway where it poured off of the platform into the blackness below.

His life was being drained as the reapettes continued to steal his soul. Pit was weak and put his hand on one of the walls. That gesture attracted attention from everything behind the icy wall.

Behind the icy wall was a murky dark shadow that swam next to the boy's hand; followed by another murky shadow that went the other way. The black shadows streamed around Pit's hand, attracted by his presence.

Down on one knee and struggling to pick up his flaming log, the flame grew dim. On the other side of the icy wall, came a pounding sound, followed by another pound and another.

Three sounds that distracted Pit as the two reapettes swirled around his head crossing over one another and giggling. They were like birdies that someone sees when they are in a daze.

Medusa's cackled echoed through the underworld again as she said, "I should sing you a song Pit!" She then questioned herself, "A song? Nay! I am singing you a lullaby kid!"

Pit could not shake off a feeling of being sleepy, but then came the fourth pound from beyond the icy wall. The wall was covered with murky black shadows that all clung to the wall near Pit's hand.

"Hush little Pit," hissed Medusa, "Don't say a word. Just go to sleep. Now just count them two little black birds."

The boy crumbled to his back with the reapettes still circling him and draining his life force. Then came the fifth pound from beyond the icy wall; followed by a cracking sound that tore through the ears of everyone that could hear it.

Even the earless reapettes were distracted with the sound of the crack. It was followed by another crack and another, until there was a spider web of cracks in the icy wall.

When the sound of another pound came, the entire wall of ice shattered and sent a flood of freezing water onto Pit and his two antagonists. The reapettes screeched for help, but there was none to be offered, instead it was revenge of the Commyloose. Six of them had come through the water held up by the ice wall.

With Commyloose clutching onto the tiny caped bodies of each reapette, there was a struggle for underworld life. The reapettes struggled against tentacles to get free or steal the souls of the creepy creatures. It was a timed struggle though that was not won by either, because the flood of water washed down the hall and poured off the end of the platform with both reapettes disappearing into the abyss.

The water hit the other wall with such a force that it smashed through that wall as well! Commyloose were dumped off the side and Pit's young body was washed into a few remnants of the ice wall.

Blue tentacles tumbled over the side as they tried to grab the boy or anything else. It was a squid school that frantically tried to clutch anything it could. One of the Commyloose managed to hold onto an icy wall only to get hit by two more rushing Commyloose that shattered through the icy clutch.

Pit remained on his back as the flood subsided. Not every Commyloose went off the platform, there were a few that flopped around disoriented and confused.

With a cough, Pit rolled onto his side with his body wet and freezing. His eyes were heavy and he was going to sleep. Sleep enough to become a permanent part of the ice, just as the frozen Commyloose had been.

"That's it my boy, you count them sheep... err... squid," hissed Medusa as she smiled with the knowledge that Pit's death was immanent. Chunks of ice that were left standing began to reform into a cold jagged face with a hollow mouth and hollow eyes. This was Medusa's will manipulating the ice so that she could see.

"Now take precious life from that boy," said Medusa from the hollow mouth of the frozen jagged face.

Pit continued to lie on his side with his body turning blue with whips of black cloth flicking near him. The flicking pieces of black cloth soon revealed themselves to be the bottom of the reaper's cloak it slowly came to Pit's freezing body.