Trigger warnings: MASSIVE TRIGGER WARNING FOR CHILD ABUSE/BODY HORROR. Starting after the line where everything turns into italics, there are three scenes concerning child abduction and chemically burning a child. Before that, There are threats of sexual assault/trafficking, and threats to sexually assault and kill a teenager.
Chapter 14: That Reaper, Repressing
William's POV
I was filling out paperwork and filing away the files of of the students that had passed their exams. Everyone had passed, save for Mara at that moment, due to her allegedly deathly circumstances. If she could prove to me that she was alive, then I suppose I could have considered allowing her to pass or retake it. Erican would have managed to become top of the class due to this, if it weren't for the fact that Adrianne Crevan's apprenticeship at the Grim Reaper Medical Hospital had earned her enough extra credit to surpass him.
I was finally ready to clock out when someone burst through the door in a blur of two-toned urgency.
Ronald.
"Honestly, Ronald Knox, what is so urgent that you couldn't knock first?" I asked.
"Grell is in serious trouble!" he shouted. I couldn't keep the shock out of my voice.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"I was making my way back to the office after overtime when I passed the old rehab building. I saw someone take her in there while she was unconscious and tied up." he explained, still out of breath.
"Well, why didn't you do anything?"
"It was Ellis Jennan, and he's a legend, boss! How was I supposed to fight someone who's legend status is based on killing the most demons in the past month with a lawnmower?" he held up his death scythe for emphasis.
"How do I collect souls with garden shears? I pierce through them from a distance, while you have to face them head on, and you didn't."
"You don't think I wanted to save my best friend? You don't think I saw her in danger and wanted to kill that guy who did it?" he snapped. "I would have, but it wasn't just her. He had his son with him, and he had another hostage; a child. She was a girl that looked about fifteen. Poor girl, she probably stayed too long after the reaper exams."
"You don't know who the girl was?"
"All I remember is that she had long blonde hair, but I do know that it was Ellis and his son who took them to that old reform hospital." he explained.
I adjusted my glasses.
"I had a feeling his son was up to something deeper than it seemed, but not something like this." I said. "Excuse me. There is something I must do."
"Yes, sir." He was out the door momentarily. I grabbed my scythe and I was fully prepared and ready to go to that reaper's hell on earth to remove that horrible reaper, the terror he had caused, and to stop the idiot Sutcliff from getting killed by scum again, when my office telephone started ringing.
"This is William T. Spears, Supervisor of the London Grim Reaper Dispatch. Can I help you?" I asked to whoever was on the other end.
A smooth, polished voice answered, "You can say that, yes."
I instantly recognized the voice. It was that of the root of this problem that I planned to soon terminate, Ellis Jennan.
"I will never come to the aid of noxious villains like you, Jennan." I said coldly.
"You know what I have done, I suppose?" Ellis asked "Normally, I am met with praise when recognized."
"Praise for kidnapping? For bringing a reaper to that Hell on Earth against their will? You have not violated our rules as a dispatch, but you are a villain, a danger to society, and I will soon arrive to end that danger." I swore.
"We'll, see about that, Spears."
"And why is that?"
"Tell me, who told you what happened?" he asked.
"A subordinate." I said, not being specific enough for Ellis to know it was Knox. The man had kidnapped one of my subordinates, as well as a young girl, and he had a history filled with killing and revenge. There was no telling what he might've done to him.
There was a beat of silence, before I heard a low, dark and twisted laugh.
"Well, this subordinate knows how not to get caught. The little witness I have might learn a thing or two from him."
"Yes, I was told there was a teenage girl that you abducted as well." I said, matter of factly.
"Yes, a pretty little blonde one. She's about fifteen years old and as thin as a twig, but I suppose she's old enough." he laughed.
I started to feel sick at his perverse, vile comments, and I sat down at my desk. I couldn't help but start bouncing my leg as I felt my heart start to get heavier. A chill ran down my being.
"Considering what you think about women and young girls, she isn't "old enough" for anything you mean to imply at fifteen years old. She shouldn't even be anywhere near you at any year in her life."
"It's long been too late for that, Spears. I remember that she could have gotten away if she didn't intervene and start crying. I asked her name and once she stopped sobbing, I could hear her say her name was Elizabeth, Angelina, or Angela-"
"Amelia?" I said, finishing the sentence. I took a shaky breath and hoped that wasn't true. "Is her name Amelia?"
"That's it, exactly!" Ellis exclaimed in an almost congratulatory way, like I got a question right on a quiz competition show.
Oh, dear lord…
"You obviously know a lot about her. Do you know her?" Ellis asked.
"No. I only said her name." I answered. I tried to remain composed, keeping my voice level and authoritative over the phone.
"Oh, I see. I thought that maybe if you knew her, we could get somewhere." he sighed on the other end. "If you really don't know her, then maybe I can just get a heavy price for her body, or maybe I'll just keep her and have my own way with her. How does that sound?" His voice sounded relaxed when he said the last sentence, as if it were just a simple question and not as if he was threatening to sell off Amelia or do horribly disgusting things to her.
"No! Shut up, you… you devil!" I shouted through gritted teeth, slamming my hand on the desk and widening my eyes.
"And why are you so against it? Why are you so concerned over some girl you don't know?" he asked.
"Because I do know her, and even if I didn't, that doesn't mean I'd let you do something like that to her. No one deserves to suffer because of you." I said.
"How do you know her, exactly?" he asked. "If you don't tell me, I'll think there's no reason for this girl to matter to me, and that won't work out so well for her. So, if you care at all about her, you'll tell me how you know her, now."
I sighed and closed my eyes, admitting the information that he had asked and threatened me into giving up.
"She's my daughter."
There was a pause.
"I knew it, but I just wanted to hear the fear in your voice when you had to admit I had your little girl." he laughed.
"You took Amelia and then immediately called me about her." I recalled shakily. "How did you even know she's my daughter?"
"Unimportant. What should be more important to you is keeping your little girl unharmed. Now, listen very carefully to what I am about to say: Forget what you planned about going anywhere near this place. You will stay away and refrain from interfering, or your little princess will pay the price with her body and her life. If you send anyone else here, I'll send you one picture of myself violating her for every person you send, as well as I'll send a piece of her clothing. Mara Sutcliff and her father, Sebastian Michaelis, are the only other people hearing about this, and for your daughter's sake, make sure you keep it that way." he ordered.
"How can I guarantee that you'll let her go after this, and that you won't kill her anyway or keep her for yourself?" I asked.
"You can't," he answered, "But I can guarantee that if you interfere, I'll use her, and I'll make sure you see how much she suffered before she died, but if you don't, I might just decide to let her go tonight. Her chances of survival will be far greater if you obey."
I took a deep breath, giving the best answer I could without putting Amelia in even more danger.
"Understood."
"If I decide to let her go, I will give you the address of where to find your daughter. Do not come before then."
The line went silent, and I slammed the phone on my desk before removing my glasses. I put my hand across my eyes and tried to block out my emotions, like I was always able to do before. Bringing emotions into a job was a waste of time, but my job was my life, so I never knew how to stop blocking out my emotions. Moreover, if I encountered the rarity of getting overly emotional over something, it took all of my energy to try to repress it again.
"It's a waste of time...a waste of time…turn it off, damn it!" I chanted to myself.
I remembered earlier that day in the hall. Amelia probably thought I told her to wait for her parents because I had no longer remembered or cared about her, as I could see by the look on her face; the look of someone whose heart had completely shattered.
That wasn't the case.
I told her that because I needed her to let go of the possibility that I could ever be her father again, one way or another. I couldn't put her in danger by taking her back in that moment. There would've been horrible people that would try to use her against me, just like what was happening now, and just like what had happened that made me decide to give her to an orphanage in the first place. In my life, both human and reaper, days had usually gone by in mundane, forgettable blurs, but that day was forever etched in my mind.
Amelia was only seven years old. I was only late to pick her up from school by a few minutes, but only a few minutes was all that it took to lose her, because she wasn't there when I got there. There was no sight of her on the playground, covered with a thin layer of snow surrounded by little boot prints, among the other students that were waiting for their parents, nor was she even hiding in the jungle gyms or by the doors of the school to avoid the other students. She was so shy like that, and it had always worried me.
Perhaps if she were with someone else, she would have still been there; she would have still been safe.
When I went into the classroom, having not seen her anywhere, I saw that she wasn't there either, but her blue backpack and pink winter coat were gone too. I asked her teacher, Ms. Fields, where she was.
"She was already picked up."
My blood dropped to freezing temperatures.
"...Excuse me?"
"Amelia Spears was already picked up by a family friend about fifteen minutes ago. Or, at least, that's what he said he was."
"Who said that?"
The teacher went on to describe one of my coworkers, Daniel Davidson. He had constantly tried to pressure me into shortening his time as a reaper, even when I had constantly refused. I had no authority for that, but he didn't understand. Now, I understood. This was his sick, desperate attempt to get what he wanted.
I contacted him on my work phone. There were three dial tones until I heard a voice.
"You were a little late picking up your little girl, weren't you, sir? Well, I guess that's what happens when you're stuck with work." Daniel said.
"It was traffic. You are a monster worse than a noxious devil if you use a child, my child, to get what you want." I growled, my knuckles turning white as I held on to the phone. "Let me tell you this; if even one hair is out of place on Amelia's head, yours will end up on the blade of my death scythe!"
"Don't worry, Spears, her hairs are all in place. She's just a bit scared, but she's been saying that her Daddy is going to get her. Who would you be to let her down?" he asked, knowing that I knew I would be a murderer of my own daughter.
"Come to the abandoned youth academy building in one hour so we can negotiate. I'm sure your little princess will be very happy to see you."
I promised that I would be there, swallowing my pride to ask Daniel if I could talk to Amelia for a minute. He said that he was going to put her on the phone in just a moment. A moment passed.
"Daddy?"
My cold rage melted. Her voice was still soft and innocent, despite her circumstances.
"Yes, sweetheart. It's me. Daddy's right here." I said as calmly as I could to her.
"I'm sorry, Daddy. I'm really, really sorry." she sounded like she was about to cry.
"Sweetheart, what are you sorry for? You did nothing wrong." I asked.
"Y-you said don't talk to strangers, b-but they said they knew you and that you were busy. T-they said they were gonna take me to y-you, but they t-took me here, a-and they w-won't let me leave! They s-said I had to wait for you t-to come here. Y-you're gonna be here, right, Daddy?" she said with a sniffle. I could tell that she was crying.
My heart broke. Daniel tried one of the oldest, most effective tricks to lure away a child in the book, and Amelia thought she was at fault. She sounded like she was almost as terrified of me being disappointed in her as she was of her obvious circumstances.
"Don't worry. I'm not mad at you, Amelia."
I almost said that they would have taken her even if she said no, but I couldn't scare her even more.
"Please, don't cry, it's going to be okay. I'll be right there, okay?"
Amelia sniffled.
"Okay… Daddy?"
"Yes?"
"These people aren't very nice. I'm really scared."
I felt a thickness in my throat at hearing how afraid Amelia was.
"Don't worry, Amelia. I'll be there soon, I promise. I love you very much, okay?"
"I love you too, Daddy."
The call ended.
I arrived at the building in one hour, as promised. Two people stood by me to make sure I didn't try anything, and a few meters away from me, the leader of the group, Daniel Davidson, kept hold of my daughter, who was unharmed for the time being, but she didn't say anything, or even try to move, she was so terrified. All she could do was watch me as I was led in, terror inscribed in her small, thin frame. The amount of fear she was bearing was something I would never forget.
There were many things about that day I wouldn't forget.
"We've been working in this hell for longer than our human lives, Spears. We deserve to pass on, don't you think?" Daniel said.
"Using a hostage, especially a child, contradicts that." I said. The man reached over and grabbed a fistful of her platinum blonde hair and yanked her head up, causing her to cry out. I thought that I couldn't hate him any more than I already did, but I was wrong.
"Leave my daughter alone, or I swear, you'll wish you were just left to keep working forever."
"All you need to do is let us through early, and your little princess will be fine." he said.
"I'm not the one that decides that." I said matter of factly. On the inside, I was terrified of what he would do to Amelia.
"...What?" he asked.
"On high decides when we are forgiven. If I could decide, I would have already been gone from here a long time ago." I said.
There was a pause until he told the two people next to me, "Hold him back."
I immediately tried to lunge forward, but the two men at either side of me followed his order and grabbed my arms. The gloved leader brought out a bottle and soaked a rag with it.
"What the hell are you doing?" I shouted, struggling to break free. The men twisted my arms, and I gritted my teeth.
Daniel put the bottle back in his pocket before he pulled Amelia close to him and pinned her arms to her sides by wrapping his arm around her waist, easily lifting the little girl.
"Put me down! Let me go! Daddy, help me!" Amelia begged.
"This is your last fucking chance, Spears!"
"I CAN'T!"
"Then I'm teaching you to waste my fucking time!" he yelled, holding the rag next to Amelia's face.
"No! Stop it! Please!"
He clamped the cloth over Amelia's right eye, covering almost half her face. The hissing noise the doused cloth made when it came in contact with her face made me realize what it was.
Acid.
Amelia screamed in pain before immediately bursting into tears. Her shrill screaming in pain and fear drilled into my ears. It sounded like she was trying to scream words like "No" and "stop", but she couldn't stop screaming, so it was just like she just tried to form words around her shrill crying. Not that it would have mattered; Daniel would only listen to her cries to stop for his own gratification. She tried to jerk her head away, but the man wouldn't remove his hand, nor did he let her break away from him. She tried kicking and squirming away, only for Daniel to scream at her to stop struggling. She was in too much pain to listen, and she probably couldn't even hear him over how much she was screaming. All Daniel did was hold her tighter.
When I heard my Amelia screaming and crying as she endured what no one, especially such a sweet, innocent girl, should have to go through, I went over the edge. I cursed and struggled against those bastards with every bit of strength I had, screaming at the top of my lungs.
"STOP! THAT'S MY SEVEN YEAR OLD DAUGHTER, YOU SICK FUCK!" I screamed.
"DADDY! IT HURTS! MAKE IT STOP! HELP ME!" Amelia sobbed, screaming her lungs out.
It was in this moment that I realized I had tears rolling down my face, not even registering that I was crying before. All I felt in me was rage. I had been shouting and cursing, but hearing her cry out for me made freeze up, and I realized that I wouldn't be able to get to her, or even move my arms to bring out my scythe. Every time I tried, the men holding my arms would just twist them further. They were on the verge of breaking at this point.
I started crying, and the only sound I could let out was just one, desperate scream of anger before I hung my head and sobbed. I stopped even trying to stand, and the men pushed me to my knees. I could still hear Daniel's sick, psychotic laugh over Amelia's crying.
This is when one of the men next to me spoke up.
"This is wrong. You said we wouldn't be hurtin' any children, boss."
"Well, I lied. We've been striving for this opportunity, and you swore to get out of this purgatory by any means necessary." Daniel reaffirmed.
The other man next to me spoke up.
"Yeah, but you burned that little girl's face when you realized it wasn't possible. That isn't part of the plan, and we ain't along with this." he said.
"So? What exactly do you plan to do about it?" he asked, tightening his grip around Amelia as he squeezed the air out of her lungs.
The two men let go of me.
Not a second later, I pulled out my scythe and extended it far enough to slice into Daniel's hand that was still clamped on Amelia's face as she sobbed. He shouted and clutched his hand, letting go of her. In the moments of his hesitation, I gripped the head of my scythe around his throat and threw him into the nearby wall like a ragdoll, where he fell and remained motionless, but still breathing. I made sure not to kill him yet, for I wanted to wait until I could take all the time that I wanted. I wanted his death not to be quick, but to be an agonizing payment for what he had done.
When I saw Amelia, who had dropped on her knees and was crying even harder now because her face was exposed to the air, I knew that man wasn't my priority.
I ran to her and knelt down to her level.
"I'm sorry, Amelia. I'm so, so sorry." I said, softening my voice as I tried to console her by smoothing her hair. She was still looking down with her hands covering her face, but I needed to see the damage that had been done.
"Can you let Daddy look at your face?" I asked as calmly as possible. I had to be strong for her so she felt safe, because it wouldn't do for her to see me half as upset as her.
"Don't touch it! It's gonna hurt!" she begged.
"Shhh, it's okay. I won't touch it. I just want to look." I promised, gently taking hold of her small hands.
She lifted her head to look at me. I couldn't stand what I saw.
The right side of her face, just above her upper lip, was horrifically eaten away by the acid to the point where her pale, soft skin - or rather, where it was - had become a deep, destructing red, as if her skin was peeled off. In some spots, the facial tissue was still bubbling. In some other spots, the acid had already bore through the tissue, and I could see her skull. Her eyelid was already burned away, exposing her eye, which was whited over and bloodshot.
This sight on it's own was not the most painful part for me, though.
The most painful part of all of this was when I looked beyond her unsightly, horrifying burn, I saw the rest of my daughter's face, and I saw a terrified little girl who was crying because of the sheer pain she was going through. Most young children start crying after skinning their knee because they are so sensitive to pain, so for her to feel that agony must have been unimaginable. To make it worse, I realized that she couldn't have understood why this was happening; why those men had abducted her, why they were so awful to her, or why the leader kept that cloth on her face, even when she begged for him to stop.
I wrapped my arms around Amelia and held her in a tight embrace, never wanting to let her go again. I still kept smoothing her hair as I heard her sobbing against my ear.
"It hurts so bad, Daddy." she wailed.
"I know, Sweetheart, I know. Everything's going to be fine. We're going to the hospital, and they'll make you all better, okay?" I said, keeping my voice steady. Even though I was quite uncertain about that, I couldn't let her know. I had to make her believe that it was all going to be okay. I didn't want her to be scared anymore.
"Okay."
The authorities arrived not long after, since one of the men that betrayed their leader had called the emergency hotline, even though they knew they would be apprehended for their crimes. The police rounded up the criminals, and I made sure that Amelia never had to look at Daniel. I heard that, because of his crimes, he was to be sent to live again as a human, since he hated being a grim reaper so much that he would do what he had done. The higher ups would find someone who had died in that moment and replace their soul and memory with his soul, but he would have no memory of his past life, both human and reaper. They would be locked away unless Daniel somehow became a reaper again.
I heard his screams and protests, but they only reminded me of what had happened minutes before, when he made the same screams and protests come from my daughter and myself.
"I'll come back and I'll kill you and that little brat!" he screamed before he was sent away. I only held Amelia closer.
"He didn't mean it, right? He isn't coming back, right?" she asked. Of course he meant it, but I wasn't going to let her worry about that.
"Amelia, listen to me; that man is never going to hurt you again." I promised.
"Okay."
Amelia and I were driven to the hospital in an ambulance. I held her the entire way there, and inside the hospital until the doctor took my little girl from my arms and told me to wait outside in the lobby until the burn was treated.
After hours of what felt like forever, Dr. Crevan, more commonly referred to as Dr. Undertaker, started to walk me down the hall to Amelia's room. The man was usually cheerful and laughing, even to a point of being a little creepy, but he had an expression only of sorrow. This made me feel even worse, even when I thought it was impossible at this point.
"I did all I could, an' I was able to flush away the acid an' treat the burned area, but I'm afraid the burn was deep enough that your daughter's face will be badly scarred an' deformed on her right side for the rest of 'er life. She'll likely need several surgeries throughout her life, but 'er former appearance will never be truly recovered." he said grimly, before his voice started to break.
"What about her eye? Her eyelid was completely burned off, and her eye was almost completely white when I got to her." I asked. I saw a tear run down his face, past the silver bangs that covered his eyes.
"The acid did severe damage t' 'er pupil and retinas that's beyond repair."
"Beyond repair? But… but you're a legend! Surely you can-"
"I tried everythin' I could, Mr. Spears, but ev'n a legend can only do so much. I'm sorry, sir, She's permanently blind 'n her right eye." he said.
At first, I stopped feeling anything for an instant. Then, I felt the guilt crash onto me as I knew the consequences of my failures. She was kidnapped because I hadn't picked her up in time, and moreover, she was burned and half-blind because she was my daughter, and hurting her would hurt me. I was interrupted from my thoughts as we stopped at a door.
"She's right in 'ere, sir. She should be wakin' up in a few minutes." Dr. Undertaker said, before explaining the other treatments that should be used on her burn.
"Thank you for everything." I said to the doctor. He nodded.
"One more thing."
"Yes?" I asked. He turned and faced me before he swept his bangs from his face to look me in the eye.
"I 'ave a daughter, myself, y' know. She's seven years old an' the most important thing in the world t' me. I dunno what I would do t' myself if she got hurt like this." he explained.
"Why are you telling me this?" I asked.
"Because I want ya to know that I know jus' as much as you about the protectiveness of a father to his child." I said. "I advise you to take measures that will prevent somethin' like this from happenin' again."
I nodded.
"I will."
I walked into Amelia's hospital room, where she lied sleeping. Her tiny, frail body took up a heartbreaking, small amount of space on the bed. After all, hospital beds weren't made for little girls, because little girls shouldn't ever need to be in hospital beds. The fluorescent, pale lighting shined on her pale face, or at least the half that wasn't covered by bandages.
I sat at her bedside, on the side opposite her wound. I held her hand and kept my gaze downward.
If I could have been there sooner…
If I could have done something…
"Daddy?"
I snapped out of it and looked at Amelia, adjusting my glasses.
"Amelia, you're awake." I said.
"Where are you? I can't see you." she asked with her head facing the ceiling. She sounded so exhausted and drained.
"Turn your head over here." I told her. She turned her head.
"There you go."
When she saw me, her hazy eye looked as if she was about to burst into tears again.
"That was really scary, Daddy." she nearly cried. Of course, "really scary" was the easiest way for a child to explain their fear.
"I know, Sweetheart, but it's over now. It's okay." I lied.
"Why were they so mean?"
I couldn't answer straight away. How could I tell her that it was because I couldn't do what they wanted, or because she was my daughter?
"I don't know, Sweetheart. Sometimes there are just-" I choked back a sob. "Really really bad people in this world, and people can do really, really bad things."
"Daddy?"
"Yes, Amelia?"
"Why are you crying?"
I wiped under my eyes and saw that there were tears. I held Amelia close and felt tears fall from my eyes, not saying anything.
"Daddy?"
A part of me died when I gave Amelia to an orphanage the next day, but a part of me was already dead when I saw what happened to her. She needed to be safe, and if that meant I would never see or hear from her again, so be it.
"Daddy, where are we going?" she asked while we were in the car. There was a pang in my chest that kept me from answering truthfully.
"It's a surprise, Amelia."
"Is that why we packed my stuff in this?" she said, patting the suitcase in the seat next to her in the back seat.
"Yes. It's very important that you have what you need coming here." I told her.
"Okay."
As the building came into my line of sight, my hands began to shake as the pit in my stomach grew with every turn of the steering wheel.
"I could turn back now and go back home." I thought. "I could at least think things over more. Her birthday is next week, so I could at least-"
I looked at Amelia through the front mirror. Before, she would always tell me what obscure, imaginative things the clouds looked like, or told me about the buildings passing by, but she just stared blankly out the window through her eye that wasn't bandaged up. What she had gone through had already burned away her innocence and her happiness, and when it came down to it, I couldn't bear to look at her and be reminded of it every day, let alone be her father when that alone was the motive for doing it.
I shook my head.
"We're here."
She was already hurt enough because of her association with me, so I thought that it would be best if there was no association with me.
But it wasn't.
Ellis found out. I don't know how, but he found out, and now she was being used as a hostage so I wouldn't interfere. I couldn't imagine what had already happened to her. Well, I could actually think of a lot of things that Ellis would do to her, but I couldn't think about it for too long before I broke down, and that's what happened.
"I'm sorry, Amelia. I can't save you…"