HOLY CRAP, MANDY'S ADDICTION GOT ITS TENTH REVIEW! I am now content. Thank you, grimandmandy4ever. Wait a second…GRIM AND MANDY! WHAT THE HELL! Oh well, I forgive you. Thanks again.
Time to get back to this story. I hope you enjoy the latest chapter.
A Grim Apprenticeship
Chapter 8: Divine Intervention
The omnipotent silence around Endsville was shattered by a large, green explosion that left a scorched crater in the middle of the neighborhood. Dark figures with indeterminable features were visible through the smoke that surrounded the site of the explosion.
As the smog lifted the figures took the form of Cerberus, Hoss, a small grouping of demons, and the contending reapers.
"Well, here we are." Mandy said lowly. She had been away from Endsville for less than a week, but it looked foreign to her after living in the Underworld.
Grim almost fell backwards when he saw Cerberus standing over him with drool dripping from his massive jaws, "Hey, what is Cerberus doing-SWEET JESUS, WHAT IS THAT THING ON HIS BACK?" He screamed as he pointed to the machine strapped to the canine's back.
"I'm glad you noticed it." Mandy said darkly, finally able to reveal her invention to Grim. "It's my innovative creation that can automatically suck souls out of their bodies."
Her eyes widened when she looked back at Cerberus, who was relieving himself on a convertible, which burst into flames on contact.
Grim looked at the soul machine with fascination as he carefully stepped towards it, "A machine that can extract souls? What's it called?" He asked.
Mandy hesitated, "Well…it's called the…Soul…Sucky…Thingy…" She said quietly as she covered her face. Billy smiled proudly in the background.
"You named it the 'Soul Sucky Thingy'…" Grim said as he stared blankly at her.
Mandy gritted her teeth and slowly nodded.
Grim waited a moment, then spoke again, "Let me guess, you let Billy name it."
Mandy's face contorted even more and she painfully nodded her head again.
"That's pretty pathetic…"
Mandy growled furiously and turned towards Cerberus, "Sit." She commanded.
Cerberus obeyed immediately, causing the ground to tremble as he sat down. Mandy grabbed Billy and dragged him up to the top of the machine, where there were two seats. She threw him into the back seat and then climbed into the front seat, where the controls were located.
"I think we'll all know who's pathetic after this, Grim." She said before ordering Cerberus to stand up.
"Oh! Oh! Is it me? Is it me?" Billy asked while her jumped up and down in his seat.
"Don't make me come back there!" Mandy yelled back while she put her hands on the controls.
The machine had not been turned on yet, but Grim was already impressed. He had never seen Cerberus listen to anybody before.
One of the demons that had teleported with them began to speak, "Remember, whoever reaps the most people-" His sentence ended prematurely as Cerberus crushed him and the other demons.
Mandy pressed a single button on the control panel and a long tube extended out from the machine. The tube pointed itself in the direction of a nearby house, as if it had a mind of its own. It not only looked like a vacuum cleaner, it operated like one as well as it sucked in all the air around the house. Flowers and shrubs were ripped from the ground and pulled into the tube, which was moving closer to the building. The intake of air intensified to the point where windows and doors were being torn off and fed into the device.
There were a number of shrill screams and it was only a matter of time before the souls of an entire family appeared from inside the house. The floating spirits tried to resist, but they had no hope of escaping and were pulled into the tube. Wails and sobbing could still be heard from inside.
Grim stood motionless as he watched the bushes, windows, doors, and other unwanted debris from the house exit from a chute on the back of the contraption. He was mesmerized by the sheer power of the reaping machine as he saw the souls of another family cruelly ripped from their bodies.
Grim realized that if he wanted to get his job back he had to stop admiring Mandy's invention and start reaping some souls of his own. He ran towards a house on the corner and slammed his fists repeatedly on the front door.
No sound or voice came from inside the house and he started to panic. He knocked once more, but there was still no answer.
"Come on, come on…somebody come to the door…" He begged quietly after glancing over at Cerberus, who was already down the street.
After a few more agonizing seconds, the door was opened by a balding, middle-aged man.
"Oh, no. Not another one." The man said irately. "Look, I told you kids to never come back here again!"
"Excuse me, sir, but you look like you're around the right age." Grim said rather politely. "How old are you, may I ask?"
The man looked taken aback, "I'm…fifty-five." He stammered. "What's all this about, anyway?" You trying to sell me something?"
"Fifty-five sounds old enough, I would say you've lived a good life." Grim said as he raised his scythe.
A look of dread shot across the man's face as he stepped away from Grim, who wore a sinister grin. Grim swung his scythe with his all the strength he had, but it didn't appear to have any effect. He looked a little embarrassed as he raised his scythe and tried once more, only to miss the man again. Instead, he sliced the air above him.
Grim laughed nervously while the man stared at him with a puzzled expression. The reaper positioned his scythe above the man's head one last time before bringing it down in a smooth cutting motion. This time the would-be victim lowered his head and easily avoided the blade of the scythe for a third time.
"Stupid thing must be broken." Grim said in frustration as he inspected the edge of the scythe blade. That wasn't what the problem was, and Grim knew it. He knew that he had lost most of his reapers powers when Billy and Mandy were initiated. He also knew that he would become weaker with each passing day as long as they kept his old job.
The man took this opportunity to look around the room for something to defend himself with. His eyes darted towards a candlestick that stood on the mantel next to him. He picked it up with trembling hands and hurled it at the reaper's face.
"That hit me in the face!" Grim whined. "My beautiful face!" He covered the middle of his face with both of his skeletal hands.
Grim stumbled backwards towards the open door before being knocked into the front yard by a single kick.
"Get off of my property!" The man yelled as he threw the scythe into the front yard, right next to Grim. He slammed the door closed without saying another word.
Grim tried to ignore the sharp pain around his face and chest as he lay in the grass. He felt weak and tired, and almost fell asleep in the middle of the yard. Just as his eye sockets began to close he was awoken by what sounded like another loud explosion. He looked up see a cloud of dust and smoke rising from the rumble of a house that Cerberus had just demolished. Grim noticed that all six tubes on the machine strapped to the dog's back were engaged, each one bringing in a long line of glowing souls.
He reached for his scythe and jumped to his feet. He had to reap at least one soul, but he needed some help. He spotted Hoss Delgado in the distance with his hands and feet still tied together.
"Hoss, I need you to do me another favor!" Grim shouted as he ran up to him.
Hoss stood perfectly still; he didn't respond to Grim and was obviously still in a daze after visiting the Underworld.
"Did you hear me, Hoss?" Grim asked as he frantically shook him. "I need you to help me reap some souls before its too late!"
Hoss' mouth opened slightly and he began to drool. Grim realized there was no point in trying to wake him. He shoved Hoss to ground searched for another soul to reap.
A small toddler riding his tricycle down the sidewalk caught Grim's attention. He darted in front of the child and crouched down so that they were both at the same eye level.
"Hey, little fella." Grim said to the small child, trying to sound friendly ( which was something he wasn't very good at.) "How would you like to come back with me to the Underworld?"
The kid looked up from the ice cream cone he held in his hand and stared at Grim with his large, frightened eyes.
"Would you like to go to the Underworld?" Grim asked as he tried to maintain his pleasant demeanor. "All I have to do is ripped out your immortal soul from that fleshy bag of meat you call body."
The toddler's eyes widened even more and a small tear could be seen rolling down his cheek before mixing with the melted ice cream that covered his mouth.
"Alright kid, do you want me to get angry?" Grim asked as he usual dark voice returned. "Because I'll get angry if you don't-"
One of the tubes from the reaper machine appeared in front of them and then positioned itself right behind Grim's hooded skull, interrupting his conversation with the little boy. There was a loud intake of air as half of Grim's body was brought up inside the tube. The toddler watched as Grim struggled inside the tube; kicking the sides of it and letting out a series of muffled yells.
Grim's scythe, which had been laying on the sidewalk, sprung to life and sliced off a large portion of the tube, freeing it's master. Grim crawled out of the severed piece of tube and brushed himself off. Before he even faced the small toddler again there was another intake of air that threw him to the ground. Grim held on to the curb of the sidewalk as everything else around him was sucked into the shortened tube. Grim turned to look at the toddler, who was trying to hold onto the handle bars of his tricycle. The boy didn't have a chance and his tiny soul was slowly dragged out of his body and sent up into machine along with his ice cream cone.
Billy looked down at the reaper machine, which he was still sitting on. He had seen the little boy's ice cream cone that had been brought inside the machine and he wanted it for himself. He looked over at Mandy, who was too busy with the controls to notice him leaving, before he jumped out of his chair and carefully crawled down to the other end of the machine where a small door was located. The screams and moans of dozens of souls could easily be heard as Billy pried open the door and step inside. He didn't mind rummaging through the souls inside the machine as he searched for the treasured ice cream. Some of them clawed harmlessly at his face as dunked his head into the mass of souls, until he found what was looking for. The soul of a little boy was trying to hold onto the ice cream cone, but it fell through his ghostly fingers every time.
"Hey, that's my ice cream!" Billy shouted as he pushed the soul out of the way and grabbed the frozen treat.
Billy dragged himself out of the machine and closed the door before anything had a chance to escaped. Mandy looked back at him as he sat down in his seat behind her.
"What have you been doing?" She asked angrily.
"Just gettin' some PRE-LICKED ICE CREAM!" He shouted just before he shoved the ice cream up his nose.
Mandy turned back towards the control panel and ordered Cerberus to move further down the street.
Down below, Grim was able to get up from the sidewalk as the reaper machine went in the opposite direction. He saw Cerberus carrying the machine farther and farther into Endsville, collecting countless souls and leaving behind a path of destroyed houses. Grim realized that he would never be able to reap any souls as on long as Mandy was using her invention. Grim thought that he could make the competition a little less one-sided if he was somehow able to sabotage the machine.
Cerberus made a number of frequent stops throughout Endsville to make sure that every soul was reaped from every household, so Grim was able to catch up with him fairly quickly. Grim slowed to a walk as he approached, not wanting to be seen by the giant dog. He had no plan for disabling the machine, so he tried throwing pebbles at it. That didn't work of course, so then he tried shouting insults at it, but that didn't work either (surprisingly).
Finally, Grim decided to try and climb up the machine and overthrow the two reapers on top of it. He managed to keep up with Cerberus, whose thunderous foot steps made craters in the ground. Grim was about to grab onto to Cerberus' leg when the dog's tail crashed into a building right next to him.
Grim was showered with dust, bricks, and broken glass as the entire top half of the building collapsed. Covered in dust and debris, he could only watch as Cerberus and the reaper machine moved into the center of Endsville.
The six tubes on the machine rose high into the air to reap the remaining souls in Endsville. Streams of souls floated from every building and house as they were collected one at a time by the tubes. Grim stared at the what looked like hundreds of souls as they were slowly consumed. After a while the town was silent, there was no one left to reap in Endsville.
Grim wrapped both hands around his scythe and lowered his head; it was obvious that he had lost. When he raised his head he saw Mandy standing over him, with Billy and a growling Cerberus standing not far behind her.
"I've reaped every soul in Endsville." She said unsympathetically. "It's over, Grim."
Grim didn't reply, he just lowered his eyes and stared at his scythe again.
Billy couldn't quite grasp what had happened earlier, "Wait, we reap everyone in town? What about my mom and dad?"
"Don't be stupid, of course we reaped your mom and dad." Mandy snapped.
Billy started to panic, "We gotta get them back, Mandy! What about your mom and dad and Irwin and…" He sniffed loudly as he tried to hold back tears. "AND SPERG'S MOM!"
Mandy looked at Billy, who was sobbing on the ground, then she turned back to Grim. She was about to say something, but Grim interrupted her.
"You can't reap everybody like that, it's against the rules!" It hadn't occurred to him earlier that there were rules that reapers had to follow.
"What rules?" Mandy asked sharply.
"That guy's rules." Grim replied as he pointed up towards the sky.
Mandy raised an eyebrow and looked up at the sky. After a few seconds she understood who he meant.
"Oh…His rules." She said blankly. "I'm above His rules."
"I wouldn't say that if I were you." Grim warned.
Mandy scoffed, "Why? What is He going to do about it?"
"Um…Mandy." Billy said in weak voice as he stepped next to her. "I don't think you should say that kind of stuff…" Billy was mercilessly stupid, but even he knew you shouldn't insult the Almighty.
"You two need to grow up." She said as she pushed Billy aside. "God is powerless against the Underworld."
"Watch your mouth, girl!" Grim shouted one last warning as dark thunder clouds appeared above them.
"I'm more powerful than God…" She said forebodingly as she turned towards the skies again. Her voice seemed to echo throughout Endsville.
A bolt of lightened shot from one of the dark clouds and landing right in front of Mandy's feet. She rubbed her eyes, which were temporarily blinded by the sudden flash of light. When her vision returned she noticed the smoking patch of dirt right in front of her.
Mandy clenched her fists and a scowl appeared on her face. She wasn't as invincible as she had thought.
"Billy…release all the souls…" She said in strained voice. She kept her face hidden behind her cloak and didn't turn to face either Billy or Grim.
"I GETS TO PRESS THE BUTTON!" Billy exclaimed as he ran over to Cerberus and climbed up his leg (which Cerberus didn't appreciate). The machine on his back was full to bursting point with souls and it emitted a dull blue glow.
Billy went over to the control panel of the machine and slammed his fist on a large red button. He giggled above the noise as jets of steam emitted from the machine, which was shaking violently.
The tubes along each side of the machine rose up one last time and released all the souls. Each one made a loud coughing sound as hundreds of souls were shot into the air. The freed spirits collided with buildings, trees, and each other as they left the machine, but they all managed to adjust themselves and find their own bodies.
Grim saw a very small soul drift towards the body of the little boy he had talked to earlier. The soul returned to the child's motionless body, which had been lying on the sidewalk. The boy got up slowly, then tried to look for his ice cream cone and tricycle, which had disappeared. He looked from left to right, then ran screaming down the street.
Billy jumped down from the inactive machine with a sense of accomplishment. He and Grim both looked at Mandy, who had her eyes closed. She was leaning her head against her scythe and remained silent. No one spoke a word as she prepared to create another portal to send them all back to the Underworld.
Uhhhhhhh…..you know what, I'm not going to say anything about this chapter (except that it was longer than I thought it would be).
The ninth chapter (the next chapter) might be the last one, but if that's the case than it should be a very long chapter. I might just make this story ten chapters long , in which case chapter nine would probably be rather short and chapter ten would be the last chapter. We shall see.
That's about it, Thanks for reading.