Chapter 12: danse macabre

We walked to the base where he purchased his drugs and waited outside for him to walk out. It was night time. Humans didn't realize that they weren't the only people who moved about at night. It was a rather quick kill. I jumped behind him, stabbed him and waited until his cinematic record rolled out. Ronald then collected his soul with his death scythe.

"Well… that wasn't so hard. I thought it would be worse." I said as my death scythe changed back into its original form. I leaned on it like a walking stick.

"I guess we got off lucky. Now what do we do?"

"I guess we have to try and find our way out of here." I said.

"How do we do that?"

"The water! If there's water nearby, we might be able to get out." I jumped up onto the roof and looked around.

"Leah, come down! It's no use! We don't know the spell to open the portal! Besides, the nearest pier is almost a day's worth of travel away! It wouldn't do us any good."

I jumped down and sighed. I sat beside Ronald on a pile of crates in the alley.

"I guess."

"What I don't get is why she didn't tell us. Isn't it necessary that we know how to find our way back?"

"Maybe it's another part of the test?" I suggested.

"That's not it. They would make it reasonably possible to figure out. Here, we have our hands tied."

I agreed with him on that.

*back in the shinigami world, William's POV, third person perspective*

"Well, have you found them yet?" William asked as he walked to the reception.

"No, sir. There's no sign of either of them."

"They're almost a day past their time limit." William said. "Yet it says that the soul of Alexander Dawson has been collected." He was starting to get worried. During his final examination, he'd almost died. Yet he and Grell had returned to the shinigami world on time. Leah was nowhere to be seen and not heard of. He didn't care about the other one. He was worried about her once again. He didn't know why. "I'm going to go look for them." William said. "They both have completed their examination. Once I find them, make sure they pass and are given proper positions."

"Right away, sir."

William walked towards the pier. That woman had disturbed his schedule so much that he was now even getting used to it. He was even willing to trade shifts with someone to go look for her. However, he was getting a bad feeling. He hoped he could get there on time.

*In the human world, Leah's POV, first person perspective*

"Leah! Leah, wake up!"

I woke up, completely disoriented.

"What is it?"

"Do you hear that?" Ronald asked. He looked scared. I listened. It was silent.

"I don't hear anything."

"Listen for a little longer."

In the silence, I heard a faint noise. It was a scratching noise, like someone raking their fingernails on roof shingles. We looked above us, but there was nothing there but the roof and the starry night sky.

"Maybe it's just an animal?" I said.

"Listen to the noise. It's too big to be a squirrel or a racoon." His eyes darted around. My eyes did too. My eyes functioned like headlights in the darkness, especially when I was scared. The more emotion I felt, the brighter they would glow. I climbed up on the rooftop, which was illuminated in the yellow light coming from my eyes. There was nothing there.

"Hey, there's nothing here." I said as I jumped down. There was no one there. Ronald had disappeared again. I heard a yell in the distance not too far from me. I cursed and started running as fast as I could towards the sound.

As I ran, I thought I saw a shadow pass right beside me, but when I turned to look at it, there was nothing there. This was getting weirder and weirder. I jumped down into the alleyway.

"Ronald!" He was lying beside a crate. His lawnmower had been bent in half and lay in a wreck not too far from him.

"Run" He whispered. "Get away from here!"

I looked around. The shadows around the walls seemed to thicken.

"Ah…" I took a step back. Demons. Lots and lots of shadow demons. There had to be at least thirty of them, all with shadowy figures, glowing red eyes and hungry smiles. I cast a shield spell around Ronald, hoping it would work for even a little bit.

My death scythe spiralled into full form.

"Shit…" I knew that the chances of me making it out were slim. But there was a chance. I had a death scythe. They were weaponless. I knew that I wouldn't die from blows alone, and that my soul couldn't be taken by a demon.

They hissed and took a step back as the light reflected off the metal of my death scythe. I swung it and vaporized a dozen of them that ran at me first. But for every demon that died, more would take their places. I created a rocket launcher out of my death scythe and fired a beam of light. It hit several demons and blew a hole in the wall.

I jumped and flipped out of the way as a demon attacked me. I spun around and slashed it in half. There was no blood. The shadow just sifted away and turned into ash on the pavement. I ran around, firing everything I could from arrows to hunting knives to fusion cannon blasts. My bow and arrow shifted to a machine gun. I wasn't really thinking. All my mind was telling me to do was kill… kill… defend… kill…. kill… defend… kill

I spun in a circle and killed all the demons that had surrounded me. I flew up, rocketed off the wall, shooting round clips of explosives as I went. I knew that I had to apply everything I had learned in training to get out of this alive, and possibly save Ronald as well. The shield around him seemed to be holding up nicely, but all the demons had their attention on me. In a way, that was a good thing.

I felt like every fight was a well practiced dance. A danse macabre. A dance of death.

I'd never been more scared than I was now, nor had I ever been angrier. This was the glory of the fight. I raised my hands and a tornado of debris surrounded me. I flung it at the demons, blocking their vision of me. I made the wind pick up. Everything in a few hundred yards from me was picked up by the wind and dropped as if an immense hand had slapped them down back to earth.

I realized that this was my first real all out fight, where I was allowed to kill and destroy anything and everything I wanted. I certainly took advantage of it. My boots made clacking noises on the cobblestone as I ran around in circles, making a sharp cable surround all of them. It sliced them all into tiny shadow pieces which lay on the cobblestone paths.

I heard other footsteps running up. I hoped it was help, because I couldn't keep this up for much longer. The demon's numbers were growing smaller, but my strength was also weakening. I began to get slower, my moves a little less coordinated.

Breathe in… breathe out… you're doing great. I told myself. Almost done…

I swung my death scythe as hard as I could, killing the last several demons.

I stood in the middle of the battlefield I'd created, ankle deep in piles of ashes, the remains of my kill. I looked around to make sure there were no more demons. I sank to my knees… it was all over. Then I blacked out.