Chapter 16: Assassins, trains and rigged explosions

The sky was dark and cloudy. It was foggy. I hated fog. William, Ronald and I were standing outside waiting for a train to come. I was glad it was cold, because I could just wear a long jacket and pretend I was wearing an old Victorian dress. Humans were so behind on technology that I had transformed Ronald's death scythe into a watch because they didn't have lawnmowers yet.

The wind whistled through the dead trees as the train came onto the track. I watched as some humans looked around uneasily. There was a strange aura of death around the entire train station, but according to William, there hadn't been any recent deaths here. Sure, I was scared too, but I wasn't that scared. I wondered how odd we looked to everyone else. I wasn't wearing my glasses to make us look a little less obvious.

All of us were wearing all black, and we all had almost the exact same eye color. It was true that no one would notice our eye color right away… it was my eyes that I was worried about. They glowed like a cat's or dog's in the night, and would function as a flashlight if I was scared. The more emotion I felt, the brighter they would glow.

We boarded the train and I felt even more uneasy. The three of us chose one of the back compartments and waited. I sat beside William, while Ronald sat near the window of the compartment. He lifted the curtain slightly and looked out into the train.

"The assassin is sitting three compartments in front of us, and his victims are in the opposite compartment."

"The time of death for the victims is set at midnight, and the time of death for the killer is set five minutes after that." I read out from my to-die list. "It's ten in the evening at the moment. Do we sit and wait?"

"Yes. Let's see how things play out."

I felt really uneasy about that. Apparently my nervousness was visible, because William tapped my shoulder.

"Are you all right, Leah?"

"Yes… I'm just worried. This entire train smells like death. It's not normal." I fiddled with my death scythe, the skulls giving off yellow sparks when my fingers touched them. I would be hard pressed when two hours passed. A mouse skittered across the floor. The sudden movement made me jump and grab William's arm. Ronald started to laugh until William hit him over the head with his death scythe.

"Please try to relax. We're not on a death row." He said. "You're perfectly safe. Nothing's going to happen to you here."

It's not me I'm worried about. It was stupid, but I was really worried over what might happen. Just because we were death gods didn't mean we couldn't die. I nodded. Someone tried to slide the door open.

"Hey, it's locked." A muffled voice said. They knocked on the door.

"Quick, close your eyes and pretend you're asleep." William whispered. "We can't let them see your eyes." Sure enough, the space where I was looking was flooded with light. My eyes had gone into 'flashlight mode' as I liked to call it again. I lay down on the seat and closed my eyes as I heard Ronald open the door.

"What do police officers want with us?" William asked.

"Forgive us for the intrusion, however there is evidence pointing to the fact that a criminal might be on this train. Would you mind if we take a look around your compartment?"

"Not at all."

They walked around. I heard their footsteps clunking on the floor as they looked under the chairs and beside the curtains.

"Hmm… nothing to see here. Forgive us for the intrusion."

"No problem." They closed the door and I sat up.

"So the police are on this as well?" I put my glasses on. "It might cause a spot of a problem for us."

"I doubt it. They will most likely leave the train at the next stop."

"What time is it, Ronald?"

"It's almost midnight."

My death scythe changed from a bracelet into a hunting knife, which I tucked into my sleeve.

"Leah, you and I will take care of the assassin. Ronald, you go to take the souls of the victims once he's done with them." William said.

"Yes, sir" Ronald checked his watch. "Three minutes 'till midnight."

We slid our compartment door open and looked outside. We could already hear the sounds of scuffling and screaming.

"Murder is a disgusting thing. And humans are disgusting creatures." I said.

"I quite agree with you. Let's wait until everyone runs out of this section of the train." William said. We looked out of the compartment window.

"RUN!" someone yelled as a man stumbled into view. He was carrying a scalpel. He was covered in blood and had an insane smile on his face. People ran for the exits into other sections of the train. I could hear them barricading everything. The man walked towards the conductor's cabin. With a snap of my fingers, the door locked from both sides. The murder was now locked in this section of the train, and the conductors wouldn't be able to get out of their cabin until we were long gone.

"My, my… murdering someone else. How lowly." I said as I walked out of the compartment.

"Watch it, Lady." He growled. "Or you might be next. I think I'd make good money for you as a hostage. You look like a rich one. Perhaps lots of family members?"

"You couldn't be wider off the mark."

I said as I walked towards him. He ran at me, but I caught the knife in my bare hand and threw him backwards. William walked forwards to join me.

"See, we don't exist anywhere. There are no papers or documents of our existence anywhere."

"Who the hell are you people?" He spit as William's death scythe fastened around his knife and ripped it out of his hand.

"We're grim reapers. Surely you've heard of them?" I asked as my death scythe took its original form. He took a step back. "Sorry, but your life ends here. I do hope they don't torture you too much in hell." I said as I stepped forwards. My eyes glowed as I stared into his eyes. With an easy flick of my wrist, I made a neat diagonal cut across his chest and he fell. His cinematic record unwound and I collected it in my death scythe. The hollow sockets of the skull on my death scythe glowed bright yellow for a minute, letting me know that both the cinematic record and the soul were collected. Beside me, Ronald was taking the souls and the people's cinematic record's.

"See, that wasn't so bad." William said. A sudden ticking made me freeze. "What's the matter?" He asked. I didn't have time to say anything before the first bomb blew up in the front. We scattered backwards. The compartment beside us blew up. William threw me into a different compartment as the one I was standing beside blew into pieces.

"It's a chain rig!" I yelled above the roar of the explosion. "The explosions are going to get bigger until the entire cart blows up!"

"Can't we do anything?"

"Hardly!" I said as I pulled Ronald out of the way. A third bomb blew up right where he'd been standing. "If I'm right, the bombs won't affect the other people in the train because they've all made their way to the very back of the train. It's just this compartment and the one behind us. Apparently, he really badly wanted to kill these people."

"What are we waiting for, then? Let's go before it blows up!" Ronald said, looking panicked. I ran into the nearest compartment and opened the window. I jumped out and flung myself into the bushes. Anyone else would have died, but we did well in these situations and I landed unharmed. Two thumps beside me told me that William and Ronald had done the same thing. We stood up and watched as the train went a little further. Then the part of the train we were in exploded in a shower of sparks.

"And that is why I hate humans." I said in a disgusted tone of voice.

"However, this is all very suspicious." William said. "It's a strange coincidence that the train on which we were on was rigged to explode in the compartment we were in."

"I don't like it either." I said. "Let's get going. There's no point wondering over it anymore. Our job is done."

And with that, William made the portal appear and we walked back into the shinigami world. At least someone else shared my suspicions. It was too strange.

I talked to Grell about it when I got home and he seemed to be thinking along the same lines.

"Hmm… there's no doubt that there's something fishy going on. First you get poisoned and nearly die… then you and Ronald are nearly killed by demons… and now this. Anyone could put it together."

"I don't know what we should do…" I said, scanning over my to-die list.

"We don't need to do anything, darling! This is a story made to unfold further into your life to create a masterpiece of adventures. Either way, there's nothing we can do even if we needed to do it."

I sighed. Of course he would say that.

"Either way, you need to stop thinking about that. The ball's tomorrow! You can't lose any sleep before a ball. You have to look your best."

"Uh huh… tell me, if I look horrible when I wake up, does that mean I don't have to go?" I asked hopefully.

"No, that just means you'll have to put on twice as much make up."

"Ugh…"

"There's no way you're dragging yourself out of this one." He said with a smiled.

"I can see that. Good night." I said as I jumped back through the window and walked up the stairs, feeling annoyed. Whoop de doo… the ball was tomorrow. I can't wait. I thought sarcastically.

Maybe I should have gotten hurt on purpose or lied and said that the bomb had actually hurt me so I couldn't go? I should have thought of that earlier. Too late now.