Once more into the fray.

REAPER IN RED

Chapter 13

There was no darn way I would be getting any sleep tonight. No way at all. Just knowing that I couldn't sense heat anymore, it was really getting to me. Even the blanket I had cocooned myself in, there was something missing. I still felt the thick fabric around me. The fibers brushing softly against my skin, but there was no warmth to it. It just felt... there. Not uncomfortable, but not comfortable either. There was pressure, and nothing else. I ducked myself into the blanket cocoon, shrouding myself in even more darkness. This could not be happening. Why now? I was just starting to get a handle on being human. I even found out what humans did in bathrooms! Why they would sit on a water-filled bowl was another question entirely, but that's what they did!

My heart was pounding dangerously fast in my chest. This was not good at all. First they will discover I'm not human. Then I'll be revealed as a Reaper. And everyone will be scared of me and next thing I know, I'm missing my head just like mom. Should I flee now? Yes, running away works. It worked in Atlas, it can work here. I know it will. Just need to pack up my cookies and hairbrush. No, eat the cookies now before I can't taste things anymore. Just bring the hairbrush.

I slapped myself in the cheek, forcing myself to calm down with the stinging pain.

Okay, that was good at least. I still felt the heat radiating from my skin. That meant the vampire's soul was only starting to wear off. I still had time. Not a huge amount of time, but time. Six weeks, seven if I was lucky. What did mom say happened when a soul wears off completely? I racked my brain for the answer. Darn, this was so much more nerve-wracking than when it happened to me out alone in the forest.

"First, heat from the sun shining bright, then the colours of reflected light. The skin feels clammy, the days wash away. Everything taste yucky, souls come out to play." I repeated the familiar jingle under my breath.

Temperature was the first sense to go. I knew that well. I enjoyed feeling the heat of the afternoon sun, or cool breezes at night, but sometimes it was better to wait out a soul and let that sense fade. Easier to hike through Atlas in the winter when you can't feel the freezing weather.

Next would be colour. Or, vibrant colour really. Human colour, I liked to call it. Humans saw the world as so dynamic, so magical. Greens really popped. Blues shone. Don't even get me started on red. Things were just so beautiful with human eyes. Without it, everything just looked bland and boring. Again, not a huge problem. But this one came with the hunger. My Reaper form would start echoing, calling for any dying people without me willing it to, regardless of distance. I wouldn't need to push out with my power to look for the dying, my body would do that for me. From there, it would only get stronger. Reapers had to Reap, mom liked to say.

What was next? I sang the jingle once more. Clammy skin, what was that again? Oh, right. My heart would stop beating. No heart beat, no body temperature. This was as far as I had ever gotten before succumbing to the hunger. It would probably take three weeks to get to this stage, a month at most.

Time was next. My internal clock would be thrown out the window, just like Weiss's alarm clock was yesterday morning by Yang. No way to properly gauge time. Okay, this wasn't terrible. Finally a real perk to having Weiss as a partner. If I could just hide the fact that I had no pulse, or way to feel the weather, I could get through this stage without any real problems.

Hopefully.

Just need to listen to Weiss and let her pick the schedule. That gave me another day or two if i was lucky. What next, what next? Taste. Okay, again, not a huge problem. Another few days.

Soul sight.

I shuddered. If I somehow managed to get the soul sight, then the soul would be fully worn off. Do not, at any cost, get the soul sight.

Okay, okay, okay. Calm down Ruby-roo. You still have some time to handle this. Plenty of time before your body starts searching for humans to Reap. "You knew this was going to happen eventually," I scolded myself.

I shifted under my blanket-cocoon. This was so much scarier when surrounded by huntsmen. Why couldn't that stupid vampire last a little longer?

All I had to do was stick to my original plan. Claim a territory and find some new souls to Reap before the vampire wears off. Preferably, it would be another vampire. Most likely, a human. An old one would be nice, but even a sick adult would work. Hopefully not a baby. Not only did it feel terrible to Reap babies, their souls didn't last very long. A few hours at most.

I could do this. I was just freaking out a little, but all is well and good. I can handle it. I knew I could. I've done this before. Calm down Ruby! Maybe in another day or two, I could sneak out and search for somebody dying. It would mean a trip to Vale, since I doubted many students up and died in the middle of the night. Making sure I was securely wrapped in my blanket, I let out a bit of my magic, my skin paled and became slightly translucent. Pushing it out in every direction, I couldn't sense anything remiss. Not a single person nearby was dying or on the verge of death.

"Can somebody turn off the AC?" I heard Yang say, the faint sounds of her shifting in her bed, the only sounds in the room.

"I should have gone to an old folks home instead of a school for children," I grumbled, placing my forehead on my crossed arms.

Reaching under my pillow, I pulled out my notebook. Flipping to the page with my steps to be human, I reread them quickly. This original three -two and a half- points now numbered twelve. Including the goal to get Weiss to give me a high five and Blake to smile. Oh, I did that one. Hooray! One more thing successfully completed at Beacon.

My first step still seemed hopelessly far from my grasp. I needed to get territory and I needed to get it soon. It was dangerous without territory. If a Reaper stumbled across me and claimed the area before I could, I would have to leave. Or worse.

I doubted they would ever be as nice as Cinder.

Oh, Salem! Cinder would be coming back soon. I had to claim territory before she got back. It was kind of her to let me Reap in her territory -potential territory-, but it still meant putting my faith in another Reaper.

First things first. Step thirteen, buy myself more time as a human. Get to Vale and Reap. And don't get caught by my classmates or teammates. That would be really, really bad.

I checked the time, seeing it to be early morning. It was still a few hours before anybody would wake up. Not feeling tired in the slightest, I hopped out of bed, stretching, because that's what most humans did when they got up, and changed into my regular clothes.

Quietly closing the door behind me, I ventured back into the boring not-cold, not-even-pleasant night. My skin didn't feel the rush of the wind, nor any nip running down my spine. The wind ruffled my hair and I felt it's usual pressure on me, but that was it. I sighed in disappointment.

"Better get used to it, Ruby." I said to myself in a voice no louder than a whisper. I knew I was alone, but the idea of ruining the silence just felt off to me.

I heard a rustle.

Wait, was I alone?

I strained for any sound, outside the norm. It was quiet again. Nothing out of the ordinary.

"Weird."

I continued walking around, the tall grey-stone buildings taking on an eerie blackness at night. All lights were off. It was... darker than it should be.

Not in a Reaper way, just a normal why-are-all-the-lights-off? sort of way.

Why were all the lights off anyways? There were pathway lights and overhead street lights all over the place.

"You're out late, shorty."

I nearly jumped out of my skin. Squeaking, I spun around.

The boy was wearing all grey, matching his hair and even his eyes. It blended in surprisingly well, with the night. He had a toothy grin on his face and a hand on his hip. He was waiting for something.

"Phew, you scared me. I thought I was alone out here. How did you do that, by the way?"

The boy frowned.

"What a strange girl," he muttered to himself. Shrugging, his gaze returned to mine. "Years of practice. Never know when you might need to steal the prey of others. Or sneak up on unsuspecting young huntresses."

He gave me a toothy smile.

I smiled back.

He frowned again.

I shuffled my feet. "So... goodbye."

Turning to leave, I felt his hand on my shoulder. "Wait, that was not how this was supposed to go."

He sighed, taking a small step back again, eyeing me strangely.

"You are a strange one. Out in the middle of the night, set upon by a vampire, and not even a bit of fear. I was hoping to play with my food a bit, but no, you had to ruin my fun."

Huh, I guess his smile was a bit wider than it should have been. He did appear to have fangs. Sharp, a bit of aged blood. Dirtier than the old vampire.

I grinned. "You were planning to drink my blood?"

"Duh?" The boy rolled his eyes. "Drink your blood, then maybe leave you on the side of the curb or in a back alley or something. I haven't thought that far yet. Not that it really matters. Your life is over the moment people notice the teeth marks. Can't be too careful you weren't turned into one of the clan."

"So it is a clan of vampires! I always thought it was coven. Yang was right. You do learn something new every day -night- well, you get the point."

"You are taking this whole about to be sucked dry and then cast out of society bit surprisingly well."

"A lot on my mind. And don't worry about me being cast out of society. If they figured out what I was, I can promise you they would cast me out a lot faster than they would you. Anyways, the last vampire I Reaped is wearing off and I'm starting to feel, well, unfeel, certain things. Kind of hard to shiver in my shoes when I can no longer... well, shiver."

The boy just looked at me. I smirked as the pieces slowly fell into place in his mind. Of course, the growing pool of shadow at my feet, and paling skin probably helped a little.

"Oh god, you're her." He took a step back, fear emblazoned on his features. "I am so sorry. She told me you were here, I just didn't think- please don't kill me!"

He fell to his knees, shaking. His hands were clasped together, almost praying for forgiveness.

"Woah, I'm not going to kill you. I don't kill. Well, I kill Grimm and maybe a squirrel or two when I'm alone and want to taste something, but they don't have mortal souls, so they don't count."

"I'm just here for food." He continued to beg, "spare me."

Why was he so scared? I knew I was a Reaper, and I knew he knew, but was I really that scary?

I ran up, giving him a hug. Humans enjoyed hugs. That was a fact. "I'm not going to kill you. Reapers don't kill."

"You're not?" He still seemed unsure.

"My name's Ruby. What's yours?"

"Mercury. Mercury Black."

"You seem new to this."

"I'm really not. Just... a Reaper I know warned me to not do anything that might... affect your time here."

"Another Reaper is in beacon"

Mercury shook his head. "She's wandering. Here and there. Found me and my clan in Mistral. I... suggested that we move to Vale."

"Well, I bet Vale has more people walking around at night to drink. But, Beacon does have a lot of people trained to attack and kill your kind. Not that I understand why they go after vampires. You're all the same species after all."

"What? No, never mind that. I guess Beacon is off limits then?"

I nodded. "I don't want you to get hurt trying to go after somebody."

"You are a strange one, Ruby. You'd think a Reaper would be all about vampires and humans killing each other. Eating our souls or whatever."

"Ew! You think we? Ugh, gross. Why would we eat souls? Have you seen a person's soul? We just Reap them."

"I bet they taste delicious..."

"NO."

Mercury froze under my intense gaze. My voice had gotten louder than I had wanted it to. Much louder. Probably more forceful too. As soon as I realized what I did, I took a deep breath, trying to calm myself.

"No. Reapers don't eat souls. They shouldn't." My voice was nearly a whisper. "It's... wrong. And horrible. Our purpose is to Reap souls. That's what mom said. Reapers Reap. Not eat. Please... just leave it at that."

Mercury nodded slowly. "Okay. I guess I will see you around. Maybe when my Reaper is back in town. Maybe we'll go for lunch or a midnight snack or something."

"I never knew vampires could be close with Reapers!" I gave him my bestest smile. This was so awesome! Most vampires were scared of Reapers. Not that I blamed them. All humans were.

"Trust me Red, they can't. I guess... I will see you around."

"And no drinking the students?"

"No drinking the students," he agreed. "Catch you later."

As silently as he arrived, Mercury was gone and I was left scratching my head at the all too strange conversation with a vampire.

"Well that was weird."

Welp, that was a little more info-dumpy than I would have liked, but I just needed to get it out. Thank you all so much for helping me reach this incredible milestone. As I mentioned in my previous milestone present update, I hadn't thought this story was going to get more than a dozen views, let alone over 200 followers and over 100 favourites. You guys are the real heroes. Thanks from the bottom of my heart. I hope you all continue to read along and call me out for my stupidity or mistakes if (when) they come about. See you all in two weeks for the regularly scheduled chapter update.

Sm0keyPanda - Hopefully it continues to get better.

Alucard45 - Regarding vampire souls, you are on the right track. Most vampires are better as 'fuel' than humans, though maybe not for the reason you think. It will be touched on a bit later in the story, so don't think it'll be some important revelation. For the Blake scene, thanks. I needed some wholesome bits. Mainly so Blake and Ruby could talk more than they do in the show.

Lasereye27 - It's great to be back!

JackTheSpades - Wouldn't is be hilarious of Ruby is just clueless about her own species? Just imagine, Ruby: Since when did I have laser vision?!

FN75 - Who knows what Blake'll do? ;P

ecoolasice - I'm actually pretty darn excited to write that chapter too!

Dragonqueen1993 - I will take that as a good thing!