Maggie, Sammy and Mariah turned and ran back into the flaming woods. I jumped down from the rock and started running after them. I was stronger and faster as Reaper, but I wasn’t used to moving like this, so I had trouble keeping up. The woods were burning faster, and a flying ember landed on my robe. I didn’t notice and continued running after everyone. I reached down to my hip. On my belt was a dagger, and strapped to it, were three throwing knives in little leather sheaths. Those might come in handy soon. Looking up, I saw something tall and silver curving over me. It pierced the sky, reaching heights no one dared to go to. It was the fence. I stopped running. Maggie, Sammy, and Mariah stood in front of me. In between them and the fence was a long line of people. Just random people. Staring straight ahead, with no expression on their faces. The three of them stepped back, and the people moved to make space for them. Then, one girl stepped out of the line. “Welcome, Elias. I’ve heard so much about you. My name is Melissa. You don’t know me, but I know of you. I understand that you might not hear what I’m saying, and it might not make sense to you. The Elite have a hold on your mind. It is up to you to destroy that hold. You are the only one that can. We will all be here for you, but you need to want this. And we all do. We all want you to be free of Reaper. It is a terrible burden to bear. Take my hand, and we can get you out of this prison your mind is kept in.”
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Melissa offered me her hand. I started to reach out for her, but then something inside me told me to stop. “Eliet,” I grumbled. “Let go of my mind.” But then he decided I had too much control, so he had me say, “I know who you are. I know who your family is. I defeated you before, and I can do it again. Your grandmother fought against those of my kind. And what happened? Her friend was killed because of her foolishness. So do not underestimate me, Melissa Roswood, granddaughter of Cierra Roswood.” As I stopped speaking, I felt something warm up the skin on my back. Casting a glance over my shoulder, I saw the back of my robes had caught on fire and was burning brightly behind me. It looked kind of cool. Melissa bit the inside of her cheek and stepped back into the line. “You’ve brought this upon yourself, Elias. We wanted to help you. Keep that in mind.” Then, Mariah slid a box along the ground. It stopped at my feet. I bent down and sniffed it. When my nose deemed it safe, I knocked off the lid. Inside was a touchpad. It had an overhead view of all of Salef, with tiny red dots around the border. “Every single one of those dots in a person,” Mariah said. Every single person was at the border of Salef, except for a group in the middle, standing at what I could only assume was the Brick.
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I kicked the box to the side and drew my dagger. It was me against the entire population of Salef. I liked those odds. Just then, twelve people stepped out from the trees. The fire had started to catch up with us. The twelve people, twelve demons, formed a line in front of me. They were mine. I had control over them. “Creations of the Elite, we have one purpose on this day. To kill. Do not stop until you are either a pile of dust or there are no people left within the fence!” And just like that, the fight for Salef began.
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The demons started forward, trying to break up the line. Within minutes, dozens of people lay dead on the forest floor. Then the people started organising themselves into groups of three or four. Each group went after a single demon, slowly picking them off. I let them continue to fight, and ran off into the woods, taking only two demons with me. I ran to the middle of the burning woods, not bothered by the smoke or the heat. In fact, the heat made me run faster. A group of five people were trailing me and my demons. When we had enough distance between us, one of the demons turned and threw a knife at the group. It hit one of the people, stopping them in their tracks. The other demon threw two other knives, bringing the group down to only two people. They stopped running to help their fallen friends. I didn’t feel an ounce of regret. I was simply doing what I was made to do. If that meant that someone who got in my way had to die, so be it.
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I continued running, allowing the demons a chance to do whatever they wanted with the remaining people. I didn’t have time to wait for them. I had my destination in mind and needed to get there fast. I was going to the Brick. I left the woods and ran down Boulevard. The Brick grew larger and larger as I got closer. I was almost there when I started to hear a faint roar. The roar grew louder and louder. Until I finally saw its source. A massive crowd stood outside of the Brick. Every person held a light. Flashlights, lighters, torches, everything. I neared the crowd, and one person turned to face me. He tapped the person next to him, who tapped another. Pretty soon, the entire crowd had turned to face me. A little girl ran out of the crowd, with someone who I assumed was her father following her with a camera. She pointed at me and shouted, “REAPER!” The crowd charged at me. “Oh, no,” I said. But then I thought, I have no reason to be scared. I’m Reaper. I turned to the crowd and screamed. They were frozen in their tracks. I took a step forward and grabbed a torch out of someone's hand. I stuck my neck into the flame. It didn’t burn me. Instead, it sent a surge of power through my veins. I ran forward, right through the crowd. I reached the doors to the Brick. They were locked, and the glass was never going to break. It was seven layers thick. I jumped up, grabbing onto the top of the glass panes. There was an indent where the glass met with metal on every floor. I continued jumping and climbing up the Brick. How it had gotten its name was beyond me. There was no part of it that was ever made of brick.
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Pretty soon, I reached the top of the Brick. I climbed up and looked down at the crowd below. Looking out towards the fence, I could see a line of people. Mariah, Sammy and Maggie had been in the woods, not at the end of Boulevard. Running to the other side of the Brick, I looked towards the other side of the fence. Another line of people was there. Then I felt someone pulling at my robes. Juliet. She disappeared as soon as I saw her, but then a small figure in black robes appeared in her place. “Hello, Reaper. I’ve been waiting for you,” she said. Finally, someone called me by my real name. Juliet had been in the clearing with me. She was a demon, too. Why would the Elite take an innocent child to become such a terrible thing? “Because I’m not so innocent,” she said. How had she known what I was thinking? “Because I’m a demon. That means that we’re connected. You’re connected to all the demons. We’re one big system, one big bringer of darkness. Go on, show them.” Juliet walked with me back to the edge of the Brick.
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I looked over the edge. The crowd was looking back up at me, waiting for whatever I was going to do. “People of Salef, you are soon to be obsolete. The demons are waiting, waiting in the shadows while you sleep. We have waited an entire century for this. Your time is up, the demons are ready to start their time as the people of Salef.” This wasn’t Eliet talking. This was all me. “Excellent, Reaper. Let’s get down from here. We have business to attend to in the forest.” I turned back to Juliet. “What business? How would you know what I must do?”164Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoQhDvs9phS
“Eliet asked me to look out for you. I know exactly what you need to do and when you need to do it. And I know that we need to go to the woods. Come on.” Juliet stepped to the edge of the roof, then stepped off. “Juliet!” I screamed, rushing forward. She was dropping, falling fast. And then, she was shooting forward, black, shiny wings poking out of her back. The wings flapped, propelling her forward even faster. She flew back to me, landed, and her wings disappeared. “Come on! Let’s get going! You’ll get the hang of it; you’ll be fine.” I took her hand as she pulled me over the side of the roof. We were falling. The wind whipped at my cheeks, making my eyes water. I wanted to close my eyes, but couldn’t. Then, something pulled at my back, and I was soaring forward. I’d never done this before. I never even knew I had wings. But something in my mind knew, and that part of my mind guided the wings attached to my back to sailing over the treetops. Juliet let go of my hand. I was doing it. I was flying. This was amazing, I never thought I would be able to fly. I needed to tell… The thought was gone as soon as it came. Eliet forced it away, not letting me think of her name. My mind reset, and I was suddenly bored by the notion of flight. It was a normal, everyday occurrence, and now was no different. I was Reaper, I needed to get used to the special things I could do. It wasn’t something to celebrate. It was something to make note of, and remember for the next time it would come in handy.
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Juliet dropped down below the tree level, and I followed her down, indifferent to what path we took. We landed on the ground, and five women stood in front of us. Two were carrying guns, standing in front of the third. Two more were brandishing dual daggers, standing behind the one in the middle. The two with guns stepped aside, allowing the third to walk forward. It was Melissa. Cierra’s granddaughter. “Thank you for meeting with me, Elias.”164Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJtqVruRUO1
“You will call him Reaper,” Juliet said. Melissa smiled, bowing her head slightly. “My apologies, Reaper. I’ve asked to speak with you because Mariah has sent a message to me for you. We were worried that you might not speak with her, so she had me come instead. I used to work with Mariah, so she trusted me to come instead of her.” That name. I knew that name. Who did it connect to? Was it one of the people on floor fifty? Or someone from before? I had no idea. I should know. Why didn’t I know? Eliet. His hold on my mind was becoming more and more obvious.
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“Well, don’t keep us waiting. What is this message?” Juliet prompted. Melissa cleared her throat and took out a piece of paper from her pocket. She held it up for me to see. The edges were frayed and slightly burnt. Looking past Melissa’s shoulder, I could still see the fires looming in the distance. I’d never been in this part of the woods before, and the uncertainty of an unfamiliar place was making me nervous. “Here is the message from your sister,” Melissa said. She unfolded the paper, not taking her eyes off me. “Elias, if you are hearing this, either everything has gone wrong, or most of it has gone right. Maybe both. Either way, I don’t know how much of this is going to make sense. Logan’s memory of us is slowly fading, and I don’t know if it's the same for you. I miss you. Home doesn’t feel the same when you aren’t there. Maggie and Sammy have practically moved in. There’s safety in numbers now. I wanted to talk to you, but I didn’t know how you would react to seeing me, or if I would be able to come to you at all. Anyway, I need to tell you what we’re planning…
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