I hurried down flight after flight after flight. Eventually, I came to a door. Pushing it open, I stumbled out onto a floor somewhere in the middle of the Brick. Looking around the doorframe, I found the floor number: 42. I’d only gone down 8 flights? As I caught my breath, I casually walked through the 42nd floor, looking around. It seemed to mainly be home to various offices, with a few high-end restaurants. A woman wearing a navy blue suit walked out of an office a few feet ahead of me. “Excuse me!” I called after her. She turned to me, and she instantly stopped. “H… how… How may I help you?” she stuttered, fear in her eyes. “Yeah, um, where’s the elevator bay?” I asked, rubbing my hand along the cold metal on the front of the mask. The woman pointed down the hall. “Take a right, and it should be at the end.” I nodded my thanks, and she hurried away in the opposite direction. As I walked, I noticed the glances and whispers coming from every person I passed. All these people, they knew exactly who I was. They know that I was Reaper. And they feared me. They had no way of knowing I wasn’t Reaper anymore. I was safe now, I wasn’t going to hurt anyone anymore. I approached the elevators and jabbed my thumb into the button. The doors rolled open, and I stepped into the empty elevator. At least I would be alone for a little while.
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As I slowly descended, I watched the floor numbers tick by. The elevator slowed to a stop at floor 37. A family of five was standing outside, their eyes trained on the person leaning against the back of the elevator, arms crossed. Me. “Are you gonna’ get in, or…?” I asked, gesturing from them to the space next to me with the mask. Another beat of silence passed before the dad said, “I don’t want my children exposed to… to people like you. The… the demons,” he hissed. I rolled my eyes. “Fine. I’ll get out. All yours,” I said with a flourish, walking out of the elevator. “Enjoy,” I said with a singsong voice, waving over my shoulder. I could manage 37 flights of stairs. It would be a good warm-up for getting back to T.R.I.B.A.U.M. base. Fun.
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When I could see the end of the last flight of stairs, I smiled. With a quick burst of energy, I ran down to the ground floor. “Woo hoo!” I cheered. I looked to the elevator bay. “I don’t need you!” I shouted at the elevators. “I walked down the entire Brick. Yeah, I did!" I got a few looks from the other people on the floor. I sat down on a bench to catch my breath. I had a perfect view of the stairwell. And the flood of people coming down it. The wave flowed through the room, spilling out the doors outside. The room was filled with a mixture of screams, shouts, and a blaring alarm. I grabbed a person out of the crowd. “What’s happening?” I asked. He wrenched his arm out of my grip, running out of the Brick. With a sigh, I fell into the crowd and followed it outside. Once I was out, I asked another person, “What’s going on?” She pointed up. “Look. The top floors just… exploded. Everything above 43 is gone. Some of us think it’s the rebels. They’re trying to kill us by bringing the Brick down.” She covered her mouth and walked away. I rubbed my eyes with the back of my hand and blinked. She was right. The Brick really was destroyed. I watched as the cloud of dust and debris continued down. Half of the Brick was destroyed. The top half. The top floors. The Elite. The demons. They were all destroyed. Gabe, Juliet, Logan. Gone. I bit my lip to stifle a cry. This was just like what I’d seen, months ago, when I was leaving the Brick with Maggie and Sammy after it lost power while we were in the archive centre. 189Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIaALT61RMw
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I ran away from the crowd, over to a small grove of trees. I sat at the base of a tree, watching as the Brick crumbled. A burst of fire shot out from one of the middle floors, and more explosions rang out for another few minutes. When they finally stopped, the crowd looked around anxiously. The quiet was unsettling. Bits of debris was raining down on us, and the ground was covered with dust and shards of glass. I grabbed the mask from the ground and climbed to my feet. Then, I started to walk away. Bayforte Mountain was on the other side of Salef, it would take a long time to get there. For now, at least, I could go back to my house. I could rest, get food, water, and some sleep. A map, maybe my phone. Then I would find the base. I start walking down the road, only for more shouts to start behind me. I turn. What is it now, I thought? I needed to get home; I didn’t have time for this. A large group of people were coming around the corner of the Brick. More than two dozen people, all wearing black robes, with hoods covering their faces. The demons weren’t dead. They were right here, killing everyone in the crowd who couldn’t run fast enough.
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“Hey!” I shouted. “Who here has been catching?” I could tell immediately who had because they started grouping together around the demons. But, the majority of people were still running around aimlessly, making it more difficult for the people who knew what they were doing to be successful. I tilted my head back and groaned. I was going to need to do stuff. Great. “If you don’t know how to catch, just get to your house, or to a shop on Boulevard. You’ll be safe there. We need all catchers working. Groups of three or four! Let’s go, people, let’s go!” I ran into the crowd, quickly finding a pair of people who needed a third catcher. It took them two catches before they realised who I was. “Hold up. You’re that Reaper guy, aren’t you?” one of the people I was working with, whose name was Jake, asked. I nodded. “I used to be. But not anymore. Now, I’m just like you guys. Let’s keep working, we don’t have time to stop.” By that point, though, a demon had already found its next mark: Jake. The other, Ellie, and I couldn’t do anything as the demon hurled its dagger through Jake. Ellie gasped and ran away. I watched without expression as the demon collected its dagger and turned on me. I raised my hands slowly in front of me, putting a bit of distance between me and the demon. “I’m not going to hurt you,” I said calmly. “I’m… I’m one of you.” It was stupid of me to use that as a reason. It wasn’t true anymore. I waited as the demon processed what I’d said. It sheathed the dagger and walked away. I blinked. Oh. Well, then. I ran away to find another group to catch with.
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Twenty minutes later, the demons were either destroyed or had run away. The catching group had diminished from around 60 to just over 40. Most of the people still standing were unharmed. “Do you think everyone can handle things from here?” I called out over the crowd. “Get home, check on your family, and friends. Stay inside as much as possible. If you can, or want to, do some more research about catching, and the demons. If you’re more informed, you can protect yourself and others around you better. Okay?” There was a chorus of ‘yes’ and ‘okay’ that followed what I said. I returned to the tree and grabbed the mask from the ground. I couldn’t forget it, not after this. I started to jog away from the Brick. As I did, I heard some people from the crowd yell, “Thank you, Reaper!” I guess there was a new connotation to that name, now.189Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJSM6o4goXY
