“He...y, ” Jacob groaned through his blood-soaked mouth. He watched as the Grim Reaper paused from his tracks seemingly listening to his voice.
“Hey! He...re! Look...here!”
The Grim Reaper looked down into the poor state of his caller and arched a brow feeling genuinely surprised.
“You can see me, human?” he asked.
“You’re a grim rea...per, ” Jacob stated, disregarding his question. “You...you mu...st be from that clan.”
The sentence definitely hit a nerve. ‘How?’ the Grim Reaper thought. How could a normal man know of a clan of grim reapers? It was supposed to be a well-guarded secret, unless...
Unless this man wasn’t that normal as he thought at first.
Halpas—the half-baked demon man—tried to kill him after all. Maybe, there was more to this story than just random killing.
And for this, his interest rose.
“Plea...se, I be...g you, ” Jacob groaned, his blood-soaked teeth gnashing. “Protect...my daughter. She doesn’t deser...ve to live a life of fe...ar.”
Jacob's state was pitiful, but the Grim Reaper wasn’t affected at all. He had seen so many deaths countless of times, some gruesome, some quick and he had entirely become immune to it: an incentive for a job that entailed a lifelong contract.
“I’m not a babysitter human, if that’s what you suggest, ” the Grim Reaper lashed out, but Jacob, close to dying, was undaunted.
“Plea...se. I want her...to be protected. Let her mar....ry into the Rantz...en Fam...ily. I’ll die...in peace if she’ll be safe.”
With this, the Grim Reaper scoffed.
“You are one gutsy human, I’ll give you that. Who do you think you are asking something from me?”
“Pleas...e, I nee...d her to...be sa...fe, ” Jacob pleaded again. This time, he could feel his eyesight blurring.
“Papa?” a soft voice of a child suddenly appeared from the backyard deck. She had a ponytail braid, wearing a cute yellow tutu dress and a pair of ballet flats. Her eyes were doe-like, tantalizing, with a color the Grim Reaper hadn’t seen much on humans. They were a pale violet and blue. It matched perfectly with her platinum white hair that didn’t seem out of place in a child her age.
“Is that her?” he stated to Jacob but his attention was still glued to her.
“Papa!”
Despite the slippery ground, the girl ran as fast as she could to her father’s side.
Summoning the last of his strength, Jacob pushed himself to the side to meet his daughter’s embrace.
“Sol...ene, swe...ety, ” he rasped, taking her into his laceration-riddled arms. He broke into sobs, tears tainted the top of the child’s head.
It wasn’t long when another person stepped out of the house.
“Solene dear?” the child’s mother called. “What are you- oh God, Jacob! No!”
Dread filled her upon seeing her husband bathed in blood. Like her daughter, she ran to his side and embraced him.
“How? How?! Who did this to you?!” she cried out, shook his shoulders and then hastily checked the whole backyard just to see if there was anyone—someone--who could be the culprit.
She didn’t saw anyone despite the Grim Reaper standing a couple of feet away from them.
He was invisible of course, well except for Jacob, and it seemed his daughter too, for he saw her doe eyes transfixed at his entire form, taking all of him in. It was both unsettling and intriguing.
“Meri...dith, it’s okay. Don’t....cry, ” Jacob rasped again as he saw, despite his blurry vision, the river of tears she released. “Solene, she’s...”
“Jacob, we need to get you in the hospital fast!” she cried out, cutting him.
“No, no...time, ” he managed to slowly shake his head. “List...en to me. Solene. She...she will...be married...into the Rantzen...fam...family, promise...me.”
The Grim Reaper’s brow arched. The audacity of the man. He hasn’t even said yes yet here he was, already expected to fulfill the man’s dying wish.
To the wife however, Jacob's words were not met with seriousness.
“What are you talking about?!” she palmed his face and met his half-lidded eyes. “Why are you talking about...marriage at a time like...this?!”
Jacob squeezed her wrist with his right hand and pulled his daughter’s hand with the other.
“Prom...ise me, Hon...ey, ” he said just as he placed the hands of his wife and daughter together. “To...keep her safe, she needs...their prote...ction. They will...protec...t her.”
This time, the gravity of the situation filled the wife. She could see it in his eyes. This was the day he had been dreading these past few years.
“Oh God, Jacob. No, ” she relented and her shoulders sank thereafter. “Why does this have to happen?!”
“I lo...ve both of you...always and forever, ” Jacob announced just before he took his last breath.
“Papa!” the little girl cried out when his head hung low. She embraced him tighter and disregarded the Grim Reaper now standing close to them.
“Don’t worry, Little One. I’ll make sure his soul will be sent to the Afterlife, ” he stated and then the blade of his scythe glowed.
Family, friends and neighbors attended the three days wake of the well-known History professor of Germaine town. Jacob was a caring man with a gentle voice and infectious laughter. He was highly regarded by his university colleagues for his wisdom and philosophy of the world.
His death came as a tragedy for everyone who knew him. Nobody could really tell what the cause of his death was. The doctors said it was a case of heart attack, but the other skeptics in the University said it was a bear attack based on the lacerations on his forearms, leg, and torso.
To the Little Solene however, it was neither. So innocent and young as she was, in her eyes, it was simple. The blue-haired man took her father away.
“Blue, ” she always said whenever a friend of her father greets her in the wake.
All adults, thinking that it was just a mere child’s play, would only shake their heads and smile.
It was the last night of the wake when Little Solene’s mother frantically looked for her all over the house. She finally found her under the table of her father’s study with a large book next to her turned to page three.
“Solene?” Meridith perched her head at the edge of the table and looked down. “Sweety, why are you in there?”
The little girl looked up and gave her mother a smile. “Book, mama.”
“Oh?” Meridith furrowed her brows. She straightened up and rounded the table to join her daughter under it. “What’s that book?”
She crouched down and flipped the cover.
“Book of Dead, ” Little Solene said innocently.
An immediate gasp escaped from Meridith’s lips then.
“Oh my. You shouldn’t hold this, Sweety. This book is dangerous.”
She quickly closed the book and took it away out of her daughter’s reach.
“That papa’s book, Mama. I want keep it.” Little Solene reached for the book but Meridith swung her arms up.
“NO!” she yelled, a feeling of horror coming over her. But then, she realized she had acted harshly. “No...no, Honey, ” she recollected herself and gave her daughter a soft smile. “I’ll give this to you when you get older, okay? But not now. It’s...it’s not time yet.”
Little Solene pressed her lips together and nodded. “Okay, mama.”
(Fifteen years later...)Death had always fascinated humans around the world. It holds a certain kind of mystery nobody could describe. What does one experience when one dies? What happens when the soul leaves the body? Will there be an unknown universe waiting for the soul? Or a messenger perhaps? An angel who would guide the soul in the Afterlife?Death may most always tie-up with sadness and agony but yes, people still regard it as a fascinating phenomenon.Be it in whatever religion, gender, age, social status, and race, a person most likely welcomes the thought of death and dying at least once in their lifetime. Fear it, accept it, or ignore it, death is the one thing that is...“... constant in the ever-changing world, ” Solene finished and then twisted her lips. She stared at the sentence longer than any geek would and munched on the lesson it was trying to relay.
“You’re late, ” an old man sitting on a couch pointed out the moment Solene walked through the front door. For a seventy-five-year-old senior, he still had a thick mass of gray hair and could still walk properly without the aid of a cane.Solene dipped her head shyly and approached her grandfather.“Sorry pops. I’m on a tight schedule with my school work.” She stooped low and placed a quick kiss on his forehead.Her grandfather cringed.“Seriously, you’re the only college student I know who goes to the library almost every day, ” he commented.Solene didn’t see it as a complaint though. She just chuckled and walked towards a bookshelf near the kitchen.“All part of a student life pops, ” she answered whilst placing her newly acquired books on the shelf.“Bah!&rd
The next day, Solene took her little brother in the local supermarket for a quick shop of produce and fresh fruits. She parked her mother’s SUV first near the entrance of the supermarket and hand-in-hand, they walked inside the building with an eco bag in hand.Solene picked the biggest wheeled grocery basket so that her brother could ride inside it. They entered into the Candy and Chocolate’s Section first by AC’s insistence. Solene didn’t mind as she also loved to buy her favorite chocolate-covered macadamia nuts.It was past nine in the morning on a Friday so the local supermarket was filled with customers. Some were together with their families and some others were buying alone.On their way into the C and C Section, Solene noticed a commotion some distance away. It was the manager of the supermarket arguing with the delivery men about the late deliveries. She just shrugged her shoulders, seei
By afternoon, despite her conscience telling her otherwise, Solene braved herself to leave the house. She had only one goal in mind and it was to go to the library and ask Dally for a copy of the log records yesterday.She remembered the time when she had seen the man inside the library. She knew how to focus her search and oust those names which were students of the University. She could narrow her search down to his name — whatever name he had — and possibly try and track down his address.By the time Solene arrived in the library, there were only a handful of students in sight, mostly men taking their IT major. Dally was in her usual counter, busily sorting out piles of magazines.“Hey Dally,” Solene greeted, showing a soft smile.“Oh, back so soon?” Dally looked at her from behind thick-rimmed glasses and smiled back.“Yeah, I need to
With a strong conviction to hunt for the truth, Solene decided to visit the supermarket and ask to see the security camera of the building, specifically while the tremors happened.There was footage found, yes, but it only showed pictures before the shaking started. Solene couldn’t be more disappointed when the video stopped right when she and AC were about to approach the Nutella shelf.‘A technical malfunction,’ the manager explained, but Solene didn’t buy it. It was damn too coincidental. Something in her gut told her it was intentional. As to why and who did it were the two questions that filled her mind.Ultimately, she returned to her house with more questions than answers, and those lingered until the next day.Early in the morning, Solene met with her thesis partner and best friend, Myrna — a redhead with a short bob and thick lashes. They chose the
“Okay, let’s pick up where we stopped,” Myrna stated once they settled onto their seats. This time, they chose the University library to finish their planning instead of anywhere outside the school.After the incident they experienced that morning, Solene returned to the house to change clothes. She had coaxed her best friend not to visit the hospital. She didn’t need it when really nothing had happened to her. Myrna told her she had an insane amount of luck, but Solene just shrugged the statement off. Clearly, her best friend knew nothing of her growing fear.“We were about to make the second draft of our thesis, Myr,” she reminded, getting comfy with her chosen wingback chair.The latter puckered her lips and grinned.“Oh, so you really were paying attention to me other than just checking that stranger in the cafe.”Solene rolled
A black limousine pulled over the curb just as Meridith entered the kitchen. She had just finished attending to AC’s needs in his bedroom when she decided to prepare snacks for Solene on the road. Sure there would be more food inside the plane, tastier and fancier ones even, but Solene preferred her cooking, and she loved the tuna sandwich she always whipped up.Some minutes later, she heard the doorbell rang. She wiped her hands clean and sashayed towards the main door.“Madame St. Fair, good morning,” a Caucasian man wearing an MIB-inspired suit greeted once Meridith opened the door. He had a perpetual passive look on his face that said he wasn’t here for leisure. There was no hint of a smile nor a grin, just a signature straight face that she knew came from a certain family.‘Right on time,’ her mind commented. She expected no less from the staff of the Rantzen Household.&nb
The stewardess left the bedroom first while Solene followed. The whole time she traipsed the hallway to the interior of the plane, her pulse double worked. She felt as if her heart was about to leap out of her chest. She felt as if her insides had somersaulted sixty-nine times or possibly even more. Her breathing picked up and all her senses grew hyper-aware.She was about to see her soon-to-be-husband finally and she was going to give him a piece of her mind, planning to ditch hi’s or hellos and other unnecessary pleasantries. After all, he didn’t seem to care about that before the plane took off, or what’s more, for the whole of her fifteen years of life since they were faithfully betrothed by their families.Karma was in order and she was going to serve it in full.However, as she got a full view of the man sitting on one of the leather seats facing her, she couldn’t help herself but laugh&mdas