Hello again, Reapers! It is I, the Creator! x)
READ:
GO TO THE IF LIST WEBSITE IN THE EXTERNAL LINK & VOTE FOR DEATH IS MY BFF TO BECOME A TV SHOW OR MOVIE!
xoxo
Gossip Girl ;)
* * *
A look of pure, cynical pleasure pooled within the warlock’s eyes, revealing the beast within. And he was not a happy beast. To say I was terrified of Death like this was an understatement.
“I wasn’t planning on this,” Ace said. “Believe me, possessing-“, Death swapped Ace’s French accent with his typical one. The Angel of Death loved his accents all right, but there was always that certain lilt to his voice, what I perceived as his normal voice, which favored above all. I wondered if it was his accent from birth…
“There’s something very satisfying about having your fragile little virgin neck clutched in my—Ace’s—my hand… for conversational purposes, let’s just call it my hand.” His fingers tightened, holding me in place like a vise. “I must say, watching you squirm, pleading for oxygen with your eyes…it would normally make my mouth water. Not now. Now, I’d much rather just snap your neck, feel the crunch beneath these fingertips…”
A shadow crept over the whiteness of Ace’s eyes. And for that fraction of a second, it was unclear whether or not he was about to kill me.
“But I have so much more planned for you, Faith Williams.” He snickered lowly, loosening his grip when I almost blacked out. “If I snapped your neck right now, you would die. And once you died, you’d no longer be my pet. You’d go up to that world in the fluffy clouds, live happily ever after, and have that sunshine blonde hair of yours back. That’s no fun. I can’t screw with you, and play with your panties, if you’re in Nirvana with Big G, Lil’ J, and Close-My-Legs-Forever Momma Mary.”
Ace released my throat, and I crumbled to the ground.
His voice held a terrifying coldness. “Here’s how this is going to go, my little rebellious strawberry frosted dessert. I’m angry with you--no, angry is an understatement. I’m livid. But I’m not showing it, because at the end of the day, I’ll have the last fucking laugh. I’ve let you backtalk me, keep secrets from me—like your little magic sex session with Ace a while back, and your love affair with that blue-eyed boy, Thomas—or whatever the hell his name is--who sucked faces with you. The one you saved from a collection. He should be dead, but I let it go. I don’t let things go like that, Faith Williams, but I did.
“You’ve lied to my face, hit me, talked back, insulted me and made me, on numerous occasions, want to take out a switchblade and carve into your body like a pumpkin. When people make me this angry, the fangs come out. I start have fantasies about finger-painting with their blood, then licking my fingers dry. But you, baby. You don’t know how unlucky you are. I don’t have my fangs right now. But even if I did have my teeth to tear at your flesh, I don’t act on my violent fantasies involving your body. I’m not as cruel to you as I am to the rest of the world. And that’s because you fascinate me. I want to keep little things like you: things that shouldn’t exist in this world. There’s something wrong about you, rare, and I will unravel it and claim it as mine before anyone else does.”
Ace licked his upper lip, his eyes slitting.
“I no longer see a sweet child with pigtails in you. That sweet girl who called me her BFF died with your childhood.” He paused, the imposture behind Ace’s eyes analyzing my features. “I see a trap in you now, Faith Williams. A lure. You’re not human; you never were, were you? But you’re soft like one.” He lightly brushed my cheek. “And you breathe like one. And you hurt like one. And you think you love like one.” He traced my bottom lip with his fingertip. “You could’ve fooled me.”
Then he let go of my throat. I fell hard to the ground with a choked out sob, clutching my esophagus and panting for air.
“If you so much as whisper that I’ve possessed Ace tonight,” he continued in a low hiss, “or so much as mouth it to your glass of water, then I’m going to have to hurt you. And may God help you if that is the case, Faith, because I will not hurt you psychologically this time. Tonight, if I say talk, you talk, and you say what I want you to say. If I say shut your mouth, zip it. If I say pounce, you pounce, and if I say stab”—he turned back around, squatting down to my level—“you better shove that special dagger of yours all the way up that bastard’s ass.”
“Do I make myself clear, little girl?” Ace leaned in real close until I cringed away. “Cooperate with everything I say from here on out. And if for some reason, I don’t get my body back tonight, you better believe your body is next in line for my taking,”
* * *
As D & S Towers became larger and larger, the handsome warlock walking at my side tightened his grip on my arm ever so slightly.
I hadn’t so much as said a word to the guy, considering he was eying people walking past us on the sidewalk as if he wanted to eat them. Plus, I was far too ashamed of my earlier outburst about caring for Death to bring anything up. I was beyond humiliated.
“I changed our identities, but you won’t be able to see it,” the Ace whispered in my ear. “The dagger will be invisible as well, except for you. Walking in here as Ace and Faith will bring us unwanted attention. If anyone asks you what your name is, say Heather. I’m John.”
“John.” I thought about that name for a moment as we stood in line behind an assortment of different kinds of people. Suddenly, an image of a man with white clothing, blond hair, and bright eyes flashed in front of me, and I was standing at the top of the stairs in Thomas Gregory’s mansion. “John, as in my guardian angel, who you killed,” I said lowly.
“I summoned him away from you, then ripped his head off,” Ace clarified without a twitch of a smile. “I enjoyed every second of it.”
“Thanks for that information. Are you going to tell me anything about this event?”
“That’s classified information. Just know that it’s not really a Chicago Against Crime event. There will be humans, but I can’t promise they’ll be the only species here....” Ace leaned into me, purple eyes twinkling. “You know, you have a tiny piece of my soul inside of you, since I saved your life and all. So what if I told you that I used my teeth to rip John’s head off? Does that get you as h0rny as it gets me? Come on, you have a piece of this somewhere in there...”
I tore my gaze away from him, a shiver slipping down my spine. I was visibly freezing in the autumn air, and I didn’t expect Ace/Death to offer me his suit jacket.
“This line is ridiculous. Why aren’t we ‘poofing’ into the D & S Towers?”
“I have to conserve my energy.”
As the line moved forward, a pixilated screen exploded with color over the entrance of the advertising building, and there, on the screen, was a silent short video of Devin and David Star, the two most adored and successful men in the country, the men that would host this event. They looked impeccably beautiful, back-to-back, with a piercing blue and coffee brown gaze staring intensely into the camera. I noticed that Ace was watching at the billboard as well, with a vacant expression over his features.
“So Devin…he’s really like a father to you,” I noted, loud enough for just him to hear. “He’s something powerful too, isn’t he? Does he wear a different face for the world, too?” When Ace didn’t answer, I looked back at the billboard. “Devin. You know, that kind of sounds a lot like…”
I looked over at Ace/Death, to find him playing with the crystal top piece of Ace’s staff and completely ignoring me. Half of the time, Death reminded me of big cat that always got distracted by shiny objects, and other times, I was concerned about whether or not he was distracted by me and how delicious I smelled.
“Ok, this whole ‘don’t tell Faith anything’ game is just ridiculous now. Can you explain to me what the hell is going on? You owe me at least a few answers, if I’m going to help you. Especially if we’re going to see a lot of each other after all of this.”
“I don’t owe you anything. You will see a lot of me after this.” Ace grinned like a piranha. “The only person who owes me here, is you. You owe me your life. And a backrub. And a shoulder rub. And I’m definitely going to make you dangle grapes into my mouth for pissing me off twenty-four-seven.” He put a finger to his lip. “And you’ll probably have to give me a lap dance. Better start practicing some dry humping against that teddy bear of yours, which you’ve had since Jesus was crucified.”
“Mr. Wiggles. His name is Mr. Wiggles.”
“I know his name. I love that bear of fluff. We have a connection that goes beyond anything imaginable in that tiny little brain of yours.”
“Oh really?”
“You used to make me kiss him when you were younger.” He smirked down at me, shattering the doüchebag, ‘go die in a hole’ vibes he had been given off towards me. Now he was teasing me. “If you knew what I did to that bear, you probably wouldn’t cuddle it at night anymore.”
“What?”
“Kidding.”
The line into the D & S Towers moved forward.
“Just listen for a second,” I said, lightly grabbing onto the lapel of his suit jacket. The monster possessing Ace offered me his full attention, but didn’t appear to favor that I was touching him. “For once, just tell me what the hell is going on. Your soul is in a different body, for Christ’s sake. You’re going to have to tell me things eventually, or I’ll literally go insane.”
“You’re right.”
“—I deserve answers—“ I stopped. “I’m right?”
“You listen to me closely, Faith Williams, because I am not repeating this again.” Ace leaned into me. To the external world, we probably appeared to be a couple, and he was whispering intimately in my ear. “Malphas’ slave-boy, Atticus, sent me to Limbo because Malphas has it out for me. The spell Atticus casted was intended for me and me only, therefore, my cloak, Ahrimad, as well as my scythe, were separated me when I was transported. Ahrimad is an evil spirit that I trapped within my cloak thousands of years ago…
“ I freed Ahrimad as a child from a realm called the Unknown, but he tricked me into doing so. First, Ahrimad appeared to me in a field by my home, as a ghost of sorts. I remember that thought I was having a heat stroke and went inside, but he appeared to me again in the same spot the next day, just standing out there in the fields. I was hundreds of feet away from him, but I could hear him talking to me in my head. He gave me directions as to where I could find a dagger to free him.” Ace tapped the dagger I hadn’t realized was clenched in my hand.
“This exact dagger: a weapon that can actually pierce through a spirit.”
Ahrimad manipulated me into trusting him. His physical body was trapped in another realm, dying from the inside out because of the curse that imprisoned him in the Unknown. Soon, his body wouldn’t be able to take solid form and he would be unable to cross realms into earth. He wanted his legend to go on, through a person capable of taking solid form. He decided he wanted to pass his powers to me. In order for that to happen, we needed an exchange. Us evil creatures love that shit. I had to bring him a pure soul to free him from the realm he was trapped in, so that he could transfer the power to me. “
That’s an extremely summarized version of how I am what I am today. Minus the whole becoming an angel, being a very bad boy, and falling from heaven. I was the Grim Reaper before I was an angel.” Ace pulled away from me slightly, our faces still close. “I was selected to be an angel, as well. I’ve always been that guy picked first for kickball, except in extreme circumstances…”
The woman in front of us, waiting in line to enter the D & S Towers, turned over her shoulder and frowned at us. Clearly she had heard some of Death’s explanation.
“New video game coming out,” Ace explained, and the woman turned back around. “Ugly, nosy-ass humans,” he muttered under his breath, then continued. “The point is that Ahrimad hates my guts because he’d rather have been destroyed than be trapped in a cloak. Plus, I killed his wife and trapped her in the same place he was trapped when I found him as a child.” He shrugged. “Ooops.”
“Oh my god.”
“Wrong. I also banged his wife before I killed her.” He snorted. “JK. You should see your face.”
We were at the front of the line at this point. Ace produced two tickets out of his suit jacket, and handed to an intimidating looking man at the entrance of the D & S Towers. I held my breath as the guy analyzed the tickets.
“Welcome,” the man huffed out.
“Did you use Ace’s powers to make those fake tickets?”
“Nope. Stole them off the guy behind us.”
I shook my head at him.
“Theoretically,” Ace continued lowly, once we were in the crowded lobby of the towers, “when I left the human realm, earth, and entered Limbo, my scythe was up for grabs. However, Ahrimad created my scythe, and is the only other being who is capable of holding the weapon without burning alive, so I know he has it.”
“Ouch.” I looked at the crowds of people piling into the lobby, wondering when conversations like this had become normal to me. “So…. you took Ahrimad’s image when you killed him. Now, he’s what, in solid form?”
“Yes. Using my scythe, Ahrimad can collect enough energy from the souls yet to be distributed to heaven and hell, and use them to take solid form. But that won’t last him too long. He doesn’t have the ability to keep reaping souls at the speed that he needs to in order to remain in solid form.”
We followed a group of nicely-dressed women into a ball room.
“And what do you think he’s going to do with your scythe? What kind of power does it have?”
“I’ve wielded that damn thing and even I don’t know all of it’s power. He could be planning anything, from bringing someone back from the dead, or bringing death upon anyone he wishes.”
“Could he destroy the world?”
Ace rolled his eyes. “Let’s not get too dramatic, cupcake. There are limitations to my scythe. He can’t take my power, too. Not even he knows how to destroy me.”
“You can be destroyed?”
“Didn’t I just say that?”
“Sassy.” I flushed under his amused gaze. “Ahrimad is the being that I saw in my…vision,” I said. “He’s the man who exited from a mirror, and the gladiator that you fought. That was you, wasn’t it, in my vision? The gladiator with the slave bands.”
Ace stared at me. “Ahrimad was never alive, Faith, just like I’m not alive. It was all a trick. He had been cursed when he was trapped in the Unknown, and was deteriorating rapidly. He gave me a deal of sorts when I was a boy, that I would be given the choice to kill him one day, and if I did kill him, I would have all his power. The problem was, I wouldn’t remember who he was when I was given the choice to kill him, but he would feel like a friend to me. When I was older, Ahrimad returned to me, and placed himself in an arena with me. He disguised himself as a gladiator, and he was weak enough to be killed by a normal sword, and well, the rest is inevitable. However, even after I killed Ahrimad, I wouldn’t really have any of his power until I officially died…” Ace trailed off.
“So then what happened?” I asked softly. His story sparked my curiosity, to say the least. There was something enthralling about the way he was telling it, too.
“Shit happened, and I tried to kill myself in a river by my house,” Ace said bluntly, snapping out of a stupor. “Strapped myself to a boulder. It was all really melodramatic. I wasn’t thinking straight. Didn’t think about the fact that a) I already wasn’t human, so I couldn’t die as easily, and b) I would be awakened by Ahrimad’s power, so the whole suicide thing was pointless. I couldn’t really die…” His eyes glossed over, as if he was recalling it all right then and there.
“When I was drowning, I saw this light, and felt two hands cradling my head. Next thing I know, I’m alive, I’m dry, and time has reversed. Technically, I didn’t die that day, but I say that I do because it was the end of a beginning. An angel had saved my life. His name was Gabriel…”
“So Gabriel brought you back to life?”
“Yes, and some say I’ve been bitter about that for over two-thousand years.” He snorted. “Gabriel recruited me as a guardian angel. This was before I was the Angel of Death, btw.”
“Why did he recruit you?”
“When I was little, I was out in the woods by my house and I was attacked by a massive, wild cat. Nearly took my eye out, before managed to stab it in the throat with a stick and it ran off.” He subconsciously ran a finger over Ace’s closed eye. “I managed to get back home after I was attacked, and my mother…she was a witch, and she casted a spell on my eye to heal it. That kind of magic comes with countering side affects. I soon found out that I could see into people’s soul. Gabriel wanted me to act as a guardian angel over the gates of heaven and judge the souls of the dead.”
I thought back to my memories of Death and me as a child, and an odd sensation settled in my gut. Death had protected me, like a guardian angel.
“Gabriel said I could live an immortal life without dying. If I never died, I would never get Ahrimad’s power, which was basically all I wanted at the time. I didn’t want to live off of souls. But judging them seemed A-OK.” Ace scratched his jaw, a total Death gesture. “Anyway, I’m getting ahead of myself. Blah, blah, blah, years and years later, I’m bad and fall from heaven and lose my position as a guardian over the gates of heaven. When I fell, the Elder’s were so enraged with me, that they cursed me for an eternity with Ahrimad’s abilities to collect souls, as punishment for my behavior. I would have to distribute the souls to heaven and hell, for their lazy asses. Yay, Elders.
“I was pissed at first, to put it lightly, and refused to take in souls, but it was excruciatingly painful not to eat. And in spite of everything that had happened to me, I blamed Ahrimad for tricking me as a child. So, I summoned his spirit from the hell and cursed his soul, placing him into a riding cloak, so he would suffer along with me. Ahrimad is normally my strongest illusion because I’m normally literally wearing his spirit on my back.”
“So you admit that you’re David Star.”
Ace gave me a flat look. “I just told you all of that, and you’re stuck on that?” He nearly growled at me. “I really wish I had my fangs, so I could eat your skinny little ass.”
“It’s just that you never admitted you were David Star. You, the Grim Reaper, literally have an alter-ego, and I know you’re him, but you still refuse to acknowledge it word for word. Say it with me: ‘I am David Star!’”
Ace grit his teeth. “I’m—“
“David Star,” a voice greeted ahead of us, and my heart lodged in my throat. I watched a familiar man with blonde and brown hair and brown eyes shake the hand of a guest. His face was shaven, with was off putting because he looked so much younger, and was surrounded by bodyguards. He appeared to be greeting everyone who entered the ballroom.
I looked up at Ace, who had gone deathly still. Ironic.
“Welcome to the Chicago Against Crime event,” David Star continued ahead of us. “We genuinely appreciate your donation.”
“What the hell is he doing?” Ace clasped me by the elbow, as we got closer to David Star. “Don’t look him in the eye, he can’t see past our illusions unless you look him in the eye. It’s an evil spirit thing.”
No pressure.
“David Star,” David said, clasping my hand first. The grip of his hand was foreign. Terrified, didn’t even come close to how I felt. I stared at his lips, as he spoke. Jesus Christ. For a moment, I thought Ahrimad could recognize me. Could he see through my illusion? I realized he had said something else.
“It’s an honor to meet you,” I muttered, and then stepped off to the side.
“David Star.”
‘David Star’, aka Ahrimad, shook hands with Ace, aka Death.
It was getting weird, real quick.
“My girlfriend’s a big fan of yours, Mr. Star,” Ace said, offering a slightly tense smile. His jaw was locked tight. Wow, Death is angry.
“Does she have my calendar?” David laughed out in response. Wow, Ahrimad is definitely working this.
“You know, I think her mother actually does.”
They both snickered. Double weird.
I had expected something to pass between the two of them, like Ahrimad would know that Death had possessed Ace and say “AHA! I know it’s you!” but instead, David/Ahrimad hadn’t said a thing, and and Ace/Death stepped aside to make way for the next greeting.
“A part of me thought he wasn’t going to show up,” Ace whispered once we were well past ‘David Star’, “but he’s dramatic, like I am. If he’s here, in the open, that means he’s planning something. Might even know that I’m not in Limbo anymore.”
Suddenly, I stared up at Ace. “Wait a minute, did you call me your girlfriend earlier?”
“Perhaps. I call you many things that are insignificant.” The ballroom we were in was oddly spacious, considering we were in the D & S Towers, and decorated in warm autumn colors with a beautiful chandelier at the center of the room. We were escorted to two empty seats at an eight-person table, with a tiny pumpkin decoration at the center of the tabletop.
“Insignificant?” I looked up at Ace with an annoyed expression. “I don’t think insignificant is a word that describes your fascination with me.”
“Don’t get your panties in a twist because of my nicknames, cupcake. Girlfriend is a big leap, here. We haven’t even banged yet.” Ace pulled out my chair for me, and then gracefully sat down next to me. His eyes monitored the room as he unfastened the lapels of his suit jacket. “You know, it is kind of nice to sit in a lit room without my retinas burning from the light.” He looked up at the ceiling, clasping his hands together. “Thank you so much, God.”
Fighting back a smile, I opened my mouth to say something snarky, when a voice interjected. “Welcome to the Chicago Against Crime D & S Towers event.” The waiter had appeared out of nowhere. His eyes were a disturbing shade of red. It was hard to look away. “Can I offer you two something to drink? Have you taken a look at the liquor menu?”
“Oh, um…” My illusion must have been older than I expected. Ace was getting a kick out of this, rubbing his fingers over his mouth to hide his smile. “Water,” I muttered.
The waiter turned to Ace. “And you, sir?” I happened to glance at the back of the waiter’s neck, and right before my eyes, his skin appeared to be getting paler and paler. My heart lodged in my throat. Slowly, I looked at the rest of our table. What had appeared to be of once been a normal table of people, was now a table of frighteningly pale, ugly creatures talking amongst themselves.
“Faith?” I heard Ace vaguely ask to my left. I was too busy gawking at the thing to my right, sipping noisily from its wine glass with long, talon-like fingers. The drink was a dark red and too thick to be any sort of liquor. Blood. The creature sipped its drink. It must have felt my stare, because it looked over at me, offering me a smile with shark-like teeth. And I looked it right in its infinite black eyes.
“Hello,” it said, turning its head entirely towards me at an odd angle, like an owl shifting it’s head at inhuman angles. The creature’s nose twitched, as if it had caught my scent.
“Heather…” Now Ace had a hand clutched around my arm. “Heather, look at me.”
“I can’t,” I said softly.
“Faith, yes you can. Look at me. Breathe.”
I felt a hard pinch in my arm. I tore my eyes away from the creature, turning my head towards the warlock. I stilled, and must turned a shade whiter than the rest of the creatures at the table. The hair at the back of my neck stood up on end.
“What do you see?” Ace asked quietly.
I stared into the mismatched green eyes in front of me, which fit faultlessly into the profile of Ace’s face. I felt like I was looking at a monster peering outside from Ace’s body. I didn’t say anything in response because I was too preoccupied with what I was seeing. I think he caught on pretty quickly.
“This would happen eventually,” Ace started lowly. Ace leaned into me slightly and I panicked; clutching the dagger I had put discreetly in my lap.
“Don’t come any closer to me,” I warned. His blink was almost in slow motion, and I studied his thin vertical pupils of his exotic eyes. My paintings had now done them justice. I could only imagine how insanely alien the rest of him must have been. I had never been so scared in my life, as I was right then and there.
“You see my eyes,” Ace assumed. “You see me behind his eyes.”
“Yes,” I managed to get out evenly.
“You always find a way to spark my curiosity, cupcake.” His eyes suddenly tightened slightly into slits, and I stiffened. “I’m just sitting here, and you look like you’re going to pee yourself. I’m not going to hurt you.”
“Then stop looking at me like that,” I said sharply.
“Like what?”
“You know what you’re doing.”
“Someone’s spooked easily.” He looked more amused than ever before. “It takes two to look at each other. They’re just eyes, Faith.” No they are NOT.
I tore my gaze away from his and slammed my eyes closed. I inhaled slowly, letting out a shaky breath. I heard the slurping noises from the creature next to me fade away. When I opened my eyes, Ace’s had turned back to their normal purple shade, and the rest of the table appeared to be a group of normal people again. The table was chatting amongst themselves, as if I hadn’t almost experienced a panic attack.
“That was fun,” Ace said, “I enjoyed that immensely.”
I felt sick to my stomach. “Of course you did.”
“Easy up, cupcake. We won't have to wait much longer now."
“What exactly are we waiting for?”
“Him.” Ace finished off his wine, focusing on a particular spot over my head. Still shaking, I followed his gaze towards a large stage at the front of the ballroom.
Devin Star stood out like a flawless god in a tuxedo, amongst paparazzi, investors, employees, and elite guests in the room who I was now certain weren’t all human. “Good evening,” he commenced in a bold voice, silencing the room, “and thank you all, for joining me on this… monumental night."
* * *
WHAT DO YOU THINK IS GOING TO HAPPEN NEXT?
Don't forget to vote & comment on every chapter, if you want more!
****WANT DIMBFF TO BECOME A MOVIE OR TV SHOW?****
DON'T FORGE TO VOTE FOR DEATH IS MY BFF ON THE IF LIST. (EXTERNAL LINK)
Twitter & Instagram: Katrocks247