Grim

Chapter 18 - Coaxing a Fire

I'm not sure what the angel meant. Reapers never sleep. Death happens at every hour of the night, and we must be there. I do remember dreams the way you remember bits and pieces of your life when you were too small to venture out on your own. Hazy recollection of a part of my life I wish I could experience again. Similar to my memmories of Venice.

The list gives me another destination. A desert in the Middle East. Upon arrival I notice that the sand beneath my feet is in a swirl pattern. The power of my teleportation has strengthened with the increase in the amount of souls within, but this can't be possible can it? First the lightning and now the teleportation is having an effect on the real world? I must try this again. There is a mound around 20 feet away. I teleport to it. The mound is dispersed with the same swirl pattern beneath my feet. Weird. I'm not sure if this could give me some sort of advantage, but perhaps there are other aspects of this reaper body that could manifest themselves in the real world.

I lie face down in the sand near some dry brush that is barely hanging on. A strong wind would lift it from it's spot in the ground, but there is no wind here. I focus all my frustrations and anger into a tight ball within myself. I draw from the other souls who resent being dead. The anger comes easily to me as if it has been waiting for my call. Much of it seems to be against heaven, Remiel in particular. It builds and builds until I can no longer contain it. The blast of fire and heat from my eye sockets surprises me with it's ferocity.

It leaves me temporarily blind. After a few moments my vision returns, but the dry brush is gone. It disintegrated in the blast. The ground looks like a pool of glass. Did the sand melt under the intensity of the fire? Clapping interrupts my thoughts.

"Impressive Reaper Thomas. Congratulations!" I turn to see Ornias floating a few feet above the sand.

Part of me wants to ask the demon for help, but that urge has to be from the other souls within. I know for a fact that no demon can be trusted. Involuntarily I settle for "Thank you Ornias."

The demon looks surprised at this response. "Well that is new. Perhaps this plan isn't as foolish as others have tried to convince me." His smile deepens.

"What are you talking about Ornias?"

"Oh nothing. Nothing that should be any concern of yours anyway. I wonder what Remiel is going to do about you though. That should concern you. He didn't look too happy when he teleported back to Heaven."

He's hiding something, but when isn't a demon hiding something. "Remiel knows about our deal."

The demon smiles again. "That is for certain. I doubt he knows the details of the deal. It's an innocent one, but he doesn't know that. He might suspect that you had something to do with the tampering of the lists."

"You and I know that isn't true!"

"True or not, I'm happy to let him continue to believe it. He wouldn't believe me if I told him the truth anyway." The demon gives me a toothy smile. "Did he tell you about the wager he had with me?"

An angel gambling? "What does that have to do with anything?"

"Well my dear Thomas. He approached me with the idea. He was confident that you would choose Heaven. He told me that your actions had always been honorable as a reaper and that it was only a matter of time before you broke your neutrality to side with the angels. I, of course, begged to differ. If anything I saw you to be reasonable and pragmatic. You have noticed that the list for those going to hell had been growing while the one for those going to heaven has been shrinking. Have you not?"

"Yes. I have noticed that at times the list for Heaven is not always full."

"I proposed that you would choose to join the winning side because of your pragmatic nature. It is only a matter of time before overwhelming numbers will give my side an advantage. Think about it reaper. Think of all of the other reapers there are, and think about how they are seeing similar numbers. Now multiply that number by how many reapers there are."

"I get it. Get to the point."

"Ah yes. Well I thought Remiel was being a bit presumptuous, so I proposed a small wager. That wasn't good enough for the angel. He wanted to up the stakes to the point where even I was a bit nervous. I couldn't resist a juicy bet though. One of my own failings you see."

"What was the wager demon? Stop dancing around it."

"My dear reaper, the wager is over whether you will choose Heaven or Hell."

"I know that! What do you stand to lose or gain based on my choice?"

"That is my business reaper. Must I share everything with you? Besides, now that you've made an enemy of Remiel, do you think Heaven will accept you once he tells the other angels? Ah here we go. You should get back to work reaper."

A young girl is running across the sand dodging the dry brush as she runs. She steps on some sort of explosive device that detonates. Her body is sliced to pieces by the shrapnel. I go to collect her soul as she bleeds out.