Reapers (18 page)

“
I knew I’d see you again
soon,” said Mr. Patterson, glaring at Kara, “since you never came
back from your trip to the park.”

He placed his book on the counter and
made his way toward them.

“
I knew something had
happened. I had warned you, but you refused to listen. And now look
what’s happened. You’re an angel again.”

He threw his hands in the air
dramatically, and Kara could see the holes under the arms of his
plaid suit.

“
You warned me that the
dead bat was a bad omen,” said Kara as she put her hands on her
hips. “That’s all I remember—”

“
Never in all my time,”
rambled Mr. Patterson, and he began to pace about the
room.

Jenny jumped out of his way, and Peter
leaned against the wall and crossed his arms to listen.

“…
not supposed to be so
soon,” he continued, “It’s not right. The time is just not right.
It wasn’t in the future. I didn’t see it! Why didn’t I see this?
What does it mean? What does it mean?”

“
I hate to break up the
fight between yourself and
yourself
,” said David. “But we have
bigger problems. They’re called reapers. We thought—”

Mr. Patterson waved David to be quiet
and hurried over to Kara.

“
What do you mean,
that’s all you remember
?”

The cat was out of the bag. Kara
sighed. It was time to tell everyone the truth.

“
Exactly what I said. I
don’t remember anything else. I can’t remember how I died. I
thought that with time I would, but I can’t. It’s like I know my
memories are there—I
feel
them—but I just can’t reach them. Something’s
blocking me.”

Mr. Patterson’s reaction went from
disbelief, to irritation, and then to distress. Kara shifted
uneasily in his gaze. The room went still, and she could feel her
friends’ eyes on her.

“
I thought you could help
me,” she said. “You did bring back my memories once before when we
used memory projection. I thought you could try that
again?”

Mr. Patterson considered her for a
moment. “It won’t work.”

“
Why not? That sounds like
a great idea.” David looked puzzled. “Are you saying you
won’t
help
her?”

“
No, of course not,” said
Mr. Patterson, shaking his head. “Kara’s always been my charge.
She’s
my
responsibility and always has been. I’m sworn to protect
her.”

Kara blushed. She’d never heard Mr.
Patterson speak about her like this. She was pleasantly
uncomfortable. She’d discovered someone apart from her mother,
David, and her friends who cared for her. She could see that Jenny
was smiling at her.

Mr. Patterson paced the
room.

“
But it’s not the same
thing, is it?” he said to the floor, lost in thought for a moment.
“This is different. When we used the memory projection on you
before, it was to bring back your memories as a mortal and to help
you see through the
veil
of the supernatural. We projected memories onto
you as a guardian angel. That’s how it works. We used the crystal
to jump-start your memories—”

Kara was lost for words. She hadn’t
expected that response from him.

David turned to Mr.
Patterson, “But we
are
going to try it? Aren’t we?” he said.

It wasn’t a question. It was a
command.

Mr. Patterson’s face lit up. “You’re
right! Of course we are!”

The old man scurried over to his glass
case, rummaged through it, and then came rushing back with a
gleaming crystal ball.

“
If we use just the right
amount of crystal propulsion, it might work. Here we go. Remember
now, it’s going to sting a little.”

He handed the crystal to
Kara. “But whatever you do…
don’t
drop it.”

Kara
clamped her hands tightly
around the crystal ball. The glass surface was cool in her hands.
She
waited to have her brain zapped and to
feel and see from the crystal’s power. But nothing
happened.

Mr. Patterson’s face fell. “It’s what
I feared would happen.”

“
You mean
nothing
happened,” said
David angrily. Kara reached out and squeezed his arm, shaking her
head.

“
Thank you, Mr.
Patterson,” she said as she let go of David and handed the crystal
back to the old man. “It was worth a try.”

Kara felt confused. She had thought
that it might work, but now she was back to square one.

Mr. Patterson eyed Kara curiously.
“Not remembering your own death as a guardian is a serious thing,”
he said gently.

Kara sensed the fear in his
voice.

“
It is very usual, to say
the least. No, it is unheard of—”

“
Not as unusual as coming
back semi-transparent,” said Jenny.

“
Kara,” said Mr. Patterson
more urgently. “What happened that night before you died? Try to
remember. What can you see? I’m getting the sense that there’s
more. What else are you not telling me?”

She wanted to tell him about the
strange pain she felt on her back. But when she recalled that the
reaper had let her go, she feared the connection. She couldn’t talk
about it, not now, not until she knew more. She would figure it out
on her own.

“
I can’t remember,” said
Kara.

She looked away from the old man’s
stare. “And there’s nothing else to tell. I was sort of transparent
before…but I’m fine now, as you can see. The archangel Raphael
cleared me for duty, so here we are.”

She looked at David. “David is right.
We have much bigger problems.”

She turned back to Mr. Patterson.
“What do you know about reapers?”

Mr. Patterson dropped his
crystal ball. “Did—did you say…
reapers
?”

“
That’s it. The old man’s
gone senile on us,” said David. “Didn’t you hear me before? I
said
reapers
.”

Kara ignored David and bent down and
picked up the crystal ball.

“
That’s what I said. We
encountered four of them earlier. We barely made it
out.”

“
We
made it out,” said Jenny, “But we lost three of our comrades.
The reapers are brutal. They just
scythed
through the other angels
like their bodies were made of butter. It was awful.”

Kara grabbed Mr. Patterson’s hands and
shoved the crystal ball back into them.

“
We know that the
archfiends created them back when they were at war with the
archangels.” She ignored the surprised look on the old man’s face
and continued.

“
We also know that they
were defeated and imprisoned. But now their masters have sent them
back. We’re hoping you know how to defeat them.”

Mr. Patterson stood for a moment. He
made his way toward the counter and placed the crystal ball back
into the glass case. He shrugged and placed his hands on the
counter, shaking his head. “I’m sorry, but I don’t
know—”

“
Great, that’s two strikes
so far,” said David grumpily.

Kara moved toward the
counter.

“
But the legion beat the
reapers before. Surely you know of some sort of weakness, or
something we can use against them? I mean, how did they beat them
then, all those years ago?”

“
We’re not sure,” said Mr.
Patterson as he scratched his head. “When the archfiends were
banished, the reapers disappeared.”

“
Until now,” said Peter,
and everyone turned to look at him. He took off his glasses and
rubbed them with his shirt. “It’s only logical to assume that
with
their
return, the archfiends are back, too.”

Mr. Patterson’s face paled.

“
I do hope you’re wrong,
my young friend. If the archfiends are truly back…that would
mean…”

He hesitated, as if he were unwilling
to admit what he was about to say, as though it was so terrible he
couldn’t begin to say it.

“
What would it mean?”
pressed Kara.

David moved closer.

Mr. Patterson’s voice sounded
distant.

“
If the archfiends are
freed, if by some miracle they have escaped, they will destroy
everything. The world will be consumed by darkness and fire. All
life will cease to exist, on earth and in Horizon. It
means—”

“
It means that we’re in a
whole lot of trouble,” interjected David. “Like the end of the
world?”

Kara turned to Mr. Patterson. “What do
we do to stop them—?”

The bookstore’s front door
exploded open and a mob of
squat, flat-nosed, sallow-skinned creatures with
wide mouths and glowing red eyes
scurried
into the small shop.

Thick, leather-like gray
skin covered their
repulsive hairless bodies. And the entire shop smelled of
rotten flesh and dung.

“
Look here, the
Netherworld’s sent us gifts.” David’s hand slipped into his jacket.
“What are these butt-ugly rejects?”

“
Imps,” hissed Mr.
Patterson. He raised his beloved bat from behind the counter and
held it like he was about to hit a homerun.

“
So,” said David holding
his soul blade like a butcher about to carve a roast, “the
Netherworld threw up, and you guys came out, awesome.”

The largest imp growled, sending
strings of yellow spit across the floor. It held a small sword in
its hand. “Angels have always had too high an opinion of
themselves. And we’re going to put a stop to it.”

David threw back his head and
laughed.

“
It speaks! Bless the
souls! The Netherworld’s garbage can communicate. Now I’ve seen it
all.”

And then they came.

Kara just had time to draw her soul
blade as an imp with the pointy ears and squished face of a vampire
bat came at her spitting and slashing with his dagger. She blocked
him with her arm and fed him with a kick in the gut. The imp
staggered backward and howled.

There were imps everywhere, crawling
up the sides of the walls and on the ceiling like big ugly
bugs.

One hung upside down from light bulb
and hacked at Peter who dodged and blocked every blow with his
blade. Peter looked as surprised at his skill as did the
imp.

Mr. Patterson beat two imps at once
with a powerful blow with his bat. The imps hit the ground and
exploded into dust.

Jenny planted herself in front of the
counter and shot the oncoming imps like dominos, one after the
next.

David slashed and kicked his way out
of a mass of imps, like he was parting the sea.

There were too many imps to count, and
when Kara looked at the front of the shop, she could see that they
kept pouring in from the doorway. Where did they all come
from?

A sharp pain burned Kara’s leg, and
she staggered backwards. The same imp with the squished-up face had
come at her again. She sidestepped and slapped her fist into the
creature’s back, sending it flying into the wall behind her. But
the imp spun around, spat some black liquid from its mouth, and
charged again. She kicked out high and hard. There was a sickening
crack, and the imp’s head did a one-hundred-and-eighty degree turn,
and it exploded into dust.

“
Give us the key!” called
another imp with green skin and a gaping mouth. It lunged at Kara
like it hadn’t eaten in years, and she was going to be its first
meal.

Kara wasn’t about to become
imp-buffet. She stood ready and waited for the exact moment when
the imp moved in to bite her. She kicked it under the chin and
swung her blade into its back. The imp shrieked and danced
away.

Imps were everywhere, coming from all
sides. But Kara wasn’t afraid. She felt strong and empowered, as
though something inside had inspired her with new strength and
courage.

She swung her blade, madly slashing
and beating, while clouds of imp dust rose all around
her.

“
What do they want?” she
roared at Mr. Patterson over the shrieking chaos.

His plaid suit was drenched in gray
dust, and his eyes were wild, but he swung his bat with a crazed
satisfaction, as though he was secretly enjoying
himself.

“
The key,” said Mr.
Patterson as he swung his bat at an imp who had tried to sneak up
behind him. The imp detonated into a gray mess.

“
The key? What key?” said
Kara, dodging another imp who came at her with a sword.

“
I think I heard one of
them mention a key.”

Mr. Patterson didn’t answer. He kept
swinging his bat and yelling at the imps for destroying his
bookstore.

The same imp came at her again,
thrashing his sword madly. She stepped back and rammed her blade
into its chin and thrust it up into its brain. The imp’s body
burst, and for a moment Kara was blinded by the dust in her
eyes.