The Reaping

It was around 4:00 pm when there was a knock on the door.

“Anya, I think someone’s at the door,” my mom yelled from the bathroom.

“Don’t worry, mom. I’ll check!” I said, rushing to the entrance. I felt the hairs on my back stand the second my eyes met with the visitor’s.

“It’s time, Anya.”

“My mother has been sick since you brought her back.”

“I don’t recall you asking me to bring her back healthy.”

I clenched the door and grit my teeth. Demons and their loopholes.

“Oh, don’t worry too much. I actually have a proposition this time.”

Those words made my skin crawl. “What do you want?”

“I’ll let you keep your soul if you help me kill a reaper.”

My eyes widened without me even realising it. “A demon wants a human’s help to kill a reaper? What kind of joke is that?”

“It’s no joke. Your soul has a unique energy—one wrapped with energy strong enough to kill a reaper.”

“So why not just take my soul like you wanted to and harness it?”

“That energy cannot be absorbed once you’re dead; you have to use it yourself. And don’t get any funny ideas: killing me breaks the contract, and your mom goes back to being dead.”

Something about the way things were playing out was gnawing at my brain. I then realised something. “Wait, you knowing so much about my ‘special energy’ only now is a little too convenient.”

The demon chuckled. “You’ve caught me. I knew from the start that you were special. That’s why I made your mom sick.”

My blood was boiling. It was as if I could hear my heart pounding in my head.

“Calm down, Anya. Save that energy for the reaper.”

The demon said he’d be back in two hours to hear my answer and vanished into black fumes. I then heard the bathroom door open as well. Mom asked me who it was; I told her it was just a travelling salesman. I went back to my room and locked the door to catch my breath. So much had happened in just a few minutes and I was still trying to wrap my head around it all. But one thing still troubled me: what was my connection to reapers?

My mom was very fond of supernatural topics, and reapers were one of the more common subjects we had books about as well. I was suspicious. I decided to take some books from the rack and go through them. After an hour, I stumbled upon something both interesting and alarming. It was about when reapers mate with humans. It said half-reaper/half-human offspring were often born with potent soul energy—one that rivalled that of reapers’ themselves. It also said the only thing that could kill a reaper was another reaper or their offspring.

“I… I’m part reaper?”

My heart was back to racing in no time as I realised what the demon’s intentions were most likely to be: was he trying to have me kill my father? I decided to confront my mom about it and rushed into her room.

“Mom, is my father a reaper?”

“What are you talking about, hon?”

“You died, mom; and I brought you back through a demon deal. Now, that same demon wants to let me keep my soul, but in return, I have to kill a reaper. So, please, tell me: is my father a reaper?”

“Oh, my god… Hon, you shouldn’t have done that.”

“I’m sorry for being reckless, but we’ll have to warn dad if the demon is targeting him.”

Mom’s eyes filled with tears as she took in a deep breath. “Yes, your father is a reaper. And don’t worry, I have a way of contacting him.”

Mom pulled out her chain and held the pendant. “This can summon him, but we need to perform a spell.”

Mom taught me the spell, and we quickly chanted it to summon my dad. Within seconds, he appeared in a grey mist. He was a towering being, cloaked from head to toe. As he pulled back his cowl, I was dumbfounded: he was pale, and bore black eyes that looked as if they mirrored the night sky.

“Rana, why have you summoned me? You know the council has forbidden us from seeing each other.”

“Frayos, this is your daughter.”

He stepped back as his eyes widened. “What?”

“I’m sorry, but we have little time to explain things.”

We told him what had happened. He thanked us for summoning him and asked me to summon the demon right away. Mom and I drew a trapping sigil for the demon and summoned him right away. The demon’s face distorted with rage as he realised he had been betrayed. But he was powerless in the sigil, and my dad reaped him as he struggled to break free. Dad waited a bit longer with us before saying he needed to get back to work. He promised to see us again soon.