Page 19 of Vexed
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Vex
As I step out of Crimson Domain, I see Adimus walking towards me with a shit eating grin on his face.
Kill me now.
“Someone has been a good boy these past few days.” He says, coming to a halt in front of me.
I scoff, “Yeah, well, I don’t really have a choice now, do I?”
These last couple of days have been absolute hell. I haven’t gone back to see Lily and it’s been eating me alive. Ophiel still has some reapers keeping an eye on me.
I’ve been tapping on my hourglass all day, wishing it was playing a prank on me. But unfortunately, it’s no game when it comes to death. Lily’s hourglass has been running out faster than I thought. I’m fucking losing my mind.
I’ve tried sneaking through to the Human Realm, but there’s more reapers guarding it so there’s no point.
Just as Adimus goes to speak, a vision of a dying soul flashes across my vision. I hold up a finger to him, causing his mouth to clamp shut.
“Duty calls,” I say with a sigh before making my way to the realm door.
The biting wind whipped around me as I materialized on the grimy street corner, a familiar chill settling in my bones. Typical Saturday night gig. Just the rustling of unseen creatures in the alleyways and the distant howl of a dog to break the silence. The usual soundtrack of death.
But then I saw her.
Lying there. In the dark. Bathed in the sickly yellow light of a flickering streetlamp.
Lily.
My Lily.
My scythe clattered to the ground, the metallic clang echoing in the silence. My chest constricted, an impossible ache blooming in my nonexistent heart. Blood. So much of it. Staining the pavement, soaking into her clothes. Fuck, fuck, fuck.
Rage, a searing, blinding inferno, threatened to consume me. I knelt, hands trembling, and checked for a pulse. Faint. Too faint. Her breath hitched, shallow and ragged.
“No, no, no,” I rasped.
My fingers scrabbled for the hourglass. The sands were running out, a furious, desperate trickle. I couldn’t let it happen.
I hurled the glass against the brick wall of a nearby building. It shattered, the delicate sand scattering through the air like confetti.
I’ve never felt so hopeless in my entire existence.
Please.
Don’t fucking leave me.
I knew her end was sooner than anyone would expect a human to live, but this wasn’t the way she deserves to die.
I cradled her head in my hands, my touch as gentle as I could manage. I had broken so many rules already, what was one more? I closed my eyes, focusing, and slipped into her mind.
It was a jumbled mess of pain and terror. And then I saw them. Four figures, looming over her, faces twisted with malice. They were shouting, shoving, their words lost in the cacophony of violence, but their intent was clear.
I watched, helplessly as they struck her, leaving her crumpled on the ground before pinning her down and ripping her clothes open.
The rage intensified, a volcanic eruption threatening to tear me apart.
I yanked the memory from her mind, severing the threads that bound it to her consciousness. Gone. As if it never happened.
I kissed her forehead, brushing the back of my hand across her blood streaked cheek. “I got you, darling.”
Standing, I dusted off my robe and grabbed my scythe from the ground. The street felt colder, the air thicker. The familiar emptiness of my being filled with a purpose darker and more primal than anything I had ever known.
I suddenly heard some chattering in the distance and I could see a couple coming down the street. They would help Lily so I can melt some fucking faces.
Those men… they wouldn’t just face death. They would face me .
I knew where they were. Lily’s fear and pain had left a trail, a dark echo in the fabric of reality itself. I followed it, each step fueled by a burning need to tear them limb from limb.
Tonight, I wasn’t just the Grim Reaper. I was something far more dangerous, and I was coming for them.
It didn’t take me long to find them. They were chatting and drinking in a playground a few blocks from where I found Lily.
I watched the playground, a smirk forming on my lips. How ironic.
I slowly walked over, the gravel crunching softly under my boots. They didn’t even notice me at first, too engrossed in whatever drunken bullshit they were spewing. I cleared my throat, a low, rumbling sound. They all looked up, bleary-eyed and confused.
“Gentlemen,” I said, my voice smooth. “Having a good time?”
They squinted at me, trying to gauge my presence. “Who the hell are you?” one of them slurred, a big guy with a ratty beard.
I offered a small, almost polite, smile. “Let’s just say I’m here to collect a debt.”
Their confusion deepened. Good. Let them be confused. Let them regret everything in their last moments.
Before any of them could string together a coherent sentence, I freed my robe.
It was almost effortless. The shadows, always lurking just beneath my skin, surged forward.
Like liquid night, they detached from me, snaking across the playground towards the nearest guy, a skinny one with a nervous twitch.
He yelped, a strangled sound, as the shadows coiled around his legs.
He tried to scramble away, but the tendrils were too fast, too strong. They tightened, pulling him, inch by agonizing inch, towards me. The others finally snapped out of their drunken state.
“What the...?!” the bearded guy roared, scrambling to his feet. But it was too late. The shadows had their grip.
They dragged the skinny guy closer and closer, a look of pure terror contorting his face.
He clawed at the dirt, his fingernails scraping uselessly against the metal of the climbing frame.
He was thrashing violently now, but the shadows wouldn’t let go.
They were an extension of me, of my will, and they were unwavering.
He was halfway to me by now, the others scrambling back from the terrifying display.
“Help me!” He howled, his voice cracking with fear.
I just watched, my expression unreadable. The remaining three were paralyzed, a mixture of terror and disbelief etched on their faces.
As the shadow dragged him to my feet, I looked down at the pathetic creature, his eyes wide with a plea I would never answer. The air around us crackled, filling with a cold, antiseptic scent. He opened his mouth to scream, but I cut him off.
I forced my hand into his mouth, grabbing a hold of his tongue before ripping it out. Blood splattered all over me and I couldn’t help but relish in the power that courses through my veins.
Multiple screams from the others echo through the air as they start scrambling, trying to get away.
There’s no escaping me. Not tonight.
I let go of him and he falls to the ground with a thud. I toss his severed tongue beside him before locking eyes with the bearded fucker. His eyes widen as he realizes he’s next.
As he turns to run, I materialize in front of him and he crashes into me. Without giving him a second to plead, I grip both my hands around his neck and rip his head right off his shoulders.
The fury running through me is blinding me for any reason. They hurt her. They fucking hurt her. Now I’m going to do the same.
It’s against the Reaper Code for any reaper to cause harm to a human, and I know that there’s no going back after this—but no one lays a finger on her and thinks they’ll get away with it.
Revenge is fucking sweet.
I turn my attention to the last two cowards running down the street, screaming for help and a sinister smile widens across my lips as my shadows catch up to them, wrapping around their throats, silencing them before dragging them back.
Their terrified gazes lock on me as they’re dropped at my feet.
I flash them a wicked smile, “Tsk, I’m not done yet.”