So Shall I Reap (6 page)

He had swooped in so fast, it made both ears pop. Seemingly stable, no longer deaf, I stood in front of him ready to face whatever was coming out of the trees. Being so close felt unnatural. Yet, his intentions were obviously focused on me. He didn’t want to hurt me at all. I knew that now. His purpose was protection against the demons coming for me. Another sharp cracking came from behind and a soft flutter of air brushed past as his lean, muscular arms embraced me. Excitement in the form of chills started at the crown of my head and rippled down making each rib vibrate. The sensation continued down each extremity, and when leaning into him, I found strength and safety in his shadowy influence.

The sound of feet heading our way on bare ground made me think of shod horses. He stomped his right foot, and one of his arms wrapped possessively around my waist. His other arm rested on the hilt of something thin, old. The object had been made of dark marble with silver thorned vines curving down the handle. In its resting state, a low thrum of power hummed.

My eyes widened as five creatures, similar to my seven-foot-tall protector, were in front of us. The one farthest to our left shuffled his feet and outstretched his wings. Directly in front, this demon curled his torn dragon-like wings and bowed from his waist as a display of allegiance. I was positive his submissive nature was not on my account. The other two, to my right, followed the same gesture, wings curled, heads lowered. Next, the remaining creature stepped forward and extended his wings and arms, dropping his frame down hard on the ground. When his face twisted in pain, the one I leaned against growled, making me want to run and hide. He slammed the stick, burying the bottom into the ground next to me. The cracking along the earth echoed through our surrounding area and the five creatures bent lower.

“I expect more respect from my kind, especially one from my clan.” His words were soft but menacing and it almost made me pee myself. My body shook uncontrollably from the inside out. He shifted me to his other arm and spun the scythe blade around me with lightning speed as if he had conjured it out of thin air.
My goodness, he was fast.

The middle character broke his stare from the ground and said, “You are the only one we answer to. We continue to harvest the souls and fulfill our River’s needs without question.” Then he sucked in a quick breath. “We are supposed to obey what the Cauldron requests of us, no more.” The air moved faster after he spoke again. The others were clearly in pain. The demon protecting me seemed to have control of them. I should have taken comfort in his defense, but found myself scared out of my mind.

One of the demons spoke, “Brother, we will continue to suffer and fight others until she chooses.” He pointed to me. “You must open her eyes and release us from going against our nature. We take souls. It’s not our place to protect them. Death cannot watch over and protect life. The clan grows weary of this task.”

Another one spoke in a bleary tone, “I wish to be relieved from soul sitting and stick to what I do best. Death seeks out and collects the dead. From the moment Vessels take their first breath, the metronome of their life ticks down.” He appeared determined to get his point across and lowered his face to hide the anger. “Time is their debt. Death becomes their payment.”

Throat muscles tightened, choking me in guilt. The creature’s head snapped up and eyes pierced me as if he had yelled,
Stop.
His features revealed a feeling of betrayal, wanting to challenge
my
demon’s decisions. The reason for the tension between them was murky, other than the fact that they seemed to be talking about me.

I suspected that shifting feet and arcing wings indicated restlessness among the ones in the half circle. Murmurs of their disagreements were deafening. The protector held me tighter as his laugh lightly prickled down my neck. A new feeling of warmth filled my heart. Caring less about what took place in front of him, his focus remained on me.

“I didn’t ask for this.” He raised a hand to intertwine his fingers into the strands of hair, lifting them up to his face. Inhaling my scent provided information only he could interpret. I was his and only his. Those mesmerizing eyes raked over every inch of me, making me hurt all over, stirring a sleeping woman inside my teenage body. His salt and pepper wings sounded heavy as they flapped behind his back. The grass underneath me began to decompose and the ground became stone as though life was drained from his presence. My bare feet became colder than they had been, and I noticed frost had formed under them. “It did not start out this way. I was given a job other than reaping. We should be thankful for her existence because it changed our mundane way of seeing death.”
What did my existence have to do with them?
I filed the question in a mental drawer for later while he continued to explain to the others, “We do not comprehend most emotions. We do not have a soul. We are doomed to negativity and tied by demise. I cannot explain the force or pull she has on me.”

His words sounded hollow and desperate with need, creating heartache. I wanted to help but couldn’t shake the jaws of doubt gnawing from within. We seemed to forget about the clan of demons encircling us. Their voices drifted away, smearing together both sight and sound. The disappearing forest continued to be consumed by the crackling fires eating away the edges of my imagination. I craned to meet his face, and he met my gaze, then raised both of his hands. With a feather touch, his fingers traced over my bloodstained face. Clearly embarrassed, I didn’t understand why anyone would want to touch my face looking as I did. He slowly bent down, lips grazing my left earlobe.

When he came back into view, I didn’t think his eyes could become darker than the black mirrors I’d seen earlier, but the coolness of his stare captivated me as he spoke. “Alexcia, you are my treasure. I will never allow anything to happen to you.”

Flames and darkness served as a reminder of the future we faced. Resting both forearms around my middle and feeling defeated, I shuddered. Filling in my view with his unreadable stare, he then glanced away briefly and whispered, “I wonder if a soulless creature is worthy to be bound by a heart, tied to a soul? Yet, as you stand there looking at me, I continue seeing the eyes of the child I once knew. Do you still want to offer me your soul?”

Without hesitation, sorrow for him exploded inside my chest. Thin lines of ink trailed down his cheeks, and I reached up to caress his face while pulling him closer for a chance to kiss his lips. Even for a moment, to give him a taste of my soul.

How did I know him?

I hadn’t grasped the words he spoke, let alone the feelings I had for him. Without conscious control over my voice, it answered him for me, “I can only choose what is right and pure. This is my only function. My heart is all the power I can give you right now.” I was unsure what I meant, but he smiled at me. The other creatures formed a tighter circle around us and their wings appeared to be dripping hot silver acid that melted into what looked like cloaks made of the same black mist rising from the ground. Without notice, I found myself wrapped within two massive wings.

His wings sizzled as he pulled me into his icy embrace, leaning in to whisper against the inner part of my ear, “They say love knows no bounds. Death only has one boundary, and you cross over it when your heart stops. But written in the Unseen scrolls, it states this one emotion will last even after the breath ceases.”

With his trail of words still lingering against the inside curvature of my ear, my composure disappeared. The blankets were wrapped tight around me like a cocoon. If I didn’t know better, I would have sworn it had snowed in the room overnight. Shadows were thick and barricaded the bedroom and closet doors. No escape from the nightly terrors. Rubbing the grit from each lash, I unwrapped from the cocoon of covers, followed by flopping one leg at a time to the floor. My mind was clouded in the thick fog making it difficult to push off the bed. I wasn’t sure if I’d ever been so weak and chilled from sweating. An overwhelming need washed over me to open the drapes and cleanse the bedroom from the unknown with the glow from the streetlights. His presence remained in the room with me. Turning slowly from the window, it felt as if I were wearing lead shoes. Pushing their weight toward the mirror, I was horrified at the face gaping back at me. I leaned closer to try and comprehend what the glass was telling me. Two small, dried streams of red gleamed on my cheeks. I was frozen in a nonexistent moment of time. My breath caught as I gasped… and woke up.

Forcing My Character To Be…

N
onconformist: one who does not conform

O
ddball: an eccentric

R
are: marked by unusual quality, merit, or appeal

M
aniacal: affected with or suggestive of madness

A
nomalous: deviating from what is usual

L
unatic: wildly foolish

~Alexcia

Well, it was official, the night was ruined. I popped my head up while strapping on Mom’s high heels as the sense of direction alarm went off between both ears. We were heading in the wrong direction to the party. My head whipped around to stare at Tod, who was singing an off-key version of “Enter Sandman.” He loved the metal songs from the eighties, said the drumming made his truck sound more monster-like. The second chorus started playing when he finally noticed I wasn’t getting ready, and he looked disappointed when he realized I was staring a hole through his brain.

“What?” he yelled over the guitars and drums.

“You want to clue me in why we aren’t heading over to Scotty’s place?” I had to raise my voice an octave to be heard over the gritty, deep singing.

We were traveling up Charleston and had passed one of the local hotel/casinos. Luckily we stopped at a red light before getting on the 215. Flipping his bottle-blond bangs while chewing on his tongue, he gauged a reply. “Nope, it’ll just start a fight. You’ll see soon enough where we’re going. I don’t want you to start acting all pissy.” He motioned with his head at my shoes, pointing out the other one wasn’t on yet.

I unfastened the shoe and tossed it onto the black floor mat in front of my seat and stared out the window. No way was I getting ready while not knowing where we were going. Instead, I would remain in the truck, call one of my friends to come pick me up and hang out with them.

The unbuckled seatbelt made the final point with a defiant click, and I swished it away in a nonchalant move. Gracefully, I reached for the borrowed purse and started digging for the metallic green get-out-of-jail free card. When I found it, I grabbed my lip gloss too. After tossing the bag back in between bare feet, I set the phone down in the middle cup holder and leaned forward to grab onto the rearview mirror. Tilting it toward me, I applied a thin coat of gloss, nice and methodically. Tod got a small preview of what he would be missing tonight if he kept up this caveman act. He was going to learn… I was a person, not a prize. Both were P words but hardly interchangeable. Plus, I was making a point. He hated it when anyone touched or moved anything in his truck. I was now in violation of one of the top five major Tod rules and was hoping he hit a bump and the damn thing broke off.

Giving back some Ka-cha, I smiled wider at the thought and almost brushed the stick of gloss across my front two teeth.
Ka-cha is a secret word I made up in place of karma.
I let go of the mirror without repositioning it and wiggled back into the seat. Using my left hand, I reached over methodically pulling the seat belt across the front of my blouse, making sure the click was loud… an exclamation point. After a quick side glance, I noticed he was ready to listen. Tod had begun to simmer in the driver’s seat while turning two shades of red.

“Damn it, Lex-Cee. You know I need to see in back of the truck. You should’ve been ready before I even pulled up into your driveway. Why do you always insist on making a presentation?” The oncoming headlights highlighted his jaw muscle as it twitched. Maybe his brain was on overdrive from so many sentences linked together. “You know how I feel about that. Plus, we planned to go out together tonight. So does it really matter where we’re going as long as we’re together?” He carefully moved the rearview mirror back into position, his face still holding a look of annoyance.

Anger was one emotion that worked against me because it brought these itchy, red-blotchy welts on my face and neck with it. Smooth pale skin became one color that blended in with the fire red hair strands. Then my best feature would go dry and that made it hard for me to spit the gritty words out. Tonight, I was proud to say, was not one of those nights. I started to feel prickly heat from the welts forming, but he was in my sights as I unhinged for rapid fire.

Narrowing both eyes to black slits, like one of those angry Emoticons you use in text, I exploded. “What the hell, Tod? All I asked was where we were going. You had to be all 1950s and pull the
little woman doesn’t need to know
routine. Who and what makes you so superior to me anyway? I like you, Tod, I really do, but I think it’s time to call this what it is. You’re a Neener-Wad.” I completely failed at making up polite curse words because of trying to curb the cussing scale. Unfortunately, the words sounded like playground language at a preschool. “I would call you something else, but you’re not worth me lowering several I.Q. points to speak jock.”
Oh, my goshness. Did I just do that? Wait? Did I threaten to no longer see him? Okay, maybe now I know why I can’t peel my tongue off the roof of my mouth in an argument. It’s the body’s way of making me shut up before something stupid comes out. Not thinking before you speak always comes back to haunt you, like the Internet, once it’s out there, you can never completely delete it.

It wasn’t as if my heart had a one-way door, revolving was more like it. But I was nowhere near ready for a leash and collar. At school, the boys called me the Eight-Second Girl. If I didn’t throw you off while you tried to break me, I might stick around for a while. I knew Tod’s hands were getting chafed from the ride. The kisses were good but in all honesty, I was getting tired of trying to buck him off.

We stopped at another red light. In the glow, he appeared to be concentrating on something as I watched him slowly nod to himself.
This is it; I opened the door of opportunity.
With Tod zoned out, the truck seemed to accelerate through the intersection on its own. Driving the speed limit, I seriously thought he was going to drop me off at the next corner. To my shock, he did something entirely out of character.

Tod used the steering wheel to help shuck out of his letterman’s jacket, and he tossed it at me while clearing his throat. Both hands gripped the wheel until his knuckles were white. He stared out the windshield, sighing with a heaviness so palpable it vibrated throughout the cab. Tod really appeared vulnerable, setting off every worry sensor, mimicking that high-pitched, balloon ear squeal.

“You really feel that way? Because I don’t. I was hoping you would start wearing my jacket tonight and make us official. But I didn’t want to ruin the mood by telling you where we were going right off. I already had a feeling you weren’t going to be excited about it. Unfortunately, now I know you’re really not going to like it.” He took his left hand off the steering wheel and massaged the back of his neck. Tod must have been feeling the onset of an Alexcia headache coming on.

I found myself staring at him, similar to a deer’s disbelieving look just before a vehicle takes its legs out. Thank goodness, I was still sitting in the truck. Unspoken words floated in the air around me… intertwining with his. Did the insinuation of,
we should stop seeing each other
get lost in translation somehow?

“Yeeesss…” was my only response as I stared at his jacket. It smelled of AXE body wash and spray. The frown deepened, shifting my gaze from his jacket to his eyes. Then, I remembered where I had stuffed patience. It was getting moldy sitting in the untouched morals box. I stopped the first of many responses before saying something I would regret.

“Got a text from Scott tonight. He’s laid up with the flu. Party’s off.” He cleared his throat again. “We were invited to another party, but I had turned her down because I knew we already had plans to hang with Scott.” He eyed me in his peripheral vision so he could still drive and watch my reactions.

Tod hadn’t said whose party yet, but he continued, “A lot of people are going tonight, and I hear she has a local band performing.”
No name yet.
“No parents, just her older brother from college hanging around watching us, so to speak. He’s visiting while on spring break. Picked up a couple of kegs for his sister’s party too, showing he’s cool with it. So, what do you say?”

A keg or two is good, but I still don’t know who she is yet.

“Do you still want to go? No pressure. We can hang out for a while and see how it goes. When the night is over, if you still feel the same way, you can hand me back the jacket. I’ll understand.”

Okay, I was so getting punk’d. The hidden camera had to be in one of the radio knobs or maybe the handle of the glove box. I didn’t want to give the impression I was on TV, or blow my fifteen seconds of fame on a YouTube video titled
Girl Freaks out over Commitment
. He had sounded too understanding during the last part of his little speech. Tod Ronald Isaac Peston was, after all, captain of the lacrosse team, one of the top twenty heartthrobs at the school, and a first-class jerk jock. Well, the last part I ad-libbed because I was still ticked, sort of. Listening to others was not his strong suit. Our conversation had turned uncomfortable. He knew I was a
just wanna have fun girl,
not
you’re mine and only mine
commitment one. I felt the need to start putting my shoes back on. Plus, I was still skeptical about why he hadn’t told me where we were heading.

“Tod, whose party are we supposedly going to? The beginning of this fight all started because you avoided that one question. I will make this simple for you, and I will say it slow.” The words came out bitchy, but the seriousness of the night had turned
carefree party girl
into
broom up her ass witch
. That led me to stir the conversation with sarcasm, “Whose… party… are… we… going… to?” It’s good to know a second language. Actually, I was pretty versed in jockisms. Dated a few football players, two from the basketball team and one wrestler. He hadn’t lasted long, always tried to pin me before he’d kiss me.
What can I say? I like variety. When you buy a dozen donuts, you don’t stick with only one flavor? Yeah, I thought so. See? Variety.

I did have a little secret though, one that none of the boys in school knew, not even Tod. I was still one hundred percent pure, meaning if I were to walk down the aisle, white would adorn this body even though I preferred the look of different colored wedding gowns. Even black would technically work. Virginity still hung on my key ring. No one would unlock that without my say-so.
My legs weren’t unhinged in that sense.

Tod was turning the black beast with slime green roll bars off the freeway. We still needed to stop at a convenience store before reaching our destination, which I was still clueless about. Miffed and squirming, the seat belt kept locking up. Even the truck made sure I didn’t bolt. Agitated, I craved a smoke.

When he pulled into a Circle K Mini-Mart, Tod revved the truck’s engine at everyone to move or be eaten. His jaw clenched and unclenched as he parked, mulling over a decision to end his standoff with me and surrender. Cutting the monster’s power, the cab light came on, and we fell into silence. Tod unbuckled his seat belt and opened the driver side door. Sliding out, when his feet hit the pavement, he turned to face me but shamefully looked away. He sighed in defeat. “Stellerback invited us.”

He slammed the door. Hearing her name had sucked all the sarcastic words from my arsenal. The welts immediately began forming at the base of my neck as I tried to rationalize the situation I was being driven into unwillingly. Did I have enough time to place a call and say I’d been kidnapped? Tod was absolutely right about me not wanting to go. His ex-girlfriend had invited us to one of her bashes? Krista Gene Stellerback was not known for backing down when she wanted something, or, in this case, someone. She wanted Tod back. Everyone in the school knew it but Tod. He had broken it off three months ago, and it burned her pom-poms to ash because she hadn’t done it first.

He didn’t do it for me. We had the same math class but sat on opposite sides of the room, never even once said
hi
. Actually, he never even looked in my direction. When he first spoke to me, we were attending a small get-together. At that party, we were pretty hammered and stepped outside for air at the same time, so we sat on the front porch steps talking. It was then he told me about feeling smothered by Krista’s presence. Tod’s leash to freedom had been replaced with her hands around his slip chain choker. He was tired of being her lap dog. Other than going to practice, his job, and games, she had acted like she was his master instead of his girlfriend. In his drunken stupor, he shared with me why he’d stayed with her for almost eleven months.
Let’s just say, he got her key. It was a duplicate, but it still fit in her lock.
Knowing that about Tod made me sick. When I got to know him better, I chalked it up to poor judgment. Yeah, Stellerback was only stellar to the boys when she was flat on her back. I laughed at my character stripping attempt of a joke.

When I caught sight of the convenience store door swinging out, Tod appeared from behind a couple who was laughing. I found myself shaking my head slowly at him as he rounded the truck on the driver’s side. He looked put out. The clerk must have questioned his fake I.D. because he was only holding up a pack of smokes and a couple of twelve packs of Coke.