The Reaper

Chapter Sixteen

I woke to a dark room and sat up, looking round, yawning as I rubbed the sleep from my bleary eyes. I looked at Melissa’s sleeping form beside me and in a rush, everything from the night before came back to me, and I smiled. We had done more than simply kiss; it was as though we had not been apart for the past four hundred years.

I got up and stretched, then showered and dressed. Melissa stirred and opened her eyes as I did so.

“Morning, beautiful,” I greeted her with a smile. “Sleep well?”

“Yes, actually, considering this bed is like a rock.” she said with a smile of her own.

She got up and showered and dressed herself, then kissed me three times.

“Oh Tobias, last night was amazing!” she cried, hugging me tightly.

I chuckled in agreement.

I held her in my arms, wondering what would happen next. 

Suddenly, there was a hammering at the door and Marcus burst in.

“Quick! Come and look at the television in the reception area!” he gasped, darting out again.

We hurriedly followed him to where the small black and white TV was playing the news. A serious looking man in a suit sat staring seriously at the camera, talking in a grave tone of voice.

“. . .Per hour,” he was saying as we arrived. “The freak winds came from nowhere and have already decimated the outskirts of Mermaid Beach.” 

The camera cut to a clip of the ‘freak winds’ which was shown to be a simply enormous funnel tornado that was impossibly wide and was shown tearing up houses.

“People are asked to remain indoors and get somewhere with pipes and tie themselves to them if they cannot get underground.” the newsreader said, a flicker of fear showing on his face.

Quickly. I looked at the Lists.

“Oh this isn’t good.” I said, staring at the two hundred names that were about to die in Mermaid Beach.

“Dad, isn’t there anything we can do?” Harvey asked worriedly.

“Yes. We go there and do what we can to prevent these people from dying before their time.” I replied. 

The manager gave us a funny look before turning his attention back to the TV.

“Residents of Mermaid Beach are asked to please not panic.” he said, looking as though he would panic himself.

I looked at the Lists again and saw that our buddy Stan was about to commit suicide. I turned to him to see him pointing a gun at me. 

Oh dear. This definitely wasn’t good.

“Now. Hand over all your money and no one gets hurt.” he said slowly.

“What are ya, a bank robber?” Marcus quipped.

Stan immediately turned the gun on him.

“Shut up and hand over the money!” he said, a trace of panic entering his voice.

“Easy Stan, easy..” I said soothingly, fishing the remaining three hundred dollars from my wallet and handing them to him.

He snatched them from my fingers and shoved them in his pocket, keeping the gun trained on me, then shifting to one of the others.

“Stan. . .put the gun -”

Suddenly, he fired, the bullet hitting me in my heart. I grunted in pain and Melissa screamed and he shot her too.