My Soul to Reap (Archived)

I Walked With A Zombie

Rina led us through the winding city, earning a few strange looks as we passed. After all, neither of the reapers made the normalest of sights, and the relatively normal-looking girl trailing after them probably didn't do much to help. I was a little surprised at how well she seemed to know the streets, veering off at sharp turns and eventually heading out of the city heart. It seemed like we'd been walking for a good ten minutes when she finally found a bus stop and stopped, spinning on her heel and tapping her foot impatiently.

There was the clear plastic enclosure like every bus stop had, and the fact it seemed a little out of the way didn't faze me too much. After all, there had to be a reason for the bus stop, right? Even if the ads plastered over the walls seemed like they came straight out of a horror movie. My minds was on things other than the strange faces on the ads, though. I was still a little shocked from the busyness of the past hour, but Rina seemed unaffected. She'd gone from the concerned friend in Brie's house to a ball of energy again, chattering on completely oblivious to the wide berth the few people around us had given her. But when she talked to Brie it was like talking to a brick wall, since the other girl only stood with a hand on her hip with her eyes roving around, trying to ignore Rina. I shot a few people apologetic glances before realizing it wouldn't do much good. I sighed instead, clasping my hands behind my back and trying to spot a glance of the bus. I obviously had no idea where we were going, but I figured if we were going on a bus with this many people it couldn't be too bad. That was, until I overheard a snippet of someone else's conversation.

"...two reapers," someone hissed, and I turned just slightly enough to be able to hear without tipping them off that I was listening. I couldn't even see who they were.

"I don't know what they'd be doing here," the second voice replied. It was two girls, I could tell that much, even though that's all the information I had on them. After all, age is hard to place with just a voice.

"I hope they aren't going to see Kayin," I perked up a little at that, because I had a feeling we were in fact going to see Kayin. It felt like the thing Rina would do, skip into some powerful person's house and politely ask for help no matter how bad of an idea it would be.

"I hope they leave." I tuned out after that, since the topic changed to some movie I'd yet to see. Just as I was about to walk over to the two girls and ask why exactly someone would know what they were, the bus we'd all been waiting for roared around the corner. Quite literally, since the engine was making an inordinate amount of sound. Rina jumped up and scurried to where it would come to a stop, dragging Brie behind her and leaving me to follow. I was able to shoot a glance to the two girls, only to find twin yellow eyes staring back at me. I shivered, mentally cursing unnatural eye colours and firmly deciding that I would never speculate about having eyes any colour other than my own dull hazel. I was too scared to look at the other people around me, too worried they would all mirror the attentive stares of the two girls.

If Rina noticed the effect she was having, she didn't show it. She jogged up the steps and waved a pass at the burly man behind the wheel, and he let all three of us on without complaint. The bus was empty, the hard seats with peeling cushions clearly visible. I sat in the corner closest to the door, wanting to be as far away from the other people as possible. Brie sat beside me and Rina beside her, and a few minutes later the bus had filled up and we were moving. Rina had become thankfully quiet, frowning down at a cellphone that I realized with only slight surprise was bright pink with a case filled with bows. I shook my head, not about to question it. It was like Brie said, you just got used to it after a while.

"They're voodoo witches," Brie whispered in my ear, and I jumped at the sudden sound, trying not to look around wildly only to find the two girls she was staring it. It was the same two who had been talking about her earlier, although now they seemed more preoccupied with each other.