Grim

Chapter 14 - Soul Collecter

The black smoke swirls around me as I arrive. This time a parking garage greets me with it's fluorescent lights. One of them is blinking at me as if it is trying to show me something important. I teleport forward to the flickering light. Still no body, no soul, no blood, and no screaming. Am I too late?

A scratching noise draws my attention to the right. Demons. Shadows jump behind a column. I teleport there to see a man with his throat ripped out. Blood spattered across the wall with long skinny hairs flowing off the main blotch reaching for the ground. The scratching continues on the other side of the red Cadillac parked next to the body.

I go around the vehicle to see a hell hole with demons clawing at a soul. I pull out my staff. A foul black smoke creeps around in circles at the edge of the hell hole. If you stare at the smoke you can see what looks like screaming faces and demonic images rotating. Glowing in red just under the smoke are the thirteen runes that were used to create the hole. Three demons are dragging the soul towards the hole.

I spring into action jumping in between the demons and the hell hole. The three demons have black smoky bodies similar to the smoke by the hell hole. Instead of forming screaming faces, the smoke forms limbs and fingers. These are younger demons who haven't learned yet how to fully make themselves appear human. They are able to make approximations of human faces, but with long fangs. I thrust the staff through the body of the nearest demon. It squeals like a small animal who got it's tail caught in a blender. I pick it up and fling the foul beast down the hell hole. The other two abandon their prey to try to flank me. I back up closer to the hell hole. One of the demons gets too close to the hole. I strike like a viper. A second demon down the hole. The third demon runs off.

I pick up the poor soul that had been tortured, clawed at, and threatened to be tossed down to hell by the demons. I don't know where he belongs. I swallow the soul. Now to deal with the hell hole. Can't have that randomly sucking down whatever comes this way. The end of my staff scratches out the runes around the hole. The hole shrinks bit by bit as each rune is erased.

I collect four more souls from the list. The power is overwhelming. My face feels as if it is glowing. I have a bit of time until the next death. Time to experiment. I extend my fingers in front of me as if I'm Emperor Palpatine in the Star Wars movies. I never saw the show myself, but other reapers have described it to me. The electricity reaches out from the tips of my fingers towards the brick wall in front of me. It scorches an erratic black design on the wall. It looks like an old Celtic design.

"Ah yes. You are coming along nicely Thomas." I turn to see Ornias leaning against the opposite wall in the alleyway. "What else can you do reaper?"