Nearafter (D.E.A.T.H. bk. 1)

Chapter Thirty-Three: Ethan

Ethan watched the young necromancer's head roll free.

The boy's body leaned to the side and collapsed, leaving his soul still kneeling on the floor, staring into the eyes of some dead girl's head. He probably had not yet realized that he was dead. Most people did not. Ethan certainly hadn't, not until he saw his own lifeless body, and the fist-sized hole in his chest.

But surely the kid saw his own head roll. It was a few feet from his corpse now, with his eyes wide and staring up at the blackness above. But he was so transfixed with that girl's head. She must have been someone important to him when she was still alive. It was sad watching the boy kneel there, even after death, he had that cold stare of hopelessness about him.

Mordac had been the one to deliver the final blow, and he still held his blade at the angle used to remove the young necromancer's head. Blood dripped slowly from its chipped, worn edge.

Everyone watched. No one spoke. They were waiting for something to happen. Rajiv had warned them all that whatever had taken control of the boy's body would be released, in all its wrath, upon death as well. But so far nothing had happened. Could Rajiv have been wrong? They each could only hope.

JT had the radio in his hand now and he spoke, carefully, never pulling his eyes away from the boy.

"Command, this is team six. Target status: down...."

The reply came immediately, an excited voice crackling loud over the frequency.

"Team six, we copy that. You guys did an excellent job! They're dropping like flies out here!"

Smiles swept across the faces of the Reapers. They did it. Medessi had been liberated of the undead. But celebrations were short-lived.

Movement in the shadows. Or rather, the shadows themselves were moving. And then came the unmistakable sound of sharp claws clicking against hard wood as something, many somethings, scuttled in the blackness around them. The krawl.

Rajiv's voice boomed loud in the open gym.

"Light a flare!" he yelled.

No sooner than the words left Rajiv's mouth, did several bright red lights suddenly blossom to life. The Reapers each stood close together near where Gustav still knelt on the floor. He had remained unmoved through all of this. They had killed the young necromancer, as they were supposed to, and now they had to protect his vulnerable soul from the approaching krawl.

The creature's numbers were swelling now. They could sense, somehow, the moment a fresh soul entered the world of the dead, and fresh souls were particularly appetizing. Gustav's would be a treat.

The Reapers watched, speechless, as the krawl snaked their way into the gym, slipping in through cracks in the walls and underneath the doors, using the darkness as their vehicle of entry. They watched as the countless beady red pairs of eyes circled. They saw the creature's sickly gray-green bodies creep ever closer to the edge of the light, tongues unrolling to taste the humid air.

But what the Reapers did not see was the silver plume of smoke trickling down the wall from the ceiling above. They did not see the blur of movement behind them, until it was too late. Jeremiah flashed silent in the radius of red light, seemingly teleporting from one Reaper to the other, leaving in his wake a dismembered body. By the time anyone realized what was happening, Jeremiah had taken out four of the nine Reapers standing around the flares in the gym. And then by the time Ethan finally realized what was going on, he could only watch as Mordac, Rajiv, Gretchen, and JT all collapsed. And then, in the same breath, the silent blur was upon him. And then it was gone, leaving Ethan dumbfounded and staring down at his own lifeless body, turned useless vessel once again.