Mana Pool Snippets - Keystone

Part 5

“Damn my arrogance! I should’ve paid more attention to the signs!”

Jaruka did not speak in English. He felt to not look betrayed and stupid in front of the kid.

His finger squeezed the trigger in hopes to kill one and run before the other ripped his body apart. Beth appeared to do so, ready to pounce off the couch.

Then his arm was pushed away, followed by Andrea screaming, “No!” The plasma pistol went off. The green plasma bolt was a foot away from blowing Beth’s head off. It instead shattered the metal nightstand and antique lamp. By that time Andrea kept pushing his arm away.

“Idiot!” He yelled.

“Are you insane? You can’t kill my parents!” She talked as she screamed.

Jaruka pushed her but she did not fall. “Are you? They are not your parents anymore, they’re zombies, minions to a demon. We need to run.”

“No, I just can’t.”

“See the blood? See the broken backs and necks? See it?”

But Andrea refused to look. The blood kept gushing from the zombie’s eyes, and still smiling like predators.

“Oh, she’s a strong little girl, for a magical freak,” “not” Morgan said. “Without that shit in her DNA she could easily slit your throat with just her fingers in my control.”

“Or good eating for the rest,” “not” Beth said with a laugh, licking her lips. “We reapers love a good innocent soul to feast on.”

“Stop it! You are not yourselves,” Andrea yelled.

“Like the mercenary said: we are not your parents anymore. The redeye is evident. And they are gone, forever, and in my grasp.” Beth and Morgan laughed in sync.

The girl listened but refused to turn around. Jaruka was sure she was having difficulties swallowing the truth. Once a Reaper turns a human into an enthralled zombie, there is nothing to bring him or her back. Crippling or killing a reaper would be the same as what Scott did at Area 51; a quarter of a million American men, women, and children dead by massive brain hemorrhage—the rupture-through-skull kind.

But to Jaruka, the Malcar’Ji as they are known don’t do such a thing, for the Reaper he met was far different from the original. And these Reapers are a far greater danger than the United Stated government suffering a mid-life crisis.

“It will be a problem to come after us, I still have five bullets,” Jaruka said noticing.

“I just want to talk.” The two spoke like puppets. So unsettling.

“Wait. Is that you, Griffon? Because this is a dick move you pulled you manipulative bastard. Otherwise we will leave without trouble.”

“The ploy is well loved.”

“Oh just can it will ya.”

“But I am not Griffon.” Both zombies laughed as Jaruka felt chills run through his spine. “You believe I’m him,” Morgan said, “but our great general is incapable of controlling the country. On accounting the attack the immortal killer Scott did to him, he’s barely hanging on to life as we speak. Strange that terran magic can maim us, maybe kill us entirely.”

“So there is more than one reaper on Terra Firma. Katie and others assumed it to be true.”

“That tramp is a smart one,” Beth said

“Hey, come on, we have a kid here.” He twirled his plasma pistol but still ready to fire. “So why are you exac—”

The zombies stood up fast before he finished. Jaruka was close to shooting through Morgan’s bloated stomach. “Hey now, watch it.”