Beatrice Harrison is your typical high school sophomore who has had glasses since she was three, but not for the reason that she initially thought. What happens when Beatrice loses her glasses in the woods and witnesses something she shouldn't have...
Green, glowing eyes peering into my own blue ones was what I awoke to. It was a startling way to regain consciousness, but I welcomed it nonetheless.
"Good morning," I lulled, rubbing the remaining sleep from tired, heavy eyes.
Mason gave me a small, crooked grin and sat back on the bed that I was sleeping in. I quirked an eyebrow and sat up, looking around the room to see it was empty, the little decor being either black, white, or gray.
I concluded that I was either in Mason or Jacob's room and exhaled, cuddling into the thick blankets.
"Why is it that everything that has to do with you guys is either black or white?" I asked, watching the brunet's eyes from behind his dark bangs.
"It's a traditional reaper custom that Jacob thinks is important, so I think it's important. In a way, I guess we're what Yin and Yang came from, as we are balancers in the most simplest of terms. We keep the balance between light and dark, the living and dead," Mason explained, shifting on the bed.
I patted the space beside me and he crawled under the covers with me and we both turned on our sides to maintain eye contact. Jacob claimed that Mason should always make eye contact, even if it's a human he's talking to because it's respectful. The only reason reapers do it was because their expressions and eyes were very vital points of their language.
"Who is Yin and who is Yang then?" I inquired, only seeing the two as black.
He shrugged. "Sounds like a Jacob question to me. He's older and more educated on customs that my generation has since stopped caring about. He probably knows more about the choice — wait, I think part of the reason why we also have so much black and white is because we're colorblind at night and colors overall are very light, as to not be distracting."
I nodded, smiling at the new bit of information. Despite finding out that reapers were in a way colorblind, I didn't feel any pity. In fact, I felt some unknown sense of pride. They weren't missing out on anything, as they had never experienced it to begin with as reapers. The only things I really thought they should incorporate into their existences were the arts.
"Have you ever been told a story?" I asked. "You don't have written books, so I was just wondering."
"Actually, I have..." Mason replied quietly, lost in thought. "I was once told a tale by 'yku about an illegal occurrence. They are the only one that has ever partaken in such... activities."
"Go on."
He sighed, beginning the story. "Years ago, long after laws forbid them doing so, a pair would meet every day in the woods at night under the moonlight. The pair was made up of a reaper and a beautiful human girl, a Deokuloxoçmuet'. Although forbidden from doing so, the two became increasingly close. On the girl's twentieth birthday, they found out that she was pregnant and in order to keep the child safe, the reaper was forced to abandon their family, but the girl refused, begging them to stay by her side to raise the child, the one labeled a 'disgrace.' Against their better judgement, the reaper complied, too in love to care, too human to follow the rules. Years went by and the girl and child aged while the reaper stayed stagnant, stuck in time. It was perhaps one of the greatest pains known to reaperkind, yet it was only being experienced by that one rule breaker. Eventually, the 'disgrace' started to lose the ability to see their reaper parent altogether, the reaper making sure of this. Their kind was an abomination, an offsetter of balance and the biggest offense that could be made by a reaper. So the reaper left and their family went on without them, growing and eventually forgetting all about them."
"Wow... that's really dark..." I looked into Mason's eyes as he lied there, completely still. He wasn't breathing because he wasn't in his 'human' form and even then, he had to think about it.
"I won't forget about you two," I promised.
"I know."
I poked his nose, my finger going through his face as I giggled. "Sorry, but you can't get rid of me that easily. Your disgrace is here to stay, my good sir."
Mason gave a small smile. "I'm honored, but you are no disgrace to me."
Blushing, I looked away. "What makes me different from the child in the story, hmm?"
"Nothing. I don't think it's fair to label either a disgrace. I thought the story was all fiction until you stumbled into my being. You're the impossible, yet I can see and feel you, right here, right now. You're amazing, Beatrice," Mason explained.
My breath caught and I felt as cold as a reaper, goosebumps erecting all over my skin. I leaned forward, kissing his forehead. "Thank you."
"You're welco-" His eyes flashed, the green shifting into an icy gray.
I was just about to ask what was wrong when he lunged, covering me. The windows broke, glass shards raining down on us like a tropical storm. My eyes shut themselves tightly, my breathing sporadic and laborious. I had no idea what was going on, but the after-image of Mason's eyes and bright white mask were burned deeply into my eyelids.
"¡Çk'ze! (skah-ze)" Mason's voice barked.
My eyes shot open to see Jacob holding his scythe in the mouth of a Deçb'n'k', his eyes concentrated on the beast. He seemed to have been with the being for a while, as both of them were sustaining injuries.
"¡Tyçk (tisk) 'yllud'ko (ay-yoo-dah-ko)!" Mason shot up, the glass shards falling off his leather jacket before he rushed in to aid his partner.
I stood up wobbly, trying to get my bearings together when I caught sight of my reflection in my phone and almost fell.
Adorning the top upper half of my face was an off white skull of a human, the mask going down to the top set of teeth.
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