Shinigami Rex (BK1): Lost Hope

Chapter 8

I stood in the most beautiful garden ever… which was our escape from a world where I was not needed; its lush green smoothing away all our fears. There were flowers of every kind lazily fluttering in the wind, brightening up the place and giving it a feeling of complete serenity. The birds sang happily as the animals danced to their tune and played catch and tag with their young ones. A young doe tripped over a log, and almost broke its ankle. Her mother ran over to her, and licked her wound, as she willed for the pain to stop. The doe stood up and started dancing around; evidently pleased her wound isn’t that bad. A tear fell down my cheek due to the scene and I quickly cleaned it off. Emotions like that were useless in battle.

A girl stood next to me and she had the prettiest white hair reaching down to her ankles. She was close to six years and the only person in the world I loved. She was wearing one of those dresses patients in a hospital wore. The sight filled me with rage and pain at the same time.

As if feeling my inspection, she turned to me. “You’ll protect me right?” the girl with the white hair said, as she looked at me with warm green eyes. My heart gave a slight jump at her smile; it means so much to me that she can smile like that.

“Mmhm,” I reply, as I nodded my head in consent to her obvious question, “I’ll become big and strong and protect you forever, I promise.” I said, hoping the confidence showed in my body posture.

“It’s a promise then,” she laughed and twirled around in a spot as she grinned at me. When she stopped, she held out her last finger in a hook, “pinky promise?”

I lock her finger with mine as I say with grim determination “It’s a promise”.

“Ouch!!”Rex groaned as he opened his eyes. It was around noon, judging from the amount of sunlight pouring into his eyes through the rapidly receding trees. From the red hair which was trying to get into his mouth, he guessed he was slung over Drake’s shoulder, and they were flash stepping towards the direction of the motel.

“Sorry, didn’t notice that tree branch in time,” Drake’s voice called. “At least it woke you up, which is a good thing,” he snickered.

“Okay, now let me down. You carrying me shirtless can give a wandering wolf some crazy ideas” Rex shouted as he pounded Drake’s back. Drake stopped running and let Rex down, then cracked some bones which had gone stiff from Rex's weight.

Drake looked at Rex with concern, and Rex noticed he did not have his glasses on.

“That seal is really painful isn’t it? What did you even do to get that kind of thing on you?” Drake asked, as he squatted in front of Rex who was resting on the bark of a tree.

Rex looked up at Drake as he searched his eyes for any hint of lies “You don’t know? I didn’t do anything. They told me to get a spirit for myself from hell and I did just that. I even went as far as getting Behemoth to…”

“You got what?” Drake shouted, interrupting Rex with pure disbelief in his voice. “Then you’re familiar is Behemoth? As in the Behemoth; keeper of the gates of hell? and one of the upmost demons?” Drake asked as he fell on his laurels, scattering his hair with his hands; as if it would clear his head so he could understand.

Rex blinked, surprised at Drake’s outburst, “I don’t know about him being the top whatever, but I did meet him at the entrance to hell. He was in my way so we fought for a while, and I don’t really remember it clearly but I somehow won, though I was basically at death’s door at the end. I decided he was fit to be my familiar and that was the start of our partnership, though I still can’t fully release him because of the countless seals on me”.