We both stared at him in shock, unable to believe what we had heard.
I shook my head,
“You’re wrong, Uriel, you have to be. Harvey fell through a time hole. My boy could be anywhere, and you tell me now that the boy I’ve befriended for a week or so is my son? Why? Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”
I was nearly crying from anger at how Uriel had kept such a huge thing from me. Harvey was quiet.
“I’m sorry. You were meant to work things out yourself by Harvey’s eighteenth birthday, but due to circumstances we didn’t see coming, we had to usher it along ourselves.” Uriel replied.
“What? What do you mean?” I asked him, frowning, my anger instantly forgotten.
“Demons have begun surfacing. They call themselves Rangorun. They were in the first Battle. The Battle when Lucifer was thrown from Heaven.”
“Wait, that really happened? I thought he got Sent Down There?”
Uriel nodded. “Indeed he did, but to get him Down There, he had to be thrown from Heaven hard enough to hit the right spot, else he would have landed in darkness and been stuck there.”
I nodded. It all made sense now. Humanity thought Lucifer and God had argued. This, I know knew, wasn’t true.
Uriel suddenly looked up then looked at the two of us.
“I must go.”
With that, he vanished and Harvey looked at me.
“It’s strange. All this time you’ve been like a father to me. . .and now. . .”
His voice cracked and he threw his arms around me and I held him close to me, relishing the feeling of love I felt emanating from him. I poured as much love back as I could into the hug.
“Finally. . .my son. . .” We hugged like this for some time, then we heard the front door open and broke apart as the rest of the class poured in, followed by Melissa and Marcus, who grinned upon seeing us. Once everyone had finished enthusing how amazing the museum had been, they poured upstairs to their rooms to relax.Melissa and Marcus stayed with us.
“Marcus. . .Melissa. . .Harvey and I just found out the most amazing piece of news1”
“You’re father and son, right?” Melissa asked with a smile.
Harvey looked at her. “How do you know?”
She smiled and explained that all it took was one look at us and anyone could tell. At this, the two of us smiled and looked at each other, and each saw the other in him. We smiled and hugged each other and once again I felt the connection. I realised that until this moment, I had not noticed the connection between us as I was too wrapped up in looking for Harvey to notice that he was right beside me all along. I couldn’t stop smiling and said so.
“Ah, Tobias getting all mushy.” Marcus teased, a grin on his handsome face. I gave him a friendly punch and grinned at him then hugged him.
“I can’t believe you’re here with me. Just like old times.”
He nodded. “Now I’m here, I’m not going anywhere, I’m with you all the way in everything.”
I nodded and grinned at him, the memories of our lives together in the past flooding back; the day Marcus caught a bird and ran round, yelling happily until he fell and dropped the bird in the fire nearby and it burnt to a crisp; Marcus’ first girlfriend, Sara; my first crush, Gina, and our parents, always smiling no matter how hard things got. I smiled fondly, remembering it all.
Melissa walked to Marcus and dragged him gently from the room, giving Harvey and I time to catch up.
As we spoke, Harvey revealed that he remembered a lot more than we both thought.
“I remember falling into water, then there was nothing, and I was still falling. I remember arriving outside a building. Wait a minute, how did I know what all those things were when I was only a baby?”
“I think it must have something to do with the fact that you’re my son. Some of my powers got passed to you, including Clairmory.”
“Clairmory?” Harvey asked, puzzled.
“It’s a word I made up. It means clear memory. You can remember everything you’ve ever been through, read, seen, etcetera.”
Harvey nodded. “Good word, and it makes sense now I know what it means. Like Clairvoyant means clear seeing, or clear sight.”
I nodded. “Exactly.”
We chatted long into the night, and Harvey finally fell asleep on the sofa, and I carried him upstairs to bed, wishing I’d been there when he was growing up. I’d missed so much of his life. All those birthdays, his first steps, first words. . .his first spell. . .I sighed sadly. Melissa touched me gently on the shoulder in comfort and I laid Harvey on his bed, stripped him to his shorts and covered him up and left with her. We sat in the lounge talking.
“I just don’t know Melissa. I’ve missed so much of his life. . .now I feel bad that I was never there for him.”
“Tobias, you can’t beat yourself up, man!”
I looked up to see Marcus stood there looking sympathetic. “You looked for him for three hundred and sixty-five years! What other father can say they’ve done that?”
I sighed. “I know you’re right. . .it’s just. . .Harvey has been looking for his birth parents since he went to live with Barry and Angela. He even used a spell, which obviously didn’t work. And now. . .he’s finally found me. . .and found his birth mother died at the moment of his arrival in this era. I just feel like such a failure!”
Out of nowhere, Marcus knocked me flat.
I blinked at him in shock, ignoring the pain. He rubbed his fist ruefully.
“Sorry about that Tobias, but snap out of it! You’re going to be a great father! Just like you were back then! Remember the blacksmith? And how he always said hello, and gave you that charm to ward off evil for Harvey?”
“That was you?” I asked, remembering the enormous muscles of the huge blacksmith.
“Yeah, that was me.” Marcus laughed. “I wouldn’t mind having some of that muscle right now I can tell you.”
I laughed along with him, then noticed Melissa was gone.
“Marcus? Did you see Melissa leave?” I asked him.
He shook his head and we both went upstairs to look for her.
We searched every room in the house, and an hour later, we were still looking. In desperation, I asked Lucifer if he’d seen her. He shook his head while he poured himself a glass of wine, and I began to despair of finding her. What could have happened to her?
I soon began to despair. Where could she be? The house was big, certainly, but not big enough to get lost for hours in, unless you were playing hide and seek, which I knew Melissa wasn’t; she always hid in the same place.
After a while, I began to think. If I couldn’t find her here, on this plane. . .then maybe she was on the Astral. I quickly switched to the form of the Reaper and looked round. She was nowhere in sight. I reverted back and groaned.
“Where is she?”
Lucifer came running in, his face grave, and his eyes shocked.
“Tobias!”
I looked at him.
“I just found out.. . .the Rangorun have taken someone!”
I looked at him as everyone else piled into the room.
“They’ve got her! Your girl!” My heart stopped.
“They’ve got Melissa, Tobias!”
My heart sank and hit my stomach like a lead weight. This wasn’t happening, couldn’t be happening. If they had her, I was in deep trouble. There was no way I could take on such ancient Demons. . .and yet. . .I had to.
Harvey looked at me.
“The Rangorun? Aren’t they those Demons from the First Battle?”
I nodded mutely, my mind too busy thinking of Melissa to take in much else.
“What’s going on?” a student asked.
Lucifer groaned.
“You mortals are always slow on the uptake! A group of Demons have taken Melissa and they’re not going to give her back without a fight!”
“Demons don’t exist!” Brad snorted.
“Oh, yes they do, believe me.” Lucifer replied, a gleam in his eye.
“Pfft! You’re just a butler! What do you know?”
This came from a cheerleader who was a real spoilt brat.
“That’s enough!” I shouted, my voice changing to that of the Grim Reaper, as did the rest of me. The whole class, save Harvey, screamed and ran for the door, which slammed itself shut and the lock clicked into place.
“Isn’t this just like a horror movie Tobias?”
I looked at Lucifer, who was grinning away merrily.
“I’m so glad you’re enjoying this. I know I’m not.”
He stopped grinning and sighed and went to round the kids up. I stepped in front of him and looked at them and apart from a whimper or two, the whole class went quiet.
“Now, listen to me very carefully. By now you’ll have remembered what I made you all forget. I am Death personified. I am the Grim Reaper.”
They all nodded.
“However, I am also your teacher, Mr Peters. As such, I am here to ensure your safety.”
“You’re not here to kill us?” Mary Rose asked, quivering.
“No. I don’t kill people, I just help their souls move on to wherever they’re supposed to go, or stay behind to watch over someone they love, if that is what they wish.”
The whole class visibly relaxed and went into the lounge area, where Harvey was sat reading a grimoire of spells he had found in my study.
“Harvey what are you doing?”
He looked up.
“Oh, hi Dad. I found this in your study, and you did say I could read any book I wanted.”
My whole being warmed at the word ‘Dad’. I had waited centuries to hear that word.
I smiled at him. “Just be careful, okay? Some of the spells in there are extremely dangerous.”
He nodded and got back to reading.
“Dad. . .? Wait a sec, you’re his son?” Brad burst out.
Harvey looked up from the book and simply nodded.
“But wouldn’t that, like, make you super old, or something?” Louise Barrie asked.
“No.” I answered for him. “Harvey was born in the year 1645. He fell through a gap in Time and Space as his mother was being taken away to be burnt at the stake as a witch.”
“Why didn’t you save her? Didn’t you love her enough?”
The tactless question made my heart clench, as well as a fist and Marcus put a hand on my shoulder.
“I am forbidden from interfering with the fate of one who is destined to die. . .and she was. She chose her fate. . .she could have lived. . .but to spare us both the agony of losing our son forever, she chose to die so our son could live, lost in Time as he was.”
Harvey looked at me.
“Mom. . .her name was Melissa, right?”
I nodded.
“Dad, you don’t think. . .?”
I shook my head. “No, son. The Melissa we know isn’t your mother, as much as she looks, sounds and acts like her.”
My mind was whirling. Where could those Demons have taken her?
“Hey. Someone’s missing from the class. Where’s Alex?”
Murmurs filled the room as everyone looked round for Alex.
“Alex!”
Marcus ran out, looking for him and I took out the List and looked at him. Alex’s name wasn’t on there. Where could he be?
Marcus came running back into the room, a piece of paper in his hands. He was white.
“I found this. . .”
He handed me the paper and I took it and read it.
‘Tobias.
We have your friend. If you ever want to see her. . ..alive again, give up your role as Death. . .and your life. If you submit to us, she shall be returned to you unharmed.
Alex.’
My hands shook. Alex had been in with the Demons all along. How could I not have seen it? He was the only one in the whole class who didn’t look surprised the first time I showed myself to them for who I really was.
He hadn’t look surprised either when I announced I could take them all back in time, and knew far too much about things that I would expect only someone like Harvey to know of and understand.
I punched a wall in frustration. A book flew from a nearby bookshelf and smacked into me. Great. My own house was reprimanding me.
I sighed and slumped into a chair, while Harvey sat down on the arm of the chair, which immediately shrugged him off.
“Sorry, the furniture doesn’t like it’s arms being sat on, forgot to mention.” I said dully.
I couldn’t believe this was happening. Yes, I was the Angel of Death, but my job was to ensure those who died moved on and those who weren’t meant to die didn’t! If I didn’t do something, Melissa could die!
I groaned in frustration and everyone gathered round looking sympathetic, and I quickly scanned their minds, as wrought with frustration with myself as I was, and discovered that not one of them blamed me. They all. . .wanted. . .to help.
“Why?” I asked.
They all looked puzzled.
“Why do you want to help? How can you help? No offence, but all of you are just ordinary mortals. Harvey is the only one of you who isn’t.”
“Don’t forget me.” Marcus said, grinning.
I looked at him. “Marcus, you’re human, a mortal.”
He shook his head, the grin completely gone now.
“I haven’t been human for the past one hundred and eighty years Tobias. When I died as that blacksmith, my soul was reborn into this body, the body I would have had had I not slipped off the Cliff that day. I was given that body back and made an Immortal by an Angel.”
I stared at him.
“Wait, what?” Brad exclaimed. “So all this crap is real?”
Harvey, Marcus and I nodded at him, then the others so they too got the message. This was all too real. . .and unfortunately, they were a part of it now unless they chose to return home.
“Okay, here’s the deal guys. I can either take you all home right now, which, by rights I should do. . .or. . .you can stay with me and help me out. . .help me find Melissa.”
The class gathered in a huddle and Harvey looked at me.
“What are you doing Dad? They’re mortal! They can die!”
“I’m giving them a choice. God gave them free will. . .so I’m giving them free choice.” I replied.
The class turned as one.
“Okay, here’s the deal. I’m coming with you, and everyone else is going home. . .so they can keep an eye on things using the internet and their cell phones.” Brad said.
I nodded.
“Fair enough. All of you who are going home come with me.”
They all followed me to their rooms and one by one, I sent them back home using a quick teleportation spell Melissa invented before she died. I’d never needed to use it, being the Grim Reaper and all but it sure came in useful here.One by one everyone and their belongings vanished until finally, Brad and I were the only ones left upstairs.
I still couldn’t believe it. Someone under my care and protection, gone, taken by Demons! I knew where to start, of course. Down There. But. . .as Death, I was only allowed to go Down There if someone who had done a lot of bad deeds died and I had to escort them Down There. I knew that Down There wasn’t all bad, merely a place for souls of those who had done nothing but bad in their lives went to be reformed so they might be reborn. Those who could not – or would not reform were reborn as insects, or animals. It definitely wasn’t a pretty sight, seeing a soul get smaller and smaller and being pushed into the foetus of an animal or into the egg sac of an insect, the soul often reaching out to stay Down There. The souls who were able to be reformed into good souls however, went to their new bodies with peace and love in them, ready to live again.
I sighed, wondering what on earth we were going to do.
“Okay, Death. What do we do?”
I looked up to see Brad looking at me, arms folded.
“Well?” he repeated. “What do we do first? How do we start? Summon some Demons, kick some ass?”
I shook my head with a wry smile.
“No. It’s not like in the movies, where you mutter a spell, and wham, there’s your Demon. It’s so much more complicated than that. We have to be careful. One wrong move and Melissa dies. She’s not meant to die yet so that would be very, very bad.”
Silence followed my words, then Harvey spoke up.
“In that case, we scry. We look everywhere, and then everywhere again. Search high and low, and all around. We have to find her. Do we have a time frame?”
I shook my head.
“The sooner the better I should think Harvey.” Lucifer said.
I looked at him and did a double take. He wasn’t in his human form anymore His eyes were glowing red from all the time he’d spent Down There.
“Uh. . .Luke. . .”
“Cut the crap, Toby, the kid knows. He saw me transform while I was in the bathroom.”
I glowered.
“Don’t call me Toby! And wait, what? You saw him transform?” I asked Brad, who nodded, seemingly unperturbed by the fact that the being who most humans thought of as the Devil Himself was in the same room as us.
I shook my head. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever see myself finding Harvey like this, then being in such a situation with Harvey, Brad, Lucifer and Marcus. I turned to look at him and he smiled back reassuringly. I felt hope rekindle itself in me once more. I could do this. No, we could do this! The Grim Reaper, his son, a fallen Angel and Immortal and a mortal! How could we fail?
Turning my mind away from all the ways that we could, indeed, fail, I stepped forward and nodded.
“Right. Let’s do this. Harvey, go to my study and find any books on scrying and finding witches. Brad, you help him.”
They nodded and shot off.
“Lucifer, you go back Down, see what you can find out. Marcus, you and I are going on a little trip.”
Marcus nodded, already on my wavelength.
“Up, right? It’s been a while.”
I nodded and transformed into the Grim Reaper once more. The Angel of Death I was, and so I would be always. I would not let an innocent die!
I took Marcus hand in my skeletal one and took him Up. I had an unannounced appointment with a God and Goddess.