"Nikki Pecan?" Molly asked, completely bewildered to see her son's teacher standing in a room that felt like a million miles away from the real world.
"Well, don't look like I've just risen from the grave," Pecan chuckled, and Molly saw no joy in her eyes. Koda watched in confusion as his art teacher stood in a room that was supposedly a secret to those in the college above. "Now Koda, get ready dear."
"Why?" Koda's mind was still preoccupied with Alfie.
"Get ready to collect the souls while I work my magic."
"Are you kidding me?" Fran scoffed, looking the old woman up and down like she was nothing other than a human who had lived an insignificant life. "Don't mock us. How do you know about this stuff? Aren't you one of the teachers?"
"The art teacher to be exact." Pecan stared over her wide-framed glasses. "Is there a reason you're endangering my sidekick and his medium? Is there a reason other than summoning me? Do you like inflicting pain on others?"
Alfie tried lifting his head, but his chin fell back onto his father's shoulder. He could now see his art teacher, though he didn't understand. Surely, he would have felt it if she was the Reaper. Why did she pretend she wasn't involved? Alfie should have flagged her ever since she sent flowers to Koda's home.
"How?" Koda asked.
"What, when, who?" Pecan replied with a pleased grin. "Save those questions for later." Her eyes scanned the room, lingering on certain people longer than others. "Who wants to die of a stroke? Any takers?" Nobody replied. They thought she was joking. "Okay... A heart attack?"
"Enough of this, you're wasting our time-"
"She's-" Koda paused after interrupting Ursula. Something was different about his teacher, something she didn't choose to let him feel before. "The darkness. It's coming from you."
Nikki Pecan's smile only widened, though her eyes remained as cold as the bottom of the ocean. "My dear, I am the darkness."
Connor's head turned in the direction of her voice, and Ronnie watched with extreme fascination. Ronnie had never met the Reaper's human form, and he knew he would never meet the Reaper's true form. He took a moment to appreciate his luck.
"You're related to my son," Morlen said. He too felt drawn to her presence. He didn't know why.
"I'm related to you both." Pecan's eyes, only for a second, softened when they coated Morlen's face. "Now, Koda, are you ready because your medium needs a bit of care."
Koda turned to Alfie. He was so captivated by her atmosphere that he almost forgot other people were in the room. The look of defeat on Alfie's face snapped him back to reality. Koda didn't know what he was doing, but he wanted revenge. "I'm ready."
"Which one deserves to go first?"
The scientists glanced at one another. They were waiting for the teacher to give up the joke, but her determination made them a little nervous.
"Her." Koda pointed at Fran.
"Perfect." Pecan clasped her hands together and her bracelets clinked and jingled. "I can assure you, Francis, that your soul will be treated with the care it deserves, which frankly, isn't very much at all." Pecan's eyes turned hard and Morlen was convinced the colour lightened.
Fran dared to scoff again, not knowing that she had less than fifteen minutes left in the world of the living. "This is ridiculous. She shouldn't even be down here if she's..." Fran's hand lifted to her chest, "a teacher."
"Fran?" Ursula questioned when she started breathing harder.
"My chest- ah!" Fran collapsed to her knees when she felt a squeezing pressure. The pain zapped her sternum like she was stabbed directly in the heart. "I think- I think I'm having a heart attack!" Fran cried, curling over, struggling to breathe. "Oh my god! Help me! Get help!"
"Nothing can help you now," Pecan said, studying Morlen who watched Koda's reaction. The teen tilted his head, captivated by her pain like a dying body was a rare and precious occurrence.
"You're killing her," Ursula gasped, and some scientists stepped away from the old woman casually leaning against the doorway.
"Are you next?" Pecan asked.
"You're the Grim Reaper!" Ursula found herself stepping closer. She had dedicated endless hours to the research they did, and she even committed murder to reach the day she met the myth. "I thought you were a man."
Fran screamed in pain when Pecan rolled her eyes. "Myths. You've got to love them. It used to be a man's world, dear. It's obvious why you'd think that."
"Are you gonna kill us all?" a scientist asked nervously, the one who punched Koda. "Because I-I really don't deserve to go!"
"Not all. Most of you can rot in prison, but you, you're going to die and those who were intimately involved with Enya's murder are going to die."
"Help... me! I'm only twenty-four!" Fran screeched with tears streaming from her eyes. She soon began to choke from the fluid in her lungs and Morlen saw a hint of a smile on Koda's face as Fran started to choke to death.
"A natural death," Koda murmured softly. "That way, nobody is to blame."
"Exactly!" Nikki Pecan beamed. "Her soul is started to drift. Are you ready?"
Everyone in the room was disturbed by Koda's attraction to Fran's suffering. Though, he was the sidekick of the Grim Reaper. His love for death should have been expected.
"I think so." Koda wanted to drag the soul from the body, but that was the Reaper's job, and Fran wasn't quite dead yet.
Morlen stopped his son from moving towards Fran so he could stare into her eyes as the life left them. When Koda snaps out of his sidekick state, he would thank him.
"Almost there." Miss Pecan listened to the sound of Fran's gurgling gasps for air and watched her body flop on the floor like a fish out of water. Her eyes eventually rolled back and forth until they settled on the ceiling and her body crumpled into the floor.
Koda felt an energy lift like he was blasted in the face with a wave of warmth, and Fran's soul started to leave her body. Only Pecan and himself could see it. The soul was a large bubble that held everything that made a human how it was. The glowing bubble carried Fran's personality, memories, likes, dislikes, thoughts, and feelings. Her body was now nothing but an empty shell.
As the soul drifted through the air as if it weighed nothing heavier than a feather, Koda reached out to touch it. He had taken a soul before, but he didn't really remember because of his grief, and it was a small soul. This one was much bigger and compacted with a longer life.
The soul moved closer and closer. Koda was somehow drawing it in and when it was centimetres away from his outstretched hand, it suddenly sucked into his palm like the earth lapping up rain. The soul took Koda's breath away and he stumbled back with surprise. Morlen caught him when Koda's legs wobbled as he adjusted to the weight of the soul, heavy in his chest.
"Feel good?" Pecan asked while the scientists stared in horror at Fran's body.
Koda nodded. His eyes had glazed over. He was dazed and confused but most importantly; content.
"Right, who's next?" Miss Pecan was quicker with the other souls. She knew that help was getting close to the room and it would be more satisfying for her to see humans enter a room full of bodies that coincidentally died from natural causes.
Koda had to eventually sit down when he absorbed soul after soul. The more he consumed, the less empty he felt; physically and mentally.
Tom, Molly, Alfie, and Ronnie watched scientist after scientist drop like flies in various ways. Connor listened to their cries and felt the thick death energy fill the room.
After what felt like hours, the Grim Reaper looked around the room one last time and nodded. "Okay, the rest of you can rot in prison. My work is done, for now." Nikki Pecan stepped over the bodies and towards the lift with pride.
"Wait," Morlen said with his son sitting by his feet. "You said you were related to both of us. How are you related to me?"
Miss Pecan stopped. She didn't turn around to face him when she said, "We'll talk later. Right now, there's someone in room eighteen that needs to let go, and you need to say goodbye."
"What?"
The teacher kept moving and she didn't say a word more.
"Room eighteen?" Morlen turned to Tom and Ronnie when the rest of the scientists scattered out of the room as fast as their legs would carry them.
"Enya," Alfie whispered.
Koda leapt from the floor when he heard his mother's name. He felt strange, but now that Miss Pecan was gone, he didn't feel so invested with the souls.
"Enya is in room eighteen," Ronnie said so Tom didn't have to. Tom had lied to their faces, and he had spoken about how tough it was to keep the secret hidden. "You didn't bury her, they made you believe you did, so they could hook her up to machines and control her soul. She needs to be set free."
Morlen and Koda looked from Ronnie to each other, then towards the door. At the same time, they hurried out of the room and down the corridor to room eighteen. Moments later, Tom and Ronnie's company burst onto the scene and yelled at everyone to get on the ground.
"Took your time," Ronnie complained when they entered room 1 to see the bodies all over the floor.
"What the hell happened in here?" A bald man with thin black sunglasses asked, straightening out his expensive suite as if to distract his hands from resting on his head. The sight of so many bodies churned his stomach.
"The boss," Tom whispered, checking to see if Alfie still had his eyes open. "We need to go to the hospital."
"But Koda," Alfie whispered. He could only imagine the heartache that the Oaks' men were feeling.
"I think he needs time alone with his father." Tom gently patted Alfie's back as Ronnie talked with their boss. "Come on, it's time to get out of here. Koda and Morlen are in good hands now."
Molly and Alfie had so many questions. They had to be reserved for later. Alfie was in no frame of mind to ask anything, and all Molly cared about was getting her family to safety. When Alfie was checked over by professionals and they were far away from the killers who were ready to torture her son for science, then Molly would interrogate Tom about his secret life.