Belle moved her shoe back on the gra.s.s as the creature came towards her while she had the umbrella placed in front of her. She didn"t know what this was. She had never seen anything like this before, something so tall and lean that was covered in a blanket of old ragged cloak covering its face but its hands were visible. Skeleton hands that were murky and dirty that reminded her of something she had seen when she was a child. "You nameless reaper get back here," Barron shouted from where he was, "Your business is with me, not her."
The death reaper stopped its footsteps, turning back to look at the stuffed toy and for a moment Belle was confused as to what was going on. The creature whispered something in the air which she didn"t understand.
"We have orders to kill the ones who you are attached to. This is the one that is keeping you here."
"What c.r.a.p! Are you blind?! Look at me, I am in a f.u.c.king rabbit," Barron rolled his eyes. The lowly death reapers had no brains. It was obvious that their heads were empty but the creature was going far enough to make a point, "I don"t even like her. All she does is talk and can"t hear a single word I speak."
Barron"s words didn"t make things any better as it made the death reaper turn back to look at the girl who was holding the umbrella.
In the land of the dead, the position of the Grims was one of the highest along with the Hawverts who pa.s.sed the laws and made sure it was maintained. Every other lower death reaper had their eyes on the position of being Grims and now that there were three open spots for it, every reaper couldn"t stop but want to take the place by dragging the rogue Grims back to the court.
Mortals were naive, not knowing the reaper"s existence nor knowing that nothing could hurt them. The death reapers were carriers of death and soul from the living to the dead. The creature that stood in front of Belle found her to be petty, to think she could even harm the air around it.
She saw the creature come close to her and before it could touch her as it had raised its hands towards her, she took the umbrella to hit it and the reaper stopped with the contact that had been formed.
Neither Barron nor the reaper who stood in front of her had expected it to happen. When Belle had swung her hands with the umbrella they had expected the object to pa.s.s through and not to clunk hard on the reaper. Both the reapers were more than surprised by this action.
The reaper looked at the umbrella that touched it and Belle hit the creature again for it to feel the pain that it hadn"t felt for many years. Its hand moved in speed to catch hold of the end of the umbrella and in one snap the umbrella broke into two pieces.
"MOVE! MOVE!" Barron chanted not for her but for himself so that he could get this rabbit he was moving. Trying to get closer to where the girl was.
Belle was not expecting it or maybe she was but not this soon. She took a couple more steps away from the creature with skeleton hands that were trying to reach for her. Her chest felt anxious and she wondered where to run to.
"Time for you to die," whispered the creature, its voice turning her bones cold.
This time when the creature came close to her again, a black bird flew right through them, circling the cloaked and hooded creature giving enough time for Belle to make a run towards her parent"s grave. She picked up Mr. Fluffs who was much closer than where she had last left him but she didn"t care about it. Turning around she noticed it wasn"t a crow but a raven that was attacking the creature?
Belle quickly ran away from the cemetery, paying the local carriage to get on and she left without turning back again.
By the time Belle had reached the main gates of the mansion, pus.h.i.+ng and getting inside, she was greeted with Lucas who stood outside the mansion with his arms crossed and he didn"t look one bit happy.
When she walked towards him, she was hoping he wouldn"t ask her anything but then that would be so not like Lucas,
"Where had you been to, Miss Belle?" he asked her cooly without showing any other emotion and for once she wished he would give out his true emotion his words were colder than Winter, "Walk in the meadow or walk in the town all alone with the valiant rabbit to accompany you?" ah there it was, the sarcastic words.
"I had been to the cemetery," Belle answered him. She knew Lucas couldn"t stop her from going to meet her parents and she would have gone inside without any trouble if it weren"t for the reaper who was possessing Mr. Fluffs.
Barron shouted, "WE WERE f.u.c.kING ATTACKED! I WAS ATTACKED WITH SICKLE!"
"It has been less than four hours since the carriage was tumbled and our coachman died while you were left injured. If you wanted to go visit you could have told me and I would have taken you there myself," Lucas didn"t look at the rabbit but stared at Belle, "What happened there?"
"REAPER ATTACKING ME!"
Belle didn"t know how he found out, "I was out there praying and suddenly out of nowhere there was this hooded figure looming over Mr. Fluffs."
"Are you alright?" he asked and she gave a nod.
"Yes," at the same time, Lucas saw a black raven flying in the sky.
He said, "Hand me the rabbit. It looks completely dipped in the mud. I will have it cleaned," the way he uttered the word "clean" Barron didn"t want to let go Belle"s side. The rabbit from being white had turned brown, "Go wash your hands and face. I will ask Ca.s.sie to get supper ready."
Belle handed Mr. Fluffs to Lucas and got inside the mansion.