Total pages in book: 36
Estimated words: 33261 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 166(@200wpm)___ 133(@250wpm)___ 111(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 33261 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 166(@200wpm)___ 133(@250wpm)___ 111(@300wpm)
“I heard they’re a secret society.”
“No, I heard they’re a gang, and you know, like to kill people.”
Billy reached into his wallet and pulled out a couple of bills, leaving them on the bar for the waitress. No one ever remembered a good tipper, not really.
“Trust me, if you can, avoid Lost Creek, and if you can’t, don’t try to piss off the locals. Everything you heard about The Reapers is true.”
“They’re a freaking urban legend, dude. No one knows who they are.”
“No, not until it’s too late,” Billy said. You only ever have a hint of who it is. For Billy, he had a feeling the bar called The Reaper was owned by one. He just had a feeling. There had also been rumors of lawyers, mayors, everyone, providing they had the same goal and had proven themselves to the group.
Billy didn’t even know for sure if he had stolen from them, but he had stolen from The Reaper bar, and that was a good enough reason to believe he had done so.
The two tourist men tried to talk to him, but he wasn’t interested in continuing a dialogue with them. He’d already said too much, and it was now time for him to move on. The only way for him to survive was to keep moving.
Leaving the diner, he stepped out into the hot summer night. It was still light out, but the sun was slowly starting to set. He was going to have to get a move on if he wasn’t careful. He’d already ditched his car, because he figured that monster would leave a trail for them to find, and he didn’t want to make it too easy for them.
There was also a chance he was panicking for nothing, and no one was going to be following because it was all just rumor. He shook his head. No, that was bullshit. The Reapers existed, and they were not men to trifle with.
The temptation of the money and an easy life was just too irresistible for him, and he’d already taken the cash before he truly thought about what he’d done.
Now, he knew he was fucking everything up. He also felt a horrible need to turn around, go back, and beg forgiveness. But if he did that, he was going to have broken body parts, and he wanted that even less. He didn’t like pain.
Walking down the long road, he didn’t see any cars. Was that normal? He didn’t even know if The Reapers had any kind of sway, and as he took another step, he heard it—the sound of a twig snapping. He spun around in a circle, hand raised into a fist, ready to take on whatever came at him.
The perspiration was dripping off him at this point, and he couldn’t seem to control it. He felt sick to his stomach. There was no sign of anyone, no indication of someone walking close by, or for that matter, any reason why he heard the twig snapping. He was losing his mind, it was so clear to him now. The paranoia was eating away at him and causing him to hallucinate.
Billy started to walk forward again, and this time another twig snapped, and as he spun around, about to do the same dance, he froze. Three men stood in line a few feet away from him. None of them moved or spoke a word.
He knew exactly who they were and what they were doing here. Fear raced down his spine, and without another word, he took off, trying to run, only to come to a stop. While he’d been looking behind him, another man had appeared in front of him.
“Hello, Billy,” he said.
Billy froze. He tightly gripped the bag with the stolen cash inside. This was supposed to be his meal ticket, but he knew without a shadow of a doubt he wasn’t making it out of this alive. No amount of begging or pleading was going to work.
He was a dead man, and it was all his doing.
“Are we going to do this the easy way, or the hard way?” he asked.
Every fiber of Billy’s being was begging for him to do this the easy way, but then he drew out his pocketknife, flicking it open. He wasn’t going down without a fight.
There was a chuckle from the man in front of him. “Good, I was worried for a second you were going to make this easy.”
And in that moment, Billy knew what made The Reapers so terrifying. They were not afraid of death. They did not feel fear, and any threat actually thrilled them. No one would ever be a match for them, and he knew by the end of the night, if not the end of the hour, he wasn’t going to see daylight.