Total pages in book: 25
Estimated words: 23633 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 118(@200wpm)___ 95(@250wpm)___ 79(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 23633 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 118(@200wpm)___ 95(@250wpm)___ 79(@300wpm)
I don’t look at them. I can’t take my eyes off this girl.
She finally glances back at her lifeless body through the shattered windshield. It’s hanging upside-down in her smashed car, her long black hair covering most of her still face. The seatbelt is the only thing holding her up.
An EMT approaches the car and presses two fingers to her neck. “This one is gone,” he shouts to his colleagues before moving on to the next car.
She looks at herself for a long moment and then slowly turns back to me with her beautiful brown eyes shining with fresh tears.
A sharp pang pierces my chest. I can’t stand to see her look so upset.
“Are you here for me?” she asks in a soft innocent voice.
The possession grows within me. I’ve never wanted anything like I want her.
This girl is all mine. Her soul is all mine. Let the Soul Collector come and try to take her away from me. I fucking dare him to.
“Are you taking me away?” she asks, barely above a whisper.
“No,” I say, forcing out the word. I haven’t spoken in decades. Longer even. My throat is like sandpaper. Grainy and harsh. The words come out coarse and cold. “Your time is not up, sweet soul. You have plenty of life left.”
She doesn’t flinch as I approach her, doesn’t recoil in fear. She just watches me trustingly, lovingly as I reach out my hand.
“Your soul is under my protection,” I tell her as I press my palm onto her upper chest.
She sucks in a violent breath. Her whole body tightens as I grip her.
“I know it hurts,” I whisper gently. “It won’t last long.”
She’s frozen as I carry her to the car and lovingly guide her soul back into her body.
This is against every rule in the book. It’s against the ultimate command and tenet of the Grim Reapers—once a soul is untethered, it cannot be returned.
It’s like a pilot intentionally crashing their plane or a firefighter lighting the match.
It’s reprehensible. Blasphemous. Sinful.
And I know I’m going to pay for it. I know it’s going to hurt.
But none of that is of concern as I bring the life back to this girl.
I set her soul in place and then whisper the forbidden words.
“Soul do not leave,
Soul refuse,
Your death I relieve,
Your journey continues.”
The energy of life flows through my hands and into her body.
She’s alive.
I can feel her soul leaving this plane of existence. Leaving the world between hers and the afterlife. Leaving my domain.
My body aches that she’s no longer with me, but when I feel the slow beating of her heart, the ache dulls.
I pull back my hood and place my ear to her lips.
Breaths. Soft beautiful breaths.
There’s time in her yet. Her life is not over.
I stand up and hurry toward an EMT.
I don’t know what’s coming for me, but I know it’s going to be bad and I know it won’t be much longer.
The Soul Collector won’t take kindly to having a soul snatched out of his grasp.
I’ll have to answer for this.
The EMT is asking a shaken-up teenager some questions. I go right up to her ear.
“The woman in the blue car!” I shout as loudly as I can. “Go to her. She’s alive!”
Her head turns. Recognition sinks into her eyes.
“I think this one is still alive!” she shouts as she rushes over.
The other EMT shakes his head. “She’s got no pulse. I checked.”
But the woman is unfazed. She ducks down, reaches in through the broken window, and touches my girl’s neck. Her eyes widen. “She’s alive! Help me get her out!”
The other EMT looks stunned and confused for a second, but he recovers and races over to help.
I’m watching them carefully pull her out of the car when a low rumbling hits my ears.
A black ominous haze fills the air.
The Soul Collector.
He’s coming for me.
The ground opens up around my feet. A foreboding orange light shines up through the cracks.
My eyes are locked on my girl as I feel the Soul Collector’s grip tighten around my legs. I never look away.
Time is irrelevant to Grim Reapers and the moment stretches out for an eternity.
But even a powerful Reaper like me can’t escape the Soul Collector forever.
The unstoppable force yanks me down, separating me from my girl. From my sweet soul.
And down I go…
…into the Soul Collector’s lair.
CHAPTER TWO
Grim
* * *
Humans know nothing of the afterlife. Heaven, hell, reincarnation, Akhirah, Valhalla, the River Styx, moksha, karma… there’s no shortage of stories that humans will tell themselves when they don’t know. They can’t possibly know.
There is nothing… but this…
“Grim,” the Soul Collector growls from the darkness. That’s what he calls all of us Reapers. We leave our human names when we take up the black. “It appears I am short a soul.”
I grip my scythe as I hear him approach. Back straight. Chin in the air. I will not cower to this demonic being.