Death and the Lady
Chapter 9 – Stephen Rush

Haji walked through the halls of the Cleric’s Main Headquarters carrying a file. He was set to meet the Master Cleric. Since he was the brightest among the Clerics of his age the man had taken Haji under his wing. Rumour had it that the man was grooming Haji to become the next Master Cleric.

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He knocked respectfully at the door of the office and waited for the order to enter. When it came he carefully opened the golden doors and walked through the plush study towards the massive desk that stood in the centre of the massive room.

“I have brought the latest reports, sir,” Haji said to the back of the chair.

The man waved a hand and Haji set the file down on the leather blotter. He stood back and stood to attention.

“You told me that there was a girl in the hospital who looked as though she might become a Reaper?” the man growled and Haji nodded, trying hard not to swallow heavily. This was the very subject he’d hoped to avoid. “We have found three times as many Reapers since we started placing Clerics within the First Response Units. That is good.”

“Yes, sir,” Haji said and the man held out a hand.

“Give me the list of new Reapers. We shall see which of our new recruits will benefit from some field experience.”

Haji stepped forward and riffled through the file. The man seemed to have something on his mind.

“This girl, did she indeed become a Reaper?”

“Yes, sir. She became a Reaper. A very strong one.”

“You had trouble dispatching her?”

“I regret to inform you that she managed to get away from me.”

“I see,” the man said heavily. “We shall have to remedy this situation. Is her name on the list?”

“At the very top, sir.”

“Oh, let’s look at this girl who thinks she can best the Clerics.”

Haji handed the man the sheaf of papers and stood back. There was stony silence for a while and then the man surged to his feet, toppling the chair he’d been sitting on.

“Lilith Valleyscape?” he roared and swung around to face Haji.

The man was greying now, but his dark hair still held some of its colour. His eyes were cold, almost black pools and his lined face showed intense fury.

“Why didn’t you tell me sooner?” he roared.

Haji frowned. “I didn’t know she held some importance to you, sir,” he said and the man leaned heavily on the desk.

“No, of course you didn’t. How could you? No one knows.” He seemed to pull himself together and straightened up. He pulled at his shirt and straightened his tie. “I think I will go and meet our new Master Reaper, personally.”

Lily sat staring out of the window as her mother drove on the highway. They were headed towards the family farm for the family reunion she’d completely forgotten about. It was only her mother’s side of the family, since her dad had no living relatives. Lily finally knew why. Her grandfather was over 300 years old and her grandmother had died before her birth.

She felt bad that she had to cancel on Kenny and the others, but they knew that it would be very hard for her to explain her sudden absence over a planned weekend. Even little Kenny seemed to understand, bless the little tyke. They’d all agreed to make it the next weekend.

Since they lived on campus at Cambridge it was hard enough for Lily to explain away a short absence, let alone a whole weekend. And there was no way in the world she was even going to attempt to explain to her mother how she managed a 4000 mile round trip without any expenditure or even time lost.

“I haven’t seen everybody in years! They’ve been bugging me nonstop since the accident to make sure to bring you along. Martha will be so pleased to see you.”

Martha was Lily’s least favourite aunt and tended to treat Lily as though she were just a notch better than pond scum.

“Yeah,” Lily said and her mother chuckled.

“Actually, she’s been in a state ever since your accident, saying that she should have been nicer to you. Now she might get trouble for all the mean things she said and did.”

Lily reflected that, yes, she could make Aunt Martha’s life pretty troublesome. She now knew people. Skeletal people. She brightened considerably at the thought. She wondered whether she could convince Death to go and pay the old baggage a visit. She shook her head. Probably not.

“And Robert’s been trying to get time off work to come and visit you, but you know what ridiculous hours he has to work.”

Robert was her favourite cousin and worked as a trainee chef at a very fancy restaurant. They were about the same age and used to be inseparable when they were younger. Martha was his mother. Lily wondered how two people could differ so much.

Her cell phone suddenly chimed, breaking through her thoughts. She pulled it out and glanced at the screen. The email icon flickered and she pressed a few buttons. The email opened and she read through the short message.

She instantly recognised the Omega symbol that adorned the message like a signature. It was strange. Reapers got their assignments via email. Lily sat up and looked around. A petrol station was just up the road from them.

“Could you stop please?” she asked and her mom looked around at the station.

“Why?”

“My stomach is giving me trouble.”

“Why didn’t you say so sooner?”

“I thought it would go away. Please? I’ll just be a few minutes and you can stretch your legs.”

“We have been driving for a while now. It’ll probably be a good idea.”

Her mom turned off the highway and parked under a large tree at the station. Lily got out and grabbed her bag off the backseat.

“I’ll just be a second,” she said as she rummaged around quickly.

Her mom got out of the car and stretched her arms over her head. Lily threw the bag over her shoulder and headed towards the station’s bathrooms. Once inside she locked the cubicle behind her and pulled out the skull-key.

She pressed it against the door and stood back as the bathroom door changed into the black door that led to Death’s Domain. She opened the door and stepped through into the hallway. Several people greeted her as she walked across the hall and pulled out a blank key.

Several of the other Reapers gasped. She had a Master-key, one that could take her anywhere in the world. She held this one up to her mouth and closed her eyes.

“Take me to where I need to be,” she said softly and the key in her hand changed.

This one she pressed against the door in front of her and watched it change into a bamboo and paper door that slid aside. She stepped through and hopped down from the low step onto a gravel path.

No one noticed Lily as she walked through the late evening sunlight towards the street where there was a massive accident. As she walked she pulled Inoue out of its scabbard. The world around her froze and several working Reapers looked up at her.

“Hi, Shiemi,” Lily called to a young Japanese girl as she walked past.

Shiemi was two years younger than Lily and was a Reaper for three now. The girl smiled as she swiped her black and blue hair out of her eyes.

“Hi, Lily. I didn’t know that Japan was your area,” she said as she swung her sword around.

Like Lily, Shiemi had a katana. Most of the Japanese Reapers had swords. Several of them waved to Lily as she walked through the accident. Shiemi fell into step next to her. The nice thing about this non-world Lily and the Reapers worked in is that it had no colour apart from the flickering blue souls of the dead.

“It isn’t, but Helandel wants me to get in as much experience as possible. So I’m being sent all over right now.”

Shiemi gave her a pitying smile. “Well, good luck.”

That was another thing. All Reapers could understand one another. They spoke in their native languages and they heard the answers in the same language. Lily had asked Helandel about this and he’d just said that to the dead all languages were the same. It made no sense to Lily but if it worked, it worked.

“I can’t stay and chat. I’m on the road with my mom and can’t stay away for too long.”

Shiemi nodded. “I understand. See you around.”

Lily walked up to a young man and woman where they stood in dazed shock. She swung her sword around and smiled at the couple as they blinked at her.

“What happened?” the man asked, putting a protective arm around the woman’s shoulders.

Lily shrugged. “You died,” she said and the woman blinked slowly.

“That’s right,” she said, looking up at the man. “The truck swerved in front of us.” She turned back to Lily. “Were we in a lot of pain?” she asked.

Lily looked around at the accident site. Their small car was almost completely flattened when the truck’s load slipped. She shook her head.

“It was nearly instantaneous. You didn’t feel a thing.”

The man smiled as they started to fade. “That’s good,” he said and disappeared. “I wouldn’t like to think that we suffered.”

Lily turned and waved towards Shiemi. “I’m off!” she called and Shiemi waved back at her.

“That’s it?” she called back and Lily nodded.

“Yup, those two were my quota. I’ll leave the rest up to you.”

Shiemi nodded and smiled. “Take care!”

Lily waved again and headed back into the house she’d emerged out of. She sheathed Inoue and changed back to normal, then pressed the skull-key into the door and stepped through.

Helandel smiled at her. “Good work,” he said and she nodded at him.

“Sorry, I can’t stick around. My mom and I are on our way to a family reunion. I’ll come and visit for a bit tonight.”

Helandel grinned. “You know that no time passes while you’re here, right?”

“That’s only broadly true. An hour passes for every three weeks, but I really just want to get to the farm. The sooner we do that, the sooner we can get it over with.”

Helandel nodded sagely. “Good point. See you later then.”

Lily disappeared through the doorway and Helandel caught a glimpse of a bathroom before the door shut behind her. The scent of a public bathroom hung in the air for a few moments before it disappeared. He frowned at the doorway.

“You could have chosen a more elegant entryway,” he muttered as he walked away towards his rooms.

It took two more hours to reach the family farm, a place that Lily secretly despised, though she’d never dream of telling her mother this. She was glad that she could waste time unpacking and setting up their rooms while her mother chatted and gushed with her numerous sisters.

Her mother was the sixth born of nine daughters. As she was unpacking one of her too many cousins walked up and leaned against the doorjamb.

“I heard you nearly died,” the girl drawled and Lily clenched her teeth.

“Yes.”

“Why didn’t you? It’s not like anyone wants you here.”

Lily swung around, hand gripping Inoue in her sudden fury. The girl was younger than Lily by five years, was blonde, petite and annoying as hell. Behind the girl hovered two other blonde, petite and, frankly, clueless cousins. Lily’s hand tightened reflexively around Inoue’s scabbard.

“I came because my mother insisted. Now please go away before I hurt one of you.”

“You wouldn’t dare.”

Lily lifted her hand and gripped Inoue’s handle, ready to pull. The girls staggered a few steps back.

“What are you doing with a sword? Are you crazy?”

“Well, looking at the three of you would drive anyone crazy and listening to your nagging voices makes me want to do something violent to you too,” a deep voice said from behind the girls and they all swung around.

A young man was standing in the doorway, smiling a crooked smile. His wide shoulders and classically chiselled features made his threat seem even darker.

“Robert!” Lily exclaimed as she lowered Inoue.

Robert raised a large hand to wave at her. “Hey Lils,” he said and turned his gaze back to the girls. “Go and play with your dolls, little girls.”

The three scurried away and Robert sauntered into the room. Lily ran forward and hugged him tightly. It was as though, in that second they connected, all her stress and worry gushed out. Lily started to cry.

In all her life, in everything that’s happened to her, Robert was her anchor. He was the brother she never had and the only one she could ever show weakness to. He put his arms around her and gently shushed her.

“It’s alright, it’s alright. You’re safe now. It must have been very scary.”

Another young man appeared in the doorway and stared at Lily as she sobbed into Robert’s arms. Robert looked up and gave him an apologetic smile.

“Come on in, honey. This is Lily, the cousin I told you about?”

The young man stepped into the room. He looked quite feminine and ill at ease, but smiled tentatively at Lily as she looked at him with tear-filled eyes. It was hard to reign in her wildly spiralling emotions.

“The one who nearly died?” he asked and Lily was surprised by his gentle voice.

“Yeah.”

The young man ran a finger over Lily’s cheek, scooping up a tear and smiling tenderly at her.

“Then cry all you want, darling. You’ve had a tough time.”

Lily sat up and scrubbed at her eyes. “You have no idea,” she muttered.

Robert reached over and took the young man’s hand. “This is Duncan; we met while training together at the restaurant.”

“Nice to meet you,” Lily said and shook Duncan’s hand. “I was wondering why I didn’t see your mom around. Did she lock herself in her room again?”

Robert gave a sad smile. “Yeah, she always does this when I bring my boyfriend to these things.”

Lily smiled at Duncan’s uneasy expression. “Don’t mind Aunt Martha. She’s a bitch.”

Duncan suddenly laughed. “That I’ve noticed.”

Robert got to his feet and pulled Lily up with him. “Now fix your pretty face and let’s go and greet everyone. They’re all just dying to see you,” he said with a dramatic wave of his hand.

Lily smacked him on the arm and then walked over to the dresser where she wiped a cloth over her tear streaked face. In the mirror she saw Robert pick up Inoue and inspect the scabbard. She smiled at the small, bell-like lilies that dotted the soul blue scabbard.

“Would you really have drawn it on those three?” he asked as he turned it over and over in his hands. “Hey, this is nice. Where did you get it?”

“The Grim Reaper gave it to me,” she said and watched Robert’s fascinated expression.

“Cool, this is exactly the type of sword I can see you having. He must really like you.”

And that, right there, was why she loved her cousin so much. He took everything in his stride. She laughed as she linked arms with both Robert and Duncan.

“I don’t really know what he thinks of me but I really like him.”

“You’re not serious, are you?” Duncan asked as she steered them out of the room.

Lily just winked at him and led the way out of the house. Outside everyone stood around, chatting. Several of the younger children ran around and screamed, like all little kids do.

The teenage girls all gushed under a tree over some glossy magazine, several of the teenage boys were tossing a rugby-ball around and the older people were seated under one of the shady trees, gossiping.

Everyone looked up as Lily passed, arms still linked with her cousin and his boyfriend. She was steering them towards where her mom was talking to several of her sisters. They were laughing about something.

Everything around her was peaceful and calm, like nothing could disturb the peace. Somewhere behind her, Lily heard the approach of cars on the gravel road and the slam of doors. Just as Lily approached her mom she saw her mom turn towards her and suddenly go pale. She looked as though she might collapse at any moment.

Lily untangled her arms from Robert and Duncan and ran to her mother. She grabbed the older woman’s shoulders.

“Mom? What’s wrong?”

“Hello Lilith, Rose,” a deep voice said behind her and Lily felt ice slide down her spine.

It was a voice from her past, one she doubted she would ever hear again. Slowly she turned and looked up at the tall, dark haired man that stood behind her.

“Stephen,” her mother breathed.

Lily’s father smiled at them. “Long time no see,” he said coldly.

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