Reapers (3 page)

It was
over
, he had said.

It seemed that David had disappeared.
She didn’t know who this cruel person was. What had happened to
him?

Kara stood frozen in place, hoping
that he would change his mind and come back. But he
didn’t.

She watched David
disappear through a line of pine and hemlock trees, and then she
started to move toward the forest herself. She was going to give
him a piece of her mind. Whatever was wrong, they were going
to
talk
about
it—

But Kara’s blood went cold, and her
breath caught in her throat when she saw a dark shape appear where
David had stood just seconds before.

The shape was a head taller than
David. It moved gracefully between the trees and then disappeared
after him through the thick wall of shrubs. Was it a trick of the
light? Was the forest playing with her mind? This wasn’t just a
case of an overexcited imagination. She couldn’t explain it, but
she just knew it was evil.

It is a bad omen to see a
bat in broad daylight.
Mr. Patterson’s
voice sounded in her head.
…It is a sign
that the balance of things has shifted, that something unnatural is
near—something not from this world has entered
.

Kara was frightened. Mr.
Patterson had been right—she wasn’t imagining demons again.
This
was
real
evil, and it was going to kill David.

Chapter 2

The Needle

W
ith her heart in her throat, Kara bolted toward the spot in
the forest where she had last seen David.

“
David!” she bellowed.
With the hurtful things he had said forgotten, Kara hurtled across
the park like a wild cheetah. She had to save David.

Her intuition screamed
that something was very wrong, that David’s life was in danger. She
had sensed and sometimes
seen
shadows of dark and menacing creatures all her
life. So far, they had always seemed to be following her, but
tonight they were chasing David.

The image of the dark
figure played in her mind over and over. She didn’t know what she
was going to do once she reached it. Even though she had only seen
it in the distance she could tell it was well over six feet tall.
The last time she checked, she wasn’t exactly a ninja or a
superhero—she would just have to
wing
it.

Where was Mr. Patterson? She could
have used his help—and his bat. It was still strange that he had
never shown up, but right now, David needed her help. She would
have to deal with her boss later.

Leaves crashed under her shoes as she
made it through the first line of trees. The thick darkness hit her
like a wall of doom.

She tripped over a root and crashed to
the ground hard, scraping her knees. Cursing, she pushed herself
back up and strained to see through the ominous and impenetrable
darkness.

The air was hot, stale, and smelled as
though some large animal was rotting away deep in the forest. But
there was something else, like the smell of smoke, like the
smoldering of a small campfire.

Kara stood still, listening. She
waited a few moments for her eyes to adjust to the darkness. It was
no use to run in blindly. She’d be no use to David if she got lost
or impaled herself. The forest was treacherous, especially at
night. She needed to calm herself and be smart.

She could barely make out her hand in
front of her face. How was she ever going to find David?

A scream cut through the
silence.

“
David!”

Kara crashed blindly through the
forest toward the sound of the scream. Branches as sharp as blades
cut through the skin on her face and hands. She cried out. She
could feel the blood trickling down her cheeks, but she kept on
going. She hoped she was running in the right direction.

Her lungs burned as she gasped for
breath. It was like running in a sauna. The air was too thin—too
hot—it wasn’t normal.

She tripped again,
steadied herself, and then she stopped and listened. Nothing but
the rustling of the leaves and her racing heartbeat. She had lost
him. She
was
lost.

“
David! Where are you?”
she bellowed.

She listened intently again, but only
the forest whispered back. The branches cracked in the wind. The
smell of wet earth and decomposing leaves filled the air around,
smothering her like a heavy perfume.

“
Kara! Help!” David’s
voice came from deep in the forest.

Kara held her breath.
There was no doubt in her mind—
that
was David’s voice.

Frantically, she searched the dark
ground and found a thick branch that matched the feel and size of
Mr. Patterson’s bat. Then she charged into the forest.

It was close, really close. She could
hear the terror and pain in his voice. He was scared. Something was
scaring him.

With images of David’s body being
dismembered by some demonic creature running through her mind, she
tumbled through the dark forest, tripping and colliding with tree
trunks in the dark.

But although Kara kept running she
never seemed to get any closer to him. She met more trees and more
darkness, but there were no signs of David.

She halted. Her lungs screamed for
every breath. Maybe she had gone the wrong way? Had she run too
deep, too far in the wrong direction? Worse, she had no idea which
way was North or South, let alone how far she had
wandered.

She knew she was lost.

“
David? I can’t find you.
Tell me where you are!”

She waited and listened
carefully.

But no answer came. She was alone,
deep in the woods, and very lost.

A cool wind brushed the hair from her
face and refreshed her. She looked up at the trickle of silver
light that spilled from an opening through the top of the trees.
Although angry gray clouds raced across the dark blue sky, the moon
was a bright white disk. Strange how fast night had come, but not
as strange as being in the middle of the forest of doom. The air
smelled unnaturally of sulfur, and she could feel the electricity
in the air, much more than before.

Breathing heavily, she walked slowly
forward and stumbled into a clearing in the forest. The ground was
soft, like walking on cotton balls. The air was cooler and soon she
could make out her surroundings.

Kara stood in a round clearing. She
coughed. The stench of rotten flesh was worse. It was almost as
though she were right next to a decomposing animal corpse and was
expecting to step in it at any moment. But when she searched the
ground, there was nothing.

Suddenly, Kara felt a presence behind
her. With her breath caught in her throat she turned
around.

A man stood in the
clearing.

Kara took a step back. “Who—who are
you? Where’s David?”

And when the man stepped into the
light of the moon, Kara stopped breathing.

He stared back at her with large
yellow eyes with slit-like irises, like the eyes of a cat. She
could see black veins that shone like tattoos under his thin,
paper-white skin. His evil smile revealed a mouth full of sharp
black teeth that looked as though they had been filed down into
pointy needles, and he wore a black leather tunic and pantsuit,
almost like a medieval costume. He was tall, and his long black
hair fell over his square shoulders. He looked like the evil
offspring of a vampire and a zombie.

“
Hello again,
Kara.”

Kara stepped back and lowered her
weapon slightly.

“
How—how,” she stammered
and fought to regain the strength in her voice. “How did you know
my name? Who are you?”

The thing’s smile widened. “I’m a
friend. No need to be frightened.”

Pale gray smoke seeped from his skin,
as though his burning body had just been doused with water. The
smoke dissipated.

Kara retched at his vile, rotten-flesh
smell. It was all pretty disgusting.

She stiffened. His cat-like eyes bore
into hers. She couldn’t look away. She was frozen on the spot. In
her fear she had forgotten why she was there in the first place. He
watched her eagerly, like she was about to become his next
meal.

Kara shook her head. Her monsters had
always been shadows, never anything so solid, so evil.

“
This can’t be happening.
You can’t be real.”

The man laughed an inhuman, guttural
laugh.

“
Classic human response,”
he said in a low animal-like voice.

It was as though he was reading her
mind.

“
You must not let your
weak mind and emotions cloud your ability to see beyond the layers
of the planes, to see beyond the veil. You’re not imagining things,
mortal.
See
with
your eyes. See the
beyond
.”

She couldn’t speak.
It
was
real. This
thing, this man, this creature was real. She could see it. She
could smell it. It was so close to her she could smell its foul,
rotten breath. She felt as though she was stuck in one of her
nightmares. She was having a waking night terror.

The creature moved slowly toward
her.

“
Don’t come any closer.”
Her voice cracked, just a little louder than a whisper.

“
Stay back,” she said with
a little more conviction as she took another careful step back. It
frightened her, and although she wanted desperately to run, she
couldn’t look away. It seemed to have a pull on her, as though
there was an invisible force willing her to stay in
place.

It was all too extraordinary to
process. Monsters existed in the world. There was one in front of
her at this very moment, and he looked like he was about to eat her
like she was a filet mignon. It wanted something from her. Where
was David?

She took another step back and gripped
her stick firmly in her trembling hands, determined to go down
fighting.

The creature leered, pleased at her
fear.

It laughed at her again. “Yes, you are
right to be frightened. But right now, you and I have some business
to settle.”

The creature approached slowly, and
Kara noticed it made no sound as it floated over the leaves on the
forest floor. It was so close. She would feel its hot breath
against her cheeks.

“
Don’t come any closer.
Stay back!”

Kara swung her wooden club menacingly.
She looked around frantically. Could she run for it? It would be a
miracle if she found her way out of the forest. And if by some
miracle she did escape the forest, would this thing follow her and
kill her? What did it want? It took every ounce of courage to look
at the beast. What business could she and this thing possible have?
Clearly, it was toying with her.

“
Get away from me, demon!”
yelled Kara.

His mouth rippled in anger.

“
I am no
demon
,” he hissed. “You
insult me gravely, Kara. I thought you’d know better, seeing how
special you are in
our
world. Your memory leaves a lot to be desired—something that
time can fix, no doubt.”

The man-creature searched the clearing
behind him as though he were expecting someone to discover
them.

“
I’m afraid we don’t have
time for pleasantries. Someone else has entered the forest. Someone
that I’d rather not deal with.” His face twisted in a smile that
made him look less like a man and more than ever like a beast. “We
should get started.”

Kara watched the creature—afraid to
speak, afraid to move.

“
You see, Kara, we already
put things to rest. Now they have risen up again. Life is the most
fragile, unstable, unpredictable thing there is. In fact, there’s
only one thing about life we can be sure of, and that is
death.”

Kara didn’t trust herself to speak.
She spotted an escape through a gap in the trees to her left. If
only she could distract it somehow, but how?

She turned and faced the creature,
doing her best not to look into those horrid yellow
eyes.

“
Where’s my friend? What
have you done to David?”

The creature sneered.

“
David was never here.
It’s just you, me,” he raised his arms, “and the little critters
that dwell in this forest.”

“
Liar!” spat Kara. “Where
is he?”

She swung the stick like a sword,
impressed and surprised at her own skill. She had the strangest
feeling that she had wielded a weapon like this before. But how
could that be?

She glared at the cat-eyed man. “If
you hurt him, I swear I’ll…I’ll—”

“
You’ll what?” laughed the
man-creature. He pointed a finger at her. His nails were sharp
black claws. “You’ll hurt me with your little
stick
?”