“There’s something special about this house,” Nat said.
Todd said, “You are what makes this house special. You will be raised and trained here.”
“Trained?” Nat asked with a raised brow.
“A great task awaits you, and we shall prepare you for it,” Todd explained.
Angela added, “We will help you build the strength your mother promised you would gain when she died.”
Nat fingered the crystal in his pocket and said, “Okay.”
Fifteen years later, he clutched that same crystal as he fell back asleep in his Manhattan apartment.
Chapter Two
Bob had tossed and turned at the thought of a confrontation with Saleena about her remaining at his house. It took him a few hours to get to sleep, but he had his mind set on what he had to do. He would risk her being upset with him instead of earning her father’s displeasure. He woke up the next morning and discovered that Saleena had plans of her own, and he was in no position to stop her. In fact, it turned out that Bob was at the heart of plans.
Bob and Sarah woke up next to each other on their bedroom floor—both bound and gagged. They looked into each other’s eyes and tried to wiggle free to no avail. Fear and panic filled their eyes when they realized they couldn’t get loose.
Saleena strolled into the room carrying a butcher knife. “It’s about time you two got up,” she said playfully.
Bob eyed the knife and tried to talk, but the gag muffled his words. Saleena stood over him and told him, “I’ll ask the questions, you answer, okay?”
Bob nodded frantically, and she removed his gag. “What do you want to know,” he panted.
Saleena squatted over him and looked into his eyes. “Was selling your soul to my father worth it?”
Bob hesitated before answering. “I don’t know—”
“Was it worth it?” she snapped.
Bob cut his eyes at Sarah. “Yes. I love my life.”
Saleena chuckled. “Love? You love the things in your life.”
Bob shook his head. “No. I love my wife.”
She eyed Sarah, who whimpered with tears in her eyes, and then turned back to Bob and asked, “She’s worth your soul?”
Bob swallowed hard and declared, “I would sacrifice ten eternities just to experience a moment of love I’ve shared with that woman.”
Saleena smiled and stared off into space for a moment. “I understand.” Her face turned stone-cold. “You hold something for my father. Where is it?”
Fear and confusion filled Bob’s eyes. “I can’t—”
She stabbed him in the arm and he yelped in pain. “Look at me,” she told him. “If you don’t tell me what I want to know, I’m going to cut Sarah into pieces and then I’m going to cut you into pieces.”
Bob winced. “But your father—”
Saleena stood moving towards Sarah.
“Wait,” Bob shouted.
Saleena walked back over to him. “Where?”
He took a deep breath. “There’s a safe built into the floor under the bed. The code is 060875.”
Saleena hurried over to the bed, moved it, removed a small rug that concealed the safe, and then kneeled at the safe and entered the password on the safe’s keypad. Inside the safe Saleena found a 10-inch by 6-inch wooden box. She grabbed the box and opened it, revealing a golden knife with a jewel encrusted handle and a razor-sharp 6-inch blade. She carefully removed the knife from the box and admired it. She couldn’t believe she finally had it in her grasp. It was the key to transforming the very nature of her existence. She would no longer endure the loneliness fostered by a brother who struck out on his own and left her to fend for herself under the clutches of a controlling father—a father who not only forbade her to see the one who became her alleged true love, but also bequeathed her a genetic legacy that nearly ensured she would never know love at all. She carried the knife over to Bob, confident she would pay her brother back for abandoning her, and spite her father by living the life she wanted to live with the one he had forbidden her to be with.
Saleena kissed the blade and held it in front of Bob’s eyes. “They say this knife is as old as mankind. Do you know what it’s used for?” she asked.
“No,” Bob admitted. “I just hold it.”
“Of course my father wouldn’t tell you,” she said. “Let me show you.”
Saleena stuffed the gag back into Bob’s mouth and then squatted over Sarah. Sarah’s eyes grew wide as Saleena raised the knife high above her head and then plunged it into Sarah’s heart. Sarah choked and gagged for a few seconds and then fell dead. Bob grunted and groaned through his gag as Saleena pulled the knife from Sarah and stood.
“Show yourself,” Saleena whispered, looking around the room.
Thick black smoke filled the room and swarmed around Saleena like a tornado. Saleena fingered the crystal on her neck with one hand and held the knife to her bosom with the other.
“Yes,” Saleena whispered with excitement and lust bouncing in her eyes. “It’s me.”
The smoke filled the entire room until it was pitch black, and then quickly disappeared. Behind Saleena, in the doorway, stood a handsome young man dressed in all black. He stood about six-foot-one with an athletic build, and looked no older than twenty-five, but could pass for twenty-one.
The young man chuckled and said, “I can’t believe you did it.”
Saleena turned and her face lit up with joy at the sight of him. “Izzy, it worked.”
Saleena dropped the knife and ran into Izzy’s arms. He caressed her face and kissed her passionately on the lips. Saleena moaned in pleasure and then backed away and touched her lips as if she had been kissed for the first time.
“Did you feel that?” she asked, flustered.
Izzy shook his head. “No.”
Saleena traced the outline of her lips with her finger. “It’s amazing.” She turned to Bob and told him, “I understand why you would sacrifice so much for this experience.” She picked up the knife and handed it to Izzy. “Do it,” she told him.
Izzy took the knife and eyed Bob “Are you sure you want to do this?” he asked Saleena.
“Yes,” Saleena nodded. “This is what we both wanted.”
Izzy studied the knife. “It will upset the balance of things. Your father will send everything he has after us, not to mention my brothers will seek to pull me back.”
Saleena kissed him. “Damn the devil. I can handle anything he throws at me. As for your brothers, the reapers can’t attack you without showing themselves, and a bullet to the head will send them back into the smoke for at least seven days before they can show themselves again. Besides, if they pull you back into the smoke, I’ll just summon you out again.”
Izzy smiled. “You have this all figured out, huh?”
Saleena kissed him again. “We got this all figured out, remember? You did handle your end of the plan, didn’t you?”
Izzy nodded. “Yeah, we’re set up for everything we need to live as humans, including tools to battle your brother and his minions, but life as man knows it could be turned upside down.”
Saleena backed away. “It’s the only way we can be together, and our love is worth sacrificing all of mankind.”
Izzy took a deep breath, headed over to Bob, and turned to Saleena. “Your father will know what you’ve done as soon as this one gets to hell.”
“Do it,” Saleena whispered.
Izzy plunged the knife into Bob’s heart, killing him instantly. Saleena then took the crystal off her neck, dropped it to the floor and smashed it with her foot. A blue smoke oozed from the smashed crystal and filled the room. Izzy coughed, chocked, and fell to the floor unconscious. Saleena knelt beside him as the smoke cleared.
“Izzy,” Saleena said, shaking him.
Izzy didn’t respond. They had come so close to making their dreams a reality and Saleena couldn’t bear the thou
ght of losing him now. She smacked him across the face. “Izzy,” she yelled with panic.
Izzy still didn’t respond, and she shook him violently. This time he coughed and slowly sat up.
“I told you the devil’s breath was unbearable to non-demons,” she sighed in relief.
Izzy struggled to breathe. “I don’t know how you could stand it.”
“It’s in the genes,” she joked and playfully tapped him on the shoulder.
“Kiss me,” Izzy told her.
Saleena threw her arms around his neck and launched her tongue into his mouth. He moaned and quickly pulled away as he touched his lips.
“Wow,” he muttered. “This is what it feels like to be human.”
Saleena smiled. “It feels good, doesn’t it?”
Izzy leaned in to kiss her again, but she stopped him and said, “We’ll have plenty of time for that, but we really need to get out of here now.”
Izzy stood and pulled Saleena to her feet. “You’re right. There’s somebody we have to go see.”
***
Twenty-four year-old Lamont Green lived every day of his life like it was his last. He never knew when death would come knocking, but he stayed ready and prepared for the visit. He knew he was living on borrowed time. He had survived a bullet to the back of the head when he was barely thirteen—a bullet from the same gun that had killed his real-estate agent father and Wall Street executive mother. It had been a botched home invasion. The robbers were looking for something they never found, and they expressed their frustration by executing the successful couple and their son with a bullet to the back of each of their heads. Doctors said it was a miracle that Lamont didn’t die instantly. There wasn’t a day that went by where Lamont didn’t think about that bullet. Even now he lay on his back in his bed in his deluxe apartment in the sky thinking about how grateful he was to be alive while a beautiful, thick, naked woman.
Lamont didn’t even remember her name. He had met her at a club the night before, brought her home, and now it was nearing noon and they were winding down their fifth go around in the sack. They had been at it all night.
She giggled, “That was good.”
Lamont chuckled. “It was alright.”
“Yeah,” she exhaled. “I had you open just now.”
Lamont frowned. “I’ve had worse, I’ve had better. I said it was alright.”
He slid her off of him and climbed off the bed. He headed into the living room where her dress, handbag, and shoes lay on the floor, grabbed the dress, took it back into the bedroom, and tossed it to her.
“You’re kicking me out,” she sighed.
Lamont shrugged. “You didn’t think you would stay here forever, did you?”
She stood, revealing her goddess-like figure, and slipped into the dress. “Will you call me,” she asked.
“Probably not,” he admitted. “If I called you we would hook up again, and then this first time would no longer be special.”
She looked confused. “What?”
He shook his head at her. “If we did the same thing tomorrow it would make it feel too much like yesterday. I need every day of my life to feel like an adventure, a new adventure. I met you, we shared a night together, it was a great adventure. Now it’s time to move on. Cherish the memory.”
She stood there looking dumbfounded. “You’re serious?”
He nodded, “As a bullet to the back of the head.”
She stormed into the living room and put on her shoes as Lamont came into the room behind her.
“The doorman will get you a cab and pay for it,” he said, handing her the handbag.
“Whatever,” she hissed and walked out the apartment.
Lamont shut and locked the door behind her and then plopped down on the couch. He sat there wondering how much time he had left and contemplated how death would come to collect on the tab left unpaid eleven years earlier. He remembered lying in the hospital with that fresh gunshot wound. He should have been in a coma, but he wasn’t. He lay on that hospital bed listening to a stranger’s voice in his head. It was a man. Lamont couldn’t see him, but he had heard him loud and clear. The voice had told him that he could have life in exchange for his loyalty, and he agreed. Lamont didn’t know any better. He was only a 13-year-old boy. He had watched his parents murdered. He didn’t want to die. He was afraid. For the first few years after Lamont got out of the hospital, he thought he had dreamed the voice. He had never forgotten his brush with death, but years had passed without so much as a peep from the voice.
Lamont was sent off to boarding school until he turned eighteen. That’s when he inherited his parent’s estate, which included three million dollars of insurance policies and several apartment buildings in Manhattan. Lamont was set for the rest of his life. He moved into the penthouse of one of his apartment buildings and planned to live his life like his only purpose was to enjoy himself. That’s when he heard the voice again. It directed him to a Bronx apartment building where he found a man sitting on the living room sofa dead with his throat cut. Lamont had frozen at the sight of the dead guy, but the voice assured him that everything would be fine and then directed Lamont to a big hidden compartment in the bedroom closet where there was a footlocker full of automatic guns and ammo. The voice instructed him to take the footlocker and put it in a safe place and he did as he was told.
That wasn’t the last time the voice sent Lamont on a mission. The voice reached out to Lamont several times over the years, always sending him to a dead person’s house to get weapons of some sort. He had collected guns, knives, sticks, rods, swords, bow and arrows, and a few hundred thousand dollars in cash—all for the voice. There was also a four-day long stakeout at a fancy house in Upstate New York, where Lamont followed a fat guy back and forth to a waterfront warehouse. The voice had him learn all he could about the warehouse and then told him to purchase a pair of women’s jeans, a shirt, a pair of women’s shoes, and a leather coat, all of which he was instructed to place in a large duffle bag and keep under his bed along with another duffle bag full of the money he had gathered.
Now Lamont sat on the sofa wondering when the voice would reach out to him again. It had been over a year. Lamont was certain the voice had something to do with the tab he owed death, and as long as the voice was instructing him he knew it wasn’t time for the tab to be paid. The voice’s silence made Lamont anxious. Was their deal off? Did the voice still need him? That’s what Lamont was thinking when there was a knock at the door.
Lamont walked over to the door and asked, “Who is it?”
“It’s me,” Izzy said from the other side of the door.
Lamont recognized the voice and his heart pounded against his chest like a sledge hammer. “Who?”
“Me,” Izzy replied.
Lamont took a deep breath and opened the door. Izzy stood outside the door with Saleena at his side.
Lamont looked at Izzy and stammered, “You, I, um...”
Izzy smiled. “Can we come in?
Lamont stepped aside. “Of course.”
Izzy and Saleena walked in holding hands as if they would fly away from each other forever if they weren’t connected. The reality of their being together on earth in human form had not yet set in. They instinctively enjoyed the little things: a simple touch, a stealing glance, an intimate caress on the cheek.
Lamont closed the door behind them and stared at Izzy. “Who are you?” Lamont asked.
Izzy and Saleena sat on the couch like they were glued at the hip, and then Izzy announced, “I was a reaper.”
Lamont should’ve been nervous, but he wasn’t. A sense of calm swept over him. “You mean the grim reaper?”
Izzy nodded. “One of the grim reapers.”
Confusion covered Lamont’s face. “There’s more than one?”
“Yup,” Izzy nodded again, rubbing his hand on Saleena’s thigh. “Hundred
s of thousands. We’re each responsible for a certain number of souls.”
“And you had mine?” Lamont asked, already knowing the answer.
“Yes,” Izzy confirmed as Saleena kissed him on the cheek. “Your soul popped up on my list eleven years ago, along with your parents.”
Lamont paused, a little taken aback by all the touchy feely stuff going on between the couple, and then asked, “There’s a list?”
“Yeah,” Izzy replied, and then stared at Saleena with admiration when he asked Lamont, “Do you know why I’m here?”
Lamont’s eyes lit up. “To take my soul?”
“No,” Izzy shook his head. “To pick up the stuff you’ve collected for me.”
“What about my soul?” Lamont questioned.
Saleena rubbed Izzy’s chest and asked him, “I thought you said he’s like your assistant?”
“He is,” Izzy insisted. “He just doesn’t understand it.”
“Understand what?” Lamont asked.
Izzy explained, “That your soul is stuck in your body until I die, or a demon highjacks your body.”
Fear crept into Lamont’s eyes. “If you’re a reaper, who can kill you, and how can a demon highjack my body?” He stood shocked, taking it all in, no longer affected by the rubbing, petting, and massaging Saleena and Izzy continued to carry out as they explained things to him.
Izzy said, “I actually stopped being a reaper when I crossed over. Technically I can’t die here, but other reapers can cross over, kill this body, drag my soul back into the smoke where I come from, and then perform a ritual that renders me void. And that would pass my list onto another reaper, who would certainly come and collect your soul.”
Saleena added, “As for the demon highjacking your body, at the time of your initial death your body attracts demons but the reaper’s presence keeps them away while he takes your soul. If your body experiences a death encounter and you don’t have the presence of a reaper, a demon can push your soul out and posses your body. Izzy crossed over, leaving every soul on his list vulnerable to demon possession.”
Lamont paced. “So a demon can come highjack me right now?”
“No,” Saleena answered. “Only if you experience another death encounter. There’s a moment when the soul is severed from the body. Only a reaper can collect the soul or reestablish the connection. It’s during that moment that a demon can step in.”