Young Writers Society

"Something tells me you'd have to try very hard to upset me," Blanx said, returning the hug that Damascus had suddenly given him. Schadel wanted to join in on the hug as well, but realized that would be a bit rude. She settled for awkwardly waiting on the side for Blanx to pull away. When he finally did, she slipped her hand into Damascus's and eagerly pulled him along as they headed back towards her home.

"You're going to love it, John," she said, giving him a big grin. "We live in an enormous antique shop, and we even sell magical things!"

Damascus

By the time that Alexander had pulled back and Schadel had scooped up his hand, he was positively glowing. He fell into an easy gait with his sister, and swung their hands happily. His cheeks were positively pink with joy, and he hardly gave himself time to wonder if he was dreaming.

"Magical things!" He gasped, delighted. "Like spells and potions and things? And what's an 'antike'?"

"Yup!" Schadel eagerly confirmed. Blanx was leading them some of the more deserted streets, so she didn't mind raising her voice. It was late afternoon, and not many people wanted to go walking then on a day like today. "And antiques are really old stuff. Alexander collects them and then sells them! Someday I'm going to help him sell stuff, but right now I just do some organizing here and there."

A big grin split across her face.

"Maybe we could organize stuff together!" she exclaimed, her grip on his hand tightening. She turned to her big brother. "Can we Bl-Alexander? Pleeeeease?"

"I"m sure that could be arranged," he said, giving her another wink. He suddenly came to a stop in front of her, and she bumped right into him. Luckily, Blanx was good at balancing, so they didn't go toppling over.

"John," she excitedly whispered, "we're here!"

She looked up at the enormous brick building in front of them. Before Blanx had a chance to enter, she was already leading John in through the doors and rushing over to the elevator.

"We live on the very top floor!" she informed him, almost on the verge of giggling in her excitement. She swung their hands back and forth as she hit the right floor button, and the elevator began its ascent. "I can't wait to show you my room!"

Damascus

He beamed, his smile growing even wider with Schadel's infectious excitement. Squeezing her hand back, he was torn between gazing around him to take everything in and looking back at Alexander for approval.

He nodded quickly at the mention of helping out at the antique store. "Yes! Organizing sounds so fun! I'd love to help do your job with you, Sch- Irene!"

When they reached the building where Schadel and Blanx lived, and Damascus let out a breath, craning his head back to take in the huge building in awe. he didn't have much time to stare, however, until Schadel was pulling him into the building and into a tiny little room with a sliding grate.

He looked toward Schadel, eyes very wide. "You have your own room, all to yourself?" He whispered, stunned. "For real?"

She gave an eager nod. "Uh-huh!" she replied.

It was at that moment that the doors swung open to reveal the top floor.

It was nothing like the floor they had walked through on their way over to the elevator; this one was filled with bookcase after bookcase, with various domestic pieces of furniture and appliances scattered throughout the main living space. She started to bring him down to where her room was, only to pause when she realized she should be waiting for her older brother.

"We need to wait for him," she told Damascus, then stared at the elevator's doors expectantly.

That was when the elevator opened.

Blanx stepped out, his form clearly grim reaper in nature now. The only thing that vaguely resembled Alexander Baines was the color of his eyes, but Schadel had always thought they looked a little more honest on his reaper face than his human one. He towered over her grim reaper form when she was in it--a good eight feet instead of her seven. Since Irene Baines was far smaller than Schadel was, and since Damascus had never been tall to begin with, he seemed almost like a giant when he approached the two.

Damascus

He gazed around the shop, awestruck, and then that was when Schadel told him to wait for Alexander. Unconcerned, his gaze was still fixed on the books and furniture when he heard the elevator doors opened. He glanced over,only to do a violent double-take.

Standing in the open door was a reaper, like Schadel, only- this one was super tall. He craned his head back to look at its face, shock registering on his features.

Oh. Hold on. The eyes that belonged to the reaper looked familiar. Right! Of course the reaper was Alexander! Schadel hadn't said so this time, but she had been talking about an older brother back when they were camping.

It made sense for Alexander to be her brother, especially if he was a reaper too, but hadn't Schadel said that her older brother's name was...

"B- Blanx?" He whispered imploringly.

It suddenly came to her attention that she might have forgotten to mentioned that Alexander Baines was Blanx's alias, but it seemed like Damascus had a good enough grasp on who he was. She nodded, though she wasn't sure if Damascus could see it from the angle he was currently at.

"That's my real name," he confirmed. He glanced over at her. "I'm guessing Schadel told you it?"

She gave another nod. She might have accidentally told everyone in the forest, but she wasn't going to let Blanx know that. "Alexander is his human name, just like yours is John and mine is Irene!"

Damascus

"Oh!" Damascus nodded, back to smiling brightly. "I love your reaper forms." he gushed, and then promptly grabbed Schadel's arm.

"Oh, please do show me around now! Antiques are amazing." He whispered, albeit loudly, just in case what he was saying had potential to be rude.

He looked back around the shop, nearly hopping in excitement.

"Of course!" Schadel said, grinning from ear-to-ear as she began to lead him through their living room. She pointed out some of her favorite bookcases, and some of the most comfortable pieces of furniture. It was when she was almost done and saw Blanx moving around in their kitchen that an idea suddenly came to mind.

She glanced back at Damascus.

"We could use our actual forms now!" she said, voice bubbling with excitement. "You don't have to look like John, Damascus, and I don't have to look like Irene!"

Damascus

Damascus pulled his gaze away from a detailed clock in the corner of the room when Schadel started talking. A bright smile stretched across his face at the prospect she presented, and he nodded enthusiastically.

"Oh, that would be wonderful! This form doesn't hurt, it's a lot of fun, actually, but it is kind of stuffy." He looked down at himself and tugged at his waistcoat, as if to prove his point.

Wasting no time, he shifted back to his true self in an easy, fluid manner, and lost a good foot and a half of height as he did so.

He looked back up at Schadel and gave her a toothy smile, his tail swishing in delight at the ability to be himself around one of his siblings without scaring them.

She eagerly followed suit, glad to be rid of the dreaded dress and other feminine attire. Now she was herself in all of her grim reaper glory - seven feet tall, eyes the color of polished silver, and a bubbly, childish voice. She also now easily towered over her brother, but that was alright. It wasn't hard to crouch down so their heights were more similar, and Damascus didn't really seem to mind the height difference.

"We should play a game later where we take on different forms!" she excitedly said. "We can do impressions, and try to come up with cool new ones, and maybe even go on adventures! I've heard all of the other reaper kids talking about doing stuff like that, even though they don't like humans too much..."

She frowned.

"Other reaper kids are weird," she declared. "Humans are really nice, like Engel and Boris and Edward and James! They've just never been lucky to meet people like our brothers."

Damascus

"Yes! That sounds like a super fun game!" He nodded enthusiastically. "And it's just us, so we wouldn't leave anyone out or make them feel bad that they can't change too."

With a frown, he tilted his head and considered what Schadel said about the other reaper kids.

"But aren't... aren't all humans nice? I mean, some spectors are pretty scary, and they come from human souls, but... I thought they just turned mean when they died."

She thought long and hard on his question.

"Some humans are mean," Schadel admitted. She didn't really know a lot of them, but there had to be some mean ones if they went to war. "But most of them are really good! It's just that some reapers can get really stuck up sometimes, and they think they're better than humans 'cause they can't die."

She crouched down and looked her brother right in the eyes. "But obviously they're wrong, because our siblings are great!" She grinned at him, then hopped back up to her feet and grabbed onto his wrist. She knew exactly where she wanted to go - and she was sure Blanx would let them play there!

"Blanx?" she called out. "Can Damascus and I go play in the magic room?"

"Of course," he replied from over in the kitchen - he was baking something. She could smell him mixing the ingredients together, and could hear him move the pots and pans.

"Yay!" Schadel exclaimed. She glanced down at Damascus. "We have to cut through the rest of the shop to get down there, so we'll have to look like humans again for a few minutes. But you don't have to be John if you don't want to! You can be human you, or another human!"

She thought long and hard on what she wanted her own form to look like, eventually settling on the teenage girl from the forest. And, since they were in the safety of the shop, she wasted no time in giving herself a comfy pair of overalls.

Damascus

He nodded solemnly, a smile twitching at the edge of his lips. He didn't know what the magic room was, but it sounded really really fun. He stepped back a moment to think about his form, and studied Schadel's for a minute.

She didn't look fully grown like she had when she was Irene- at least, not quite, but she wasn't a child either. With a frown, he screwed his eyes shut and concentrated hard. He wanted to have a half-grown form, too!

With a fair share of wavering, he slowly, almost uncertainly shifted into a teenage boy with light blond curls and a pointed nose. Almost as an afterthought, he added a suit that was slightly different and more fitted than the one he had worn as John, though the colors scheme was just as off.

"Tada!" he cheered. "I did it! Now we're matching."

She grinned. "We are!"

She eagerly grabbed onto her brother's arm and began to pull him in the direction of the elevator, waving at the little bit of Blanx she could see in the kitchen with her free hand before pressing the down button. The moment the doors opened, she darted inside with Damascus in tow. She couldn't stand still as the elevator descended to the lowest floor it could reach; she kept hopping from one foot to the other.

And then the doors opened! She gave Damascus another tug and led him through aisle after aisle of antiques, careful not to knock any over as she brought him to the basement's entrance. Blanx had said that only people with magic could see the door, but she knew that wasn't going to be a problem - Damascus was a demon.

She flung the door open and marched down the steps, light flooding the room as she created a strand of darkness that hit the light switch. The basement was modeled much like the antiques part of the shop, but there was a major difference: the objects lining the shelves and walls were all somehow magical. The magical textbooks, wands and occasional witch hat were the easiest to tell, but every single thing in there had some kind of magic potential.

"Here we are!" she exclaimed, letting go of Damascus and gesturing at all of the room in one giant sweep of her arms.