Young Writers Society

Thytes grit his nonexistent teeth. He wasn't about to be intimidated by two tall creatures made out of darkness. Especially ones that wanted to take his soul.

"We can clean this mess up ourselves!" Thytes called, pointing at the larger one. "Our bodies are perfectly fine; we just need to get back to them. Why is helping us not your job?"

Landon let out an incomprehensible squeak as the reapers revealed themselves. At this point, he was starting to get used to all the strange goings-on, and therefore, his excitement had faded. Now a healthy fear and worry for survival prompted him.

He stood a little taller behind Magic, and surveyed the reapers once more, nodding slowly at Thytes' comment. It was a good point, though he doubted that they were likely to be convinced with pure anger.

With his concentration, he didn't notice the slight thrumming that started somewhere inside his wooden frame- perhaps in his soul itself.

The unnamed reaper studied the group for a moment, then slowly turned to face his taller companion as Landon moved behind Magic. "We were talking about breaking rules earlier," he said. Magic had been a little too flustered to notice it before, but the reaper had a slight British accent.

The Gunslinger lowered his bazooka. "...You're thinking of letting them go, aren't you?" The unnamed reaper nodded. "But the administration would never let you do that-"

"They owe me favors," he replied. The longsword disappeared. "I think it's time I called them in."

The darkness at the Gunslinger's feet receded into the ground. "...It's a good thing you're such a good reaper," he said, almost affectionately. Magic felt a twinge of recognition again - could the unnamed reaper be who they thought he was?

The unnamed reaper looked their group over once more. "You'll need help getting your bodies back," he said. "I can give it, if you come with me."

He turned to the Gunslinger.

"It looks like we'll have to put off our date, Kune," he said.

"What are you talking about, lieutenant?" the taller reaper asked. "I'd say breaking into an evil scientist's place is a very romantic way to spend an evening."

Well, that took care of itself quickly enough. The reapers had almost immediately agreed to join them in getting their bodies back. Now Thytes had all this anger he had no idea what to do with. But at least he didn't have to worry about fighting them.

The lion's muscles relaxed. "That is more like it," Thytes said, crossing his arms and putting on a friendlier tone of voice. Which wasn't hard, since he didn't have to worry about everyone else's lives anymore. "Do you know where the villains might be?"

Landon hypothetically glowed in relief and gratitude, and the tingling instantly faded. He strode past the wall of magic-users, in high spirits, and came to a stop a few feet away from the reapers.

"Thank you both." He said solemnly, fidgeting a bit awkwardly now that he had acted on his rush of emotions. "Really. Thank you. Um. My name is Landon."

He glanced over at Thytes, interested to hear the answer to his question. It seemed these reapers knew of their situation, at least.

Amber was thoroughly ashamed of herself. She had followed the others towards the source of the commotion but as soon as she had seen the fire and then seen how the flames, that most terrible of all weapons, had done absolutely nothing to the dark man, she had hid. From her dark corner, she had watched the battle, brief as it had been, and slowly worked on pulling herself out of the chaos the flames brought to her mind. By the time she had pulled herself together and stood up to maybe help in the fight, there were two "men" and one of them was huge. And fire couldn't hurt them.

She was doing her best to muffle her fear and was about to go on the offensive when the reapers stopped and said they would help them find their bodies. That had been... unexpected. She watched as the others relaxed but she couldn't. It had happened so suddenly... She couldn't trust it. She stepped from the shadows, trying her best to look relaxed and walked towards the others.

"We do know where they are, actually," the Gunslinger said. His form shifted in reverse, darkness being replaced by human skin, clothes and hair as he took a step towards the group. His companion followed suit. Soon, the two men from before were standing before the little wooden group. "But knowing where they are is just a start."

Magic nodded in agreement. Knowing the location was one thing. Actually sneaking in and grabbing their bodies was another challenge all together - it was hard to tell if they'd have to be present, or how they were going to stealthily get their bodies out.

His companion glanced around the abandoned amusement park.

"We should go back to my place before the administration sends someone to check on me," he said. "I'll call them when we arrive, but it would be best if we didn't get into an open conflict with another reaper."

"That's something I can agree with," the Gunslinger replied. He turned back to the rift that had disappeared. He was lucky; not only was he able to easily manipulate his weapon, but he was also able to easily create rifts. Few reapers had the same skills he had when it came to using his abilities.

His reaping weapon appeared in his hand again, this time nothing more than a little pocketknife. He popped it open and slashed at the air. The rift blossomed into existence, and he eagerly stepped through.

His companion followed, leaving just the group of wooden people.

"It's alright," Magic reassured them, noticing the general sense of unease that the group had. "They're bringing us somewhere safe - in fact, it's one of the safest places I can think of for people like us, save for Schadel's Necromancy Agency. We're going to the Baines Antique Shoppe in New York City, though I know that's a name that won't ring any bells."

They stopped when they were in front of the rift. Glancing back at the others, they said with a cheerful tone, "See you guys there!" and stepped through.

Mage and Knight followed several seconds later.

Landon gazed at the rift, where the reapers and several members of their wooden group had quickly dissapeared. He stepped forward, not uneasy in the slightest, but then stopped and turned. Amber had joined them, and though she was hard to read, he figured that it wasn't too far if a stretch to guess that she still didn't trust the reapers.

Gently, he walked back over to her and angled his face down.

"Would you like to go through with me?" He asked quietly. "You know, to make sure nothing happens to either of us."

Standing in front of the rift as it swirled around, Thytes found himself frozen in fear. It wasn't a response he was remotely familiar with, but he couldn't stop the conflict that took control of him. The reapers were friendly now, the rift was supposed to lead to a safe place, and a couple people had walked through already. But he'd just been fighting those reapers a short while ago, he didn't like the darkness, and he was still extremely worried about Kynan and Tristan's well-being. He didn't want to let them out of his sight, but what if the rift wasn't safe after all?

However, he brushed those thoughts aside when he caught Amber walking up to the rift out of the corner of his eye. Memories of the fireballs flashed through his mind, and he whirled around to face the dryad. "Apologies," he said. "I had completely forgotten that you were afraid of fire, it had slipped my mind. I perfectly understand if you had to hide, and I hope that-"

That's when he heard a noise behind him. Looking back, Thytes saw Tristan and Kynan hold hands as they stepped into the rift.

"Sorry!" the lion said to Amber as fear gripped his heart. Turning around yet again, he sped through the rift, leaving the amusement park and the wind behind.

Mage and Knight tumbled out of the rift, nearly bumping into Magic in the process. By the time they had come through it, the two reapers had already gotten a decent distance away - likely knowing that the others coming through wouldn't be as used to that method of travel.

Mage looked around the room they were in.

It was a cozy place, and a large one. Bookshelves filled the room farther back, but they were currently standing near some couches and tables a short distance away from what he guessed was a kitchen. A fire roared in a fireplace, and there was something strange hanging above it - a flat, black screen that only had a single word written on the bottom of its black border.

He heard movement from behind him.

Turning, he saw the shorter reaper moving about in the kitchen. He was getting out a plethora of cups and strange bags that were apparently filled with fine powders and smaller bags. The Gunslinger moved about behind him, grabbing a metal container and placing it on an equally unfamiliar black surface after filling it with water from a strange metal device.

"They're making tea and hot chocolate," Magic suddenly said from nearby. Mage and Knight turned to stare at them. The Personification of Magic was watching the two of them move about with a content tone to their voice. "I knew they'd be good hosts."

Knight crossed his arms. "I don't want to be the one to say this," he hesitantly began, "but we don't have mouths."

The Gunslinger suddenly popped up near them. "Not yet."

Mage instinctively covered where his mouth would be.

The Gunslinger gave him one look before clearly holding back laughter. "I'm not going to cut a hole in your face. Don't worry," he reassured him. "It takes some time for the water to heat up. I was going to help you get out of those wooden bodies while Blanx makes some calls."

Kynan and Tristan held their breaths as they walked out from the wind, then let it out when they found themselves in a cozy, warm room.

Just in time to be knocked over by Thytes, who'd barreled his way through the rift.

"Whoops!" Thytes said, pulling himself up immediately. He looked up at the reapers and the others as they darted around the room. "It smells rather lovely in here," he said after a few seconds, watching what appeared to be pots over what was probably supposed to be a fire.

Grumbling, Kynan got onto his feet, holding out a hand to help Tristan. "What was that?" he said to the Gunslinger. "Did I hear you talking about getting us out of our bodies? How?"

Amber watched as the reaper opened a rift in the air and people began to step through it. She still couldn't bring herself to trust the reapers and the thought of stepping through that portal into a place called... "New York?" was terrifying.

The terror was, however, briefly blocked out my shame when Thytes apologized to her for the fireball. She understood it was out of defense and she was about to tell him so when he turned saw his young companions crossing the rift and hurtled after them. The terror returned when he disappeared.

She stood there, frozen, until Landon noticed her. Something about him reminded her so much of Sorrow it was impossible to stay scared. Her voice was grateful when she answered, "I would like that very much, thank you."

Landon gave a nod, and then slowly walked forward until he was at the edge of the rift. He waited until Amber was standing next to him, murmured a little countdown under his breath, and then stepped through.

As Amber and Landon came out of the rift, the rift began to close. Magic made sure to glance back to see that all had cleared it, but it looked like there was no need to worry - they were all well away from it by the time it finally closed.

They turned back to the Gunslinger.

"Well," the reaper began, "it won't be exactly me doing it, unless things don't go as well as planned. To put it simply, you're all ghosts right now and are possessing those wooden bodies."

"G-Ghosts?" Knight repeated, stiffening and scooting closer to Mage.

"Technically," the Gunslinger added.

"That doesn't make any sense," Knight replied, his hand sneaking toward his boyfriend's. "How can you only technically be a gh-ghost...?"

"It's a way to describe the state of your soul," Magic helpfully interjected. The comment gained a confused look from the nearby reaper, and even Blanx turned and gave them a funny look. They would really have to explain who they were soon, though they doubted they would be all that likely to believe them when they were stuck like this. "Right now, your soul has been removed from your body. When that happens, souls manifest themselves as your body on a slightly different plane at the time of the separation, but we bypassed that step by 'possessing' these wooden bodies. They're not our actual bodies, and we're controlling them, so that counts as a possession."

"So we're like ghosts in name alone, but not actually dead?" Mage slowly concluded.

Magic gave an enthusiastic nod. "Exactly! There's two ways to break a possession - you can either have a reaper sever it forcefully, or have the 'ghost' focus on their actual self."

"We'll be doing the second option first," the Gunslinger said.

Mage and Knight stared down at themselves.

"You have to imagine what you're really like," Magic added. The others were lucky; they weren't the personification of a concept. They had to focus - hard - on the form they had been using last, and try to visualize the steady stream of magic they normally felt. But this wasn't exactly a new idea to them, so it wasn't hard for a seemingly normal body to pop into existence beside the wooden one. They just focused on the features first - the long, brown hair with a braid on the side, the jeans, the boots, the denim vest, the t-shirt and the gray eyes. Then they added the feeling of magic running through their veins, and the visualization was complete.

They were themself again, to some extent.

Now without a soul to support it, their body crashed to the ground. Mage jumped at the noise, clinging to his boyfriend in an ironic twist. Knight managed to wiggle out of his grip. The reapers, Mage and Knight all stared at Magic now that their form had popped into existence. The reapers were undoubtedly getting a good look at their soul - something that could have been done earlier, too, but hadn't been because they had wanted to see what Magic looked like first.

But before either one could question what Magic knew they had seen, Magic turned to the group assembled.

"All you have to do is picture yourself," they said, hopping over the discarded wooden body and approaching them. "If you have multiple forms, just imagine the one you were using last, and tack on the visualization of the other ones after you focus on that. The rest should-"

There was a loud crash from nearby, and Mage once again jumped up in surprise as another wooden body fell to the ground.

Knight, apparently, had gotten the hang of things rather quickly. He was slightly smaller than his wooden body had been, with noticeably lean limbs. His eyes were a startling shade of gold - unsurprising, given that he was a dragon - and his hair mostly matched that shade, save for the occasional black highlight. His long hair was thrown up in a low ponytail. He wore all black: a black tunic, black pants, high black boots, fingerless black gloves that went past his elbows and a long, black cape.

Knight looked himself over, then turned back to Magic. "I think I got it," he said.

"Yeah, I was going to say that," Magic replied, giving him a grin before glancing back at the others. Now Mage was staring down at his own wooden hands; something told them that he would be screwing his eyes shut if he had them to begin with. Magic was unsure how successful he was going to be, but Mage, apparently, was just as understanding of the process as his boyfriend was.

The third crash in a row resounded throughout the room as Mage popped into existence beside the fallen wooden body. He was taller than his wooden body had been, and noticeably a bit more sturdy in build. His hair - barely going down to his chest - was a brilliant shade of red, and had a certain sheen to it that made it appear to be on fire. His eyes were black. Save for the horns and the tail that gently swayed behind him, there was nothing else black about his appearance. His clothing were all in light shades - the tunic was a light red, the pants were tan, and his boots were a light brown.

Mage and Knight shared only a single look before promptly hugging each other. "I can feel you again," Knight said, eyes tearing up as he hugged his boyfriend tighter.. He rested his head against his chest. "I can really feel you."

Thytes watched, nonexistent mouth agape, as, one by one, various bodies dropped to the floor. What replaced them were what he had to assume were the original bodies of his friends, standing firmly on the ground. They had to be his friends - Knight, for instance, looked a bit like a dragon in human form (they always were very colorful).

And yet, he took a step back. Even if he wasn't actually dead, even if he was possessing this wooden body, he wasn't sure he could focus on his actual body. What tripped him up were the forms. It was hard enough being a lion, since he had a few forms he could switch between. A tiger and a lion, however, made things all the more complicated. What if he couldn't remember all of his forms? Would he be stuck in his body? Would he come out wr-

Kynan's body slumped to the floor, Tristan crying out in alarm and gripping an arm with both hands. And then Kynan materialized - a hound in a stained white shirt and black pants. He stared around in confusion, then looked down at his paws and smiled.

Tristan focused on the paws as well. A few seconds later, he too crumbled to the floor. An otter in a blue shirt and tan pants appeared, turned, and hugged Kynan.

Thytes stepped back frantically, making his way to the corner of the room. He hated to admit it, but he was too afraid.