Young Writers Society

Chapter 3

The first time Lexi had seen a Reaper she had been fifteen. It had only been her eighth mission. Even then the others had only encountered one before that. At first glance they had seemed so normal. Just one more person who needed their life snuffing out. And then when they fought them, it became somewhat impossible to kill them.

They were well trained. Abnormally so. It was almost as though they saw what was going to happen before it happened. They didn’t appear to tire like most people do. And worst of all, they were better than the Elite team.

During that first fight Lexi had been thrown to the floor in less than two minutes, she would have been killed if it hadn’t been for another member of the team, Russel, almost instantly leaping forward and taking her place. Lexi had scrambled to her feet and ran. Never in her life had she felt more like a coward. Though she knew now that she would have been killed, much like Russel had been. Instead she had gone and retrieved the rest of the group. It had taken seven of them to kill him, six to hold down his thrashing body, and one to fire the bullet.

Since then they had trained harder, grown stronger and more prepared for the sole purpose of killing Reapers. Though they had yet to find out who they worked for, where they came from and who was training them, it seemed more and more apparent that they were often involved with the issues they were sent to fix. Two months back the five of them had been to stop an arms sale. Just as they were taking care of a few of the minor contenders for the prize of the weapons, two Reapers had entered the warehouse. They weren’t prepared to deal with them, and so were forced to watch as they left with several large crates of guns. Attempts to trail the trucks were all but futile.

That was the most frustrating thing about them. They were always one step ahead. Just as they appeared to be now.

Lexi glanced at Allie over her shoulder. Her friend appeared to be murmuring a prayer under her breath- Allie claimed not to believe in a higher power, and when questioned on her mutterings would always just shrug them off.

A quick look over at Oliver revealed that he was looking around at the other men surrounding them, most likely trying to come up with a strategy to defeat them. Lexi on the other hand was just irritated. Irritated and annoyed. This was one mission, and this one Reaper was standing in her way. Her days of cowardice were long over. So instead of cowering in fear, like the old her would have done, she looked at the Reaper square in the eye and grinned. To her surprise he grinned right back.

That was all the signal she needed, a knife was flying towards the man closest to her. She didn’t even have to look to know that she had hit her target and her dagger would be sticking straight out of his eye. Oliver swore from behind her. “What happened to the signal?” he hissed.

Lexi only shrugged, smirking as she heard the sound of his gun echoing from behind her. “Reap over there gave it.”

Within moments the men surrounding them had come to their senses and were raising their own guns. But, they wouldn’t be fast enough. Allie had already dropped to the ground, a pistol in either hand. She sent bullets flying into two of the men before she even reached the floor. Oliver simply ran forward, his gun firing bullets into men either side of the man right before him. Almost instantly the man became prey, his own weapon useless in his hands. Oliver planted a firm fist into his face which sent him to the ground. He proceeded to finish him off by gruesomely bringing down his foot and promptly crushing the man’s skull before he could even let out a scream.

Lexi took a similar approach when approaching the two remaining men who stood before her. One large and bulky, the other smaller and more slender. She made a snap judgement about who she was going to kill first. She lunged towards the larger man, allowing him to raise his gun towards her head before she quickly dropped to the ground in a long skid, hurting her knees in the process, yet the pain was still better than that of a bullet to the brain she supposed. When she reached him she wasted not a moment, her remaining dagger slashed across his knees, coating her hair and face in a thick layer of warm blood. Yet it was enough to distract him and allow her to jump up behind him and make quick work of slitting his throat.

One more. Lexi turned to face the smaller man as he took aim on her. He offered a small grin. “I’m going to be the one to kill you,” he snarled, yellowing teeth flashing at her.

Lexi only sighed, lowering her hands to her side as though in defeat, the dagger hanging limply in her hand. “After all I did for you, I let you live the longest! I thought I’d get a little more gratitude than that.”

As the man huffed a laugh she flung the blade in her hand, sending it straight into his thigh. Within moments she tugged a dagger from a sheath on her thigh and flung that one directly into the middle of his forehead. A small smile graced her face, though she knew her dagger would find its mark, it was nice to make sure it had.

With that Lexi turned around, expecting to be faced with the Reaper, however she only found Oliver stood surrounded by the corpses of the other men he had taken care of. Lexi raised her eyebrow, “think this will be enough uniforms?”

He rolled his eyes, opening his mouth to respond, but before he had a chance to another voice cut him off. “Aren’t you both great friends? Didn’t even notice that one of you was missing.”

Lexi spun. Exiting the trees was the reaper, only now did she notice the scar that ran down his cheek that seemed to almost shine under the light of the sun. But that wasn’t the only thing that seemed to shine, so did his gun- no, Allies gun- which was poised directly beside her head. “Let her go,” Oliver snapped.

The Reaper laughed. “Oh, are you going to make me? No, no I didn’t think so.” He paused briefly as he studied Oliver for a moment before shrugging to himself, as though he meant nothing to him. “Now, let’s make this nice and easy shall we. You two are going to put down your weapons, and hand over anything else you have on you, and then you’re going to come on a little walk with me and we can go have ourselves some dinner and talk over a few things.”

“I’ve already eaten, sorry, maybe some other time?” Lexi said with a small shrug.

“Alas, it is now or never. So weapons, or the girl dies,” the Reaper said bluntly.

Lexi sighed. Her gaze flicked to Allie, all respect to her she was clearly trying her hardest to try and appear calm, but Lexi could see the fear in her eyes. There was also a tremor in her hands that she seemed to be unable to hide. Lexi remembered a couple of years ago when they had made a pact to always put the mission before their lives. That if they were ever in a position like this, they would let the other die.

Lexi groaned, looking over at Oliver who was looking right back at her. It was as though he was waiting for her to make a decision. She could let Allie die so that she could live, or walk off to a likely slow and painful death with Allie at her side. Honestly, she didn’t know why this was becoming such a hard decision. It should be a no brainer. One life for hers and Oliver’s.

“Three.” The Reaper said, lazily pressing the gun directly up against Allies temple.

Lexi looked at Oliver, he returned her look and gave her a nod. That was when she knew that this was her decision to make, and hers alone.

“Two.”

Lexi closed her eyes. Turn and run, she should turn and run.

“One.”

Her dagger hit the ground. The hilt stuck up in the air, mere inches from the Reaper’s feet.

“Good choice,” he said giving her a toothy grin.

Lexi glared at him as she began disarming, throwing the weapons she had at his feet. Oliver paused briefly, giving her a look as though to say are you sure? Lexi only gave a small nod in response, throwing her pistols onto the ground. She managed to disarm herself first and so turned her attention to Oliver who was throwing guns of his own onto the ground.

When he finished he looked at the Reaper who arched an eyebrow in return. “Now now, how stupid do you think I am? The knife in your boot and the gun strapped to your back. Hand them over too. We don’t want any more blood to stain the floor now do we?”

Oliver glared at him though quickly threw the weapons onto the ground. “Happy now?” he asked bitterly.

The Reaper grinned. “Quite. Now, if you’d like to put your hands behind your back for me that would be quite helpful, it’d save me having to embarrass you anyway.”

Lexi smirked. “You think you’d be able to embarrass us?”

“It really wouldn’t be much of a challenge. You’d be as much use as two sacks of potatoes against me. And the fact you think you could do better is probably why it would be embarrassing for you.”

“The only reason you’re winning here is because you didn’t have to fight,” Lexi retorted.

He waved a hand. “You came quite early this morning, I’m not long out of bed, forgive me for not putting in enough effort for you.”

Lexi rolled her eyes, watching as he marched over to Oliver, guiding Allie simply by pushing his gun against her head like a cattle prod. It was only then that Lexi noticed her hands had already been placed in some cuffs behind her. Soon Oliver was in the same predicament as the Reaper swiftly clasped the cuffs around his wrists.

Then it was her turn. Her hands were already placed behind her back. She glared at a tree in front of her, shuddering slightly as the cold metal bit into her wrists. “There’s no need to put them on that tight,” she protested.

The Reaper scoffed. “I’m not an idiot, and neither are you… Well not total idiots, but you did come here thinking you could kill me, which does make you somewhat more foolish. But eh, I’ll let you off if only for it giving me the chance to torture you all for information later,” he said in an oddly cheerful tone.

Lexi smiled and nodded. “Bring it, bastard.”

“You’re a cocky one. I wonder how long it will take to bleed you into submission.”

“A while if I were to guess, and who’s to even say the information I would give you would be true. I could just be lying, and your clueless mug would just be wondering around trying to catch figments of my imagination,” Lexi said, throwing him an amused smirk.

The Reaper glared at her now, making a gesture with his gun. “Walk. You saw the building, you know where to go.” His expression had suddenly grown darker. His blue eyes resembled raging storms, they seemed to show his lack of remorse. There was something inhuman about them. Something that suggested he had a monster inside, a landmine waiting to explode.

But then, Lexi had never been one to keep her mouth shut, never show fear, and never show weakness. “So this is a little bit more of a roomy space for a Reaper, I didn’t think your lot were particularly, bothered by scenery, but it’s pretty nice out here, I have to say. Is it calming or something? Maybe Ollie could stay here too, he might come back a little bit less of a grouch.”

She could feel the burn of his stare on her back as they walked out of the treeline and into the fields they had observed not so long before. “Maybe they could send you and you might come back less of an annoying spoilt brat,” he snapped back.

She winced a little at that, hearing the acidity in his tone. “You think I’m spoilt? Coming from you Mr I Get Everything I Want When I Want It. Get a grip.”

“I get what I want? Take a look around. Did I want to be held hostage? No. Did I want you here at all? No. Am I dealing with it and making do? Why yes, I think I am. So, wake up Lexi, get your head out of your ass, I’m doing the best I can, when you want to join me and do the same I’ll happily be a bit more welcoming.”

“I swear to any god that might be listening, you’re the biggest liar I’ve ever seen. Doing the best you can? In who’s eyes, yours? Jheeze, if you ever actually listened to anyone other than yourself and heard other people’s freaking opinions then people wouldn’t be so afraid to speak up to you in the first place!”

“Okay. Silence. As the one with the gun I call for silence, or I’m blowing out your brains blondie,” he said giving Lexi a pointed glare. “The sound of your voice waffling on is making me consider blowing out my own, and we can’t have that.”

“I for one actually quite like that option,” Lexi murmured, kicking a rock with her booted foot as they walked.

“Shut up!” He snapped. Even Lexi knew that now was the time to keep her mouth closed, simply due to the bite that his voice held, she didn’t want to test him. There was something that told her he would pull the trigger if she pushed too hard, and she was pretty close to that right now. So she walked. Towards the farmhouse, and an even more precarious situation lay inside. For now, all she knew was that the three of them were already plotting all possible methods of escape. Every route in, every route out.

But it was easy to tell simply by noting the deflated look on each of their faces that they all knew the outcome was looking bleak.