Excerpt: The Reapers by Jacinta Maree

My peaceful, relaxing shower wasn’t as peaceful or relaxing as I had hoped. Paranoid, I kept checking the bathroom window, making sure Raix was still entertained with the water outside and not stalking my family. It really wasn’t a comfortable feeling. I slouched back into the shower, my thoughts suddenly overfilling as if the water hitting me was tipping the scale.

Raix is a dangerous monster. He is an omen, a creature of death. Even though Elliot said we don’t cause death, Raix is clearly unstable and capable of adjusting one’s fate. And me, I know I didn’t imagine the sensation when Raix approached Nathan; nostrils flaring, tongue swelling and his lips peeling back in a hungry smirk. And the way my eye itched with the shifting of the Reaper tattoo printing my face with ink.

I was putting them all in danger.

I am a Reaper. I am death. There is no way I’ll be able to weasel out of this. I bear the markings just like those other Reapers, and though I still walk the earth, my soul does not belong to me. Raix is a part of who I am, and why he chose me I’ll never understand.

Maybe he has always been there and is the darkness within me? Maybe he is the bad thoughts I try to bury within my consciousness?

I turned off the shower taps, got myself dressed, and went back down to Raix in the yard.

He was on his back, belly up, grinding his spine into the dirt like he had an itch. I turned off the sprinklers before the water could turn the dirt to mud.

In solemn silence I leaned up against the fence, looking up at my home. The kitchen light was on as well as the one in Mum and Dad’s bedroom but everything else was in darkness. Raix rolled over and shook himself clean. He then walked over and slumped down next to my legs, resting his chin on his crossed paws, exhausted from all of his playing. The beast’s heavy chest moved up and down, each exhale like a hiss through his nose.

“It’s just you and me…” I breathed.

Raix glanced up at me, his eyes burning silver. And slowly, very cautiously so as to not alarm him, I slouched down onto my knees and held my hand out. I placed my hand on his muzzle and felt that it was warm despite the winter’s cold touch. It sent a very pleasing tingle through my entire body. I sat myself on my rear and let my head fall back. I must’ve sat there for hours watching the moon’s gentle radiance bloom in the middle of the starless night. Raix was quiet also, his body radiating enough heat that I felt toasty and warm.

I am going to leave forever. That was my final decision.