Reapers: Gods of Death

Chapter 1: Aaron

*Third Person POV*

               It was a dark and stormy night, in a small, isolated town in the middle of the mountains, people lay soundly asleep, without a care in the world. Something in the dark was sneaking about through the streets sticking to the shadows. At the end of the town, there was a gold mine, this is where the people made a living, mining for gold.

     Suddenly a big explosion came from the mine, shaking the earth beneath the whole town. People woke up screaming, hurrying their children to wake up. But they were not fast enough, for the earth broke open and the whole town fell in a hole made from the tunnels of the mine. All that was heard now was the rumble of the rocks falling.

    Once the rumble and the shaking stopped, a single cry was heard through the echo of the mountains. “What is this?” a cloaked figure with the voice of a man picked up a small baby boy, maybe about one year old, at the very edge of the town. “Leave it, his fate lies with the others” another cloaked figure said “no, his fate led him to survive over everyone else, I will take him” the cloaked figure responded. As he walked away into the forest, the other cloaked figure stared at him, what his feelings were, nobody knows, as they were not known to show any emotion.

    As the sky cleared, in the small, isolated mountain town, the souls of all the dead ones floated up into the sky, before disappearing, forever leaving the land of the living. For years neighboring towns ruled the deaths of all of those as an accident, nobody knew exactly what happened. After all, accidents in mines happened all of the time, and this was one of the biggest mines around the mountain, an accident like that was bound to happen sooner or later.

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    “What is that thing you have brought with you?” a skinny woman with long black hair, gray pale skin, and striking blue eyes asked her husband. The man removed his cloak to reveal the same gray skin, black hair, scary silver eyes. These people resembled skeletons with little skin on them, or no skin at all on others. “It’s a human baby boy” he answered, the woman gasped and touched her chest with her arm, “Why have you brought him here? A human cannot survive in the underworld.” She got closer to her husband, “this baby is different” she removed the blanket that was covering the baby and looked at him. Her eyes widened with surprise when she looked him over.

    She turned to her husband, many questions running through her mind, “how?” she asked him “I don’t know, but we will find out” he responded to her. “What are we going to name him?” she asked, growing attached to this child that would now be theirs “we will name him Aaron” “Aaron, our little Aaron, its perfect.”

    A knock came to their door, the man handed his wife the baby and walked to open the door, as he opened it, two guards and another walked in “what can I help you with?” asked the man “good, evening Daniel” the woman walked back into the living room without the baby in hand “Gina, nice to see you” he smiled over at her. “Xander, what can we help you with? It is late” Gina said annoyed. The man gave her a glare with his striking green eyes “It has come to my attention that as Daniel was out taking souls tonight, he brought back with him a human baby. A baby that was supposed to die tonight” he turned to glare at Daniel.

    Daniel just glared back at the man without saying a word “that’s absurd, how could you think that my husband would do such a thing? He is the best reaper around and knows the rules better than anyone else, including you” Gina spat back at Xander “If that is true, then you won’t mind if we search your house then.” The three men started looking around in their small home, Xander walked into the bedroom and saw a baby that was sound asleep on the bed. Gina and Daniel walked close behind, “aha, you dare lie to me? there is the baby you were trying to so desperately hide.”

     Xander walked up to the baby to remove the blanket that was covering him, the baby woke up and stared back at Xander. To his surprise, the baby had grey skin, black hair, and deep royal blue eyes with a streak of silver around the irises. The baby resembled a full blooded reaper “what is this? Where is the human baby?” he asked angrily startling the baby in the process, Gina ran to pick up the baby and held him close to her, soothing him and calming his cries. “As we said before, there is no human baby here, just our baby” Daniel was raging in anger by now, this man dared to walk into his house without permission and search his house unnecessarily.

        “Get out of my house! I will be reporting this incident, Xander” he spat his name in disgust, “I know you brought a human baby with you; I will discover you” Xander warned, and with that he took his men and left the small house. “What are we going to do Daniel? that man is dangerous” Gina said holding Aaron close to her, tears of blood flowing down her pale face, “don’t worry, I will take care of it.”

    The next day Daniel exited his house, as it was the underworld it was always dark. He walked through the empty field, heading towards the castle that stood in the middle, just a few miles ahead. When he reached the castle, the guards bowed down to him and opened the doors to let him in, “Master Daniel, how can I help you today?” a small skeleton woman asked him “I need to speak with Grim” he said, the woman’s eyes widened and shakily nodded her head “o-of c-course, please w-wait here.” She hurriedly left.

    A tall cloaked and smoky figure hovered inside of the room, this figure was twice the size of Daniel and he was a man that stood at six feet tall at least. The figure flew to the throne that stood the end of the room and sat down, signaling for Daniel to come closer. Daniel gulped in nervousness, instead of Grim, he was now standing on front of Death himself. “Lord Death” he bowed down to him in respect “Daniel, I am aware that you have brought a child with you from the human world” a scary and deep voice said, “yes my lord, he is a reaper that was abandoned.”

    “I am aware of what this child is, I will not be taking him from you either, in fact I want you and your wife to care for him as if he were your own” Death said to Daniel, Daniel was confused as to why the Lord of Death would ask him this, he would think that instead he would be punished for bringing an unknown creature to their world “Of course my Lord” “as for Xander, do not worry about him, he has been dealt with.” Daniel nodded in understanding “Oh and one more thing Daniel, if anyone asks, you will tell them he is your child.” With that Death disappeared in a ball of smoke.