Reaper's Hollow: The Complete Series

Chapter 7-2

There was a screeching sound as Nana pulled out a chair and sat down next to a wooden table that had various stationery and drawings upon it. She didn’t touch a thing, only observed Ru for a few moments as her eyes fell along the other spines on the bookshelf. Most of the books were teenage romances, classics like Romeo and Juliet and Tristan and Isolde, or religious topics. Only a few seemed out of place, including the one that had originally caught her attention. There was also a photo album. Ru’s eyes lingered there until Nana said, “Would you like to look at it?”

Her voice startled Ru a bit, making her jump. “Oh, yeah. I guess so,” she muttered. She looked to her grandmother who nodded in approval as Ru reached up and pulled the volume off of the shelf. Carefully, she brought it over to the table, not sure if it would be all right to set it down on top of her mother’s unfinished artwork, but hearing no objection from her grandmother, she did so.

Opening it up, she was momentarily dropped into the everyday life of her mother almost thirty years ago. There were random pictures of other young girls and boys, all with similar coloring as Sera, similar to Ru and Cutter, too, for that matter, in various poses in what appeared to be Los Angeles. They were at a school, it seemed, in some of the pictures. One revealed her mother sitting on an older model Chevy. In some of them, her mother sat with her arms around her friends, making faces at the camera. In others, she must’ve been the photographer as she was absent, but her friends were compliant in making similar silly expressions. In all of them, Sera looked carefree, young, well-liked. Whatever had gone wrong to lead her down the path to meeting Ru’s father?

The very last page seemed telling. The last picture was of a dark-haired, handsome young man sitting atop a motorcycle. He had an angsty look in his eyes, one that showed pain as much as it promised trouble. It was the only picture of him in the whole album, and it certainly seemed out of place, as if Sera wasn’t quite sure whether or not she could include him, Larkin Ronobes, with the happy smiling faces of the other Keepers. Yet, here he was, his green eyes seeming to peer into Ru’s very soul. Where he was now, she didn’t know for certain, though both parties admitted he’d been banished to a place Ru couldn’t even think about it was so horrible. She felt the hot sting of tears against the backs of her eyes and closed the book, not wanting to cry for her father in front of a grandmother who likely held him responsible for stealing away her only joy.

Looking up, Ru could see her suspicions were confirmed in Nana’s eyes. She wore a scowl on her face, but it was tinged with regret, sorrow, and guilt. Ru knew all of those feelings quite well. “What happened?” Ru asked, quietly, hesitantly, not sure if she should even pose the question.

Nana was stoic for a long time, and Ru thought she might be choosing to ignore the inquiry. She must’ve been gathering her strength, however, because eventually the words began to come. “She was sixteen, Ru, a baby herself. She thought she could change everything, open the eyes of the others so that they could see there is no good and evil, only love.” Nana let out a laugh that turned into a sigh, the pain still evident in her eyes. “I didn’t realize… never knew she was serious about trying to enlighten everyone. She was always very fanciful, you see. Always wanted to right the wrongs.”

Ru wasn’t quite sure she was following, but she let her grandmother continue to speak, holding the photo album carefully in her hands.

“She came home late one night—very unlike Sera—and when her father questioned her, she said she understood everything now, that she had a plan. It wasn’t until a few days later that we discovered she’d been meeting Larkin out of town and that he’d somehow given her the ridiculous notion that they could unite both sides of this ancient fray through their love.”

The last word came out as a half-choke, and Ru couldn’t help but place her hand on top of her grandmother’s. “Sera thought that the Reapers and Keepers would come together if she married Larkin?”

Nana nodded. “Of course, her father and I forbade it. We told her she couldn’t see him ever again. Her father went so far as to attempt to lock her in her room, though that didn’t do any good since she didn’t need her body to find him.”

It was a little difficult to digest the last statement even though Ru knew it was true. “So… how did she get out?”

“She found a way. And… the next thing we knew, she’d sent a letter telling us she was married. And pregnant.”

Ru couldn’t help but gasp, her hand covering her mouth. “And she was sixteen?”

“Seventeen by then. And that is when all Hell literally broke loose. And Heaven for that matter.” Nana rested her head in her hands, her elbows on the table. It took her another long moment to gather her thoughts. “Raphael showed up at my door. That never happens.”

Ru nodded, catching her grandmother’s eyes. “And even he couldn’t find Sera?”

She shook her head. “No, Larkin had the two of you hidden away somewhere.”

It hadn’t occurred to Ru that she may have actually been alive at the time of her father’s capture. Where had she been born? Her birth certificate said New York, but was it in a hospital or somewhere hidden away from the world? Had her father been there when her mother had given birth?

Her grandmother was speaking again, and Ru almost didn’t catch the first part of the sentence she was so lost in thought. “Larkin did everything he could to keep us from finding you. I suppose Sera did, too. I believe she cast the spell, the cloaking spell. Once Raphael defeated Larkin and took him away to Hell, we could find no trace of Sera. He claims he doesn’t know where she is, and I suppose that must be true. He would’ve broken by now.”

Ru felt her eyebrows arch; she couldn’t imagine the type of t*****e her father must’ve endured, trying to keep the whereabouts of his wife and daughter from his enemy. The statement Nat had made to her in her dream not too long ago returned. Was her father really a villain, or was he just a hero whose story had yet to be told? Her mother must’ve seen something in him. Did Larkin also hope to unite the two sides through her birth, or was his intent something more sinister?

“And you have no idea where Sera might be?”

“No,” Nana replied, shaking her head. “She cloaked herself as well. She could be anywhere in the world.”

“No one can undo the spell she cast?” Ru’s eyes shifted back to the books on the shelf, the ones with the magic spells.

“No one that I know of.”

Ru let out a sigh. For the Keepers, finding Sera had more to do with the portals than anything else. They believed Larkin had revealed the locations to her. But when she looked into Nana Sue’s eyes, she could tell finding Sera had much more to do with making her heart whole again than anything else, as it did for Ru. If she could help the Keepers find the portals, she would do it, but finding her mother had more to do with completing a puzzle with missing pieces than anything else. For her, that puzzle seemed to be the very fiber of Ru’s existence.

“You know, she was born in the middle of a thunderstorm.” Ru looked up to find her grandmother staring out at nothing through the thin white curtains that hung in front of the only window across the room from them. “I took one look at that little mite’s back and knew she was going to be a spitfire. She came out that way, scratching at the world like she was going to tear a new opening in the veil. So, having the markings of fiery wings on her back was no surprise to me.”

Ru was confused; this didn’t sound anything like the happy little cherub her grandmother had described before, and she wasn’t sure of the connection between the markings and the name.

“I was mighty surprised when she was such a carefree little one, never a trouble, never a problem. I thought I might’ve named her wrong. Then, when trouble struck, it hit all at once. And I knew Seraphina was the perfect name for her. I only wished I’d chosen something else.”

“What does it mean?” Ru finally asked.

“Fiery wings,” Nana replied. “Maybe if I’d named her Lilly or Daisy, she’d have been a calm soul her whole life.”

“Do you really think our names have that much to do with our paths in life?” Ru asked, realizing what that might mean for her, growing up with a name like Ruin.

“I do,” Nana nodded, “for Keepers anyhow. Perhaps not for us human folk.”

Ru couldn’t help but chew on the inside of her cheek. She’d finally met someone who was related to her by blood, and this woman also felt there was nothing she could do to escape the anarchy that wove its way through her life at every turn.

“Rune,” Nana whispered. “That means… you are the key. You can unlock the mystery.”

Ru looked up and caught her eyes. “What do you mean?”

“Rune. There’s writing on your back, isn’t there? Who do you think etched those words into your flesh, into your very spirit?”

She continued to hold the other woman’s gaze but couldn’t manage a reply.

“God Himself.”

At such a thought, she didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry. Did this old lady actually think that God had taken the time to send a message through her? Carved into her back? As she was mulling over a response, the bedroom door creaked open, and Ru looked up to see Cutter standing there. Thankful that he’d interrupted before she had to configure a response, she smiled at him.

“Hope I’m not interrupting anything. I just came to check on you.” He gave Ru a sympathetic grin, and a rush of thankfulness warmed her heart. She really was extremely lucky to have him as her guide through all of this mayhem.

“Not interrupting at all,” Nana assured him with a smile. “We were just about caught up.”

Cutter nodded. “You must’ve talked fast. That’s a lot of years to cover in a short amount of time.”

“Well, most of them were not particularly interesting, not until the end, anyhow,” Nana muttered. She picked up the photo album and carefully stood. Ru wasn’t sure if she should offer to help, but she managed to make her way over to the bookshelf and slide the volume in at the end. It seemed like she should say something in response, anything, but she was having a hard time figuring out the words.

“What’s this?” Cutter asked, stepping forward, and once again, Ru was glad she wouldn’t have to speak. He slid one of the drawings out from under the pile. Ru hadn’t noticed it before as just the corner was sticking out from beneath the picture of a crying angel that had been on top. While she hadn’t had the chance to study any of her mother’s drawings until just now, she was taken aback by how moving each piece was. Her mother was very talented.

The drawing in question looked like an ancient cross of some sort, and Ru didn’t see anything particularly interesting about it. Nana turned and crossed back to the table, stopping behind Ru’s chair and leaning over the back to study the picture. “It’s just one of Sera’s drawings,” she replied with a shrug.

“It’s… familiar,” Cutter replied, still looking at it intently. “Would you mind if I took a picture of it so I can show it to Lyric?”

“No, not at all,” Nana said. “Take as many pictures as you want.” She patted Ru gently on the shoulder. “I’ll give you kids a moment.” She looked around the room and then sighed once more before making her way out into the hallway. She left the door open, and Ru could hear her footsteps echo down the hallway and then the sound of her dropping into what sounded like the recliner in the living room. Cutter already had his phone out and was snapping a photo of the cross before he moved on to another picture on the table.

Taking her grandmother’s words quite literally, Ru stood up and crossed back to the photo album. Without stopping to give it much consideration, she opened the album to the back and pulled out the picture of her father.

“What are you doing?” Cutter asked, stepping up next to her.

“You heard her. Take as many pictures as you want.”

“I don’t think that’s what she meant….”

“Do you think she really wants this picture of my dad?” She held the picture up for Cutter to see.

“No, I guess not,” he admitted, and Ru shoved the picture into her pocket before he could say anything else about it. “Are you sure you do?” he asked.

Ru didn’t know how to respond to that, so she chose to ignore it. How could she explain to him, someone who clearly had the perfect Beaver Cleaver upbringing what it meant to actually have a picture of her father after twenty-five years of not knowing anything at all about him? She put the photo album back on the shelf and glanced back along the spines one more time. On a whim, she picked up her mother’s copy of Romeo and Juliet. Clearly, Sera had thought of herself at least a little in the same light as the star-crossed daughter of Lord Capulet. She flipped it open and a single piece of paper fell out.

“What’s that?” Cutter asked, gathering it up from the floor.

“I don’t know,” Ru replied, still holding the worn volume. The paper was small and thin, and Cutter unfolded it carefully, trying not to rip it.

“It’s a sketch,” he said, quietly. “It looks like… an island or something.”

Ru leaned over his shoulder and looked at the piece of paper. She wasn’t sure what about the roughly drawn shape somewhat resembling a circle looked like an island to him. At the bottom of the paper were two words she couldn’t read. They appeared to be written in another language. Some of the letters didn’t even look like they belonged in the Phoenician alphabet. “What do you think that says?”

“I have no idea. But the letters on that cross,” he gestured at the paper on the table, “match some of the ones on your back. And so do these.”

She couldn’t help but stare at him in wonder. The letters on her back? Was he also implying that he thought the markings on her back were from God? It was all a little too much.

“I’ll take this to Lyric, too,” he said, carefully placing the paper in his pocket, apparently over the idea that they shouldn’t take any of her mother’s belongings without asking permission. Ru nodded. “Are you ready to go?”

“I guess so,” she admitted, letting out a sigh. She looked around the room one more time. She’d never imagined she would be standing in her mother’s childhood home, talking to her grandmother, and now the entire process was becoming overwhelming, so she desperately wanted to escape the situation. Even if she couldn’t somehow transport herself back to her own house in Reaper’s Hollow, where she’d sit on the sofa and grade papers, Piper on her lap, at the very least, she needed to get out of here, though the guest room at Cutter’s parents’ house was anything but inviting. Still, she felt haunted by the memories her mother’s life imprinted on these walls, and she was thankful when she felt Cutter’s hand in hers. Even when everything else seemed strange and uninviting, at least she had his constant reassurance that somehow her mess of a life would turn out all right in the end.