The Untold Story of a Grim Reaper: Chapter 13: Dead Languages

I gave a small squeal that was masked by the sound of the fridge door shutting.

“I’ll get that!” I assured Ethel as I grabbed the rag on the counter. I slid open the glass door and cracked the screen a little, “What are you doing here, Lilli?”

“What am I doing here? What are you doing here?”

Ethel interjected, “What are you doing, Noa? Do you have a friend at the door?”

“Yes… mom.” 

Lilli gasped and gave a small mocking laugh. As Ethel dried off her hands she waved for Lilli to enter, “Well, then let her in. Hi, I’m Noa’s mother, Ethel.” 

I gave Lilli a warning in my stare. She shrugged and gave a look that seemed to promise no mischief. 

Lilli had her hands folded around her back as she responded, “Hi, I’m Noa’s friend from school, Lilli.”

“Oh, so you go to Mortimer Private, as well? Oh, and next time use the front door, dear. A lot safer than climbing the fence.”     

Before Lilli could respond the timer on the oven went off. In my brief moment I questioned, “Why do you have blood on your hands?!”

Lilli got defensive, “It happens sometimes. It is a murder after all.”

The memory of the shooting at the Black’s house flashed into my mind. The blue paint on her sweatshirt. I connected why she had been there and acting so suspicious. I snapped back into the moment and frantically handed her the rag in my hand, “Just quickly, dry your hands off in the bathroom sink. Go, it’s right over there.” 

Lilli rolled her eyes as she did as I told her. 

Ethel placed some sides on the table, “Where’d your friend go?”

“She’s just freshening up in the restroom.”

Lilli came out smiling widely, “What is this lovely family having for dinner?” 

I turned and gave her another warning in my glare. Ethel gave a reassuring smile and offered Lilli to stay for supper. Of course, Lilli accepted. Ethel set another placemat on the table and Lilli more than happily plopped herself in front of it. We sat quietly at the table. I looked at Lilli’s hands and still could see the faint stain of blood. She noticed what I was focused on and gave a carefree shrug. 

A question occurred to me, “Are we allowed to eat?” 

And there was that famous eye-roll, “Duh, it just doesn’t taste the way you remember it… or… it really doesn’t taste like anything.”

Julius was finally home and asked me if I’d shut the back door. I did as he asked and by then the table and people were all set and ready to dig in.

Julius picked up his fork but Ethel stopped him before he started eating, “Julius, set a good example, who will say grace?”

“I will,” volunteered Lilli. 

Which in return irked me and had me suspicious of her intentions. 

Ethel spoke, “That would be lovely, Lilli. Thank you.”

Lilli nodded and gestured for us to join hands. I hesitated which I sensed irritated her. There was so much to feel about her that I couldn’t decide on what would be safest for my time as a reaper… but the stain of blood residue covering her hands didn’t help. She had a lot of explaining to do, but I gave her my hand and grinned.

She began, “Dear… Lord… thank you for bringing this family together.” I squeezed her hand, “and thank you for the budding friendship between me and Noa and everything that has brought us to this point.” I opened my eyes, “All the things that have brought us here. Certainly they were all blessings.” She opened her eyes and sneered at me, “Amen.”

Everyone ended, “Amen.”

I picked up my fork and saw the uncertainty in Ethel’s eyes, “Thank you, Lilli… that was… lovely.” 

Lilli gave a radiant smile as she dug into her meal. Julius got up to pour himself a cup of coffee. I guess he didn’t want tea or juice. 

While pouring his cup he asked, “So… Lilli, how did you and Noa meet?”

“I’m the office student assistant, we got a long well and had a lot in common so it wasn’t long before her and I were inseparable.”

I spoke through my teeth, “Yep, inseparable.”

I ate, but the food all tasted the same, like rubber with the texture of rice. The rest of dinner was filled with senseless banter about school and friends. I offered to clean the table and dishes at the end of dinner with Lilli. Lilli wasn’t too happy about that but she didn’t refuse when Ethel said thank you.

Dinner was over and Ethel and Julius headed out for a walk. They asked us to join them before cleaning up but we insisted we’d rather clean up and lay around. They collected their coats and were off.

“How’s your vulture?” I asked shyly.

“It’s fine. I can’t get my spirit wet. It’s been decades since it was drowned out by that much water.”

“Can our spirits be destroyed?”

“Yes.”

“Can’t it just take a new form?”

She gave a mocking tone, “When you kill a spirit it loses that form and the energy spins into chaos. Unretrievable.”

“What does that do to a reaper?”

“You basically lose your conscience, your will to do right for mankind. Reasoning and perception becomes warped. It’s the only reason we don’t murder every undeserving soul… so it can cause a reaper to do… awful… powerful… things.”

With curiosity, “You know this from experience?”

“Yes, I’ve only known one reaper before you,” she stopped working as she recollected the memory, “I believe it was 1811, when I was stationed in Missouri. He was a catastrophe reaper, someone who had been killed by an earthquake or tornado or something. His spirit, a burrowing owl, an earth spirit… it caught fire, died.” I hid my reaction towards the fire as she continued, “And he caused a terrible earthquake that, like, changed the Mississippi River or something. I don’t know. A couple people died and he gave up. Said he wanted to leave earth and go to Hell to finish his sentence, he said he deserved it.”

The whole story was terrifying. The thought of something like that happening to me made me shiver. 

A question occurred me, “What do you mean? Earth spirit?”

She scoffed, “I know mentors are limited with what they can share but come on, yours didn’t care to share anything important,” she forced a dramatic sigh, “My vulture is a fire spirit. I’m guessing you have no idea what yours is?”

I shrugged and shook my head, taking my best guess, “Well, somehow it knew where the pond was.”

Lilli thought it over, “Then it must be a water spirit.”

“So what does that exactly mean to me?”

“It means that when someone dies the water around you will react in a certain way for your crow. When someone is murdered my vulture catches on fire. The guy from 1811, his owl would turn to stone before an earthquake or storm hit.”

I looked out of the small, murky kitchen window and saw my crow bathing itself in the small birdbath. 

We were silent for another few minutes before Lilli punched me in my side and said, “You so took advantage of this family,” she snickered, “We are on the same scale of wrong doing. You can’t give me that look now, the look you gave me when I told you what I did to Aaron’s family.”

I mumbled, “I didn’t replace a dead child though.”

Lilli grabbed the plate I was rinsing and threw it across the kitchen to the connecting living room. It hit the corner of the wall and shattered. Leaving a small black scuff on the wall. I pushed her, “What’s your problem?”

“My problem as that you think you’re so sweet and innocent. You’re in the same boat as me, ferryman. We’re both condemned! Get used to it and stop looking at me like I’m some monster. I did what I needed to get by. I’m sorry I wanted to be a part of a family!”

It fell silent and became a starring contest between Lilli and me. Neither of us had the impulse to blink so it was creepy after about two minutes of no movement. We gradually went back to our chores. We were silent for another five minutes.

Lilli tilted her head and fixated on a plant that stood as a centerpiece in the kitchen. The smell of burnt flesh assaulted my nose. The flower, starting from the leaves, shriveled up and wilted as she professed, “You know if you kill someone… you breathe in their last breath. You get a second feeling of what it felt like to be alive. The oxygen invades your lungs and for that moment you’re alive.” Her eyes were wide and possessed. I hid my startled reaction by burrowing my face in the cupboard. Half pretending I wasn’t listening. She broke from her trance and continued her chores, “But that’s just what I heard through the grape vine.” She revolved her head towards me, “You know, just rumor.”

The plant hissed for mercy as it finally burnt to a crisp and crumbled. I didn’t want Lilli to see the fear she was injecting into my soul. I wasn’t sure about friendship anymore, but what was made clear to me is that I didn’t want to make Lilli an enemy.

While putting away the last of the silverware I spoke to change the conversation, but the worst segway spilled from my lips, “Why does everyone call you the devil at school?” She glared at me, I murmur, “Why are you so mean to people?”

Lilli scoffed and slammed a drawer shut, “Because I don’t particularly like people all that much. I was murdered, Noa. Someone came into my home and stabbed me. Remember? ‘In the name of God!’ Well, God certainly wasn’t on his side when I came back to the village and burned it down.”

Anxiety shot through me, Lilli was insane and I was fanning the flames, “You killed the people in the village?”

Annoyed, “No, Noa, the fire didn’t kill the village people. They all made it out alive and I had to live for two hundred years on the outskirts of villages, towns, cities. Wearing the same thing nearly everyday. Just sitting around praying for someone to be murdered so that way I’d have something to do. I’m ruined, Noa. So I’m sorry if I’m a little rough with people, frankly I think I’m a lot kinder than they deserve.” She paused and put away her last dish, “But I’m trying to make peace with it.”

Part of me sided with Lilli, we had been dealt a terrible afterlife all in result of what people had done to us. I offered Lilli a hug but she ignored me.

In my best attempt at an apology, “I’m sorry your life turned out this way, Lilli. But I have reasons not to trust you. The way you acted around me first day we met, your vulture trying to knock me out of the sky, and the Gelof triplets warning me about you.”

Her body froze where she was and only her head turned to look back at me, “The Gelof triplets? What did they say about me?”

“They said that I should stay away from you. That you’re not good.”

She clenched her teeth and balled her fists, “The Gelof triplets don’t know anything.”

Then it occurred to me, “Are the triplet’s daemons?”

“Yes.”

“What kind?”

Lilli’s vulture began vigorously tapping at the backdoor before she could respond to what I asked. Walking towards the back porch, “We can talk about this later. I’ll see you at school. Sorry about the plate.”

Without another word she slid opened the back door and slammed it behind her. Taking off with her spirit. I walked over to the scuff on the wall and tried my best to rub it off. I was mostly successful besides a small dent in the wallpaper. I picked up the pieces of broken glass and threw them in the trash. 

I turned around and saw the sliding door was wide open. I remembered Lilli closing it so this turn of events confused me. A single dove flew in and landed on the kitchen table. I picked it up and released it in the backyard, shutting and locking the sliding door.

And low and behold, I found Eliakim standing behind me with his arms folded and his glare heated. I looked at him and shook my head, “Where’ve you been? I begged for your help hours ago.”

“I’m sorry, but know I’ve still been working in your favor.”

“What does that even mean? You abandoned me.”

“I didn’t abandon you, this is more complicated than I can explain.”

I threw the dishrag in the sink, “Then tell me, why are you here? If you have so many important responsibilities as a guardian, why now do you show yourself?”

He spoke as if he were on official business, “You’ve met a Lauraine Halloway?”

“Not that I recall.”

“She was a city bus driver.”

Confused, “Maybe? Why?”

“She recently died.”

I shrugged, “Okay, so one random death is why you finally appear?”

“Don’t be curt with me, Noa. What happened was unnatural.”

“How is the way she died unnatural?”

“She drove a bus full of passengers into a gas station. 3 passengers died. Dozens were badly harmed and burned in the collision and explosion, but not her. She died, but not a mark was on her.”

“What’s any of this have to do with me? I’m just a suicide reaper.”

“I… we need you to keep an eye on Lillian. She’s taken a liking toward you. We believe she has ties to something we’ve been investigating and this is the first time in centuries since she’s actually confided in another reaper.”

This whirlwind of a request didn’t sit right with me, “Wait, who is ‘we?’”

“Will you help or not?”

“Not until you tell me what is happening! You can’t just come in and ask for help when you’ve done nothing for me!”

His aggression surge in his tone, “You have no idea what I’m going through for you! You have no idea what you being here has done!” Eli squeezed his face in regret, “I’ve said too much.”

“Wait! Said too much of what? What are you not telling me? What about me being here?”

“Nothing, forget it. If you help I promise this could lessen your sentence."

I became furious by his notion, “You can’t previously make speeches for peace and then taunt me with bargains and shortcuts. I don’t see how spying on Lilli is going to set me free, so you can take your offer and bring it to someone who doesn’t have any integrity.”

He spoke while trying to contain his frustration, “Do this for me.”

“You won’t tell me what it is?”

“No.”

“Then I can’t help you. And nor will I be false to Lilli, no matter what I or you think of her.”

Eli remained cold as he asked, “At least answer me this.”

“What?”

“When you met Lauraine Halloway… did she say anything to you?”

I tried to pull back the memory, “Yes, she… she said something in another language. I didn’t understand it.”

“Try to remember anything from it.”

I anxiously searched through my memory. Eli kept telling me to focus but it wasn’t helping, “It sounded like… Inception… type… in… constellation.. secular… something or another. I don’t know.”

“Incipit tibi in consummationem saeculi.”

“Yes, yes… but something else… september yesterday… september fine…”

He pieces together, “Septem bestiae. Septem fines.”

Eli eyes reflected a fear I had never seen in him. It seemed desperate as he shook his head and turned away from me. I asked, “What does it mean?”

“She was possessed,” He closed his eyes, took a step back, and hoarsely said, “It’s latin, latin’s… a…” his mind was racing, “a dead language. Demons can only speak languages that aren’t spoken anymore on this realm,” He mumbled, “It’s already begun,” he shot his eyes to the back door, “I must go.”

“Wait! What is happening! What does any of this have to do with me? I haven’t done anything!”

Eliakim took off without even a nod, gone and leaving so many more questions than answers. And the haunting impression that me being dead has created some issue in this world and in the next, forced me into a corner that had me begging the question… what could be wrong with my soul?