25. Her Reapers
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Her Reapers
His fingernails snapped from the nail bed, trying to dig into the blood-soaked floorboards. But the pain of his nails snapping was nothing compared to being dismembered from the knees down.
“Boogie woogie woogie woogie wuuuuu… Here comes the boogie man!” Holding his machete against the back of his neck, Keith playfully kicked his boots in a heel-toe motion as he danced across the floor, maneuvering between the corpses of his victims.
Harrison could barely see the manic, shirtless, blond-haired Reaper through the reflection in the window as he belted an unfamiliar song. “One, two, Keith’s coming for you. Three, four, I’m fucking at your door.”
Harrison wanted to cry. This man was fucking insane. And that wasn’t just because he was wearing someone else’s face.
Keith danced around the dead bodies, casually following the only Reaper still alive in the vicinity, who was crawling across the bloodstained floor.
“Jeez, man. I’m feeling kind of bad watching you crawl like a goddamn slug covered in salt.
I know I severed your femur and shit, but…
I thought I’d at least give you a running chance-” Keith cackled at his own joke as Harrison started to cry.
“Damn. Tough crowd,” Keith said, scratching his head with his machete. “Oh! I’ve got it!” Keith skipped ahead of Harrison, who panicked as Keith’s heavy, bloodstained boots stomped abruptly in front of him.
“P-please-” Harrison started.
“Shh, it’s okay. You’ll like this one,” Keith said, crouching in front of him. Even behind the unsettling skin face mask, Harrison could see Keith’s disturbed smile. “Let’s play a game,” Keith said. “A game in a game- Ha! Inception! Fucking love that movie!”
Harrison looked at Keith, terrified. “It’s called ‘Reaper Trivia’. I’ll ask you three questions about The Society. If you get at least one right, you win. But if you don’t, you die, eh… faster. Sounds fun, right? I know. I just made it up.”
Harrison looked at Keith like he was crazy as Keith ran behind him. Holding his machete like a mic, Keith spoke loudly.
“Welcome, Ladies and Gentlemen, to Reaper Trivia! Our final contestant- Wait, what’s your name?
Never mind- Leg-oh-less is going to gamble for his life.
” Keith looked at Harrison. “Did you get the joke? Leg-oh-less? Like Legolas but 'less legs' cause you ain’t got no legs? Anyway, let’s start with question number one-”
Harrison used Keith’s deranged game as a distraction, trying to crawl away from him. “I know this motherfucker is not trying to crawl away from me in the middle of my goddamn game! The audacity! The disrespect! What else does Ian say? The unmitigated gall!” Keith gasped dramatically.
Harrison didn’t bother to look back at Keith. He was almost to the door. Keith sighed. “Fine. You can have him. He’s boring.”
Harrison looked confused with what Keith was saying, when the door opened and a pair of bloodstained boots stepped in front of him, and a bloodstained axe encrusted with torn flesh swung next to his face.
Grabbing his phone, Keith put on a heavy metal song that drowned out Harrison’s horrific cries as Caleb mercilessly hacked him to pieces. Taking deep breaths, Caleb wiped the blood from his face as he looked down at the pieces of Harrison’s dismembered body.
“I can’t believe you made this poor fucker crawl,” Caleb said.
“How was I supposed to know he’d survive being dismembered!” Keith snorted.
Caleb raised a brow as he watched Keith headbang to the music while using his machete as a guitar. Shaking his head with a grin, Caleb looked around at their slaughterhouse. As much as Caleb enjoyed reaping with Keith, he couldn’t help but think of his brother. It was tormenting.
“Heyyyyy… Mr. Grumpy Face.”
Caleb looked at Keith, who was holding up a decapitated head with his machete. “Remember… You’ve got to keep your head in the game!” Keith said.
Caleb snorted before bursting into laughter. “Not the dad jokes!”
“You fucking love it,” Keith grinned.
Caleb wiped a tear from his eye, trying to control his laughter. He looked around before grinning. “Okay, wait- I got one,” he said, picking up an arm. “Can I give you a hand with that?”
The two exploded with aggressive laughter. “Goddamn. You’re worse than me!” Keith cackled.
“Fuck you,” Caleb snickered.
Tossing the decapitated head over his shoulder, Keith looked around. “I think we cleared the room.”
“No shit,” Caleb said, using a flag to wipe his face. Attempting to sit, Caleb collapsed backward, trying to catch his breath. “Fuck, I’m exhausted. How the hell do you keep going?”
“You’re just getting old, you geriatric bitch,” Keith grinned as he sat next to Caleb.
Caleb violently shoved Keith with his boot as Keith laughed mockingly.
“Asshole…” Caleb grinned. Putting a joint between his lips, Keith lit it up before taking a few puffs and handing it to his cousin.
Caleb slid the joint between his lips and sighed as he stared at the ceiling.
“Fuck, I miss Deja. I hope she’s not watching all this crazy shit. She’s been traumatized enough…”
Keith looked up at the window and grinned. “Nah… Baby girl loves to watch her men Reap…”
“How do you know?” Caleb asked, passing the joint.
“I just know… I know my woman.”
Caleb raised a brow when his face broke into a taunting grin. “You’re so fucking obsessed with her.”
“Motherfucker, so are you!” Keith exclaimed.
Caleb shrugged. “I’m not denying anything. Deja could punch me in the face, and I’d probably thank her for it.”
“That’s just foreplay,” Keith said as Caleb cackled. “That woman has me by the damn balls. I’d do anything for her. Literally. Anything. I killed 3 of my ex-girlfriends just to be with her.”
“Yeah…” Caleb sighed. “She has that effect…”
Keith puffed on his joint before looking down at Caleb. “You okay?”
“Yeah… I’m fine,” Caleb said absentmindedly. Keith raised a brow, and Caleb smiled sadly. “I know you were trying to get my mind off of Jamie. I appreciate it. I had fun,” Caleb added.
Keith twisted his mouth as he looked at the floor.
“Jax and Ian annoy the fuck out of me. But… they’ve always been there for me.
They’re the only people I’ve ever relied on.
I… can’t really see my life without them…
” Keith looked at Caleb. “I love my brothers as much as I love stabbing them. I’d do anything to see them if we were ever separated. ”
Swallowing hard, Caleb blinked back his anguish. “Yeah… I just… hope Jamie isn’t too far gone to come back to me… But I’m not giving up on him.”
“You shouldn’t,” Keith agreed. “I mean, I know I was young at the time, but I still remember him. How my father treated him… treated you…”
Caleb raised a brow. “It’s not like he treated you any better.”
Keith snorted. “Sometimes I preferred when he forgot I existed. It was as if when he remembered he had a third son, it was only to beat the living shit out of me.”
Caleb frowned. “You didn’t deserve that…”
Keith smiled sadly. “Neither did you. And you don’t deserve to be separated from your brother. I’ll help you find him. Any way I can.”
“Last I heard, your father was hunting you all in the States,” Esme said, cleaning the blood from her wedding band engraved with Renee’s name. “There are no threats to Deja’s family, but my men still keep watch.”
“Thank you for that,” Jax said, dropping two decapitated heads to the floor. “I doubt he doesn’t know we’re in Korea.”
“Traditional Reapers aren’t crazy enough to come here. They find these activities ‘beneath them’,” Ian added, turning the page of his novel. “ The Society generally stays away. But still, we should stay alert-”
The abrupt battle cry of numerous Reapers heading in their direction interrupted them. Putting his novel away, Ian slid his blades between his fingers and abruptly turned, jamming one blade into a Reaper’s neck and slicing their throat open, while the other Reaper was impaled through the cheek.
“Is this like some last-minute attempt to get more points?” Esme asked, ramming her blade into a Reaper’s eye.
“Most likely,” Ian sighed, splitting another Reaper’s stomach open. “There are only 20 minutes left. Enough time for me to finish 5 more chapters.”
“What are you reading?” Esme asked, snapping a Reaper’s neck.
“You wouldn’t find it interesting,” Ian said simply.
Shoving her blade into a Reaper’s ear, Esme turned to Ian. “Is it smut? I love smut. Especially sapphic-”
“It is not smut!” Ian said curtly, snapping another Reaper’s neck. “It’s called The Book of Natos, written by a legendary Reaper. It speaks of how the god of Death fell in love with the goddess Makena. Caleb recommended it to me.”
“Oh, so it’s fanfiction,” Jax said, casually ripping a Reaper’s throat out.
“Fanfiction… with smut!” Esme added.
Scrambling on his backside, Dak-Ho stared in shock as a horde of Reapers that significantly outnumbered their target was ruthlessly slaughtered. His eyes darted from Ian and Esme, who were tearing through Reapers like paper… to Jax…
And the blood coursing through his veins turned to ice.
Dak-Ho had hoped Jax wouldn’t notice him. But as he dropped another headless body, Jax tilted his head to the side, raising a bloody finger, and pointed right at him. Dak-Ho felt his heart stop.
He abruptly turned around, running for the staircase. But a startled scream escaped his lips to see Jax standing right in front of him. “H-how, how did you move so fa-” Dak-Ho started in Korean.
“I’m tired of playing this game,” Jax interrupted. His voice was disturbingly low with a slight growl. “You’re keeping me from my woman and my daughter. And I’ve run out of fucking patience.”
Dak-Ho breathed heavily, his entire body tight from Jax’s aggravated and inhuman bloodthirsty gaze. He swung his sword, but Jax caught it in his hand as the blade sliced his palm. Dak-Ho looked at Jax, startled. His hand was nearly cut to the bone, but Jax barely flinched.
Releasing the sword, Dak-Ho made a run for it.