Chapter Twenty
Ten years ago,
As told by Lars…
My master wasn’t like any other. No one I’d met before him moved me so deeply. When I first met him, I was but a child gremlin. He conquered and devoured souls while I fed on flesh. I thought we made quite the pair though; he didn’t let me live the gremlin way.
He wasn’t even nice to me the day I met him. In fact, he was very cold much like he was now. I couldn’t tell you what I liked about him that day, but his presence overwhelmed me. That was how I knew he was my master. My kind often sought out someone to serve. I’d admit that my kind also wreaked havoc on life until a master came along and commanded us in their direction.
It wasn’t easy at first to change my ways and even now; I messed up. His way of thinking was different and strange to me, but all the same, I was drawn to him even more because of that. Soul reapers were typically cold and vicious creatures, a demon kind on the verge of extinction since they were being eradicated by Grim and his Reapers. They were a powerful force in the Underworld and on Earth since they kept the balance between both worlds. They weren’t someone you wanted to make an enemy of and because soul reapers survived off of eating souls—they killed to survive. Soul reapers often went on killing sprees and plundered souls just to be doing it even when they weren’t hungry. That put them on the Reaper radar. Except my master. He was above the rest.
I’d never met a demon with a code—a way of living—before my master. He had a thing called principle and at first; I judged him for it. Sometimes, I still did. But mostly, I’d admire his preservation and will to live. I followed him everywhere for a long time. Even when he didn’t want me to until one day, he finally accepted me and ordered me to help him. I would have followed him until the end of time, and he must have knew that and gave in.
Boundless. Immeasurable. Those were words I’d used to describe him, but as perfect as he was, there would eventually come a time where his crack would show. No one had more willpower and restraint than him, but even he couldn’t keep it up forever.
I was going to tell you the beginning. Where his fell began. It was ten years ago—ten years of watching him slowly losing chunks of that discipline he was so superior at. His downfall wasn’t himself, but another soul.
I spotted his first mistake that day when he was walking around in his reaping form, searching for a soul to eat, and stumbled across her. He stopped, and I nearly bumped into him before I realized he was no longer moving.
“What is it, Sire?” I followed his gaze and found the bright soul running past us. She was rushing to get somewhere, and her soul slipped right through him. She paused, looked around like she felt him, only there was no way she could have. She resumed running again.
“That soul… That’s the one I want,” his voice rumbled through his form.
My gaze followed her as she ran away from us. “But, Sire, her soul is good. You don’t eat good souls. You said it goes against your—”
“There’s always an exception and with the books, there’ll be no issue,” he said quickly, still eyeing her as she hurried to wherever she was going.
Still his words didn’t ease me. He couldn’t see what I saw that day. The change in his form. All my master stood as was a giant, dark soul that ate other souls, and that day, his reaping form quivered.
The following days to come, we followed her around. This was another clue of his impending doom. He never ate vibrant souls, and he never spent more than a few minutes hunting one. He always chose and devoured within seconds apart, yet here we were.
He took us to an abandoned building and filled it with a mirage of books the day he decided he wanted her soul. “You bring her here to me.” His third change, and his third mistake.
“Why, Sire? Why not just devour her soul like you do the others?” I asked him.
“I want to approach her.”
Had he gone mad? “Why?”
“Just go,” was his response.
I did as he asked like I always would. I would be forever faithful even when confused for I loved my master. I already knew there was something strange happening to him though. Why would he let a human see him when he was about to eat her soul?
She was a good distance from where she needed to be when I found her, and the only way to get her there was to lead her without her knowing. I’d tugged at her pants and gently shoved her along the right path and she let me lead her aimlessly. She couldn’t feel me or see me but that didn’t stop her from moving exactly the way I wanted her. In truth, I thought it was easier to coax her along that day since her soul was fractured in half. Something happened in the short time we’d been away from her because the human was obviously hurting. My master wasn’t going to be happy about her soul being distasteful if he wanted to try a tasty soul such as hers.
Once I got her to the building, I pushed her into the door. It scared her, but after a couple of attempts, she went inside where Master waited. I waddled to the back where he was. He tossed a book down, and she jumped. She kept calling out to him. Foolish human. She could have walked back out, but instead she went in the direction of the fallen book where he waited. She picked it up, and her fate was sealed.
Only when she sang as she waited to die, her once beautiful soul wilting as it faced all her hardships… The soul of the proudest demon I had ever known wilted in cadence to hers. He told her he’d give her what she wanted for ten years, but now I knew what he had planned regardless of her singing. No matter how strong he was, he had his limits, and I didn’t know how he planned to give her the things she asked for. He had no powers like that, but I’d know soon enough when he found the closest business that dealt with the entertainment industry. The place was called Black Hearts, and we entered the building using a portal chip. My master simply set his last remaining book and waited for the man to touch it.
Twice in one day, he revealed himself to a human when he never had before. All because of this human soul. The older man leaned back against the desk as my master’s reaping form moved across the room. “I want this place.” He told the old man.
“What?” he stuttered. “What are you? Am I—I’m dreaming. I must be.” The old man turned around and tried reaching for something on the desk.
“I know you’re the president of this place. You own it.” He stalked around the trembling human. “Give it to me, and I won’t kill you.”
“What are you?” the old man stammered.
“That doesn’t matter.” My master shifted into his human form, and the man’s eyes widened. “Write up a contract quickly. Try calling anyone, and I’ll kill you long before they can get to you.”
“I swear I’ll stop cheating on my wife. Just don’t kill me,” the old man rambled. “Here, the business is yours. Just let me live.”
“Sire, what are you doing?” I asked, and the old man saw me and shrieked even more than when he did with my master’s reaping form. My master was purposely revealing mine and his form to scare the human in order to get whatever it was he wanted.
Crying and shaking, the old man took forever to write out a contract in which he gave the company over to my master. “Remember, I own your soul. You speak a word of this to anyone on the way out, and you’ll be dead before you exit the building.”
The old man nodded vigorously and left. I shook my head. “Sire, I do not find it wise to let that one live.”
He smirked. “I’m not. Go find his home and use one of your unique ways to kill him.” He pinned me with his dark, carmine eyes. “No funny business.”
“Yes, Sire.”
The door to the office opened and Master’s blood-red eyes receded into dull gray ones, and I stepped behind the desk so that I couldn’t be seen. A man yelled, “Who the hell are you? And why did our president walk out trembling and telling us that he was no longer the president?”
“Because he’s not. I am.”
“What the hell is going on?” he hissed.
Master sighed. “I need you to bring someone here to sing.”
“What?” the man asked.
“A singer named Ruth Thomas.”
“If you’re taking over, shouldn’t you be aware that we’ve already made plans to scout her tomorrow? We’ve already had our eyes set on the girl.”
So, even without my master’s help, Ruth was already destined for the life she wanted that meant he didn’t have to do this. But he stayed anyway.
“Go see her now.” Master ordered him.
The human man became furious. “Listen here—”
Master cut him off. “Jordan, isn’t it? How about you do everything around here and in ten years’ time, I’ll give you this company? It’s what you want, right?”
“Are you messing with me?”
“Not at all. I don’t have a clue what I’m doing, but for now I need this position and this place.”
He regarded Master. I could see the greedy wheels turning in the young human’s head. “How can I trust you?”
“We’ll write out a contract.” Master had an obsession with contracts. He liked his words, and he liked the words of others. He liked holding them to it and hurting them if they didn’t comply. He knew most weren’t as good at discipline as he was with himself.
Master reeled him in. He took the bait.
We left there to finish up the loose end that the old man was. Master let me kill him but scolded me when he caught me humping his dead carcass. In my head, I understood why Master found it sick and twisted, but when he wasn’t looking I indulged. After all, I was still a gremlin. Master knew that.
Fast forward ten years, and here we were at the end of this long hunt for Ruth’s soul. Only I knew this was a bad idea. I saw it then, and I saw it now as Master watched her cry. Her soul wilted and from the very beginning, we knew there was no helping her soul when she knew she was going to die.
But like many times over, we’d stuck around Ruth. We’d witnessed and been there for every high and low of her singing career. And when her soul was happy, Master’s was happy. When hers was wilting, his was too.
There were hundreds of demons in the Underworld. Gremlins and soul reapers only being two of them, but the day I decided I wanted to follow Amit and make him my master, I sought out information of his kind and stumbled upon something rather interesting in the process. I never thought it could be true since Master never fell or swayed toward anything. But he couldn’t see what he’d been doing over the last ten years. He kept us in the human world too long for a soul.
It was said that when soul reapers found their perfect soulmate, it was instant and true. Not only that, it was consuming as well as disastrous because the will of their one true match became their will. And given how driven Master was I believed it to be true. Our lives revolved around nothing but her.
I think Master knew the truth too. He just never wanted to admit a mere human was the one making his soul shake. He was proud and strong. Then there was Ruth. Ten years of staying by her side invisible, some of those years spent inside her dog, I already grew attached to her in the same way I was to Master. It was something I couldn’t say aloud though. Not until he admitted himself.
Until then, I’d respect his wishes.
Master was either going to eat her soul or…
Honestly, I hoped she consumed him instead. If anyone deserved Master’s love, it was the human and her exceptional belly rubs.
“Come on, Lars,” Master’s voice rumbled from his reaping form.
“You don’t want me to stay here and watch her tonight?” He always wanted to watch after her.
“I can’t… I don’t know how to make her happy.”
Master was the foolish one now, but he was also right. I couldn’t see a happy ending. There was no way she’d accept him after everything he’d done as a demon determined to eat her soul.
It didn’t stop me from saying, “Sire, why don’t you go ahead and admit the truth to yourself? You never had any intention of eating Ruth’s soul because you fell in love with it that day. As you got to know the owner of the soul, you fell in love with her too.”