Angelfire
Page 18
"Wil , I'm so confused," I began. "How can I be that old when I know exactly where and when I born? I have baby pictures. I'm only seventeen."
"When you die, you are reincarnated," he explained. "Your body and soul are reborn over and over in the same human form. I find you again, usual y when you're just a smal child, and guard you as you grow up. When you're seventeen and ready to face your true identity, I wake you."
"When you find me as a little girl, how do you know it's me?"
I caught the slightest glimmer of a smile. "I've known you for a very long time. I can always tel when it's you."
I let my head fal back against the car. "Then I'm not immortal."
"Not in the way that I am."
"Does that mean you can't die?"
"I have never died, but I am not invincible. I just don't age."
"You're so strong," I noted. "You punched that reaper so hard and you picked her up just by her neck. She was as big as my car. How can anyone be that strong?"
Wil 's expression turned very serious. "You're stronger than I am, El ie."
I shook my head tiredly. "I don't understand how it's possible--how any of this is possible. What are they? The reapers?"
"They are monsters in this world," he said with an edge to his voice that forced shivers through my body. "They hunt humans for their flesh and their souls, which they harvest in order to restore the armies of Hel for the Second War between Lucifer and God--the Apocalypse. The reapers are immortal and come in many forms; they are most effective kil ing machines."
"I don't understand how there can be creatures that big and no one knows about them. How come I've never seen any of them until last night?"
"The reapers don't like to be seen," Wil explained. "They spend most of their time in the Grim, where they hide from human sight. Powerful psychics, however, can sense them like the ground rumbling as a train passes by and can enter the Grim at wil . Beings within the Grim can see and even interact with objects and people in the mortal world, but they cannot be seen or heard through the veil. The reapers have had many thousands of years to perfect their hunting. They've been seen a few times by ordinary humans, but these sightings are rare and are usual y happen only because the reaper was being careless. It's even rarer for reapers to intentional y al ow a human to see them and not kil them, but some like to do that for sport. There are legends about them in virtual y every religion, with al the legends identifying them as harbingers of death. But instead of guiding people to the afterlife, the reapers eat them, their souls get one-way tickets to Hel ."
"So there are no studies of them, even though there have been sightings?" I asked. "Never? People believe in Bigfoot and the Loch Ness monster, and I see documentaries about expeditions to find them on the History Channel al the time--
not that I watch that channel much or anything. There's no proof that either of those exist. Yet the reapers leave bodies behind like Mr. Meyer's and no one ever stops to wonder?"
"Reaper attacks are usual y blamed on animals or psychotic humans. Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster aren't real."
"The reapers obviously are! Why hasn't there been some hysteria over sightings?"
Wil took a breath and spoke slowly. "There've been many reported sightings of reapers. The most famous are the ones that resemble humans, hence the legend of the Grim Reaper."
My eyes shot wide. "There are human reapers?"
He nodded, watching the ground. "Yes, there are humanshaped reapers, cal ed the vir, and they are the most powerful. They're also the cockiest and the most likely to show their faces to humans. The other forms, like the ursid, the lupine, the nycterid, and others, have been mistaken for other monsters, because the humans don't know what they're seeing. Like your Bigfoot, dragons, or even werewolves. The reaper you just fought was lupine."
I remembered my daydream about the snowy forest in France. I remembered that I'd been in the Le Gevaudan region, a place where the vil agers were ravaged by a wolflike monster. Historians blamed the hysteria on moldy bread, but I knew better. I felt like I had real y been there.
"You keep talking about the Grim," I said. "What is it?"
"The Grim is a dimension paral el to the mortal plane," he explained. "Supernatural creatures live there unseen by mortals and are able to cross over into this dimension. Most humans cannot enter the Grim, unless they are true psychics or creatures like you and me. Last night, you entered the Grim unwittingly so you could see the reaper hunting you, but you did that by pure instinct."
"How was I created?"
"We don't know what you real y are. Your body and soul are human, but your power . . . it's something very different. There are a lot of things about you that we stil don't understand."
"By we, do you mean you and me? Does anyone else know about me? Is there another Preliator?"
"No, you are the only one."
"Are you my only Guardian?"
"Yes, but before me, there were others who protected you."
"Why don't I have any others?"
"Now it is my duty alone."
"How long have you been my Guardian?"
"Five hundred years."
I blushed and looked away from him. "You've been fol owing me around for five hundred years?"
"When you die, you are reincarnated," he explained. "Your body and soul are reborn over and over in the same human form. I find you again, usual y when you're just a smal child, and guard you as you grow up. When you're seventeen and ready to face your true identity, I wake you."
"When you find me as a little girl, how do you know it's me?"
I caught the slightest glimmer of a smile. "I've known you for a very long time. I can always tel when it's you."
I let my head fal back against the car. "Then I'm not immortal."
"Not in the way that I am."
"Does that mean you can't die?"
"I have never died, but I am not invincible. I just don't age."
"You're so strong," I noted. "You punched that reaper so hard and you picked her up just by her neck. She was as big as my car. How can anyone be that strong?"
Wil 's expression turned very serious. "You're stronger than I am, El ie."
I shook my head tiredly. "I don't understand how it's possible--how any of this is possible. What are they? The reapers?"
"They are monsters in this world," he said with an edge to his voice that forced shivers through my body. "They hunt humans for their flesh and their souls, which they harvest in order to restore the armies of Hel for the Second War between Lucifer and God--the Apocalypse. The reapers are immortal and come in many forms; they are most effective kil ing machines."
"I don't understand how there can be creatures that big and no one knows about them. How come I've never seen any of them until last night?"
"The reapers don't like to be seen," Wil explained. "They spend most of their time in the Grim, where they hide from human sight. Powerful psychics, however, can sense them like the ground rumbling as a train passes by and can enter the Grim at wil . Beings within the Grim can see and even interact with objects and people in the mortal world, but they cannot be seen or heard through the veil. The reapers have had many thousands of years to perfect their hunting. They've been seen a few times by ordinary humans, but these sightings are rare and are usual y happen only because the reaper was being careless. It's even rarer for reapers to intentional y al ow a human to see them and not kil them, but some like to do that for sport. There are legends about them in virtual y every religion, with al the legends identifying them as harbingers of death. But instead of guiding people to the afterlife, the reapers eat them, their souls get one-way tickets to Hel ."
"So there are no studies of them, even though there have been sightings?" I asked. "Never? People believe in Bigfoot and the Loch Ness monster, and I see documentaries about expeditions to find them on the History Channel al the time--
not that I watch that channel much or anything. There's no proof that either of those exist. Yet the reapers leave bodies behind like Mr. Meyer's and no one ever stops to wonder?"
"Reaper attacks are usual y blamed on animals or psychotic humans. Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster aren't real."
"The reapers obviously are! Why hasn't there been some hysteria over sightings?"
Wil took a breath and spoke slowly. "There've been many reported sightings of reapers. The most famous are the ones that resemble humans, hence the legend of the Grim Reaper."
My eyes shot wide. "There are human reapers?"
He nodded, watching the ground. "Yes, there are humanshaped reapers, cal ed the vir, and they are the most powerful. They're also the cockiest and the most likely to show their faces to humans. The other forms, like the ursid, the lupine, the nycterid, and others, have been mistaken for other monsters, because the humans don't know what they're seeing. Like your Bigfoot, dragons, or even werewolves. The reaper you just fought was lupine."
I remembered my daydream about the snowy forest in France. I remembered that I'd been in the Le Gevaudan region, a place where the vil agers were ravaged by a wolflike monster. Historians blamed the hysteria on moldy bread, but I knew better. I felt like I had real y been there.
"You keep talking about the Grim," I said. "What is it?"
"The Grim is a dimension paral el to the mortal plane," he explained. "Supernatural creatures live there unseen by mortals and are able to cross over into this dimension. Most humans cannot enter the Grim, unless they are true psychics or creatures like you and me. Last night, you entered the Grim unwittingly so you could see the reaper hunting you, but you did that by pure instinct."
"How was I created?"
"We don't know what you real y are. Your body and soul are human, but your power . . . it's something very different. There are a lot of things about you that we stil don't understand."
"By we, do you mean you and me? Does anyone else know about me? Is there another Preliator?"
"No, you are the only one."
"Are you my only Guardian?"
"Yes, but before me, there were others who protected you."
"Why don't I have any others?"
"Now it is my duty alone."
"How long have you been my Guardian?"
"Five hundred years."
I blushed and looked away from him. "You've been fol owing me around for five hundred years?"
