Reaper's Word

Chapter 24: Learning a Lesson

Isaiah went to where he had heard Zeta call from not a minute ago. Before going to Clair he'd tracked down Gustav's group. He was no longer in the mood to let them keep living. Not with what they had tried to do and poisoned Clair with. Lucky for them the house and its magic helped her, but Isaiah was not the forgiving kind. All but Gustav had been taken care of. He knew the sound meant that they'd found him and Isaiah was more than ready to be rid of the human.

He went down the hall and then turned to go up the stairs. He was on the roof now and moved with an easy stride to where the three hell hounds had Gustav standing near the edge of the house. He saw Isaiah walking toward him and he looked panicked. Isaiah on the other hand felt remarkably good, and relaxed. A great amount of tension had been let out of him with the use of Clair, and the promise of being able to do it again. He knew she wouldn't risk failing an agreement with him and the room wouldn't let her out. So he had the time to take care of this human trash.

Zeta moved aside making room for him and he faced Gustav who had one foot behind him like he might jump. It would be his way of control to do that. He wasn't going to allow his life to end in any way other than his choosing. From this high up he would probably die hitting the ground. Or land in the garden, so the house didn't try to stop him.

"I'm surprised you managed to stay alive so long.'' Isaiah said to him and glanced at the drop to the ground. Gustav's dark hair was matted and his brown eyes darted around. Unkempt and looking like a stray animal hoping for an escape.

"I have strong survival instincts."

"Or you just put others in front of you. I doubt you'd actually fight when push came to shove. Unless they were weaker than you. What happened to your nose?" Isaiah asked, it was crooked and slightly discolored.

"I was hit in the face by that slip of a woman you've been looking for." He answered. "Tried to get her for you, but she was a bit wild." Isaiah raised an eyebrow. Who did he think he was fooling?

"Tell me Gustav, do you like when someone messes with your property? Do you enjoy finding what belongs to you in worse condition than what you left it in?"

"No, I don't." He said. He was still hoping for an escape. Isaiah could practically hear his heart pounding from here. The hell hounds were just sitting staring and waiting for the command to attack.

"I should thank you. It was very hard to get a hold of Clair. However I did not enjoy the fact that you tainted her with drugs. Second, we both know you weren't keeping her for me." Gustav swallowed noticeably.

"We had to keep her calm, she was kicking and screaming and we didn't want them to show up." He gestured at the hell hounds, "and you have her now I'm assuming."

"You're missing my point. She wasn't in the condition I left her in, and you were planning on doing away with her." Isaiah felt extreme irritation at the man.

"Wouldn't you want to find a way out if our positions were reversed?"

"But they aren't so I don't see a point to the question. However I do like a good game." He said taking a few steps forward and Gustav stepped up on the ledge.

"I'm not going to die like the others." He nearly shouted and teetered on the edge for a moment. Isaiah tipped his head to the side looking at him and smiled coldly. The man didn't really want to die. Isaiah's entire existence had been made to sense and help death. But desperate people did desperate things.

"You don't have to die at all if you manage what I ask." Isaiah said and Gustav edged along the ledge. The hell hounds just watched him as Isaiah walked alongside of him. Their heads moving in perfect

harmony watching the man like a scurrying bug. Text property © Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org.

"What's that?" He asked stopping when Isaiah took a few steps ahead of where he was edging to.

"Read my mind, tell me what you see." He looked at him.

"That isn't a game, you know I can't."

"I'll let you in." Isaiah supplied with a twitch of a smile.

"Just have to read it?"

"Yes." He said, eyeing him at the strange request. He still didn't see how that was a game at all. If he knew anything, nothing was as it appeared with Isaiah. However it seemed like a simple thing he'd just have to be careful.

"Okay, easy enough." Wrong, Isaiah knew what looking into his mind would do to a human. His mind didn't work like a human's and there were things there that no human could comprehend. The place that he had existed before being brought here. A place where energy was a living thinking being. Where pain and pleasure were a mix of one. The same with wonder and horror. He was not going to be able to really comprehend what Isaiah's mind could.

Isaiah felt the moment Gustav's mind brushed his and he just let the man in. At first the human images showed. Things that Gustav could understand. Though like a thick ink, what he really was spread over that trapping Gustav's mind in it. What a creature of death and destruction was and it gripped Gustav's mind like a steel vice not letting go and enjoying the pain as he was trapped mentally for the moment unable to find his way out.

Gustav's body went slightly limp. Isaiah reached forward to stop him from going over the edge, not just yet. The hell hounds were no longer on the roof but just below as Isaiah had told them to go when he

started the attempt to read Isaiah's mind. Gustav was screaming in his head and only Isaiah could hear it. Screaming at the things he saw, and chaos no human could hope to understand. A thin line of blood rolled from the corner of the man's eye before more came from his nose. Isaiah released him mentally and their eyes met for a moment.

"Well?" Isaiah inquired and Gustav's mouth couldn't form words for a moment. He found it funny, did the man realize just how small and insignificant he really was?

"I..." It was the only thing he seemed able to say. There was a strong wind and a sound of thunder came from not far away. Isaiah looked up, and then back down at Gustav.

"Have you learned your lesson about defiling others' property?" Isaiah asked, his eyes black. His grip on the man's shirt was harsh. To think they'd have done worse. That they'd have taken Clair's life before he could realize just how well she could serve him. It pissed him off that nearly missed chance.

"Yes, yes I'll never do it again."

"Good." Isaiah let go of him and since his weight was mostly behind him he toppled over the side. Isaiah looked down. Gustav let out a cry and part of the fencing below stuck through his shoulder and one calf. The hell hounds were moving toward him. Looked like he was lucky, the fence broke his fall. Isaiah felt humor and a half smile on his face as he called down to the hounds.

"Help our friend down would you? Don't be too kind. I don't think he's really learned his lesson." Isaiah turned walking away from the edge as Beta's jaws clamped on Gustav's arm pulling. His screams of pain and terror grew more as the others joined to pull him from the fence.

The sounds were silenced as Isaiah entered the house and the door closed the roof off. One problem was taken care of and he had at least one hour to do as he pleased with Clair.