Lurking In The Dark Book 1

Anna Tracy, a 20 year old woman dying from consumption is saved and given a second chance to live. The catch; she has to live her life as a grim reaper, and she has to devote her new found immortality to the God and Goddess of the underworld. 150 years later she meets a man named Ren, who is the second son of the Don for the Irish Mafia. All her instincts tell her to stay away, she doesnt want to get involved with a mortal, but she finds herself drawn to him. Will she be able to stay away, or will she give into her desires.

“What are you saying,” I cough and blood spurts into my sheet, “sir.” I can feel sweat beading on my forehead and drip down the side of my cheek. The summers in here are very humid and hot.

The man sits on the bed next to me and watches me as I have a coughing fit from the consumption.

“I am a grim reaper, Anna,” he says. “And I am here to give you a choice that very few of the dying get.”

I cough the words out. “What choice?”

The man sits closer to me on the bed I flinched away unwillingly and places his hand on my forehead. At his touch, my body calms and I stop coughing.

“I have been given my final reaping and after I make that reaping, I must name a successor to replace me. I have been watching you and I want to choose you as my successor. So, the choice you get is to be reaped and pass into the afterlife or become a reaper and gain a life of servitude for the god and goddess of the underworld.”

“What will happen if I choose to die?”

“I will take your soul from your body and take you to the angel of death, who in turn, will take you to Charon to pass over the river of Styx into the underworld where Hades will judge you and treat you accordingly on how you lived your life.”

I look at the man confused. “I have so many questions.”

“Do you want to live or die?” William asks.

“I am only 20 years old I have barely lived the life I have. Of course, I would want to live.”

I say determined and fearful.

The man smiles and bends over to kiss me on the forehead. He then grabs my and hand and squeezes hard. I start to convulse from the pain before I see something dark and black move from under his skin. It moves through the veins in his hand, into mine and then disappears. I feel my hand become warm before spreading up my arm and over my whole entire body. He lets go of me as my body changes from feverish to perfectly healthy. I sit up on the bed and look at the man with confusion and he smiles.

“All better?”

I nod and he holds his hand out for me to take. “What is your name?”

“My name is William and I have been a reaper for over 500 years.”

I stand and he looks at me up and down.

“It’s a shame.” He shakes his head and hands me a black rough spun dress to change into.

“What is a shame?”

“That I soon have to die, while you live on,” he answers. “It is a shame because you are a beautiful woman and I would love to court you.”

“Is that why you chose me?” I ask.

He nods. “Partially, yes…” He walks over to the desk and grabs my shoes and hands them to me. “…I chose you because regardless of this being a man’s world you don’t take any lip from anyone, and given the world today that is a strong attribute for a reaper.”

“What are we going to do now?” I ask.

“We are going to my last reap and afterwards you will then take my place.”

We walk out of the plantation house and into the cold morning air and mist. Normally I would already be cold, but I welcome it with the warmth that I am still feeling from when William grabbed my hand.

“The first thing you will learn is how to shadow jump,” he tells me leading me to the barn. We walk into the barn and he closes the door behind us. “Shadow jumping is the art of using shadows to move between planes to get through obstacles, like so.”

William walks into a shadow and disappears and reappears in a different shadow on the other side of the barn. To a normal person it would seem impossible and would probably call William a witch, but now that I am a reaper, I can see the possibility. I can understand that this is a necessity and I am excited to have this experience. He walks back to me and pulls me into a shadow. There is no middle ground when moving between shadows, the moment I entered the shadow I left it, but in a different place. When I look, we are in an old house, in a room with a man that is dying in his bed. Surrounding him are his family and friends who all seem to be crying and distraught. All accept a little girl standing by his bedside. The dying the man reaches up to caress her hair before leaning up to kiss her on the cheek. The little girl starts to cry and the man whispers something only she can here. She nods her head and the man rests his hand back on his chest.

I feel William place his hand on my shoulder and leans in. “Stay here and watch.”

William walks forward and lifts his hand to snap his finger all the while with his hand still on my shoulder. The room goes grey and he reaches out for me to walk forward.

“We are now in a different plane parallel to this one called the grey area,” he says grabbing my hand. “This is how we will reap the soul without being seen by the living, except those close to death.” He walks around the bed and William sits next to the man. The man looks at him and closes his eyes for the last ultimatum of this life. William places his hand on his chest and the man takes a deep breath before exhaling for the last time. William lifts his hand and between the man and William’s hand is a string of light. In this string of light, I can see how the man lived his life, all of his memories and pain all in a couple inches of pure delight, towards the end I can see the light get exceptionally weaker and almost disappear, I know this is his soul. William pulls the soul full from the body and throws it over the head of his family to materialize as a spirit. William stands to his feet and walks over to the soul before leading him to me. He grabs my hand and we shadow jump once more to an open field surrounded by trees.

“What are we doing here?” I ask.

“This is where you will reap my soul,” William tells her. “And this is where you will meet the angle of death to present your souls for him to take. He will be here every morning at dawn when the green flash happens before the sun comes up.”

“I feel drawn to this place.” I acknowledge.

“You should,” William says. “This is where we bring our harvested souls. This sanctuary, only the souls we harvest and other reapers are allowed in, other than the angel of death.”

“What is an angel of death?”

“They are kind of like a promotion, you can have a chance to become one if you perform well,” he answers with a smile.

William walks around in a circle with an excited smile and then to a large flat boulder. “And this is where my soul will be reaped by you.”

He lies down on the boulder. “Now is the time for you to become a full reaper, and don’t be afraid, everything you know now is by instinct.”

I look back at the soul who seems to be staring at the trees and then back at William. I walk to his side and kneel and I place my hand on his chest shakily with the word instinct pounding in my head. I then feel his soul attach to the tiny nerve tendrils in my hand. His soul is strong and hard to pull from him, but with some effort and patience I finally get the deed done.