NOVEL NEXT Chapter 4: An Old Threat
15 minutes later
Easily pulling the wagon with me, I joyfully marched all the way back to the village, past the unoccupied rows of houses, and up the hill leading to my house. I then pulled the wagon into the garage.
Then, I skipped up the stairs of the porch, until I reached the dark brown front door next to a window inside the living room a few feet to the right of the door.
I playfully swung the door open, only to see my father, Robert, with white skin, long blond hair, and brown eyes. He was in a black suit with a grey tie. And he was staring straight down at me, almost like he knew when I’d arrive.
“Where have you been son?” His voice was commanding, yet calm. Imposing, but emotionless.
“C-collecting water. L-like mom asked m-me to.”
“Mhm. Walk with me son.”
He turned around, and I followed him into the house, as we walked towards the sliding glass doors on the other side of the house.
“I’m not an idiot. I know you weren’t trying to deceive me… but I can clearly tell your mother is.”
“I-I… why w-would she do that?”
My father opened the door, waited for me to step through, and then closed it behind him, and we walked onto a brown, wooden porch, and down some stairs into a deck of the porch.
“Look,” he commanded.
So, I looked past the porch, having to rely on the space in between the bar-like columns holding up the railing instead of looking over the railing.
There was a massive crater, like a hole in the earth, stretching so far, I couldn’t see it’s end. It must’ve gone on for at least a hundred miles, if not a thousand.
“Wow…”
“Impressive, isn’t it? And to think, this is as old as the dinosaurs…”
“W-wait. Really?! Is whatever caused this what killed the dinosaurs?!”
“Surprisingly… no.”
I stared at my father, even more confused than when I asked my question, to which he looked at me and smiled.
“H-how are you so s-sure?”
My father stared at the crater, almost like he was repressing a tear… of happiness or sadness?
When I put my hand on his shoulder, he jolted around and said “I have a confession to make. I’ve been hiding this from you long enough.”
He stared into my innocent little eyes, but remained completely emotionless.
“I’m not what you think I am. Your mother knows who and what I am… but you don’t, yet. Here’s the thing… I’m not human. At all.”
“H-huh?”
“Truth is… I’m what’s called a Grim Reaper. A powerful being with the ability to control the dead of one universe of their own.”
“O-oh… I think I-I’ve heard about t-them, once or t-twice.”
“Perhaps,” Robert said, looking back at the crater as he crossed his arms behind his back.
“But even with knowledge of the myths and fairytales… you know next to nothing about our culture.”
“Grim Reapers share a dimension, in between the OmniVerse, where they normally reside. In that dimension, they have a king. Though, for all time, there’s only ever been two kings. Modsil… and Natam. Or Natas as his family calls him.”
“Along with shared powers between all Grim Reapers, each of them have a unique set of powers determined by two factors: Emotion, and Material. Each Grim Reaper controls at least one material and emotion.”
“A-alright… w-why are you telling m-me this?”
“Because… you’ll soon discover your powers. And I wanted to prepare you, so you are better able to control them when they appear.”
“O-okay… but w-what was that y-you were saying about my mother?”
My father coughed, mumbling “Right. That. That’s part of another thing I wanted to tell you.”
He took a deep breath, looked at me again, and kneeled down with a hurt, scared look on his face.
“But being a Grim reaper isn’t all that’s made up who I am. You see…”
He then tore open his shirt, revealing a large black Dahlia (symbolizing betrayal and sadness) flower birthmark in his chest, which was glowing bright enough to nearly blind me.
“When you get older… more connected with your emotions, you’ll start to hear voices. Two of them.. called Pemo and Raen. You are a reincarnation of them. As I am a reincarnation of Raen.”
“B-but?…”
“But… they were sons of Modsil, who got along perfectly. Until one day… to put a long story short, Raen is pure evil. Which makes the both of us evil.”
I looked down at the ground, ashamed.
“But… you’re different. You see, Pemo, on the other hand… is pure innocence. He’s purity personified… which might balance things out with you.”
“W-wait. Is Steve… a reincarnation of P-Pemo?”
Robert nodded, saying “Yes. Which makes him automatically good. But I… I was born to be evil. Which means me and him are destined to battle.”
“S-so… what does that m-make me?”
…
”F-father?”
“Even though I said it’ll balance things out… I unfortunately believe you’ll eventually turn evil. Cause evil is more often than not more powerful than good. Everything is corruptible as time goes on.”
…
“W-what do I do t-then?”
Father was silent for a bit, but after a while he told me “You’ll have to figure that out for yourself when you’re older. But at least both sides won’t start fighting for control until you become an adult.”
“B-by the way… w-what about m-mom? Is she a Grim R-Reaper as well?”
“No. She’s human. Which makes you part human as well.”
“O-Ok.”
…
I took a step back, but Robert clicked his tongue, saying “Just one last thing. My real name… it isn’t Robert.”
Time for the fun to begin…