"…You look quite ravishing." I then walk straight to the elevator in a hurry as I was dangerously approaching my limit. As I pressed on the button that would take me to the ground floor, just as the doors began to close….
"Hold the elevator!" a man shouts running towards me. He kept his right hand between the doors, right before they shut, and was able to make it inside.
"Get out!" I say to the man letting out some pressure. "Listen here buddy, there is more than enough…" the man tried to say, but then stopped midsentence. He was rendered incapable of breathing!
The atmosphere got heavy and sweat could vividly be seen all around his body. Fear was the only expression the man's face could make as he desperately tried to reopen the elevator door and get out.
The doors finally opened and he immediately raced out and fell to the floor gasping for air. As the doors closed once again I watched the man drown in despair as he began to cry.
I take off my shirt and scream in pain as Lilith opened a gateway beneath us. I land back at home in front of Azrael and release the dark cloud within my body.
The cloud rushed out of my mouth and eyes then completely consumed me. It continuously burnt off my flesh, revealing the bones beneath it. I stand up in my complete 7ft reaper form and face Azrael and his shadows as they knelt before me.
"Welcome back master," Azrael says still kneeling on the floor. "Wish I could just get used to that," I said still feeling the pain from before. "Have there been any improvements with the shadows from your previous journey?" I ask anxiously.
"Yes master, they have become more responsive and flexible to commands," Azrael replies immediately. 'So even they are capable of learning,' I thought to myself.
"Good, I have another task for you," I say as I looked up to the sky. "Do you know who Theós is?" I ask.
"Yes master, Theós is the architect of the whole system of before, between, and even after life and death. Thus, everything happens within Theós' plan. If it is not within Theós' plan then it cannot be done!" Azrael said with absolute certainty.
"That's right! I need to be able to resist the system that Theós has placed on all of us. To do that, I need to become stronger. The humans on this earth are not enough for me to meet my goal. So, I need you to search elsewhere," I said to Azrael with clenched fists then pointed to the sky.
"Master…I will complete this task and rush back to your side," Azrael says with enthusiasm. "Good, I have no particular direction I can send you to, but use what you have learned on this planet. It should give you an idea of where to start.
You are intangible just like me so, I doubt you will be in any danger. Once you have located a planet with living beings, hold your position! I shall come to you," I said then signaled them to leave with a brush of my hand.
Azrael then gets up alongside 40 low-grade shadows. He turns to them and glares at each of them deeply as though his gaze were words enough.
After a few moments, they began to pair up in twos. Each pair receiving different instructions and shooting to the sky right after. This went on until it was Azrael alone that was left with two low-grade shadows.
"Until we meet again master," he says to me as he bowed respectfully towards my direction. He then flew to the sky, alongside the two shadows, at near teleportation speed to the human eye. I watched them fly away till they were completely out of sight.
"Hey tailed Lilith…" I speak out.
"Yes, master…?" The tailed Lilith answererd.
"How comes I can't fly?" I asked curiously. "Of course you can. You're just an idiot," the tailed Lilith replied with, surprisingly, as if to mock me, a respectful tone.
I ignore her little comment and ask, "How?"
"We can bend the fabric of space and create gateways that can take us anywhere in an instant. There's really no point," she said. "Teach me," I commanded.
I didn't care if I could instantly get somewhere almost instantly. Flying seems like a fun activity. I'm not all aboout the work. I'm death, but I'm still alive.
…
"This is an active crime scene please step back!" A young police officer warned as he stopped the approach of a slim looking man with his hand. "Get your hand off of me before I break it!" the slim man commanded.
Feeling threatened by the slim man's words, the young officer attempted to reach for his gun, but was stopped by a detective before he could pull it out.
"Do you have any idea who you almost pointed your gun to? That's Moonlight! Engrave this name in your pea sized mind you oaf," the detective said in a harsh tone, then turned to face the slim man.
"I am truly sorry if this underlying offended you. He is still new and doesn't know how things work around here yet. Please forgive him," the detective said with haste not daring to look Moonlight in the eyes.
The Fool's Gang are known for their extreme brutality. Crossing one of them would keep you in danger and everyone you have contacted may be at risk too. However, crossing Moonlight means certain death!
"Forget it, I have more important matters to deal with," he said then walked towards what used to be Club Rumors. The detective, feeling relieved, soon followed.
Moonlight stepped inside the burnt down building and was met with a horrific sight. Burnt body parts, hands, and legs could be seen all around the room. Too scorched to even be identified by the naked eye.
"I shouldn't have left you here Joey," Moonlight silently whispered to himself in regret as he kept searching around the room. "Do you have any leads on the person that did this?" Moonlight asks.
"Not yet. Because of this fire, there is almost no evidence of a man walking out of this alive," the detective said. Moonlight then walked out of the burnt room and examined the doors laying on the floor outside.
The detective took note of Moonlights intrest on the doors and began to say, "The doors were blown off their hinges. Most likely from the gas explosion from the inside.
Moonlight then remembered the guy that told them that absurd story had said he was thrown through the doors.
He then noticed a piece of a price tag stuck on the door. Half of it had probably succumbed to the flames. On the tag was written, JEFF's.
Moonlight then also remembered how Arnold said the man had pieces of clothing burning off around his body. However, what stood out about this price tag was that its burnt edges were not burnt like everything else. It actually looked aged, old and wrinkled.
'None of my guys buy from JEFF's, its not their style. This must have belonged to him! He actually came with a price tag?' Moonlight went into thought.
"Detective, has there been any reports of theft at JEFF's?" Moonlight asked. "Yes actually. Just last night, someone broke into the store and stole nothing but a tuxedo. We were able to get the man's face on camera, but are still working on identifying it," the detective said.
"Show me that footage!" Moonlight says with a serious tone. The detective then ran with great haste in order to accomplish the task that was given to him. For the next hour, Moonlight made preparations to have the corpses cleaned out of the crime scene. An hour later, the detective finally showed up with the security tape on hand.
"You made me wait. A minute more and I would have actually been upset," Moonlight said as they walked towards the back of a police van in order to view the tape. The contents within the tape show a man clearly walking naked into the store, but there was no accomplice with him as Arnold had mentioned.
"What the-! Is the time shown on this tape accurate?" Moonlight asks in shock. "Yes, I retrieved this myself. No one has tampered with it," the detective answered with confidence.
"This can't be right. This is around the same time he walked into the club. JEFF's is all the way in Severn Ave, which is 13 miles away. How could anyone cover such a distance in just a span of a few minutes?" Moonlight asks himself with a look of disbelief.
"Could they be different people?" The detective asks trying to make sense of it as well. "No, this is the same man I saw in the club. No doubt about it, but it also can't be!
He must have tampered with the footage before hand for the purpose of an alibi. That's the only reasonable explanation. He must have gone to the club last night expecting no one to see his face and leave alive.
The bastard is quite careful, but not careful enough. I have seen his face, and now, he is a dead man!" Moonlight says with an unwavering confidence in himself.
"Find out who this man is and where he came from?" Moonlight orders the detective.
…
*1 week later*
(Achoo!)
"This took longer than expected, but I finally got the hang of it," I say to the Tailed Lilith after a hearty sneeze. We were both levitating 10 feet from the ground. "You've been sneezing a lot this past week. That's not normal," the tailed Lilith says.
"It's fine. That just means there's a beautiful lady out there that can't get me out of her mind," I say with my chest out and my nose held up high.
I then controlled the dark cloud within me, to fly even higher. Feeling the wind blow on my face as I flew higher and higher was an exhilerating experience. Never had I ever felt so alive.
The dark cloud seemed to be the source of all my newfound abilities. Even when it came to flying. In my reaper form, all I had to do is control the cloud around my body with a thought and I would move whichever direction I chose.
In my human form however, I had to manipulate the dark cloud within my body as a force of energy to lift me up towards whatever direction I commanded it to.
Flying felt unnatural in this form. It required me to use more force and reduced my already limited time as a human.
A light smoke also arose from my body during flight, as though the dark cloud was burning me from within. It looked quite menacing. Luckily, it happened ever so slowly.
"I managed to learn how to fly," I say with obvious excitement. "Now, I believe we've given Anna enough time to meet my demands. Time to pay her another visit," I say expectantly.
I then flew back down to the ground, alongside the tailed Lilith, then went into the house. I took the dark cloud within my body and concentrated it on my back.
I quickly picked out some black jeans and a dark blue, long sleeved shirt from my father's closet to clothe myself. Lastly, I wore a white pair of rubbers and was finally ready to set off.
'I can't keep losing clothes every time I change back to my reaper form. I need to be more careful,' I thought to myself. "Tailed Lilith, open a gateway back to New York, it's time to collect," I say with a huge grin on my face.