Apparently, getting a minute to myself, meant having my sister and her crazy fucking friend following after me and asking a million and a half questions.
"How come you're so tall now?" Jazzy asked. "And why do you have pointy ears?"
"What's with the eyes? I mean, I like them personally, but I'm just wondering." Tabitha says as she tugs at the back of my shirt. I glare over my shoulder at her and she shrinks away. I shake my head at the weird look in her eye, like she enjoyed me glaring at her.
This was not the girl I gave my life up for, that much was becoming more and more clear to me.
"Your little friends didn't tell you guys everything, did they?" I grunt as I stop at the edge of a small stream, which trickles with glittery, light blue water.
"They said they didn't know how you guys ended up looking the way you do." Jazzy says.
"Then I think I'll keep the secret to myself." I mutter as I uncap the small soul jar as my eyes land on a cluster of what look like frog eggs. The soul wiggle's itself out of the jar, and lands in the water, swimming towards the clump of eggs and disappearing after a moment.
"What was that?" I hear Jazzy asking.
"That was a human soul being placed in its new body. This one had a hard life, and an even harder death." I turn to glare at both girls, who shrink away under my judgmental gaze. I had never been the lecturing type, especially not towards Jazzy. She was my sister, not my child, so I never felt the need to guide her or teach her life lessons. But now I couldn't stop the irritation in my tone at knowing she did what she did.
"I mean you," I point towards Tabitha as my anger reaches it's peak, "I fucking died for you. I died because you seemed nice, and innocent, and sweet. You seemed like you didn't deserve to bleed out in the streets. And what do you do with that favor?" I ask angrily, stepping forward to glare down at her. She looks a little nervous now, at least. "You manipulate my fucking sister into murdering people to see me again. Why the fuck would you think that's a good idea?"
"It wasn't all her fault." Jazzy says. I turned on her then.
"Oh, I'm sure it wasn't. Because you're a grown ass fucking woman, and you can make your own choices. And I'm disgusted at the choice you made." I glare at her as tears fill her eyes. "Don't do that. Don't act like you aren't a murderer, Jasmine." She flinches at the use of her real name, something I only did when I was particularly irritated with her. "I don't know how many lives you've taken so far, but I know for sure you've helped in taking at least this one." My chest huffs up and down as I lecture her. I know I'm being harsh, but I can't just act like what she's been doing is okay. "I died, okay? That should have been it. I'm sorry I went to my apartment that day, it was a mistake, and I hold part of the blame for you going off the deep end. But you should've known better. You should've had enough common fucking sense to know this was a stupid god damn move." I shake my head and turn away, taking deep breaths.
"I'm sorry…" I hear her mutter. I huff and pull my weapon out of my pocket. "We need to go talk to someone. I can't figure this shit out on my own. You're both coming with me." I say as I let my scythe free and open a portal with it to the entrance of Sumerian. I step back and gesture for them to walk through it, not looking at either as they slink past me sheepishly.
"Move." I huff as the portal closes behind me. Both girls move aside quickly, and I stand in front of where I can feel the human entrance is located. I reach a hand up and push my thumb against one of my sharp teeth, using the blood to draw the image Aster had taught me a few years ago. He said in case there was even a reason I couldn't portal right in, like now, when I had humans in tow. It was like protection, I guess. Only a pure-blooded Reaper could portal directly into our hideout. I had wondered before who we would need protection from, but I was beginning to wonder if there was something to these portal jumper idiots my sister was talking about. Aster hadn't mentioned them to me, but I was still pretty young for a Reaper. There was a good chance there was still a lot I didn't know.
"Go on." I tilt my head towards the appearing staircase that descends into the earth. They both eye it nervously, and I wait patiently for Jazzy to make the first move towards it. I wait for both girls to start walking down before I follow after.
While we descend the stairs, Tabitha glances over her shoulder at me, and I scowl down at her. She quickly snaps back around, facing forward. I don't like her very much right now, and I'm upset she knows my name. I was hoping to avoid a human ever learning it, to be honest. I can already tell by the way she's been looking at me she's feeling the obsession Aster had mentioned before, and I worry it will just get worse the longer I spend around her. I want to get this shit sorted out as quickly as possible so I can send these two on their way to live normal lives.
We reach the bottom after ten long, silent minutes, with just the sound of our footsteps echoing down.
I lead them to the meeting hall, where the giant table and all the chairs are. "Wait here." I instruct, pointing to the chairs. They listen, sitting and staring at the ground like children in time out.
I shake my head a little as I take off to where I know Aster is. I had to tell him about one of us being taken by the Portal Hoppers, so we could start trying to figure out who the hell it was.
That was my main concern, to be honest. Getting my brother out of these people's clutches.