This was not what I wanted to be doing right now.
I was currently squatted on the edge of a building, next to a man babbling to himself about how worthless he was. He was staring down at the hard ground hundreds of feet below, telling himself it would all be over soon. As usual he can't see me, since I'm the Reaper waiting around to snatch his soul.
He's been doing this for ten minutes now, and according to my timeline, he has a whole fifteen more minutes of spiraling to go.
Usually I'd be listening, figuring out what kind of person he was. What it was that made him decide killing himself was the only way out. But I was a bit distracted with my own selfish problems right now.
After Aster had told us that Tabitha was gone, all the Reapers still hanging around had gotten together.
Immediately everyone had started talking at the exact same time. Everyone was worried, worried how a human had gotten out under their noses. And more than that, worried she hadn't gotten out by herself, rather someone else had come in and taken her out. That was even more concerning, because it meant our homebase was compromised, and that put us all on edge.
Aster had said him and a few of us were going to search the area, see if we could find any clues. He had been going to take York and I, when Jaskier had shown back up from his reaping job, which meant it was my turn to go out into the field while the others stayed behind.
I had been a little short with Aster when I asked to skip out, and he had said this was still our main job and it had to be completed, no matter what. I would have to apologize later. He was right, and I knew it, I was just irritated.
I sigh and glance over at the guy. He was sobbing, clutching a photo of his dead wife to his chest. It should have been heartbreaking, should have made me at least feel sorry for him.
I just wanted to get back though. I want to figure out what's going on, I want to help find Henry.
As I'm sitting there, pouting like a little kid, something on the rooftop of the building across from the one I was one catches my eye. I furrow my brow, standing up from the crouch I'd been in.
What is that? It's shiny, like glass catching a ray of sunlight. I glanced up at the dark night sky, my eyes landing on a low flying, passing hospital helicopter that was headed for a heli-pad a couple miles behind where I was. It seems like something on a rooftop had caught one of the beams of light coming off it.
The suicidal man's slightly manic voice fades into the background as I stand on the edge of the building, tilting my head to the side as I try to figure out what I was looking at. I don't know why the reflection caught my attention, but it definitely did. Something in my gut was telling me to figure out what it was, not to ignore it.
"Go." My blood runs cold as the shine stops, and I can finally make out what it was I was looking at.
There's a man lying flat on his belly on the rooftop, wearing a black skull cap and all black gear. The only reason I can even make him out is because of my Reaper vision. He has a pair of sunglasses resting on top of his head, most likely what caught the light from the helicopter in the first place. My advanced hearing lets me hear the staticky voice talking to him, I assume through an earpiece of some kind. I can even make out what kind of gun he's pointing at me; it's a CheyTacM200 Intervention. He's upgraded the scope to a Trijicon Reap-ir. Who the fuck was this guy? His gun alone costs more than a brand new car.
His gun, that I could see he was currently pulling the trigger on, and its aim was fixed on none other than wide open me.
I do the only thing I have time to do, which is fall forward off the top of the building.
Though the building I'd been on was tall and had many stories, the fall to the ground was still nothing like in the movies. You know, where it seems like they just keep falling and falling for ten minutes.
I hadn't even blinked yet, and the ground was already closing in on me. My mind went blank as I reached for my weapon, snapping it open and using the scythe to slice a portal back up to the top of the building I'd just jumped off.
I feel the air leaving my lungs as I fall through the portal, and land on my back on the concrete roof.
"Fuck." I wheeze, squeezing my eyes shut and grabbing at my chest. Falling through the portal had definitely softened the blow a little, but I still felt that. A lot.
I sit up, looking around. The suicidal guy I was here for was crouched down behind the four-foot-high ledge of the roof, his eyes squeezed shut as he covered the top of his head with his hands. I could see where the bullet had ended up hitting, the door to the entrance to the rooftop. There was a softball sized hole in it, the edges dripping with toxic looking blue goo. It reminded me of those blue orbs I'd seen the first group of Portal Chodes playing with.
There was no way this was a coincidence.
I glance back at the guy, raising an eyebrow at him. It was kind of ironic, how he was hiding when he'd just been about to jump off the roof on his own.
Suddenly the door to the rooftop with the new hole in it burst open, and the guy from the other rooftop comes stomping out, pointing a sub machine gun directly at me.
"Oh, what the fuck." I mutter under my breath.
"Reaper." I hear the man breathe, and suddenly he's letting bullets fly, and I'm having to duck and run as fast as I can to try and avoid ending up like that door he'd just shot through.
Okay. He clearly knew I was a Reaper, and he was here to either kill or seriously injury me, probably to take me just like they'd done with Henry. If he'd had to deal with this bullet happy jackass too, I could see why he'd gotten snagged. Even I was getting a little worried about this match up.
The all-black wearing man who was grinning as he sprayed the rooftop with bullets had a look in his eyes, one I was all too familiar.
He wanted blood. And he wanted mine.
Badly.