"I guess the best place to start is at the beginning. Not the beginning for Reaper and me but Reaper's beginning. He was born a thousand years before Christ. He was brought up to be a warrior, an assassin of sorts. When it came time for him to die, he tore his soul from his body freeing himself of his mortal coil and ensuring his eternal existence.
He was not the only warrior to do this. These unattached souls became known as The Fallen. The Fallen are the souls of people, who's time on earth would never expire; however, they are not able to retain a physical body. The Fallen are not quite ghosts but not living either but the soul would gain great physical power based on their actions in life. Good, honest people would be granted powers of valor and virtue and evil people would be bestowed powers of darkness and chaos.
Reaper is the name I gave him because our first encounter ended with my very essence being drained from my body so he could control it. But he didn't expect my mind to be so strong and in the end I regained control of my body, acquired Reaper's power and forced him to take a back seat in the depths of my psyche. Unlike most people with other personalities, Reaper is a completely different person with no ties to me and my family. His thoughts reside in my mind but they are his own.
Things became complicated once we were merged when a shadow from Reaper's past took someone very dear to me. This shadow had been searching for Reaper for centuries. Angel, she called herself.
In life Angel and Reaper were lovers but Reaper's ascension to The Fallen separated them. They were once inseparable and deeply in love with each other but since the ascension Reaper has had no memory of his love or the life they shared together. This was betrayal in Angels eyes and retribution now clouds her feelings as well. Now Reaper is focused on me. He wants to teach me everything of his history and The Fallen. He is here to guard something he believes to be special. He guards me, the only other to ever call him a friend. . . ."
True Geist
Heaven and Hell
Heaven and Hell
Chapter 1: Putting Out Fires
Rivell's House
8:00AM Thursday
The morning was quiet and calm. The sun was peaking through the trees and had slowly fought its way into bedroom windows.
. . . for your morning traffic report, there's a wreck on I-30. Wreckers are on site but traffic has been brought to a stand-still. Alternate commutes are recommended. . . .
Rivell's mom, Roana entered the bedroom to find her son sleeping soundly despite the sound of the alarm radio. She approached the bed and turned off the alarm.
"Rivell, get up! I swear. Every morning it's the same with you, now get up before you're late for school."
Rivell rolls over and slightly opened an eye, a weak attempt to comply to his mothers request. After picking up some discarded clothing Roana exited the room. Rivell rolled on his back and looked at the ceiling. After a moment he threw his blankets off and walked to his dresser for his uniform. He threw the slacks and shirt on then makes a sloppy attempt to fix his tie. He didn't bother to tuck in his shirt. After a quick glance at the mirror he shook his hand through his hair and headed out the door.
Downstairs, Roana was preparing some bacon on the stove top. Noticing her son walking past towards the backdoor, she turns while wiping her hands with a towel.
"At least take some fruit with you.", she said, "You have a bad habit of skipping breakfast."
Rivell stoped in his tracks and with out looking grabed an apple off the counter.
"I know, mom." he said and with a quick smile he grabed his jacket off the coat rack and headed out the door.
Roana shook her head and walked over to the high chair where a small toddler looked on bewildered by amount of action so early in the morning. Raona picked the child, Cibil up.
"What are we going to do with him, See.", she said to Cibil who returned with a giggle before making a swift attempt to yank her mothers hair.
Rivell raced down the street on his bicycle, dodging traffic and pedestrians as he goes.
Rivell recalled a brief conversation with his home room teacher about his tardy frequency.
Rivell cut through a clear alley way and started pedaling heavily to make up time. Trash cans and boxes blurred by and with luck or skill Rivell approached the other side of the alley. Rivell can see nothing in the space between the two buildings because of the rising sun. As he approached a shadow moved across his path. His quickest reaction to avoid the sudden obstacle caused Rivell to collide with a small metal trash can and then a pile of cardboard where he stopped.
Oh my god, Are you crazy?!", a young girl ran up to the pile of boxes. Rivell managed to push the boxes off of him and looked up at the girl.
Rivell shook his head and checked himself, "What in the world just happened?"
"Rivell, is that you?"
"Yeah it's me, listen you got a lot of nerve just jumping out like th. . ." Rivell stood up and quickly approached the girl. He quickly realized who he's talking to. "Oh, it's you Irena, ha, ha."
"You're the one who's got a lot of nerve, Rivell. Scaring the crap out of me like that. Here I was walking to school and you come flying out of the alley, you idiot." Irena sighed, "Well are you ok?"
"Yeah I'm fine. It'll take more than a sidewalk to the skull to hurt me."
"Good, that means you can walk me to school, right?"
"Sorry Irena, you know I'd love to but. . .
Irena threw a cold glare at Rivell, "But, what?"
"Um. . . but I'm late for school so you'll just have to ride with me." With a toothy grin Rivell stood up his bike and after bending the handlebars straight he threw his leg over the seat and offered a hand to Irena.
Irena hid a chuckle and said, " I'm not sure you can accommodate yourself let alone two people." As she spoke Rivell's back tire slid off and Rivell slamed down breaking the seat off. Rivell slid off the bike and sat on the ground. "Man, so much for that. Summer school here I come.” After a pause he said, “You're going to be late too, Irena."
"Yes but unlike you I don't make a habit out of it, come on lets go."
"Alright." Rivell accepted Irena's outstretched hand and stood up. Irena then smiled at Rivell and swiftly clutched his arm closely. "Lets go."
Cutter Star High
Rivell slowly closed the door to his home room, relieved to see the instructor diverted to the board. While making a sneaky attempt to reach his seat he was berated by his teacher.
"Mr. Kelly, so good of you to join us. Perhaps you would like to solve the equation at the board since you didn't feel it necessary to attend the beginning of the lesson." Rivell just stood there with a ‘deer in the headlights' expression and maked a quick glance at his seat next to him.
The instructor turned back towards the board and sighs, "Take a seat Mr. Kelly."
The instructor resumed his lecture Rivell released a sigh of relief.
"By the way I believe that makes tardy number five, Mr. Kelly." The instructor said while muffled sounds of girls giggling and boys making noises and jokes bouncd through the room. Rivell just sank into his seat.
Hours later the afternoon bell for lunch sounded and Rivell made his way to the cafeteria. After grabbing the daily burger platter Rivell sat at his favorite table near a window. After a moment a tray dropped on the table in front of him. A short boy with curly hair and glasses sat at the table, adjusted his frames and turned to Rivell.
"Dude where were you last night. I downloaded a patch to Universe of Battle. It came with a killer quest package. We could have dominated them in Co-op mode. Now my thief is way stronger than your paladin.", the younger boy says
"Duane, what's up? Sorry man, I had to babysit See last night. I couldn't really find time to log on. That little girl is a hand full. Mom should have never taught her to walk. Besides my paladin is already maxed out so I haven't been playing much anyways."
"You're missing out my friend." Duane said before popping a tater tot in his mouth. With his mouth full he continued "Irena told me you almost ran her over this morning."
"Yeah I was trying to make time and she walked out in front of me.", Rivell said. "I was able to get out of the way, but my bike was completely thrashed."
"Shame you missed." Duane returned while taking a sip of his soda.
The pair was interrupted as Irena approached. "Your just mad that dad is giving me the car this weekend, and your stuck in the house." Irena sat in the chair next to Rivell and started to pull lunch items out the girly lunch box she was carrying.
"Damn straight. It's not every day that Comic-Conaganza is in town and Im stuck at home playing video games while your off making out with Rivell in the back of the Ten-iplex."
Irena blushed almost instantly and Rivell responded with a smirk, "Would you like it if we took you to ComicConaganza and made out there?"
"No thanks, it's already weird enough to be best friends with my sister's boyfriend let alone hanging out with you both in public. I'll just watch it on TV."
"Suit yourself" Rivell said, then he casually slid his chair closer to Irena and slid himself down into his chair to get comfortable for the remainder of the lunch period. Irena, who by now had finished eating and was reading a book, nestled herself into Rivell’s shoulder and resumed reading her book. Duane lets out a slight grunt in disapproval of the pair and turned away. He pulled a chair out with his foot and threw a leg up, resting it in the chair. After, he produced a small handheld video game and was soon lost in game land.
The final bell for the day sounded and students rushed the main doors to scramble to buses, bikes, and sidewalks. After the crowd thined out, Rivell walked, hands in his pockets, down the steps and began walking to his right.
Rivell looked up and saw a bird swoop down next to Rivell’s head. The bird then shot up and disappeared from Rivell’s sight.
The bird soared through the clouds and soon descended, landing on a flag pole. The bird immediately begins cautiously cleaning its feathers. A sudden shock shook the pole and the bird flew away.
“Ah come on guys. Lets not do this today.”, Duane was standing against the pole with his hands tied behind his back.
“What do you mean, Doo-ane? This pole has no flag so we need to give it one. What do you think, Brucie?”
“It would be unpatriotic not to, right Alex?”, the large Bruce said, with a labored southern draw.
“That’s right, we’re just doing our patriotic duty.” Alex replied, with a narrow grin aimed at the squirming Duane. “ If you don’t fight back we won’t have to put it a half-staff.”
And with that statement Bruce hooked the rope to Duane’s undershorts, grabed the pulley rope and began to hoist Duane into the air. Almost immediately Duane’s yelps and yells were drowned out by Brucie’s guffaw and Alex’s enjoyed sadistic laugh.
Suddenly there was a tap on Alex’s shoulder. Alex whirls around only to catch a fist across the jaw. The blow causes Alex to stagger. Rivell turns toward Brucie. Brucie quickly tieed off the ropes to keep Duane in the air and tried to grab at Rivell. He wass too slow to catch Rivell who had already ducked and slamed an elbow into the enornous gut of Brucie. As Bruce fell down Rivell used his momentum to spring up and land an almost outlandish spin kick which connected with the approaching Alex on the other side of his chin, sending him against a near by chainlink fence. Bouncing of the fence from the recoil, Alex was grabbed and thrown into the now standing Bruce’s gut. The pair fell to the ground and remained there racked with pain. With a sigh of release Rivell grabed the pulley rope and slowly let Duane down.
“Man am I glad to see you.” Duane exclaimed.
“Come on lets get out of here. I got the jump on them this time. They may not go down so easy next time.”, Rivell returned with a gesture that they should head towards the quarry.
