Chapter 2

Azriel

She was different. Different like the sun and the moon, the stars and the flowers of this . . . Land. Staring through the window of her room, she looked him right in the eyes. Nothing could stop him from looking at her forever until her curtains flourished closed. She was gone, behind a fortress of closed doors and locked gates. But not for long.

⚜


Through the glass, she didn't know, but Ivy had some idea, that the boy had been waiting for her to look out her window the entire time. No. Turn around now, her Reaper growled in her head. Neither person moved, only the rushing wind carrying the fallen leaves passed their eyes. Until the window curtains blew shut. Ivy looked bluntly at her Reaper, it's skeletal fingers falling away from the edge of the curtain.

"Stay away from him," it murmured, warping through the far wall, away from the boy. That's what I was going to do, Ivy thought to herself. She could have sworn she felt her Reaper snicker from the other side of the wall.

"Go do the dishes!" She hollered down the hall, the tip of a black cloak already disappearing into the kitchen as she swung herself through the door, her arm latching into the frame.

Ivy wasn't exactly sure if Reapers existed to do dishes, but on occasion, it listened and did some chores for her.

"Are you getting your Reaper yo do dishes for you again? That's not fair! HEY! I SEE THOSE DISHES FLOAT! DO THEM YOURSELF, SIS!!" Avery yelled, glaring at the floating plate and sponge rubbing it clean.

"It was bored," Ivy replied simply, just imagining the scene unfolding downstairs. She wouldn't know what it was like to see floating dishes, being washed by invisible hands, because she could always see her Reaper doing them. Ever since that day, her life had been like this.

I'm going to bed, Ivy mentally told her Reaper, slipping into her bed. Watch out for that boy. Don't go near him, was all it said before Ivy was left by herself. Alone with her, her thoughts, and the boy.

⚜

Ivy had school on Monday, but she still felt so unprepared for it. Every week, every second of her life, it has been like this. Knowing something was coming, and still not ready.

"Ivy, dear, your father and I won't be home this month. Take care of Avery, please," said Ivy's mother�"foster mother.

"Of course," she said, just like every time they went away. As contractors, Ivy's foster parents were away from home often.

Her scarce memories of her birth parents were vague. She was told that they had died in a crash. A freak accident, the government officials had called it. Avery hadn't even been two at the time, Ivy five. So she didn't remember much. Ivy remembered more. And it all vividly flashed violet in her mind.

Without another word, Ivy stepped out the door. Merely a glance at where the boy had been standing under her window, nights before, her walk to school was peaceful. As peaceful being surrounded by wisping black cloaks that nobody else could see. And on seldom occasion, she would mutter a few words to her friends of Death. And on that seldom occasion, there would always be people watching her.

From her school or not, Ivy passed by several people every day. All whispering about her friends of the dead. And if someone ever built up the courage to even talk to her, she'd tear it down.

"So? How about it? It's just a date at the amusement park. Nothing wrong, right?"

And sometimes, people just didn't understand, that she wanted to be left alone.

"No."

That's was what she constantly told them. Asking her out to somewhere with lots of people, only to prank her and make her a hideous laughing stalk.

Walking away, the boy Ivy didn't know the name of reached out to grab her hand, before he retched in pain.

A slight, perfect cut slit on his wrist.

Towering above him, his own Reaper hovered. It's glistening black scythe in its hand of bone, poised for the next cut.

"The hell!?! What're you doing?!?" He shrieked, gripping his bloodied arm to his chest. The white of his shirt blossomed into a garden of red.

"Don't kill him. Not yet," Ivy commanded his Reaper. She already knew, though, that she would never have told any of her Reapers to kill anyone. That was their job for when the time was right. It was not something for her to decide. And even if she hadn't said that, the Reaper would have backed off. Ivy just didn't want anyone else going around her, thinking she was anything like a plaything.

Nobody touched her the rest of the way, and nobody approached her the rest of the day. The teachers trembled as they walked towards her desk with work, and students vaulted desks and people to get away from her.

Yes. That's right. I'm Wraith.

⚜

He'd never seen anyone do that. Not in his short lifetime. Reapers had roamed the earth�"the universe�"from the day it was born. To take death, no. But to bring peoples' passed souls to him were their jobs. And these humans still did not understand that. Reapers had no master besides Death himself. They were not one to be commanded.

No even Time herself�"in all her splendor�"could command her own lover.

⚜

Lunch had been as it had been for years. And no violet-eyed boy in sight. But Ivy couldn't help but think he were there all the same.

Is the guy here? She asked her Reaper, twirling a fallen leaf in her fingers. Yes, it said. Her eyes roved over the roof again. Not on the roof. He's watching you. That tree, it thought as it pointed its finger at a tree below in the schoolyard. Looking down at the tree her Reaper had pointed out, there in its branches covered in the same leaves Ivy was fidgeting with, the boy was perched on its thickest branch.

What's he doing there? She demanded, though already knowing the answer. Watching you, obviously. If the Reaper had eyes in its empty sockets, it and Ivy would have rolled them together.

Bell is about to ring. I'm going to class, Ivy checked her wristwatch. Flinging her ebony hair over her shoulder, she eyed the stairs suspiciously. That was where she had found the boy last time, after all. But he was down in the tree, so he couldn't have been there.

There's no one there, you paranoid airhead, it snickered in her head. I'm not buying apples. As though gasping, her Reaper feigned offence, it's hand going to its chest. Oh! My heart yearns for apples! It rasped sarcastically.

You don't have a heart.

Of course, I do, your weirdo eyes just can't see it.

Ivy giggled lightly at her Reaper, taking the steps carefully on her way down, emerging in the bustling hallway.

"Hey, watch where you're going!"

Of all the people�" Ivy rolled her eyes so far, she could have seen the back of head.

"Hey, don't you dare walk away! Apologize to me!" The girl screeched again. Ivy turned to the girl she had just brushed by, tilting her head the slightest bit down, and began walking away.

The girl, Carabel, was her name? Made a loud noise of disgust.

"Don't mind her, she doesn't know her place," she seemed to croon to somebody. Deciding she didn't want to know who she was talking to, Ivy stalked away calmly.

"I told you, don't touch me," a voice hissed back.

"Oh, but, Az-dear, why?" Carabel purred again.

Before she could round the corner, Ivy felt someone grab her wrist.

"Apologize to her. And don't call me that."

Apologize to Carebel? Not in this life. Before Ivy could say anything, Carebel screeched again.

"What? Why should I apologize to her, Az-dear ?!" Carabel hissed in disgust.

"Because you were being rude to her. And don't call me that."

Ivy's eyes flicker the slightest bit. Apologize to her? As if. This whole situation was starting to piss her off now. Ivy's face couldn't block the annoyance that must have leaked her her face.

"Let me go."

Carabel shuddered, backing away. By this time, Ivy had finally gotten a good look at the person holding her wrist captive, and his is violet eyes showed no mercy.

⚜

"Do you not want an apology?" He asked her, as if he knew her. Ivy was surprised he wasn't already running away.

"She won't give one."

Carabel would never give in. Unless, of course, her Reaper decided to get involved. She tried to pull her arm from his grip, but he still didn't let go. Ivy had never been held like the boy did her. It was like an unspoken rule. Don't touch the Wraith.

"Let me go," Ivy repeated, and the boy threw her arm at her. Flicking his dark hair with a tsk, he ripped his own arm away from Carabel's arms.

"And you�"" he pointed at Carabel, "�"stay away from me." Snarling, he stalked away. The crowd of students that Ivy had no idea had gathered, dispersed from his way.

"It's your fault he doesn't like me now!" Carabel shrilled, her perfectly manicured nail stabbed in Ivy's face.

Who. Was. The. Boy, Ivy demanded angrily at her Reaper, watching the scene with what could have been an amused face. Don't know, it shrugged, walking through the wall to it's left.

Find something. I will not have a random boy stalking me home and 'standing up for me' out of the blue. Ivy waited for a response, and seconds passed. Fine.

There was nobody in the hallway anymore, save for the few watching her from around the corner. Done talking with her Reaper, Ivy went to grab her bag from her last class. It hadn't even moved when Ivy got to the desk she'd left her bag at. Maybe because of the Reapers she had found to be her classmates', surrounding the desk in a swarm.

"Someone left a note," one of them pointed at an orange sticky note, slapped sloppily on the surface of her desk.

Who left it? She asked the mass of cloaked-black.

A boy. About your age, black hair, a bit taller than you, oh! And purple eyes!

Ivy paused. Her hand hovering over the strap of her bag.

Purple eyes?

Yes! And I don't know what he was mad about, but he glared at us all as if he could see us!

Another odd comment. Nobody could see all the Reapers except for Ivy. Not unless there was someone else like her.

Impossible. I'm the only one who can see you guys, Ivy soothe. The first time Ivy had seen them all, she'd only just lost her parents. They'd all been startled at the time. Ivy supposed it was because they hadn't ever spoken with a human before. After all, she was the only one of her kind, right?

Quickly, she glazed over the note. 'Meet with me after school at the bus stop'. Ivy let loose a heave of anxiety. Being trailed and possibly stalked by the new kid in school, wasn't exactly her idea of a good college life. From what Carabel had called him, Az-dear, it was probably a pretty weird name. What kind of name would start with, Az? She asked her ever so wise Reaper.

What about Azriel? It offered simply. How did you think of that? Ivy asked suspicious. Not just anyone would come up with a name like that right off the bat. But, of course, what did she know? First, there was her, a regular seventeen-year-old girl, and a supernatural being that's lived for thousands of years.

Met someone by the name before, it supplied, giving nothing away. Ivy snorted to herself. Her Reaper never told the truth unless it benefited it in some way. Though what it was telling her could be another one of its half-truths. Like always.

"Don't you have an open-heart surgery lab to get to?" Her Reaper reminded her. D****t! She thought back to it, starting her sprint down the hall to her locker in the far main part of the college building.

⚜

The medical lab that Ivy took her medical courses was right down the hallway of her locker, making it easier to get to compared to her other classes. The screaming of the bell prompt Ivy to quicken her pace, her ripped black backpack bumped against her back as she ran. The shriek of the bell sounded again just as Ivy stepped into the class.

"A-ah, Miss Sime, you're just in time, please�"please head to your station."

Dr. Davis stuttered, waving her hand in the general direction of an empty lab table. Though Ivy was still a student, her professors' junior, all her teachers were still afraid of her. A wolf in sheep's skin, they'd describe her. She looks perfectly normal, but inside she's a demon, they'd taunt. Be it a teacher, or student, it was always the same. The only solstice she had, was when she was home, talking to Avery.

Speaking of which, Avery has a talent show performance tonight, Ivy reminded herself mentally, her shoes clacking against the sanitized and polished floor. She pulled her black tresses back into a ponytail, out of the way of her work. Sliding her jade bracelet off her pale skin, Ivy set her things in her bag and pulled others out.

"As mentioned last class, we'll continue our hands-on operation of Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting."

More information that Ivy had already known. Told of what they were doing next class, she'd signed out several books on Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting, in hopes that she would stay top of the class throughout the year.

Her class couldn't have passed quicker, to which she was the first to leave. Her hands scrubbed raw with soap and hard water, she rubbed her pink skin, covered in rubber surgeon gloves for the past hour or so.

Time to go home yet? It asked, clearly impatient to get home today. What's the rush? She asked, casually strolling back to her locker. Though her face remained stoic, Ivy was smiling in her mind. People mostly saw her as a gloomy, dreadful girl, but she really just didn't want to be lonely. But of course, nobody would hang out with a witch.

"Come."

Ivy beckoned her Reaper with said words aloud. There were some more students loitering in the hallway near her locker, and she didn't feel like dealing with them at the moment. Or ever.

Swaying lies, and masked half-truths. That was what Ivy had fed her fellow med-students for years. Wraith, lucky as a black cat. Ivy was probably the only one in the world who could talk to her Reaper in the way she did. Maybe someone else could speak with them, but in spirit and mind, she was special.

Was what she'd like to believe.

Throwing her remaining textbooks and notes in her locker, and clicking the lock in place, Ivy stalked down the hall and out of campus, to the bus stop that awaited her every day.

"Where's Rem?" She asked bored, taking note of the absent Reaper that day. Her own shrugged.

"Followed Avery today?" It suggested, which was possible. Though Reapers were closer when people were about to die, they often still loitered around people or their sort of 'owner' whenever they wanted. It wasn't like anyone in the world knew they could die any second with them near.

"What is your name?"

Ivy often asked that to pass time, because every once in a while, her Reaper would give her an amusing answer worth remembering. Today, though, it only stared down at the sidewalk.

"Azriel."

Ivy glanced around, eyeing all the people around her. Or at her bus stop, at least. Beside her, was the boy. Azriel, he said his name was, her Reaper said in her mind. So you were right, she confirmed. To Ivy, it seemed the question meant for her Reaper, Azriel decided to answer.

"What's your name?" He asked casually. Despite his calm attitude, his eyes seemed slitted in annoyance, and anger, at the people who had begun staring.

"Who's that talking to the new kid?"

"It's the Witch! You should tell him to stay away!

"No way! I'm not going near her! She'll curse me!"

More hate. Like always, like forever. Deciding to spare Azriel, she moved farther away from her usual spot at the bus stop. The rumours would spread, and Ivy didn't want Azriel to pay for talking to her. Out of all people he could have spoken to, it had to be her. It would only end badly for them both. Ivy, more ridicule, and Azriel along with her.

"Why do ignore me?"

"Why wouldn't I ignore you? Ivy wanted so badly to retort. But speaking to him would only put him in a more compromised position. Dooming him to walk the same life Ivy did. He must be a Witch, too. She could already hear them saying.

"You shouldn't talk to me," she warned, eyeing Azriel with her left green eye. It seemed he still didn't understand, for he continued to converse, all the more stepping closer.

"Why is that?" He asked slyly, raising an eyebrow.

"You'll be cursed," Ivy said sarcastically. But judging from the voices around her, she didn't think they would actually believe her. But of course, she was the Wraith.

"I won't be cursed by a mere human like you," he remarked with a snort. Mere human like you? Ivy questioned in her head. Her bus arrived, and she saw it as an escape. Away from Azriel, and away from all the staring�"prying eyes.

"Wait�"" but the doors had already closed. Ivy took her seat at the back of the bus, away from the rest of the passengers. She had left Azriel reaching for her hand, only to casually bring it to push back a loose strand of her black hair. Curious about what Azriel was going to say, Ivy only stared at him through the window.

Their eyes met�"crossed�"just like the first time they had seen each other from her home, and below. And the bus rolled away. Gazes ripped from each other, just like last time.

⚜

Her walk couldn't have been less than fifteen minutes, walking as quickly as she could home, in case she saw any other classmates or Azriel following her back. Though Ivy supposed, Azriel already knew where she lived. Which confirmed her thoughts when she found him leaning on a post in front of her house.

"I don't believe you answered my question," he began, pushing himself off the post and walking the rest of the way to Ivy. "And I'd like some answers."

Ivy couldn't think of any way that he could have beaten her to her own home, without taking the bus. A car? Possibly. Running? Definitely not faster than a bus. And he would have at least broken a sweat.

"And I don't have any. What do you want?" Ivy demanded. Showing up at her house for the second time that week didn't settle well with her.

"I want answers."

"I don't have any."

"I'm sure you do," he pressed, not letting up.

"And I said I didn't have any," Ivy insisted, waving her hand as if to dismiss him. But he didn't understand.

Ivy didn't so much as care anymore, stepping to the ebony door of her home, she took out the key and retreated inside. Before Azriel could say anything more, she slammed the door in his face.

"Ivy? Is that you?" Avery poked her tiny head around the corner to the kitchen. "I made dinner," she said proudly, pumping her hands in the air with thumbs up.

"Great. I'll be down in just a second. I just have to do something first," Ivy excused herself, heading to her room to drop off her bag. She couldn't even hear herself go up the stairs and quietly place her bag on her spinning chair untucked from her fragile glass desk.

Is he out there still? She hissed in her mind to her Reaper. The far wall across from the window rippled, and her Reapers wisping cloak came walking through. How would I know? It retorted, snorting and staring out the window. Because you're looking out the window? Ivy screamed in her mind, despising her Reaper to heights she never had before.

No, he's not outside, the Reaper rolled what would have been it's eyes, if its sockets weren't empty. Ivy clenched her teeth and squeezed her eyes closed.

Stay away, stay away, stay away, she pleaded as she went down the stairs again. If it wasn't creepy enough that Azriel had already asked for her over the weekend, and at the bus stop, then following her home, Ivy was starting to feel extremely uncomfortable.

"Sis? What's wrong?" Avery asked, concerned, limping around the kitchen to the dining table.

"Nothing, let me help you," Ivy rushed to Avery's side, grabbing the large salad bowl she had been carrying and placing it with a heavy clunk on the glass table. "Let me grab the plates. Sit down and take a rest Where are your crutches?" Ivy scowled, walking to the kitchen while surveying her living room in search of her sister's aids.

"I didn't want to use them. I can't rely on them forever," Avery insisted, balling her fists on the tabletop. When she was much younger, years after they had lost their parents, Avery and Ivy had been playing in the park. Before everyone knew her secret, before anyone knew she could speak to her Reapers, she had just been a child. A child like any other, but only with the pain of loss and Death engraved in her heart.

"Yes, you can. They're there for a reason. And without them, you'll only make your leg worse."

It had already been past dusk, the night sky and the light of the moon the only thing lighting their way around the park. That time, Avery hadn't seen the opening in the bars she was running towards. Instead of bouncing off the bars that she thought were there, she ran right off the edge.

"No. Remember, you said you'd fix it when you became a doctor!"

Avery had broken her leg. Instead of having the common sense to run and find someone to help them, Ivy had only stood there, watching as her sister cried in pain. Those cries triggered unwanted memories. The river, her parents, things she had buried so well, that she didn't' want them resurfacing ever again. So she didn't move. For a long time.

"But you could have it back now. Mom and dad said they'd bring you to a professional."

After she fell, they'd stayed there past midnight, crying and not knowing what to do. Eventually, their foster parents had come to find them. But by then, Avery's leg had set incorrectly, putting it at an odd angle forever. Doctors said they could fix it in time, but Avery had refused. Ivy's dream had always been t become a doctor, and Avery said that when she did, Ivy could fix her leg.

"And you promised that you would fix me when you became a doctor!" Ivy laughed at Avery's resolve. Faithful sister she was.

"How was school?" Ivy asked, changing the subject. Avery went to Eastwood Junior high, just around the block. Having already grabbed some food from the plate Ivy brought from the kitchen, she pushed it around with her fork, eyeing it, but not eating.

"It was ok."

Ivy couldn't help but doubt Avery's answer, but said nothing, continuing to search of her sister's crutches.

"What did you learn?" She asked, a sorry attempt at continuing their conversation.

"Not much, but my teacher gave me a Liddicoatite crystal today at school. She said he thought of me when she was shopping around at the mall," Avery beamed, pulling a clenched fist out of her brown leather jacket pocket. The gem gleamed green and pick, which Ivy assumed weren't it's original colours. And judging from the general look of the rock, it was probably awfully expensive.

"Do you know how much your teacher spent on that?" Ivy inquired, pointedly eyeing the rock.

"Don't know!" Avery giggled, fidgeting with the large rock in her small hands. For from the young age of seven�" to now, fourteen�"Avery had known that she wanted to become a gemologist. She never really thought about the amount of schooling she'd have to go through or money to pay her tuition she would have to come up with, but she was just happy playing with her rocks.

"Where did you put your crutches?" Ivy had looked all over the living room, and up in Avery's room already. Running back down the stairs from Avery's room, Ivy glared at her sister whose purple and teal eyes shone with mirth.

"I hid them somewhere. You'll never know!" She cackled childishly. Ivy stepped outside onto the porch, and in the flower bed below, Avery's crutches lay half-buried in the dirt.

"I told you not to put them in the flower bed again! At least choose somewhere not so �"" Ivy stopped mid-sentence after picking up the crutches.

There, standing at the post in front of her house. The sky was asleep already, the only light coming from her house behind her and a car that whisked past, ruffling Azriel's black hair.

"Have you come to give me answers?" He grinned slyly, prowling closer to the house.

"You shouldn't be talking to me," Ivy warned again. Azriel did not halt his approach.

"Why is that? Something wrong, talking to you?" So he hasn't heard, about me, Ivy deduced, taking a step back, holding the crutches like she held her swords.

"Sister, aren't you coming back?"

Azriel only got a quick glance at her sister before a flash of black blocked his view.

"Don't you dare look at her," Rem said, only for Ivy to hear, but meant for him. Azriel only looked up, a Cheshire grin plastered on his beautiful face.

"Hello, Reaper."

Author's Note

Review please, and if you could check out my wattpad or read this story on there that would be great!