The Death Clock: chapter 14

 

Chapter 14

"Isaac! Isaac, wake up! Bram, can't we do anything?" I heard a voice say.

"I'm up. I'm up," I wispered. I tried to open my eyes, but the light blinded me. I slowly opened them again and saw Cat looming over me. "I'm awake, Cat. Can you give me some space?"

Instead of moving away, her arms latched around me. She held me fiercely. She held me so tightly, I thought I saw a man looking through the window to the hallway. He was a big, tall, dark man in his mid-thirties. His silver hair matched his eyes that bore holes in Cat's back. But as she shifted I lost sight of him.

I was drawn back to Cat as she released me. She said over her shoulder, "Bram he's finaly up!"

I heard him say, "Alright. I'll drive you two home shortly, unless you want to go by ambulance."

"No, we'd definetly don't want that. Once Isaac can move, we'll be ready," Cat said.

"Cat, I'd be able to move if you'd back up."

"Oh, sorry."

I slowly sat up, looking around the room. I had been moved to a normal hospital bedroom. I was dressed in my own clothes. I looked at Cat.

"You've only been out for 15 minutes. I just wanted you to get up. Now, we'll be able to go home. But, Bram said no school for you, not until he gives you the okay. I'll still be going to day classes, but I'll be home at 4:30 everyday."

"Alright, come on you two. I'll drive you home," I heard Bram say. When he came into view, he looked in pain. He turned to grab a bag off the floor near the bed and I felt my eyes widen. Bram had cuts on his neck. It was shaped like a skull, with a scyth behind it. "Cat, if you help Isaac to the car, I'll go ahead and warm it up. I'll meet you out there."

He left and Cat put one of my arms around her neck and helped me to the floor. I was dizzy, but i could walk.

"I don't really need to go," Cat said to me the a few days later.

"Yes, you do. We both agreed to go to school, but I'm on doc's orders. Only you can go," I said, handing her her school jacket. "I'll find something to do here."

"Just promise you won't leave the house."

"And go where?"

"Just promise! Please?" Cat pouted. I smiled and hugged her.

"Alright, I won't leave the house. But you need to go. You'll be late if you don't go now."

She looked at her watch and swore. She grabbed her bag and rushed out the door. As soon as she was around the corner, I went to the living room.

When that Reaper had destroyed the virus, it did more than cure me. The next day the news talked about a miricle as every person with the virus was suddenly better, as if they never had it to begin with. But then, even more amazing, Bram noticed something else. None of us had dystrophy either. It was as if the Reaper destroyed everything wrong with us, leaving only our powers.

Me and Cat both had simular cuts as Bram. Mine was right where the Reaper had reached inside me. Cat had freaked when she found her's as she got dressed, in a place she didn't bother to tell us about.
They were small cuts, only a square inch on all of us. Bram had no idea what to make of them, but was determined to find out their meaning, and the relavence of their placement. They had all scared in a few days.

I grabbed the phone and punched in a number.
Technically, I would still be inside the house as this person did what I asked. If he ever answered the phone.

"This is X. Who the hell is calling?" said the high voice.

"Shut up, Jacob and listen to me. I-"

Jacob cut me off. "Yo, buddy! Man am I glad to hear your voice. Where the hell have you been? Everyone either thought you ditched or died."

"Jacob, shut the hell up before I kill you, you scrawny little b*****d!" Not exactly the most elogent thing to say to a kid who's saved my life twice back in the day, but it had to be said. "I'm watching you right now. You'll do as I say, or I'll shoot Carry in the head." I didn't actually need to be watching him to know that he was at the dinner with Carry. He did it everyday. "When you leave, go straight back to wherever you're staying and find out anything you can about a man called Keizer Doom. If you finnish that, look for anything relating to him. Family records, birth records, I want to know everything about the man. Call me three hours after you start looking and then send all the information to this address," I told him the house address, "and then forget everything you had learned. Erase all the files about him. If you can't do that, destroy your computer."

"Man, what did you get mixed into?" I was glad not to hear any complaints.

"I moved up, Jacob. And this is how it is up here," I said, refering to a pack my old gang buddies had made together. A promise to move up in the world, to someday escape the hell that was our lives.

I hung up the phone.

I'm so glad that he answered. Jacob was an excellent hacker and computer nerd. He could access any locked or hidden files. But he was still just a gang member from my old gang, the one that had disbanded. It had been his older sister who had been shot.

I sighed and climbed the stairs to my room. I walked in and opened the minifridge, pulling a soda out of the side. I opened the softdrink and guzzled it down in one go. I lay on the couch and before I knew it, I was asleep.

I was in that black place again. I searched the darkness frantically for that shinning thing that moved in the dark. I saw something moving in the darkness, but this thing was different. Instead of moving away, it had wandered aimlessly until it turned to my direction. Then it began to come closer, chasing after me when I ran from it. Despite my effort, it had quickly caught me.

It grabbed my shoulder and then I could see it. It was the Reaper who had healed me.

"Master. You should not have come, Master," it said, swinging its scyth absently at its side.

"What do those marks on us mean?" I asked.

"Deals with Death have prices. Your health, if you keep promise."

"What promise?"

"Master promise to protect, girl promise to love, old man promise to learn. Will Master protect? Protect from anything?" The Reaper asked.

"Of course! I'd do anything for her. I just need to know how to use these powers," I said, hoping that the dead man would tell me.

But it didn't. Instead it faded into darkness and I could feel the presence of that giant shinning thing I had saw first at my back.