“Right here,” Mom said, entering the room.
All I heard was the loud thud, and I turned around to see Dad, the Grim Reaper, pinning August against the wall. Dad smirked at him. “Getting rusty playing with all those women,” he said to August.
August faded, Dad followed. Then came flashes of them fading and re-fading all over the place as they fought with one another. Each time they reappeared, someone else would be holding the other in a chokehold. The last time they re-faded on the other side of the room, Dad wrapped his arm around August’s shoulder and smiled. “Shouldn’t have to be an emergency for you to come visit your mom.”
August shrugged him off. “I’ve been busy lately running all the businesses I own in the Underworld.” There was a quietness in the room where we all acknowledged his curse, hisgreedbefore he walked over to Mom with that smile that was sure to win her over. “I’m sorry, I’ll visit more.” She shook her head at him and hugged him, then her eyes fell on Prudence next to me. “You too, Prude.” Oh, the irony in her name. Why the hell would our parents name her that?
“Dad keeps us all busy,” was Prudence’s dull response.
“Why did you call all of us?” Barron grunted, looking slightly ticked.
Maureen placed her hand on his shoulder. “Calm your tits, Barron.” If me or August had said that to him, we’d be on the ground twitching. He didn’t say anything to Maureen though.
“We have a lead on our demon,” Dad told us all. “Or witch, I should say.”
“Makes sense.” Maureen nodded. “The kids said their captor could change his face. Witches can do all kinds of funny business.”
“It’s a woman,” Mom added. “Delena Wells. She’s well past her time, but she’s been living youthfully by stealing the virility and youth of those she kills.”
“Why would a witch steal so many children and eat their hearts when only one is needed for so many hundreds of years for her to stay immortal?” August frowned. “Sorry, Old Timer, I believe you and Mom are getting rusty. That doesn’t make sense.”
Dad raked his fingers through his hair. A sign of his impatience. “I didn’t say that was what she was doing with the children, did I? We actually don’t know what she is doing, but we do have good reason to believe the witch is our guy.”
“And, why do you believe this?” Maureen crossed her arms and asked.
Mom smirked, an expression we knew all too well. Mom was naturally an easygoing and sweet person until you got on her bad side. It was safe to say we’d all encountered her wrath at one point growing up and if I had to choose who to be more afraid of, the Grim Reaper or his wife, I’d choose Mom.
Mom walked back toward the door, bent down, and pulled something up from the other side. It was a person. A low-ranking demon to be precise. I felt no power from him and being powerless in the Underworld made a demon shady as hell. The Underworld was a hard place to live when everyone was out to getsomeone. We kept things in check but shit still had to happen at some point or another.
“This right here is Moe.” Mom dragged him past the sectional and forced him to his knees. “Say hi, Moe.” We were all grinning now. Mom was a savage.
“How’s it going, Moe?” Maureen joined in and by now, the demon was practically shaking. His busted lip gave him a pathetic look, but we had no mercy in this house when it came to innocent lives at stake. There was an order to keep. The Grim Reaper’s job was passed down to us, his work was ours. We kept balance while guiding death. We kept evil controlled just enough so that the Devil would never escape his prison. No wonder he cursed us all, we were the very thing keeping him from bringing on the end of the world. When that happened, his reign would stretch into the human world and as a Reaper, our very existence would cease to exist. There would no longer be a reason for us to live between two worlds.
“I’ve already told you who,” he cried. “Just please don’t kill me.”
“Pathetic,” Prudence said in that bored monotone she used for everything.
“You told her a who,” Dad stepped forward and bent down in front of him. “You didn’t give her a why or tell her what the witch was planning.”
“And what if you’re lying…” Mom slid her hands down his neck.
“We’re good buddies with Fear, you know Fear, right?” Dad asked him, and his face turned white. “Oh, seems you do. He has no choice but to kill and torture people. I’d imagine he’d like for us to bring him someone new.”
“We haven’t in a while,” Mom agreed.
“Or just let me beat him to a bloody pulp.” Barron cracked his knuckles and gave one of his rare smiles to the demon. It was scary as hell—no wonder he didn’t smile much.
“I don’t know! I don’t know anything!” he screamed.
“She wasn’t the one controlling the imps, was she?” I asked him. “Was it Harvest?”
His head snapped to me. “The entity? You guys are the first ones I’ve ever seen.”
“I don’t think he’s lying.” August observed him. “Look at his britches.” I could smell the sick aroma of ammonia as Moe pissed himself. I covered my nose as it began to seep onto the floor from his soaked pants.
“Not on the carpet!” Mom hissed.
“Here, love,” Dad pulled the demon up by his shoulder, “I’ll dispose of him.”
