The Reaper amongst us

’The Reaper may be hiding in the people you love.

From where he comes, from below or above.

You can chase him away, but he’ll never be gone.

When he shows his true colors, is from dusk til dawn.

You can run as far as your legs can take.

whether it be a dream or not while you’re still awake.

You cannot outrun him or hide for that matter.

If you know who he is, your blood is destined to splatter.

His ocean blue eyes combined with his pitch black hair.

black hat, black coat with his skin so fair.

Dark circles around his cat-like eye.

You know when you see it. That’s when you’re destined to die’.

I closed the book my grandmother used to read to me and my siblings when we were younger. We usually sat on the floor around the fireplace while she sat in the chair reading us different stories. They could be fairy tales, stories based on true events or just myths like this one. Listening to it as a child was entertaining as I didn’t know what everything meant and I just thought the words rhymed nicely with each other. But now when I’m an adult I find stories like this quite upsetting and disturbing. From a child’s ears this could easily have a nice ring to it, but knowing what it all means I’m not that sure about that anymore.

My grandmother recently passed away due to age. When I found out about it I couldn’t stand straight up. My legs were shaking and I fell to the floor. I live in America now a days so I had heard from my brother over the phone. That’s when I decided to move back to the UK and take care of my grandmother’s belongings. What I wanted to keep and what we could throw away.

Because I was the one closest to our grandmother and our grandfather passed away thirteen years ago. She must have felt lonely when I moved away. She definitely wasn’t the person to show when she was sad or stressed. But I guess keeping all of those emotions to herself must have been tough.

She lived in a big villa that was very cosy and vintage-like. Living like that must have been lonely even with all of her house-keepers and the conference partied she often threw. The entrance was a big port and when you open it the sight is like the ones in the movies. I looked around and glanced over to my left where the living room was. Where she usually read us the stories.

As the strong independent woman that she was, she ran her own company. She was one of the most wealthiest women in the UK. And that company had been passed down to me. Letters had been written from her and several papers and books she left me describing how I should run the business and what I should do to make it grow even bigger and bigger.

I had absolutely no knowledge about the business industry as I had studied to become a detective. Yes, that was my job. A detective.

One of the best female detectives in America only to move back to my mother country to solve unsolved cases there instead.

But something about my grandmother’s passing seemed strange. She was a healthy, active woman. Even the doctors I had spoken to were surprised as well. No one had ever thought she would pass so quickly. But I guess I could investigate a little since I was going to move into her house. I mean I did have a lot of time on my shoulders because I didn’t have a particular case that needed to be solved.

So I thought ‘Why not do this for my grandmother’.

”Oh, Steph! You’re already here?”

I turned around to see my brother Michael.

”Mikey! Long time no see, huh? How have you been?” I said with a warm smile walking towards him giving him a hug.

”Oh please. I should be the one asking you.” He said rubbing my back.

“I’ve been just fine. Although the news about granny did surprise me quite a bit. I was here just a year ago and she seemed just fine if not better than I expected.”

“Yes I know. All of us were surprised to be honest. I guess that you would like to investigate this ‘case’, don’t you?” He said.

He knew me well, of course I would do it. It just seemed too strange.

Michael was a lawyer. Out of 15 times defending a person he lost 2 times, so summing it up, he was quite a good lawyer.

Then everybody started dropping in one after another.

Jessica aka Jess: Head teacher at a private school.

Bennet aka Bennie: Firefighter. He had saved several lives and put out many big fires including the school Jess worked at.

David aka Dave: A five star chef. He usually travelled around the world learning new ways to cook and get inspiration for new dishes.

When everyone had arrived we sat around the dining table eating while discussing different things such as how we were going to help each other out with granny’s company and everyone was going to take what they wanted from this house. That way we wouldn’t have to throw away so many things. Her house was very big with so many guest rooms so everyone decided to stay over for the night as it was getting late.

We sat around the table as the night’s darkness fell over the country like a big thick blanket. Covering all the trees and landscapes, every highway and every path in the country.

My brothers and sister asked to be shown to their room which they were going to stay in during this night. And so they were.

Just before I was going to go to my bedroom I decided that I would take a short look in her office. I arrived at the end of the hallway and hesitated before opening the door.

This was truly a sight. This room, no, this whole house was inspired by Sherlock Holmes. There were big shelves filled with books, shelves so high you needed a ladder to reach the upper half.

The desk was beautiful.

It was made out of oakwood with beautiful details. The armchair was padded well for a comfortable experience. Everything was well organized and put on it’s right place.

There was a painting on the wall hanging just above the fireplace of our big family. Our grandfather and grandmother, our parents and then the five of us. It was well painted. I remember how we stood there for such a long time and all of us children were complaining about how much our legs were hurting. I smiled.

“Everything looks so comfortable. Even armchairs beside the fireplace and a table. I can imagine you liked to be here”"

When I walked up to the desk my shirt somehow got caught in a pile of books which made them fall on the floor startling me. A small squeak slipped my lips when the sound of the books fell. I looked down to see one odd looking book without a title whatsoever.

It was her diary.

Stacking the books back onto the desk I didn’t put back the diary.

No, I thought I might read it before I go to bed so that if I know whether she actually did pass just because of age or if it was something else like sadness or something else.

Oh lord how I didn’t know what was to come...