Chapter 21: Chapter 21

T H A N A T O S

“THEY WERE NOT the ones who took the reaping lists, were they?” Death sighed, re-watching the security camera footage.

Nina sighed next to him as the technical assistant pressed rewind again. Thanatos glanced at her out of the corner of his eye and watched her frowning at the footage. Nina looked as though she had a pretty good suspicion of who exactly took them, if they simply had not been misplaced. Thanatos looked back at the screens, narrowing his eyes at the two figures onscreen. One was a boy who looked to be in his teens, and the other was a young woman. They were Detached —evident in how they walked and looked around as though they were not supposed to be there; as if they were running from something.

“And where are they now?” Death then growled, realising that he never checked up on their whereabouts after the throne room fiasco.

“The footage doesn’t show,” answered the technical assistant. “It’s as if they just…disappeared,” she continued ominously, pointing on screen as the two Detached rounded a corner that led to a numerous number of rooms and hallways. Thanatos frowned and stroked his stubbled chin. He did not recall not having anywhere in Headquarters where cameras were not operating.

“Impossible,” he then snapped. “They must still be around. Getting in and out of Purgatory is not that easy.”

“They could have used a direct portal,” Nina suggested, tapping her clipboard with a pencil.

“Only gods can make those,” Death pouted, “How would two low-life Detached be able to use one?”

Nina suddenly gasped and her eyes widened with fear. “What if…they were acting on behalf of a god?”

“What god would want reaping lists?” Thanatos questioned.

“What about Hades?” Nina suggested.

“He wouldn’t have any use for them,” he cleared up. “Not his department. Besides,” he continued irritably, “He would ask first, before ending up taking the thing anyway.”

Nina chuckled softly, stifling her clear amusement with her hand.

The technical assistant then leaned closer to the monitor and rewound the footage again. “…What if it isn’t a god?” she whispered.

Nina and Thanatos shared a look.

Death frowned deeply and folded his arms, not liking where this was going. If it was not a god, the next high celestial being was a Titan. But most of the Titans were in Tartarus, banished to spend a torturous eternity there since they could not be killed. The remaining free preferred not to meddle with the affairs of the mundane world.

“…You’re not suggesting that a Titan is playing puppeteer, are you?” Nina concluded, raising an eyebrow.

She sounded surprised and perplexed, but Thanatos averted his gaze in embarrassment. It would not exactly be the first time a Titan had targeted the Reapers Organisation. His mind went straight for Kronos, even though he knew the Titan was not going to break out so soon.

‘The time for Reapers will end.

And I will be the one to end them.

You think that you have won?

You are only postponing the inevitable.

Only I know how this all ends…’

Death flinched slightly at the recalling of Kronos’ words as he and Hades were finishing him off. It sent shivers down his spine, and the heat of Purgatory suddenly grew ice cold, freezing the golden blood in his veins.

“There is no way…” the god murmured, more to himself than to anyone else. His secretary glanced at him suspiciously, but she did not get a chance to say anything, because he moved away to another computer and signed into the camera system.

“Sir? What are you doing?” Nina asked.

Thanatos accounted for all of the connected camera networks before answering her. “You wouldn’t know. None of you would,” he addressed the rest of the employees, “—but in 1786 the Titan Kronos confronted the organisation about having employees from the BC era.”

Nina raised her eyebrows and blinked.

“He said we were messing too much with the stretch of time, and overly thinning out the Underworld. So…he took all of those souls up to the 1500s,” Death added, curling his hands into fists. It still angered him. It was not as though they had been completely changing the space time continuum or some other travesty. “The organisation was struggling to get back onto its feet up until the mid 70s. I had to help out with categorising souls for a whole five years because the Underworld suddenly had this huge influx.”

The technical assistants pretended that they were not paying attention and kept typing away and looking through and analysing more camera footage. Nina, however, was glowering at her superior.

“…You mean to tell me, that the Titan of Time told you to let some employees go and you refused?”

Death offered a sheepish grin. “Well, what was I supposed to do? We needed all the Reapers we could get at the time.”

“Did the Olympians help you defy his logical accusation?” she snapped, folding her arms.

“No,” he grumbled, remembering the very stern scolding of Zeus and the agreement of Hera.

Nina suddenly slapped his arm, sharp and quick. “Thanatos, how could you do that? You disrespected him and purposely went against his orders. And look what happened! You should take it as a warning and make sure that it doesn’t happen again.”

“No, obviously,” Thanatos scoffed, nursing his arm where she had slapped him. “What do you think I’ve been doing all this time?”

“…Oh my gods,” Nina then breathed. “Are you…are you thinking that he’s come back again?”

“Maybe,” the god murmured. He did not want to jump to conclusions, but Kronos was the only one who had a vendetta against the organisation —against the gods of the dead. Death could not think of anything wrong they had done recently enough to anger the Titan, but maybe there was something Kronos knew that they did not.

“Sir,” a technical assistant said, motioning for Thanatos to come over to his computer. “There are no cameras in the library as well as the corridors leading in that south east direction.”

Death frowned. “…We did put cameras there, didn’t we?” he murmured, glancing at Nina. She looked away and shrugged, obviously trying to hide what had been her own part in the carelessness.

He sighed and looked back at the technical assistant.

“You think they could be in there?” the employee asked.

“Have a team do a sweep,” Thanatos confirmed, nodding his head. Then something clicked, and he remembered something. “Hold on. Aren’t those two idiots in there doing their punishment?”

Nina nodded. “Yes, but don’t call them idiots, sir.”

“Whatever,” he grumbled. “…Though, would they not have sang like canaries if the Detached were in the library with them?” he thought out loud, stroking his chin. “I doubt a crossbow would prove very defensive.”

“You know,” Nina started, lowering her clipboard, “It’s possible that if they saw the Detached that they would keep quiet and keep them hidden. Either just to spite you or they don’t want to turn them in just yet.”

And for what purpose would they withhold that kind of information?

The god of death turned to face her and give her a look of outrage. He could feel the anger building up and fuelling the glow in his eyes, before he ground his teeth together in an effort to retain some self-control.

“Do you really think they would be that stupid?” Death spat.

Nina dithered, unsure of how to respond. “You know you’re not the most…approachable person, Thanatos, sir.”

He growled, feeling the rumble in his chest. He clicked his tongue and turned away slightly so as to distance himself as he evaluated the situation. Søren would never dare to hide something like this from him, would he? The Trainer held Death in too high esteem and seemed far too afraid of him to pull something like this off. He also refused to believe that Savannah could possibly sway Søren’s judgement as well, but then again, with that girl one could never tell. Thanatos tapped his foot in frustration, clenching his fists as the heat of the glow in his eyes intensified.

“…They are as good as dead,” he said through his teeth. “If those two are harbouring Detached, I am going to make them wish I had reaped their souls when I was supposed to.”

“Sir —” Nina started.

“No, Nina,” he cut her off and adjusted his cuff links. “What possible excuse could they have?”

✠

The four Grim Reapers froze like deer in headlights as Thanatos pulled apart the doors; his eyes ablaze and the crave for death coursing through his veins.

They could see the fire in his eyes. He saw it in the way they cowered in his presence. Death could feel Nina’s hand on his shoulder, restraining him. But it would not stop him. Not in this state.

He could not believe it.

The Reapers really had withheld information. They had really thought that Thanatos would not find out that the Detached were still lurking within the walls of his castle, and they thought they would get away with it.

Savannah dropped her feather duster and gasped but shuffled to stand in front of the Detached boy with scruffy toffee-brown hair. In each of his hands, were nunchucks with curved black blades on each end.

“How the hell did he find us?” the young woman Detached barely whispered, gripping a baseball bat riddled with nails in her hand tightly. “Did you snitch?” she hissed at Søren.

“No, we didn’t —I…I swear have no idea how he found…” Søren insisted, shaking his head.

The young woman clicked her tongue and moved towards the Detached boy, before shoving Savannah out of the way and into Søren’s side. “I can’t believe we trusted you,” she hissed.

Søren moved towards her. “Nadine —”

“Don’t you dare move any further,” Thanatos warned, stepping forward. He looked at each of them, growing closer and closer to losing it. “…I cannot believe that you would do this. I cannot believe that you would endanger every employee who works here by hiding these…these vermin!” he spat, violently shaking as he raised his voice.

“They are not vermin!” Søren snapped back. “And they’re not a danger to anyone either. You don’t know their story. Who the bloody hell do you think you are to accuse them of such motives?”

Death let Søren’s words carry on in the silence that followed. This only let the rage fester, and the desire to see him dead only grew. Thanatos had no words left. He could not find anything to say.

Words would not suffice or aid to get his point across. He shook his head, as the noise of reality began to fade into the background.

“…Sir?” Nina’s voice said from far away.

He pushed her aside.

She fell, sliding onto her side on the polished floor.

But he did not care.

He looked back at the Reapers and snapped his fingers. In a plume of smoke, his diamond encrusted scythe appeared in his hand, heavy and cold to the touch. His hand burned against it, creating steam. Savannah’s eyes narrowed at the sight, before she looked up in horror.

“Stop!” she screamed, darting to stand in front of the others.

Death growled and told her that she could not possibly do anything to stop him. He raised his scythe and its handle end dragged against the floor, causing a screeching sound. Everyone winced, but when Savannah opened her eyes, they were a brighter gold. A glowing gold.

And it unnerved Death.

“…Shit,” he growled, stumbling backwards. Savannah suddenly took in a sharp breath, before she settled on his gaze.

“Don’t do this,” she said, holding up her hands.

Thanatos hesitated, and the heat of his anger began to cool. He shook his head, confused and growing frustrated.

“Put the scythe down. Let us explain,” his half-sister urged, lowering her hands a little. Thanatos’ hand jerked and he raised the scythe higher, making everyone but Savannah flinch.

“Don’t,” she said a little louder, raising her hands again.

“What made you think you could do this?” Death said in a low growl, letting the scythe drop so the back end hit the floor. “Tell me why I shouldn’t reap all of you right now!”

He then mustered more anger induced strength and swung his scythe upwards, slicing through the air.

Savannah screamed, before he was suddenly crushed underneath a force that slammed him backwards into the wall. He hit the back of his head, hard, and his scythe slid across polished marble away from him.

He groaned and reached up to his head.

There was a dull ache, and he could feel a sharp sting in his sinuses. Thanatos gasped and sat up before realising that he had to hold the bridge of his nose.

Savannah jumped and stared at her hands which she was flipping over and back again. Death squinted, wondering why she was doing that, before seeing what appeared to be dying light in her palms.

She looked up, and the glow in her eyes faded.

“Oh my gods,” Nina whispered, appearing at Thanatos’ side and hooking an arm through his own to help him up. “What was that?”