Chapter 45: Chapter 45

S A V A N N A H

I HAD NEVER been comfortable with people staring at me —especially if it was because I was suddenly the sole subject of attention.

Or if the room was completely silent. And the worst option: if me walking in had to result in any and all of those.

I froze as I came to a halt after running into the apartment block lobby, and everyone around me seemed to do the same as they turned around in my direction. I did not know why. It was not as if I was that noticeable —I had hoped to blend into the crowd for a while longer. After a few awkwardly silent seconds I cleared my throat and straightened up, trying to be a little more casual. The stares were not exactly condescending —in fact, the Reapers standing around me looked concerned and a little anxious.

“…What?” I finally asked.

“Savannah!” a familiar voice then called from the front. I craned my neck before spotting Nadine as she ran towards me. She stopped in front of me, and for a scary moment I thought that she might hug me.

She seemed to be considering the same, before she thought better of it and gave me a slap on the shoulder instead, making me flinch.

“Ow —what was that for?” I questioned.

“You’re…really here,” she went on, posing it as more of question than an exclamation. “And you’re still…alive?”

“Yes…?” I frowned, nodding slowly.

Hushed whispers wafted around me, and I heard my name and several curses.

I turned to look at Søren, who was dithering guiltily behind me and scratching the back of his neck. Phee-Phee flew in and landed beside me, gaining several more gasps.

The Phoenix paid no mind to the uneasy Grim Reapers and ruffled his alight feathers in an ostentatious way. I understood the prejudice that hung thick in the air, but it needed to be abolished immediately. I was not going to let Phee-Phee be raised in an ignorant and toxic environment.

“The bird is with me,” I announced as a general rule. “Hurt him and I will hurt you,” I promised.

The Grim Reapers seemed to shut up and be less restless at the threat.

I was surprised that they believed me —I had not exactly done anything to earn their respect.

I then turned back to Nadine, who was still staring at me in disbelief. "Would you mind telling me what’s going on?" I asked earnestly. She blinked rapidly as she came back to the present, but then she looked unsure of what to say.

“Everyone thought that you’d be completely dead by now,” someone then said from behind me.

I turned around to see a neutral-faced Abigail and frowning Chainsaw Guy. And even though neither of them looked like they wanted to kill me, I paused before awkwardly glancing at the floor.

I still felt bad for earlier, and for what Søren had said.

“Søren had tried to assemble a rescue team but everyone thought it was suicide,” Abigail sighed. “We joined because we can’t just let him die. He’s our friend, and whatever is important to him, is important to us. Even if it has to do with you,” she added sourly.

I looked back up at her in surprise. So, the talk had been effective after all?

I wondered what exactly Chainsaw Guy had said to Abigail. She had shown us that she was not the type to easily change her mind.

“Oh, don’t think we’ve now forgiven you,” Chainsaw Guy scoffed. I hung my head in acceptance. “…But we are willing to set aside the events of Mount Olympus for now and help,” he went on. I perked up considerably at that. “Generally, obviously —not help you personally,” he then added.

“Okay, I get it,” I grumbled, lidding my eyes. “You hate me but you’re willing to work with me. I’ll take it,” I sighed, figuring it was far better than getting strangled, kicked —or worse, shot at —by Abigail.

“Um,” Nadine then leaned to the side in front of me, eyeing Chainsaw Guy suspiciously. “What happened in Mount Olympus?”

Abigail and I both inhaled sharply. We shared a glance and somewhat understood that neither one of us could be the one to say it. We glanced at Chainsaw Guy —but he did not look like he even knew where to start.

“…Does anyone remember Kyle?” Søren then stepped in. Abigail turned away uneasily and folded her arms. She was not going to let him live that fight down. Though I really hoped that they could make up before Zeus had the chance to start smiting anyone.

“Wasn’t he the guy who left with you?” one Reaper who was standing next to us asked.

“The one with the red leather jacket and dagger,” another went on. “He had some balls, having the nerve to question a superior like that.”

“Shut up,” Abigail then snapped, startling them. “You didn’t know him. He might have not been polite about it but he had valid reasons to question Søren. So don’t you dare say things like that.”

“Abby,” Chainsaw Guy said softly, nudging her.

He shook his head and put a hand on her shoulder. With some notable effort she clamped her mouth shut and said nothing more. I wanted to feel less guilty but seeing her like that only made me feel worse.

“All right, that’s enough,” I spoke up, my voice as cutting as ice.

Everyone turned to me. I clenched my fists and turned to march up to the announcement podium. I faced the crowd, all attention on me. I then gulped at the magnitude of Reapers. Every one of them was somewhat depending on me. I was responsible for preserving every soul in the lobby; not to mention the whole Organisation. That was a daunting truth.

Then I realised something else.

Another one of my weak suits was public speaking. I dithered, suddenly becoming nervous. My empathetic passion had seemed to fizzle out just as quickly as it had sparked, leaving behind a confused puddle of growing paranoia.

What do I say?

My eyes then found Søren’s in the crowd, who was steadily making his way to the front. He held my gaze until he was just in front of the raised platform, and then smiled at me encouragingly.

I gulped, before taking a deep breath. I felt myself calm down as the air whistled out of my lungs. Then I cleared my throat to address the crowd.

“What happened at Mount Olympus was not the fault of anyone here; though I would like to take the responsibility,” I decided, solemnly glancing downwards. “A deal was made…and a soul which was too far gone was lost. And…we can’t afford that,” I said earnestly, then finding the courage to lift my gaze back up at the sea of people.

“We cannot afford for any more souls like that to do the same. Abigail tried to prevent it, but Kyle…he chose to go on his own. Even though none of us wanted to believe that he was that alone, maybe our efforts weren’t enough at the end. Maybe a fresh start really is what he needed. And although I did not know him personally, he still thought of me when he had made his choice. He still valued my life as he gave up his.”

I then paused, letting that sink in. I truly hoped that Kyle had a good next life ahead of him. He deserved it, wholeheartedly.

“Did the gods kill him?” someone asked from the back.

“No,” I answered quickly. “No one ‘died’. I mean…Kyle wasn’t exactly killed,” I clarified. “He gave up his spirit willingly to be reincarnated.”

“He did what?” the Reaper cried.

The reaction rippled through the crowd, and soon the lobby was abuzz with arguing. I dithered, unsure of what to do. I became hopeful as Søren then stepped up onto the raised platform and came to stand next to me. I gave him a sheepishly guilty look. He sighed, before turning to the crowd.

“Hey!” he yelled. “Shut up for a second!”

The lobby fell silent at the mere sound of Søren’s voice. Even I cowered away slightly. I knew that he could be intense, but I had never witnessed him command a room like the night devoured the sky.

“It was Kyle’s own choice. No one killed him,” Søren firmly clarified. “…And if you must know, he was the son of a half-blood.”

Several gasps of surprise were heard. So it had been news to all of us.

“Lady Hera said that she thought that Savannah’s proposition sounded like a good idea,” the Trainer continued.

He then turned to me and gestured for me to elaborate.

“Oh,” I said as I turned to face the crowd, “I offered to be a mentor and train half-bloods to control their abilities. The gods said they executed them because of their unpredictability, which would make them a danger to both worlds. But no one has to live in fear. If they could simply be trained, then there would be no need to kill them.”

“And did the gods agree?” Nadine asked.

I sucked on my teeth. “At first…”

“What exactly does that mean?” someone else questioned anxiously.

“It means it’s indefinite,” I snapped. I was then met with understandable uncertainty. “…Look, I know I was supposed to come back with answers, but sometimes things don’t go according to plan. The gods themselves are unpredictable —so of course the outcome of my venture could not have been for sure. Even now, as the god Zeus hunts me down, I am trying to prepare a contingency plan. Ideally, I’m hoping for some Grim Reaper reinforcement,” I admitted. “But only those who choose to be. No one is being forced.”

The Reapers shared various looks at that. Then noise levels rose as they all started talking over each other again.

I turned to Søren desperately. This was already a disaster. At this rate, the Organisation might actually end up destroying itself entirely without the gods’ aid. Søren put a hand on my shoulder and offered me a sad smile. I dithered, unsure of what he meant by it.

“You can’t win them all,” he then said over the other voices.

I frowned. I knew that he was right. But I wanted to walk away from this knowing that I had done all that I could.

I did not want to go into battle with lukewarm effort.

“Hey everyone!” I yelled at the crowd. No one stopped. I clenched my fists. “Hey…!” I shouted, longer and louder than before. The noise finally dwindled, and the attention returned to me. I nodded in approval and sighed. “This is unfair. I know that,” I started. “And it’s unfair to ask you of this but please can some of you contribute to numbers? I’m not going to lie to you and say that no one is going to die. The risk is there. And you know what? The second-best case scenario would be that only I don’t make it back. So how about that —?”

“—That is not a hypothetical scenario. That is precisely what will happen,” a familiar and gruff voice then said from behind me.

Søren and I turned around to see a grave Thanatos in a burnt suit and with singed hair. I jumped and blinked rapidly, wondering how, why and what on Earth —where he had come from, and what he was doing here. Hushed whispers then appropriately dispersed from the crowd.

“Thanatos!” I exclaimed. “What the hell? Where…where is Dad —is he here too. And the other gods. Shit —are they already here?”

“Calm down, fool,” he sighed, shoving me aside from the podium. “I followed your friends out of Hades’ portal. I was offering the other Reapers across the city temporary asylum in Purgatory. I would have recruited them too, but unfortunately, they do not know you nor about your cause. And the gods are not here…yet. But they will be here soon,” he added darkly.

“Hey,” I whined, stumbling upright. “That’s great and all, but just because I’m your little sister it doesn’t mean that you can push me around,” I grumbled. “Or call me a fool.”

“On the contrary, dear half-sister,” he quipped, “that is exactly what siblings do. Now, do you want my help or not? I’ve been back here long enough to see that you have been struggling.”

I pouted but reluctantly relented. I was not in a position to argue, even I could see that. I still was not going to let it go, though.

“Why are you helping?” Søren then frowned.

“For this…family thing, I suppose,” Thanatos sighed. He looked at me. “I guess I don’t actually want you to die?” he said like he was not all that sure.

I raised my eyebrows in surprise. Thanatos was feeling something for me?

This needed to be documented.

“Who are you and what have you done with the real Death?” I then mocked, though in all seriousness I was quite suspicious.

“The guilt —and Nina —would weigh on me too much,” he added, looking down at me blankly.

I lidded my eyes. There he was.

“Wait. Death is your brother?” someone in the crowd then spoke up. The whispers grew louder.

“Yes, surprise,” Thanatos confirmed emotionlessly. “But that is not the thing on which to focus. Listen up. Regarding Savannah’s proposal: I can assure you all that as Grim Reapers you are safe from harm —from Horkos at least. However, be aware that if you are pro Savannah not getting killed, Zeus will not hesitate to squash you like a fly.”

I gawked at my half-brother, wholly taken aback.

“Do not get me wrong,” he went on, “it is completely up to you. Just be prepared. I myself will be fighting, unfortunately, but even I do not compare to the king of the gods and the sky —”

“Thanatos,” I interrupted, giving him a desperate look. “That. Is. Not. Helping,” I emphasised ever word.

“Let me finish,” he demanded, raising a finger at me, before addressing the crowd. “Honestly if I wanted to, I could order every last one of you to fight. But I will not —that would be a waste. Besides, if you do not want to fight, Nina will be opening a portal to Purgatory where you may hide out.

“But what I will ask, is that you show a little empathy just this once, as a favour to me as your Boss,” he suggested; not surprising me at all with the attempt at emotional blackmail. “I am fighting for someone I never thought I would care about. You will be fighting for justice. It is an honourable cause. And I hope for all of your sakes that there are less cowards here than I think,” he then added rather harshly.

Silence followed his speech.

I was unsure if people had yet gotten over the fact that Death was actually here, in front of them. Thanatos then turned away from the podium and gave me a brief nod. I gave an uncertain nod back, still at a loss. It sounded as though he gone for a reverse psychological approach at the end.

“…Okay,” Søren was then the one to take charge. “In addition to all of that, we are running out of time. Those going to Purgatory, stay in here. Those who will fight, regroup outside.”

The lobby then became a disorderly scramble as everyone tried to get to the place they wanted to go. Thanatos instructed Søren to go upstairs first and gather up all of his back-up weapons, because we would find that we might need them. I offered to help but I was needed outside.

“I’ll get Abby and Melchior to help,” Søren decided. “But mostly Melchior. I mean, he’s probably strong enough to carry all of them.”

I nodded and gave him a thumbs up, before heading for the front doors. I could not tell how many Reapers we had managed to convince to help, but it did not look to be too few from the amount of people that I saw leaving.

Thanatos and I burst out into the street to find a fairly sized cluster of Grim Reapers. I inhaled sharply at the numbers, but it was better than no one standing in front me. And I had to be grateful for these lives being risked.

“Søren will be back soon,” Thanatos told me. “Why don’t you take a breather for like, five seconds?”

“Sure,” I agreed, sitting down on the curb.

I glanced up at the sky. I gasped at its glowing blue colour. Lightning cracked brilliantly, and the wind picked up. Tension rose, and I could sense everyone’s nervousness. They had never dealt with something like this. They had all once been ordinary people, now tasked with being divine hitmen. I was dragging them into a new type of conflict entirely.

I took a deep breath and exhaled, before hanging my head.

Was I ready?

I had not even bothered to think about how this was going to affect me. I had been too busy avoiding death. Now that I was alone with my thoughts, I knew how I felt. My heartbeat would have accelerated so much that I might have had a heart attack.

I was terrified.

I looked down at the sword by my side. I unsheathed it, before holding it up in front of me. The obsidian and gold glinted, and I caught sight of my reflection.

Who is that girl, I wondered as I sheathed the sword again. And why does she matter so much?

“Savannah,” Thanatos suddenly said, putting a hand on my shoulder. I started, before hugging my knees to my chest. “You’re not alone.”

I sniffed. I knew that. Theoretically.

“I will not let Horkos get anywhere near you,” he went on. I looked up at him curiously. “You’re a Grim Reaper, so he should not be able to kill you. But please, can you do me a favour and kick his ass?” he chuckled. “I have been wanting to do it for a while now.”

I gave him a half-hearted smile and nodded slightly.

I could not actually promise that, but it made me feel better to hear Thanatos try to lift my spirits a little bit.

“You probably do not want to hear about this again, but you went into an interesting fit of rage when you killed Aaron,” he then sighed. I stiffened a bit at the name. “Your eyes glowed and your strength increased —and you looked like you were on fire. If you could do that again, that would be really helpful,” Death hinted, tilting his head.

I scoffed. “I was beyond enraged in that moment,” I explained. “I had never been so angry.”

“Then try to bring that feeling back,” Thanatos suggested. “Oh, I know. Think of it like…the gods never loved you, and Horkos is the one who stole them from you.”

“Okay, stop,” I quipped, holding my hands up in surrender. “Thanks for trying to be helpful but that analogy has many things wrong with it.”

“Hm. Fine, so maybe I should move away from the relationship parallel,” he scoffed. “But what I’m trying to do is get you to be furious. Nothing fuels a fighting spirit like rage,” he sighed contently.

I looked at him sideways and raised an eyebrow. It made me wonder how often Death got into fights.

“Hey,” Nadine huffed, coming to a stop in front of us. Lewis gave a small wave and apologetic smile for the failure to rein in his sister. “Why didn’t you tell us that you two were related?”

I sighed and rolled my eyes. “It’s not something that I knew until like, a couple of hours ago.”

“And I don’t particularly like talking about the bastard child of my family,” Thanatos murmured.

“Hey,” I snapped, offended. I hit his arm sharply.

He surprisingly flinched. “Ow.”

Nadine and Lewis shared a knowing look. “They are definitely siblings,” they smirked in unison.

“We’re back,” Søren then announced from behind us. I immediately stood up. Søren, Abigail and Chainsaw Guy held up a duffle bag each, before lowering them onto the sidewalk.

“Great,” Thanatos said. “Distribute them amongst yourselves —no one can go into this battle with only one weapon.”

Everyone then gathered around and started taking various other deadly tools to pair up with their chosen reaping weapons. I took another sword —one that looked like the one Søren had used when we were training.

It strangely gave me a little comfort.

“Why do you have so many other weapons?” Abigail grumbled when everyone had taken most of them. “You don’t even use them.”

“I blame him,” Søren pointed at Thanatos, as though being a Trainer had nothing to do with it. Petty hatred sizzled between them like electricity.

“Let us focus please,” Death breathed in irritation, clapping his hands together. He called everyone to gather around. “Savannah?” He turned to me. “Would you like to say anything?”

I glanced at the Grim Reapers around me. Some gave me encouraging looks. Some looked as fearful as I felt.

And I understood.

“We need to be a team —to stand together and have each other’s backs,” I said firmly. “The gods will not show mercy. Not to me, anyway. And I’m grateful that I have people on my side who won’t let me die,” I smiled at Nadine, Lewis and the others.

They smiled back.

“…But many half-bloods are not as lucky as I am. Most were disowned. If there are still any more out there, which I believe there might be, they are in need of people who won’t let them die. People who care. I want to be that for them. I want to show them that somewhere out there, they are being thought of, and they are known. And they deserve to live. What I’m saying is…just look out for someone other than yourself. Because at the end of the day, whenever each of our times come and we stand before Hades, we are all part human,” I reminded them. They needed to remember. “We just have to retrieve the courage…to act like it.”

The Reapers cheered and whistled, making me blush. I could not believe that they had liked my pep talk.

“You heard her,” Thanatos then said, looking upwards at the clouds. “We need to fight for each other.”

We all nodded but looked up fearfully. The thunder was rolling louder and for longer. The sky was going to open up. Which meant that the gods were close. Everyone drew their weapons. I dithered, the weight of the swords in my hands making me uncertain.

“Hey,” Søren then murmured, nudging me. He had also doubled up with a sword. “Are you ready?”

“I sure hope so,” I breathed, holding the swords more securely. “This is the fight of my life, after all.”

“And I’ll give anything to help you keep it.”

I looked up at him and smiled softly. Did he really mean that?

The smile that he gave me in return told me that he did.

“Thank you,” I told him. “For everything.”