Death's Hitman

Chapter Sixteen

There was stunned silence in the room for a moment as Drew, Sheamus and Juniper stared open mouthed at his audacity, but Reaper didn't react. Instead he stood emotionless looking between Hope and Hitman, but then a nasty smile crept across his face.

"I will do you a deal," he said. Hitman looked at him with interest and then nodded. "I will tell you your story and hers, up to and including your death and then if you still want her she is yours."

Hitman considered this.

"Alright," he said. "But I want you to tell me why everybody is after her too. And who that woman masquerading as Persephone is."

Reaper continued to smile though.

"You have a lot of demands, Hitman."

"Reckon I'm entitled."

"Perhaps," he replied. He looked down at Hope and his expression changed, a hint of fire in his green eyes. "You have not told him yourself?"

"I do not know, sir," she said quietly. Reaper laughed at this.

"You will soon enough. Surly you know me at least, child?"

"No sir," she said and for the first time a flicker of emotion crossed his face. Hitman saw it, a hint of grief but it was gone before he could consider what it might mean.

"Come, sit," he instructed. "Warriors, Elf, you may seek refreshment. Follow my shadow." Sheamus, Drew and Juniper bowed and then followed a black shadow from the room leaving Hope, Reaper and Hitman alone around the fire, where Hope wrapped her arms round herself miserably certain that whatever Reaper had to say it would not make things better. Perhaps it would even make them worse. Reaper turned his cold gaze on her. "You will tell the story; it is after all yours to tell." Hope looked at him, alarmed.

"But I don't remember, sir," she said. Reaper reached across and wrapped his hand around her wrist, rolling his eyes to the back of his head. As he did so her mind flooded with images and she gasped, throwing her head back as she began to speak, to tell her story.

"My name is Hope. Once I was a flicker of light, the only thing left in the bottom of Pandora's Box when she released all problems on the world. More trouble than I was worth in the minds of some. My mother said that I was all that stood between the world of the living and that of the dead; hope that there was something better, a brighter place filled with light and love. She told me that I had been her hope and her joy which was why she named me as she did. We were close, I would sleep in her bed every night, with my little hand clasped in hers as I drifted away to my dreams. And when I woke she was always there, watching me and waiting for me to wake. I believe she would have done anything for me, anything at all. She was the most beautiful woman I ever saw with waist length auburn hair and eyes as green as new grown grass. Wild flowers would spring up where she stepped and her voice was filled with music. I never heard her say a cross word, not to or about anyone. Everything about her was joy and I loved her. I miss her.

"My mother always gave birth to me in the land of the living, always tried to make me live, but somehow I was always claimed by death, taken from her and forced back to the endless sleep until she fell pregnant again. I was her gift and her curse, a child who could only live for a certain amount of time before she perished. The Reaper always came for me, always took me from her and each time he made it more painful for her and for me. The time I remember the best though was that first time I met him, the first time I found my love. I do not know the year exactly, that has faded from my mind but I remember long dresses, cold castles and a windswept landscape without much of anything. Mother had carried me, a babe in arms to the door of the castle, begged for sanctuary and was taken in as a nursemaid to the young son of the lord and lady who lived there. He was an arrogant boy who took joy in tormenting me. I remember he had a quick tongue and quick hands, ready with a cruel word or a pinch. I hated him with every fibre of my being but I feared him too because he had the means to take me from my mother again. I remembered then, I remembered each of my lives though they fade now.