The Reaper's Curse #1 - Complete

Greed and Monsters

She listens to the silence, waiting for it to speak to her, for the Reaper to come or for the thump of a heart to sound in her ear. But neither makes a sound, and she's left with this deafening silence.

Alicia knows she needs to move, some quiet voice in the back of her head hissing that she needs to get up and keep going. She ignores it, hating the note of desperation in that voice.

She's familiar with such a thing, familiar with desperation as it clawed at her insides, demanding her attention. Half dead in an alley with her blood slick between her fingers. Within the light of her mother's kitchen, trying to muffle her screams as she pulled a bullet from her thigh, blood gushing and her mind dizzy. Back then, she listened to its voice so easily.

She doesn't know where she sacrificed more; fighting in the slums or trying to forget the fighting. Neither compares to the smothering quiet she hears now with her ear pressed to her brother's chest.

She's been here before, her father in her arms, bloodied and broken, died protecting her because she couldn't fight, because she was trying to play the hero, trying to pretend she isn't the monster she knows she is. Kathryn too. Choking on her own blood so Alicia didn't have to.

This time is no different.

Alicia lifts her head, eyes wet with unshed tears as she drowns in the past and the present.

That voice tells her to survive, to keep fighting. She thought she'd cauterised her survival instincts, but nothing will ever be so easy for the wicked.

Alicia closes her brother's sightless eyes and looks upon his beaten face and is only able to see the brother that protected her, that always made her laugh even when hunger clawed at her stomach.

He wasn't meant to be the one that didn't make it home.

She doesn't know how long it takes for her to pull away from him, knowing she can never let him go. But something in her helps her get to her feet, and it's not the desperation she once clung to.

Kieran wouldn't have wanted her to abandon this fight, no matter what happened.

She can't feel her body as she finds the knife that he was looking for and moves to the window. She can't glance back, can't see him lying there and know she's leaving him behind when all she wants to do is join him.

She doesn't belong in the Light, and that's the only reason she doesn't look back. She knows she can't follow him.

Alicia wedges the knife into the window, prying it open with numb fingers, trying to see through her tears.

They were all supposed to make it.

Alicia crawls through the window once she has it open, icy air embracing her, the smell of dirt and grass replacing the stale air of the cellar.

She'll come back for him, she promises herself this much.

Alicia stumbles into the land of hills and fog, freedom feeling like nothing but more chains wrapping around her neck.

She can't move at first, the weight of everything pressing down on her chest and she nearly crumbles, nearly sinks down into the mist to let it consume her.

But loss is a familiar burden to bear, an old lover, the kiss of death upon her cheek almost sweet.

This world never deserved a man like Kieran. She never deserved him.

Her family is what kept her alive in the slums. Her brother had a vision, and she owes it to him to realise his vision.

Fix Muovea, save the slums; what was once their home. It was the only reason she strove to be queen, the reason her brothers went to war. The Zalana's bleed so others don't have to.