Play the Game

1.4 - Encounter

Woo, finally got around to updating this one! Now, things are gonna start getting interesting, with Reaper working to unravel the mystery of his missing past! The boy's finally gonna have some luck in this chapter!

How did he lose his memories? Was it really an accident? Who or what will end up helping him get them all back? I'd love to hear your theories on what you think is going to happen and what the truth will turn out to be!

~Kitty

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Fire was burning all around him, the smoke filling the air and shrouding him a near pitch dark blackness. Reaper's head was on a swivel, taking in the chaos surrounding him. He was in what looked like a school building, or at least the remnants of one. Screams of terror and panic echoed all around him as the building slowly crumbled, the floor broken in places only to reveal more flames consuming the lower levels.

And despite everything, he physically felt fine. None of the heat reached him, no smoke left him coughing and choking like the others. A quick glance to his hands revealed them to be shrouded in his power, even though he couldn't recall how he got into this situation or why he was actively using his abilities without his suit on.

What truly dominated him though was a feeling of panic and fear, not of the surroundings, but for one individual. Their features remained blurred and shadowed to him, though he could distinctly make out a large and gaping wound arcing across their chest from which large volumes of blood poured out. What he could only assume was their hand shakily stretched out to him, his own hands trying to grab hold of it without thinking.

"☝♏■□!" He screamed out as his hands passed through the one reaching for him, the single word garbled and unintelligible to him even as he spoke it. "It's gonna be okay ☝♏■□, I promise! I just gotta..." Reaper tried again and again to reach for the figure, their wound, anything, but the entire world was out of his grasp as his power refused to deactivate. Hot tears poured down his cheeks, practically vaporizing before they made contact with anything. "HELP!!! SOMEONE HELP ME!!! PLEASE!!!"

The skeleton's cries went unheard, lost among the other similar screams for someone to save them from this hell. With all the noise, Reaper missed the quiet and pained voice that called out to him, only taking notice when the hand in front of him suddenly dropped. "☝♏■□, don't die! Come on, stay with me! I-I'll get you out of this, I promise! Just... please don't leave me alone..." His voice was choked off by a sob, tears continuing to roll down his face as he let out a scream of agony.

Why couldn't he shut his power down? It refused to respond to him, almost as if he didn't have any control over it. Someone was dying, someone that he could save, someone that he knew he cared about for some reason, and there was nothing he could do without any ability to touch them... nothing but scream for help and frantically call to whoever they were to try and keep them even semi-conscious.

"Reaper..." A deep voice called behind him, causing him to whip around and catch sight of another familiar figure, one he knew he trusted even if they were as blurry to him as the first. They stretched out a hand to him, an offer of help that he went to accept without thinking, only for his hand to phase through just as it did before. Cursing his lack of control, he pulled his hand back, grimacing as the only thing he could touch was himself.

"I... I can't... forget about me, save him! Save ☝♏■□!" His hand whipped around to gesture at the unconscious and bleeding out figure next to him, a desperation unlike anything he'd felt before drowning him.

The newcomer looked to the figure before striding past, bending down to carefully scoop them up. "On your feet boy. I'm not leaving either of you behind." The words came almost like an order, one that Reaper didn't hesitate to obey as he shot to his feet. "Stay close, we'll head home and I'll make sure that both of you are okay." A new darkness invaded the destroyed hallway, thicker than the smoke and emitting a strange buzzing noise. The darkness encapsulated the three of them, dense enough that he couldn't see the crushed lockers right next to him yet ever shifting.