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Alice
I held my own against my siblings that Dad resurrected and aged for this occasion. Celeste was going up against Joshua and Aimee while Desiree was emptying out in her fire shield. She shrieked again, and each of us flinched and turned around. Only the short tempered Desiree would get bitten by poisonous Celeste and cost us all our lives. Stella growled and lunged while I had my guard down, and she grasped Joshua's Immortality Charm that was around my neck. I shrieked a growl and my fingers swiped instinctively at her chest, doing nothing but breaking the skin and the designer shirt Monique had put her in. Only Monique would worry about how her kids looked in battle.
Suddenly, I was dancing against my brother, Adrian. We copied footwork and when he lunged, I'd jump to the side he lunged from. It looked choreographed as I went leaping and bounding in every direction. Stella made off with the charm, and I had to get her. I turned to Adrian and leapt over him, feeling his pursuit behind me as I danced towards Stella, teeth bared and growling. . . like a true Demon.
She growled, but it sounded like she was yawning compared to what I was doing. I lunged into her, sending her flying backwards into Monique's home. She snarled and attempted to move, sprawled out on the forest floor. I smiled and took off after her, feeling the Demonic bloodlust sink in. I wanted her soul. I craved it.
I snatched Joshua's charm and put it in my pocket, then ripped her up by her hair and heard her shrieks of pain. My heart pounded for the first time in months, threatening to break through my ribcage, and I then ended my sister's life. I felt no remorse. I felt her energy sink into my body as her final shriek erupted through the air and everybody turned to see me as I stood there motionless. I heard the thoughts of fear from everybody, how quickly they reacted to my victory. Celeste was just as good a fighter as I, or so we had thought. Even Celeste stared on in fear, everybody was frozen staring at me. My breathing was rough and my heart was pounding away as quick as a hummingbird and yet it wasn't a thrumming, it sounded like a drum. A snare drum. Josh approached me, his eyes wide in fear, and pinned my arms down behind me.
"Alice, don't you feel that?" I looked at him over my shoulder, confused. "Your heart, Alice. It's pounding away like crazy. You're not a Demon, Alice, you're a Reaper," Josh whispered. I stood there, stunned. "What?" I choked. There was no way that I could possibly be a Reaper. "You escaped death once, Alice. I went through the gates because you were too late. I'm just the Living Dead. You fought, you came back for Monique and Adrian. And before that, Adrian resurrected you. Those who escape death that way become Reapers. I never saw the signs. The short temper, the always changing eyes. You just claimed your own sister's soul, Alice!" Josh said, fear shaking his words.
So I was a danger to the people I loved the most. I turned to my remaining siblings and I closed my eyes. I would easily kill them and my parents, given the chance. I clenched them shut and felt the exertion of energy pulse through my veins with my newly found blood. I took off running, not of my own accord, instinctively, and Celeste was flying backwards. "You have a short temper. Reapers are so rare, and they're feared the most out of the entire realm we live in. Even Demons fear them, Alice. You passed on the gene to our kids, Alice, they're going to be like you. And you gave it to Aimee, too. And when you resurrected me, you passed it on. We're a clan of Reapers. We're all going to erupt today," Josh thought. I froze up, staring at Celeste as she spiraled towards the ground. She lay there, still and motionless, as still as I stood now. "Alice, don't kill Celeste," Josh thought, "Let one of the kids do it, it's better if they change on an enemy instead of one of us. Aimee and Joshua would be devastated if they hurt one or another. Desiree would be hurt if she hurt any of us. And if I hurt any of you, especially you, Alice, I'd die. And it would be very difficult for me to do that."
I fell back and leaned into Josh as Desiree leapt up from her flame. Joshua looked bored as he fought with Adrian, and Aimee looked entertained by Monique. Desiree looked amazingly graceful as she spun into my brother, sending him flying off into the woods. "I have to go, Celeste is about to wake up," Josh whispered. He kissed my neck and darted off at the same moment Desiree went after Adrian. Joshua won his fight, and I heard his heart take off, beating and throbbing. I felt it through his thoughts, and it seemed to shock him because he never had a heartbeat outside of me. It eventually bored him and he came to join me as we sat out. He watched Aimee, and for once, he didn't look bored. His eyes were filled with love and admiration and he was mystified by her beauty, even with her blurring in and out of sight. When Aimee's heart finally started beating, it was different than mine or his. It started slowly at first, and then built up to the throbbing that would break through her ribs if she was fully human. Joshua smiled at her as she darted to us, and she ran headlong into his arms. He kissed her forehead and smiled down at her. "Aimee, you are a beautiful and graceful, yet terrifying, woman," he said quietly to her. She smiled, flashing her perfect white teeth, and stood on her toes to kiss him.
Another heart flared off in the distance, and I took off running to the heartbeat. Desiree held a hand to her chest, astonished. My heart stopped and I smiled at her, taking her to Aimee and Joshua, who were now in the middle of a kiss. "Ahem," I said jokingly, and both of them looked at me, smiling. Mariposa and Leslie took off when my heart pounded viciously against my chest, seeing as we were too dangerous right now, and missed all of the action.
Growls rippled through the air, and thudding. Josh sounded like he was winning, I was too afraid to be able to get into anybody's thoughts. "Joshua, Aimee, Desiree, who is winning?" I whispered. They all shook their heads in shock. "We. . . We don't know," Aimee whispered, clutching Joshua's hand. "I don't either," Desiree whispered. A tall tree fell to the ground with a large thud. "Someone is going to call the police!" Joshua hissed in shock. I was frozen. If we were discovered, it would be bad. All of us would be hunted down, we would all be destroyed. The Angels, the Demons, the Reapers, the Living Dead. All of us! I opened my mouth to scream, and nothing came out. My head turned instinctively to my children. My family, missing the happy father.
I heard a growl that I knew too well. A winning growl. Desiree seemed alarmed, too. I blasted off into the distance to see the heated battle between Josh and Celeste.
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