The Reaper’s Redemption...

 

Dear Readers,

The storm raged mercilessly outside, the wind howling through the jagged edges of the old cathedral. I stood in the center of the decrepit altar, my hands trembling as the ritual began. I had been cursed long ago as a punishment for sins I could not remember, delivered by an ancient force that demanded a reckoning.

Each soul I took wasn’t a choice. It was destiny.

Tonight, the brazier burned with a strange, sickly-green fire. The stench of sulfur choked the air as I drew the sigil with precision: concentric circles of ash interlaced with symbols only I could understand. I muttered the incantation in a guttural tone that seemed to come from a place deeper than my own throat. The words summoned a coldness that seeped into the marrow of my bones.

With the final stroke of my knife across my palm, blood pooled in the center of the sigil. The room fell silent.

Then the whispers began.

They came from everywhere and nowhere, hissing accusations of those whose names I would soon know. Cheaters, thieves, abusers they had all sinned, leaving trails of broken lives and shattered hearts in their wake. My curse was to find them, drag them to the void, and make them face the agony they had inflicted on others.

The first name drifted into my mind like a shadow curling through the corners of my thoughts. Talbert Gallagher.

I felt the pull of the curse tugging at my soul like a chain wrapped around my heart. I closed my eyes, letting the force guide me. When I opened them, the cathedral dissolved into darkness, and I stood in the dingy office of a man whose cruelty radiated like a palpable aura.

Talbert sat at his desk, counting stacks of cash under flickering fluorescent lights. A crooked smirk played as he muttered, "Easy money." Behind him, photographs lined the wall: foreclosed homes, evicted families, affairs of married women, families ruined. all victims of his predatory schemes. The ghostly echo of a child crying filled the air, the sound tightening my grip on the scythe that had materialized in my hands.

Talbert turned, eyes widening as he saw my cloaked figure. "Who the hell are you?"

I spoke, my voice a death knell.

"I am your reckoning."

Before Talbert could scream, I raised the scythe, the blade glinting in the dim light. The swing was merciless, slicing through flesh and bone. Blood sprayed across the walls, the crimson arcs forming ghostly patterns as Talbert’s severed head hit the floor with a sickening thud. But death was not his escape.

As Talbert’s spirit rose, he found himself bound in chains of fire, dragged screaming into the abyss where the echoes of his victims’ cries became his eternal torment.

My next target was a woman named Freida Shaw, a master of manipulation. Her affairs had destroyed families, her lies turning husbands and wives into enemies, and poisoned children’s minds against their parents. I appeared in her lavish home, where she sipped wine in front of a roaring fireplace. She didn’t notice me at first, but the flames dimmed as my shadow grew on the walls.

"Freida Shaw," I intoned, my voice reverberating like thunder.

She turned, startled, her wine glass shattering on the floor. "Who... who are you?"

I stepped forward, the scythe glinting with unholy light.

"The screams of those you’ve wronged call for vengeance. Tonight, you pay their price."

The room warped as I spoke, the elegant furniture rotting into grotesque shapes. The faces of those Freida had betrayed appeared in the fireplace, their mouths twisted in silent agony. She fell to her knees, sobbing, but her tears couldn’t cleanse her sins.

my blade sliced through her chest, and her soul was torn from her body, dragged into a void filled with the echoes of her deceit. She was trapped in an endless cycle of betrayal, forever feeling the heartbreak she had caused.

Each soul I collected weighed heavier on my cursed heart. Yet, the curse compelled me forward.

A butcher who sold tainted meat to impoverished families. A teacher who berated her students, driving one to despair. A priest who stole from his congregation. Each met their end under my blade, their punishments tailored to the pain they had inflicted.

As the final name of the night whispered into my mind, I froze. Laila.

my heart stopped. I knew that name.

The cathedral reappeared, and in the flickering green fire, I saw her face. Laila. had been my love, my anchor in life before the curse tore them apart. Her betrayal had been my undoing. She had driven me to despair, her lies leaving me destitute, abandoned & alone. She laughed as I begged her to stop. She had been the first domino in the chain that led to my damnation.

Now, she was my final bounty.

I found her in a grand estate, surrounded by opulence bought with stolen lives. she is with her new love Sydney. She looked older but no less beautiful, her smile still as sharp as the knives she had plunged into my heart. When she saw me, her face paled, and she backed away, tripping over the marble steps.

She whispered my name, as tears spilled down her cheeks. "I… I’m sorry."

I raised the scythe, my hands trembling. The curse demanded justice, but my heart screamed for mercy. As I hesitated, the voice of the force that cursed me boomed in my mind.

“Justice must be served”.

"Why me?" I roared, my voice breaking. "Why did you betray me? Why did you ruin me?"

Laila. sobbed, her words incoherent. Her guilt was evident, but so was her humanity. For the first time, I questioned the curse. Was I merely a tool of vengeance, or did I have the power to forgive?

The scythe glowed, the curse tightening its grip. I made my choice.

I swung the blade not at Laila., but at myself. The scythe shattered, and the cathedral erupted in blinding light. The curse screamed, its hold on me breaking as I sacrificed my existence to free her.

When the light faded, I was gone. The cathedral crumbled into ruins and Laila stood alone, clutching her chest where an unseen weight had been lifted. She fell to her knees, her tears falling into the ash of the broken sigil.

But somewhere, in the void beyond life and death, my soul found peace. my redemption lay not in vengeance, but in the mercy I had shown even to the one who had hurt me most.

“Beware Your Sins Will Seek You Out…”

Jacob M