Legend of the Grim Reaper
Copyright © 2020 Uwem King
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the author: Joykinguwem@gmail.com
Chapter 1 — The Disappearance
Chapter 2 —Julie's Discovery
Chapter 3 — Gropes
Chapter 4 — Medronz (Land of Magic)
Chapter 5 — The Other World
Chapter 6 — Forearmed
Chapter 7 — Homerlus Patrol
Chapter 8 — The Gyroscope
Chapter 9 — The Cannibals
Chapter 10 — Julie's Jinx
Chapter 11 — Where is Julie?
Chapter 12 — Armageddon
Chapter 13 — Neo's Adventure
Chapter 14 — Return of Julie
Chapter 15 — Ambush
Chapter 16 — Grimreaper
CHAPTER 1 — THE DISAPPEARANCE
"She is gone, Michael!" Julie raised an alarm. She had called Michael at once after finding out that Angela wasn't anywhere to be found.
Michael rushed along...
"What happened?" He asked, searching through the rooms.
"I found this locket with a note ' 'Grim reaper'" Julie handed over the note.
"Grim Reaper? He doesn't exist" Michael shrugged.
"It, you meant? It is no human" Julie argued.
"But it speaks. It will be alright calling it, He." Michael said.
Michael examined the locket. It had a green monster inscribed on it.
"Maybe this is what Grimreaper looks like." He handed over the locket to Julie.
"Perhaps," Julie nodded her head.
"We must find Angela. Where were you?" Michael asked.
"I came visiting but instead of seeing Angela I saw this locket and a note, so I alerted you."
Julie is a Napster; a computer guru. She works with Egborton Operations. Egborton Operations sees to the security of Madan land metropolis.
Contacting the Egborton… "A citizen disappeared at the Midland of Madan land, Darus area. In a bungalow on street 5, a lady is mysteriously gone. Traces of a locket and note" Julie informed. She disconnected the line.
"I need to go. Call me when you need help. I have to check on our securities. We need to know how Grimreaper drove its way to reality" Julie said, saying more to herself than to Michael as she opened the door.
"Alright," Michael nodded. "Angela can't be gone like that. Something must have occurred before her disappearance."
He searched the room for more clues but there were none yet. Sighting an opened cream container and a wet towel "She must have just finished taking her bath." Michael went out of the room. He was going to check on the secret cameras. He opened the door leading to the room that had the operating security system. He turned it on.
Scenes showing Angela in her bathroom taking her bath and strange movements in her bedroom.
Angela had not heard a sound due to the heavy pours of the shower and her happy humming.
She had hardly gotten her body creamed. A voice said, "Dress up." Of course, Angela heard, she paid no heed having not seen the speaker. She went on creaming her naked body not until a large scorpion showed up and said "Get dressed." With terror, Angela had gotten dressed quickly.
"Pave way for the Grimreaper" Green clouds rolling around an unseen image walked itself into the room through the opened window. The terrifying scorpion had bowed in respect to this image in a green cloud.
Angela was coughing now, it seems the green clouds were mescaline: a drug obtained from a type of cactus that affects people's minds and makes them see and hear things that are not really there. Angela was hypnotized by what she heard and saw. "Come to me. Abide with me forever." The figure laughed with a terrible voice. The operating security system turned off immediately. The camera that recorded all the occurrences had been broken by the scorpion.
"So this is it." Michael sighed. A strange voice roared in the room leaving Michael afraid for a while.
Julie, meet me at the Loch opposite Nestle Park" Michael said. He cut the line. He kept the locket and note carefully in his breast pocket. "One has to be forearmed," Michael said as he loaded his pistols. It was 10: 59 am.
Angela's disappearance had been noticed around 9: 00 am, definitely, Grimreaper had been here at 8: something.
"Andrew please can you get me details on Grim Reaper" Michael called one of his best aides.
"Yes sir" Andrew replied from the other side.
One last look at the house, Michael left for Nestle Park.
"Yes, what is it?" Julie asked, coming down from her MPR model car. Michael had waited at the back of the Loch.
"Wanted to know if you have any details about the Grimreaper? I actually thought it was someone with that name as a disguise, not until I checked the cameras" He said.
"We could check it on the internet. Let's google" Julie suggested. Michael hopped into his car as he followed Julie closely to her apartment.
At 11:20 am, Julie opened the door to her apartment. Computers scattered around it. LCD TVs posted above the set of computers. It was her operating room. Julie could access any source code or any website without being caught. She could hack a bank's coded logo-gram, yet she is unknown. She is a computer expert. A bed was positioned near the window, her dressing table not having much cosmetics, two guns laid on it, and both loaded. Another gun near the keyboard. Julie offered Michael a seat close to hers. She typed in "GRIM REAPER" It brought out all the needed information. "Grim Reaper is an imaginary figure who represents death. It looks like a skeleton, far as I am reading. It looks as if Grim Reaper doesn't exist. It is an imaginary figure! Michael this is serious" Julie said, scrolling down the monitor with keen interest.
"Yes, I got the point. Grim Reaper is real. "
"Why do you say that?"
"Because he was the one who dropped the locket and note. Who else would? Besides, I saw and copied some of the videos I watched in the operating security system. Angela's house had cameras. I fixed them myself." Michael brought out the disc. He had quickly copied the video he watched before the system switched off mysteriously.
"Let's see what's in this" Julie inserted it into the CPU. The disc played. Exactly what Michael had watched. There were no subtractions or additions.
"Sweet Jesus!" Julie exclaimed.
"This is terrifying. Definitely, Grim Reaper is no imaginary history, he is real. Poor Angela, we need to find help." Julie said, with her eyes stricken with bewilderment.
"Can you check what this green locket means?" Michael broke the silence.
Julie was activated to work. She searched through.
"Yeap! The green locket is with a green monster which is inscribed in bones on the locket. It can be opened. It contains the decision of the Grim Reaper to anyone he takes." Julie informed, searching for more information from the net.
"Let's open it," She said.
Michael consented. He opened the locket, a green smoke came out. A Logo-gram was written on it.
"A Logo-gram!" Julie exclaimed.
"A symbol representing a word or phrase?" Michael interpreted with uncertainty.
"Of course, that's what a Logo-gram is," Julie affirmed.
"How shall we find it?"
This was something Julie's computer couldn't find.
"I know of someone who can find it," Julie said at last.
"Who?" Michael said
"It's Alrodes of Nafitath" She said.
"Alrodes of Nafitath? Haven't heard of such" Michael wondered.
"He is an old man, an ancient one. He lives in the heart of Negolo, somewhere out of our world" Julie said.
"Out of Madan land? Is this associated with magic?" Michael asked following Julie who was leading him to a secret room--a basement.
"Yeah," Julie said.
"Where are we heading to?" Michael asked.
"You love asking questions."
"Have you forgotten I am a detective?"
"Maybe I forgot," Julie laughed. They were in darkness.
Julie switched on the lights.
There were glasses, prisms of coloured liquid arranged on shelves. "A laboratory?"
"Yes, I am a chemistry student. I hide out here sometimes to be by myself. I also operate systems. Basically, most of my computers aren't ordinary" Julie informed.
Michael stunned behind her with bewilderment. He knew Julie since High school. He knew she loved chemistry. What he didn't understand was how she got sucked into computers and the secret chemistry lab that was based beneath her room.
"Julie why the unknown chemistry lab?" Michael asked as he surveyed the lab.
"Don't touch anything," Julie warned. She threw a pair of plastic gloves at Michael.
He caught it skillfully.
"Put them on, then you can touch whatever you want," Julie instructed. She made those gloves by herself. It was a computerized glove that would make the hands that wore it be protected from powerfully mixed chemicals by Julie. It also prevents theft. It screens the wearer to check for any dangerous weapon. Of course, it signalled that Michael was with pistols and short knives.
"You have pistols with you and knives" Julie unveiled.
"Of course. You always know I have pistols, how come you know I have short knives?" Michael asked while still surveying the lab. Strange chemicals glittered in the light, all attracting Michael's attention.
"That glove is computerized"
"You made it?"
"Of course, so it detects the wearer for any dangerous objects"
"Then how does it communicate it to you?"
"The lights there have their meanings." The glove had blinked a red and blue light after each other." But Michael hadn't really thought of why it was bringing out colours.
"Oh, those lights" Michael's eyes went to the red little bulb and the blue one.
"The red is for guns, pistol and bullet machine, and the blue for dangerous cutleries like knives, spear, syringes and screws, and there is the green light for bombs and any nuclear explosives," Julie informed.
"Wow! Talented" He praised.
"Thank you."
"So why are we here?" Michael asked
"There is a key carefully placed in a brass box. It opens the door of Medronz."
"Medronz?"
"Yes. After Madanland, is a mystical world. Madanland as you already know is composed of science and magic. I don't have to tell Egborton about how Grim Reaper appeared. Although they could have clues. We already have the answer in the disc."
"How does this Medronz stuff help us?"
"Medronz will lead us to the heart of Negolo then to Nafitath" Julie explained, removing the carefully polished brass box which had been hidden behind the walls.
"Wow," Michael gasps at its beauty.
"Julie you're not telling me something. How do you come about all these?" Michael questioned.
"I'll explain when I tell you about the key of Medronz" Julie promised. She opened the box. A key laid in it, a golden key with a liquid in a small container.
"You could remove those gloves to examine this better," Julie said, removing her own gloves.
Michael picked up the key, he examined it. The key had inscriptions on its sides.
"And the meaning of those?" He asked pointing at those inscriptions.
"I don't know. Maybe Alrodes will tell us what it means."
"So let's say the reason for the hidden laboratory is that it contains powerful mixtures that human hands shouldn't touch. Right?" Michael asked.
"Yes! You got it." Julie applauded.
"So what's next?" Michael said. He dropped the key as his phone rang.
"It's Andrew." He said to Julie, who nodded.
"Hello, Andrew! What do you have?" Michael relaxed.
"Grim Reaper is a death representation. He is also an imaginary figure. He is used in tales. He is wicked and adamant. What else do you want to know?" Andrew communicated, not understanding why he was asked to make fable research.
"Can I see you at my apartment this evening? There is a strange thing happening." Michael announced.
"I'll be there, I hope it's not really terrifying?"
"You just make yourself available. Be careful when coming." Michael advised.
"Alright, sir. Good day. If you need more information call on me." Andrew offered.
"Alright, Andy. See you later." Michael cut off the line.
"He has the same information as yours. But he only stopped at the identification of Grim Reaper. Tell me!" Michael said, holding Julie's hand.
"Your systems aren't ordinary. All of them?" He continued.
"Yes. But two are ordinary." Julie released herself.
"Tell me, how come you could do all this? I know you have great knowledge in chemicals but this is magical." Michael waited for an explanation.
"Let's move up. When would you be ready to free Angela? I mean, this is a mission already because Grim Reaper is an invisible genius, and we need to be fast on this because we don't know his mind yet. Although we have it" Julie pointed to the logo-gram in the locket.
"Yes. The day after will be a nice journey. I have to inform the squad" Michael said watching Julie put back the brass box in its hiding place. Then they moved up after switching off the lights.
Up in the apartment, Michael sighed with relief. He needed lots of things to aid this mission. He had to prepare, that's why he had chosen the day after tomorrow. He needed an alien type of logic.
"So tell me about how you got involved in science and magic? It's rare in Madanland." Michael asked, taking his previous seat. So also Julie.
Julie smiled, then…