Reaper's Word

Chapter 15: Winter Slumber

Clair lay in the ballroom. She looked up through the glass to the stars. No light was on. It had stopped snowing somewhere around three. A clock in the hall chimed the hour as five. She didn't feel anyone around and she'd slept the day away. So here she was in the danger of the night, but she was just not in the mood to hide in cramped spaces. She sat up though and sighed looking about.

She decided that she was going to get some food and walked to the kitchen grabbing what was close. No one was moving around, she felt nothing. Clair paused at a kind of chill that went down her spine. She frowned for a moment. She went to go through the dining room and walked into an invisible barrier there she touched it and realized what this meant. She forgot that the last time it happened too. An awareness of a spell and the arrival of those that kept Isaiah. They had to be bringing more people? But why?

Clair moved into the hall feeling pushed out of the kitchen and dining area. She pushed at the barrier with her hand but it was solid. She guessed that as long as the ones that kept Isaiah were in the house. She couldn’t enter those rooms. The sound of a couple doors opening came. She heard claws running down the hall on the other side of the wall. Then she moved to where she could see what was going on. The man was back, and Isaiah was looking at him. He was also with a couple others. This time the people that they brought in were unconscious. She was just down the hall and stayed near the wall.

"We had to travel far to get these ones, this time no drugs. We know how winter sleep works. So no tantrums this time." Isaiah just looked at them. He hated this time of the year. His home was overrun with humans. The smell of them was horrible. Right now with the fifteen minutes in place he couldn't touch any of them. Even if they walked right up to him and stabbed him.

"When." He finally said.

"Seven am, you'll be out like a light. We've brought you plenty for when you wake." Clair heard others moving in the kitchen. She glanced back in there and saw people stocking the shelves and the

refrigerator. She looked at them but they ignored her, like she wasn't even there. One did glance at her and gave a sneer.

"Yeah fuck you too buddy." She snapped and tossed the can she had. It hit him right in the side of the head. She hadn't expected it to go through the barrier but it did and she felt satisfaction.

"Fucking bitch." Clair jogged back but he couldn't pass the barrier that now blocked the kitchen. He was on one side and she was on the other.

"That's what I thought. Why don't you come in here and try to live?" She recognized him as the main guide that had brought them here. He didn't recognize her, why would he? She was just a thing left up here to die so he could have immortality. She glanced for Michael who originally told her of the place. She had a thing or two to say to him. However he wasn’t there.

"You'll be dead soon." He said touching the side of his head the can had cut him there.

"Malanov just leave her be. She's the walking dead." Clair had a righteous anger filling her.

"You'll get yours, and I'll laugh the day you do." She chuckled. "No matter where I am, burning in hell, or stuck on this earth. I'll laugh my fucking head off the day all of you are ripped apart by the thing you've created. I hope I get to see him rip you into tiny pieces." She felt justified in saying it.

"How about we have a nice laugh right now and I shoot you." A different man said and pointed a gun at her. She stood her ground.

"Go ahead." She dared him not blinking.

"Probably be doing her a favor." She flipped the man off and he gave a laugh, moving back to fill the kitchen. If she was counting right they were down to ten minutes.

"You don't have the balls." Clair dared him. The man pulled the hammer back moving toward her again.

"Want to bet?" He said.

"You know the rules, and you couldn't shoot her through the barrier anyways. The house won't allow it to pass. Nothing that can kill." Clair jumped and hit the wall. The man with the gun dropped it and looked uneasy. Isaiah stood there right behind her. He looked at Clair like he wanted to grab her but she noted that he was keeping a short distance from her.

"Better run little girlie. You only have eight minutes before he can come at you again." Isaiah looked at the man. Clair edged away from him and took off down the hall. Isaiah gave her a slight glance feeling very frustrated. Of course he’d find her when he couldn’t touch her.

"She's lasted far longer than any of you could." He said, because he knew they grew nervous when a human lasted for more time than they should.

"How long?" The man with the gun asked.

"Nearly two months. Haven't seen her in weeks till just now."

"Should have shot her." Malanov said and they went to exit the kitchen.

"Yes you should have, then I could have come in there and killed all of you." If they took what was offered to him, well that was a breach in the magic wasn't it? Then he could enter the room. Malanov just gave him a look and went out to the waiting car. The kitchen was fully stocked to keep the humans that fed him healthy. So that he in turn would remain the same way. He was affected strongly if his source of nutrition was lacking.

He wondered where Clair had disappeared to. He had greatly enjoyed her rage at those that had tossed her in here. Her words were anger filled, just like his. Being stripped of your freedom and treated like an animal would do that to you. He felt the barrier break but he wasn't interested in food. They had brought in twenty unconscious humans.

Isaiah had two hours before they put everyone in this place into a deep sleep for several months. They couldn't get up here once the snow started to come down. So they would put him to sleep and his food source.

Then they would follow suit shortly after. They were connected like that. They had to slumber if they put him into a slumber. Isaiah moved toward his room, might as well get comfortable he was going to be asleep for a very long time.

It was November now. He wouldn't be woke until May or June, depending on when the snow melted and they could get up here. When he woke he would be overly hungry. Worse than during the moon, hence why they had brought him so many. He'd need at least four of the humans to feed, and the hell hounds would need more like five. Though if it got desperate they could go out to the grounds and hunt something that strayed by.

He went into his room and laid down. The darkness was starting to grow lighter as a clock somewhere chimed six.

"One hour." He commented, he hoped that they woke him after the full moon. Not just before. He knew Clair would survive the initial wake up. He wanted his chance to thoroughly play with her. He should probably be concerned about his fascination with catching her. That it was starting to develop dangerously and his sureness that she'd survive the wake up.

Isaiah turned over on his stomach and laid flat. After taking the shirt from himself and then his pants. He wasn't going to be looking human when he woke. The months asleep would starve him unlike the humans. He was well fed this night as the man with the knives had failed to do as Isaiah had asked.

"Such is the way of the world." He grumbled. As the clock chimed seven he felt the breath leave his lungs and his eyes closed. His last thought on how he hated magic.

The house grew silent, the ticking of clocks slowed and stopped freezing in time. The temperature dropped sharply. Those that were up slumped over or fell where they stood. The house growing more like a tomb every minute. The lights going out. The breath leaving the living occupants. Clair lay on her back in her home not moving as she succumbed to the spell.

Isaiah could have passed for the dead laying on the large bed that was made of deep rich browns. Here and there in different rooms people slept. Some on beds, floors, sofas, a few in cramped hiding places.

Near the large dining room the three hell hounds lay curled up waiting to be awoken. To move to the next room where their prey lay sleeping. Damage from those that had been awake and alive not ten minutes ago was repaired. The sudden sound of doors slamming all over the house was deafening in the silence.

In the caves the waterfall seemed to stop turning to instant ice. The roots and vegetation hanging down covered in frost and ice as well. The pool freezing over. The dragon's head still looked to the eerie grey ring of light. His tail closer to the woman, the tip curving up near her ankle.

Her hand was still out stretched and her other hand on her face. If one looked closely it wasn't being held there so tightly. Like a possible smile on her lips. A secret knowledge that the beast did not know. Outside the wind blew once, and clouds boiled overhead. A few flakes fell and then more, soon after it came like a white curtain. It hid the house from view covering the world in a sheet of white.