"There's such term?" Belle asked Lucas.
"There are rules to be followed in our world. Attachment with living beings, letting them know about our world, breaking rules that have been placed by them leads to punishment," with Belle who was able to see death, it was only time she would notice who he was and instead of her finding by someone else, it was better that he told it himself, "Something went wrong in my case," he pulled out the watch he carried with him and Belle had seen it several times in his hands.
He handed it to her and she took it in her hand to flip it open and see how a hand kept moving round and round until it came to hover at the red line.
"The red line is the sign of death that has come and gone," Belle hearing this looked up at Lucas and then Barron, turning the watch to each of them to see the hand in the dial continued to stay at the red line. It was because they were dead. Both the people who were now with her were not living beings and she didn't know how to take that Lucas was not alive.
This is what he had meant. It had never been the status but it was their existence. He was different from her because while she was still alive, he was dead.
Lucas continued to say, "The day I arrived at the doorstep of this mansion, I was still a Grim reaper. Grim reapers are superior compared to the death reapers."
"That is right," Barron added his thoughts to make sure Belle would not refer him with 'death reaper'. Since he had arrived in this world for work, his reputation with his name was plummeting into the ground.
Lucas continued to explain, "What you have met before were the lower creatures of the land of the dead. The highest are the Hawverts who share similar powers as the Grims but only that their standing is the highest. There are three of them, and then comes the Grims. There are thirteen of them," Belle realized how Barron had introduced himself as the fourth Grim. Lucas who knew Barron's nature, said, "Each Grim is noted with a number called card. You must already know that Barron holds the fourth position. The oracle you met, she is the first Grim and I and the thirteenth Grim."
Barron whipped his head and looked at Lucas to ask, "Edith is here?! She is going to report us to the Hawverts!"
"She won't," Lucas hushed the child reaper who got excited too fast, "If it was another reaper there would have been a probability but the oracle is never supposed to let words slip out of her mouth. She tells only things she is supposed to. Even if it means breaking the law, the Hawverts cannot do anything about it and will have to swallow as it is in her nature. How is that you don't remember?" asked Lucas with his narrowed eyes to Barron to see Barron wave his hand.
"Of course, I remember. I was only testing your knowledge," said Barron before looking in another direction.
Lucas returned his gaze back to Belle and said, "With number comes certain powers. Since we aren't working for them, we are the fallen Grims."
"Like fallen angels?"
"Worse. We are being hunted right now and whoever gets to use first and drags us, they will take in our position," Lucas then went back to what he was saying, "Before arriving here I had turned to a fallen Grim because I forced to be one. Someone played with the time, to be specific my time and I took a soul before it was due."
"Can't you appeal and explain?" questioned Belle.
"Appeal doesn't work in our world. The creatures want to take over the world and one of them who belongs at the top is scared that I will create an imbalance," When Belle gave a look of confusion, Lucas continued, "I have the ability to reap, similar to how you have the ability of death in this world where you can send to the land of the dead. I can send people in another world that doesn't exist where they will stop existing with no trace. I reap the reapers."
Lucas still remembered the night when his watch stopped working as if someone had tampered it.
Eleven years ago, Lucas had stepped into this very land to collect a soul which was going to be due in a matter of a few minutes. There was no one in the streets or the alleys of the town when he walked like a shadow on the wall without a body on the ground.
The lanterns around had been mostly blown out and the ones that were still burning were dim. As he had pa.s.sed the lanterns that hung outside the houses, the light extinguished itself one after another to remove the trace of light except for the moon that had started to peer between the clouds.
When he reached the house, turning the k.n.o.b of the house with his skeleton fingers that opened effortlessly he stepped inside the quiet house, the long black ragged cloak sweeping the ground.
Reaching the room of the expected person, he had noticed how a man sat on his bed. Staring at the wall as if he knew his time was near.
Lucas had pulled out an old pocket watch that had turned black with the time it had been carried by its owner. The top of the watch had creepers like patterns engraved into it. Two minutes before the man died and he stood waiting, counting the seconds when there were thirty seconds more left. When it the hand or the needle touche the red mark he saw how the man took his last breath with his soul that now stood next to his body.
And then something odd happened. The clock started to move in reverse, the time of its clock moving backwards for the soul that had stepped out and it was not something that was supposed to happen.
A minute pa.s.sed by when the second Grim, Beezelbee appeared asking, "My my. Look who broke the rule. Taking away something that was not meant to-"
Lucas himself didn't know what happened and he hissed, "I did nothing." Something had gone wrong and he didn't know what it was.
"The bell has rung to tell you broke the rule. There will be punishment now," whispered Beezelbee with an undertone of delight as he spoke. Lucas knew what the bell meant. The h.e.l.lhounds would soon arrive here along with the gatekeepers to take him back and bring him forth for the punishment that was waiting for him.
When the second bell rang, Lucas had left the house and he had gone to Isabell who had sent him to the Adams' mansion.
Belle heard Lucas say the story of what happened and she couldn't believe that even the dead wanted the power of their own.
"You know...I remember seeing a man in the corridor. A man with dark clothes who walked in the middle of the night where a piece of his face had nothing but bones. When I started visiting the land of the dead, I thought it was because my soul was there but that wasn't the reason," said Belle to Lucas.
"How bad were you in keeping up the mortal's appearance?" asked Barron, "If you were to give me back myself I will easily maintain it. I have a better hold when it comes to such things."
Hearing this, Belle asked, "Why are you stuck in Mr Fluffs body?"
