Page 3 of A Kiss From Death
The village is in utter chaos, people running in every direction with ghostly white faces full of panic. A body catches me off guard from behind, plowing me to the ground as people stomp frantically around me.
I take two calming breaths, regaining my bearings and wedging myself back into the chaos around me. My heart stops altogether when the deafening scream of a Necroshriek flying above me shatters all the windows of the house to my left.
Shit. Shit. SHITTTT.
Flying around the last corner, I rip open our front door, nearly knocking it off its rusty hinges. I throw my body inside, looking for him, hoping and praying he’s okay, while the smells of freshly baked cookies wrap tightly around me.
I don’t know what I expected to find when I walked inside, but nothing, not even the Empress, could have prepared me to see Theo,myTheo, myonlyfamily, myonlyperson, staring lifeless back at me.
I trail my eyes across the river of blood leading me to him. His once-floppy auburn hair is now painted bright red and slicked against his forehead. His once-inviting hazel eyes still lay open, entirely unseeing, soulless. His lifeless body is littered with deep gouges across his face, throat, and abdomen, and he’s still protectively curled around a tiny pail of lavender paint he just purchased, guarding it with his life while dragging his body inside.
My entire existence is over in a flash of an eye, and all that is left behind is red hotrage!My brain is drained of every thought except one:revenge. I know exactly how I’m going to get it. They already think of us as monsters down here, so I might as well show them exactly what kind of monster they just created.
I’m going to enter myself in The Reaper Crucible, hosted above in Lunaria. It’s time to unleash the monster they just created. Make no mistake—I will burn everything to the ground in my wake.
They messed with the wrong Vagrant, and now, it’s time they learned who I am.
Death Reincarnate.
8 Months Later
Iwill cheat, fuck, or kill any person who comes between me and my revenge. And make no mistake—I will have zero regrets doing it. My body is just a vessel to use at this point, and I will take advantage of it in any way possible. I will burn this world to the ground, ashes to motherfucking ashes, even if that meansburningwith it.
Which leads me to my current sticky situation of sneaking over 200 extra entries into Vagrant sector’s raffle selection for entering the deadly Reaper Crucible.
It was easier than I thought to knock out the pathetic guard half-dozing off instead of keeping watch of the bowl. Just a quick silent headlock, and he was out like a light. Maybe I punched him in the face as well, just to make sure he was out. Broken noses don’t take too long to heal, so I would call myself a saint of a ladytoday.
I wasn’t lying when I said I would do whatever it took to get my revenge, and that starts with cheating my way into being picked as one of two slots from Vagrant’s Sector. It blows my mind why anyone would enter the Crucible of their own free will when your odds of survival are a whopping 10%...but I guess that didn’t stop me.
Citizens of Fallout train their entire lives to be prepared for the off chance they are selected to enter the blood bath games. Two members from each of the five sectors are chosen at random for the year each summer by the Empress up in Lunaria.
Each year the Crucible looks a little different, making it next to impossible to prepare for—all done by design, of course, to give our lunatic of an Empress the grandest show. Her wicked mind comes up with the cruelest ways to test each participant’s physical and mental barriers, all for her enjoyment. Each round ramps up in difficulty and deadliness, leaving a single survivor in the end.
No member of Fallout is required to enter themselves into the Crucible, but that doesn’t mean there’s a shortage of willing participants. Quite the opposite, actually.
Each year, the number of participants increases, making it next to impossible to get chosen. Even with the knowledge of two contestants being sacrificed each round until one winner is chosen during the fifth and final doesn’t slow the influx of people risking it all for a chance to play.
Members of Fallout are greedy and power hungry, which is exactly why so many of them are willing to risk their lives for the chance of winning the ultimate prize.
Magic.
Not a single soul living in Fallout possesses the ability to wield magic except the Empress and her Vanquishers, who are tasked with guarding and protecting her when she is down here, living in the smaller version of the castle above. It’s a phenomenon.
Empress Gwyndolyn Seraphine is an Impart, meaning she can harness magic from the Earth and gift it to whomever she deems fit. One’s own soul decides what magic it can harbor and wield and is not decided by the Empress. Some can take on elemental magic, like controlling water or wind. Others can emerge with rarer magic, such as telepathy or invisibility. Most victors of the Crucible end up with some sort of elemental magic, which is the most common.
If you are lucky enough to withstand all five rounds of the Crucible and come out as the victor, Empress Seraphine hosts a huge party in your honor, where she performs the blessing ceremony to grant and announce your new magic. In winning the Crucible, each victor is also granted a letter of acceptance to move up to Lunaria to live among the magically blessed, or magicals.
Down here, we like to call Lunaria the “dreamland”; every person living there is blessed with magic, wealth, and happiness. I mean, I would be happy too if I had the ability to wield magic and got to live on a floating rock in the sky. I’m not sure what’s in the air up there, but I wish we could breathe that air down here too.
Stories have been passed down through the generations of the wonders of Lunaria. Some say the colors are brighter, smells are stronger, flavors more potent. Others say there’s no crime or poverty, and everyone is friendly. Rumors spread through the orphanage that even their fashion and looks greatly differ from ours and contain colors that aren’t even visible in Fallout.
The kicker is, no one really knows the truth, since no one from Fallout is allowed to visit or live there unless they win the Reaper Crucible. Magic is the key to a better life that most here will never get the opportunity to obtain. Real buzz kill, I know.
I have never been one to hang on impossible dreams of a better life for myself in hopes of living there one day. All I need is Theo, and I’m a happy girl—or needed I guess. Now, the only thing that matters is entering and winning the Crucible to get mylucky ticket up to Lunaria. They won’t know what’s coming for them until it’s too late.
The one thing we do know about Lunaria is its shitty Vanquishers and their bonded Necroshrieks that have terrorized Fallout for far too many years. Vanquishers can command their bonded Necroshriek through mind control, and they have fun doing it.
Most Vanquishers live and patrol up in Lunaria to ensure peace. A select few live in Fallout to Guard the Empress, who lives part time below with us. She governs our land and her word is law. I guess when you’re the only person who possesses magic amongst a bunch of nobodies, it’s hard to be overthrown.
