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Project Death: Resurrection

Chapter Two

A short while after collapsing on the couch I gave up on trying to sleep and instead just lay on the couch staring up at the ceiling. Even after beating the Angel of Death I couldn’t get him off my mind. The past few hours had been hectic, and the past few years he had been lingering in my thoughts and popping up at random moments. Why couldn’t I stop thinking about it?

The door slammed open and Alaula ran into the room. Her hair was in a mess, her clothes were stained, her eyes were wide with fear and shock, and her face was pale.

“What’s wrong Alaula? Has something happened?” I asked, sitting up slowly.

She took a few steps towards us and started to collapse. Damir rushed over and caught her, giving support as he led Alaula to the couch. She sank down into it and her head fell into her hands. “It’s Bem,” she said softly. “He’s dead.”

Bem was one of us, a Resurrector. Needless to say, hearing of his death was a shock, as it just wasn’t something that happened. Resurrectors didn’t die; we were there to prevent death. And when we felt it was our time to let the younger Resurrectors take over, we moved on.

So here it was that my two closest friends were both complete messes, we’ve lost many charges and now a fellow Resurrector, and we have no idea what’s going on. Even despite all of this I can’t help but think that this is a change, one we can do nothing about.

Damir gazed at Alaula, worried. “How? When?”

She lifted her head and looked at each of us for a few moments before she said anything. “The Leaders haven’t said much but Bem had been missing for almost a week. Something is going on around here and I don’t like it. There’s something the Leaders aren’t telling us.”

“That’s because they don’t want anyone to know,” answered a voice from the door. I looked over and saw Kiran at the doorway. He walked in, closing and locking the door behind him. As he came over and collapsed in the chair I saw that he had been crying though it seemed the tears had run out long ago.

“What do you mean?” Sitara asked.

“The Leaders don’t want any of us to know what’s going on and just how little control we have now,” Kiran replied. “Bem wasn’t the first Resurrector to be killed nor will he be the last.” At this he paused and took a breath to steady himself. “Alena’s body was brought in yesterday.”

Alaula and Sitara both gasped. Alena was Kiran’s older sister, a very talented Resurrector. I remembered her assisting in a few of my classes. To hear that she had died was a major shock. How is this happening? Intense training and five years of working out in the field…I had felt secure about my position. Alena…Bem, they had even more experience than I did and now they’re gone. What if I were the next to go? Something was coming after Resurrectors and they were attacking the powerful ones first.

I closed my eyes. This wasn’t happening; I wanted so badly to believe that I was just in some very twisted nightmare and that I would wake up to find that everything was fine and normal.

“Tamesis, are you alright?” Kiran asked. Without even opening my eyes I could tell that he was looking at me with a rather worried expression on his face. I nodded slowly in response, not saying anything.

“She just went up against the Angel of Death,” Sitara informed him softly.

“Have the Leaders been notified of the loss of another charge?”

“There was no loss of charge,” I answered, opening my eyes and turning my gaze on Kiran. “My charges are all fine. The Angel of Death lost; he didn’t get there fast enough.”

“How…how is it that you beat the Angel of Death to your charges and save them when everyone else has failed?”

I shrugged, not really bothering to answer. I knew they all wanted to know what had happened, and I wished I had a good answer for them. All I know is that I was able to save that family. The Angel of Death’s words rang through my head. A quota of souls? Did he have to capture a certain number of souls every day, week, month, or year? There was so much that none of us knew about our enemy, about the one we try to thwart every time someone is about to suffer through a death that is unnatural.

“She wouldn’t say anything to us either,” Damir commented.

“Tam, how many charges have you lost in your five years as a Resurrector?” Kiran asked.

I looked over at him and gave a half-shrug. “Why does it matter?” But seeing the look on his face I can tell that he is determined to get an answer from me. I sighed and thought about it. Just as I had told the Angel of Death, I’ve never failed. “None.”

“None?” he questioned. “Now how can that be? Everyone loses charges, especially now with the Angel of Death appearing everywhere.”

Wearily I stood up and slowly made my way for the door. “Maybe he has been too busy with the rest of you,” I stated. “How am I to understand why he does what he does?”

“Where are you going?”

“Kiran, the last time I checked I don’t have to inform you of everything I do and where I go. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go somewhere and try to relax.”

“Tam?” Alaula asked softly. “Will you be alright?”

I turned and looked at her, nodding slowly as I did so. “I’ll be fine Alaula.” Though, I had my doubts about it. With the growing number of deaths surrounding us I feared that something was going to happen, and that it wasn’t going to be good. A quota of souls? Why would he need to have a quota to fill? Was it possible that the Angel of Death was only in the job for a short time, that it wasn’t his decision to participate in any of this?

Then I left the room, trying to make it seem as if my latest heal hadn’t taken as much from me as it actually had. The Angel of Death had thought he had a soul but I had managed to pull it back. How was it possible? And what could we expect next? We had well over a hundred Resurrectors which allowed us to have time to relax. If Resurrectors continued to die, would we still be able to go out and act like normal people during free time?