The Soul-Reaper

The night roared with storms. Streetlights sputtered under the weight of the rain. Flickering like dying embers above cracked pavement. The town lay still, dead. Still save for the low snarl of thunder and the relentless hiss of falling water. It was the kind of night even no normal person would try to brave. Until Barek stepped out of the downpour. No umbrella. No hood. A man seemingly forged from storm and silence. Moving with the steady weight of purpose. Rain drenched his frame, clinging to his broad shoulders. Curling his soaked afro and slicking his sideburns to his jaw. "Ain't no way I was gonna wait in there with the rest... sitting around like … buncha wimps!" he muttered, voice deep and rough. "Storm or not... I gotta move. Something's up! I just know it!."His pace quickened. His fists clenched. Veins rose beneath his dark skin like warnings. "I bet it's them! I thought I let them know they'd better stay away from me if they knew what's good for them. If they're here, then it ain't for a good reason" he growled, eyes locked on the black horizon. On the edge of town, the trees stood like silent witnesses, dense, unmoving, even as wind clawed through their branches. They called this place Devil's Hill. A place where light refused to linger, where breath turned cold even in summer. Of course, all these were just rumors but the locals believed it because that very place existed before even the locals staying around the place had come to settle there and so far, no one has ever been able to go near the place. They believed something about the place drove even the wolves and other wild and night creatures in the forest away, and if any human got even close, they would experience unimaginable fear and in the end they would turn back. All these rumors had begun after a hunter once claimed to have actually met him, the devil residing there, he claimed the devil looked at him with glowing red eyes which made him feel unimaginably cold and sweaty at the same time, he collapsed and when he came to, he was in town, with the other locals and although they had a hard time believing his story no one felt brave enough to go confirm it due to the strange intimidating aura around that entire place. Serving as proof enough that at least something dark exists there, and over a decade now that the hunter had experienced this, it has been passed down as scary stories for kids to prevent them from wandering into that aspect of forest. Atop the cursed rise stood a cottage. Crooked. Weatherworn. Almost forgotten. But to Barek, it was home. And inside that home-"Bon! " He burst through the door, rain pouring off his body in waves. Scanning across the room. What met him was destruction. The room lay in ruin. Furniture splintered. Blood smeared across the stone walls. A shattered table lay like a corpse in the center. Glass crunched under his boots. A dark pool soaked into the earth beneath his feet. Barek froze. His chest heaved slowly, each breath heavier than the last. Silence pressed down on him. Then—He screamed. "BOOOOOOOONNNN!!"