Free Don't Fear The Reaper by Lex Sinclair

than
past the cloak. It stood before me, and although it had no face that I could
see or no eyes I knew without clarification that it was observing me with
intent. I could feel it, the way some people know they are going to die shortly
before they die.
    ‘It raised an arm that was almost the same height as my entire body and a
skeletal finger jutted from the sleeve. It pointed towards the accident, and it
was then I knew what had caused Larry’s heart attack.
    ‘Then the dark figure turned back to me and pointed with that same
gnarled, ancient finger at my stomach and raised its scythe, showing me the
curved, razor-sharp blade and pretended to run its blade across my womb, inches
away from actually doing it.
    ‘I started crying then. And when this darkest of figures reached out to
me with its skeletal hand and filled my vision I was certain I was going to
die.
    ‘Then I woke up…’
    As soon as he’d heard the description of the Grim Reaper Perkins felt the
volcanic grasp seizing his thudding heart, threatening to burst it into a river
of molten lava.
    ‘What’s the matter? You look like you’ve seen a ghost?’ Nadine said,
searching his eyes.
    ‘S-Sorry,’ he stammered. ‘Just found it disturbing, that’s all.’
    ‘What d’you think it means?’
    ‘I don’t know…’
    Perkins couldn’t fathom how his sister was enduring the same visionary
dreams as he had. Also, he couldn’t rationalise why he didn’t confide in Nadine
regarding what he’d dreamt. This wasn’t coincidental. This meant something, but
for the life of him he couldn’t begin to guess what. However, the presence of
Death and the fact that Larry had died while driving in an unpredicted fog were
signs that suggested a sinister presence.  
    ‘Seriously, what are you thinking about?
    His sister’s voice came to him as though a whisper reverberating down a
tunnel. ‘No one is gonna get your baby,’ he said in a husky voice. Once he’d
cleared his throat he added: ‘What happened to Larry was just the shittiest
kinda luck anyone could ever have. I can’t help wondering though, why he didn’t
wait for the fog to disperse.’
    ‘According to his friends in The Crown, the fog did ease off,’ Nadine
said. ‘He must’ve been rushing home to be with me. I told him not to.’
    ‘It’s not your fault before you start blaming yourself. I won’t say everything’s
gonna be all right, ’cause it’ll never be right again. But your baby needs you
now more than ever. Now how ’bout a hug?’
    Nadine offered a meek smile and held her brother, and wept…
     

9.
     
     
     
    THE MAN IN
THE RAINCOAT who had been watching the house of the Death’s chosen one,
moved through the alleyways, instinctively knowing where he was going without
paying any heed. The rain had eased and sometime before midnight he’d left his
position by the streetlight and headed back where he’d come.
    His shoes click, clacked on the concrete, loud in the alleyway.
The towering buildings on either side concealed any light from the streets
getting in. Dark shadows reigned supreme in the hollow backstreet, and nothing
more. A fitful wind harried small funnels of discarded litter along the rutted
surface.
    Tonight, however, the man in the raincoat walking briskly and heard the
sounds of hastened scuffling somewhere in the bowels of the night. He halted
and stood motionless, ears prickling, trying to pick any minute sounds that
would give away the predator’s exact position.
    Raucous laughter disturbed the dark alley and shattered the silence.
    The man in the raincoat moved forward then stopped again.
    ‘What the fuck was that?’ one male voice asked, startled.
    ‘Fuck should I know.’
    ‘You’re the one with the torch, man.’
    A cone of yellow radiant light pierced the alley and passed the man in
the raincoat’s face.
    ‘Whoa, shit!’
    ‘Hey, man. What the fuck ya doing standing there, like Michael Myers?’
    The man in the raincoat, sodden from the