Shadows covered Leon street as the temperature took another sharp dip. With no living breathing person in sight the silence turned deafening. Elias could hear nothing except the rapid beating of his heart.

He took in deep breaths to calm himself as he finished up the runes.

With the second rune complete, Elias watched the entire bloody art light up in awe. He knew he was safe now yet he found it impossible to relax.

"Of course we aren't alone. That's why we are here, no?" Elias talked to himself as he studied the darkening street.

Elias observed the vestige of a once bustling street. The only thing left now were crumbling buildings that looked like they would topple over any day. If you peeked at the shattered windows you would swear you saw someone looking back. An atmosphere so suffocating, it felt like the whole street wanted it known that the living weren’t allowed in this place.

Why am I doing this again? Oh yeah, to keep my own soul.

Elias broke out of his daze when he heard distanced voices. He gulped, if the graveyard was anything to go by then it was about time he got surrounded by hundred ghosts.

It certainly didn't feel as empty as before.

Yet no matter how much he waited nothing happened. The whispers remained faint and distant, no ghost materialised out of thin air.

"Thomas, buddy. I could really use some ghostly insights right now." Elias muttered as he tried to locate the source of the whispers.

"Facking hells! Ya git! you had to draw your funny circles right in the centre of their lair."

"What are you talking about?" Elias said. It still felt like the whispers were everywhere and nowhere.

"Sssh! Ya thick skulled necromancer. Ya need to understand we are in deep waters, their waters. Do yer facking thing before they chew us up!"

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

Elias shook his head at the information, the ghostly hitchhiker had been panicking for a while now.

Right then Elias heard something stumbling behind him. Snapping in that direction he caught the sight of a woman seated on the road with her back facing him.

"What the…?"

Surprised by the woman Elias did not see the rock flying towards him. Which hit him in the back of the head making him almost fall outside the protective runes.

Covering his head Elias crouched down. He felt his fingers get wet when he ran it through his hair. His head was spinning from the pain. He knew the rock had left a gash.

"Fuckin…Motherfuckers!"

Elias heard another set of footsteps but this time he ducked at the right time to see a few rocks fly by. Missing him by a few inches.

"Oi, Necromancer. The sharks are gathering better start working your magic." Thomas chimed in sounding as urgent as a ghost could possibly manage. And luckily for him Thomas didn't have to say it twice.

Gritting his teeth, Elias who only saw red, yelled, "In the name of Grim. I command thee, defilers of the great cycle to reveal yourselves."

After he yelled, all the strange footsteps, whispers of the eerie street fell back into silence.

Elias wasn't finished with just that. Even though his head was throbbing he still repeated the previous words louder.

Grim, the reaper of souls. Every undead under the sun felt a primal fear towards this ancient god.

With their existences tied so close to karma, if these lingering souls didn't enter the cycle of reincarnation in time the weight of karma would drag them into the astral plane. The reaper's domain.

Two times, Elias smiled when he saw that nothing changed in the eerie street. He had evoked the name of the reaper twice. And according to the grimoire, any spirit that dared to hide after the third evocation. Well, losing your grip and slipping into the astral plane would be the least of their worries.

Even so evocations weren't something any mudane human could use. Categorised as a spell by the magus association it took huge amounts of mana. Depending on the type of god even an ancient magus who wasn't a devout worshipper would have had to think twice before using evocations.

Elias fell on his ass, he was bleeding and the pain made him dizzy. If it wasn't for the rune beneath him supplying him with mana. Halfway through the first evocation he would have dropped dead.

As for the third evocation? That was never in the cards for him. Trying to bring an ancient god's attention to himself with little to no mana? He knew a hundred better ways for committing suicide.

Ignoring the dimming runes beneath him Elias ripped the sleeve of his shirt and tied it around his head. If exhaustion from burning up so much mana did not make him pass out the blood loss will.

His sight kept blurring, he had somehow managed to land in the worst case scenario. It was then he saw the woman again.

Among the debris she sat on the broken cobblestone with her back to him.

Elias rubbed his eyes before speaking, "The picture published in the newspaper this morning, you were wearing the same silky gown."

He paused, to make sure he was seeing the correct floral embroidery on the dress. "You never even knew that date with your boyfriend would turn out to be your last."

She turned her head slowly, her hair covered her face making every second of the turn more suspenseful.

Elias gulped as he had his eyes trained on her. He remembered the sunny smile on the bubbly woman he saw in the newspaper.

And soon he came face to face with the latest victim of Leon street. And the sight made him gag.

A face turned black and blue from deep bruises. Lacerations ran along the edges of her face, bleeding black blood. She had her face turned to him but she couldn't see him with those eyes that were swollen shut.

Her nose crushed, her jaw dislocated, which made Elias gag again at the grotesque remnant of a once beautiful face. Every tooth was shattered in that gaping maw of hers.

Suppressing the urge to vomit, Elias spoke, "Nice to meet you, Phoebe Lawler."