Under Her Cursed Scythe

"Alivia! Alivia! Alivia!" came a grating female voice. "Wake up at this instant! Else, you will be sleeping in the cell for two nights!"

It was 4 o'clock in the morning. 4 hours since Alivia Hestia went to bed.

"Yes, mother." she lifted her heavy upper eyelids and drawled.

With drooping lips, straight sparse brows and grey eyes that sunk into the sockets, Alivia bore a natural expression of sullen distaste on her diamond-shaped face.

'Why can't she just let me sleep for a few more minutes? A few more minutes won't hurt!' She ruffled her ash brown curly hair roughly and grumbled at the back of her head.

But regardless of her discontent and tiredness, she dared not say "no" to the voice on the other side of the door.

"Hurry up! And do remember to bring down the lantern with you!" the woman yelled.

"Coming..." Alivia still sounded groggy.

With the biggest effort, she dragged herself out of the bed. She grabbed the oil lantern keychain beside her and sauntered down the stairs into the secret dungeon of the house.

"What took you so long?"

As she stepped into the first room in the dungeon where everything was in the colour of black and dusty grey, the woman whom she called mother, snatched the key chain and chided, "You do remember we have to hide the souls before the sun rises, right?"

"I do, mother." Alivia responded in an undertone.

How could she ever forget that day, watching those glowing orbs passing through the glass, "escaping" from the oil lantern without a reasonable explanation, floating towards the bright daylight and disappearing among the brightness. She and her mother could neither explain the cause of it nor do anything to stop it from happening, for their fingers were burnt by the sunlight whenever they attempted to touch them as though the sun was protecting the souls. All Alivia could do was listen to her mother shouting the phrase, "You Moron!", for hours with an anger-twisted face.

"And you do know what will happen if we don't have enough souls by the 31st, right? Gone! Everything we've worked for will be gone! Puff! ALL GONE! " her mother lectured while giving her a hard stern stare that could melt ice. "You don't want Lord Beelzebub to gobble up your brother's soul, do you?"

'Soul? I doubt that zombie has one' Alivia thought and rolled her eyes.

Her mother tapped the key chain three times and the oil lantern enlarged, returning to its original size.

"One...two...urgh! Why do they always stick together? Three..." she began to calculate the number of glowing orbs in the oil lantern gingerly and every number coming out of her lips sent a shudder of fear through Alivia's body.

"Five... five souls!" The result was revealed.

With that being said, Alivia's tensed shoulders loosened immediately and she looked up at her mother with anticipation blazing in her eyes, hoping that her mother could complement or at least, give her a smile. However, not even a softening of expression was found on her mother's face as she walked passed Alivia. It was until she approached the boy who was laying on the comfy navy coloured double bed that was twice the size of the old ragged single bed Alivia was sleeping in, and with clean, warm sheets instead of damp moldy ones -that a wide grin finally spread across her face.

"Five souls! Five!" her mother told the boy agitatedly. "Rest assured, my son. We just need twenty more, and you will be fine and well again!" She hugged the boy tightly. "Don't ever leave me like your father. You are all I have." Her voice became wobbly and her eyes were watery.