Under Her Cursed Scythe

It turned out that swarthy figure which appeared from the ritual that night was the spirit-form of a daemon, Lord Beelzebub, one of the seven princes and princesses of Hell, whose physical body was trapped behind the Gates of Hell like most daemons.

Alivia's mother had made a deal with it which contained the benefits of restarting Luke's heart and keeping him alive and well for as long as she desired with an elixir that was said to contain a special kind of life forces. However, in return, she had to provide it with adequate amount of human souls as its food supply.

Every Halloween was the day where the Gates of Hell would open and Lord Beelzebub in its physical form would come and collect the debts or at any rate, enjoy its feast until the gates closed again and dragged it back in.

Overwhelmed by the happiness of Luke's return, Alivia's mother had totally forgotten about the deal so when the daemon sent a reminder to her on the 22nd of October, 2003 [9 days before Halloween], she fell into despair once again. She knew if she couldn't gather enough souls before the 31st of October, Luke would become that cold stagnant body again and no daemons would help her to resurge her son again owing to her bad reputation...Hence, she left the house for three consecutive days after receiving the message and when she eventually returned, she came home bearing "gifts" -a ruby ring, one leather glove and shrinkable antique oil lanterns with one already packed with glowing figures.

While other little girls received dolls and candies on their 8th birthdays, Alivia received hunting gears and a killer weapon on hers.

Sitting on the dining table, her mother introduced, ", Dearie... this is the Reaper's ring. It contains magic!" Her finger pushed the ruby ring at Alivia. "I know you have been holding a grudge towards the fact that I am handing down the family grimoire to Luke, not you…" She paused to take a deep breath before she carried on her sentence, "That's why, I have decided to give you this ring from our family's heritage…"

Her mother opened her family's grimoire that contained all the magical spells that her family had been collecting for centuries, and flipped to a page with the title of "Grim Reaper's ring".

In fact, Alivia was quick-witted enough to understand the underlying meaning of her mother's question. But she had never been fond of the idea of taking other's lives in that she pushed her mother's hand away from her and compressed her lips.

However, before she conjured enough courage to voice out the word "no" to her mother, her mother embraced her and said, less obliquely this time, "Dearie, listen to me. I know it's a lot to ask from an eight-year-old like you but only the blood of the pure ones can activate and use the powers within it...I have tried my best to gather souls on my own," With one hand, she pulled out the shirt that was filled with crimson red "paint" that didn't belong to her, showing it to Alivia while she carried on, "I will never ask you to help me if I can do it myself. But retrieving these five souls took me three days! Without the help of the Reaper's ring, I can't always carry out my promise to the daemon and pretty soon, the deal will be-" She breathed a sigh and her other hand that was wrapped around Alivia tightened. "Dearie, If you are willing to help me, you are not only saving your brother... but also me." she stressed. "You know I can't live without either of you. I will be crushed again! Oh please, dearie! Please! Luke needs you…We need you!" Her voice remotely shuddered and her hands roughly raked through Alivia's hair, again and again.