Belle knew, as clearly as she knew she couldn’t stay here for long, that the place where she had seen the plant was not inside this castle ground.
There had been tall dead trees around the surroundings, and the plant had been the only thing alive. However, since she couldn’t tell where and how to get there, they searched the entire castle ground and the dead garden, but to no avail. There was not a single plant that looked alive there.
"You can’t be here for long. The Watcher will soon sense your presence," came Kuhn’s warning in that strange dialect she seemed to understand in the land of the dead as they searched the last place that a plant could grow in the grounds, with Belle trying to catch her breath as she panted from all the running and searching.
"I can’t return without the plant. We should step out of the castle and look." She began to run towards the gate, but Kuhn caught her wrist.
"This land is dangerous. It’s superior to the land of the living. If you or I get caught, it will be the end of our lives. The punishment of the wanted is so severe. It will erase your complete existence, and every person who had known you will forget about you. It will be like you never existed in this world."
"But I am not wanted, you are the wanted one. I think you should go and let me handle—"
"You are wanted. The most wanted, more than I am. Look," Kuhn gestured towards the gate, where creepers had curled all around the iron, and Belle looked towards it and let out a gasp at a sight she had failed to notice until now.
"Oh my..." she muttered as she stared at carved written words planted on the gate that read, "The living girl who comes into this land must be apprehended when seen. Wanted by the elder."
"The elders want you," Kuhn added. "And this is not only written here, but in every place of this land. I have been wanted for a long time, but you have sparked their curiosity enough to get the elders’ attention."
None of them could afford to get caught, Kuhn thought. If he got caught, the elder Grim had the ability to see through the memories he had gathered throughout his entire life. They would look through it and trace the human to the living world. Not only that, he had too many secrets about his master he could not afford to give away.
His memories must not be seen by the elders.
The Grim Reapers could not identify a human by their face but by their aura, not unless they died and their soul get harvested would their appearance be clear to them. To the Grims, all humans were the same, which was why the Watcher had not been able to give what she looked like to the others to find her.
But Kuhn couldn’t let her fall into their hands, as it was as good as him falling there. Their lives were intertwined in a way that if one got caught, the other would get caught.
Belle had so many questions she wanted to ask the creature about why they wanted her and what made it possible for her to be able to come into this land when she was very much alive in the land of the living, but then she knew it wasn’t the right time to stand and talk when she had a purpose for being here this time.
She asked instead, "How long does it take the Grim Reapers to sense someone’s presence?"
"The longest is one hour, not unless you cause chaos that will make them notice you quickly. You have one hour, and you have used thirty-two minutes," he told her.
Reapers and their pets were good at keeping track of time even without their watch, as it was their life duty to keep time of the living until the day they would die.
Every single person, from the moment they were born, their time began to count by the reaper assigned to them. When the clock ticks, it would be the end of their time in the other world, and their souls would be escorted here by the reaper.
Knowing she did not have much time left, Belle and Kuhn hurried out of the gates and stepped out of the castle into a dense, cold fog that swallowed them and made it impossible for her to see where she was even going. She turned to see that Kuhn was lost amidst the fog, and she could not see him.
"Keep going. I will find you," came Kuhn’s words from somewhere in the blinding thick fog.
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