• A long time ago, on a small farm in Estonia, lived a poor farmer named Cassius and his wife and daughter. They loved each other dearly, despite their lack of wealth. Cassius and his wife were expecting a new baby to be born in a month, and were rejoicing. In order to meet the demands for yet another family member, Cassius had been working for up to nineteen hours a day, every day.
    One summer afternoon, Cassius made his weekly trip into town to sell crops, which had been extremely plentiful this month. Things were finally looking up for their family. Not only were the crops good, but he was bringing in a great deal of money that would allow his family to relocate into a better part of the country and finally pay off his debts, which he had another month to do. His wife was at home with their daughter. While she was pinning clothes on a line, her daughter ran off. She thought nothing of this, as they lived on a farm and it was quite safe there. When she finished her work, she headed back towards the house to start preparing dinner.
    As she grew closer to their house, she heard loud banging noises, like pots and pans falling. She quickened her step, and as she grew closer she saw a horse-drawn carriage that belonged to the government.
    She entered her house and was startled to see her daughter in the grasp of government officials.
    “What is this?!” she exclaimed.
    “You are wedded to Cassius Hanko, is that correct?” one of the men said.
    “Yes, yes I am,” she said quite startled.
    “Your debt to the Estonian government is now due.”
    His wife thought in her head and remembered her husband telling her that if a situation like this arose to try to make up a good excuse and leave as quickly as possible with the children.
    “I’m very sorry officers, my husband is coming home soon with money to pay you. If you could just be patient—“
    “You have had enough time, action needs to be taken,” the officer replied.
    Despite her kicking and screaming, the wife’s hands were tied behind her back with a rope. The officers took hold of her and her daughter and brought them outside. Once in the field, the officers brutally murdered the daughter and then went after the wife.
    “No, please…” she pleaded, tears streaming down her face. “Please… please.”
    The officers showed no mercy. They beat her to the ground. One held her down while the other took a dagger from his pocket. He lifted her petticoat up and proceeded to cut a vertical line down her stomach. In excruciating pain, she screamed as the officer removed the unborn, yet fully alive child from her womb.
    One officer took the baby and held it upside upside down as it began to cry. “Oh, what a sweet baby!” he said, and then cut its throat.
    “You monsters,” she bellowed.
    They then sadistically murdered her as they did her daughter.

    Cassius, returning from the village with presents for his wife and daughter, strode happily down the path. He entered his home, quite confused, as it looked like no one was home. His loving wife usually waited outside for him, but she was not there today. He ran into the house, noticing that it had been ransacked and that there were dried blood spots on the floor. Immediately thinking of his family, he ran into the back yard. There he saw his beloved wife and daughter, lying bloody on the ground. He kneeled down next to his wife, and noticed her stomach looking significantly smaller. He then looked under her blood stained dress to the horror that her stomach had been cut open and the baby removed. * Cassius searched for the baby, who seemed like it could have been peacefully sleeping at the time of extraction and found it with a cut throat, strewn a few feet away. * He screamed out the loving name for his wife, “Nolla,” as loud as he could.
    He searched outside and inside the house for who had committed this heinous crime. On the table, he saw a note stating that he owed a substantial amount of money to the government.
    Cassius sunk to his knees and cried. “This has to be a dream, this can’t be happening,” he said to himself.
    Then he felt anger. Cassius screamed so loud that it reached the highest heavens, but was only understood from the depth of Hell. He started screaming about the thing he wanted most: revenge.
    He then heard a voice; a deep, somewhat frightening, ominous voice.
    “You really want revenge?” it laughed.
    “Yes, yes, more than anything. I’ll do anything!” he replied.
    Laughing again, the voice said, “You will have revenge by your own actions, with my help, but only for a price.”
    “Fine, what do you want?”
    “Cut your palm with the nearest weapon and place it to the ground. The rest will take its course.”
    The voice faded away. Cassius did as he was told. He grabbed a Sickle; a simple tool used for reaping crops, cut his palms, and placed them to the ground. He felt a strange feeling come over him as he did so. Blinded with rage, Cassius saw flashes of death and corpses of dismembered men whom he could not decipher. After the flashes stopped, the blindness had cleared and he realized that he was standing near the officers who killed his wife and daughter.
    He saw the men talking.
    “Can you believe that poor, ignorant, fool?” one said.
    “Yeah, he really has nothing to live for now,” the other said, and they both laughed.
    Clearly insulted, Cassius appeared from behind them, now in their plain sight. They stared at him intently.
    “You killed my family.”
    Assuming this was Cassius Hanko, they defended themselves.
    “Government policy…” they stated.
    “You killed my family,” he repeated. “I have nothing left.”
    “Listen, this is what we—“
    “I will kill you.”
    At this point, the officers had their hands on their daggers and were standing up, ready to fight.
    “You took my life away, now I will take yours,” Cassius said.
    The battle was over in less than three minutes. Cassius, with the sickle, had successfully murdered both officers and their commanding troops, which had no part in the murders. He stood over their bodies, looking as though he had thoroughly enjoyed what he had just done, not only in serving his revenge, but the way that he artfully dismembered their now bloody bodies.
    Cassius heard the voice once more, but instead of fearing it, it came as a comforting sound, reminding him of his humanity. It laughed.
    “What’s so funny?” Cassius said.
    “Nothing,” the voice said. “Are you done?”
    “Yes.”
    “Is there anything else you need to take care of before coming with me?”
    “Yes, I wish to bury my family,” Cassius said on the verge of tears.
    Cassius then heard a rustling in the bushes coming from a few feet away. Tightening his grip on his sickle, he then realized that it was only two small children with blood-spattered clothing, for they had been too close to the battle. He caught their eye, only for a second, but it was long enough for them to see the hatred, yet pleasure, that filled his eyes. The children ran off into the darkness.
    Holding the sight of the children in his mind, he turned away and started his last walk on Earth towards his home, the sickle he fought with, now an extension of his body.

    The children ran screaming back to their town. Upon being questioned by their parents as to why their clothes were spattered with blood, they told them that they had just seen a horrific murder take place, caused by a man with fury, hate and desire running in his eyes. They also stated that he had a certain scent of decay and death about him. When they led them to the scene, the adults could not believe what they were seeing. The only way to describe the event that had taken place was a grim scene that you could only fathom in the most gruesome of a fairy tale. The men and women wished to name the man that murdered the officers, and through the description of the reaping tool and how this crime took place, they named him the Grim Reaper.
    Thus began the continuing legend of the Grim Reaper.