Between the speed and the angle of the sidewalk, I was airborne. “Oooooohhhh, fuuuuucccck!”
Porch lights came on.
I didn’t notice the nativity scene until gravity took hold. I didn’t stick the landing.
My ass hit the edge of the manger, catapulting a faded plastic Baby Jesus. I watched it sail for about two seconds. That was just long enough for my head to hit something hard. After that, I didn’t know anything until I woke up in the hospital.
Chapter Three
Grym
Iwas the cautious one among the reapers. Of all the reapers, Ossy made the stupidest choices. And Cael was the most levelheaded until someone pissed him off. Then everyone had better get out of his way or be collateral damage.
That was why, when Ossy called me to bail him out again, I called Cael. But Cael was also ferrying a soul to the afterlife, just as I was, so I had to take care of the Ossy problem myself.
The hospital was our usual haunt for obvious reasons. The doctors and nurses could do only so much. Then we took over.
I was already at the hospital when Ossy texted.SOS.
I stood in my next soul's hospital room, waiting for his final breath. His family gathered at his bedside. In a few seconds, he’d take his last breath, and when that happened, it would be my job to escort him into the afterlife.
The man had lived a good life. He’d worked hard, growing a business and taking care of his family. He hadn’t had it very easy. He was on the lower end of middle class. Of his three children, only his oldest son had a good life. He was proud of his oldest son. His daughter was in prison for a crime I couldn’t seewith my reaper’s knowing. The man had blocked out the reason for his daughter’s incarceration, so I couldn’t get a read from him either. His youngest son lived with him and his wife because he had a severe mental illness. The illness was debilitating, leaving him without a normal life. And the man, who wasn’t quite gone yet, had an ache in his heart for the life his youngest son would never have.
The man’s chest lifted, and then the air left his lungs in one final exhale. His soul left his body, and the man, standing in a hospital gown, met my gaze. “It’s over, yeah?”
“Yes, Frederic. This part of your life is over. Something new awaits you in the afterlife.”
“Will Carrie be with me?” Carrie was Frederic’s wife. She sat in a chair, tears streaming down her face as she clutched her husband’s hand.
“She’ll follow you. Eventually. It’s not her time yet. Time moves differently here than it does in the afterlife.” I wasn’t sure how I knew what time was like in the afterlife. My job was to lead souls to the door. It wasn’t to walk through with them, so I’d never actually been on the other side of the door.
“So, it will be years before I see her again?” Frederic blinked back the tears and stood behind his wife. He leaned down and whispered in her ear. “I’ll see you again, love. We’ll have our eternity. Don’t you worry.”
And they would be together forever after a brief separation. In their younger days, they dreamed of owning a house on the beach where they could listen to the waves in the mornings and watch the sunset every evening. They had never been able to afford such a lavish life, but they would have it in the afterlife.
Frederic had been misguided in his life a time or two, but overall, he was a good man. Souls like his were why I took my job so seriously.
Frederic met my gaze. “My pain is gone. All except for my heart.”
“That’s just the love you feel for them. And they feel it for you. It hurts sometimes.” I’d ferried enough souls to know that love was painful when souls were separated. People often thought of death as the end, which I suppose it was in some ways. It was the end of a life in one realm, but the beginning in the next. Souls moved on. Some got what they’d wanted in the living realm. Some didn’t. I wasn’t sure who decided how each soul lived after I took them to the afterlife. It must be another department in the Bureau, above my pay grade. Perhaps it was Donn, the god who headed the Soul Management Bureau.
“Are you ready?” I smiled at Frederic, trying to ease his mind. “It’s okay to be.”
“I don’t know.” Frederic glanced at his son. “Will he be all right?”
“I’m afraid knowing that is beyond me.” That was also above my pay grade. I didn’t even know if we had a department that documented a person’s life before they’d lived it.
“And it’s my time to die?”
“No one truly dies. We simply move on to something else.”
“Something better?”
“For you? Yes. But that isn’t true for everyone.”
“Why do I get something better while others don’t?”
I didn’t have an answer for him, but I was saved from having to answer when Ossy barreled into the room.
