“We're fine,” Dustin said. He let the manager help him to his feet. Then he reached down and pulled Greg up, one-handed, and didn't let go of his arm.
Greg glanced around the shop.
Valerie was gone.
They walked out of Garrett's Grocery without paying for their groceries—the manager had insisted.
The truck was where they'd left it. The sun was still out. The sky was still that relentless Colorado blue, which seemed wrong. Things should look different after you'd phased through a shelf and tackled someone out of the path of a collapsing steel unit.
The world should at least have the decency to change its lighting.
Greg didn't voice this thought as he climbed into the truck.
His clipboard was on the seat where he'd left it.
He picked it up.
Before he even checked, he could tell that something had changed.
He looked at Dustin's page. He tried to, at least.
He couldn't find it.
Dustin's file had been removed from imminent collection—at least that was what Greg hoped.
“Your file is gone,” Greg said. His voice sounded strange to his own ears. “I think the system recalculated.”
Dustin looked at him. “What does that mean?”
“It means you're going to die of old age.” Greg closed his eyes for a moment and breathed. “I think. If you're not careless about it. You could live your whole life.”
Dustin didn't respond right away. He sat with his hands on the wheel and his jaw working and pasta sauce drying on his shoulder.
“I couldn't tell you,” Greg explained. “Because if you knew, you wouldn't have gone. Or you would have tried to outsmart it. And the system might have counted it as cheating.” He looked down at the clipboard. “I wanted to do for you what you did for Sarah Meadows.”
Dustin's hand tightened on the steering wheel. “What does it mean for you?”
Greg didn't answer.
“Greg. What does it mean for you? What happens to a reaper who blocks a collection?”
“I don't think I'm a reaper anymore.” He knew the words were true as he said them.
Dustin turned in his seat. “What?”
“I interfered with a scheduled collection. I used my abilities to prevent a death the system had authorized. That's...” Greg shook his head. “The system won't take me back.”
“Are you going to dissolve?”
“I don't know.”
“Is the demon going to come for your soul?”
“I don't know that either.”
“Then what do you know?” Dustin's voice was tight and his eyes were narrow. “What part of this did you actually think through?”
“None of it,” Greg admitted.
