“I'm fine,” he said, because he knew Greg wanted to ask. “I didn't cry because I was upset. At least, I don't think so.”
“Okay,” Greg said.
Dustin glanced at him. “Okay?”
“You're not sure.” Greg turned to him. “That's okay. Human emotions are confusing.” He nodded to himself. “I feel a lot of confusing things too.”
“Do you?”
Greg lowered his gaze. “Yes.”
Dustin didn't press him on it. His thoughts were still elsewhere. “Can I see ghosts now?”
“That wasn't a ghost,” Greg said.
“Whatever it was, I'm pretty sure I shouldn't have been able to see it.”
“True,” Greg confirmed. “I don't know why you could. It might be because you've been marked for collection and your soul is... closer to the surface than most people's. Or it might be because I was there, and you've been exposed to me long enough that…” He stopped and shook his head. “I don't know.”
Dustin let that sit, unsure what to make of it all.
His thoughts kept circling back to the moment Marco had vanished. “Where did he go?”
Greg lifted an eyebrowin question.
“Marco,” Dustin clarified. “Where did he go at the end?”
“Oh. He went where all souls go.”
“And where is that?”
“The source.” Greg said it as if it was self-explanatory.
Dustin tilted his head at him. “Do you realize that that means nothing to me?”
“It's a good place,” Greg said. “It's peaceful.”
Peaceful.
Dustin pondered that.
“Everysoul goes there?”
“Almost all souls,” Greg confirmed.
“And is there always… at the end…” Dustin struggled to phrase his question, suddenly. He tried again. His voice came out rough. “When someone dies in an accident, like a fall, and it happens very quickly, is there always a reaper there?”
Greg turned to him fully. “Always,” he said with emphasis. “It doesn't matter if it's sudden. We're always there.”
Dustin nodded, unable to speak past the lump that was forming in his throat.
“He wasn't alone,” Greg said quietly. “I promise you, Dustin. He wasn't alone at the end.”
Dustin closed his eyes.
For a moment, he let himself imagine it. Tyler, falling. A hand reaching out to catch him. A voice sayingI've got you. It's okay. Look.
It didn'tfixanything. It didn't bring Tyler back. It didn't undo three years of grief and guilt and the cold certainty that his brother's death had been fast and violent.
