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He thinks about it for a couple of seconds, then sighs. “Fine. You can come along. But stay out of my way and don’t talk.” I nod in agreement, even though we both know I will probably be in his way, and I will definitely be talking.
He walks out the door with me trailing him. “What is your plan?” I ask.
“Catch the escaped souls and bring them back to the Hell department.” I roll my eyes at his obvious response.
“I can feel you rolling your eyes.”
I let out a laugh. “I was not trying to hide it. But like, what is the plan for how you are going to catch the souls? You don’t know where any of them are.”
“We are going to have to use our brains. I pulled up the reports of all the missing souls on my phone. They were released onto Earth, so we are going to have to hunt them down.” He stops in front of a silver door and scans his tattoo at the sensor. The sensor turns green, and the door slides open.
“You all don’t have a device that can track them?” I ask. That would make things way easier.
“Yes, but the device tells us the general area. Not exactly where they are at. Also, souls can teleport about ten to twenty feet, so it can be hard trying to catch them. That is why we are here.”
“And where is here?” I glance around. I see a room with racks of different weapons with a scanner at the side. I turn to my left and see a huge golden sword. Without realizing it, I’ve moved towards it, but something tugs at the collar of my suit jacket. I look behind me to see Aiden holding onto me. I try to pry myself out of his grip, but his hold on me tightens.
“Don’t touch anything, and stay next to me,” he warns, still holding onto me.
I pout. “I wasn’t going to touch it. I just wanted to—”
He raises an eyebrow. “Why am I always repeating myself to you?” I huff and cross my arms, not saying anything in reply.
“The easiest way to catch and store multiple souls is by using a scythe. Since you are coming with me, you will get one too,” Aiden informs me. Oh, I am so freaking excited! I will be like an unofficial reaper. Maybe being a reaper was my dream job. The only requirement is dying and neutral karma.
Not bad.
Aiden finally releases me with a pointed look. He walks up to the wall, scanning his tattoo, and a locker opens. Inside are a couple of scythes. I would be amazed, but the problem is that they are the size of a pen. This has got to be a joke, and yet again, not a funny one.
I place my hands on my hips and sarcastically ask, “What the hell am I going to do with a pen sized scythe? Write them a love letter?”
Aiden smirks and holds out the scythe. “Scythe, extend,” he commands. Like magic, the scythe goes from pen-sized to a full-on scythe.
“Holy shit!” I exclaim. Now that is a weapon. I hold out my hand in excitement. “Gimme.”
He chuckles and hands me the other pen sized scythe. I am going to kick ass with this.
Holding the scythe in my hand, I command, “Scythe, extend.” The pen expands into a full-blown scythe in my hand. I am admiring it when a thought comes to me.
“Wait. How do I get it to shrink?” I ask, looking up at him to see him already looking at me.
He holds out his scythe. “Scythe, retract.” I watch as his scythe turns pen-sized again.
I repeat what he said, and mine retracts. We both place our scythes inside our suit jackets. Aiden moves to place a hand on my shoulder. I quickly dodge it, startled by the sudden movement.
He rolls his eyes at me. “Joyce, I don’t bite.” He smirks. “Unless you want me to.”
My eyes widen in embarrassment. “Uh, w-what,” I shake my head and clear my throat cause no way am I going to let a man fluster me. “I was not expecting you to do that. It was a reflex of mine.”
Aiden lips twitches, “Okay, well. Let’s try this again.” He places his hand on my shoulder and teleports us behind a building, then takes a step away from me.
11
WHO HASN’T MADE MISTAKES?
Aiden pulls his phone from his pocket. I watch as he scrolls, a frown on his face as he focuses. His face slightly relaxes when he finds what he was looking for.
“Got it,” he announces, not yet looking up from his phone.
