Authors: Alicia Dean
Cassie studied her like she might study a difficult math problem in school. “You’re a really, really nice person, aren’t you? How did you get that way?”
Audra blinked in confusion. “Excuse me? How did I get that way?”
“I mean, the world is a pretty mean place. It’s easier to survive if you’re mean too. But you’re not. What made you the way you are?”
Audra frowned. Not the conversation she’d expect from an underage lawbreaker.
“I don’t know exactly how to answer that. But let’s talk about getting you home.”
“Hey, pretty lady, how about a dance?” The voice came from behind Audra, cutting her off.
She looked up to find a large, looming, hairy man hovering over her. A T-shirt with a headless stick figure and the words
Need Head
stretched over his big belly. A tattoo of a dagger on his neck was partially hidden beneath his thick beard.
“No, thank you.” She turned away from him.
He moved over to stand next to her, too close, making her feel smothered, even in an overcrowded, smoky bar. “Aw, come on. If not a dance, maybe we can just get to know each other. Is this seat taken?” He pointed to Cassie’s chair.
“Is it taken?” Cassie was sitting in the chair. Was he so drunk he couldn’t see?
His teeth flashed amidst a thatch of unkempt facial hair. “You’re a pretty little thing, but dumb as a bag of rocks. And not even blonde.” He held out his hands as if in surrender. “No offense now, I like my women dumb. I think me and you will get along just fine.”
Cassie said, “Jesus. I bet you do prefer your women dumb. That’s the only way you can get laid.”
Audra expected him to spring at the girl and spew some poetic line, maybe something like,
“How about I show you another use for that smart mouth of yours, little girl?”
before he knocked her across the room.
Instead, he acted as though she hadn’t said a word.
“I been watching you,” he told Audra. “No need to sit over here and talk to yourself all lonely and shit when I’m right here. So, can I sit or not?”
Audra glanced at the girl. Cassie jabbed a finger in her open mouth and simulated gagging.
The guy leaned in close to Audra. “I tell you what, instead of sitting, how about me and you go find someplace quiet?”
“Oh, brother.” Cassie rolled her eyes. “This asshole’s a real piece of work.”
Audra tensed, waiting for his reaction. Sasquatch didn’t blink.
“I don’t want...you need to...” Audra trailed off, her mind racing.
Something was off here. The guy thought Audra was talking to herself? He acted like the girl wasn’t even there. Like he didn’t even see her.
Didn’t even see her...
Audra’s eyes widened, and she jerked her gaze to Cassie. “Fuck me,” she whispered. “You’re a reaper.”
“What was that?” The guy squinted into Audra’s face. “I get the ‘fuck me’ part. I’m all about that. What the fuck else did you say?”
Audra’s heart galloped, and she struggled to breathe as she stared at Cassie. She didn’t know why meeting her was such a shock. Reapers had become almost commonplace in her life. But somehow, this young, innocent-looking girl being a reaper was unsettling. Tragic.
“Hey, are you deaf or just stupid?” The asshole again. “I asked what you said.”
Audra found her voice, speaking without looking at the man. “Nothing. Just go away. You’re starting to piss me off.”
“Piss
you
off? You ain’t seen pissed off. And I ain’t going away. You just said ‘fuck me,’ and I ain’t never turned down no offer like that.”
A male voice from somewhere above Audra’s head said, “You’re turning it down now, pal. Get lost.”
Audra looked up to find Ron standing next to Sasquatch. He grinned sheepishly and set her wine glass in front of her. “Sorry about earlier. I’ll get rid of this guy. I think dealing with one dickhead this evening was enough for you. I’m just in a piss-ass mood. Shouldn’t have taken it out on you.”
“No problem.” She smiled gratefully.
“Oh, well ain’t this just the sweetest thing.” Sasquatch bunched his fists and put his nose nearly against Ron’s. “You just move along, fuckface. I got this.”
Ron reached out so quickly, Audra didn’t know he’d moved. Neither did Sasquatch, until Ron had his testicles in his grip. The man cried out, his face coloring a deep shade of red. Audra glanced around, but no one seemed aware of the testosterone-laden demonstration.
“Listen,
fuckface
.” Ron’s jaw tightened as he spoke into Sasquatch’s ear. “I haven’t always been a bartender. I was in Special Forces, and I can do things to you that would make you go crying to your momma. I’ve had a very bad week. So don’t fuck with me. Got it?”
“Got it,” Sasquatch whimpered through clenched teeth.
Ron released him. “Now, let’s let this lady enjoy the rest of her evening. She wants to drink alone. I think it’s time you head on home.”
The man nodded jerkily and lurched away, holding his hands to his crotch.
“Thanks.” Audra smiled up at Ron.
He gave her a little salute and returned to his post behind the bar.
Drink alone,
he’d said. He hadn’t seen the girl either. No wonder she’d gotten away with being in a bar.
When Audra spoke, she barely moved her lips, so that people around them wouldn’t think she was talking to herself. “Another reaper. Exactly what I needed. Why are you here?”
Cassie shrugged. “We heard about the chick who could see us. I wanted to check it out for myself. You really can.”
“That’s just awesome.” Audra barked out a sarcastic laugh. “Now I’ll be inundated with reapers.”
“No. Probably not. I’m a newbie. Still in training. The others are less curious. They’ll do their job. Most of them will leave you alone.” Cassie leaned forward and sipped from her straw. At least she wasn’t
lifting
the drink. Audra was already talking to herself, the last thing she needed was a levitating bar glass.
“Should you be drinking at your age?” Audra asked.
“It’s not really an issue. Reapers can mimic human activities, but the effects—pleasure, pain, discomfort, all that stuff—are dulled. We can’t quite experience things like humans can. Besides, who the fuck cares? You think I might get in trouble with the cops? My parents?” She looked away, and Audra caught the shimmer of tears in her eyes. “They didn’t give a fuck about me when I was alive. Wouldn’t now, either.”
In spite of being one of the walking dead, the girl was also a troubled teen. Audra reached out to place a hand over hers but drew back. She’d almost forgotten. She couldn’t touch her.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I know what it’s like to have a bad childhood.”
That wasn’t entirely true. Thanks to Jaxon’s parents, she’d mostly had a good childhood. Good, that is, if you didn’t count the ‘watching her mother die as a toddler and occasional visits by her abusive, sociopath father’ thing.
Cassie blinked rapidly, trying not to cry. “Sorry. I didn’t appear to you just so I could get all Emo and stuff. I’m okay now.”
“Cassie, listen. No offense, but I’m not sure I can deal with another reaper just yet. I kind of have my hands full with the two I’ve got now.”
“You don’t want me around?” Her large blue eyes were bright with unshed tears.
Shame washed over her. The girl had probably been kicked around enough in life, Audra didn’t need to continue the cycle of rejection in death. But, for shit’s sake, she couldn’t handle much more of the supernatural drama her world had become.
“It’s not that. It’s just...”
“Don’t worry. I’m not going to cause any problems.” She stared sullenly into her glass. “I wanted to talk to you about Dimitri.”
“What about him?”
Cassie leaned forward, spreading her hands on the tabletop. Her nails were sparkling purple, the tips painted white.
Fleetingly, Audra wondered if her nails had been that way when she died, or if there was some kind of reaper nail shop, maybe a full-service beauty salon with the slogan,
Just because you’re dead, doesn’t mean you have to look it.
“Dimitri’s good,” Cassie went on, interrupting Audra’s flight of absurdity. “Trust me. He’s like...a legend in our world.”
“You must be desperate for legends in the beyond.”
Cassie grinned. “Come on, you like him. If you don’t, trust me, you will. He’s kind of hard to resist.”
“I don’t find it all that difficult to resist someone who brings death wherever he goes.”
Audra took a sip of her wine, glancing around to see if any suspicious glances were being cast her way. Her eyes fell on a familiar figure sitting on a barstool. A brown ponytail hung down her back, and she wore black scrubs. Audra could just make out the profile, a sharp nose and non-existent chin.
Shit
. Mary Lou. Earlier, Mary Lou had mentioned that her daughter, Camellia, was with her father for the weekend. Her mother probably couldn’t stand to go home to an empty house, so she’d come here instead.
Lovely.
Right now, Mary Lou’s attention was on the album she held as she flipped through pages—pages that no doubt held photos of her darling daughter. Ron was her captive audience and the poor man’s expression was that of someone being tortured. Although he’d rescued Audra earlier, she wasn’t about to return the favor. She hoped Mary Lou would stay occupied long enough that she wouldn’t notice her. Or, at least wouldn’t notice that she was ‘talking to herself.’ Audra certainly didn’t need that noted on her recent incident reports.
She pulled her attention back to the conversation, keeping an eye on Mary Lou in her peripheral.
“It’s not like that. Dimitri doesn’t
bring death
.” Cassie scowled and shook her head. “If it wasn’t him, it would be someone else. Death is inevitable.”
“So, why all this gushing over the guy? Is he your...” She’d been about to say
lover
. That was just wrong. Sick and wrong. The child wasn’t even eighteen. Audra didn’t want to know if that were the case. Besides, could reapers take lovers? Only with each other, obviously, but could they even do that?
“Dimitri’s my trainer,” Cassie said. “He’s teaching me how to reap.”
“How to reap? It’s not just an inborn thing like eating, sleeping, using a computer?”
She giggled. “No. Before you decide if you want to become a reaper instead of meeting whatever fate waits for you on the other side, they make you go with them to see if you can handle it. It’s tough. The people...” Her face took on a faraway expression, and she shuddered. “They don’t wanna go. It takes time to learn how to coax them, how to make them feel safe.”
“So...you mean Gaylen trains reapers, too? Jesus. That’s scary.”
“No. He’s outside the rules. Since he takes people before their time, the ones he takes aren’t given an option to become a reaper. They just go to their destiny. If a soul
is
given the option to become a reaper, they’re trained by the reaper who took them. And the only way they’ll be given the option is if they have something to atone for, and if they are judged to be redeemable.” She shrugged and scrunched her nose. “It’s a lot to learn. I still don’t understand all of it.”
“You said you’re a newbie. When did you...die?”
Her face paled. A flash of fear lit in her eyes, then disappeared. “A week ago.”
Audra started to ask how, but the look on Cassie’s face said it wouldn’t be a pretty story. Searching for something else to say, she chose, “I’m sorry you died,” and realized she’d never had the opportunity to say that before. Never dreamed she would.
Cassie shrugged. “I’m just glad it was Dimitri. It’s his job to reap, but he makes it almost...peaceful. My mom and dad used to beat the crap out of me, then I ran away. I was on the streets when I died.” She cleared her throat and knuckled tears from the corners of her eyes, then looked solemnly at Audra. “When Dimitri took me? That was the gentlest anyone has ever treated me in my life.”
~*~
At home the next evening, Audra sat at her dining room table with Sadie in the chair facing her.
“Be still,” Audra coaxed the wiggling child as she spread white Halloween paint over Sadie’s face. She added black circles around her eyes and streaks of red around her mouth, then dripped it to her chin to give the illusion of oozing blood.
Sadie was going to a Halloween party tonight, and her parents were working late. Audra had volunteered to pick her up from school and help her get ready. She was glad to have something to occupy her mind. Since last night, she’d thought of nothing but Cassie, the dead girl who wasn’t a whole lot older than Sadie. Audra pushed the thought aside and finished Sadie’s make up by shading the hollows of her cheekbones in with black.
She drew back and looked at the results. “Are you sure you want to be a zombie?”
Sadie nodded vigorously, her infantile exuberance and pinchable, cherubic features in stark contrast to the grotesque costume. “Do I really look like a zombie?”
Audra studied her, from her painted face to the tattered, red-splotched clothing she wore. “You definitely look like a zombie.”
“Do you think they’ll be scared? Sadie asked. “I bet they’ll know it’s me.” Her eyes widened, giving her a clownish yet fearsome look. “Or maybe they won’t. Do you think I can fool ’em? Then they
will
be scared.”
“You don’t want to scare your friends, Sadie. That’s not very nice.”
“But it’s fun to be scared.”
“Not for all kids. You’re a bit…different.”
Sadie frowned. “Will they be mad at me?”
“No. Just make sure they know it’s you. Don’t scream and growl at them like a zombie.”
“Zombie’s really don’t make noises. They just sort of go...” Sadie stuck her arms out in front of her and made unintelligible grunts and groans.
“Eeew,” Audra’s reaction was exaggerated for Sadie’s benefit, but she had to admit, the child had created an image that was a little creepy. Her schoolmates would definitely freak. “Yeah. Don’t do that, okay?”
“Okay, but that’s how zombies go.”
Audra laughed and tweaked Sadie’s chin.
The doorbell rang as she was ratting Sadie’s hair into something resembling the tangled coif of the undead.
“That must be your parents. Go look at yourself in the mirror while I get the door.”
Audra headed to the door to let Brent and Riley in.
Brent halted when he saw his daughter. “Good God, Sadie. Are you sure you want to go to a party like that?”
“Yep. I look like a real zombie.”
“You certainly do.” Brent adjusted his wire frame glasses further up his nose. Pushing the edges of his suit jacket back, he rested his hands on his hips. “Just like a zombie.”
Riley pursed her lips. “Sadie, honey. I don’t know...”
“Please, Momma? My recital costume isn’t scary at all. Just let this one be scary, okay?”
Riley hesitated a moment, then sighed and shook her head. “Okay.” She turned to Audra. “Am I raising a little serial killer?”
Audra shrugged. “Have any of the neighborhood animals gone missing?”
Riley scowled. “Jesus, Audra.”
Brent chuckled. “It’s all harmless fun. You worry too much.” He picked Sadie up and carefully placed a kiss on her make-up smeared cheek.
She pulled back and looked at his mouth, giggling. “You have white on your lips.”
“It’s all your fault.” Brent tickled her, and she squealed with laughter. “Speaking of recitals.” He put Sadie down and turned to Riley. “When is it?”
“The twenty-eighth. I told you that weeks ago. You’re supposed to take her.”
“I can’t. Our CEO is bringing a client into town. We’re taking him to dinner.”